Platinum Studios Plans Cowboys & Aliens Reboot
Plans are afoot to restart the once-promising Cowboys & Aliens film series, according to an interview with Scott Mitchell Rosenberg on Yahoo! Entertainment. Rosenberg created and published the comics, and produced the previous feature film all for his Platinum Studios company.
Rosenberg told Yahoo! that the film rights have reverted to Platinum and they are working with investors to reboot the franchise with a new movie. The new film would be completely disconnected from the previous film and based solely on the existing graphic novel and "new source material."
Loki Tops The Charts Again
Marvel Studios' Loki is, once again, the #1 program in the Nielsen Ratings chart for Original streaming programming. During the week of June 28 to July 4 the show posted its fourth episode, netting 813 million minutes of viewership. This is a 14% increase over the previous week giving the Disney+ series its third consecutive #1 ranking. The show ranks #4 across all of Nielsen's streaming charts.
Lucifer also held strong, earning 450 million minutes of viewing against its 83 episodes. That's a 25% drop in numbers from the previous frame and enough to cause the Netflix series to slip from #2 to #3 on the Originals chart.
Newcomer Sweet Tooth also continued to flex some staying power. The comic-based series dug up another 256 million minutes of eyeball time for Netflix. That's a 28% drop from the previous window. However, it still hangs in as the #6 Original show in its fifth week of release.
J.K. Simmons in Talks For Batgirl
Fan favorite actor J.K. Simmons was cast in the role of Gotham City Commissioner James Gordon for Justice League where he appeared briefly. He was supposed to continue the role in the planned Batman solo film starring Ben Affleck, but that movie gradually morphed into the non-DCEU project The Batman. Now, according to Deadline, fans may get a chance to see the muscled-up Simmons reprise the role in the upcoming Batgirl solo pic. He is reported in negotiations at this point, but should he lock in a deal with Warner Bros, he'll play father to Leslie Grace who has the lead role. The movie is being developed for 2022 release on HBO Max.
Scarlett Johansson Stings Disney with Black Widow Lawsuit
Deadline reports that actor Scarlett Johansson has filed a lawsuit to the Superior Court of Los Angeles against The Walt Disney Company over the recent release of Black Widow in both theaters and on Disney+ with Premiere Access. Fans know well that the film was initially scheduled for release in theaters May of 2020. However with movie theaters shutting down over Covid-19 concerns the film was delayed several times. Finally Disney decided to release it into theaters and onto their premium streaming add-on simultaneously on July 9.
The problem with that is Johansson's 2017 deal to do the film contractually obligated the company to release it widely, in theaters, and pay the actor considerable box office bonuses. The company reassured her in 2019 that the launch of Disney+ would not impact those plans.
Lawyers for Johansson are asserting in the suit that the dual release destroyed the box-office potential and deprived their client of significant amounts of money and are using the pandemic as an excuse to do so. The suit seeks monetary damages to be specified after discovery in court.
Disney+ Sets Hawkeye Debut Date
The social media account for Disney+ has posted the debut date for Marvel Studios' Hawkeye. The new show, starring Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, who trains newcomer archer Hailee Steinfeld, is now set to debut November 24. The tweet also touts a "first look" at images from the series that will appear one Entertainment Weekly. The series will also feature Florence Pugh, whose role in the show was teed up in the stinger for Black Widow, and Alaqua Cox, who is already getting her own Echo spinoff.
Sweet Tooth Unboxes Second Season
In not-so-surprising news, Netflix's hit, comic-based Sweet Tooth has been renewed for a second season. The streamer revealed the news to the cast in the sweetest way possible, by delivering huge candy bars etched with the announcement to cast members Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Dania Ramirez, Aliza Vellani and Stefania Lavie Owen. No date has been announced for the production or premiere. Season one of the series debuted in June and has been in Nielsen's top five for the first four weeks of its run.
