Samuel L Jackson talks Incredibles 2, Fast and Furious changes gear and Fantastic Beasts will be a trilogy

The tragic death of Paul Walker brought grief to the whole film industry. The production of action sequel Fast and Furious 7 was greatly set back as Walker has always been at the centre of the series. Rewrites and major plot changes had to take place before filming could restart but Instagram have confirmed that the second part of production has begun.

The new instalment sees the team under attack from the vengeful Ian Shaw, brother of Fast 6’s villain. The film reunites Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Paul Walker, Lucas Black and Michelle Rodriguez and introduces to the series Ronda Rousey, Kurt Russell, Djimon Hounsou and Jason Statham. The ensemble is directed by horror legend James Wan, the man behind Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring.

Pixar recently established that Brad Bird is working on a sequel to the brilliant animation The Incredibles. Out of all the ensemble cast, the superpowered family (Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox) are the most rememberable, as well as the scene stealing Syndrome, Edna Mode and Jack Jack. It’s easy to forget Frozone, played by Pulp Fiction, Avengers Assemble, Django Unchained, Star Wars and Jurassic Park’s Samuel L Jackson, although he has the best line in the film:

“Honey, where is my super suit?”

While on the press tour for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Samuel L Jackson answered Digital Spy’s questions on his involvement with the sequel. “Every time I run into Brad, he always tells me Frozone is part of what’s going on, so I have to believe that. I guess they could be the Incredibles without Frozone, but I think Frozone would be a wonderful addition to what’s already there.”

The Harry Potter franchise ended with a bang in 2011 but we recently discovered that the book’s author JK Rowling wasn’t quite ready to leave Harry’s world for good. She’s writing the screenplay for the mock textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them but the story may go further than that.

“As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.” That’s Rowling’s pitch for the film which is now set to become a trilogy, which we know to be set in New York seventy years before the events of Harry Potter.

This explains why Rowling was appointed originally. If they plan to make three films from a remarkably thin and plotless book then they need Rowling to ensure authenticity in the series, which’ll probably see magical zoologist Newt Scamander travelling the globe the discover the secrets of the world’s most fearsome and mysterious beasts.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – 2017?

The Incredibles 2 – 2018?

Fast and Furious 7 – April 10th 2015

Disney’s Roger Iger confirms Pixar are optioning The Incredibles 2

Toy Story 2 and 3 are certainly Pixar’s finest work but the one negative bi product was that it sent its creators into the disillusion that all sequels they could make would be equally great. This lead to the vastly disappointing Cars 2 and Monsters University and the upcoming Finding Dory while they’ve had much more success with their recent original concepts such as Wall-E, Up and Brave Despite all of this, the only sequel fans have genuinely demanded is the one that’s finally been shifted into development. The Incredibles, the action tale of a reluctant superhero family, has finally been optioned by Disney’s boss Roger Iger while the original’s director Brad Bird is set to begin work on a new script soon.

The fault they need to avoid this time is to share more of the feel of the first film. Cars 2 ditched a genuinely moving tale of a city slacker reluctantly stranded in the countryside which he soon falls in love with, not dissimilar to Local Hero, for an all-out generic spy spoof. Monsters Inc, although undeniably funny, was, at its heart, a jazz-age conspiracy thriller, a theme completely ditched in place of a campus comedy. We can expect the potential cast to include Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Spence Fox, Sarah Vowell, Brad Bird, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn and Samuel L Jackson.

If this seems too far away, you can catch plenty of Pixar in the coming years. 2015 will see The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter’s Inside Out followed by Andrew Stanton’s Finding Dory in 2016.

The Incredibles 2 – 2017?

The Good Dinosaur – December 6th 2015

Inside Out – July 31st 2015

Finding Dory – July 19th 2016

New posters for The Double, Foxx and Stone to make Martin Luther King and Michael Bay plans Telemark thriller

You may have read any of my previous blogs about The Double and so know a bit about this film. Richard Ayoade (the brilliantly comedic star of The IT Crowd and director of the 2011 hit Submarine) directs this film which has some major faces of Hollywood in it; Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me, The Social Network, 30 Minutes or Less), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Stoker, The Kids Are All Right), Chris O’Dowd (Friends With Kids, Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, Bridesmaids), Wallace Shawn (Toy Story, The Princess Bride), Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum, Cinderella Man), Noah Taylor (Vanilla Sky, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Yasmin Paige (Ballet Shoes) and Craig Roberts (Submarine, Jane Eyre) are all set to star!

