Sci-Fi Storm

Deadline reports that primary production on the third Fantastic Beasts film will not start until the Fall, pushed back from a planned July start, likely in order to have more prep time which would have had to start by now to make the original scheduled start.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald left fans with a LOT of questions, and few answers. Author and script writer J.K. Rowling promised that answers will be found in this upcoming film, and the new production start date might mean they aren’t going to rush things.

The next chapter in Peter Parker’s journey as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, trying to take a vacation…

Thwips into theaters July 5th, 2019

Hot on the heals of finding out that Dave Bautista was joining Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation, another MCU actor will join him – and they’ll be related.

Stellan Skarsgard, who played Dr. Erik Selvig in the first two Thor movies as well as the first two Avengers movies, will play Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the scheming leader of House Harkonnen who collaborates with the Emperor on a plan to rid themselves of House Atreides and maintain control of the planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the universe. Glossu “The Beast” Rabban (Bautista) is the Baron’s sadistic nephew, charged with the subjugation of Arrakis.

Skarsgard most recently appeared in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.

Guardians Of The Galaxy‘s Dave Bautista will reunite with his Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve for the latter’s upcoming version of Frank Herbert’s Dune, one of the biggest SF book series that has previously been a [asin=604]feature film[/asin] from David Lynch and a [asin=158]Syfy (then Sci-Fi Channel) mini-series[/asin]. Bautista’s role is not currently known. [Update: We now know he will play “The Beast” Rabban – as if there was any question…]

He will join Timothée Chalamet (Lady Bird), who will play hero Paul Atreides, and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), who will play Lady Jessica.

The David Lynch film was a visual spectacle but a box office failure, with Lynch himself distancing himself claiming there was too much interference from the producers and financiers, and in some cuts the director was credited as “Alan Smithee”, a code name for a disavowed credit. The mini-series proved more successful, spawning a sequel series for Children of Dune, both of which were some of the highest rated programming on the network at the time.

It’s finally here…it’s called Avengers: Endgame and the release date is moved up to April 26th, 2019!

The 2019 Golden Globe Award nominations are out, and so it’s time to round up all the genre nominations…

On the movie side of the house, Black Panther scored a Best Motion Picture – Drama nom, along with a Best Original Score for Ludwig Goransson and Best Original Song for “All the Stars”. Mary Poppins Returns scored in
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, along with Best Actress for Emily Blunt, Best Actor for Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Best Original Score for Marc Shaiman.

The animated features Incredibles 2, Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph Breaks The Internet, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse all received Best Motion Picture – Animated noms.

On the TV end, The Good Place was nominated for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy along with Kristen Bell for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, while Elisabeth Moss got one for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama for The Handmaid’s Tale and Thandie Newton scored a nom for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Westworld.

A couple of movie news items while I’m in the tech week of helping produce a school musical…

Zoey Deutch (Set It Up) will join the cast of Zombieland 2, which will feature all the original stars – Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. The followup, to be released about 10 years after the original in October 2019, will follow the survivors through both the White House and the Heartland while dealing with evolved zombies and other survivors. Just remember – double tap.

Sony, in the meantime, is hoping that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will help launch a female-centric animated hero franchise and is developing Spider-Women, to focus on three female Spider-powered heroes, one of which might be Spider-Gwen who will be featured in the highly-anticipated movie releasing next month. Bek Smith (Zoo) is tagged to write the script. Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s Amy Pascal will produce.

Legendary comic creator Stan Lee, who created Marvel Comics with Jack Kirby in 1961 and launched Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Black Panther and many many more, passed away early today, according to TMZ. He was 95.

In failing health in recent years he still did his best to meet with the fans, even coming to Boston Comic Con in 2017 not long after the passing of his wife, Joan. Questions surfaced more recently, however, about his managers and allegations of elder abuse, which more recently seemed to be resolved.

It is with great sadness that we mourn the godfather of the current cinematic era. Tears will be shed when we see his final cameo. Excelsior!

Remember that story about the Desilu Studios name being revived when someone acquired the name rights and was going to reboot V?

Well, we now doubt it is going to happen.

Apparently Charles B. Hensley, who announced he had acquired the Desilu Studios name earlier this year, apparently has a shady past including a conviction for selling a bird flu vaccine that was never approved by the FDA. And now CBS has accused him in a lawsuit for using the Desilu name to dupe investors into his shell companies, and not actually using the name for legitimate purposes, as well as creating a false valuation letter claiming the company was worth $11.2 billion. His Desilu Studios and Desilu Corporation did not obtain the catalog of original Desilu productions, which are wholly owned by CBS through it’s acquisition of Paramount.

This might be interesting to see how it pans out.

Warner Bros has decided to push back the release of Wonder Woman 1984 back to June 5th, 2020, from its original release date of November 1st, 2019. This gives more clearance for its comic cousin movie, the Joachin Phoenix-starrer Joker, which opens October 4th, and also puts Wonder Woman back at the start of the summer movie season, where it had opened previously.

The slot had previously been occupied by the long-in-development Six Million Dollar Man, with Mark Wahlberg set to star, but it is currently pulled from the release schedule while they still seek a director.