And could Neil Gaiman be returning to Doctor Who? (Probably not, but there's a new rumor.) Kick-Ass 2 finds one of its heroes after watching Scrubs reruns. Deadpool just slips further and further away. Plus Catching Fire, Ninja Turtles, and Haunted Mansion updates!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
Catching Fire
Bruno Gunn, whose previous credits include guest roles on Sons of Anarchy and The Office, has been cast as Brutus, a former champion tribute from District 2. [Coming Soon]
Deadpool
People keep casting Ryan Reynolds in movies at an astonishing rate, with both the Highlander reboot and a new film with The Sweet Hereafter's Atom Egoyan reportedly lined up. This likely means that Deadpool could be delayed more or less indefinitely at this point. Which honestly doesn't represent much of a change from the situation as it was before, as even 20th Century Fox seems to have forgotten they're supposed to be making this thing. [Deadline]
Kick-Ass 2
Donald Faison, best known for playing Turk on Scrubs but also for being Princess Cookie in a particularly brilliant episode of Adventure Time, has reportedly been cast in the sequel as the heroic Captain Gravity, described as "a copy writer by day who dresses up as a superhero by night and wants to start a start a hero group called Justice Forever." [Heat Vision]
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
This movie, which is pretty much exactly what the title suggests, was delayed from March of this year all the way to January 2013, in a month generally reserved for dumping the worst movies a studio has to offer. However, the massive success of The Avengers and the possibly strong performance of The Bourne Legacy means that star Jeremy Renner — he plays Hansel, while Quantum of Solace's Gemma Arterton plays Gretel — could give the movie a bit of extra buzz.
The question for Paramount now is reportedly whether to release an R-rated or PG-13 version of the movie, and some IMDB commenters who claim to have attended test screenings (and so really shouldn't be talking about this, legally speaking) have stepped forward to compare the two movies. Here's one reaction:
I can't say a lot because of agreements with the company, Overall I will say that I really enjoyed this one. It was different, violent, pretty funny — Sort of like Drive Angry 3D or Scott Pilgrim humor, and I thought everyone did well. It kind of felt like they nailed the ancient humor the way ‘Your Highness' was supposed too but didn't. I went to the R-Rated version, I haven't seen an PG-13 version and I didn't even think they were cutting it up to be that, I hope they go back to the R Version because that was one hell of a fun movie. A PG-13 version would just ruin everything.
And here's another:
The first one was definitely the Rated R version. Good humor, good action, great fight scenes, awesome dynamic between Renner and Arterton. I loved it so much the first time, I made a group of friends go to the second screening the next week. But the next week, they had heavily edited it and turned it into a PG-13 film. If they keep it R, it's gonna be great. Silly, but actiony and fun. If it's PG13, it won't be worth it. Let's hope it's an R rating.
Not to impugn the taste of IMDB commenters or anything — of course The Shawkshank Redemption is the best movie of all time, everyone knows that — but the movie might not be quite as good as these reports indicate. After all, Paramount did bounce the movie to January without ever even giving a reason, so I'd advise treating this whole thing with extreme skepticism. Still, at least we now know that, as another attendee put it, the movie "was graphic and gory, I had to look away a couple of times because it was just gross", which is actually kind of the most promising thing I've heard so far. [Collider]
Ninja Turtles
Comics co-creator Kevin Eastman discusses why Michael Bay and Wrath of the Titans director Jonathan Liebesman's new planned movie has been pushed back to 2014:
"I talked to [producer] Scott Mednick yesterday, and he's seen the most recent 50 [script] pages and said it's as good as the last version — they've really knocked it out of the park. I've seen a chunk of it, and it's going to be a great movie, despite what everybody thinks. Essentially they pushed it back for two reasons: One is the director, Jonathan Liebesman, wanted to make sure he could do the effects to the level he wants them at, and the fight scenes to the way they should be. Also, their release date is almost exactly on the 30th [TMNT] anniversary. May 5, 1984 is when the first Turtles comic came out. May 16, 2014, is almost exactly 30 years after. So basically it's an anniversary movie now."
The Haunted Mansion
Guillermo del Toro takes some time out of making Pacific Rim to discuss one of his other fifty planned projects, this one a new movie version of the Disney ride, which I think we can safely assume is meant to be scarier and more serious than that misbegotten Eddie Murphy vehicle:
I delivered my last draft five weeks ago. I have a meeting with them in three weeks. I know they like the screenplay. I need to meet with them in three weeks. That's what I know. I know their reaction to the draft was good. We have a bunch of conceptualist art, but you never know, to predict anything else is hard for me to know. I should have called them and said, "Hey." Usually, it's very hard for me to predict what a thing like that means... Yeah, I still would love to make that movie. I came on board originally as a writer and producer, the decision I think they may be waiting, is for me to say I'm directing the movie. Or am I directing it next, which is too early for me to know what I'm doing next in live-action. I'm in the middle of Pacific Rim and I don't know what I'm going to do next.
[Collider]
Doctor Who
There's a hugely unlikely rumor going around that Neil Gaiman is writing an episode for season seven, and that the episode would see the long-awaited return of the original, non-Cybus Cybermen. (There's some controversy over whether the Cybermen in season five were from the parallel universe or not, but they acted identically to all the other new-series Cybermen, so it's kind of moot.) Still, while no one wants to see the return of the good old Mondasian bruisers more than me, I can't imagine there's much chance of this being true, considering how ridiculously busy Gaiman's schedule is, and how it was really something of a minor miracle that "The Doctor's Wife" ever got made considering the budget and logistical challenges involved. If it does happen, it would be episode twelve, right before the presumably Steven Moffat-penned finale. But, again, I would take this with a massive grain of salt for the foreseeable future. [Sci-Fi FX]
Supernatural
New showrunner Jeremy Carver discusses how purgatory will affect both Misha Collins's Castiel — who is set to appear in at least eight episodes, according to The CW president Mark Pedowitz — and Dean:
You're certainly going to see more of [Castiel] in terms of understanding what happened in purgatory, and that's as far as we're going, because it's fairly significant what happened in purgatory. Purgatory has a very different effect [on Dean than Hell did]-and different types of beings that are down there. Just because he's driven and he's very into hunting, it doesn't mean all is well."
Warehouse 13
Here are some promo photos for next week's episode and the fourth overall, "There's Always A Downside." [SpoilerTV]
And here are some for the fifth episode, "No Pain, No Gain." [SpoilerTV]
Arrow
The sixth episode of The CW's Green Arrow show will reportedly introduce the recurring character Jenny, who is described as "a beautiful but deadly adversary." I can't think of any DC supervillains off the top of my head named Jenny, so this is probably a new creation, but I welcome any thoughts people might have on a potential comics equivalent. [SpoilerTV]
The Vampire Diaries
Zach Roerig discusses what's ahead for Matt once he learns what really happened to Elena:
"There's going to be a profound sense of guilt, but shadowing that is going be this overwhelming feeling of being loved. Matt hasn't felt that kind of love since season one or if ever in his life. Matt's going to be guilty, but also because he's been loved so much, earn his life everyday."
Phoebe Tonkin, who had a regular role on that other CW show about magical teens, The Secret Circle, has reportedly been cast in the recurring role of Hayley, who is described as "a wild, sexy and very free-spirited friend with whom Tyler (Michael Trevino) shares a past." She should debut in the third episode of season four. [TV Guide]
Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.