Movie Scum

While I don’t hold out much hope for Batman V. Superman , Ben Affleck is not a point of my consternation. Given his resurgence as a powerful actor/director combo, I trust Affleck will be the least troubling part of DC Comic’s epic superhero movie of 2016. It’s just the shaky director, the overstuffed cast, and the gimmicky premise that has me questioning my future earnings on a box office ticket. But a solo Batman flick, simply titled The Batman , not only starring Affleck but also directed by him too? Count me in. At this point it is merely a rumor posited by Latino Review that Affleck will be in the director’s chair but I’d argue that’s a fine choice for whatever direction DC decides to take Batman. Affleck has already proved his worth in his previous directorial efforts of Gone Baby Gone , The Town , and Argo (factually notwithstanding) and I’m anxious to see what his take on the iconic character will look like when not shoehorned in with every other damn DC Comics char

After a few false starts and broken dreams, Dimension Films is again readying to unleash Michael Myers on film-going audiences. Bloody Disgusting reports that plans have been unveiled for Halloween Returns *, the eleventh installment to the franchise whose on- and off-screen butching has been around since 1978. Returns (not to be confused with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers ) will be written by Feast and Saw scribes Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston with Dunston set to direct. The story (as if it mattered as long as there is no white horse around) is that Myers in now on death row for his crimes but escapes (natch) and has in his targets a child of a former victim and a tough-nosed cop who is obsessed with Myers. Probably also other semi-naked, horny teens since this is a latter day Halloween film. From the cast reports, this installment seems to return the series back to its original continuity from the first two films rather than continuing Rob Zombie’s insanity o

Unbreakable   was a modest success for director M. Night Shyamalan after his genuinely good (remember when that was true) debut and now, Night longs to bring it to TV. Speaking with IGN , Shyamalan expresses interest in continuing the saga of undercover superheroes (note: I haven’t seen this movie in forever) saying. “as a way continue the story, yes. That would [interest me].” We here at Movie Scum are strongly in favor of the shift to great, truncated TV dramas but are hesitant that M. Night (regardless of whatever acclaim his recent show Wayward Pines is getting) should be allowed anywhere near the same medium as The Good Wife , Game of Thrones , or Breaking Bad . And let us not forget that he directed The Happening . And The Last Airbender . And After Earth . And ...

Aside from a voice-over role in Gnomeo and Juliet and an assuredly special episode of Walker, Texas Ranger , Hulk Hogan has mostly kept his hijinks in the fake ring of professional wrestling. Will that be changing soon? Not since Hogan and Tiny ‘Zeus’ Lister faced off with the smarmy assistant from Ghostbusters 2 in No Holds Barred have I been as excited about The Hulk appearing against a bunch of wrinkle-faced mutants (Gremlins 2 not withstanding). The Hulk confirms talks with Sylvester Stallone about appearing in the presumably forthcoming Expendables 4 as the villainous villain who no doubt will kill and maim and bring our rag-tag team of Expendables (and maybe -belles) together. Considering The Rock is likely a good twenty years away from taking this role, Hogan seems like a good fit. I just hope they can find a suitable stunt man.

The only film director more past his prime than Kevin Smith, George Romero , will have his groaning, shuffling corpse of relevance displayed on weekly TV. Romero, fresh off the disappointments of his last several zombie movies, apparently turned to Marvel to create ‘ Empire of the Dead ,’ a story which features humans, zombies, and vampires for some reason all vying for control or social issues or some nonsense. And according to Variety , it will be joining the growing party of the undead on weekly broadcast. No word yet on how much it will suck.

In spite of the rumor* that all the Transformers films thus far have been impromptu sketches from the mind of Michael Bay, there actually were credited writers on each and every one. Now their are more writers who get the renowned prestige of listing Transformers on their resume. Variety reports that the threatened Transformers spin-offs and sequels have found writers ranging from The Walking Dead ’s Robert Kirkman to at least four other action writers not currently attached to scribe a Marvel film. Perhaps it is best that Paramount is going this thoroughly asinine way of expanding the Transformers universe to finally fulfill either the prophecy of End of Times or a public saturation of robot-based racial and testicle jokes. One of the two has to be the result. *I made up this rumor. But it tracks.

According to Comingsoon.net , the Fairuza Balk & Neve Campbell scorcher The Craft is next on the reboot chopping block. Add in a remake of She’s All That , I Know What You Did Last Summer , and a TV revival of the series Scream , there seems to be little else to remake from just fifteen years ago. And yet, still no word on a remake for Urban Legend . I wonder about the world sometimes.

