WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE BATMAN
After a few weeks of speculation (and rumours he’d walked away from the offer) Matt Reeves has officially signed on to direct The Batman, rumoured to be going into production this April. “I have loved the Batman story since I was a child,” said Reeves. “He is such an iconic and compelling character, and one that resonates with me deeply. I am incredibly honored and excited to be working with Warner Bros. to bring an epic and emotional new take on the Caped Crusader to the big screen.” Read more about that story here.
After nearly 20 years off the big screen, Warner Bros. are giving Dick Grayson his own solo movie as Nightwing, which is set to be helmed by The LEGO Batman Movie‘s Chris McKay. The story was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, and McKay retweeted the news as a way to confirm his involvement. Read more about that story here.
CAPTAIN AQUAMAN
A new logline for Warner Bros.’s Aquaman landed online yesterday, which hinted at a plot involving Aquaman leading his people against humans who are polluting the ocean. Kind of like an episode of Captain Planet. The logline reads: “Aquaman will center on Aquaman as a reluctant ruler of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis who is caught between land dwellers that are always polluting the globe and his own people who are ready to invade the surface.” Read more about that story here.
It’s no secret that Hugh Jackman is going to hang up the claws as Wolverine now that Logan is done and dusted, but he has said he would reprise the role if it was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “If that was on the table when I made my decision, it certainly would have made me pause, that’s for sure,” Jackman said. “Because I always love the idea of him within that dynamic, with the Hulk obviously, with Iron Man but there’s a lot of smarter people with MBAs who can’t figure that out [laughter]. You never know. At the moment, honestly, if I really did have them there, I probably wouldn’t have said this is the last. It just feels like this is the right time [to leave the character].” Read more about that story here.
Disney’s live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is looking likely to become the studio’s first billion dollar movie of 2017, with the box office tracking a huge $120 million domestic opening weekend. Should it hit the top end of the range, it would overtake Alice in Wonderland’s $116 million for the third-biggest March opening weekend behind The Hunger Games ($152 million) and record holder Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which opened last year with $166 million. Last year The Jungle Book opened to $103 million last year and made $996 million by the time it had left the theatres. Read more about that story here.
TERRIBLE NIGHT FOR A CURSE
Adi Shankar released the first teaser poster for his Castlevania series, which lands on Netflix later this year. Read more about that story here.
Anghus Houvouras once again discusses whether film critics really matter. Read more about that story here.
