Hollywood Hotline - Week of January 30, 2025
HOLLYWOOD HOTLINE Archives
Howdy Hotliners,
Quentin Tarantino stopped by the Sundance Film Festival this week to talk about himself and how great he is and mentioned he was writing a play next. Which I couldn’t help but give a mirthless chuckle in response to as my brain immediately went back to his Broadway acting debut in 1998’s WAIT UNTIL DARK opposite Marisa Tomei. Which wasn’t great!
Without further ado, let’s check the Hotline:
FUTURE FILMS:
Not “back,” as in “He’s back in something good!” More like, “He’s back in another shitty-sounding Netflix comedy.” Although this one’s for Sony.
“In BLUE FALCON Murphy will play a retired superspy who heads for the destination wedding of his estranged son, and finds himself in proximity with his archrival.”
M. Night Shyamalan Got Jake Gyllenhaal Trapped Too!
Night and Nicholas Sparks are gonna deliver us a tear-jerker with a twist! A twist I’m sure we’re all gonna love!
“[The] upcoming film, a supernatural romantic thriller, based on an original story co-created by Shyamalan and global-bestselling novelist Nicholas Sparks. Shyamalan and Sparks are independently writing a screenplay and a novel, respectively, based on the same original love story.”
Anton Corbijn Makes Thriller About Author Patricia Highsmith
“The movie has been adapted by Australian writer Joanna Murray-Smith from her play of the same name, revolving around Patricia Highsmith’s encounter with an ambitious young literary agent, played by previously attached Alden Ehrenreich. Set in 1995, an ageing Patricia Highsmith is living a secluded existence in the Swiss Alps with only her cats for company. When a pushy young man turns up at her residence, sent by her New York publisher to persuade her to write a final book in her best-selling Tom Ripley series, it becomes clear he is on a more sinister mission.”
Sounds like an arty-farty high-concept. Color me curious.
RESIDENT EVIL Franchise Getting Rebooted by Someone Good!
Don’t like what Paul W.S. Anderson has done with the place? Don’t sweat it as they’re tearing down the house and building a new one in it's place by the BARBARIAN (2022) filmmaker!
“THE RESIDENT EVIL movies, based on the Capcom video games, were a mix of horror, sci-fi and action genres and followed the adventures of a heroine who fights zombies and the Umbrella Corporation, the bio warfare company that let loose the monsters. The movies have grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide.
Cregger’s take is described by sources as a revamp that will take the title to its horror roots and be more faithful to the initial games, which date back to 1996.”
ROMY AND MICHELE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION Getting Legacy Sequel!
Low-key I love the original and am excited to see this.
Robert Rodriguez’s THE FACULTY (1998) Getting Reboot
The original is not bad even though Josh Hartnett’s haircut and visual effects don’t hold up.
Brad Pitt to Star in Another David Ayer Movie
Oh how the mighty have fallen
Awkwafina and Arnold To Star in Holiday Family Comedy
This feels like Netflix or Amazon. See if you can guess which one!
The Brat Going to Be a BratStar
“Charli xcx is teaming up with A24 to produce and star in a new movie called “The Moment,” based on her own original idea.The “Brat” pop star will produce the film as the first project under her new production company, Studio365. Plot details are kept under wraps. THE MOMENT is the feature directorial debut of Scottish photographer and filmmaker Aidan Zamiri, who wrote the screenplay with Bertie Brandes. Charli’s longtime collaborator A. G. Cook, a producer whose fingerprints are all over “Brat,” will compose the score.”
I’m so old I don’t know who Charli xcx is or what she’s about but I know A24 is cool, bro so she must be cool!
BARBIE Co-Writer Makes Heartbreaking Comedy Next Directed Project
The Netflix picture stars: “George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Riley Keough, Emily Mortimer, Patrick Wilson, Jim Broadbent, Eve Hewson and Alba Rohrwacher.”
I’m old enough to remember people asking for refunds to GREENBERG (2010)
TRENDY TV:
The Safdie Brothers Working with BEEF Writer on SUPERFAKES
“The series hails from creator Alice Ju, who will serve as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. In addition, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie will serve as executive producers along with Howard Klein and Olivia Gerke of 3 Arts. Ronald Bronstein and Eli Bush also executive produce. A24 and UCP will produce.
