The Garbage Pail Kids are a parody Topps card line that was a gross-out version of the popular doll toys The Cabbage Patch Kids, the card incarnations that debuted in 1985 featured subversive versions of the dolls and led to cult film that is rarely talked about and an animated series.
HBO Max has been ramping-up their animation projects and have reportedly landed a new animated series featuring The Garbage Pail Kids with Danny McBride and David Gordon Green co-creating the project with Solar Opposites writer/executive producer Josh Bycel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s likely the animated series will skew mature similar to things like Rick & Morty, Solar Opposites, and Harley Quinn, given the people involved on the creative team.
Danny McBride and David Gordon Green previously worked together on the new trilogy of Halloween films for Blumhouse and the R-rated fantasy stoner comedy Your Highness that was co-written by McBride with David Gordon Green directing. The pair likely arrived on folks’ radar thanks to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg comedy Pineapple Express.
There has been some criticism from Star Wars fans that Lucasfilm, J.J. Abrams, and Rian Johnson jumped into making the sequel trilogy without a concrete plan and potentially led to some contradictory moments between the three massive movies.
This was highlighted when director Colin Trevorrow’s unmade version of Episode IX, Star Wars: Duel of The Fates, was pretty much scrapped by the studio for something completely different from Abrams and screenwriter Chris Terrio with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Concept artwork and the script for Duel of The Fates made it’s way online placing a spotlight on those scrapped plans, reinforcing the narrative that the studio didn’t have a master plan for this trilogy from the start.
Abrams was doing a round of press interviews to help promote the 4K UHD Blu-Ray home release of his alien adventure film Super 8, where he was asked by Collider if they should have had a plan for the Star Wars trilogy beforehand. The filmmaker gave a mixed repose giving the pros and cons of both.
ABRAMS: “There are projects that I’ve worked on where we had some ideas but we hadn’t worked through them enough, sometimes we had some ideas but then we weren’t allowed to do them the way we wanted to. I’ve had all sorts of situations where you plan things in a certain way and you suddenly find yourself doing something that’s 180 degrees different, and then sometimes it works really well and you feel like, ‘Wow that really came together,’ and other times you think, ‘Oh my God I can’t believe this is where we are,’ and sometimes when it’s not working out it’s because it’s what you planned, and other times when it’s not working out it’s because you didn’t [have a plan].”
“You just never really know, but having a plan I have learned – in some cases the hard way – is the most critical thing, because otherwise you don’t know what you’re setting up. You don’t know what to emphasize. Because if you don’t know the inevitable of the story, you’re just as good as your last sequence or effect or joke or whatever, but you want to be leading to something inevitable.”
The main quote mentioned at the top of the interview piece suggests that Abrams laments not having a plan with their Star Wars movies.
ABRAMS: “I do think that there’s nothing more important than knowing where you’re going.”
J.J. Abrams has since moved to WarnerMedia with a massive deal to develop films/television series for the media company and Lucasfilm is looking beyond the Skywalker Saga with Patty Jenkins directing Star Wars: Rogue Squadron as the next big Star Wars release for December 2023. Other films in development stages are coming from Taika Waititi and Rian Johnson, neither are expected to continue the Rey Skywalker journey.
Producers Richard Saperstein (The Mist) and Brian Witten (American History X) have been developing a remake of the classic monster film The Blob, that effort goes back to 2009. The Blob originally starred a young Steve McQueen in 1958 version and eventually led to an extremely well-made reboot in 1988 that is easily one of the best examples of practical effects in the horror genre. In the original film, the gooey man-eating creature was an alien lifeform and in the 1980s remake it was a bio-weapon created by the U.S. government both taking place in a small town.
A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve (Steven McQueen) and his best girl, Jane (Aneta Corseaut), as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man and grow to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave (Earl Rowe) refuses to believe the kids without proof.
The pair of producers are fighting in the Los Angeles Superior Court to get more time to made their incarnation of The Blob, as The Hollywood Reporter outlines the lawsuit as they argue they had an oral agreement with original rights holder, Worldwide Entertainment Corporation’s Judith Harris, to be given more time and are also falling back on using COVID-19 as reason why they weren’t able to make the film in a timely manner.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, Saperstein and Witten are now suing to retain rights. They claim that Harris orally agreed to an extension and then failed to put it in writing despite multiple emails and even a $50,000 offer. And if a judge doesn’t recognize this as an oral agreement, they are falling back on the claim that COVID-19 represents a force majeure event that “prevented them from attempting to produce the Picture, and as a result, the Extension term must be tolled through the present date.”
