Movies
[News Bites] More Pilot Casting, Event-Sized ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ Sequel, Rick Baker’s Incredible ‘MIB:3’ FX Work & ‘Dracula’ the Lawyer!
Columbia Pictures is moving forward with a sequel to Battle: Los Angeles after it made nearly $212 million at the boxoffice worldwide. Our friends at Collider recently caught up with director Jonathan Liebesman, who offered the following when asked of the sequel’s status: “We’ve just started the script now so that’s where we are. We have just begun the script,” he explained addeing, “But what’s exciting is it sounds like the budget will be as big. They’re really going to make it an event.” The movie was inspired by unexplained true events back in 1942.
Storm Warning star David Lyons has been cast in the JJ Abrams/Eric Kripke NBC drama pilot “Revolution,” directed by Jon Favreau, “about a group of survivors in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.” He will play the charismatic Marine Bass, a role which became vacant after Billy Burke, who was originally cast in the role, was just promoted to play the lead Miles, reports Deadline. Also cast in the pilot is Maria Howell in the supporting role of the regal and fiercely intelligent Grace.
The site also adds that Erik Palladino (Buried) has been added to ABC drama pilot “666 Park Avenue” in the recurring role of Tony Demeo. The thriller, based on the Gabriella Pierce book series of the same name, “centers on a young couple (Rachael Taylor and Dave Annable) that accepts an offer to manage one of the most historic apartment buildings in New York City. They unwittingly begin to experience supernatural occurrences, which complicate and endanger the lives of everyone in the building.”
In a little random cool news, an article at THR explains that for more than a century, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has set the standard in the horror genre — yet the author also managed to set the bar quite high in contract negotiations. A new version of “Dracula” is about to be published, and the most fascinating inclusion is Stoker’s 1897 contract, which reveals he got a 20 percent royalty fee — about twice as much as most authors get today. The publishers of the new version say it indicates that Stoker, who studied law, knew what he was doing. Right on Stoker! Click the link for the article.
Courtesy of Stark Industries comes the below images from behind-the-scenes of Columbia Pictures’ Men in Black 3, all of which show the incredible work of special effects mestro Rick Baker! Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld for release on May 25, the pic stars Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Jemaine Clement and Emma Thompson in a time travel genre pic that’s jam-packed with alien creatures (plenty on display inside!) 
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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