'Doctor Who' & 'Star Wars:' The Rumor Parade

Much like the latest Star Wars rumors (see below), Doctor Who continues to abound with them of what will be involved in the back eight of season seven. As the series begins work on the final episode of the season –wrapping sometime in the middle of December- there is plenty of rumors that the second half of the season will resemble the first half, with those eight episodes being just as “cinematic” as the previous six. While none of the episode titles have been “officially” confirmed, the list currently (maybe) looks like this –note I will call these working titles, because they do have a tendency to change by air date. 

Christmas Episode: The Snowmen

Episode 6: The Bells of St. John

Episode 7: The Rings of Akhaten

Episode 8: currently unknown

Episode 9: Phantoms of the Hex

Episode 10: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

Episode 11: The Crimson Horror

Episode 12: The Last Cyberman

Episode 13: currently unknown

As for plots, well they’re even harder to come by than episode titles. As for whom the new companion, Clara Oswin, is and how she fits into the Oswin Oswald character we saw in the season opener, is all over the place when it comes to theories. The production people keep claiming they are two different people, which seems logical, but there has to be some connection if only because show runner Steven Moffat does these things for a reason, even if the fans are unclear on exactly what that is. 

By location pictures by fans, we know the Doctor is spending some time in Earth’s past, the Christmas episode and the 6^th seem to be spent in the 19^th Century, as well –it appears- episode 9 and 11 (and mostly because that story features the third appearance of Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny and Dan Starky as Strax after last year’s A Good Man Goes to War and the Christmas episode, The Snowmen). Rumors persist that the long thought return of the classic villains the Ice Warriors will happen in untitled episode 8. We know that the Cybermen return in episode 12, mostly because location footage has shown the upgraded look for that Neil Gaiman penned episode, and of course, the author leaving the script in a taxi only to be found and returned to him. Expectations are that Alex Kingston will be back as River Song, most likely for the season finale, as she was recently seen in Cardiff. Though, I admit, that’s pure speculation as production on episode 12 and 13 overlapped each other, and Kingston has a very busy schedule outside of Doctor Who so she could be in the Cybermen story. But, I’m guessing she’s in the finale. 

As for the rest of 2013 and how the 50^th anniversary plays out is still unknown as well. It’s almost positive that David Tennant will be back as the 10^th Doctor, based mostly on interviews with him, as he seems not to be able to contain himself. He knows something, essentially, and is bursting to say what it is, but knows he can’t. As for the other surviving actors who played the Doctor, there seems to be less of chance anyone else will be back. While that could be subterfuge by them (Peter Davidson is inclined to return as well as Tom Baker, but Colin Baker seems convinced he’ll not be back), unless money becomes an issue, I don’t see why anyone the others (with the exception of Christopher Eccelston) will not be involved with the series fiftieth anniversary. 

Now onto Star Wars: Episode VII, VIII and IX. After Oscar winner Michael Arndt signed on to write episode VII, the jocking for who would helm them ramped up. But what we got was a bunch of directors saying NO, a list that includes Safety Not Guaranteed helmer Colin Trevorrow, Brad Bird, Ben Affleck, Sam Mendes, J.J. Abrams, Zack Snyder, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg.

I’m guessing, however, none of them would have actually been asked for various reasons. However, one name that does pop up is Joe Johnston. Like Kathleen Kennedy, Johnston has a long history with Star Wars, starting on the visual effects team for the first film in 1977 which he continued on through The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He’s segued into directing in 1989 with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and followed with The Rocketeer (both Disney films), Jumanji, October Sky, Jurassic Park III (produced by Kennedy), and Captain America: The First Avenger. He’s a capable, if not safe, director and his long association with George Lucas and Kennedy could give him the better chance of doing Episode VII. Also, Johnston has not played the deny game or said “no” to the idea when reporters asked about his potential involvement with the new trilogy. 

Now onto the latest rumor: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will be writing episodes VIII and IX, though the division of their responsibilities has yet to be determined. Kasdan is a well-respected writer, and he too has a history with Star Wars and George Lucas, adapting the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back (and still considered the best of the first three) and Return of the Jedi. He also wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark. As for Kinberg, he wrote the scripts for the Sherlock Holmes franchise as well X-Men: First Class and its upcoming sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past. Both writers will also serve as producers on those entries as well.

Again, Disney is saying nothing about this latest news. So take it with the grain it is offered as.