Here is the original synopsis for the remake that had been making the rounds, it remains to be seen if they’ve changed these plot details since 2017-2019.
When a band of miners uncover something hidden deep beneath the earth they unwittingly unleash a hideous creature beyond imagination. Now the townsfolk must fightback, before it destroys everything.
Directors Rob Zombie and Simon West (Con Air, The Expendables 2) had been involved with various incarnations of the remake with Samuel L. Jackson attached to star at some point. Jackson talked-up his involvement back in August 2017 to the Toronto Sun during the promotion of Kong: Skull Island and mentioned that the producers had secured financing from China.
JACKSON: “I’ve been preparing to use it my whole life. I’ve been running from or chasing King Kong, Godzilla the Wolfman, whatever, since I was a kid (in Chatanooga, Tenn.). We’d go home and pretend to do all that stuff. So I’m doing Kong for the same reason I’ll probably be doing The Blob. I just got a call the other day (where the producers) said they finally got their money from China to do Blob. I mean, I do a lot of movies, a lot of independent movies, for different reasons. But I’m a fan, and a lot of times I choose a movie because it’s something I would have chosen to see when I was a kid. How do you say no to that?“
It wasn’t mentioned if Samuel L. Jackson is still going to star in the film as he’s aiming to shoot Marvel’s Secret Wars this fall in the United Kingdom and might also have a role in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels. Production on The Blob was targeting a shoot in the United Kingdom years ago, but what ultimately happens is unclear.
The worst thing that could happen is if they pursue a generic film that focuses on weak CGI effects rather than doing some stuff in-camera.
I have fond memories of the 1988 version that was co-written by Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Walking Dead, Shawshank Redemption) and director Chuck Russell (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), mainly because of it’s gore effects which sort of holds up while some of the miniature-work doesn’t.
Today, it was announced that Amazon is going to purchase MGM Studios for an impressive $8.45 billion, which includes co-ownership of the James Bond franchise alongside EON Productions. However, as mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter, this won’t impact the release of No Time To Die’s October release and might not overturn the franchise’s box office dominance or future theatrical release.
As they point out, the deal likely won’t close and the distribution for No Time To Die will most likely stand as is.
On the theatrical front, it’s unlikely that MGM and United Artists Releasing would change plans for their remaining 2021 theatrical releases — including the James Bond pic No Time to Die — particularly since the deal is likely to take months to close. UAR is a subsidiary of MGM and handles domestic distribution duties for MGM titles (Universal has international on No Time to Die).
They also highlight that EON wouldn’t be terribly keen to pull James Bond from theaters for streaming only as the franchise is best known for a big screen presence and given Amazon won’t have full ownership they’ll have to play nice. Given the amount of money Amazon would be giving up to make Bond a streaming property wouldn’t make a lot of sense from a business standpoint, as it could be just as lucrative to make Prime Video being the streaming home for the franchise.
The Bond franchise has always been a marquee theatrical franchise that’s well known around the globe. And Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, whose U.K. production company EON is 007’s home, are especially keen on the big-screen experience. (EON and MGM share rights via a holding company.)
Daniel Craig is expected to retire from the Bond role, allowing a new unnamed actor to step in for the untitled Bond 26, which is said to be developed by No Time To Die screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
No Time To Die will hit theaters on October 8.
The cast will include Daniel Craig as James Bond, Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Nomi aka the new Agent 007, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.
NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
It’s been reported for days that Amazon was looking to spend almost $9 billion to acquire MGM, a major Hollywood studio that has a heap of IP titles and legacy films. The studio also has a partnership with EON Productions for the James Bond franchise.
Well, the streaming giant made the merger official this morning and dropped a press release confirm it’s going ahead, paying an impressive $8.45 billion for MGM. The press release also mentioned Amazon’s intention to “reimagine” the deep catalog, which likely means turning properties into films and television shows.
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and MGM today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for a purchase price of $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon would empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling.
The studio’s film catalog includes 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, RoboCop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many films, over 4,000 of them. Not to mention 17,000 television shows as well.
MGM is already looking to soft-reboot RoboCop with RoboCop Returns from Aussie director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters). The Russo Brothers are producing a new incarnation of the romantic crime flick Thomas Crown Affair led by Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther, Without Remorse) as the charming thief. Jordan is about to direct and star in Creed III, making his directorial debt on the boxing drama. A new James Bond is expected to be hired for Bond 26, once No Time To Die ends the Daniel Craig era. Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider reboot movie is set to get a sequel from director Misha Green (Lovecraft Country). Something like Stargate would be prime for a franchise reboot as it was a feature film that spawned multiple television shows. Those are just some examples that are just the tip of the iceberg and we should expect more projects announced in the coming weeks/months given the deep pockets of Amazon Studios/Prime Video.
