There’s a lot of breaking news in Hollywood happening every minute. In the age of the blockbuster, it’s easy for some smaller movie and television news to slip through the crack. Last Week in Hollywood is our new weekly series highlighting all the interesting news from the last week that we thought didn’t warrant its own post, but was still worth mentioning. It’s less personal opinions and more a hearty roundup of what you might have missed.
John Wick 4 Gearing Up For Filming
John Wick: Chapter 4 was delayed to 2022 last year. However, Lionsgate also revealed last year that they were planning on shooting the fourth and fifth films in the franchise back-to-back. Well, speaking with Collider, franchise mainstay Ian McShane, who plays Winston, owner of the Continental Hotel, shared when the sequels will be entering production:
“Keanu [Reeves] and I exchanged New Year’s greetings and said, ‘Hope to see you this year.’ I know the script is being written and they’re hoping to do it this year. I know they announced they were gonna do [‘John Wick 4′] and [‘John Wick 5′] together, but who knows. The studios announce all sorts of things. No doubt, at some point this year, we’re gonna do ‘John Wick 4′.”
Excellent, that’s what I like to hear.
Saved by the Bell Renewed for Season 2
Peacock has renewed Saved by the Bell for a second season. It will consist of 10 episodes. On the renewal, writer and executive producer Tracey Wigfield said:
“I’m thrilled that Saved By the Bell has been renewed. I’ve been blown away by all the love for the show and can’t wait to go back and make more episodes. Hopefully we stay on Peacock for many more seasons, and then in 30 years, somebody does a reboot of our reboot and invents the threeboot.”
Saved by the Bell was the #1 show on the NBCUniversal streaming service.
Snowpiercer Also Renewed
Variety reports that TNT has handed out a third season renewal to Snowpiercer ahead of its second season premiere. The series is based on the French graphic novel and is set seven years before the events of Bong Joon-ho’s movie adaptation (although they’re not exactly set in the same universe).
Wonka Origin Movie Gets a Release Date
Wonka, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel movie, has been in the works at Warner Bros. for a while now. Why are they making this film? Because they think it will print money. I’m not entirely sure of that, but oh well. Anyway, Paul King, the filmmaker behind the Paddington films, is set to direct which means there is a chance this film could turn out to be quite delightful.
Warner Bros. has just announced that Wonka will hit theaters on March 17, 2023. Why are movie theaters still announcing release dates when they continue to delay everything? I don’t know, but let’s hope theaters are back in full swing by 2023.
Also, apparently WB is looking at either Tom Holland or Timothée Chalamet for the lead role. Honestly, I could see Chalamet do for Wonka what Joaquin Phoenix did with the Joker. I can’t imagine Holland in the role though.
Paramount+ Coming in March
ViacomCBS has announced that CBS All Access will be rebranded as Paramount+ on March 4 in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. The new streaming service will feature “content from ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of broadcast, news, sports, and entertainment brands.” More information on the rebrand will be announced during ViacomCBS’ virtual investor presentation on February 24.
The CBS All Access app will be revamped to include hubs for ViacomCBS channels like Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and more. Paramount+ will have over 30,000 titles available for subscribers to watch when it relaunches.
A Quiet Place Part II Gets Delayed
A Quiet Place Part II has been delayed again. It will now hit theaters on September 17, 2021. It was originally supposed to hit theaters on March 20, 2020, but was then pushed back to September 4, 2020 and then again to April 23, 2021. This new date means that we will have waited over a year-and-a-half for a film we were days away from seeing. 2020 continues to haunt us.
HBO Developing Tales of Dunk and Egg
HBO wants to keep milking that Game of Thrones milk cow. The channel is developing a new television series called Tales of Dunk and Egg, another Game of Thrones prequel. According to Variety, Tales of Dunk and Egg is in early development at HBO, with no writer or talent attached to the project yet.
The one hour series is based on a series of Martin’s novellas, which are set 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones. They focus on “a 6’11’ squire named Duncan, who is knighted by his dying master and becomes a hedge knight, a wandering knight without a master” and “a scrappy young bald boy nicknamed Egg, who wants to serve as Duncan’s squire and travel Westeros with him. It turns out that “Egg” is actually Aegon Targaryen, a prince and eventual king of Westeros.”
So far, Tales of Dunk and Egg consist of three novellas: 1998’s The Hedge Knight, 2003’s The Sworn Sword, and 2010’s The Mystery Knight. They were collected in a single publication in 2015 called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It’s clear that Game of Thrones turns to shit once the writers run out of Martin’s novels to adapt, so let’s hope this is a three season show.
The first Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, is slated to be released in 2022 on HBO.
Jim Gaffigan Cast in Peter Pan and Wendy
Jim Gaffigan will play Mr. Smee, Captain Hook’s loyal sidekick, in Disney’s live-action Peter Pan and Wendy. He joins a cast that includes Ever Anderson, Alexander Molony, Jude Law, Yara Shahidi, and Alyssa Wapanatâhk. He was previously voiced by Bill Thompson in the original film.
From Dusk till Dawn Animated Series in Development
Robert Rodriguez has revealed that there is an animated series in development that’s set in the From Dusk till Dawn universe. While speaking with SFX Magazine about the live-action continuation that aired for three seasons on El Rey, Rodriguez said:
“And now we’re looking towards, we’re developing an animated Dusk till Dawn. You’re the first person to hear that!”
He explained that the animated series “will follow in the footsteps of the live-action show and further explore the world of Aztec vampires.”
Sony Developing Movie Based on Marvel’s Dusk
According to The Illuminerdi, Sony is developing a live-action film based on the character Dusk. There have been a couple of characters to use the mantle Dusk in Marvel Comics, but the one most likely to receive a feature-film is the Cassie St. Commons version, since she inherited the Dusk costume from Spider-Man. In the comics, she finds herself “resurrected and is neither truly dead nor alive, but something between. Along with healing, her abilities include teleportation, manipulating shadows, and possessing clairvoyance, making her an effective vigilante.”
Sony is desperate to create a cinematic universe using only Spider-Man characters they have the rights to. We saw how that worked out for Fox and their X-Men catalogue (hint: it didn’t). I’ve heard Venom was a perfectly okay movie, but there cannot be anyone who thinks Morbius is going to turn out good.
Riz Ahmed Signs First-Look TV Deal with Amazon
Riz Ahmed, who is destined to garner some serious awards attention this season for Sound of Metal, has just signed a first-look TV deal with Sound of Metal distributor Amazon Studios. On the deal, Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said:
“Riz is a tremendous talent and the vision to amplify stories from fresh and bold perspectives and voices aligns with ours perfectly. We loved working with Riz on Sound of Metal and we’re really excited to continue and build on our relationship with him, Allie and the entire team at Left Handed Films.”
Ahmed added:
“The Sound of Metal campaign has been a brilliant first experience of working with Amazon Studios. Their emphasis on creating community between bold creatives, their global reach, and their desire to nurture under-served audiences make it the perfect home for Left Handed – whose mission is to stretch culture.”
Additionally, Ahmed told THR that he has no immediate plans to return to the worlds of Venom or Star Wars.
That’s it for last week. What projects mentioned are you interested in seeing once completed? Tell us down in the comments!
