In this Hollywood news round-up, there's a whole lot of comic book movie/TV shows new going on, covering Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, The Flash, The Tick and Arrow. Plus, is LucasFilms working on a new animated Star Wars series, and, if so, what does that mean for the increasingly excellent Star Wars: Rebels?:
FILMThose Marvel Studios snipers every Marvel actor jokes about must have been sleeping on the job because Benedict Cumberbatch appears to have somewhat accidentally confirmed Doctor Strange will appear in Avengers: Infinity War. Maybe the snipers let this one go because most everyone had already assumed Strange was going to be in that film anyway.
Speaking of those Marvel snipers, here's how Sam Neill chose to announce he'll be in Thor: Ragnarok:
"I'm not really allowed to say this and I can't tell you what it is... I did a couple of days on Thor just before I came over here. If I say anything else, Marvel's secret agents - and they are lethal - will come and get me and probably my children, as well."
As has been rumored for months now, Cyborg's almost definitely going to be in The Flash movie:
Sony's Valiant Cinematic Universe is apparently still happening, except now Harbinger instead of Bloodshot will start things. Can't help but think this would mean so much more to me if I actually read either of those comics. If you have, feel free to shame me in the comments. From io9:
TELEVISIONAccording to The Wrap, Sony is moving forward with Harbinger as the, well, harbinger of the Valiant Cinematic Universe. Bloodshot would also appear in the film, which could hypothetically be in theaters by late 2017 or early 2018, setting up a spin-off that would come as the second film in the series. Other potential characters for spinoffs are HARD Corps, Livewire, Generation Zero and Faith, who is apparently a big part of the Harbinger film. Eric Heisserer ( Arrival) wrote the script.
Amazon has ordered all three of its recent pilots - The Tick, I Love Dick and Jean-Claude Van Johnson - to series. The Tick deserves it, I Love Dick is a pretentious whatever which just wasn't for me and Jean-Claude Van Johnson is a classic case of "It's funny and good, sure, but is there really a full series here?" Amazon clearly thought so, and I'm intrigued to see how they stretch out the aging-action-star-is-actually-a-secret-agent concept. Plus, will the endless jokes about the goofier particulars of JCVD's career get old? Speaking of Amazon...
Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman, the first female writer to officially work on a Marvel movie, is in-demand around town, having already co-written Captain Marvel for Marvel and moved on to a Pokemon Go movie. Yet Amazon somehow swayed her to write and executive produce a sci-fi TV drama called True Skin about one man's journey into the sordid black market for human body augmentation. Skin began its life as a short film, but WB fucked around too long trying to adapt it into a feature film. As soon as WB's pption expired, Amazon swooped in, and by adding Perlman to the project they've instantly elevated its profile. She'll begin work on it sometime next year. Here's the short film:
Frank Darabont wants $280m from AMC as restitution for being screwed out of Walking Dead profits, allegedly.
THR has a list of Arrow's 9 best villains, and Manu Bennett's Slade Wilson predictably took the top spot. In related news, Deathstroke or, more accurately, someone wearing the Deathstroke costume might be coming back for the show's upcoming 100th episode. But, wait, how can they do that? Isn't Deathstroke off limits now that he's been picked to be Ben Affleck's villain in his first solo Batman movie? You'd think so, but not so much. Considering how abruptly Arrow killed off its Suicide Squad once the film was announced it seems likely they're simply bringing Deathstroke back to kill him, but considering the fact that Bennett was in New Zealand literally a day before Stephen Amell released the following photo from the show's Canadian set perhaps something stranger is in the works:
There might be another animated Star Wars series in the works, and the guy, Dave Filioni, responsible for Clone Wars and Rebels will be in charge. However, that doesn't mean Rebels is about to end. Always two there are, right? Filioni is training his own apprentice, Justin Ridge, to eventually take over Rebels. Here's what LucasFilm told Big Shiny Robot:
Dave is still just as involved as ever - overseeing all aspects of Star Wars Rebels production as Executive Producer and occasionally directing episodes. In many ways, mentoring Justin and moving him into the role as Supervising Director has made it possible for Dave to be even more immersed in the writing and story structure of the show as well as creatively overseeing future animation development. Justin started with Lucasfilm Animation on the first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and worked with Dave before that on Avatar: The Last Airbender, so they've been working together for quite some time.
