How’s it hanging movie fans? We can’t get away with saying that, can we….?
Here’s the latest news from the past week or so in film and TV – with the exception of the biggest thing that left movieland shooketh this week, the Avengers: Infinity War trailer. We did a whole separate news item on that here, and it’s since become the most watch trailer of all time. Click here to see it again!
James Cameron reveals details about Avatar sequels
The news broke a fair while ago now that director James Cameron had big plans for the future of Avatar – plans that consisted of 4 (yes, 4) sequels spanning over the next few years, with Avatar 2 due to hit screens in 2020.
The film world was, let’s say, dubious about this.
While Cameron’s ability to pull it off can’t be doubted – the first Avatar was one of the highest grossing films of all time after all – the idea of scheduling 4 sequels without knowing the success of the first ones does seem a bit premature.
And so, in an interview with Vanity Fair this week, Cameron confirmed that the sequels aren’t set in stone.
He reportedly said “Let’s face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don’t make enough money, there’s not going to be a 4 and 5,”
“They’re fully encapsulated stories in and of themselves. It builds across the five films to a greater kind of meta narrative, but they’re fully formed films in their own right, unlike, say, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, where you really just had to sort of go, “Oh, shit, all right, well I guess I better come back next year.” Even though that all worked and everybody did.”
Of course Cameron hopes for all 4 sequels to work, but we’ll have to wait and see. It’s been 8 years now since we last visited Pandora – a gap long enough for excitement for the world to perhaps dissipate – but we look forward to finding out what Jake Sully has been up to since.
Steven Knight & Tom Hardy to adapt A Christmas Carol for the BBC
The Radio Times shared this week that Steven Knight, the writer behind Peaky Blinders and Taboo, is set to team up with Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott‘s production team once again to bring Charles Dickens‘ classic A Christmas Carol to the small screen.
A three-part adaptation will air in Christmas 2019 on BBC 1, and it’s thought more of Dickens’ work could be in the pipeline too.
Judging by Knight’s past work (and collaborations with Tom Hardy), this will be a fairly dark spin on the tale – so, mark your diaries for two years’ time.
Disney casts Liu Yifei as their live-action Mulan
After the success of Cinderella and Beauty And The Beast, Disney plan to continue their remakes of their classics in live action – and Mulan is one of the next on the list.
There has reportedly been a year long search for the right actress to play the lead, with the filmmakers travelling the world and seeing over 1000 actresses to find their Mulan – and now they have her.
Liu Yifei was born in the Wuhan, Hubei province of China, and has previously starred in TV’s Once Upon A Time and 2012’s The Assassins.
Disney quite rightly wanted to cast a Chinese actress (which is very welcome after numerous recent examples of ‘whitewashing’ in Hollywood), and Liu appears to be the perfect fit.
Niki Caro is directing, and Mulan aims to be on screens in 2019.
Stranger Things and Mindhunter confirm new seasons
This week, in the category of ‘news that surprises literally noone’, Netflix confirmed that everyone’s favourite bit of sci-fi nostalgia, Stranger Things, will be back for a third season.
Given the cultural phenomenon that the series has produced, not to mention the stars it’s made of its young cast, this was very much expected – and whilst we’re ridiculously excited to see where it goes next, we’re hoping for something fresh in the third season. We just posted our review of Stranger Things 2 earlier this week, which you can read by clicking here.
Also, in the category of ‘news that we saw coming a mile off’ – psychological cop drama Mindhunter has been renewed too. Given that Netflix pretty much always greenlights a second go for new shows, and the success the series has seen with audiences and critics alike, this was a welcome announcement. You can read our review of Mindhunter‘s first season here.
Have a great week guys, see you back here soon.
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