It’s been a long, hard 2016 for most of us, but it’s impossible not to feel at least a little bit of seasonally appropriate joy upon hearing Steve Carell voice his lovably reformed supervillain Gru once more in the trailer for the third film in Illumination’s Despicable Me saga. Also in today’s Movie Morsels, Disney’s live-action Cruella gets a director, the latest on Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s next screen musical project, and more!
Despicable Me 3
Minions, move over. Let’s get Gru-some! While the Minions movie didn’t win quite as much praise as the two Despicable Me films that preceded it, Illumination’s little yellow critters are back once more in Despicable Me 3. More importantly, however, so are Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig, as the now married Gru and his superspy partner Lucy Wilde. But the real highlight of the franchise’s latest installment looks to be South Park‘s Trey Parker as ’80s inspired master criminal Balthazar Bratt, whose name makes him sound like a Scott Pilgrim villain…
Vivo
Viva Vivo! Hamilton mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda’s contributions to Moana have earned him high praise, and the maestro is already hard at work on his next animated project, Sony’s Vivo. The musical, for which Miranda is writing 11 (!) new songs, now has a release date: December 18, 2020. The film is described as “the tale of a capuchin monkey with a thirst for adventure – and a passion for music – that makes a treacherous passage from Havana to Miami to fulfill his destiny.” The good news is that no matter how popular Vivo proves to be, it will, like Moana, be a helluva lot easier for most of us to see than Hamilton!
[Deadline]
Cruella
“Cruella De Vil, Cruella De Vil, if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will…” I still find it hard to believe that the always affable Emma Stone will actually scare me in the title role of Cruella, Disney’s live-action prequel to 101 Dalmatians. Nevertheless, the ’80s-set origin tale has finally nabbed itself a director in Alex Timbers, co-creator of Amazon’s Mozart of the Jungle. Since Stone’s as talented a singer as she is an actress, and Timbers has twice been nominated for the Tony Award, this film is now officially on my must-see list.
Unforgettable
I’m sure that buried somewhere within Unforgettable‘s tale of Katherine Heigl losing her husband to Rosario Dawnson and then trying to force herself back into his life is some kind of sociopolitical metaphor. But for now, let’s just enjoy the first trailer for what looks like a deliciously trashy throwback to thrillers like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle…
[Fandango]
The Forever War
Finally today… Science-fiction author Joe Haldeman’s Hugo Award-winning novel The Forever War, a searing parable written at the time of the Vietnam War (in which Haldeman served), has been in development for some time as a vehicle for star Channing Tatum. Now, Coming Soon has sat down and chatted with writer Jon Spaihts at the junket for his latest film Passengers, and Spaihts says we might have too much longer to wait for his adaptation of the sci-fi classic…
“I’m working on it every day right now,” says Spaihts. “It’s a parable for our time and it’s timely all over again. It was written by a guy who was a mathematician, a physicist and a Vietnam vet. He wrote from a very personal journey and it’s a semi-autobiographical tale, despite being set in the far future…I think it’s the rare successful war story that is also a successful love story. It’s cosmic in scope.” He adds, “I think that the solution we found that updates the story is respectful, faithful and smart.”
What do you think of today’s top stories? Let us know below!
Featured Image: Universal Pictures
Images: Disney, St. Martin’s Press