Two 'Bond' writers depart; 'Young Sherlock' to be rebooted; new 'Hyde' gets a writer

They wrote the last five James Bond films, and with three of the five being critical and box-office successes –so not bad statistically-, writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have announced they are departing the long running franchise. This does not come as a surprise though, if only because it was confirmed a few weeks ago that John Logan –who co-wrote the latest Bond flick Skyfall with the writer’s- was verified as the screenwriter for Bond 24, which should bow in 2014. There was also a rumor that Logan will also handle the writing duties for Bond 25. And while other reports indicate Logan worked out a two-part adventure for those next films, no one will confirm that at Eon Productions or the two studios that finance the series now, MGM and Columbia Pictures. While the Bond films have been more or less stand-alone (while both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace share some the same story arcs, they can stand by themselves as two different films), the rebirth of the franchise since Daniel Craig took over could give the production a chance to take even more risks. Plus, with the success two-part adaptations of Harry Potter, The Twilight series and the upcoming Hunger Games series, not to mention The Lord of the Rings, fans have shown a willingness to allow films to expand their plot lines. While Bond may not be the best franchise to allow this, none the less, the film series could work out a story-arc that covers Craig’s final two films in his contract. The idea, at least for me, is intriguing.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, through FilmDistrict and Alliance Films, have announced an August 30, 2013 release date for Insidious 2. Director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell will reteam for the 2011 sequel, while Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Ty Simpkins will also be back to reprise their roles.

Nearly Twenty-eight years after its initial release and with the success of BBC’s Sherlock, CBS’ Elementary and Warner Bros. movie franchise starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, it’s not surprising that Paramount wants to mount a remake of Young Sherlock Holmes in hopes of finding the younger demographic. The Barry Levinson directed film was written originally by Chris Columbus, who will serve as producer on this remake (Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall were the Executive Producers then). The 1985 film followed Sherlock Holmes and John Watson as they meet as teenagers in England, and embark on a series of sleuthing adventures. That film was noted for one of the first motion pictures to use CGI –a segment that featured a photorealistic animated knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. While not a perfect film, it none the less was an entertaining movie that was originally planned as series, but so-so reviews and poor box-office returns killed any plans to expand it into a franchise. 

Screenwriter Albert Torres will adapt the Cole Haddon’s The Strange Case of Hyde for at Dark Horse Entertainment, Skydance Productions and the Mark Gordon Company. The 2011 graphic novel is a sort of sequel to Robert Lois Stevenson’s classic novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and is set some five years after the events of Stevenson’s story with Dr. Jekyll in prison and allegedly rehabilitated. But when a new horror begins stalking and murdering prostitutes, Inspector Thomas Adye of Scotland Yard realizes someone is using the same formula that brought forth Hyde, but it appears to be more improved. Thus Adye reluctantly needs the help of Dr. Jekyll, who appears not be completely cured of his Hyde curse as some thought.

Networks pull plugs, FX renews 'Horror', Casting on Starz, Sony announces 'Popeye' & 'Transylvania 2' and then 'Pinocchio'

CBS has pulled the plug on low-rated sitcom Partners, while ABC cancels freshman drama's 666 Park Avenue and Last Resort. While Partners was pulled, both ABC shows will air all 13 of their original episode order before vanishing to possible popularity on Hulu or Netflix.

FX’s anthology series American Horror Story has been renewed for a third season of bat-shit cray-cray. Actress Jessica Lange, who has found a whole new generation of fans thanks to her Emmy and Golden Globe winning role on the series, will return as well.

Two video games are heading to the big screen, as CBS Films will bring Deus Ex: Human Revolution, while Warner Bros. is looking to sign Tom Hardy to star in their version of Splinter Cell, which was created with the help of Tom Clancy and has spawned several successful tie-in novels. 

Casting continues on Starz’s new eight-episode pirate series Black Sails, that is a prequel series set about 20 years before the events of Robert Louis Stevensons classic high seas adventure novel, Treasure Island. Zach McGowan, Luke Arnold and Jessica Parker Kennedy (the CW’s The Secret Circle) are recent adds. McGowan will play Captain Charles Vane, a rival to the feared buccaneer Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), whose exploits serve as the focal point of the series.  Arnold will take on the role of the iconic seafarer John Silver in the years before his well-known feats. Meanwhile, Kennedy is cast as Max, a tortured young prostitute. Additional cast members include Hakeem Kae Kazim (Hotel Rwanda), Toby Schmitz (The Pacific) and Clara Paget (The Fast and The Furious 6). Production begins this fall in Cape Town, South Africa and is expected to debut on the premium cable net in early 2014.

