News Of The Week: Kelly Marie Tran Nabs ‘Raya & The Last Dragon’ & New Haunted Mansion Movie

Hollywood was on temporary pause but productions are gearing back up, release dates continue to be tweaked in preparation for theaters reopening, and things are slowly starting to return to normal – or at least, our temporary new normal. Entertainment news has once again begun to drop with regularity. In case you missed it, here’s all the best news and tidbits from the last week.

Let’s hop to it.

Olivia Wilde Directing Spider-Woman Marvel Movie For Sony

As Sony continues to go all-in on its Marvel Spider-Man universe, an exciting new project has been announced. Olivia Wilde has been tapped to direct a female-led Marvel movie for the studio. Though it wasn’t confirmed what character it would be, multiple sources have said it’s a story about Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman. A previous script was written by Gary Spinnelli and Wilde will be co-writing the newest draft alongside Booksmart co-writer, Katie Silberman. Booksmart, Wilde’s directorial debut, didn’t fare well at the box office but was critically acclaimed and she has been sought for more directing projects since. How the Spider-Woman movie will fit into the larger Spider-Man universe Sony is building remains to be seen, but it’s one of the more intriguing Marvel projects in the pipeline.

Russell Crowe Says He Has Sharon Stone To Thank For His Career

While promoting his new movie, Unhinged, Russell Crowe shared that a surprising person is responsible for his breakthrough success in America: Sharon Stone. When she starred in Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead, she was also producer, and Crowe recalled how she fought for him to be cast: “[S]he was kind of in a sword fight with he male producers on the film,” he said. “She just put her foot down and said, ‘I’m going to hire the person I want to hire as the love interest.’” Crowe’s talent and on-screen presence were noted in that movie and his career exploded after that, leading him to roles like L.A. Confidential, Mystery, Alaska, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, nabbing his first Best Actor Oscar for Gladiator and being nominated again a year later for A Beautiful Mind.

Sony’s ‘Kraven The Hunter’ Marvel Movie Lands A Director: Is Sinister Six On The Way?

It’s been long speculated that the next Spider-Man villain to get his own movie treatment would be Kraven the Hunter. That was recently confirmed when Sony revealed it’s tapped a director for the project in J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier, A Most Violent Year). Considering Chandor’s resume, it looks like we can anticipate this being another R-rated movie from Sony, fitting for Kraven. Sergei Kravinoff, a.k.a. Kraven the Hunter, is one of Spider-Man’s longtime nemeses, a big-game hunter obsessed with killing Spider-Man in order to prove he’s the greatest hunter who ever lived. However, unlike most villains, Kraven operates with a genuine, if twisted, code of honor and treats his enemies, including Spider-Man, with his own kind of respect. It’s also been speculated that, due to the rugged shooting location of Iceland for part of Spider-Man: Homecoming 3, Kraven might appear in that movie, as well. Is it all leading to the Sinister Six? Signs point to yes.

Ridley Scott Just Added A Thousand A-Listers To Lady Gaga-Led ‘Gucci’

Ridley Scott is currently working on an interesting if un-Ridley Scott-like movie: MGM’s Gucci, which revolves around Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, the then-head of the Gucci fashion house. After being jilted for a younger woman, Reggiani hired a hitman to assassinate Gucci on the steps of his office. Gucci’s death and Reggiani’s trial were sensational, the biggest thing in Italy at the time, and full of all the fashion and scandal that one might expect. Lady Gaga, fittingly, had previously been cast to play Reggiani, but Scott recently added a slew of excellent actors to the cast, including Adam Driver, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney. This one is swinging for a few Oscar nominations for sure.

Hugh Jackman Just Confirmed His Faux Feud With Ryan Reynolds Is Alive And Well

In a fun bit of news, Hugh Jackman added more fuel to the gift that keeps on giving, also known as his fake feud with friend Ryan Reynolds. While stopping by The Jess Cagle Show to talk about his Emmy-nominated work in HBO’s Bad Education, talk eventually turned to Reynolds and things got silly. When asked what he’d get Reynolds for his birthday, Jackman’s answer showed he has no plans to stop trolling his friend any time soon:

“The first thing that came to mind was a game we used to play as kids, did you ever play that game, we used to call it Ring and Run. Where you go knock on someone’s door and run away,” Jackman explained. “What’s that called here?…. Ding Dong Ditch. So of course my older brother took it to the next level and when you came to open the door there was a package that was on fire. The package was filled with various amounts of dog poo from the neighborhood. So you would stamp it out. That’s the first thing that came to mind. Something like that, Ding Dong Ditch. Just for fun.”

Kelly Marie Tran Replaces Cassie Steele In Disney’s ‘Raya And The Last Dragon’

Like every project currently in production, Disney’s next animated movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, has been bumped back due to the COVID-19 disruption. But the reschedule came with the news that Star Wars actress and fan-favorite Kelly Marie Tran will be voicing the role of Raya, replacing Cassie Steele, who was previously announced at last year’s D23 event. It’s unclear why Tran replaced Steele, but with a few more directors being added, it appears as though Disney is using the delay to quietly revamp the team for this project to ensure they’re on the right track. Raya will be the first Disney Animation movie to be inspired by and based on South Asia and its culture, and it’s important they get it right by having people representative of that culture on the creative team. Originally set for a release date later this year, Raya and the Last Dragon now hits theaters on March 12, 2021.

It’s Spoopy Season: New ‘Haunted Mansion’ Movie In The Works At Disney

A new live-action movie based on the Haunted Mansion ride is in the works at Disney. Ghostbusters writer Katie Dippold is writing the script with Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, who teamed up for last year’s Aladdin, producing through their Rideback banner. With next year’s Jungle Cruise, starring Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, already getting good buzz, it appears Disney is looking to get their ride-based franchises on track after a few failed attempts to create one as successful as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been. With the right director and a charismatic cast, the new Haunted Mansion movie could end up being a great, family-friendly scare.

Chadwick Boseman’s ’42’ To Be Re-Released In Theaters Starting This Week

AMC Theatres, Warner Bros. and Legendary are teaming up for a nice tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, who unexpectedly passed away last week. Starting this Thursday, September 3, over 300 AMC locations will showing Boseman’s breakout movie, 42, for only $5 a ticket. The decision to re-release the film comes after the theater chain surveyed its customers about their favorite Boseman performance (aside from Marvel’s Black Panther) and 42 topped the list. Boseman’s self-contained and at times deeply emotional portrayal of African-American baseball pioneer, Jackie Robinson, put Hollywood on notice and marked Boseman as a young actor to watch. For fans able to go back to theaters, watching 42 in a theater and grieving with others over his passing while admiring his raw talent and the stories he chose to tell is a rather beautiful way to honor Boseman’s legacy.

Last but not least, check out our Quick Hits column that rounds up all the bits and bobs of news that don’t quite make the cut for a full article but are still interesting updates: