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This is the first of a new weekly feature here, the Movie News Roundup, bringing you the latest and greatest news and announcements from film and TV in the past week – all ready for you to peruse every Sunday afternoon.
Here’s the goings on from the film world from the past 7 days:
The Harvey Weinstein Scandal Continues To Escalate
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks, you will be aware of the storm surrounding Harvey Weinstein, one of Hollywood’s most prominent producers, and the decades of sexual assault, harassment and abuse allegations being made against him from numerous women across the industry.
The story was first broke in an article from the New York Times that Weinstein had been paying off sexual assault accusers for years, and since then countless women, including extremely high profile ones such as Angelina Jolie and Cara Delevingne, have come forward to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse from Weinstein too.
Despite apologising for some allegations made towards him, Weinstein still denies others. He has since been removed from the board of the production company he cofounded and expelled from the Motion Picture Academy (that hands out Oscars).
It’s clear this story won’t be slowing down any time soon. Symbolic of historic misogyny within Hollywood (which is no doubt the case in many other industries), we hope this will be the start of change when it comes to treatment of women and the accountability of men in power.
Sylvester Stallone to direct Creed 2
After the critical acclaim and success of Creed, it’s no surprise a sequel will be hitting screens. Whereas the initial revival of the Rocky series was pioneered by Ryan Coogler, the directorial mantle is being handed to the man himself, Sylvester Stallone.
Sly is expected to be producing, writing, appearing and directing the film – so whilst he has directorial experience, many are worried the magic of the first film could be lost.
Good news however in that Michael B. Jordan is returning as Adonis Johnson, and it’s thought the film will see him pitched against the son of Ivan Drago, Dolph Lundgren‘s character from the original franchise.
Creed 2 will start shooting next year.
Settlers of Catan coming to the big screen
Based on the recent adaptation of World of Warcraft, it’s still unclear whether our favourite strategy games make good movies – but Gail Katz and Dan Lin disagree. They’re teaming up to bring Settlers of Catan to the big screen, with Blaise Hemingway being the first to attempt a script.
The concept of the game is that players represent settlers establishing colonies, and they use resources to build settlements, cities and roads. Not the most thrilling plot for a film at first glance, but we’ll wait and see what they do with it…
‘Beetlejuice’ sequel has a new writer
The potential for a Beetlejuice sequel has been in the air for a while now, but seems to have become a little more concrete with the appointment of a new scriptwriter, Mike Vukadinovich. He’ll be taking over from Seth Grahame-Smith, who was putting a screenplay together, but for now will still be just producing the film alongside David Katzenberg. Things are moving along for Tim Burton‘s classic, but keep the black and white striped trews in the wardrobe for now.
‘Gambit’ gets a February 2019 release date
X-Men fans may be pleased to know that 20th Century Fox have now assigned a February 2019 release date for Gambit, which will star Channing Tatum as Remy Lebeau, a smooth talking mutant that we met briefly in X-Men Origins: Wolverine back in 2009 where he was originally played by Taylor Kitsch. Gore Verbinski is set to direct and Josh Zetumer to write, and we think the planned date means they’re hoping to mimic the success of last year’s Deadpool.
Conrad Vernon directing animated Addams Family
The creepy, kooky bunch we love to click along to are set to return with a new animated spin, and it’s been announced this week it will be in the hands of Conrad Vernon, director of Sausage Party. It will include all the usual characters, but story details are yet to be known.
Stephen King’s ‘The Talisman’ to be adapted by Josh Boone
There seems to be a speight of Stephen King hitting our screens recently, with It going down a storm and Gerald’s Game just being released on Netflix too. The latest news for King fans is that Josh Boone, director of The Fault in Our Stars and The New Mutants (which shared it’s first trailer this week) is set to adapt the 1984 bestseller The Talisman.
The story follows a young man travelling to care for his ill mother, who discovers an alternate universe on the way. If recent King adaptations are anything to go by, it should be a winner.
That’s it for this week folks! Tune back in next Sunday for the latest movie news.
