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.
The Kaiju Score is Tarantino in a Godzilla Movie
Sony has snapped up the rights to The Kaiju Score, an upcoming graphic novel described “a Quentin Tarantino film taking place in some corner of a Godzilla movie.” The Kaiju Score follows “four criminals attempting the perfect heist in the middle of a giant monster attack on the city.” That’s a pretty cool premise, and I might have to pick up the graphic novel from writer James Patrick and artist Rem Broo when it hits shelves this November.
No writer or director is attached to the project at this moment, but I’ll be the first to throw out Tarantino himself as a potential director. Let’s see him tackle a monster movie/heist as his final film!
Altered Carbon Cancelled After 2 Seasons
Netflix has cancelled Altered Carbon after two seasons and an anime movie. The cyberpunk drama starred Joel Kinnaman (season 1) and Anthony Mackie (season 2) as Takeshi Kovacs. Apparently, Netflix’s decision to not renew the series for a third season was made in April and is not COVID-related but has to do with the streamer’s standard viewership vs. cost renewal review process. Altered Carbon was based on the 2002 novel of the same title by Richard K. Morgan.
Resident Evil Series in the Works
Netflix has confirmed that a live-action Resident Evil series is in the works at the streaming service, based on Capcom’s massively popular video game franchise. The upcoming series will take a new approach to the franchise and tell a “brand new story across two timelines.” Here is what we know about the two timelines so far:
In the first timeline, fourteen-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City. A manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world.
Cut to the second timeline, well over a decade into the future: there are less than fifteen million people left on Earth. And more than six billion monsters — people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now thirty, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past – about her sister, her father and herself – continue to haunt her.
The Netflix series will be executive produced and written by Andrew Dabb (Supernatural), who will also act as showrunner for the eight-episode series. Bronwen Hughes (The Walking Dead, The Journey Is the Destination) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes.
Amy Adams, Julianne Moore Join Dear Evan Hansen
Amy Adams and Julianne Moore have joined the upcoming Universal adaptation of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. According to Deadline, the story follows “Hansen, a high schooler with social anxiety. He unintentionally gets caught up in a lie after the family of a classmate who committed suicide mistakes one of Hansen’s letters for their son’s suicide note.”
Adams will play Cynthia Murphy in the upcoming adaptation, the mother to the classmate that commits suicide. Meanwhile, Moore will play Ben Platt’s (who is reprising his Broadway lead role) mother, “Heidi Hansen, a nurse’s aid who often leaves Evan home alone at night because she’s taking night classes to become a paralegal.”
Schwarzenegger Heads to TV
Skydance is currently developing a global spy adventure TV series that Arnold Schwarzenegger will produce and star in. This is the first time the actor will headline a narrative TV show. The story is being referred to as a “global spy adventure with a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter at the center of the story.”
Nick Santora is developing and executive producing the spy drama as part of his overall deal with Skydance Television. Santora is currently the showrunner of Amazon’s Jack Ryan. Skydance hasn’t found a home for the show yet, but I imagine this could start a bidding war between the major streaming services like Amazon and Netflix.
Scream Adds Jack Quaid
Scream has added The Boys star Jack Quaid in a mysterious role.The upcoming fifth film in Paramount‘s Scream franchise is set to hit theaters January 14, 2022. Variety originally reported the casting, but had no idea who he would be playing. That means he could easily be a victim or killer. Quaid joins Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega as the new cast members.
Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie Teaming for Five Eyes
Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham are a Hollywood pairing that we can’t get enough of. The two have collaborated on films since 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. They have a few projects in the works (like Wrath of Man, formerly Cash Truck), and now they’ve gone and got another one.
Ritchie will direct Five Eyes, a spy thriller that stars Statham as “Orson Fortune, an MI6 guns-and-steel agent who is recruited by a global intelligence alliance called Five Eyes to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology which threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with a CIA agent who’s an expert in technology, Fortune sets off on a globe-trotting mission where he will have to use all of his charm, ingenuity, and stealth to track down and infiltrate a billionaire arms broker.”
The script was written by Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, who also wrote The Gentlemen and the upcoming Wrath of Man. Personally, I’m sold.
Army of Dead Getting Prequel Movie & Anime Series
The current word on the street regarding Zack Snyder may be about his cut of Justice League, but let’s not forget that he has a new movie hitting Netflix sometime soon and apparently it’s getting a shared universe. The movie in question is the zombie heist flick Army of the Dead which follows “a team of mercenaries who attempt to pull off a massive heist in the middle of a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas.”
Netflix recently announced that they’re already working on an international multi-language Army of the Dead prequel movie, as well as an anime series. Both will serve as origin stories for some of the film’s characters and the mysterious zombie outbreak they encounter in Las Vegas. Army of the Dead cast member Matthias Schweighöfer will be directing the prequel movie, and it will follow his character Ludwig Dieter. Meanwhile, the anime series is called Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, and it will focus on the origin of Dave Bautista’s character Scott as “he and a rescue crew (Ana de la Reguera, Tig Notaro, Omari Hardwick and Ella Purnell are reprising their roles) try to navigate the mysterious beginning of the zombie outbreak in Vegas.” Snyder will produce both projects, and direct two episodes of the anime series. Shay Hatten is writing the scripts.
We’ve known for a while now that Netflix wants their own massive franchise. They’re obviously hoping Army of the Dead will become just that.
Nemesis Adaptation Finds New Directors
An adaptation of comic book writer Mark Millar’s series Nemesis has been in the works for almost a decade. The story revolved around the idea of “what if, instead of becoming a superhero, a genius billionaire embraced anarchy and became the world’s worst supervillain?” The film has gone through a string of directors (Raimi, Ritchie, Carnahan) and actors (Pitt, Depp), but it looks like Warner Bros. isn’t giving up just yet. The studio has hired Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (Project Power) to direct Nemesis.
According to Collider, “the film is said to follow a genius engineer who witnesses the President of the United States commit a deadly crime and teams up with a vigilante to take down the President and his corrupt government.” Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve, Promising Young Woman) wrote the latest draft of the script.
That’s it for last two weeks. What projects mentioned are you interested in seeing once completed? Tell us down in the comments!
