In this Hollywood news round-up, there are updates on New Mutants, Legion, Captain America: Civil War, The Flash, Assassin’s Creed, Supergirl, Stranger Things, Quantum Leap and BrainDead. Plus, this:
WHAT EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT
Britney Spears on Carpool Karaoke:
FILM
In “this hadn’t already happened yet?” news, director Josh Boone has finally carried over his Spectacular Now/Fault in Our Stars screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber with him to Fox’s X-Men spin-off New Mutants (which I covered last year). Reunited and it feels so good, I guess. Also, the New Mutants team roster might include Cannonball, Sunspot, Dani Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Magik and Warlock. BirthMoviesDeath seems pretty cool with the news:
Maybe you haven’t given The Fault In Our Stars or The Spectacular Now the time of day (half our staff hasn’t, which is why I’m writing this!), but you should. They’re both excellent films, and they both get at a certain kind of teenage reality that has been utterly missing from the X films thus far. Boone working with these guys on New Mutants is very exciting, because it means that they’re going to bring a humanity to these characters that is based on identifiable human traits. Hell, I’m okay with these guys making New Mutants 90% soap opera and throwing in some action right at the end.
Speaking of X-Men and confusion, turns out FX’s Legion WILL be connected to the X-Men film universe, but not in such a way you’d actually notice, as per THR:
Bryan Singer discussed Legion, which he is executive producing for FX, saying it is designed to be a series that is “part of the X-Men universe, but when you watched it, you wouldn’t have to label it, it could exist completely on its own.” He said it and another planned X-Men series “will relate to future X-Men movies.” And he added it would feature a “really ambitious and fun and very unique storyline.”
Just ignore that and watch the fantastic SDCC Legion trailer again.
Captain America is now just Steve Rogers in the MCU. Good for him. Be your own man, Steve. Go awkwardly kiss Sharon while secretly running this look from Bucky in your head over and over again:
Also on the Captain Amer…excuse me, I mean Steve Rogers front, if not for Ike Perlmutter untightening his ass and allowing the Marvel Studios accountants to fill Robert Downey, Jr.’s four vacation homes full of cash Civil War would have looked very, very different. No Cap v Iron combat for us. In fact, early on in the process the Russo Brothers considered adapting the Madbomb story line which would have seen Zemo unleashing a virus which turns normal people into zombie-like creatures. Someone close to Cap would have been infected, and poor ole Steve would have felt awfully conflicted, so says Joe Russo:
The notion of the Madbomb would have been Cap having to fight civilians and how he would he handle that. We were always trying to put him into these interesting moral conundrums because of his nature. That would have made a compelling third act because if civilians are the antagonists, how could he stop them without killing them.
Ezra Miller might be fighting a whole bunch of villains in The Flash movie because that’s always worked out so well for every superhero movie before. But, hey, at least one of his Rogues has already been established thanks to Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad.
There may yet be an even bigger flop than Ben-Hur at some point later this year, and Vulture thinks Assassin’s Creed (video game adaptation with $200m+ budget) and Deepwater Horizon (true-life disaster film which somehow cost more than $150m to make) are the most likely candidates. Both fine choices, but I have my eye on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I have a sense the public has seriously turned on Tim Burton.
Quantitatively speaking, this summer’s movies weren’t actually any worse than the average summer over the past 10 years, at least according to SlashFilm’s analysis of RottenTomatoes scores. Yeah, but did you see Independence Day: Resurgence? FastCompany did almost the same exact analysis and reached the same conclusion. Yeah, but did they see Independence Day: Resurgence?
IndieWire found 9 lessons the summer movie season should learn this year from Pete’s Dragon, Bad Moms, The Lobster, Love & Friendship, Hardcore Henry, Hello, My Name is Doris, Kubo and the Two Strings, Hell or High Water and Captain Fantastic. Mostly, just fucking make better movies, ya number-crunching idiots. Not to beat this joke into the ground, but did you see Independence Day: Resurgence? Perfect lesson in what NOT to do.
20th Century Fox could be heading for a downturn after a deeply stupid power player ousted Jim Gianopulos as chairman-CEO, a position he held at the studio the past 16 years. Fox’s loss is any other studio’s gain, potentially.
Sam Mendes might make a live-action James and the Giant Peach.
Sarah Paulson is close to being cast as the eighth and final member of the all-female Oceans Eleven spin-off, which, in a serious twist for Paulson’s recent career, will have nothing to do with Ryan Murphy.
TELEVISION
Netflix won’t release viewing figures, but that doesn’t stop other companies from trying to figure it out. According to Variety, Stranger Things is the streamer’s third most watched show among 18-49-year-olds. Yay! But it actually trails Fuller House. What the frak!
Within its first 35 days on the streaming service, the supernatural drama averaged 14.07 million adults 18-49. Only season one of “Fuller House” and season four of “Orange is the New Black” drew larger demo audiences in their first 35 days.
Among Netflix originals, “Stranger Things” ranks ahead of “Making a Murderer” (13.35 million), “Daredevil” season two (13.35 million), “Jessica Jones” (6.26 million), “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” season two (6.08 million), “The Ranch” (6.01 million), “House of Cards” season four (5.67 million), “F is for Family” (4.81 million) and everything else.
Calista Flockhart loves Supergirl, but not “move to Vancouver to keep working on the show” love. As of now, she’s only committed to being in two episodes of the new season, according to Andrew Kreisberg:
Well, she’s in the first two episodes and we’re talking to her about doing more. It’s funny because, from our perspective, we thought she wouldn’t do any. And it’s not because she doesn’t love the show. She’s such a huge fan of the show, but moving to Vancouver, we assumed that we would part as friends. But she’s so into the show and feels such an allegiance and a responsibility to it that she’s agreed to come back, so we’re very happy.
io9 made a list of the 14 weirdest Quantum Leap episodes, and somehow didn’t instantly put the one where Sam was a space chimp named Bobo in the #1 spot. Blasphemy! Instead, they argued the one where Sam leaps into a 1960s horror author and ends up choking a goat (literally) was the weirdest, but, y’know, in a good way because who doesn’t love Al turning out to be the devil? God, I love that episode.
My nephew turned 9 last week. You know what he doesn’t have? A book series and TV deal. Well, thanks to Scholastic and Paramount TV 9-year-old reporter Hilde Lysiak does. My comparison, my nephew is an utter disgrace. To be fair, Lysiak’s efforts are being steered and co-written by her father, who is an actual journalist. But, still, nephew, stop complaining about your little sister playing with your toys and start writing your own book series that’ll make us all millionaires, I tells ya’, millionaires!
Despite hitting a recent creative lull, BrainDead is an amazing show. Seriously, people, if you’re not watching it already get on that.
SHAMELESS PLUGS
I will be seeing and reviewing the following movies this weekend: Hands of Stone, Hell or High Water and maybe Mechanic: Resurrection (it’s a big maybe). Won’t be able to see Don’t Breathe until Monday.
We Minored in Film 