News for Bourne 5, Spider-Man 3, Night at the Museum and Star Wars 7

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Ancient Fear. How does that sound to you? You may have guess that The Ancient Fear is the latest title to be rumoured for JJ Abrams’ sci-fi adventure, recently confirmed to be starring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Max Von Sydow, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Andy Serkis. You also may have picked up that The Ancient Fear would be a complete reversal from 1977’s A New Hope. Even if this title isn’t the final one, it still hints that the villainous forces, most likely Driver and Von Sydow, will be reviving an antagonist from the past, perhaps Darth Plageuis as he’s been pulling strings since the beginning.

We’re can be pretty confident saying that The Sinister Six’s members will most likely be Green Goblin, Mysterio, Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Vulture and Kraven the Hunter but director Marc Webb has hinted at who’ll face Spidey in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. “I like the idea of Kraven,” he continues. “The Vulture. Ock. I always thought the idea of Mysterio was interesting. Maybe Scorpion. But really, Kraven I think is kind of interesting.”

Marvel fans will likely recount Kraven as a Russian big game hunter who selects Spider-Man as his new prey but it’s possible that his origin will be altered as there’s already a Russian villain in the form of Rhino. Webb’s third and final Spider-Man film will most likely star Andrew Garfield, Shailene Woodley, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones, Dane DeHaan and Sally Field.

We regard The Bourne Trilogy, made up of Doug Liman’s Identity and Paul Greengrass’ Supremacy and Ultimatum, to be modern action masterpieces, all of which made Tony  Gilroy’s mediocre thriller The Bourne Legacy, focussed on Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross, even more disappointing. Despite its drop in financial takings, Universal seemed determined to make a Legacy follow up with Justin Lin but all the fans want is a back to roots Bourne film with Matt Damon (The Departed, The Adjustment Bureau, True Grit, Invictus, Saving Mr Banks, Good Will Hunting) and Paul Greengrass (United 93, Green Zone, Bloody Sunday, Captain Phillips).

The Oscar winning Damon has now confirmed he’s still excited by the idea of Bourne 5. “I’ve always been open to it if Paul Greengrass is the director. We’ve just never been able to come up with a story. It felt like such a good way to end it last time,” he continued. “Having said that, I love that character. I’d love to see what happened to him.” So, if anyone has a vision for where the series should go know, get your script together and contact Universal. The studio obviously don’t want to call Legacy a failure and move on so maybe a Cross/Bourne crossover is in order.

The Night at the Museum films have never had full critical approval but the two instalments do have a huge place in the heart of fans and are a handful at the box office with each film averaging at about $500 million. It’s no wonder that Shawn Levy (Real Steal, Date Night, The Internship) wants to revive the franchise. A third instalment has been in mind for a while but, despite the odd casting, it seemed to be moving far too slow to make it in time for this its December release.

Today’s confirmation of the title has certainly proven Fox’s dedication of bringing us the sequel in time for Christmas. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb will star Ben Stiller (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Hugo, Schindler’s List), Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers, Cars, Midnight in Paris), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Rebel Wilson (Pain and Gain, Pitch Perfect), Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society), Rachael Harris (The Hangover, Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Rami Malek (Short Term 12, Need for Speed), Ricky Gervais (The Office, Muppets Most Wanted), Dick Van Dyke (Mary Poppins) and the final performance of the late great Mickey Rooney.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – December 19th

The Bourne Betrayal – 21st August 2015

An actual Jason Bourne film – 2017?

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 – May 17th 2016

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Ancient Fear? – December 18th 2015

Jeff Goldblum, Aubrey Plaza and Oliver Platt join Johnny Depp in Mortdecai and Rebel Wilson finds a Night at the Museum

Director David Koepp (Premuim Rush) is at the helm of a new project titled Mortdecai. Three time Oscar nominee Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sweeney Todd, Finding Neverland), Ewan MacGregor (Star Wars, Trainspotting), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love, Iron Man 3) and Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, The Avengers) are already signed on and now another three stars have joined the cast. Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Fly), Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Safety Not Guaranteed, Parks and Recreation) and Oliver Platt (2012, X-Men: First Class) have all joined the story of a guy named Charles Mortdecai, the Indiana Jones of the art world, who goes in search of a painting said to contain a clue to the location of hoards of Nazi gold. Despite the premise, this seems to be unveiling itself as a crime drama, as oppose to an adventure.

