Hugh Jackman is still ruling out a return as Wolverine. Sony dates not one, but two movies in its Spider-Verse. Peter Weller will apparently not appear in Neil Blomkamp’s new Robocop. Plus, a sneaky look at Nightflyers, wild rumours about Doctor Who‘s future, and yes, Lin Manuel Miranda will rap in Mary Poppins Return. Spoilers, away!
Toy Story 4
Tim Allen revealed Keanu Reeves voices one of the film’s new characters during a recent interview on The Tonight Show.
New guys in it that are great. Keanu Reeves has got a great part. Actually, little inside story, even he said (gentle, wonderful guy that he is) ‘This sounds too much like Buzz Lightyear.’ And his character does have an edge to that.
xXx 4
Deadline reports Jay Chou (Green Hornet) and Chinese actress Zoe Zhang have joined the cast of the fourth xXx movie in undisclosed roles.
RoboCop Returns
According to Super Bro Movies, Peter Weller will not be reprising his role as Alex Murphy/RoboCop in Neil Blomkamp’s direct sequel to the 1987 original.
Cats
THR has word singer/songwriter Jason Derulo will make his feature film debut in Cats as the “rebellious and never satisfied” Rum Tum Tugger.
Wolverine vs Deadpool
Speaking with People, Hugh Jackman once again reiterated he’s not interested in making a Deadpool crossover movie.
Ryan is relentless. He keeps coming back to me in all these ways, shapes and forms, I just said, ‘You know, I just don’t think the world really wants to see Deadpool with Wolverine.’ Maybe a cameo from Deadpool? I just think it runs over it for Deadpool.
Mary Poppins Returns
Speaking with Screen Rant, producer Marc Platt confirmed Lin-Manuel Miranda will indeed rap in Mary Poppins Returns.
Wonderful song and dance man, wonderful actor, which is what he’s doing in this film. And he inhabits the role of Jack and creates a wholly original character, playing this leerie. And he gets to do all the things that you want to see Lin do. He gets to be charismatic. He gets to bring light into the world. He sings. He dances. And, believe it or not, 1934 music hall style he even gets to do a little rap. It’s quite extraordinary.
Sony’s Spider-Verse
According to Variety’s Justin Kroll, two more Spider-Man spinoff films are scheduled for 2020, before speculating that they could be the now-in-production Morbius and a Venom sequel.
Sony dates two untitled Marvel-Spidey spin-offs. First is a non-sequel opening July 10, 2020, second is a sequel opening Oct. 2, 2020. My guesses are MORBIUS for July date and Venom sequel for October. story coming shortly
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) November 21, 2018
Machete Kills in Space
Danny Trejo gave an update on Machete Kills in Space in a recent interview with Popcorn Talk.
Machete Kills in Space, yeah, uh, Robert’s, Robert’s doing, you know, working on, working on it, it’s gonna be, when that comes out, it’s gonna just be, just unbelievably crazy… I would say that, uh, Robert has his own timetable for doing stuff. I know he’s working on a big movie right now [Alita: Battle Angel].
The Twilight Zone
That Hashtag Show reports Jacob Tremblay and Riz Ahmed are currently in talks to star in the third episode of the new Twilight Zone, a story tentatively “Kid President”. Tremblay would play the episode’s titular character with Ahmed as his campaign manager.
Doctor Who
A new rumour from the British sci-fi magazine Starburst indicates both Jodie Whittaker and showrunner Chris Chibnall are planning to leave Doctor Who in 2019. According to the report, Chibnall is “not happy with the way the show has been run behind-the-scenes” and feels delivering ten brand-new hours of Doctor Who each year to be “unsustainable”. [Comic Book]
Meanwhile in other wild rumours, Outpost Skaro reports the Chibnall-helmed 12th season will have a dramatically reduced episode count, “with 5 or 6 episodes being likely along with a Christmas Special.”
In related news, TV Line has three new images from this week’s episode, “The Witchunters” just in case you haven’t seen it already.
Into the Dark
Spoiler TV has both images and an official synopsis for Nacho Vigalondo’s Christmas episode of Into the Dark, “Pooka!” More at the link.
A struggling actor gets a holiday season job as a Christmas character in a plush suit to promote the hottest toy of the year, “Pooka.” At first it’s a fun and friendly distraction, but he slowly develops two personalities — one when he’s in the suit, and one that’s outside it — as Pooka slowly starts to take possession of him.
This unconventional monster movie is directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, the visionary behind the acclaimed 2016 Kaiju film Colossal.
Nightflyers
Finally, Syfy has uploaded the first five minutes of the Nightflyers pilot to Youtube.
Banner art by Jim Cooke.