Taylor Hackford Taking Over The Comedian

Robert De Niro still attached to star

The Comedian, a passion project of Robert De Niro’s, has become something of a revolving door for directors through the years. Now it appears Taylor Hackford will be the man to bring it to the screen. 

De Niro (and writer/producer Art Linson) have been working on this since at least 2010, developing the story of a Don Rickles-style insult comic who is trying to get his career back on track despite his toxic act and personality. Back around 2011, the story reportedly found him hitting the comeback trail by going back to the TV milieu that first boosted him to fame, but his rage issues prove too great.

When it was originally announced, Sean Penn was calling the shots, but the project became mired in limbo until it finally secured some financing, with Mike Newell announced back in May this year. He’s no longer attached thanks to scheduling issues, which means Hackford will, assuming nothing else happens, be the man in the director’s chair for the shoot in January this year. De Niro is particularly interested in visiting territory similar to that of Martin Scorsese’s The King Of Comedy, albeit through a very different story and lens. He and Linson had Comedy Central and Friars Club roast veteran Jeffrey Ross write the stand-up material for the main character, so this should be something to see.

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Idris Elba's Beasts Of No Nation Arriving On Netflix In October

As the streaming service announces its film premiere dates

Netflix has slowly but surely making inroads in the original content world, first with drama and comedy series and the likes of Daredevil, and now movies. The company has announced launch dates for several of its films, with Idris Elba and director Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts Of No Nation leading off.

Beasts, which adapts author Uzodinma Iweala’s novel, finds a young man named Agu (Abraham Attah) abducted from his home and pressed into service as a child soldier. Elba is playing the Commandant, a warlord who mentors Agu during his training. Fukunaga also adapted the script, and Netflix plans to release the film via its streaming service on October 16, meaning all customers around the world will see it the same day, which makes a nice change. The company also has US distributor Bleecker Street on hand to release it in American cinemas the same day so it can qualify for awards season. 

Following that prestige project will be the first production from Adam Sandler’s four-film deal with the company, farcical Western The Ridiculous Six. With a cast that also includes Terry Crews, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider, Luke Wilson and Nick Nolte, the movie will hit small screens on December 11, meaning Star Wars: The Force Awakens will have to step up its game if it wants any eyes come December 18 (not sure it’ll have too much trouble).

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel The Green Legend is next, though that only has an “early 2016” listing for now, while Paul Reubens is behind Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, which John Lee directed and Judd Apatow has produced. That one will arrive in March next year. 

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Latest Ash Vs. Evil Dead Images Arrive

Chainsaws and cars, baby!

Ash is officially back! After a couple of teasers, some proper pictures of Evil Dead TV continuation Ash Vs. Evil Dead have arrived online courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

You can see in the image above that Bruce Campbell’s Deadite-battling hero is back behind the wheel of a car that might seem slightly familiar. In that it’s the car director Sam Raimi has snuck into the entire Evil Dead franchise and most of his other movies through the years. “Sam’s original Delta is back,” Campbell tells EW. “I’m talking the ‘73 Delta 88. The Classic is back! I’ve driven it. I did a William Shatner power-slide in that car. That’s the only spoiler I’m gonna give you: that Ash and that car — we can power-slide. I met William Shatner on the convention circuit, and I talked about T.J. Hooker. He talked to me about how he power-slides those cars in T.J. Hooker. So I took Shatner’s advice, and I used that advice to do a T.J. Hooker combo-platter — with the Classic — power-slide.” For more from the interview, head to EW.

In the series, Campbell’s titular, chin-tastic hero is suspected as the source of a new Deadite invasion. It’s just another weight of this fantastical world loaded onto our man, who has spent 30 years avoiding both the horror of the Evil Dead and any sort of real responsibility. But he’s spurred into action by a fresh plague of Deadite swarms, which threaten all mankind. 

With Dana DeLorenzo, Lucy Lawless, Ray Santiago and Jill Marie Jones all aboard the series, Raimi wrote the first episode with his brother Ivan and will direct that initial outing. He’s also producing alongside Campbell and Rob Tapert, while Craig DiGregorio is running the show. Expect to hear more about the madness when Raimi, Campbell and co. hit Comic-Con later this week.

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Paul Feig's Ghostbusters Finds A Villain

Neil Casey will be causing trouble

If we were to represent the rising level of casting news about Paul Feig’s new Ghostbusters as a Twinkie, it would be…. Well, not huge, but big enough. The ensemble has grown to include writer and actor Neil Casey.

A veteran of Saturday Night Live, a variety of other TV shows and movies (and the web-based Other Space, which was created by Feig), Casey is aboard to play a mysterious character named Rowan who will become one of the big villains of the film. It doesn’t sound like he’s playing a massive supernatural threat (unless he turns into one), so perhaps he’ll be one of the more down-to-earth nuisances that new Ghostbusters Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones have to deal with? 

His casting comes on the heels of word that Andy Garcia, Matt Walsh and Michael K. Williams are all aboard the movie, which Feig is currently shooting in Boston. Chris Hemsworth was announced a while ago as playing the assistant to the main characters when they take up the fight against a ghostly invasion of New York. Not until, however, they overcome the skepticism of everyone around them. 

