Tag: Netflix

Posted on in Television News

Tim Burton Reportedly Interested In Directing A Live-Action Series Reboot of ‘The Addams Family’ For MGM TV – Could Land At Netflix

Deadline reports that a new live-action Addams Family series is currently in the works from Tim Burton and MGM TV, with Burton negotiating to both produce and potentially direct all the episodes.

In what would mark his first major live-action TV series, Tim Burton is setting his sights on The Addams Family, looking to develop a new series focused on the famous clan. Sources tell Deadline that Burton is negotiating to executive produce and possibly direct all episodes of this new take on the franchise.

They also claim that Netflix is one of the suitors interested in the series reboot.

Originally, a cartoon featured in The New Yorker by cartoonist Charles Addams, the Addams Family spawned a live-action series in the 1960s and eventually got two feature films in the 1990s from director Barry Sonnenfeld. It also got a short-lived series reboot in the late 90s before a recent animated film that included the voices of Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron.

The Addams Family are a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests and supernatural abilities, though no explanation for their powers is explicitly given in the series. The wealthy, endlessly enthusiastic Gomez Addams is madly in love with his refined wife, Morticia.

The Addams Family is equally known for the addictive theme song.

I think it’s been obvious throughout Tim’s film career that he has been lifting imagery and aesthetics from The Addams Family and making this project could end up being his ultimate homage.

This wouldn’t be the first time Mr. Burton has attempted to reimagine a television property as his 2012 film Dark Shadows was comedic take on the horror soap opera that aired between 1966 and 1971 on ABC. However, I’m desperately hoping that this new Addams Family series is slightly better in the quality and acting department.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Duo Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill Join Adam McKay’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ – Play Two Scientists Warning The World A Meteor Will Strike Earth

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill have joined the cast of Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up For Netflix taking two key lead roles according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The pair previously worked together on the Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Don’t Look Up centers on two low-level scientists who, upon discovering that a meteor will strike the Earth in six months, go on a media tour to try to warn the world but find an unreceptive and unbelieving populace.

Leo and Jonah will play the two scientists.

They will be added to a cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Himesh Patel, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Matthew Perry and Tomer Sisley.

Adam McKay has been behind more mature Oscar-winning films recently with The Big Short and Vice.

Filming on Don’t Look Up is expected to begin on November 19th in Boston.

DiCaprio is also attached to star opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller Killers of The Flower Moon.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

Netflix Developing New ‘Conan The Barbarian’ Series – Based On The Sword and Sorcery Hero From Robert E. Howard

Deadline reports that a new series version of Conan The Barbarian based on the classic Robert E. Howard sword and sorcery hero is in development at Netflix. They also point out that Netflix can make new movies as well.

Netflix has put in development an epic live-action series based on Conan, the iconic sword-and-sorcery character created by writer Robert E. Howard, I have learned. I hear the project, from Fredrik Malmberg and Mark Wheeler’s Pathfinder Media, is the first in a deal between Netflix and Conan Properties International, owned by Malmberg’s Cabinet Entertainment. The pact gives Netflix the exclusive option to acquire rights to the Conan literary library and develop works across TV and film, both live-action and animated.

A feature film titled The Legend of Conan was in the works with Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising the role and later on a reboot series at Amazon had been in development before it was killed.

Schwarzenegger made the role famous in Conan The Barbarian and the sub-par sequel Conan The Destroyer. A series titled Conan The Adventurer starring Gladiator actor Ralf Möller had been made before Jason Momoa took a crack at the character in the 2011 remake of Conan The Barbarian.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN – Orphaned boy Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is enslaved after his village is destroyed by the forces of vicious necromancer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), and is compelled to push “The Wheel of Pain” for many years. Once he reaches adulthood, Conan sets off across the prehistoric landscape of the Hyborian Age in search of the man who killed his family and stole his father’s sword. With beautiful warrior Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez), he faces a supernatural evil.

A Conan The Barbarian series would fit nicely among The Witcher series, a string of Polish fantasy novels that owe a lot to Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. Netflix being the home of the series should allow all the sex and violence that the franchise is known for.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series Has Just Resumed Filming In New Zealand – ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Begins Filming On Wednesday

Deadline has word that the New Zealand production of Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series has resumed and Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop heading towards a start on September 30th, both series had been shooting in Auckland.