Per the official logline, “Superfakes” is said to follow “a small-time Chinatown luxury counterfeit dealer who enters a dangerous black market underworld in order to fund a life of suburban respectability for her family.”
Hot Ratboi Jeremy Allen White in Hot New Ratboi Series
“[From the author of CALL ME BY YOUR NAME comes] ENIGMA VARIATIONS, [which] charts the life of a man named Paul, whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents’ cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he’ll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men—whether he’s on a tennis court in Central Park or on a New York sidewalk in early spring. Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire. Ahead of every step Paul takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love lingers. We may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and to others. But sooner or later, we discover who we’ve always known we were.”
Sounds tortured and hot.
Hot New Hansel Playing Robin Hood in New Series
“Jack Patten is quickly making a name for himself in Hollywood. The Australian actor, a 2023 graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, has landed his first TV role, and it’s the lead of an on-air series, MGM+’s ROBIN HOOD.
The casting follows Patten’s similarly impressive first Hollywood booking on the upcoming Patrick Hughes film for Netflix, War Machine, which landed the actor US representation by Gersh. Todd Lieberman’s Hidden Pictures, which produces both War Machine and Robin Hood, cast Patten in the movie and then suggested him for ROBIN HOOD.”
Stars aren’t born they’re made. Or is it stars are born not made? I forget. Sounds like a series for Boomer Dads.
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE Reboot
Speaking of series for Boomer Dads.
I love how in SCROOGED (1988) Bill Murray says, “Check the records. I did some stuff. There was another time, though. I was on a hill covered with flowers...and there was a beautiful girl with pigtails...” And then realizes he’s remembering the homecoming episode of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (1974-1983)
TANGY THEATER:
Sigourney Weaver’s West End Production of ‘The Tempest’
“In a dramatic scene worthy of the Bard himself, a London stage performance by Hollywood legend Sigourney Weaver was brought to an abrupt halt when two Just Stop Oil activists stormed the Theatre Royal Drury Lane during Monday evening’s performance of “The Tempest.”
The “Alien” star, who had been mid-scene and seated in a chair on stage, was whisked away by theater staff after the protesters launched a confetti cannon and climbed onto the boards. The disruption prompted a voice to announce, “We’ll have to stop the show, ladies and gents, sorry,” according to BBC News.”
Would have loved to have seen this play.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Daisy Ridley Taking a VR Road Trip
“Daisy Ridley will star in a new virtual reality experience telling the untold VR story of Bertha Benz, and later serve as an executive producer when the project is expanded into a feature film, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal.
Emmy-nominated Eloise Singer will direct the project, from London-based Singer Studios, about the wife of Karl Benz, inventor of the Motorwagen. Bertha embarked on the world’s first road trip in 1888, showcasing the car to the skeptical public and press but ultimately making history and paving the way for the age of innovation.”
A million years ago I had my own VR pitch for an incredible road trip written about in this Wired Magazine article.
Screenwriting Hack David S. Goyer Wants to Steal Your Ideas
“[Hack] Writer David Goyer (Foundation, The Dark Knight trilogy, Blade) has created Emergence, a world meant to be the first franchise on a new platform called Incention, which connects fans to expand and create intellectual property.
It basically allows studios and rights holders to open their IP to fans and other creators while leveraging AI to streamline licensing, revenue sharing and community engagement. The platform is built on the blockchain so ideas can be tracked and creators compensated.”
“Please feed my AI machine your ideas and I promise that if I profit off them I’ll send you a check in the mail!?” Sounds like a scam!
COMING SOON:
SINNERS - Second trailer just dropped because I guess peeps weren’t posting enough about the first one?
MAGAZINE DREAMS - What if Travis Bickle or Patrick Bateman or Lou Bloom a sad bodybuilder with a sad dad?
LOCKED - What if Herbie Fully Loaded with Bullets?
RIFF RAFF - Am I crazy or does Bill Murray talk and sound like he’s had some minor strokes?
Thank God this month is almost over. Just a couple more months until spring. Although all of LA’s beaches are closed from Malibu to Playa del Rey :(
Until next week, Hotliners! Thanks for calling in.
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