Weekly Round Up: Laura Dern, Tessa Thompson, Amy Adams

20th August 2018

Another week, more of the same in terms of news. For starters, Variety ran a story that was actually a non-story, explaining that the decision by Disney to fire James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel and the “architect” of the cosmic universe, still stands.

This is mainly because the studio exec who decided to fire him made a decision without knowing all the key factors and, well, now here we are, and he doesn’t want to lose face or admit he was wrong in case it makes him look weak. Personally, I think he looks weak mainly because he’s refusing to listen to advice and admit his own mistakes. But oh well, I guess that’s why he’s a Hollywood Executive and I’m writing this…

And while we’re on the subject of Marvel, Lords of cinema, there’s been some rumours circulating about the possibility of a certain villain appearing in a certain web-spinning, wall-crawling super hero movie out next year.

That’s right, folks! Everyone’s favourite big bad Hydro Man might be making an appearance in Spider-man: Far From Home. The rumour mill started whirring on this one when Tom Holland, star of Spider-man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War, posted a video on his Instagram of his stuntman and a whole lot of a water.

If you’ve never heard of Hydro Man then let me tell you, you’re not alone, because I haven’t either. He’s a lesser known member of the wall-crawlers villain roster, but presumably there are some people out there excited about this because, well, it was part of the weekly news round up I rip off when putting together these articles…

And while we’re talking about under-utilised Marvel characters. Tessa Thompson, who appeared in Thor: Ragnarok as well as HBO’s Westworld, has been announced as the voice of Lady in the upcoming live action adaptation of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp which, let’s be honest, won’t really be a live action adaptation, it’ll be more like a CG remake, but whatever.

The film is being produced for Disney’s as yet unnamed streaming service (Disflix? Netney? Amazon Prime but with Disney stuff?), alongside a whole slate of original content (original as in, produced for the streaming service, God knows it’s all completely devoid of actual originality) including remakes (*sigh*) of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Father of the Bride, Three Men and a Baby and The Sword in the Stone. Expect these to all be varying degrees of… meh.

Another Marvel star who’s been in the news this week is none other than the Falcon himself, Anthony Mackie, who will reportedly be joining Lois Lane herself, Amy Adams, in a big screen adaptation of the years number 1 best seller, The Woman In The Window.

The Woman In The Window is written by A. J. Finn and tells the story of a child psychologist suffering with agoraphobia who spies her neighbours committing a crime. Fox 2000 have jumped on the project, hiring Atonement director Joe Wright to helm the project and casting Mackie and Adams alongside other cast members Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman.

It sounds interesting enough for me to want to keep an eye out for it. But before you say anything, it’s definitely not Rear Window, okay? It might sound an awful lot like Rear Window, but it’s not. I mean, yes, the premise is super similar and they both have the word “window” in the title but… let’s just let them have their moment, shall we?

Greta Gerwig, director of the critical success Lady Bird, which earned five Academy Award Nominations at this years Oscars (as if they matter. The Oscars are dead, don’t you know?), is moving forward with her second feature, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Laura Dern is currently in talks to join the production, although for what role is still unclear.

If she’s successful she’ll be joining Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet, as well as Emma Stone and Florence Pugh.

But, the most important news this week is the current uncertainty surrounded the Star Trek franchise (not the fact that they’re bring back Picard because… you know, it’s not like Star Trek has ever been about looking forward to bold new worlds, is it? Nah, it’s all about the reboot…) and the possibility that everyone’s second favourite William Shatner, Chris Pine might not be returning for the fourth instalment.

Do you care? Probably not. But it’s interesting to note the reason why this has happened is that salary negotiations fell through between Pine and the studio in a similar manner to what they did with Chris Hemsworth last week. The remainder of the cast were yet to begin their negotiations, but without Pine on board the project looks set to hang in limbo.

Paramount haven’t ruled out the possibility of recasting Kirk (seriously, it’s like bashing my head against a wall reading these things), but for what its worth my suggestion would be to start over with a new crew rather than once again recast a beloved icon… like, obviously.

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