Australian comic writer and actress Rebel Wilson has popped up all over the place. She’s had supporting roles in Bridemaids and Pain and Gain, took the lead with musical/comedy smash hit Pitch Perfect. Wilson’s now lining up a new comedy TV show as well as a Pitch Perfect sequel and a voice role in Kung-Fu Panda 3 and, possibly, an unspecified part in Night at the Museum 3.

The adventure/comedy sequel hasn’t yet pitched a plot but Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais, Robin Williams and Patrick Gallagher are all set to return, still no word on Carlo Gugino, Amy Adams, Jake Cherry, Steve Coogan or Owen Wilson. Series newcomers Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey’s Matthew) and Rachael Harris (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) are signed on while Deadline were the first to report that Wilson will drop her native accent once again to play one of Larry’s (Ben Stiller) new night-guards.

Recent blogs from us haven’t been at their usual length and we’re taking a day off tomorrow but the mega awards coverage begins with The Golden Globes next week. In February, as an experiment, we’ll be providing live as-it-happens coverage of the BAFTAs as, well as our own ceremony with The Tuorhoth Awards, before the Oscars, or Academy Awards, arrive in early March. So, there’s a lot to look forward to.

Mortdecai – 2015

Night at the Museum 3 – December 26th

Dan Stevens for Night at the Museum 3 and Bourne finds Justin Lin

The Bourne series was of the highest calibre and consistency until recently. Doug Liman’s Identity followed by Paul Greengrass’ Supremacy and Ultimatum formed an intelligent and bold trilogy centring around amnesic spy Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) and was based on Robert Ludlum’s novels. Last year’s The Bourne Legacy switched focus to Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), another subject of the tests forced on Bourne. Tony Gilroy was the director but the Damon absented film fell flat. A fifth film could now be on the cards with a new director well versed in action sequels.

Justin Lin is the Taiwan born director who’s directed four of the six Fast Films: Tokyo Drift, Fast and Furious, Fast 5 and Fast 6. James Wan is taking over with Fast 7 next year leaving Lin’s space for a new feature open. We think it’s likely that Lin will direct with Sherlock Holmes (the movie) writer Anthony Peckham and star Jeremy Renner. Matt Damon won’t return so the movie needs a huge star in a supporting role (yes I do not count Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton as huge stars just yet). Bryan Cranston maybe if their after a villain or maybe Mark Wahlberg if they need a bit of an epic but funny sidekick role.

Dan Stevens is of cause best known for his role as Matthew Crawley on ITV’s Downton Abbey. He recently broadened his pallet with a lead role in drama Summer in February. He could be joining star Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder) and director Shawn Levy (Real Steel) for the third instalment of the comedy adventure series Night At the Museum. He’ll be playing Lancelot, the knight of the yet uncast King Arthur, in this imaginative fantasy sequel which could also see Robin Williams reprise the role of Teddy Roosevelt. Will Steve Coogan and Amy Adams also return?

The Bourne Betrayal – 2016?

Night at the Museum 3 – 2016?

Doctor Who 50th trailer, Brolin and Elba for Jurassic World, Burton considering Beetlejuice 2 and more

We do apologize for our recent absence but we’re back with a huge round up of everything you may have missed while we were gone.

November 23rd should be the most anticipated date of next month, going against the release of Gravity (8th) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (21st). It’s not just the event of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary, marked by the new TV movie An Adventure in Space and Time starring Brian Cox, David Bradley, Lesley Manville, Jessica Raine, the show’s head writer Steven Moffat and Reece Shearsmith, directed by Terry McDonagh (director of several episodes of Breaking Bad, Homeland and Suits) and written by Sherlock and Dr Who’s writer Mark Gatiss, but there’s the 50th Anniversary Special titled The Day of the Doctor.

Watch the new trailer here. We’re going to give you a fairly lengthy breakdown of the in jokes we spotted. Initially, you notice the many Sonic Screwdrivers and gadgets that the Doctor has used in the past 5 decades. Some of the cameos from Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor), William Hartnell (the First Doctor), the Daleks, what I presume is a UNIT soldier, the late great Elizabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor), Jenna Louise Coleman (the current companion Clara Oswald) and David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) are easy to spot under Matt Smith (the Eleventh Doctor’s) narration but some you’ll be squinting for.