Amazon getting their hands on a legacy Hollywood studio should help boost their film/television library but also allowing them to create new original IP content, allowing them to become more competitive against the Netflix originals and could see Amazon attempt theatrical distribution on a larger scale as they could add global box office to their revenue stream.
Some of the high-profile Prime Video shows on the horizon are the expensive Lord of The Rings that is expected to land at least five seasons and at least two seasons of Wheel of Time series led by Rosamund Pike that is based on the Robert Jordan fantasy novels.
Netflix and Zack Snyder are going full-franchise with Army of The Dead as the first film was released last week and seems like it’ll be a big hit for the streaming service which releases mostly iffy-to-average original films. The film takes place mostly after a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas has been contained and a group is to put together to heist $200 million from a casino vault before the U.S. government drops a nuke on the city.
In my opinion, Army of The Dead is one of the more cinematic films made specifically for Netflix and the company knows what they have in their hands as they’ve shot a prequel film Army of Thieves and are working on an anime series called Army of The Dead: Lost Vegas with a handful of returning characters.
The main film ended on a bit of a cliffhanger as Omari Hardwick’s Vanderohe’s escapes the nuclear blast to charter a private plane to Mexico City only to realize he’s turning into a zombie. If he is an Alpha Zombie, it could easily lead directly into a solid sequel set in Mexico taking the genre outside of the United States, which doesn’t regularly happen with western takes on the genre. Producer Deborah Snyder teased a potential sequel while speaking with Indie Wire, as Snyder suggests that Zack Snyder and screenwriter Shay Hatten already have ideas for another film and are “ready to go” if Netflix wants to make it.
DEBORAH SNYDER: “You always want the version that you’re doing to be as good as it can be, but I think there’s still more story to tell, and I know that Zack and Shay have a lot of ideas that are kind of fleshed out. If there was an appetite for another film, I think we’re ready to go.”
The producer also gave some insight into the prequel film Army of Thieves mentioning the project focused on Matthias Schweighofer’s Ludwig Dieter is similar to The Italian Job, adding it’s a romantic comedy heist film.
SNYDER: “It stands alone, and [while] you could watch it because it’s the history of our safecracker, it’s also just this really sweet, funny film,” she said. “It’s set in our same timeline, but it’s not like a zombie movie. … It’s more like ‘The Italian Job,’ but it takes place in a world where these zombies exist in America and it’s causing instability in the banking institutions. They’re moving money around, so it’s the perfect opportunity for a heist.”
Will the anime Army of The Dead: Lost Vegas, led by Joe Manganiello as Rose, explore the origins of the zombie pathogen and that tease to Area 51? Well, Deborah seems to be giving the impression it just might.
SNYDER: “We hint in the movie that we’re coming from Area 51, so maybe there’s a sci-fi element to it. I’m not going to say for sure, but it’s really fun to be able to do that and also to see our team when they were at the top of their game, doing the search and rescue. It’s just another bit of information.”
“Our movie takes place after the pandemic, they’ve contained the zombies to Vegas, but we don’t really talk about where it comes from. Where did this pathogen come from? How did this all happen? And we see our team and that they had been on these rescue missions. We see some flashbacks, what they were doing, but we don’t really know more, so the anime series is a great way to find out the origin of this.”
I’m kind of curious if they’ll attempt to connect the zombies to aliens or Mars, which might lead to some interesting sci-fi spinoffs potentially off-world alongside expanding upon this universe as having more threats other than zombies being hidden away at Area 51 and Zeus is simply just one that got out.
It sounds like we’ll have plenty of Army of The Dead content for years to come.
In December, WarnerMedia announced plans to release all of their 2021 slate in theaters and on their streaming service HBO Max (free for one month with subscription) on the same day, the hybrid release model was controversial and led to reports of their partner Legendary Entertainment gearing-up for a lawsuit. Legendary attempted to sell-off Godzilla Vs. Kong to Netflix for a massive $200 million but Warner Bros. blocked the deal only to announce they would be giving the film away to HBO Max subscribers for free. Directors Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve also were vocally upset that directors weren’t properly informed about the move and mentioned how harmful the hybrid release would be to the industry.
The plan seemed to be sacrifice the Warner Bros. Pictures slate to coax a boost in domestic subscriber numbers for the floundering HBO Max that launched last year, however, the numbers haven’t been stellar in comparison to other streaming competitors.
