Month: March 2021

Judd Apatow is one of the filmmakers who is currently putting together a film about the pandemic, and now the veteran director and producer has rounded out the cast for his own movie, The Bubble.

The Bubble tells a meta-story about a group of actors who are trying to complete a big-budget Hollywood movie during the pandemic while living together in a hotel. Joining the cast for this movie are Rob Delaney (who also recently joined Mission: Impossible 7 and 8), Vir Das, Galen Hopper, Samson Kayo, Nick Kocher, Guz Khan, Ross Lee, Harry Trevaldwyn, and Danielle Vitalis. All of this casting information came from Deadline.

They join the previously announced cast that includes Fred Armisen, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Karen Gillan, Maria Bakalova, Pedro Pascal, and Peter Serafinowicz. Apatow’s daughter, Iris, is also in The Bubble, as well as actress Leslie Mann, who is married to Apatow.

Apatow co-wrote the script for The Bubble with Pam Brady and he’s set to direct it.

According to a previous report, the movie is inspired in part by what happened in real life with Jurassic World: Dominion, as Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt, and Bryce Dallas Howard became stuck in the UK as they filmed the newest Jurassic World movie.

The Bubble is slated to premiere on Netflix, and it marks the veteran’s first movie for the streaming service.

Apatow is known for directing the comedies The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This Is 40, and Trainwreck. His most recent film was The King of Staten Island starring SNL’s Pete Davidson. Apatow is also known for his producing work, as he produced films such as The Cable Guy, Anchorman, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Pineapple Express.

Peacock has announced a 10-episode order for Poker Face, a new hour-long mystery series from Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi). Poker Face will be Johnson’s first television series.

Given Johnson’s financial and critical success with the 2019 whodunit Knives Out, and the director’s pre-COVID stated intentions of developing a follow-up that would have Daniel Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc solving another murder, it’s not a shock to learn Johnson is feeling inspired by the genre. Beyond Johnson’s involvement, all that’s known so far is that Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Orange is the New Black) will star.

“I’m very excited to dig into the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching. It’s my happy place,” said Johnson in a release. “Having Natasha as a partner in crime is a dream, and we’ve found the perfect home at Peacock.”

Lyonne will co-executive produce along with Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) and Danielle Renfrew Behren (Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck). And speaking of mysteries, it was also recently announced that Lyonne’s Netflix series Russian Doll has cast Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy for Season 2–though still no word on what story that season will tell, whether it will connect with the recursive Season 1, or even what role Murphy will portray.

No release date or timelines for Poker Face’s production have yet been disclosed.

Following its debut trailer, Disney has now published a “sneak peek” video for its upcoming 101 Dalmations spin-off, Cruella, which stars Emma Stone as the evil and fashionable villain.

Set in the 1970s London, Cruella tells the origin story of the Disney villain, picking up when she was a creative and inspired young fashion designer named Estella. Her creations catch the eye of the Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson) and things go badly, which is when Estella becomes Cruella.

Cruella is directed by I Tonya’s Craig Gillespie and includes Glenn Close–who played Cruella in the live-action 101 Dalmatians movies–as an executive producer. Costumes are obviously very important for Cruella, and Disney hired Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road) to work on Cruella.

The film also features Mark Strong (Kingsman), Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya), Emily Beecham (Outside the Wire), Joel Fry (Yesterday), and more. The script was written by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, and Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, and Steve Zissis.

Cruella is slated to arrive in May, but we don’t know yet if it will be in theaters or on Disney+, or potentially both.

Blumhouse Productions has announced a slate of new, original horror movies for premium TV network Epix. The company will make eight standalone films, with the first expected to premiere in December 2021.

Blumhouse boss Jason Blum will executively produce the movies. The first release will be titled A House on the Bayou and is set to start production in the spring. It will be written and directed by Alex McAulay, and will focus on a family who experience scary things when they take a vacation to the Louisiana bayou. The other seven movies will arrive on Epix in 2022.

In a statement, Epix president Michael Wright said, “Blumhouse’s track record of producing high-quality, audience-favorite films have made them a driving force in the horror genre renaissance, and have been top-notch partners for Epix.”

These new movies are Blumhouse’s latest venture into making standalone movies for television. Last year the company produced a series of films for Amazon, collectively titled Welcome to the Blumhouse. Prior to that, Blumhouse made two seasons of the Hulu anthology series Into the Dark. In addition, the company has produced the true crime docuseries Fall River, which will premiere on Epix in May.

As for Blumhouse’s movie output, The Forever Purge is currently set for a July release, having been delayed from last year. Halloween Kills arrives in October, and the company is also producing the next Paranormal Activity movie, which will be released by Paramount+ in 2022.

After a series of protracted delays and uncertainties due to the world grappling with the coronavirus, the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie is finally making its way to North American theaters on April 23 in English dub and subtitled forms. As of last July, when word was roughly expected to come out about the film’s theatrical fate, theaters were acquiescing and closing for an indeterminate period of time.

But according to a release, confidence in moviegoing has returned to the extent that tickets will be available to pre-order starting April 9 via this website, which as of this writing isn’t yet online but will be in the near future. In addition to choosing between sub or dub tickets, fans can also opt for 4DX and IMAX experiences. Check out the trailer below to get a sense of what that experience might be like, on a screen much, much larger than your phone or computer.

