Weekly Round Up: Shatterhand, Lupita Nyong’o, Glenn Close

4th March 2019

Sadly, there seems to be no new casting announcements on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune this week, which might come as something of surprise considering the film has literally been releasing surprise casting choices for weeks now. However, one interesting piece of casting news did come along in the last seven days, and that is that 2019’s Best Actor Oscar Winner, Rami Malek, is currently in the final stages of a negotiation that will see him plays the villain in Daniel Craig’s fifth outing as super-spy James Bond.

Bond 25, or as it is now known; Shatterhand (seriously… I get it’s a working title but, c’mon guys!), is touted as being Craig’s final outing as Ian Fleming’s famous 007. Malek will reportedly be playing the main villain in the film, and the plot will presumably centre around him doing some bad things in an effort to make it back to the museum before dawn turns him to dust. The film will be directed by True Detective season one director Cary Fukunaga.

Malek is the first new actor to be announced as joining the franchise, while returning actors include Craig himself, Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomi Harris as Moneypenny, Lea Seydoux as Madeline Swann and Ben Whishaw as Q. Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong’o was rumoured to be joining the cast as the new “Bond-girl”, but her team have since said, “it won’t work out with her.”

Say what you will about the Bond franchise but I’m cautiously optimistic about this one. Craig is definitely one of the more interesting Bond’s we’ve had (although my personal favourite is Roger Moore, let’s be honest, those films are dumb), and while his subsequent turns as the super-spy have failed to live up to the promise of his excellent debut in the role, Casino Royale, he still remains filled with potential. So, here’s hoping this one will deliver on that.

Speaking of Oscar winners being cast in roles, Mahershala Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor this year for his turn in Best Picture Winner, Green Book (… don’t.), and this week saw the announcement that he has been cast in upcoming sci-fi drama Sovereign.

Directed by Marc Munden – who folks may know as one of the men behind the underseen but excellent Channel 4 thriller Utopia – and written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who co-wrote A Quiet Place, Sovereign is shaping up to be an interesting prospect of a film indeed. Not much is known about the film outside of the fact that it has been described as similar to Villeneuve’s Arrival in tone.

Glenn Close may not have won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Wife this year, that honour went to Olivia Coleman for The Favourite, but that doesn’t seem to have had any effect on her ability to get cast (of course it hasn’t, she’s Glen freaking Close!).

This week we learned that Close will be getting ready for her close-up when she takes on the Gloria Swanson role in Paramount Pictures movie adaptation of the stage-play based on Billy Wilder’s brilliant 1950’s classic, Sunset Boulevard. Close has played the role on stage and won a Tony Award for it, so her involvement here makes sense. Tony Award winning choreographer Rob Ashford is attached to direct the film, making it his feature film debut.

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, I love Sunset Boulevard, it’s an exceptionally well-made film and still feels so today, with some standout performances, a sharp and witty script and some of Wilder’s best direction. On the other hand, if anyone was going to do a great job of taking on the Gloria Swanson role it would be Glenn Close, so I’m very curious to see what this might lead to. I’ll remain positive about it for now.

And while we’re on the topic of remakes that seem like bad ideas but might actually be good thanks to the people involved, it would appear that Jordon Peele has found his Candyman.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who people will recognise as villain Black Manta in James Wan’s Aquaman (I mean, not me, I didn’t see it, but I’m sure some people will), has been cast in the title role, which was made famous by Tony Todd in the original. The question of who will play the Candyman has been the biggest one hanging over this project since it was first announced, so it’s good to finally have an answer on that front.

Peele is busy himself, what with The Twilight Zone reboot coming soon, while his second film as directed, the much anticipated horror Us, is coming out in March. And while both of those projects are things I have taken a keen interest in, the Candyman reboot is the one that has been closest to my heart. As a fan of the original I’m very curious to see what this winds up being. Being described as a “spiritual-sequel” to the original, rather than an out-and-out remake, Candyman will reportedly be released in June of 2020, and will take place in “the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood”.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what we can expect from this one.

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