The new Ghostbusters will be out here in July next year.

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Rhys Darby Joins The X-Files

As the first teaser for the new limited series lands

As he continues work on the new miniseries incarnation of The X-Files, Chris Carter has added another performer to the cast, with Flight Of The Conchords veteran Rhys Darby signing on. 

Darby isn’t present in the teaser footage above, which is advertising a marathon of the show for US network TV viewers ahead of the miniseries’ arrival early next year, but given that there are about six seconds of new footage, there really wasn’t room for anyone save David Duchovny’s Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Scully.

What we do know, however, is that Darby will be playing a man that Mulder suspects is behind what are at first assumed to be animal attacks. It’s quite a coup for the actor who, according to this post by New Zealand journalist (and friend of Darby’s) David Farrier is a committed cryptozoology nut and fan of the show. He’s headed to Vancouver to start shooting his episode. 

The miniseries picks up with Mulder and Scully in very different places in their lives, but still committed to finding the truth behind the big conspiracies that have plagued their lives. But there’s also time to investigate other mysteries, too… The X-Files is back, at least on US screens, on January 24 next year.

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Elodie Yung Will Be Daredevil's Elektra

G.I. Joe: Retaliation actress heads to Hell's Kitchen

The Marvel/Netflix Daredevil series began shooting its second season recently and, after a brief mention in an episode, we know that one of the most important people from Matt Murdock’s (Charlie Cox) past will be showing up in his present, in the shape of Elektra. Now we also know who will be playing her on screen, as Elodie Yung has won the role. 

Yung, probably still best known for her work in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, will play the Greek-born trained assassin, originally created by Frank Miler, who inspires both passion and pain in our hero. 

“After a worldwide search, we found in Elodie the perfect actress to embody both Elektra’s impressive and deadly physicality, as well as her psychological complexity,” Executive Producer and Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb said in a statement. “Paired with Charlie as Matt Murdock, the two will bring one of the most beloved and tumultuous comic book relationships to life with all the accompanying sparks and spectacular action sequences the show is known for.” 

Her casting follows that of Jon Bernthal, who will be showing up as The Punisher in the second season, and it’ll be interesting to see who causes the most trouble for Matt Murdock. With Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll and Rosario Dawson in the cast, Daredevil will be back next year, likely launching in April. Yung will next be seen on the big screen in Alex Proyas’ Gods Of Egypt, which arrives on February 12 next year. For morer Daredevil, check out our Spoiler Special Podcast below. 

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Phil Lord And Christopher Miller Directing Han Solo Stand-Alone Film

The Lego Movie/Jump St duo is off to the galaxy far, far away...

They run the ever-expanding Lego Movie universe. They’re developing The Flash for Warner Bros. and DC. Sony has them at work on an animated Spider-Man film. And there are the continued efforts towards another Jump Street movie. So surely Phil Lord and Christopher Miller don’t have time to tackle a long-awaited entry in another massive film franchise, right? Wrong! They’ve signed on to direct a Star Wars Anthology movie about Han Solo.

First hinted at by a report from Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican back in 2013, Lucasfilm has today confirmed that the Han stand-alone film is in the works, looking to tell the story of how a young Solo became the scoundrel the world first met in Star Wars back in 1977.

“This is the first film we’ve worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with. We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience, and we pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us,” the pair said in a statement. “This is a dream come true for us. And not the kind of dream where you’re late for work and all your clothes are made of pudding, but the kind of dream where you get to make a film with some of the greatest characters ever, in a film franchise you’ve loved since before you can remember having dreams at all.”

Unusually for Lord and Miller (though perhaps because of their busy schedule and the need to get the film made for its release slot), they’re not writing this one, as Lawrence Kasdan (who has been involved in the new movies for a while, co-writing The Force Awakens) and son Jon have script duty. Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, the current head shepherd and producer of the Star Wars films, also seems happy with the choices. “It’s not just any filmmaker who can tell the story of such a beloved icon like Han Solo, and I’m excited to say we’ve found the perfect team to handle the task,” she says. “Larry and Jon know all there is to know about the character, and Chris and Phil will bring their wit, style, energy and heart to tell Han’s story.”

Of course, now the talk will turn to who could pull off the feat of playing a young Harrison Ford. Anthony Ingruber, who managed it in The Age Of Adaline, is an early fan candidate, but we have a long road ahead of us. The Lego Movie pair seems like the perfect duo to work on a Solo film, but we’re just waiting for them to punk us with a trailer featuring a two-year-old Han. After all, they don’t say how young he actually will be in the movie… 

Star Wars Anthology: Han Solo (or whatever it ends up being called) is scheduled for release on May 25, 2018.

In related Star Wars news – and we’re putting this behind a Spoiler Alert force field just in case – Devin Faraci of Birth. Movies. Death. has heard that Darth Vader will make an appearance in Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One as a behind-the-scenes, potentially holographic presence. He would seem like a logical addition to a film that takes place when the first Death Star is ready to start threatening the galaxy. There has been, of course, no official confirmation yet, so this lives under the spectre of the Rumour Klaxon. We’ll find out for sure when Gareth Edwards’ film launches on December 16 next year. 

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