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.
British actor Robert Pattinson has been having a huge career resurgence lately with a large role in Christopher Nolan’s time-bending action film Tenet that was released last summer and landed the titular role in Matt Reeves new Batman movie, The Batman.
It sounds like Warner Bros. wants to continue to work with Robert Pattinson for the foreseeable future as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the actor has singed a first-look deal that will allow him to be considered for projects at Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Television/HBO, and the streaming service HBO Max.
The deal could allow Pattinson to appear on the HBO Max spinoff series Gotham PD, a prequel that will take place during the first year of Bruce Wayne acting as the vigilante known as The Batman. However, they might be more interested in having the British actor leading other original projects other than things connected to the DC Comics franchise because his Batman contract likely has him attached to sequels and Matt Reeves has talked-up his plans to make a trilogy.
Most people first noticed Pattinson when he appeared as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire back in 2005 and led the popular Twilight films. Since then, he’s developed as an actor working with filmmakers such as David Cronenberg, The Safie Brothers, Robert Eggers, Christopher Nolan, James Gray, Claire Denis, and David Michod.
Having Robert Pattinson has the face of WarnerMedia could help them after heavy-weights such as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve signaled their frustration after the day-and-date announcement, Nolan has been signaling that he won’t work with the studio again and might already be looking for a new home.
The WarnerMedia-Discovery merger has led to rumblings within the business news community that this could be the beginning of a sale, although, this is unconfirmed as potential buyers haven’t been mentioned.
A little over a year after being hired by AT&T CEO John Stankey to run WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar is looking for the exit, according to a report from The New York Times. Stankey announced that Discovery and WarnerMedia would be merging in a shocking media announcement today while avoiding multiple questions about Kilar’s future role at the company.
Jason Kilar has hired a legal team to negotiate his departure as chief executive of WarnerMedia, according to two people briefed on the matter. AT&T, which owns WarnerMedia, said on Monday that it had agreed to spin off the division and merge it with a rival media company, Discovery Inc. Mr. Kilar was kept in the dark about the deal until recent days, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
This comes after subscribers for their HBO Max service seemingly wasn’t doing as great as other competitors and WarnerMedia sacrificed hefty budgeted blockbusters to hand-out a free month of access to new releases on HBO Max as part of their controversial day-and-date release model. There were also reports like the one at Bloomberg that Kilar was earning more than his boss at AT&T, another controversy as most studios were hemorrhaging money last year making the pay-bump a bit ridiculous.
While speaking on CNBC, business journalist Kara Swisher had more dire perspective on the news saying that John Stankey is simply wasting shareholder money trying to catch-up with mega-streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. It should be noted this is simply an opinion but this is also coming from someone with years of experience covering these kinds of stories.
HBO Max is working on a live-action Green Lantern series and Deadline reports that Finn Wittrock has landed the role of Guy Gardner. Finn is best known from American Horror Story and the prequel series Ratchet.
Written by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Seth Grahame-Smith, Green Lantern reinvents the classic DC property through a story spanning decades and galaxies, beginning on Earth in 1941 with the very first Green Lantern, secretly gay FBI agent Alan Scott, and 1984, with cocky alpha male Guy Gardner (Wittrock) and half-alien Bree Jarta. They’ll be joined by a multitude of other Lanterns — from comic book favorites to never-before-seen heroes.
While their is effort being pushed towards a series, there is talk that Warner Bros. is still developing a Green Lantern Corps. movie.
Other characters that are expected to be cast in this HBO Max series include Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Alan Scott, Sinestro, and Kilowog.
Past incarnations of Green Lantern saw Ryan Reynolds play Hal Jordan in the unsuccessful feature film that he continues to make fun of and director Zack Snyder tried to cast actor Wayne T. Carr in the role of John Stewart for Justice League.
Last week, The Ronin exclusively revealed that James Gunn’s DC Comics spinoff series Peacemaker would be adding Eastbound & Down director Jody Hill and we can now add another seasoned television director has joined the project that is filming in Vancouver.
