ABC mulls 'Once' spin-off; Smit-Mcphee scores 'Dawn' lead, Bay rehires Fox for 'Mutant'

Apparently “derivative material begets derivative material” as the saying goes as ABC is mulling a spin-off of their Sunday night hit Once Upon a Time. This one would focus on the Mad Hatter character, which has already appeared a half-dozen times on the series played by actor Sebastian Stan. The only problem is Stan is not available for a series commitment, as he’s currently in the play Picnic which then segues into working on Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This would mean, obviously, a recast. The problem I foresee is that viewers who enjoy Stan in the role as the Mad Hatter and maybe follow him if ABC did a spin-off would probably be a bit reluctant to watch it if Stan is not playing him.

The very busy 16 year-old Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee (ParaNorman, The Road), who starred in Matt Reeves Let Me In, has scored the lead in the Reeves helmed Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for Twentieth Century Fox. There is not much known about the sequels plot beyond that it’s set 15 years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes and involve “the group of human scientists who are struggling to survive alone in San Francisco.” Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jason Clark just joined the cast as well. Smit-McPhee has at least four films due out in the near future, including Ari Folman’s The Congress with Robin Wright, Paul Giamatti and Harvey Keitel, Michael J. Johnson’s The Wilderness Of James with Isabel Furman, Virginia Madsen, and Evan Ross; and has the lead role in A Birder’s Guide To Everything opposite Iron Man 3‘s Ben Kingsley. He’ll also appear as Benvolio in Carlo Carlei’s version of Romeo & Juliet (adapted by Downton Abbey‘s Julian Fellowes) with Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Ed Westwick, and Paul Giamatti.

The supposed feud between Transformers actress Megan Fox, who once said his persona was close to Hitler, and the man who dumped her from the franchise, director Michael Bay, seems to have been mended as Bay has tapped her for the role of April O’Neil in Paramount Pictures reboot of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Jonathan Liebsman is still directing the film, despite Paramount delaying then film due to script issues. The hiring of Fox indicates the film could be close to finally going before the cameras.