Weekly Round Up: Boba Fett, Katherine Langford, The Time Machine

5th November 2018

It’s the sequel nobody wanted, and yet once again Ridley Scott, director of such acclaimed films as Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise, is once again considering returning to the world of his 2000 historical epic Gladiator for a sequel.

Scott’s history with sequels isn’t exactly “fresh”, the sequel to Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, is hardly something to fill you with confidence, and since the original Gladiator doesn’t exactly scream sequel anyway, it’s hard to imagine what this thing might wind up looking like.

Early rumours have it that the film with focus on the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s character in the first film, and it does appear that Paramount are keen on the project, having hired screenwriter Peter Craig – who’s credits include The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2 – to write a draft of the script. But honestly, who cares? I’d sooner have another Scott original.

There are plenty of sequels we don’t want to see, however it appears Hollywood aren’t interested in the thoughts of the guy who writes the news round-ups for BRWC, and as a result it looks like we’ll be getting The Meg 2, the follow-up to this years giant shark movie, directed by John Turtletaub and starring The Stath fighting a prehistoric megalodon – that’s a literal giant shark, in case you didn’t know.

It would seem that the studio took notice when The Meg turned a successful profit at the box office, and now a sequel is in development. There’s no news on whether this will see Jason Statham return to take on yet another shark, or if we’ll be following a whole new cast of characters, but I, for one, found the first film to be surprisingly fun. Still doesn’t mean I came away hoping for a sequel though.

Unfortunately for me it would appear that movies I actually would like to see are being thrown out at breakneck speed, and that includes the Star Wars anthology movies. Personally, I think the entire new trilogy has been something of a bust so far, but I did quite like Rogue One (and Solo was okay), so I was really looking forward to seeing some new Star Wars adventures.

It seems Disney disagree, with the news this week that the proposed Boba Fett standalone movie is officially dead. It appears that Disney are instead focusing on John Favreau’s series The Mandalorian, which will be available exclusively from Disney’s streaming service. It’s a shame because we also learned what kind of things the Boba Fett movie might have featured, and it sounds like a real blast.

Never mind, eh? I probably won’t be paying out for Disney’s streaming service because, well, I’m poor, and I don’t really like the idea of Disney holding a monopoly on my childhood memories, either.

This damn streaming service is going to be a pain in my arse, I’m telling you, as Disney are also considering limited edition series for several of the MCU characters, including a Falcon/Winter Soldier team-up movie, a Scarlet Which standalone and potentially a limited run for Loki (“no resurrections this time my foot).

Speaking of the MCU, 13 Reasons Why (that show is terrible. Have you watched it? Don’t!) star Katherine Langford has recently been cast as “someone” in the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4. Who “someone” is is anyone’s guess, and it appears anyone is guessing. So we’ve had lots of speculation about just who she might be playing, with the frontrunners being Kate Bishop, who becomes Hawkeye taking over from Clint Barton, Clea, an ally of Doctor Strange, or Sersi, from The Eternals, who may be getting their own spin-off movie.

It’s painful to write this stuff because in recent months I’ve found myself total void on any and all enthusiasm for all of this. Remember when going to the cinema was fun? Remember that? Maybe I’ll cancel my cinema card and just watch Shudder all day long…

Honestly, video on demand seems to be the only place to go to find original content these days. You realise every news story I’ve covered here has been about a sequel or a remake. I mean, Christ, we started this thing we sequel to Gladiator… that’s absurd! What is going on?

Even IT and IT: Chapter 2 director Andy Muschietti is getting in on the action. Not content with remaking a beloved mini-series and then sequelizing it (I know, I know, it’s the second half. Whatever, go back under your bridge) it appears he’s now looking into potentially adapting Attack on Titan, a popular manga series that also got turned into an anime, as well as maybe developing a new version of H G Welles’ The Time Machine, which was adapted once in 1960, and again in 2002.

Oh well, maybe next week will churn up something original. Fingers crossed.

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