I spotted the Eleventh’s favourite head wear beside Stetsons, the fez from the series 5 finale and Sarah Jane’s robotic companion K9. The villainous Cybermen also crop up under the Big Ben (which gets destroyed by the Slitheen in series 1 episode 4) backdrop and the Third is battling The Master (a pre John Simm incarnation, who’s Laser Screwdriver is out there somewhere in the trailer). Clara’s leaf, which reoccurs several times in the 2nd half of series 7, can be seen too

And in the flash zoom in at the end I saw Doctors Seven (Sylvester McCoy), Five (Peter Davison), Six (Colin Baker) and Nine (Christopher Eccleston) as well as terrifying beasts like an Ice Warrior (classic Mars villain who’s been revamped in some way in 2009 and 2013 – is 084 a reference to anything other than Agents of SHIELD), a Weeping Angels (who deserve better than The Angels Take Manhattan and should get more episodes like Blink and The Time of Angels) and I just spotted a hand of a member of The Silence (the great big bads of series 6 who were too hastily replaced by the Great Intelligence).

After that, there’s another Cyberman, another Dalek, an Ood, who I think is Rose (Billie Piper), the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann, who only appeared in the role in the 1996 TV movie) and an Auton. The number 17162311, which appears on what looks like an alarm clock, doesn’t mean much to me but I think it may become of significance in the near future. There’s a bizarre yellow car on the left of the screen at one point, which I presume is the vehicle of choice of the Earth stranded Third Doctor.

We then meet the current Doctor Matt Smith with an unusual background of an apparently American desert plain (possibly near Lake Silencio from series 6 episode 1), San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and  London’s iconic Shard (which the Eleventh motorcycles up in series 7 episode 6 (or 7 if you count the Christmas Special). I’m unsure of setting but I think it’ll become apparent soon enough. Who’s the man flailing his arms in front of David Tennant’s Tenth? Please tell  us in the comments if you have any clues as to his identity. I didn’t see the Second Patrick Troughton in there but he must in in there somewhere. There’s nothing from John Hurt’s mysterious Time War incarnation of The Doctor although the Eleventh does paraphrase him:

“The choices I made in the name of The Doctor!”

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special or The Day of The Doctor –  November 23rd on BBC One and BBC America

Another upcoming BBC action project is The Musketeers. We’ve got our hands on the first official picture from the show that stars the future Doctor Who and The Thick of It’s Peter Capaldi, Tom Burke (Only God Forgives), Charlotte Hope (The Invisible Woman), Julian Bastida (Killer Bees), Emily Beecham (28 Weeks Later), Phillip Brodie (A Landscape of Lies) and Santiago Cabera (Heroes, Che). The Three Musketeers story could do with a half decent revamp. Paul WS Anderson flopped in 2011 with Logan Lerman, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, Dexter Fletcher, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson and Mads Mikkelsen. Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland’s 1993 version didn’t exactly become a classic in the way that Richard Lester and Raquel Welch’s 1973 or George Sidney and Gene Kelly’s 1948 editions did. The poster informs us that Adrian Hodges’ (writer of My Week With Marilyn, David Copperfield, Primeval, Survivors) new work is going to be stylish and big budget stuff.

The Musketeers – Early to mid 2014 on BBC One

We’ve now got a few snippets of casting news. First off, it’s Academy Award nominee Josh Brolin. He’s come a long way since his first ever acting role in adventure classic The Goonies. He’s done Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, W., Gangster Squad, True Grit, American Gangster, No Country For Old Men, Men in Black 3 and picked up his Oscar nom for Milk.

He’s now listed as a potential star of Jurassic World, meaning he could be joining Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help), Nick Robinson (Kings of Summer) and Ty Simpkins (Insidious, Iron Man 3). He could also be trapped on the dino island with Pacific Rim and Luther star Idris Elba; they’re both rumoured to be joining the Jurassic Park sequel under the direction of Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed).

Jurassic World – July 12th 2015

Another sequel with casting plans is Night At the Museum 3. Shawn Levy has talked about returning to his Night at the Musuem franchise for a while after taking off to make the above average robot boxing drama Real Steel as well as the unsuccessful Date Night and The Internship. Robin Williams (star of Dead Poet Society, Good Will Hunting and Academy Award winner, plus three time nominee) is in talks to reprise the role of Teddy Roosevelt for the fantasy sequel with Ben Stiller returning as Larry Dale.