Voice actress Lucille Bliss, who brought Smurfette to life in the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, The Smurfs, died November 8, 2012 at the age of 96 of natural causes. Animation historian Charles Solomon told the Los Angeles Times that, "She was a pioneer in television animation." In the 1950’s, she was the voice of the popular Crusader Rabbit and was Sunflower and Turnip in Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. In the 60’s she lent her voice for Elroy Jetson on The Jestons and Bamm Bamm Rubble on The Flintstones. She also provided voice work for modern audiences, including Mrs. Bitters on Invader Zim and as Yagoda on 2 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Sony Animation has scheduled September 26, 2014 for an updated 3D Popeye movie from director Genndy Tartakovsky and The Smurfs writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn. Tartakovsky has also signed on to helm Hotel Transylvania 2, slotted for September 25, 2015. I’m guessing the voice actors have options for a sequel, but Sony would not confirm if anyone of them would be back.

Warner Bros has brought in Jane Goldman to rework Bryan Fuller’s original updated script for a live action version of Pinocchio to star Robert Downey, Jr. and be helmed by Tim Burton. While neither actor nor director is confirmed for the project, there is hope that Goldman’s rewrite will land both of them. The new take on the classic story would find Downey Jr. playing Geppetto, the woodcarver responsible for creating the puppet boy Pinocchio who comes to life.  When Pinocchio goes missing, Geppetto must embark on a quest to bring him back.  This is one of three Pinocchio-centered projects in development at the moment, including a stop-motion animated take from Guillermo del Toro and 20th Century Fox’s The Three Misfortunes of Geppetto.

 

Doctor Who Christmas Special: The Snowmen

'Big Thunder Mountain' at ABC; More 'S.H,I.E.L.D.' casting; McQuarrie set to helm 'M:I 5?"

Now that everyone seems giddy at the prospect of the Lucasfilm deal at Disney and, perhaps, a better new Star Wars movie series, the studio is going back to the their theme parks in hopes of exploiting another franchise from one of their rides. This time, they’ve hired Ice Age: Continental Drift writer Jason Fuchs and The Fast & the Furious producer Chris Morgan to bring us a TV series based on Big Thunder Mountain for ABC. While Pirates of the Caribbean has been an over bloated success, and The Country Bears had minor success, the taste left by Eddie Murphy’s turn in The Haunted Mansion remain (though a reboot –of course- is in development).  Not sure how they’ll translate this ride in a series, as the concept of it is: sometime in the late 1800s, gold was discovered on Big Thunder Mountain in the American southwest. Overnight, the small mining town became a thriving area, but the mountain was cursed. Following a natural disaster, the settlers are forced to leave the town, but the train still runs on its own, without an engineer or a crew. 

For many fans of the Whedonverse, when ABC announced their S.H.E.I.L.D. TV series, there was some hope actors who populate the many Joss Whedon created TV series would end up being cast in this show. Sadly, as of now, only Clark Gregg appears to one. Last month word came that for ER actor Ming-Na was cast as Agent Melinda May; new castings include British actors Elizabeth Henstridge (Hollyoaks) and Iain De Caestecker (The Fades). Henstridge will play science whiz Agent Gemma Simmons, while De Caestecker will play Agent Leo Fitz, a technology guru. The duo spend all their time together -mostly bickering- and are masters of their respective fields at a remarkably young age.

Paramount, eager to continue the Mission: Impossible franchise on the heels of the successful fourth film in the series Ghost Protocol, is close to signing Christopher McQuarrie to helm a fifth film. McQuarrie has Jack Reacher (and adaptation of the Lee Child novel, One Shot) coming out soon with Tom Cruise, and apparently Paramount is happy with the project. The Oscar winner for scripting The Usual Suspects seems to have a great working relationship with the studio and Cruise. He succeeded with the actor on Valkyrie, Ghost Protocol, the upcoming All You Need is Kill and the proposed Top Gun 2 –which remains in limbo and most likely will be scrapped due to the death of Tony Scott- so a continued collaboration is exactly what Paramount likes. McQuarrie is also writing and directing Without Remorse for the studio, which is based on the Tom Clancy title.

The third season of HBO’s award winning Game of Thrones will begin on March 31. Meanwhile, the Canadian time travel series Continuum (starring Judas Kiss actor Richard Harmon) will debut on the Syfy Channel on January 14, the same night the third season of Being Human launches.

Singer to helm 'Days'; TV pick-ups; Gaiman brings back 'The Cybermen'

After Matthew Vaughn dropped out of X Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to X Men: First Class, 20th Century Fox has confirmed that Bryan Singer will return to helm the movie. Singer, who directed the first two films in the franchise, has remained with it during the tears of X Men III and Wolverine films, showing up as a producer or executive producer. He also was part of the Team of Writers that hashed out the First Class script. When I reported this a few weeks ago, I felt that Fox was not going to bump the production, schedule to go before the cameras in January and miss the July 18, 2014 release date, due to Vaughn’s abrupt departure. So with Singer’s long involvement with the franchise, it was no surprise that he was announced as his replacement.