We’ve confirmed that Rosemary Rodriguez will direct on The Suicide Squad spinoff series too. Her extensive credits include Rescue Me, Dickinson, Sneaky Pete, and The Good Wife. She’s no stranger to comic book properties directing episodes of Jessica Jones, The Walking Dead, and the live-action The Tick show.
Rosemary confirming her involvement on her website and in an interview from January.
RODRIGUEZ: “In the Spring, I’ll be directing [DC Comics’] Peacemaker for James Gunn. That will be a guaranteed good time!”
Oh f*ck, it’s Peacemaker! HBO Max is set to explore the origins of the Peacemaker character, the master of weapons from the highly anticipated upcoming The Suicide Squad film, in the new Max Original action-adventure-comedy series Peacemaker. HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order of eight episodes for the first season of the show. John Cena will reprise his role from The Suicide Squad movie to star in the series, and the film’s acclaimed writer/director James Gunn will write all eight episodes of Peacemaker and will direct multiple episodes, including the first.
The cast consists of John Cena as Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker, Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, Lochlyn Munro as Larry Fitzgibbon, Annie Chang as Sophie Song, Christopher Heyerdahl as Captain Locke, Nhut Le as Judomaster, Steve Agee as John Economos, Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, and Chris Conrad as Adrian Chase aka Vigilante.
Peacermaker is a direct spinoff of James Gunn’s upcoming film The Suicide Squad coming to HBO Max and theaters on August 6, 2021.
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
Today, Warner Bros. has announced that their upcoming sci-fi drama Reminiscence has landed a late summer release as it will drop on September 3rd in theaters and on HBO Max.
The project is part of WarnerMedia’s controversial day-and-date release model.
Directed by Westworld’s Lisa Joy, the film stars X-Men actor Hugh Jackman, who plays a private eye who deals in recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients. He becomes vexed by one of those clients played by Mission: Impossible’s Rebecca Ferguson. The setting takes place slightly in the future as Miami has been transformed by climate change as much of the city submerged underwater.
Other actors in the film include Thandie Newton and Cliff Curtis.
A trailer is likely just around the corner as we’ve seen a glimpse of footage from a recent HBO Max promo. I’m curious if Reminiscence will skew more in the realm of Inception.
Today, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. dropped the first trailer for their R-rated reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise in an attempt to revitalize the property for a new generation of fans. The reboot is produced by James Wan’s Atomic Monster and is the feature film debut of director Simon McQuoid.
It will feature different incarnations of fan-favorite characters along with Lewis Tan playing Cole Young, a brand new heroic figure created for the film.
Mortal Kombat will debut on April 16th in theaters alongside HBO Max.
Take a look at the new red-band trailer below which reveals that Goro is officially in the film.
In “Mortal Kombat,” MMA fighter Cole Young, accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage—or why Outworld’s Emperor Shang Tsung has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero, an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade at the direction of Jax, a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden, an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao and rogue mercenary Kano, as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana—the immense power from within his soul—in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?
The diverse international cast reflects the global nature of the brand, with talent spanning the worlds of film, television and martial arts. The ensemble includes Lewis Tan (“Deadpool 2,” Netflix’s “Wu Assassins”) as Cole Young; Jessica McNamee (“The Meg”) as Sonya Blade; Josh Lawson (“Bombshell”) as Kano; Tadanobu Asano (“Midway”) as Lord Raiden; Mehcad Brooks (TV’s “Supergirl”) as Jackson “Jax” Bridges; Ludi Lin (“Aquaman”) as Liu Kang; with Chin Han (“Skyscraper”) as Shang Tsung; Joe Taslim (“Star Trek Beyond”) as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero; and Hiroyuki Sanada (“Skyscraper”) as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion. Also featured are Max Huang as Kung Lao; Sisi Stringer as Mileena; Matilda Kimber as Emily Young; and Laura Brent as Allison Young.
