News Of The Week: Doctor Strange To Be In 'Spider-Man 3', Gal Gadot To Play Cleopatra

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.

Benedict Cumberbatch Signs On To Appear As Doctor Strange In ‘Spider-Man 3’

Following soon on the heels of the news that Jamie Foxx will be reprising his role of Electro, this time in the MCU in Spider-Man 3, comes the news that Benedict Cumberbatch has signed on to appear as Doctor Strange in the third Marvel-Sony Spider-Man movie. It’s a fascinating move and one that lends more evidence to my theory that Marvel and Sony are not only building up to a Sinister Six crossover movie, but are building a shared multiverse between them: Foxx, who previously appeared in Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is now showing up in a Marvel movie and J.K. Simmons, who appeared in all three of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies for Sony, already made a cameo in Spider-Man: Homecoming and will be in future movies. Beyond the multiverse potential, seeing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange paired up in a movie together and allowed to expand their relationship is exciting. They have a unique relationship in the comics, so it will be interesting to see how Marvel adapts it to the screen.

Gal Gadot And Patty Jenkins Reteaming For A Cleopatra Movie

Wonder Woman power duo Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins already have their next project together lined up. Paramount has picked up their pitch for a Cleopatra movie with Jenkins as director and Gadot in the lead with a script written by Laeta Kalogridis. Reportedly, there was a big bidding war between Paramount, Universal, Netflix, Warner Bros. and Apple. The deal happened after multiple rounds of video pitch meetings with Gadot and the other producers with Kalogridis sketching out the outline of the story for studios based on the research she did for the project. Paramount, which needs a big-budget pic badly, is reportedly keen to fast-track this project, with Kalogridis to immediately get started on the script. It will be the first Cleopatra movie ever made with an all-female main creative team and we’re excited to see how they bring the ancient story of the Macedonian Greek queen who ruled Egypt to life.

Sandra Bullock To Star In Rom-Com ‘The Lost City Of D’; Ryan Reynolds To Join?

Cross your fingers, rom-com fans, because we might be seeing Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds reteaming for a romantic comedy for the first time since 2009’s The Propsal. Bullock is set to star in and produce The Lost City of D, with brothers Adam and Aaron Nee directing. It’s based on an original idea from Seth Gordon, who wrote the treatment. Dana Fox wrote the most recent version of the script. Bullock will star as a socially awkward romance novelist who discovers that a supposedly fictional ancient city she wrote about actually exists. She sets off to find it and is accompanied by the handsome-but-dumb actor playing the lead character in the movie adaptation of her book. Reynolds is reportedly being eyed to play the actor but it should be noted he’s only very loosely attached at this stage and his signing on isn’t a certainty. Lost City of D is described as being in the vein of old screwball adventure rom-coms with a mismatched romantic pairing like the Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner classics Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. Bring it on.

‘Mad Max’ Spinoff ‘Furiosa’ Casts Anya Taylor-Joy In Lead & Other Big Names

After being in development for a few years, Warner Bros. has officially confirmed Mad Max: Fury Road spinoff prequel Furiosa is happening. The spinoff is set to tell the story of a younger Furiosa, well before she meets Max Rockatansky and the events of Fury Road, a story director George Miller has been keen to tell for some time. It’s also further along in development than we imagined, with Warner Bros. announcing that Anya Taylor-Joy, who had been rumored to be the frontrunner for the role, is indeed playing Furiosa. It was also announced that Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul Mateen-II will be joining Taylor-Joy in major roles, though we don’t yet know what those are. As always, Miller will write, direct, and produce alongside his longtime producing partner Doug Mitchell. Will it cover her time as a war general for Immortan Joe or take place in an earlier part of her life? We don’t know, but we’re eager to find out.

Ridley Scott And Joaquin Phoenix To Reteam For Historical Napoleon Epic ‘Kitbag’

Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix will work together again for the first time since 2000’s Gladiator. Phoenix is set to start in Scott’s Kitbag, a historical epic about French military commander and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The film is set to be a story following Napoleon’s ambitious rise to power to become emperor, with the title being taken from the saying “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag.” It will showcase Napoleon’s ruthless ambitious and brilliant military mind through the lens of his passionate and sometimes volatile relationship with the love of his life, his wife Josephine. Scott and Kevin Walsh will produce under their Scott Free banner. David Scarpa, who previously wrote the script for Scott’s All the Money in the World, will write the script for Kitbag.

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: