Jason Blum confirms he’s working on a new version of The Thing. Rebecca Ferguson discusses not understanding Dune. Woody Harrelson teases his role in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Marvel and Hulu have a pretty peculiar plan for their MODOK animated series. Plus, what’s to come on the CW’s showing of Swamp Thing. To me, my spoilers!
M3GAN
Deadline reports Allison Williams will star in M3GAN, an upcoming sci-fi/horror film at Blumhouse from Akela Cooper and James Wan that sounds an awful lot like the recent Child’s Play remake. Williams is said to play Gemma, “a brilliant roboticist at a toy company. She uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a life-like doll programmed to be a kid’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. After unexpectedly gaining custody of her orphaned niece, Gemma enlists the help of the M3GAN prototype – a decision that has unimaginable consequences.” Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) is attached to direct.
Monsters of California
Richard Kind, Casper Van Dien, Arianne Zucker, Gabrielle Haugh, Camille Kostek, Jack Samson, Jared Scott, and Jack Lancaster are attached to star in Monsters of California, a “coming-of-age sci-fi film” from Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge that sounds an awful lot like Stranger Things. The story is said to follow “teenager Dallas Edwards (Samson) and his derelict friends on a quest for the meaning behind a series of mysterious, paranormal events in Southern California. The truths they uncover begin to unravel extraordinary secrets held tightly within the deepest levels of the Government.” In addition to directing the project, DeLonge is “also set to write and perform original music for the score of the movie.” [Deadline]
Distant
Game of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju has joined Naomi Scott and Anthony Ramos in the cast of Distant, Amblin’s upcoming sci-fi/romance which sounds an awful lot like Passengers: the story concerns a marooned asteroid miner struggling to survive on an alien planet with only a woman trapped in her escape pod for company. [Deadline]
Don’t Worry Darling
Deadline also reports KiKi Layne and Gemma Chan have joined the cast of Olivia Wilde’s mysterious Don’t Worry Darling “set in an isolated, utopian community in the 1950s California desert.”
The Thing
Jason Blum re-confirmed he’s developing a remake of John Carpenter’s The Thing at Blumhouse in a recent interview with the Radio Times.
We’re working on it. [I have] no details to share, but we’re working on it.
Alien XMas
The Chiodo Bros. 40-minute, stop-motion Christmas special adapting their 2015 children’s book, Alien XMas, is scheduled to premiere on Netflix this November 20. [Bloody-Disgusting]
Thor: Love and Thunder
Natalie Portman stays mum about what to expect out of her turn as the Goddess of Thunder in a new interview with Yahoo:
I can’t tell you that much. I’m really excited. I’m starting to train, to get muscles. If there can be all these female superheroes, the more of them they are, the better it is. I’m trying to think — it’s based on the graphic novel of the Mighty Thor. She’s going through cancer treatment and is a superhero on the side.
Jurassic World: Dominion
Amidst ongoing covid-19 concerns, production on Jurassic World: Dominion has paused again, this time for the next two weeks.
Woke up to the news we had a few positive Coronavirus tests on Jurassic World: Dominion. All tested negative shortly after, but due to our safety protocols we’re going to pause for two weeks. Back soon. pic.twitter.com/DxuqX9UdgX
— Colin Trevorrow (@colintrevorrow) October 7, 2020
The Addams Family 2
A sequel to last year’s animated Addams Family movie is now scheduled for a Halloween 2021 release date. [Bloody-Disgusting]
Dune
In conversation with Empire (via Winter is Coming), Rebecca Ferguson revealed she spent hours online researching Frank Herbert’s Dune after finding the original novel impenetrable.
I found it so complex and difficult, I didn’t finish it,” she told Empire. “It was like doing a crossword puzzle: ‘What’s in the middle of a stone?’ and I’m going, ‘I don’t know — a hard f***ing material?’ and then it’s like the letters in the middle of the word. My mindset was not there.
I do a lot of research on fan pages…I link that together to what Denis and I do with what my thoughts are on the character from the page and what I got from the book. I do a big mixture of it all because I love finding the secrets within characters. I love giving you something new and different.
Ferguson also reached out to director Denis Villeneuve and co-star Oscar Issac to better understand the material.
[They’re like] Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I eventually sat down with Denis and said, ‘I don’t get the book. Can you please explain it to me as if I’m a child?’
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
In another interview with Empire (via Winter is Coming), Woody Harrelson discussed his involvement in Ruben Fleischer’s Venom and Andy Serkis’s upcoming sequel, Let There Be Carnage.
There were a lot of concepts and iterations. There were a lot of people involved [in that wig].
I really believed in [director Ruben Fleischer]. I never did anything that where I hadn’t seen a script. Just rolling the dice. I hoped everything would work out. Even though Ruben didn’t direct, my good buddy Andy Serkis directed and made me feel so comfortable. It’s really cool that he came on.
I better not talk specifics. I’m happy I got to do it. I wish I could say I’ve seen it and know it’s great, but I’m pretty hopeful that it is great.
Parallel Minds
When the inventor of a device able to record memories is found murdered, her colleague teams with a police detective to investigate in the trailer for Parallel Minds.
MODOK
Games Radar reports Hulu will advertise upcoming Marvel comic books at the end of each episode of the upcoming MODOK animated series.
Swamp Thing
Finally, Jennifer Beals comes to Marais in the trailer for next week’s CW-airing of DC Universe’s, “World’s Apart.”
Banner art by Jim Cooke.