Night At the Museum 3 – 26th December 2014/15

British actor Damian Lewis has thrown himself into international acclaim with his role of Nicholas Brody on the thriller TV shows Homeland (which won him a Golden Globe and an Emmy) and Band of Brothers. He’s now joined Queen of the Desert, Werner Herzog’s biography of Gertrude Bell. The legendary German director is the one who brought you Grizzly Man, Aguirre Wrath of God, Encounters at the End of the World, Rescue Dawn and most recently Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss. For Queen of the Desert, Lewis is joining James Franco (Spider-Man, 127 Hours, Oz the Great and Powerful), Robert Pattinson (Twilight, Cosmopolis, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut, The Others, Moulin Rouge).

Queen of the Desert – 2015

The final casting rumour is for Benedict Cumberbatch, who’s had  far too many of these already after Doctor Who and Star Wars. The Sherlock, Star Trek and The Hobbit star could be taking over from Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Bronson, Warrior and the new Mad Max) on Everest. Director Doug Liman (Jumper, The Bourne Indentity, Fair Game, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) lost Hardy when he began to push for a production date of next March leaving the space open.

Cumberbatch is the favourite however, according to Deadline, Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, RoboCop), Henry Cavill (Man of Steel), James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class, Trance), Luke Evans (Fast and Furious 6, The Hobbit), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Summer in February), Matthew Goode (Watchmen, Stoker), Jim Sturgess (Cloud Atlas, Across the Universe) and Marvel’s Loki himself Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers, War Horse, Midnight in Paris) are all in contention. It seems to me like they’ve just gone through a list of British actors from ages 25 to 35 to play real life, 20th century English mountaineer George Mallory.

Everest – late 2014 or early 2015

Edgar Rice Burroughs is well known amongst sci-fi and fantasy fans as the creator of A Princess of Mars (which inspired 2012’s John Carter) and Tarzan of the Apes. The latter has seen several version through the years. Gordan Scott and Sean Connery starred in 1959’s Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure but it’s most famous incarnation was likely the 1999 Disney animation directed by Chris Buck and Kevin Lima and starred Minnie Driver and Brian Blessed.

Tarzan is due another remake and it’s another animation but it’s a CGI one unlike the ’99 edition and more like anything by Pixar. It’s Disney however. Warner Bros and Consantin Films are tackling this one with motion capture and the voices of Kellan Lutz (Twilight, Immortals), Robert Capron (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Frankenweenie) and Spencer Locke (Resident Evil). The animation and effects look great and it looks quite a bit more action based than I’d anticipated, much more like Avatar than Tarzan. Reinhard Klooss, who brought in names like James Corden, Stephen Fry, Andy Serkis, Vanessa Redgrave, Dawn French and Omid Djalli into his Animal Kingdom, is the director. Here’s the new trailer.

Tarzan – January 24th 2014

Beetlejuice is director Tim Burton’s (Batman, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, Alice in Wonderland and Mars Attacks) beloved fantasy horror comedy hit. The idea of a sequel has been around for years. In fact, it’s 25 years since the original was released but now Burton is genuinely considering it. The Wrap reported that  Burton and star Michael Keaton could be reuniting for Beetlejuice 2 with perhaps Winona Ryder, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin reprising their roles.

Beetlejuice 2 – 2016?

Little Women, the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott, has seen three big screen adaptations. There’s the 1933 classic with Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett which was followed by the 1949 remake with June Allyson and Peter Lawford before the 1994 version with Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Claire Danes and Christian Bale. Sony have given the order for another remake which’ll have a script by Olivia Milch (son of David Milch, creator of the massively popular Deadwood) which revolves around the March family, made up of four daughters and their mother.

Little Women – 2016?

The Raid was easily the biggest and best action film of 2011. It took a remarkable $15 million, it doesn’t sound like much in blockbuster terms but for an independent action film with an unheard of Welsh director in the form of Gareth Evans and an unknown lead star in the form of Iko Uwais. The Raid 2: Berandal is set just two hours after the end of the first film and sees Rama (Uwais) returning home only to find that the action has only just begun. Evans (who’s been very busy with both Berandal and his segment of six part horror anthology V/H/S/2, is confident that he’ll be able to launch the first trailer next month but, until then, he’s given us a teaser poster for the sequel.

The Raid 2: Berandal – early 2014