McQuoid directed from a screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham (“Wonder Woman 1984”), from a story by Oren Uziel (“Mortal Kombat: Rebirth”) and Russo, based on the videogame created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Victoria Palmeri, Michael Clear, Jeremy Stein and Larry Kasanoff served as executive producers.
After it was previously announced that J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot would be working on a Justice League Dark series, there is word from Deadline that he’ll also be working on a new Constantine series reboot that will be written by Guy Bolton based on the occult DC Comics character. Bolton is said to be prepping to open a writers’ room next month.
The report stating the new version will skew darker than the previous series. Matt Ryan most recently played John after the Keanu Reeves film released back in 2005, they are reportedly seeking a diverse young actor to play the new version.
This is part of the overall deal that Bad Robot has with WarnerMedia. Abrams is also a producer on HBO’s Lovecraft Country and Westworld.
It’ll be interesting to see if this project will directly connect to that Justice League Dark show in development given that John Constantine is a key character on that team. Justice League Dark originally was put together as film for Guillermo del Toro before the studio attempted to give to other directors before deciding to turn it into a series instead.
CONSTANTINE – As a suicide survivor, demon hunter John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) has literally been to hell and back — and he knows that when he dies, he’s got a one-way ticket to Satan’s realm unless he can earn enough goodwill to climb God’s stairway to heaven. While helping policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) investigate her identical twin’s apparent suicide, Constantine becomes caught up in a supernatural plot involving both demonic and angelic forces. Based on the DC/Vertigo “Hellblazer” comics.
Another Game of Thrones project might come together at HBO Max and this time would be an animated series as revealed today by The Hollywood Reporter. However, they failed to mention any details or who would be working on the show.
They’re also protecting themselves as mentioning in the report that things could fall apart, the warning seems to be in reaction to their premature story concerning a live-action Harry Potter series being in the works at HBO Max as well.
An animated Game of Thrones drama is in the early stages of development at HBO Max, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Meetings with writers for the adult-leaning project, which would be similar in tone to HBO’s Emmy-winning flagship, are already under way. No deals have been made and there’s still a possibility that the animated series never comes to fruition.
Live-action spinoff series coming soon include the prequels House of The Dragon and Talesof Dunk & Egg.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that WarnerMedia is in early development on a Harry Potter/Potterverse series for HBO Max. Plot details aren’t mentioned, where it will take place in the franchise timeline, characters it will focus on or who will work on the series.
Essentially, it sounds like the series hasn’t exactly come together just yet and there is a chance it doesn’t even happen if these “exploratory meetings” don’t go anywhere.
A Harry Potter live-action TV series is in early development at HBO Max. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that executives at the WarnerMedia-backed streamer have engaged in multiple conversations with potential writers exploring various ideas that would bring the beloved property to television. Sources say broad ideas have been discussed as part of the early-stage exploratory meetings.
Filming is currently underway on Fantastic Beasts 3 in Watford, England, as the studio replaced Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen for the role of villain Gellert Grindelwald. There are also two more Fantastic Beasts sequels also in the works at the studio.
It would be interesting if they’ll attempt another prequel series potentially set even before Fantastic Beasts or will attempt something more contemporary with new characters.
HBO Max has been looking to mine a bunch of film spinoff series including James Gunn’s Peacemaker, The Batman series focusing on Gotham PD, Dune: The Sisterhood, Overlook, and heap of other DC Comics projects.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed they’ll eventually announce other off-shoot shows such as one set in Godzilla vs. Kong‘s Monsterverse or taking place in the worlds of The Matrix and Mad Max. I’d personally would love to see a Matrix origin series that takes place during the war between humans and the machines.
It’s unknown how much involvement that J.K. Rowling will have on the untitled series, considering the franchise creator has been doubling-down on multiple anti-trans comments and endorsements. Making Rowling increasingly toxic to have attached to future projects.
THE RONIN 