New Projects is a weekly round up of movies and TV shows recently announced and currently in development for the near future.
To be honest, I was a little skeptical of the news last week that Neill Blomkamp would be helming an Alien remake. Elysium was a bust, the jury is still out on Chappie, I personally think District 9 is a little overrated, and just how many Alien remakes, sequels, prequels, and video game spin-offs do we even need? But after speaking with EW, Blomkamp confirmed that Ripley is supposed to appear in his new movie, and that Sigourney Weaver, after working with him on Chappie, is on board to reprise her iconic role.
Over the years, I came up with a story for a film in that universe that I wanted to make. And then when I talked to her about her experience making those films and what she thought about Ripley and everything else, it informed and changed the film I wanted to make into something different.
It just sort of stuck with me. A year later, when post-production was winding down on Chappie, I started fleshing out the idea for a film that would contain Sigourney. Fox never knew. I just worked on it when I could. Before I knew it, I had this really awesome film with a lot of artwork and a lot of backstory. And then I didn’t know whether I was going to make it or not. So I just kind of sat on it for a while.
In some sense however, this suggests that Blomkamp will be throwing out the later sequels in his movie timeline and picking up directly where Aliens left off. Does this give you added hope in the project? Anyway, the concept art is at least pretty cool.
Losing the Oscar to Alejandro G. Inarritu doesn’t seem to have hurt Richard Linklater‘s market value in anyway, as THR reports he’s now in talks to adapt a best selling novel, Where’d You Go Bernadette, for Megan Ellison and Annapurna pictures. The script has been adapted by The Fault in Our Stars scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and it tells the story of an architect and mom who goes missing and the search for her as narrated by her teenage daughter. The book feels not unlike The Perks of Being a Wallflower, using emails, letters and other forms of communication to tell the narrative. Hopefully this would give Linklater the chance to experiment with form the way he did on Bernie.
Coming from the screenwriting duo behind Neighbors and the confirmed Neighbors 2, Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien is The House, starring Will Ferrell and distributed by New Line Cinema. Ferrell plays a man who teams up with his neighbors to start an illegal casino in the suburbs after recklessly losing his daughter’s college fund. Deadline confirms that Cohen will also step into the director’s chair for what will be his first feature.
Kids have it easy these days. In one week, they’re getting news that some of our generation’s favorite cartoons, including Inspector Gadget, Duck Tales and Danger Mouse, will all be rebooted. The new Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse will appear as part of Netflix‘s original programming lineup for kids, with Inspector Gadget available for streaming as early as next month. Danger Mouse won’t arrive until spring 2016 but will feature the voice talents of Stephen Fry. Variety also points out that the two shows are coming along with three other original kids shows planned up through 2016. Disney XD meanwhile will fight the streaming service with their own remake of Duck Tales, set to arrive in 2017, according to Collider. It’s doubtful the show will retain its original hand-drawn aesthetic, but with the complete cast of characters returning it’ll hopefully maintain its charm.
If all the above are a success, perhaps Disney and Netflix will, like Scrooge McDuck, be able to add to their swimming pile of gold and money.