Predator, Deadpool, Gaga: Weekly Round Up

23rd November 2020

Predator, Deadpool, Gaga: Weekly Round Up – The one everyone wants to talk about this week, I guess, is Deadpool 3, so… fine. I’ll go along with that and talk about Deadpool 3. But I’ll be upfront with you guys first, I’m not the biggest fan of Deadpool or Deadpool 2 really. It’s not that I didn’t want to like them, in fact it’s almost that I wanted to like them too much. I was hoping they’d be hilariously meta to the point where the superhero shenanigans might take a bit of a backseat to the crazy “I’m in a movie” jokes, but ultimately both films wound up relying way too much on big CG spectacle and that grey X-Men aesthetic that kind of doesn’t work for me, so yeah.

But here we are, and here’s Deadpool 3, and amazingly it looks like Disney are going all in, even shooting for an R-Rating! The fate of the third outing for the so-name Merc with a Mouth has been something of a topic for speculation ever since Disney acquired Fox in the now infamous merger. While there was never any doubt that the other Fox owned Marvel characters would likely pop up sooner rather than later in the MCU, Deadpool has been something of a slightly different beast. His meta nature makes him a difficult fit for the tone of the wider MCU, and moreover people seemed to have really responded to the Ryan Reynolds incarnation of the character, so a reboot wasn’t exactly what anyone was hoping for.

It turns out Disney are aware of this, and so this week we learned that the studio has officially hired Bob’s Burgers and The Great North screenwriters Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin to start work on the Deadpool 3 screenplay. Ryan Reynolds is also attached to reprise his now iconic role from the first two movies. Although nothing is known about the film itself, it has been reported that Disney have been meeting with writers for over a month, listening to pitches to find “the perfect fit [Marvel] wanted”.

And look, I understand why you’re all excited about Deadpool, I would be to if I cared, but there’s another reboot/sequel thing that’s been announced this week that, personally, I think is way more interesting, Predator.

The Predator franchise has been somewhat divisive ever since Arnold first took on the titular hunter in the classic 1987 movie. While 1990’s Predator, starring Danny Glover, has been somewhat reassessed as a cult favorite in more recent years, on release it was criticized heavily, and the more recent outings for the monster haven’t exactly been met all that positively. Both Alien v Predator movies are widely regarded as being poor takes on the two franchises, while 2010’s Predators and 2018’s The Predator received a mixed response to say the least.

But what makes this potential new addition to the franchise so interesting, in my opinion at least, is that it comes with 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg attached to direct. Despite his work on Amazon’s show The Boys and the Playtest episode of Black Mirror, Trachtenberg’s only real big directing gig has come in the form of the aforementioned “spiritual sequel” to Cloverfield, and that movie was largely set in the confines of a single underground bunker.

Although it did deliver a spectacular action sequence in its final act, the film is at its best when it’s playing on paranoia and uncertainty within the confined space, so I’m curious how the director will be handling the iconic sci-fi creature. We do know that his take will reportedly not follow on from where Shane Black’s 2018 movie ended, with the US Government developing weapons based on Predator technology.

Personally, I’d like to see the whole thing boot the action in favor of a more horror-centered approach. I have often said that an anthology show feels like the best place for the Predator to exist, each episode led by a different creative voice, and set over multiple time-periods. I’d love to see the Predator tackle a band of Knights or a group of Cowboys or, shit, even some Vikings. That sounds like fun.

Another thing that sounds like fun this week comes in the form of new casting announcements for action thriller Bullet Train, the Sony Pictures adaptation of the 2010 Japanese novel Maria Beetle. Now, Brad Pitt has long been attached to the project, but this week we started learning about new cast members joining the film.

The latest addition to the cast is singer-turned-actress Lady Gaga, although it’s expected she will likely be playing a smaller supporting role. Alongside Gaga we also learned this week that Deadpool 2 star Zazie Beetz has signed up to appear, although in what role we don’t know. Both will be joined by Michael Shannon, who is always a pleasure to watch, and Masi Oka, who is perhaps best know for appearing in Heroes and Hawaii-Five-0.

Members of the cast, other then Pitt, of course, include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Logan Lerman, Andrew Koji, and Joey King. Directed by David Leitch, who was behind Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw, and the absolutely excellent Atomic Blonde (why did you not go see that at the cinema, hmmm? We could have had fucking sequel by now!), Bullet Train is turning into a pretty big hitter cast ways, suggesting that it may very well be similar in style to the classic 1970s disaster movies, like The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno. And I love those movies, so I am fully on board with that idea.

Speaking of old-style movies making a comeback, it would seem the murder-mystery is ready for a return. After the success of Rian Johnson’s absolutely brilliant Knives Out, who doesn’t want more classic whodunnit thrills? I know I certainly do, and our last piece of news this week is just that!

Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, And David Oyelowo have all signed on to star in a yet untitled murder mystery from Searchlight Pictures, which is set to be directed by British TV director Tom George. The film will reportedly be set in 1950s London, and while follow a Hollywood film producer who is trying to adapt a successful stage play for the screen when members of the crew start getting murdered. Rockwell and Ronan will supposedly play the detectives on the case.

Whatever your thoughts on Knives Out, or the recent Murder on the Orient Express and that film’s upcoming sequel Death on the Nile, 50s Hollywood glitz and glam, an all-star cast, and a whodunnit mystery set around a movie set are all winners for me, so I am totally here for this one.

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