Movie News: Shakespeare with A-Listers, 9 to 5 Reboot, Aladdin Spinoff, & More!

August 5, 2024
ALEXANDER

Movie News: Shakespeare with A-Listers, 9 to 5 Reboot, Aladdin Spinoff, & More!

I’m your Gay News Guy – this is the news, casual, sassy, unfiltered, and a little hungover. Ok here’s this week's MOVIE NEWS as I see it!

We haven’t seen a good, major Shakespeare adaptation movie in a long time. Well, this next one is going to make up for lost time. Lear Rex (based on King Lear) is on its way and has a very impressive cast. Led by Academy Award Winners Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain, it will also feature Stephen Dorff, Peter Dinklage, and Ariana DeBose. The last King Lear we saw on the big screen was with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

David Lynch has become iconic for his direction in Hollywood for boundary pusher projects like Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, and more. But sadly, due to his diagnosis of emphysema from smoking, he is no longer able to direct in person and can only do so remotely. His projects that were in development have been canceled or paused. Not the best commercial for smoking!

Hot off the heels of the continued success of Deadpool & Wolverine, Hugh Jackman’s next big project will start filming in early 2025. Titled The Death of Robin Hood, it will be a much darker version of the famed hero than we have ever seen. It will deal with Robin Hood’s criminal past and will be much darker in nature than previous story retellings. The movie will costar Killing Eve’s Julie Comer.

Nicolas Cage’s career seems to be getting an uptick with the critical success of Longlegs and now, National Treasure 3 is in script development and would feature the return of the leads, including Cage. There’s still a lot to be finalized before it is officially announced, but the script is in its first draft. Would you watch another National Treasure?

Jennifer Aniston is producing the 9 to 5 remake. Though in early development, the movie will focus on intergenerational and cultural conflict, rather than just the theme of sexism that was the center of the original film. Does this mean we get a 9 to 5 remix song? How can you capture the magic of the original?

Did you see M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap? We saw it just cause we wanted to see stud Josh Hartnett on the big screen. Unlike his last messes of movies, this one we liked. But does it warrant a sequel? Shyamalan is up for it, and Josh said he loved working on the film, so anything is possible. M. Night recently shared he is already at work on his next film that will flip another genre he hasn’t explored before. A musical? Oy.

Did you see the live-action reboot of Aladdin with Will Smith? Oy. What a mess. Well, Disney loves a money-making mess apparently, and is planning an Aladdin spin-off movie centering around Prince Anders, who courted Jasmine, played by Billy Magnussen. What?

Eddie Redmayne will return as Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts. Now before you get your wand and full attention, it is not for a new movie. It is for Universal Studios Orlando’s biggest project yet, a full land dedicated to all of the timelines from Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. New material will be filmed for the new area, titled Ministry of Magic.

Sylvester Stallone is done with Rocky but there’s more from that franchise on the way! There is a spin off movie in the works that will focus on Dolph Lungren’s Drago and his son getting into the boxing biz. The project is hoping to start filming in 2025.

Is Ocean’s 14 a thing? The last time we saw the original cast (well, of the reboot) was in 2007. George Clooney has revealed that a script is ready, but co-stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck were unaware, but open to return. Do we need another one?

Video game nerds, rejoice! Mortal Kombat 2 is on the horizon and this sequel will feature a tournament, what fans missed in the first movie, and one of the lead actors says it is gory…very gory. Bring on the muscle men and gore!

Vin Diesel is coming back for more Riddick. Filming for Riddick 4 could be very soon, as teased by the lead actor. We didn’t know there was a Riddick 3, lol.