Mugen Train follows the events of Demon Slayer’s final episode, in which Tanjiro Kamado and company follow Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku to investigate a mysterious series of disappearances occurring on a train. One of the Twelve Kizuki’s, Enmu, is also aboard the train and things quickly take a turn for the worst.

Fans will additionally be able to pre-order the film on Apple TV, the Microsoft Store, and the PlayStation Store starting April 26. After the theatrical window, fans will be able to watch the film on streaming popular platforms on June 22.

Jade Raymond has announced the formation of an independent studio called Haven, and it already has its first project booked: a new, original IP for PlayStation platforms. The new studio is based in Montreal, and its project is backed by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Raymond published the announcement on the PlayStation Blog. While it’s mostly devoted to her new studio’s outlook and philosophy, she does mention that Sony’s “commitment to excellence is unmatched” and that the game has “their backing and support.” The blog was also addressed specifically at the PlayStation community, suggesting the new IP will be some form of exclusive.

“We want to create worlds where players can escape, have fun, express themselves, and find community,” Raymond said. “We want to pour our passion into a project. We want to make something wondrous for people to experience. Because we believe in the power of games to bring joy to people’s lives.” She also said the studio is named after her outlook that games are a haven for players.

The blog also noted that it’s been a “strange and difficult” year, due to the pandemic, social injustice, and job elimination. That sparked self-reflection and questions of whether she wanted to be involved in game development, and she concluded that this is still important for her.

The point about job elimination may hit close to home, because Raymond was recently impacted herself. She had been attached to Google’s ambitious Stadia studios initiative, but the company recently shut that down entirely. It wished her the best of luck, but we never saw what her team was planning for Stadia-exclusive games.

Raymond has been involved in some big franchises like Assassin’s Creed, and for a while was attached to EA for a Star Wars game. This is the latest in her big moves, though this time it’s her own independent studio instead of being within an existing major publisher.

A new Walking Dead video game has been announced. Called The Walking Dead: Survivors, the strategy game is in development for iOS and Android and features familiar characters from the comics. The game challenges players to build a town and then defend it from not only other players, but also zombies walkers.

Rick, Maya, Vayne, Glenn, and Dwight are featured in Survivors, along with other characters to be revealed later. There are “combat” survivors who are in charge of doing battle, while “development” survivors are used to build and improve a settlement to protect it from the undead.

As a strategy game, players will decide how and where to build their bases and which characters to promote as they try to stay alive against the hordes of undead. For attackers, these take the form of melee, sharpshooters, and cavalry, and each can be upgraded to help you survive longer. When playing defense against the zombies, you’ll need to place obstacles and fortify your positions.

After fighting against zombies, the villainous Negan comes knocking with his group of “Saviours.” At that point you’ll need to assemble your own clan to go up against him.

Survivors is scheduled to release in summer 2021. You can pre-register for the game on iOS in the US and UK and Android in the US right now. The game is developed by Chinese studio Elex in partnership with Walking Dead rights-owner Skybound.

The new live-action movie adaptation of Peter Pan has started production. The Disney film is titled Peter Pan & Wendy and will star Jude Law as Captain Hook.

Peter Pan & Wendy is now shooting in Vancouver, ahead of a 2022 release on Disney+. The movie is directed by David Lowery, who previously helmed the Disney film Pete’s Dragon, as well as the upcoming dark fantasy film The Green Knight.

The cast also includes newcomer Alexander Molony as Peter, Ever Anderson (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter) as Wendy, Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish) as Tinkerbell, Molly Parker (House of Cards) as Mrs. Darling, Alan Tudyk (Rogue One) as Mr Darling, and Jim Gaffigan (Bob’s Burgers) as Smee.

In a statement, Lowery said, “Peter Pan has long been one of my favorite stories, partially because I’ve always resisted growing up, but also because of the heart, adventure and imagination that makes J.M. Barrie’s original tale so evergreen. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to redefine his iconic characters for a new generation–and even more excited that I get to do so with such an exceptional cast and crew.”

Peter Pan & Wendy will be the first high-profile Disney live-action movie to be made specifically for Disney+. Although last year’s Mulan was given a premium release on the studio’s streaming platform, it was originally intended for a traditional theatrical release before the pandemic closed cinemas across the world.

The next live-action Disney movie will be Cruella. The film stars Emma Stone as the iconic 101 Dalmatians villain, and it hits theaters in May. Check out the latest Cruella trailer.

For WWE fans, March 16 is Steve Austin Day, also known as 3:16 Day. Both WWE fans and wrestlers alike come together to celebrate the work of six-time WWE Champion “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Over on Twitter, the love for the “Bionic Redneck” ran rampant with posts featuring various videos and animated gifs of everyone’s favorite ringmaster.

Five years ago, WWE talent did their best impression of Austin’s now-iconic King of the Ring ’96 speech in a compilation video. Now, they’ve done it again with a different roster including former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and Montez Ford.

Last year, Austin celebrated the event in front of an empty area with Becky Lynch as the COVID-19 pandemic had just been declared and live events had been put on hold. While he’s still out of in-ring competition for the most part, his podcast on the WWE Network, the Stone Cold Sessions, have him more in a mentor and historian position with fellow legends and the biggest stars of today.