Weekly Round Up: Aquaman, Dune, Red Sonja

18th February 2019

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake continues on its path to become the most star-studded movie of all time (seriously, at this point it must have outdone Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood… although I’m probably looking forward to that movie more). Like I said before, it sort of feels unfair to all the other movies, with a cast list that, before the news that broke this week, already boasted the likes of Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgard, Zendaya, Dave Bautista, Timothee Chalamet and Charlotte Rampling.

That, along with Villeneuve himself, who’s filmography looks pretty damned impressed as it is anyway, is enough to make Dune a hotly anticipated movie, and one that I can safely say I am looking forward to seeing.

But it appears the ever-growing cast of who’s who actors is… well, ever-growing, with this week seeing the announcement that joining the impressive names above are Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa.

Villeneuve fans will know Brolin from the directors own Sicario, in which he played one of the leads, while most people will likely recognise Momoa as Kahl Drogo from the first season of Game of Thrones or, perhaps, a little movie called Aquaman.

In cast you didn’t know, Aquaman is DC’s highest grossing movie, with over $1.121 billion in box-office takings it has eve out grossed Christopher Nolan’s Batman epic The Dark Knight and its sequel, The Dark Knight Rises. Which is pretty damned impressive when you consider the character has often been considered a bit of a joke – perhaps most famously in the HBO show Entourage, where an Aquaman film was a continued running gag throughout several seasons.

Well, DC seem to be jumping on their success, with Warner Bros. announcing this week that Aquaman will, unsurprisingly, be getting a sequel. It seems that one of the writers from the original movie has been given the greenlight to begin working on the script, while the director of Aquaman, horror-master James Wan, will remain on board as an executive producer, although it’s unknow if he will be taking up the director role again.

But Warner’s aren’t content to simply stop at sequels, and it seems they’re planning to capitalise on both Aquaman’s success and Wan’s reputation for horror with the newly announced horror spin-off, The Trench.

Two “newbie” screenwriters have been hired to write a script for The Trench (what that means I’m not entirely sure, presumably they have some credits to their names, so… I dunno). The film will reportedly focus on “the deadly amphibious creatures seen attacking the hero” in Aquaman, although the film will likely not feature any of the main cast from the movie.

Speaking on spin-offs, the much-anticipated Breaking Bad movie spin-off has been getting some attention recently with the announcement that the film is set to premiere on Netflix first before making its way to AMC, the channel that originally produced Vince Gilligan’s hit TV show about mild-mannered chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White.

The film is apparently still in the writing stages, and while there’s no news on whether or not Bryan Cranston will have a role in the film the actor has gone on record as saying he would be more than happy to return to his most iconic role.

We do know, however, that the movie will centre on a returning Aaron Paul, who’s character Jessie Pinkman was one of the show’s leads. The film is reportedly going to be a sequel that follows Pinkman and the aftermath of the events that took place in the Breaking Bad finale. As a Breaking Bad fan, I hold my breath on this one. Better Call Saul is good, but not great, so I guess only time will tell here.

Our final bit of movie news this week is that the long in development Red Sonja reboot has been delayed once again, this time in light of fresh allegations of sexual misconduct by the films would-be director, Bryan Singer.

Millennium Films confirmed that the film was in development with Singer on board to direct but that those plans are now officially delayed while the studio work out how to move forward.

Might I suggest that people just stop hiring Bryan Singer? The guy is clearly a liability at the least and… well, much worse at the most, and it’s not like these are the first allegations to have been aimed at him. Maybe it’s time Hollywood started looking elsewhere.

I’d quite like to see a Red Sonja reboot, and I’m still disappointed we’re not getting Robert Rodruigez’s version, but I don’t see why Millennium Films can’t just drop Singer and bring someone else in to direct the film. Maybe a female director, since the film centres on a female protagonist and a feminine lens might be just what’s needed. Either way, just throw Singer out.

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