Photo: Darwin Vegher [via Unsplash]
Last week, my physical therapist added new homework to my assortment of assigned exercises. “Do you have stairs in your house?” she asked. “Or if not, something you can stand on?”
“The complete works of Shakespeare?” I said, and she laughed. But yes: That would do for heel raises.
There was a point in my life where I never would have considered such a thing. But even the most strident among us can change our ways eventually. Sort of. Maybe. A little bit.
The Anne Rice Cinematic Universe is certainly a go. Ahead of Interview with the Vampire‘s upcoming premiere, the AMC series has already been renewed for an eight-episode second season—one that Variety reports will be set in Europe.
For years, Marvel has been working to introduce Blade to the MCU—but there’s been another bump in the road. According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Bassam Tariq has left the project just months before it was set to begin filming.
No, there’s still no news on whether Netflix will renew their adaptation of The Sandman. But Act III of Audible’s popular audio adaptation has just arrived. Starring James McAvoy as Dream/Morpheus, this Sandman is narrated by author Neil Gaiman himself, and has a stellar cast.
Another Victor LaValle story is headed to a screen near you. The author’s The Changeling is in the works at Apple TV+, and now, AMC Networks has opened a writers’ room for The Devil in Silver, which Variety reports is “envisioned as the first installment in a potential anthology franchise.” LaValle is the creator of the series, which he’ll co-executive produce with Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell.
Never say never. Sure, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine died in Logan, which came out in 2017. But that movie was set in 2029, which is years from now! A fact Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool team may be taking advantage of: Yesterday, Reynolds took to social media to share his feelings on the next Deadpool film. And to let us all know that Jackman will be in it.
Netflix’s live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been in production since last November—but new cast members are still being announced. And the latest round is delightful on multiple fronts. One, the legendary George Takei, Prey star Amber Midthunder, Community‘s Danny Pudi, and Teen Wolf‘s Arden Cho are among the new additions. And two? Well, they couldn’t possibly leave out the cabbage merchant!
Of all the trailers and teasers and first looks and date announcements Netflix put forth at Tudum, its awkwardly named fan event, this is the one I did not know I needed. A animated and live-action show about a lethargic Sanrio character that looks like a raw egg? Why?
The answer is right here. Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure has a precision-calibrated tone that lands somewhere between painfully cute and distressingly existential. Will Gudetama get anything done before going bad or being eaten?!??!
The era of video game adaptations is well and truly upon us—but if they all look as good as this one, I for one welcome our new adaptation overlords. A series adaptation of The Last of Us was announced in 2020, and it was clear from the start that HBO was going to take this pretty seriously: Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin was selected to develop the show along with Neil Druckmann, the writer and creative director of the original game.
Then they went and cast Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as Joel and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Ellie, both of who seemed like impossibly perfect choices—and all the more so now that we can see them in action.
When breaking into a nefarious and/or mysterious science facility, one should always come prepared. And in the case of They Cloned Tyrone, one should always come prepared… with the right song for the lengthy elevator ride into the depths of a creepy building.
The trailer for the upcoming movie from writer-director Juel Taylor (Creed II, Space Jam: A New Legacy) lingers on the scene of Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris, and John Boyega’s entrance into a dark lab—a moment that might seem excruciatingly stressful. Or it might seem like a great time to break into song.
It’s a pretty effective way to set the tone.
“Am I allowed to say ‘fuck’ on Netflix?” Robert Sheehan asks at one point in this utterly delightful Umbrella Academy blooper reel. The answer seems to be no, given that little birds (sparrows, one assumes) blot out all swears—even the middle fingers Colm Feore holds up at one point.
But we don’t need swears to have a good time with these folks. Especially not when we’ve got creaky desks, stiff suits, a misbehaving treadmill, and a serious case of the giggles.
The game isn’t over. The first season of Netflix’s Alice in Borderland, adapted from the manga written and illustrated by Haro Aso, premiered in late 2020—and ended with a bit of a cliffhanger. It’s been a long wait, but answers (at least some of them, presumably) are just around the corner with the release of a “super teaser” for season two!
Seats are upright and tray tables are locked on the final season of Manifest. After being cancelled by NBC and rescued by Netflix, the mysterious series will return in November, picking up two years after the events of season three’s finale. The survivors of Montego Air Flight 828—thought dead for the five years in which their plane went missing—are nearing their “Death Date,” and things are getting very weird indeed.
The Witcher empire is ever-expanding; at the moment, we’re awaiting season three of The Witcher; the debut of The Witcher: Blood Origin; and, at some more distant date, a family-friendly Witcher spinoff and another anime Witcher film.
But first comes Blood Origin, the Michelle Yeoh-starring prequel series that details the creation of the first Witcher and the Conjunction of the Spheres. Does that sound festive? One hopes so, as it arrives on Netflix on December 25th.
Henry Cavill shan’t return as Geralt until summer 2023, though.
It is pointless to fight with the franchise machine, as the franchise machine always wins. It wins even for franchises that were last seen making baffling films such as 2018’s The Cloverfield Paradox, which, yes, I stayed up to watch after the Super Bowl. Yes, I regretted that choice. (The cast was great! The movie was not.)
But here we are again! Deadline reports that Paramount, hot for revived franchises in the wake of the latest Sonic and Top Gun films, has another Cloverfield project on deck. This one will be directed by Babak Anvari (I Came By) and written by Joe Barton, with the original Cloverfield team of producer J.J. Abrams, writer Drew Goddard, and director Matt Reeves among the producers.