George Clooney is circling Disney’s 1952, a film to he helmed by Brad Bird.  The plot, with a screenplay by Damon Lindelof, is being kept under wraps, but the picture is said to center on the journey of a middle-aged man and his contact with alien life. Shades of Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well.

Syfy has picked up Haven for a fourth season and The CW has given their Beauty and the Beast TV series redo a full season pick-up as well. ABC has given the back nine order to The Neighbors, which has turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Mark Walhberg is confirmed for Transformers 4. Oh boy.

Jamie Foxx may be playing Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Also a maybe is J.K. Simmons returning as J. Jonah Jameson, though even director Marc Webb denies it. Somewhat.”That’s an interesting idea. My mom is from Montana … I used to see him on stage [there]. I’ve never met him, but I think … it’s tricky, because it’s a different universe. But, you never know.”

After writer Neil Gaiman left his script for the penultimate episode of season seven of Doctor Who in a taxi and a fan found it and returned it to him unread, the BBC confirmed the episode deals with the Cybermen. While this had been rumored for a while, the person who found the script did take a picture of the title page, which had the title to be The Last Cyberman. The script title page also confirmed the new companions name is Clara and that veteran actor Warwick Davis will guest star in the episode. Also, the cybernetic bad guys will go through another update in looks, with the image above showing the five versions seen since they made their first appearance in 1966 to 2011.With the one on the right showing the 2013 version.

More 'Star Wars' news as Disney hires Oscar winning writer Arndt

That was fast.

I guessed, assumed, or just thought that it would be a few months before a writer or director would be announced for Star Wars: Episode VII. But Disney is not wasting time on their $4 billion investment and have hired Academy Award winning script writer Michael Arndt to adapt George Lucas’ story idea into a working screenplay; Arndt won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine and got another nomination for Toy Story 3. He's also penned Hunger Games: Catching Fire which is near completion, as well the up coming (2014) big screen adventure of Disney's Phineas and Ferb, and the screenplay for the currently unknown title of Pixars 2015 release. Rumors of his hiring started almost as soon as the hand-over, with word coming he had already a 50 page draft, based on Lucas’ idea. There is even a suggestion he’ll handle writing the entire trilogy, as Episode’s VIII and IX will be released two years apart from each other after the 2015 release date of Episode VII.

As for a director, that still in the air. However, word has come that some of the biggest directors are not interested in helming it, including Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Zack Snyder. Since Matthew Vaughn dropped out of the X Men film rather abruptly, rumors began circulating he’ll be offered the chair. But Vaughn is a notoriously choosy director, also fairly independent, and Lucas is a total micro-manager (even though he says his role will be minimum in the new trilogy) so I begin to wonder if he can handle being told to do something he knows that can creatively hurt a film. Still, Disney has been pretty determined and open about handing the reigns over to directors with little experience with huge budgets; they’ve succeed financially.

As for the out of left field announcement of this trilogy, it seems Lucas has been working on for a while, and actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford were told by Lucas well over a year ago that he was moving forward with Episode VII, VIII and IX. And since announcement, all three have made comments to the press -somewhat- that they might be interested in returning. Obviously, with prequel trilogy set some thirty years prior to the events of A New Hope, this new one will be set somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty or sixty years after the events of Return of the Jedi, thus making the actors only co-stars. Still, it would be nice to see them return at least one more time.

Meanwhile, since this announcement, some fans have wondered if they’ll ever see the original trilogy on DVD unaltered. But from what I’ve read, it seems unlikely. Still, while 20th Century Fox will forever own Star Wars: A New Hope, it has distribution rights to The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi through 2020. And now that Lucas has sold Lucasfilm to Disney, Fox could probably release that first film in its original format, but I see that as highly unlikely for a few reasons, mostly not to piss off Lucas. Retiring from mainstream film making does not mean Fox will want to anger Lucas by going around his wishes. To be honest, my feelings are we’ll never see those unaltered films until Lucas shuttles of this mortal coil. But, I hope I’m wrong about that. What might be more likely is Disney buying out Fox’s distribution contract on Empire and Jedi, but whatever happens, its going to a nightmare to try and sell the series in any form of boxed set from now on when you consider Fox will never sell A New Hope to Disney.

As for the money Lucas made, his intention is to donate most of it to education.