Weekly Round Up: Ben Affleck, Rosario Dawson, The Invisible Man

4th February 2019

Remember Suicide Squad? Of course you do! How could you forget it? I mean, that film was awful, wasn’t it? Regardless of whether you found enjoyment out of Warner Bros. attempt at an edgy superhero romp or not you can hardly deny that it was riddle with issues, from poor character development right the way through to an overreliance on style and total lack of substance.

Marketed as a darker, edgier DC answer to Marvel’s Guardian of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad did okay at the box-office (and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn outfit sales went through the roof) but failed to really resonate with audiences and critics, despite boasting an impressive cast and a pretty decent concept.

So, DC fans rejoice, as news this week hit that James Gunn, writer and director of Guardians of the Galaxy (among many other things) has officially been in talks to both write and direct a Suicide Squad sequel.

The rumour mill was alive with this one for quite a while, but this is the first real confirmation we’ve got. The film will reportedly be called The Suicide Squad and is apparently going to be a relaunch of the concept, with Gunn opting to use a brand-new roster of supervillains to build his cast. Who this is likely to be remains a mystery, but I have to admit my interest in the project has gone from an absolute zero to off the charts.

In more DC news, it would seem Ben Affleck is officially out as Batman for Matt Reeves’ Caped Crusader solo-outing. That’s sort of expect, sure, but for me I still see it as a shame; Affleck was a decent enough Bruce Wayne and Batman and was only really let down by poor writing and bad direction.

The Batman (putting the in front of titles seems to be the way to go with DC reboots, I guess), is supposedly going to be more a detective story, with Batman coming up against a rogue’s gallery of Batman villains (possibly including Josh Gad as The Penguin) as opposed to just the one.

Whoever Reeves winds up casting as his villains it’ll have to be a really interesting collection of actors to build any hype whatsoever these days, as cast lists are just getting crazy!

Denis Villenvue’s Dune looks set to feature the most impressive cast of all time (sorry Tarantino, I’m still looking forward to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, though… promise) with this week’s announcements that joining Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in the cast will be Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgard, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya (who you might not from Spiderman: Homecoming) and Javier Bardem.

At this point it almost seems unfair to other movies.

We’ve also had some movie release date announcements, with perhaps the most interesting being an as yet untitled Christopher Nolan movie, scheduled for release on July 17, 2020. Nolan has covered everything from neo-noir to superhero to science-fiction and war with his filmography, so this could literally be absolutely anything, but personally I’d love to see a North by Northwest style movie with Nolan at the helm.

The film has some pretty stiff competition, what with it going up against The Bob’s Burgers Movie and Spongebob Squarepants sequel It’s a Wonderful Sponge… so watch out, Nolan… I guess.

Zombieland 2 was given an official title this week. It’ll be called Zombieland: Double Tap, and Sony Pictures revealed the title with the rather clever marketing strategy of a social media “10 year challenge” post.

But that wasn’t the only Zombieland news we got this week. Oh no. We also got complete confirmation that the original cast will be returning, and that none other than Rosario Dawson will be joining them in an as yet unspecified role.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sort of cautiously optimistic about this one. As a fan of the original I really don’t want them to screw it up, but at the same time… well, I’d just love to spend a little more time in that world.

And now, the most important news of the week. Nay, of the year!

Universal have finally, FINALLY, decided to pull their finger out and do the right thing when it comes to their Classic Monsters property, and that makes me very happy! This week we learned that not only will horror giants Blumhouse be taking on the iconic monsters but that their iteration of them will begin with Leigh Whannel’s The Invisible Man.

For those of you who don’t know, Whannel is the man behind last year’s rather brilliant Upgrade, but also one of the two creators of Saw and Insidious. He more than has the chops to pull this off and I, for one, am absolutely fascinated by the prospect and can’t wait to see what they deliver. Whether or not this mean a new cinematic universe or simply a bunch of standalone films is anyone’s guess, but honestly I’m game for either. Watch this space!

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