Disney Plans Sister Act Remake

Whoopi?

We can already hear the “I’ll have nun of that!” jokes forming in the brains of people reading this, but it’s true: Disney is looking to make a new Sister Act.

While The Hollywood Reporter calls it a remake, there’s still a chance this could turn into a second sequel to the 1992 smash hit music-crammed comedy that saw Whoopi Goldberg’s singer Deloris go into hiding in a convent after witnessing a mob crime. Though the studio acted quickly to crank out a sequel (1993’s Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit), the returns weren’t quite as impressive and the nascent franchise has been dormant on the big screen since then. It did, however, spawn a Tony-winning musical that played here in 2009 before transferring to Broadway in 2011. 

Now Disney feels that writers Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah – who have worked on the likes of Legally Blonde and The House Bunny – are the people perfectly positioned to either completely reboot the story or possibly bring back Goldberg for some torch-passing business. The musical’s success clearly shows there’s still an audience for the story’s feel-good tunes and laughs, but the idea of a remake might not play with everyone. Still, if it is successful, at least Disney won’t try spinning off a Sister Act shared universe right? Right? Mother Superior: Origins, coming to a screen near you in 2019…

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Andrew Garfield Is Evicted In The 99 Homes Trailer

Michael Shannon will not find him (another house)

Looking to take a hard stare at the inequalities present in modern-day America, drama 99 Homes has Andrew Garfield desperately trading in his morality for the sake of his family. Take a look at the first trailer. 

99 Homes finds Garfield as Dennis Nash, a construction contractor trying desperately to stay afloat. But when his finances head down the toilet and the bank forecloses on his home, he meets Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), the charming, powerful, greedy, gun-happy real-estate broker who snapped up the place.

Deciding that the only way to provide for his family including son Connor (Noah Lomax) and mother Lynn (Laura Dern), Nash offers to work for Carver, helping him prepare homes for eviction and eventually assist with making families leave. As he worries about the ethics and the danger, he knows that it’s helping his own life. 

With Shannon going full Gordon Gekko, this could be a great clash of actors and a timely exploration of a tough subject. With Ramin Bahrani directing, 99 Homes arrives in the US on September 25 and lands in the UK on October 16. 

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Zoe Kravitz Starring In Black Belle

She'll play a gunslinging bounty hunter

She was fantastic as Toast, one of the Five Wives in Mad Max: Fury Road, but now Zoe Kravitz is ready to take centre stage as a gun-slinging hero. She’s signed up for the lead in Western drama Black Belle. 

The film, which is set just after the US Civil War, will find her as a lone bounty hunter who specializes in revenge killing, tracking down and shooting people she’s hired to find. But then a client brings her information about her mother’s murderer, and as she digs into the case, she realises, to her horror, that she knows exactly who is to blame. 

Free Ride director Shana Betz is on to call the shots, working from a script by Tasha Huo. The cameras should be cranking, and the bullets flying, this September. 

Kravitz, who also appears in the Divergent films, will next be seen in comedy drama Dope, which is out here on September 4. She’ll be back on Divergent duty for Allegiant: Part 1, which is scheduled to arrive next March.

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Disney Turning A Fantasia Sequence Into A Live-Action Adventure

The Mouse House is spending a Night On Bald Mountain

We probably should all have seen this step coming given Disney’s recent history of turning its animated back catalogue into source material for live-action films. The company is targeting Fantasia sequence Night On Bald Mountain as a potential new movie.

Dracula Untold writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless are tackling the challenge of turning the roughly 11-minute sequence (which you can see above) into a dark fantasy adventure. They’ll be using the Maleficent model of filling in some backstory for the dark, winged creature who raises spirits from the dead for a night of mayhem before they start to fade in the light of the rising sun. 

The original 1940s animated outing used Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky music, composed in 1867 and arranged by Leopold Stokowski for the film, which brought the music to wider audiences.

This one is still in the early development stages, so it likely has a few years to go before it hits screens, assuming the pair can crack the idea. The writers’ next gig is The Last Witch Hunter, which they wrote with Cory Goodman, and arrives here on November 6. As for Disney’s animated-to-live-action output? The latest title from that batch will be Wonderland sequel Alice Through The Looking Glass, due in the UK on May 27 next year.

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Bond Film Rights Up For Grabs

Sony's deal with MGM ends after Spectre

James Bond has been a lucrative property for Sony, which has seen films such as Casino Royale and Skyfall turn massive profits at the box office. Now the studio is facing the end of its collaboration with MGM as the deal for the distribution rights to the series ends with Spectre. And according to Variety, there will be a scramble by other studios to score the next deal.

Sony, of course, has a healthy hand going in to the negotiations given the success of the recent films. But that’s not the only player looking to grab it. “The reality is that Sony’s had a fantastic run with the Bonds,” Sony boss Tom Rothman tells Variety. “Sure we’re going to compete for (the rights), but let’s be honest, so is everybody in the business.” 

According to the trade mag, there’s a chance that close ties between MGM’s boss Gary Barber and Warner Bros. top dog Kevin Tsujihara could lead to 007 moving to Warners, which has had a more successful run of movies overall and has worked with MGM on several movies itself, including the Hobbit trilogy.

The outcome might depend on Spectre’s performance (see the teaser trailer here), but for now it appears that Bond will be mulling his options. 

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Tangled TV Series In The Works

Disney's ready to let down its hair again

You might think the Mouse House was all about Frozen these days, given the frosty fantasy’s huge success. Yet the company is now ready to spin-off Tangled, the Rapunzel-based ‘toon that helped usher in the new era of Disney Feature Animation. A TV series based on the 2010 film is heading to the Disney Channel in 2017.

The show will feature the vocal stylings of the original leads, Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, plus the supporting likes of Pascal the chameleon, the Snuggly Duckling Pub Thugs and, because it really wouldn’t be Tangled without the true star, horse warrior Maximus. Added to the line-up will be Cassandra, a tough handmaiden who is Rapunzel’s best friend.

Plot-wise, the series picks up the story after the film and is set before the events of 2012’s short follow-up Tangled Ever After. Rapunzel is busy acquainting herself with the parents she barely knows and decides to put her royal duties and impending marriage to Flynn on hold to explore new adventures.

Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater are also back, with Chris Sonnenburg and Shane Prigmore overseeing a team that includes Claire Keane, Jase Ricci and Kevin Kliesch.

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New Featurette For Maggie Smith's The Lady In The Van

Welcome to the Best Exotic Marigold Transit

Beloved British cultural giants go head-to-head – well, bumper-to-bumper – in new comedy-drama The Lady In The Van. Maggie Smith and Alan Bennett are the two spearheads of Nicholas Hytner’s new film, which has a new introductory featurette to offer more background. Click below to see what the fuss is about.

Based on Bennett’s own stage play, The Lady In The Van finds Alex Jennings taking on the role of the playwright when his well-to-do Camden street is invaded by a scruffy van driven by an eccentric old lady called Miss Shepherd (Smith, reprising her role from the radio version). The well-spoken but filthy woman refuses to move on despite protests from the disapproving neighbours.

Bennett, sensing that there’s more to her story – though initially unwilling to engage – eventually befriends her and offers her the use of his driveway for a short while until she can get sort herself out and move on. Fifteen years later, she was still there...

Written by Bennett and directed by Hytner, his regular theatre collaborator and the man who brought his plays The History Boys and The Madness Of King George to the big screen, The Lady In The Van also features the likes of Frances de la Tour, James Corden, Roger Allam, Jim Broadbent and Dominic Cooper. It lands in our cinemas on November 13. Click here to watch the first trailer.

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