Filming has just resumed in New Zealand on Amazon’s sprawling The Lord Of The Rings TV series, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, I have learned. Production on Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is slated to restart on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the island country where Netflix’s Sweet Tooth has been shooting since Sept. 14, sources said. The three shows were among handful of Hollywood TV series and movies that were granted border exemptions by the New Zealand government in July to film in the country.

The Lord of The Rings series will take place during The Second Age of Middle-Earth, which means this will be thousands of years before the events of two feature film trilogies that took place in The Third Age. It’s cast includes Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.

The Second Age sees the rise of Sauron, who has replaced Melkor aka Morgoth as the new Dark Lord after Morgoth is banished to the void. During this time Sauron creates the rings of power and uses them to destroy multiple ancient kingdoms leading to the battle scene in the prologue sequence from Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring.

It’ll be interesting to see if we’ll end up seeing fair-faced version of Sauron and the origin of The Witch King, who might have been a Numenorean king of the ancient island kingdom. A key location that is going to be explored in the series.

Sadly, Amazon is tackling The Second Age because they don’t have access to The First Age, which is mostly covered in The Silmarillion and the History of Middle-Earth. This could lead to Amazon having to come up with a lot of that mythology on their own and filling blanks with the help of the Tolkien Estate. This series will likely be familiar to fans but will also likely be it’s own thing.

We are hearing they’ll be adding many familiar Middle-Earth creatures but remains to be seen if they’ll attempt to make the production design match the Peter Jackson films.

Deadline adding that writers have used the production pause to start writing Season 2 (previously confirmed) scripts which isn’t shocking it’s being planned as getting five seasons.

The writing team of the series, led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, used the time to map out and write Season 2 scripts.

Netflix had begun shooting the live-action Cowboy Bebop last fall and after a knee injury suffered by lead actor John Cho led to a hiatus in Auckland before the COVID-19 impacted global production. Resuming this week sounds is the first step for them to finally get this completed after a year of hiccups.

COWBOY BEOP – Based on the worldwide phenomenon from Sunrise Inc., Cowboy Bebop is the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll even save the world…for the right price.

This news comes after James Cameron recently confirmed to Arnold Schwarzenegger that they’ve completed live-action filming on Avatar 2 and is 95% completed on Avatar 3. Those two massive sequels had been shooting at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Netflix Spends $30M To Secure Remake of Danish Thriller ‘The Guilty’ Directed By Antoine Fuqua and Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

Deadline reports that Netflix is spending a massive $30 million on securing the worldwide rights to an English remake of the Danish film Den skyldige aka The Guilty from Training Day director Antoine Fuqua and True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto.

Nightcrawler’s Jake Gyllenhaal will play 911 dispatch operator Joe Bayler. 

It takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center. Call operator Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller in grave danger—but he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and facing the truth is the only way out.

Here is the trailer for the original Danish film. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Regina King, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield, and Delroy Lindo Join ‘The Harder They Fall’ – Netflix Western Led By Idris Elba and Jonathan Majors

Deadline reports a large group of additions to the cast of Netflix’s all-black western titled The Harder They Fall, which stars The Suicide Squad’s Idris Elba and Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors. 

Outlaw Nat Love (Majors) who discovers that the man (Elba) who killed his parents two decades ago is being released from prison, he reunites with his gang to track his enemy down and seek his revenge.

The new additions to the cast are Oscar-winner Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), Zazie Beetz (Joker), Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods), Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out), Danielle Deadwyler (Watchmen), Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class), and RJ Cyler (White Boy Rick). 

Majors and Lindo played father and son in Spike Lee’s fantastic Da 5 Bloods that was also released by Netflix. Delory’s performance in that film will likely be in consideration for an Oscar.

Jeymes Samuel will be directing the western from a script penned by Samuel Yakin and Boaz Yakin. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Halle Berry’s First Directorial Effort ‘Bruised’ Heading To Netflix – The MMA Drama Picked Up In Big Eight-Figure Deal

Deadline reports that Netflix has secured Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised with an eight-figure deal. They state the deal is for under $20 million which is extremely impressive for a festival pick-up and could speak volumes for the quality of the film after Netflix got an early look at it before a work-in-progress is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Jackie Justice (Berry) is a disgraced MMA fighter who has failed at the one thing she’s ever been good at – fighting. When 6-year-old Manny, the son she walked out on years ago, returns to her doorstep, Jackie has to conquer her own demons, face one of the fiercest rising stars of the MMA world, and ultimately fight to become the mother the boy deserves. The film is a Rocky-esque story of redemption, of a woman’s grueling MMA training in New Jersey to get into the kind of shape necessary to battle much younger opponents.