It’s now May, and it was recently announced there would be a WarnerMedia-Discovery merger with rumblings from business news outlets that WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar was kept in the dark about the deal and is getting ready to exit. There is also chatter that the merger could signal an easier sale of WarnerMedia in the future, however, no potential buyers have been mentioned.
New information suggests that the hybrid release model at Kilar’s direction wasn’t as lucrative as hyped-up to be, mentioned in an Variety report they state industry sources believe the hybrid model may end up a billion-dollar loss due to high license feeds paid and sluggish subscriber sign-up.
Moreover, industry sources say the strategic move that made such a splash last December — when WarnerMedia at Kilar’s direction opted for simultaneous releases in theaters and on HBO Max for Warner Bros.’ 2021 movie slate — is seen as a major misstep because it is shaping up to cost the studio over $1 billion in lost box office revenue, talent profit participation payments and in high license fees paid for the movies from HBO Max. Unless the pace of HBO Max subscriber additions pick up significantly in the coming months, the high cost of the movie content for the streamer will be hard to justify.
While WarnerMedia insists that other films such as Dune are still sticking to the hybrid release in October, there have been conflicting trade reports that we could see exclusive theatrical windows return before 2022.
The FX limited series Shōgun is finally moving into production after there had been plans to shoot back in 2018 but for various reasons it got delayed. It’s based on the James Clavell novel by that was developed into a television miniseries that aired in 1980.
Shōgun’s two male lead characters are Yoshii Toranaga and John Blackthorne. Yoshii is a powerful daimyo from a feared lineage, isolated and outnumbered by his enemies in Osaka Castle and John is an English pilot trying to fight a trade route the Pacific islands. FX has reportedly secure actors for the lead roles as Deadline says the network has hired legendary Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada and British actor Cosmo Jarvis.
The Samurai series was written by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo.
Shōgun is set in feudal Japan. It charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai: John Blackthorne (Jarvis), a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga (Sanada), a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties who must prove her value and allegiance.
Filming is said to begin sometime this summer.
Sanada’s western credits include Rush Hour 3, The Last Samurai, Mortal Kombat, Westworld, Avengers: Endgame, Life, The Wolverine, Sunshine, 47 Ronin, Speed Racer, and Army of The Dead.
This won’t be the samurai series remake in the works as Entertainment One is developing a show based on the classic the iconic Akira Kurosawa masterpiece Yojimbo from Bryan Cogman, who worked on HBO’s Game of Thrones and Amazon’s new Lord of The Rings series.
J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot recently signed a massive development deal with Warner Bros. which has led to a new Superman film that will focus on a black incarnation of the DC Comics hero and an HBO Max series version of the Justice League Dark.
It looks like Abrams is going to be indeed tackling a live-action film based on the video game Portal as he mentioned in an interview with IGN, that the project is being actively written for Warner Bros. and they have a script on the go.
ABRAMS:”We actually do have a script that’s being written for the Portal movie now at [Warner Bros.]. We’re really excited about the take and the pitch, so it feels like that thing’s finally on the rails.”
In Portal, the player controls the protagonist, Chell, from a first-person perspective as she is challenged to navigate through a series of test chambers using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or portal gun, under the watchful supervision of the artificial intelligence GLaDOS.
A live-action short was directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg, the filmmaker is about to begin shooting Predator 5 next month in Calgary, Alberta.
There have been reports circulating for a while now that streaming giant Amazon is looking to buy Hollywood studio MGM Studios, it would be their first entry into making a huge push into major feature film development.
A deal could be announced as early as this week according to a report from The Wall Street Journal and point towards a figure close to $9 billion. People have pointed out that valuation is a bit steep as the company was valued at around $5.5 billion back in December.
Amazon.com Inc. is nearing a deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings for almost $9 billion, said people familiar with the matter, a pact that would turn a film operation founded in the silent era into a streaming asset for the e-commerce giant. An agreement could be announced as early as this week, people close to the situation said, assuming the talks don’t fall apart at the last minute.
MGM is the partner of EON Productions on the James Bond franchise and could mean that Amazon could become the streaming home of the franchise. They’re also behind the Candyman remake from Nia DaCosta (The Marvels), the Creed films with Michael B. Jordan set to direct Creed III, and they’ve been developing a new RoboCop film as well.
Amazon landing a real and established Hollywood studio means that the streaming service could branch-out to global theatrical distribution, as I don’t imagine EON would want to see their Bond franchise become some Prime Video exclusive and could see Amazon originals turn into box office earners.
THE RONIN 