In his interview with Indiewire , 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland may have come up with another sequel following the not-quite-zombie exodus from England to the rest of Europe. “In that conversation, an idea for ‘28 Months’ arrived. I had a sort of weird idea that popped into my head. Partly because of a trip I’d taken. I had this thought, and I suggested it to Andrew [Macdonald] and Danny, but I also said I don’t want to work on it. I don’t really want to play a role, and Andrew said, ‘Leave it to me.’ So he’s gone off and is working on it.” Considering the first film was a powerhouse of man versus nature-ish as well as emphasizing the brutality of human nature, the sequel, 28 Weeks Later which Garland was not directly involved in was a laugh-fest of poor decisions and questionable plot points. Here’s to hoping the next one gets it right in the quasi-zombie and/or infected saga.

Not willing to let a 22-year-old sleeping dog lie, Warner Brothers is kicking up the old pooch for another installment of 1993’s The Fugitive . No word yet on any returning players including the incredible old duo of Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones according to Deadline . Considering the original Fugitive started as a TV series back in the 60s, was turned into a film of the same title in ‘93, was followed by the forgettable U.S. Marshalls sequel in 1998, and then repurposed again into a TV show in the early 2000s, I suspect we’ll see another half-dozen sequels and TV adaptations before we all succumb to death by the one-armed man.

My summer movie guide to Furious 7 may have prematurely called an end to the franchise with the death of its lead star Paul Walker. Especially since it is became the fastest film to gross $1 billion worldwide. But for fast of the fast and furious variety, it seems smart to set aside April 14, 2017 on your calender for the next installment, according to de-facto series star Vin Diesel from CinemaCon today. And maybe Kurt Russel will play a bigger part! Aside from the release date and some vague details, nothing else is known but considering the amount of money still being delivered from this seven film series, Universal Picture would surely be stupid to stop milking that cow while the audience is still sucking its teat. Paul Walker may have been an integral part of the franchise, his death (and apparently very touching tribute at the end of the last film) will not end the Furiousness. In fact, maybe it will just increase it.

Well, on TV possibly. Deadline is reporting that Paramount Television (apparently undeterred by the failure to transfer Axel Foley to the small screen) is developing a TV series based on everyone’s second favorite Star Trek movie, Galaxy Quest . No other details are readily available but I’m fairly confident in thinking Sir Alan Rickman will not be stooping to broadcast TV to reprise his role of Dr. Lazarus. Best case scenario for this would be a limited production run (on Netflix, because Daredevil is awesome and GO WATCH IT!) that would allow the hilarious space hijinks to continue without a huge time commitment from all of the actors who made the movie what it was. By Grabthar’s Hammer ... let’s do this shit!

What do The Purge , Insidious , Paranormal Activity , and Sinister have in common? Jason Blum , previously just a junior producer on lesser Hollywood features, has become the major player in horror cinema since his participation in launching the first Paranormal Activity that kicked the horror genre out of pointless remakes and big-star titles and into original, low-budget productions that actually ... were scary. Just one look at the filmography of Blum’s production company Blumhouse turns up a couple of duds that did nothing for me. But more than not, the films under Blumhouse’s shingle are more of the cerebral, under-your-skin type horror than fake jump scares. Of course, there have been many independent horror films over the years to accomplish the same feat but these productions aren’t limited to VOD or straight-to-DVD status. These are opening in 2000+ theaters each and every time. The Gallows looks to try and continue that trend. Even looking at the teaser above, it d

Everyone can agree that Ice Cube and F. Gary Gray’s Friday   is a great movie. Most everyone else can agree that its sequels were not as great for one reason: a dearth of Chris Tucker. After Friday came out in 1995, Tucker enjoyed a career-high shortly thereafter with roles in the Rush Hour series, The Fifth Element , and some Charlie Sheen movie. But the elusive Tucker was happy enough bantering with Jackie Chan while likely bathing himself in his millions to consider returning to the Friday series where he big break came from. Ice Cube (not be confused with NYPD’s finest Ice-T), while promoting a special screening of Friday on April 20 (420, natch), tells The Wrap though that may be changing: “I think all the parties involved, all the people that’s been in the franchise, people from the first one to the third one, want to do another one.” Considering Tucker’s only substantial role in Hollywood aside from the Rush Hours was an excellent supporting part in Silver Linings P

Among the chief concerns by many when it was announced that Spider-Man was officially joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe was worry that we'd be subjected to yet another G-D origin story. But Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige says nope! Crave Online reported the quote from Feige who seems to be just as weary of Spider-Man Begins as the rest of us. "There is a young kid [already] running around New York City in a homemade version of the Spider-Man costume in the MCU, you just don't know it yet," So fear not, fellow interwebbers. We will not be subjected to yet another tale of a young nerd named Peter Parker who gets bitten by a mutated spider and yada yada yada. So, at the very least this seems to mean that Marvel won't be as tone-deaf as Sony when it comes to what needs to go in a Spider-Man film.

