Last Week’s Episode: The Long Spring

Last Week's Episode

Hello, hello! Hope everyone enjoyed last week’s April Fools edition; we had a lot of fun writing the cursed blurbs.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Movies

MRC Film, the company responsible for House of Cards, Baby Driver, Knives Out, and Hotel Transylvania, has created a new label focused on movies in the romance genre. Elizabeth Cantillon, who recently produced the Charlie’s Angels reboot and Melanie Laurent’s upcoming The Nightingale, will lead the label and has already announced a few book adaptations in development: Elin Hilderbrand’s 28 Summers, Tammy Robinson’s Photos of You, and Rebecca Raisin’s Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop. [Deadline]

Russell Crowe has been confirmed as part of the Thor: Love and Thunder cast, though his role is still being kept secret. It has also been confirmed that Matt Damon will be reprising his cameo as an Asgardian thespian from the previous installment of Thor. [Deadline]

Batman: The Long Halloween will premiere the first of its two parts sometime this spring or summer, and will feature the voices of Jensen Ackles as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Josh Duhamel as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Billy Burke as James Gordon, and Amy Landecker as Barbara Gordon, among others. The late actress Naya Rivera also completed work on this project as Selina Kyle/Catwoman prior to her death in July. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Randall Park (WandavisionFresh Off the Boat) will be making his debut as a film director on Shortcomings, the upcoming movie based on Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel about three Asian American young adults from the Bay Area who travel the country in search of connection. Roadside Attractions and Imminent Collision will produce the film, with Tomine as executive producer and adapting the screenplay. [Variety]

Ava DuVernay’s New Gods and James Wan’s The Trench, previously in development at Warner Bros. and DC Films, have been canned and will not be moving forward. The door is still open for adaptations of the New Gods and the horror of the Trench from Aquaman, but at this time DC does not see a “natural spot” for these projects in its planned slate of films. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Jordan Peele is making a third movie with Universal, but the genre and premise are still unknown to the public The cast will include Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya. Most recently, it was reported that Steven Yeun is being eyed to star as well, though things still seem to be up in the air or under wraps. [Variety]

Martin Scorsese has cast Indigenous actor William Belleau as Henry Roan in his upcoming Killers of Flower Moon, an adaptation of David Grann’s book of the same name about the FBI’s investigation in the 1920s of the systematic murders of Osage tribal members in order to steal their land and the oil underneath it. Louis Cancelmi, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson have also joined the cast, which includes previously-announced Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, and Jillian Dion. [Osage News]

Television

Following delays due to revelations that several of the costumes and other features in early materials were plagiarized, the Tokyo Babylon 2021 anime has officially been canceled. The announcement cites a lack of trust in the anime production companies but leaves the door open for another possible Tokyo Babylon project in the future with a different production system. [DualShockers]

The cast of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi show has been revealed and production is slated to start soon under the direction of Mandalorian veteran Deborah Chow. [Empire Online]

George R.R. Martin has signed a new deal with HBO Max to develop several new television series, including multiple prequels and spinoffs based on Game of Thrones. [The Guardian]

After a season overshadowed by the controversy around firing Orlando Jones as both actor and writer, Starz has canceled American Gods after three fraught seasons full of with issues behind the scenes. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Jordan Fisher (To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) has been cast as Bart Allen/Impulse on the CW’s The Flash, the future son of Barry Allen and Iris West. This is a departure from the comics, where Bart is the West-Allen’s grandson. [TV Line]

Barry Jenkins has contracted another two-year, first-look TV deal, moving from Amazon to HBO and HBO Max. His projects will be executive produced by A24 and Pastel. The Underground Railroad, Jenkin’s limited series borne from his previous similar deal with Amazon and adapted from Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name, will still debut in May on Amazon. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Industry Bad Actors

content warning: the following section contains discussion of workplace violence, abuse, and racism

Ex-staffers of Hollywood and Broadway producer Scott Rudin are speaking out about his horrific abuse in the workplace, chronicling instances where Rudin destroyed laptops in rage, maimed assistants, threw hard objects (like glass and a baked potato) at employees, and generally created an environment of stress and fear. He has also been accused of racist behavior, firing someone for her disability, pulling cruel and injury-causing “pranks”, and neglecting to pay contractors, among other abuses of power, including trying to destroy people’s careers by spreading lies. What’s described is truly awful and shocking. [The Hollywood Reporter]

We’ve covered Ray Fisher’s accusations against Warner Bros. and DC Films execs in bits and pieces over the past few months (and those corroborating), but [The Hollywood Reporter] has published a featured interview where he describes what happened and his ultimate goals in calling out the racist and inappropriate behavior he witnessed on set. It’s well worth a read.

The piece also mentions some decisions alleged to have been made by Geoff Johns regarding the casting of Regé-Jean Page as Superman’s grandfather that ultimately did not pan out, which Page appears to have addressed afterwards via Twitter. [Deadline]

Grab Bag

Thandiwe Newton revealed in an interview with British Vogue that her name has been spelled wrong since her first acting credit, when someone dropped the “w” from her first name. Now that we all know, I hope her past and future credits all reflect the correct spelling of her name. [Vulture]

Also, the SAG Awards were last weekend and you can check out the winners at [HuffPost].

Anyway, here’s Chella Man looking amazing:

… and Daniel Kaluuya’s SNL Monologue to cap off the week:

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Rebecca Y. Lee

Rebecca Y. Lee

Lapsed poet, SoCal gal pal, equal opportunity foodie. Tweets @aquariuschicken.

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