Berry is an Oscar-winning actress best known globally for the X-Men films, the James Bond flick Die Another Day, and won her Best Actress Oscar for the drama Monster’s Ball. More recently Halle got a bit of a career boost from her supporting role in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and is now taking a directorial crown as well with Bruised. 

It sounds like she has a huge directorial career ahead of her. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE 

Posted on in Film News

Zack Snyder’s Zombie Flick ‘Army of The Dead’ Getting A Prequel Movie and Anime Series Titled ‘Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas’

Netflix announced today via Variety that Zack Snyder’s upcoming zombie genre action flick Army of The Dead will be getting a prequel film and an “anime” series. 

Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

Army of The Dead’s cast consists of Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Huma Qureshi, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, Matthias Schweighöfer, Raúl Castillo, Nora Arnezeder, and Samantha Win. 

It was recently announced that stand-up comedian and actress Tig Notaro would be joining the film as well. 

Shay Hatten will write the prequel and anime series. 

Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays Ludwig Dieter will direct and focuses on his character. 

The anime series titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas follows Dave Bautista’s character with Jay Oliva (The Dark Knight Returns) showrunning and directing a couple of episodes. 

Most of the shows being labeled as anime by Netflix aren’t part of that genre and it seems to be a blanket marketing term used by the streaming service, we’ll have to wait and see if it applies to this show. 

SOURCE: VARIETY 

Posted on in Television News

Arnold Schwarzenegger Returns To The Spy Genre For Original Skydance Television Series – ‘True Lies’ Series At Disney+ Not Happening?

Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally making his television debut!

Deadline reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Skydance Television are teaming for an original father-daughter spy adventure series from Scorpion creator Nick Santora. 

They also mention that the project will be out to streamers soon but I think it’s obvious we’ll they’ll be taking it. 

I would bet heavily that the series would end up landing on Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, given that Skydance has an existing relationship with Amazon for their Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher shows and multiple high-budgeted Skydance Media films have landed at Netflix. 

I’m leaning towards Amazon as Santora is the showrunner and executive producer of their upcoming Jack Reacher series. 

Arnold has previously worked with Skydance on the two soft-reboots of the Terminator franchise with Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, both had trouble earning money at the box office. 

You might remember that producer/director McG (Lethal Weapon, Terminator: Salvation, Charlie’s Angels) teased to Collider a while back he was developing a series based on James Cameron’s True Lies series, pitching with the aim for it to land at Disney+ that may have seen Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis potentially reprising their roles. 

This news might confirm that True Lies won’t be happening.

Schwarzenegger had been trying for years to get a direct sequel to Conan The Barbarian titled The Legend of King Conan, but hasn’t had much luck getting to the production stage as Universal Pictures has seemingly dropped those plans. 

In 2018, it was reported by Deadline that a Conan The Barbarian series was in the works at Amazon. I’m curious if this spy series lands at Amazon that it would help establish a relationship that leads to Arnold reprising the Conan role. Amazon also is currently in production on shows set in the fantasy worlds of Lord of The Rings and The Wheel of Time. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Netflix Announces 8-Episode ‘Resident Evil’ Series Will Focus On Jade Wesker – ‘The Walking Dead’s Bronwen Hughes To Direct First Two Episodes

Today, it was officially confirmed that Netflix will indeed be making a live-action series based on the Capcom horror video game franchise. They’ve hired Andrew Dabb (Supernatural) to showrun, executive produce, and write the series with executive producer Bronwen Hughes (The Walking Dead) set to direct the first two episodes.

The series will also get eight hourlong episodes. 

Here is the official press release from Netflix that includes a synopsis for the new show that will focus on Jade Wesker, one of the daughters of franchise antagonist Albert Wesker. 

Building on one of the most popular, best-selling survival horror video games of all time, Resident Evil will tell a brand new story across two timelines:

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.

A feature film is also in the works that will reboot the Mila Jovocih movies with traditional characters stepping up. 

SOURCE: NETFLIX