Some days, there are bits and bobs of news that don’t have quite enough meat on the bone for a full article. Still, they’re cool tidbits worth getting some love. We round them up for you in our Quick Hits column.
‘Annabelle: Creation’ Director David Sandberg Has The Best Comeback To Scott Derrickson’s Tweet
Filmmakers, especially horror directors, tend to be a fairly respectful, if not downright tight-knit bunch. You can regularly find some of Hollywood’s A-list genre directors interacting on Twitter, from having fascinating conversations about filmmaking to entertaining exchanges, like this pretend beef between Sinister and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson and Shazam! and Annabelle: Creation director David Sandberg. It all started with a random tweet from Derrickson: “Crooked Man > Annabelle,” clarifying his preference for The Conjuring 2‘s doll over the franchise’s most famous evil doll. But it was Sandberg’s perfect response as the director of Annabelle’s origin story that made the brief Twitter exchange for the ages:
It’s stuff like this that makes Twitter worth it.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Releases Funny Promo Spot Featuring Steve Trevor
In preparation for DC’s FanDome event on Saturday, a number of Warner Bros.’ DCEU movies have been dropping promos and bits of content. Wonder Woman 1984 joined in, sharing a new TV spot for the event featuring the mysteriously-not-dead Steve Trevor trying to navigate the questionable fashion trends of the 1980s. A fan managed to record the funny spot from their TV. Check it out:
Nice to see they’re having fun with it. Chris Pine, forever the most underrated Hollywood Chris.
Guillermo Del Toro Adds A Handful Of People To His ‘Pinocchio’ Cast
Guillermo del Toro is hard at work on his Pinocchio project. Not to be confused with Disney’s live-action remake, GDT’s project is a stop-motion animated movie for Netflix. He’s assembled a strong voice cast for the project and just added a few more notable names to the call sheet: Cate Blanchett, Finn Wolfhard and Tim Blake Nelson. They join a cast that includes Ewan McGregor as Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto, Tilda Swinton as the Turquoise Fairy, along with Ron Perlman, Christoph Waltz, John Turturro and Burn Gorman. Newcomer Gregory Mann will be playing Pinocchio. Unsurprisingly, del Toro’s take on the story will be closer to the much darker original, set during the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, It’s being described as a story about the love and disobedience of a child as Pinocchio grows up and struggles to live up to his father’s expectations for him.
Matt Reeves Reveals Official Logo For ‘The Batman’
Ahead of DC FanDome this Saturday, director Matt Reeves has shared the brand-new, official logo for The Batman. The red-drenched logo and promo art for DC FanDome also give us a closer look at the Bat-symbol being used. Not much has changed from the very first look we got at the logo in Robert Pattinson’s costume camera test, save for the fact that as that costume logo was made with the melted-down guns that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, the official logo has ears and is overall cleaner.
In the words of Larry David, pretty good. Pretty, pretty, prettaaayyyy good.
Dolph Lundgren Shares Sweet Post Reminiscing About The First ‘Expendables’ Movie
It’s been a decade since The Expendables hit theaters and reminded Hollywood that old guys could still be viable action stars, too. To honor its anniversary, star Dolph Lundgren shared a sweet post on his Instagram reminiscing about the movie and his gratitude for his buddy, Sylvester Stallone, giving him the chance to resurrect his acting career.
Indeed, Lundgren’s career has picked up since The Expendables was released in 2010. Since then, he’s continued to be in low-budget action flicks, but he’s also appeared in a number of quality projects, including Hail, Caesar!, the Arrow TV series, Creed II and Aquaman. At the moment, he has eight different projects in the works according to his IMDb page. You’ve gotta love a late-stage career resurgence. They’re always so much fun to see.
A ‘Firewatch’ Movie Adaptation Based On The Video Game Is In Development
An interesting swing at a video game movie adaptation is in the works. Producing team Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder are handling the film adaptation of Firewatch, the video game from developer Campo Santo, under their Snoot Entertainment banner and Campo Santo’s Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin will also produce. Upon its release in 2016, Firewatch generated an overwhelmingly positive critical response thanks to the beautiful visuals and emotional, poignant story. The story, set in the Shoshone National Forest, follows a young fire lookout named Henry. But when strange things soon start happening and Henry is drawn away from his lookout tower and into the wilderness, his supervisor, Delilah, is the only contact he has to the rest of the world through his handheld radio. It will be interesting to see what happens with this adaptation as the story has the potential to make a really heartbreaking, gorgeous movie with the right writer. We’re keeping our eye on this one.
