It’s a star-packed Movie Morsels today, with news on sweet-sounding films featuring favorites like Matt Smith, Patrick Stewart, Penelope Cruz, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Keanu Reeves. Plus, the latest on the upcoming feature film adaptation of what many regard as Stephen King’s finest novel — The Stand!
The Stand
The long-in-development film adaptation of Stephen King’s magnum opus The Stand now looks like it will become four feature-length films. Writer-director Josh Boone says, ““I really wanted to do an A-list actor, really grounded, credible version of the movie… I sold [Warner Bros.] on a single, three hour movie… So what happened is the script gets finished, I write it in like five months. Everybody loves it. [Stephen] King loves it. $87 million is what it was budgeted at. Really expensive for a horror drama that doesn’t have set pieces… They came back and said ‘Would you do it as multiple films?’ and I said ‘F–k yes!’…So I think we are going to do like four movies… I can’t tell you anything about how we’re going to do them or what’s going to be in which movie. I’ll just say we are going to do four movies, and we’re going to do The Stand at the highest level you can do it at with a cast that’s going to blow people’s minds. We’ve already been talking to lots of people, and have people on board in certain roles that people don’t know about. We’re looking to go into production next year, maybe in the spring.”
The Panopticon
In the wake of his comeback vehicle John Wick‘s success, Keanu Reeves is returning full force to his genre film roots. The actor may star in Tarsem Singh’s next project, The Panopticon, playing “a seemingly ordinary man who receives a mysterious package containing a pre-recorded message from himself, warning that the world is about to end and only he can save it.” From there he must work to piece together the puzzle before time runs out for mankind.” In the meantime, Reeves’ next movie is the sci-fi actioner Replicas.
[JoBlo]
Patient Zero
Matt Smith is going from Prisoner Zero to Patient Zero. Proving that while he’s done with Doctor Who, he’s not quite done with science fiction, the former Eleventh Doctor will follow up his turn in Terminator: Genisys by join fellow fellow fan-favorite genre TV star Natalie Dormer in Sony’s thriller. “Stefan Ruzowitzky is directing the Mike Le-scripted action thriller and Vincent Newman is producing. In Patient Zero, an unprecedented global pandemic of a super strain of rabies has resulted in the evolution of a new species driven by violence. An inexplicably immune human survivor with the ability to communicate with this new species must spearhead a hunt for Patient Zero in order to find a cure to save his infected wife and humanity.”
[Deadline]
The Green Room
Say it ain’t so, Captain Picard! The first still of Patrick Stewart as an evil white supremacist skinhead in the upcoming The Green Room has just been released. Director Jeremy Saulnier’s film is described thusly: “A young punk rock band find themselves trapped in a secluded venue after stumbling upon a horrific act of violence, fighting for their lives against a gang of white power skinheads intent on eliminating all witnesses. Patrick Stewart plays Darcy Banker, the unflinching and industrial leader of a ferocious white supremacist fiefdom based in the Pacific Northwest. Rounding out the cast is Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Mark Webber, Kai Lennox, Eric Edelstein and Saulnier’s BLUE RUIN star Macon Blair.”
Zoolander 2
Esquire magazine’s reigning “Sexiest Woman Alive” Penelope Cruz is set to star opposite the returning Ben Stiller in Zoolander 2. Can she out-pretty the world’s most infamous male model? “Stiller is directing from a script by Justin Theroux, and will produce alongside Stuart Cornfeld for Red Hour. Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson are rumored to be reprising their roles as Mugatu and Hansel, respectively.”
Pete’s Dragon
Casting continues for Disney’s remake of its 1977 sleeper hit Pete’s Dragon. Bryce Dallas Howard may join Robert Redford in the film, as the female lead, joining Oakes Fegley as the title character. “David Lowery is set to direct from a script he wrote with Toby Halbrooks.The story is a reinvention of the 1977 film that revolves around Pete and his best friend Elliot, who happens to be dragon. The first pic was a musical, but sources say this will be a straight narrative. The movie will be live-action with CGI used to bring the dragon to life.”
[Variety]
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What do you think of today’s top stories? Let us know in the comments below!
Patrick Stewart is full-on channeling Walter White in that picture. Intense.
Stop with the remakes, especially remakes of stuff that was bad in the first place.
Oh The Stand. I love that book. The miniseries was fantastic. To do the book justice, it has to have multiple movies. I’m really excited about this.
Zoolander 2: It’s about time!!! Truth be told, I did not like Zooland when I first saw it. It grew on me…like a tumor. I look forward to seeing what’s happened to everyone.