More Machete! Even though both movies released thus far have only grossed about $30 million, it seems that someone is bankrolling Robert Rodriguez's next entry into Danny Trejo's Machete series. Only this time, it's in space! And it might be titled Machete Kills In Space ! And you know, I can't think of any other floundering series that has turned to space and hasn't come back into relevance. Next: Slinky: The Movie Hasbro, not content with ruining childhood through bad Transformers movies, is reportedly looking to make a movie from everyone's childhood diet-staple, Play-Doh. Deadline reports Paul Feig is in talks to direct the film but the rest of the details are sparse. Granted, this sounds like a bad idea but then again The Lego Movie did as well. Maybe it'll turn out not horrible? Nawwwwww. The Gift of Creepy Joel Edgerton The trailer was just released for co-star/director Joel Edgerton's upcoming The Gift . I like Jason Bateman and I l

Considering the 84-year-old director has helmed nine films in the past decade, that may not be much of a stretch. But Clint Eastwood isn't going for the gold in a 400 meter dash. Yahoo reports Eastwood is heavily considering a film based on the Centennial Olympic Park bombing that took place in 1996's Olympic Games in Atlanta. So far, Jonah Hill has been cast as Richard Jewell, the security guard who discovered the bomb and later became the top suspect, with Leonardo diCaprio in talks to play his defense attorney. Even if you don't particular like Eastwood as a director (I was ambivalent toward J. Edgar and completely uninterested in Jersey Boys ), you have to admire his stamina. Clint Eastwood is the Hugh Hefner of Hollywood.

Warner Brothers is clearly disappointed in revenue relating to Batman properties, especially considering Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy only made about $1.2 billion at the box office. So naturally, in addition to shoehorning Batman into the next Superman movie, the original Batman and Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward are returning to their characters , albeit in animated form. The animated flick is set to open sometime in 2016 to commemorate the original series' 50th anniversary. No word yet on whether onomatopoeias such as 'BLAM' and 'SMACK' will be along for the ride.

Hollywood 's 'It-Woman' who has played everything from royalty to an assassin wants a part in the Fast & Furious series. Helen Mirren told Yahoo : My great ambition is to be in a Fast and Furious movie. I so want to be a mad driver in a Fast and Furious movie. My claim to fame is I always do my own driving — I was on Top Gear, and I did [my lap] in a very good time. I keep putting it out there, and they never ask me. If this series is to continue, this needs to happen. If only so Mirren can proclaim her Vin Diesel love in person.

In the same vein as Marvel's Cinematic Universe and it's copycats including the now-defunct Spiderman Universe, DC Comics Universe, and Universal Monster Universe comes word that Paramount is trying to universe-itize its money-making godawful Transformers series. Michael Bay and friends have turned to Batman & Robin scribe Akiva Goldsman to develop the action-figure-turned-dregs-of-cinema to expand upon the four existing movies with other spin-offs and sequels. No word yet if one of those spin-offs will include those awful, racist, thug-talking robots from Transformers: Revenge of the Writer's Strike .

Girl of the Rings There was some speculation about Rings , the upcoming film in ' The Ring ' series, that it would be a prequel to the original tale of a haunted VHS tape and a water-logged little girl. Presumably this speculation came about by those who care. However CinemaBlend relays director F. Javier Gutierrez's tweet that it is in fact a sequel. Meh. Still not interested. Better Smurfs, please? In case you never saw it (please, for the love of God, don't) the CGI-animated Smurfs was the cinematic equivalent to a giant turd in the toilet that not only doesn't flush but it in fact clogs the plumbing, overflowing the toilet, and ruining your entire life. /Film says a traditional animated version is coming to theaters 2017. It can't be as bad. It just can't. '50 Shades' Sequel Probably Doesn't Need a Director By all accounts, 50 Shades of Grey was a terrible movie with stilted performances, zero charisma, and an unhealthy lesson