The story sees Eisenberg’s character Simon as he looses his grasp on his life when his doppleganger (Eisenberg again) turns up and starts stealing everything and everyone he loves. Both Eisenberg and Wasikowska feature in these new character posters from Empire which you can enjoy be clicking next to cycle through.

Jamie Foxx (Oscar winner for Ray as well as being loved for Collateral, Django Unchained and Law Abiding Citizen) recently starred as the President in the recent action thriller White House Down. After that, he’s got a voice credit in the upcoming comedy animation Rio 2 (April 4th 2014) before he’s off to terrify Marvel fans as Electro in The Amazing Spiderman 2 (April 18th 2014) and then give us something to smile about in comedy Annie (December 19th 2014). His next potential role is in a Martin Luther King biopic though.

Oliver Stone (3 time Oscar winner of Platoon, JFK, Any Given Sunday and Wall Street fame) is set to direct the production which Paul Greengrass and Lee Daniels were linked to before. Dreamworks, who got the rights back in 2009, are going to produce the project. Screenwriter Kario Salem will be rewriting a draft script originally written by Ronald Harwood (known for smash hits like The Pianist and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and the successful Quartet and Australia).

We move on to Michael Bay, director of the Transformers trilogy, Armageddon, Pearl Harbour and many others, and his possible next project called Sabotage: A Genius Scientist, His Band of Young Commandos and the Mission to Kill Hitler’s Super Bomb. It’s nothing to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Olivia Williams and Terrence Howard’s crime thriller of name Sabotage but it tells a story similar to Anthony Mann’s 1965 thriller The Heroes of Telemark (however based upon the yet unreleased novel by Neal Bascomb) and sees a team of heroes going into 1940s Germany and destroying Hitler’s secret weapon.

The Double – October 12th at the London Film Festival

Martin Luther King – 2016?

Sabotage: A Genius Scientist, His Band of Young Commandos and the Mission to Kill Hitler’s Super Bomb – 2016 or 2017?

Richard Ayoade directs Jesse Eisenberg in The Double trailer

Sorry that today’s post isn’t massively long but, after beginning on my next feature The Autumn 2013 TV Preview with Doctor Who 50th Anniversary and 8th series, Cumberbatch and Freeman returning for Sherlock series 3, The Big Bang Theory season 7, How I Met Your Mother 8, Freddie Highmore in Bates Motel, Karl Urban in Almost Human, Joss Whedon’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, The Michael J Fox Show, Game of Thrones 4 and many more, I realised that that project may need a but more time than I had today.

Even though nobody can pronounce his name, the London born Richard Ayoade is an undeniable, BAFTA nominated, acting, writing and directing talent. He’ll be known best, for some, for acting alongside Chris O’Dowd in comedy series The IT Crowd and Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill sc-fi comedy The Watch as well as directing the successful British teen rom-com Submarine with Paddy Considine. His first follow-up to Submarine is The Double.

Here’s the film’s trailer. The comedy stars Oscar nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Now You See Me, Zombieland) playing Simon who’s happy life takes a horrific turn when his doppleganger, James (Eisenberg again), turns up. Mia Wasikowska (Stoker, Alice in Wonderland), Wallace Shawn (Toy Story, The Princess Bride), James Fox (Sherlock Holmes, Patriot Games) and Submarine star Noah Taylor and Yasmin Paige.

It’s certainly going to be a bit more grim and less whimsical than Submarine, despite IMDB clearly listing it as a comedy. Hopefully this’ll confirm Ayoade as one of the most promising British triple threats (writer, director, actor) of the moment.

The Double is on now at the Toronto Film Festival, Canada, and will be commercially available soon

The Tuorhoth Autumn 2013 preview will be available here on Tuorhoth Movies later this week.