The ‘Space Jam’ Sequel Uniforms Are Certainly Eye-Catching
After many, many years, we finally got a Space Jam sequel greenlit, this one led by LeBron James rather than Michael Jordan. Space Jam: A New Legacy is set to hit theaters next year. This week, James revealed the look for the new Tune Squad team uniforms and they are certainly bright.
There’s a lot going on here for the eyeballs to process, from the fluorescent colors to the highlighter orange sneakers to the asymmetric design. Still, I kind of…love it? Do I love it? I think I love it. I dig the way the Looney Tunes logo is incorporated into this new uniform and, sure, the colors might make LeBron look like a parrotfish, but they’re bright and fun. Consider me a fan.
Daniel Dae-Kim & Randall Park Teaming Up For Asian-Led Heist Film At Amazon
Here’s an extremely fun bit of news: Deadline reports that Daniel Dae-Kim and Randall Park are set to lead a heist movie with a predominantly Asian-American cast based on a script written by Billions‘ Young Il Kim. Kim, Park and John Cheng brewed up the idea for the movie, which will revolve around old friends who reunite for a high school reunion and shenanigans ensue. Kim said it aims to be a homage to the fun of classic ensemble heist films, explaining, “I think it has nods to Ocean’s 11, The Full Monty as well as Better Luck Tomorrow.” The project was one of the hotter scripts floating around Hollywood, with a bidding war breaking out between multiple studios and streamers fighting for the pitch before Amazon Studios came out on top. Kim said it’s an encouraging sign that more Asian and Asian-American stories can be told. “There is an appetite to see this kind of a movie with an Asian American cast and that is a really promising sign of the times,” he said.
Ryan Reynolds Sells Aviation Gin For Staggering $600+ Million
Last week, I published the list of highest-paid actors in Hollywood for 2020 and Ryan Reynolds was #2. Next year, he may very well be #1 thanks to a non-acting deal that just went down. Alcoholic beverages giant Diageo announced today that it has acquired Reynolds’ Aviation Gin company for an insane deal worth up to $610 million. The initial upfront payment is $335 million with another potential $275 million to be paid out depending on how the Aviation brand performs over the next 10 years. Reynolds will retain his ongoing ownership stake in the brand, which he acquired two years ago. It’s another smart, lucrative move for Reynolds, who pulls in some of the biggest paychecks in Hollywood for his films, as well as owning a number of companies, including Aviation and Mint Mobile. But Reynolds, always loathe being seen as a Hollywood elite, is also one of the most charitable celebrities out there and it’s entirely likely he’ll donate a chunk of his profit from the sale of Aviation to a few charities.
Nine Major Movies Are Set To Shoot In California Post-COVID-19
Despite having Hollywood, the hub of the North American entertainment world, California has been losing a number of big-budget feature productions overseas and to states like Georgia as it’s much cheaper to film in other locations than in Los Angeles. But that’s about to change thanks to the third iteration of California’s tax incentives program launching on July 1st. As a result, nine feature films have inked deals to shoot in California, with none bigger than the Russos’ massive Netflix project The Gray Man starring Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling. Six of the movies shooting in California include Jordan Peele’s as-yet-untitled movie, Jessica Chastain drama Losing Clementine, Octavia Spencer’s sci-fi thriller Invasion, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s upcoming horror-comedy, the sports drama-biopic Sweetwater, and Dan Gilroy’s Faster, Better, Cheaper. It’s a great boon for California: THR says the nine projects are expected to generate nearly $284 million for the state and employ an estimated 1,340 crew, 342 cast and 14,397 background actors and stand-ins, as well as hundreds of jobs and millions more in revenue generated by post-production crew such as VFX artists, sound mixers and editors, musicians, and others.
Amandla Stenberg Joins Universal’s ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Musical Adaptation
Universal has added an intriguing new cast member to its movie adaptation of the Tony award-winning Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen: The Hunger Games and The Hate U Give actress Amandla Stenberg is joining the cast in the role of Alana, a high school senior whose social media persona and happy-go-lucky vibe mask her feelings of isolation and her depression. Her response to a classmate’s death ignites an entire movement. The role, which has been expanded and reimagined for the movie adaptation, will include a new original song sung by Stenberg. Stenberg herself will be writing the song in collaboration with original Broadway composers and writers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The script adaptation will be written by Steven Levenson, who also wrote the book for the stage musical. Wonder director Steven Chbosky will be helming the movie adaptation. This isn’t the first musical experience for Stenberg; she was last seen in musical drama series The Eddy for Netflix.
