This week in movie news:
Ronda Rousey will star in the Road House reboot; a new trailer for the Cate Blanchett drama Carol has been released; Jamie Foxx may join the cast of Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver; Kate Hudson is replacing Rebel Wilson in the voice cast of Kung Fu Panda 3; Michael Fassbender is in talks to join crime drama The Snowman; Patton Oswalt joins the growing ensemble cast of The Circle; iZombie star Bradley James joins the cast of Underworld 5; Entourage star Kevin Connolly will direct John Travolta in biopic Gotti; and the teaser trailer for Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next.
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UFC fighter Ronda Rousey will play the lead in MGN’s upcoming Road House reboot. The original 1989 film starred Patrick Swayze as the bouncer at a dingy bar in Missouri, and the film became a cult classic. A straight-to-video sequel starring Johnathon Schaech, Road House 2: Last Call, followed in 2006.
Production on the franchise reboot is set to begin next year, and the studio is currently meeting with screenwriters. Rousey reportedly reached out to Swayze’s widow, Lisa Niemi, to receive her blessing before committing to the project. The fighter/actress has previously starred in Furious 7 and The Expendables 3 and will play herself in an upcoming biopic of her life for Paramount.
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The Weinstein Company has released a new trailer for Carol, the upcoming romantic drama from director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, I’m Not There). Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, the film stars Rooney Mara as a young woman who falls for an older married woman, played by Cate Blanchett, in the 1950s.
Carol received a great of attention at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or and Mara tied for the Best Actress award. The film – which is set to hit theaters in limited release on November 20, 2015 – is being pegged early as a critical darling and potential awards frontrunner.
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Jamie Foxx is in talks to join the cast of Baby Driver, the new film from writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World). If the Oscar-winning Foxx signs on, he will appear alongside Lily James (Cinderella) and Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars).
Baby Driver centers on a crime boss who recruits a young getaway driver (Elgort), who relies on his own personal soundtrack and must soon contend with a great deal of trouble when a heist goes awry. The film is said to be a combination of crime, action music and sound, according to Wright, and is set for release on March 17, 2017.
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Kate Hudson will replace Rebel Wilson in the voice cast of Kung Fu Panda 3. Hudson will now provide the voice of Mei Mei, a ribbon-dancing panda who has an infatuation for Jack Black’s Po. The recasting move is reportedly due to the extended production schedule the project has faced, leading Wilson to depart the film.
Mei Mei’s scenes will now be re-animated to reflect Hudson’s version of the character. Hudson joins a large returning cast that includes Black, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen and Dustin Hoffman as well as new additions J.K. Simmons and Bryan Cranston. The film – directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni – will hit theaters on January 29, 2016.
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Michael Fassbender – who is currently generating Oscar buzz for his lead role in Steve Jobs – may join The Snowman for Universal. Tomas Alfreson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) is directing the film, which centers on novelist Jo Nesbo’s detective Harry Hole.
In The Snowman, Hole – who has featured in 10 of Nesbo’s books – investigates the disappearance of a woman whose scarf is found wrapped around an ominous snowman. The film is being envisioned as the first in an ongoing series of standalone detective stories featuring the character.
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Comedian/actor Patton Oswalt will appear in James Ponsoldt’s The Circle, joining an impressive ensemble cast that includes Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega and Karen Gillan. Based on the Dave Eggers’ novel, the film centers on a young woman (Watson) who gets a job at the titular company, only to discover that its Internet-based system – which results in one online identity for users – might be more dangerous than she anticipated.
Oswalt will play a man named Tom Stenton, one of the “Three Wise Men” who founded The Circle with the characters played by Hanks and Boyega. Oswalt’s previous big-screen credits include Disney and Pixar’s Ratatouille and a critically acclaimed supporting role in Jason Reitman’s Young Adult.
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Bradley James – who plays Lowell Tracey on The CW series iZombie – will star in Underworld 5 as the film’s main villain. He will star alongside returning stars Kate Beckinsale and Theo James in the Anna Foerster-directed entry in the long-running franchise.
In addition to his role on iZombie, James recently wrapped the first season of the A&E series Damien, which premieres next year. Underworld 5 marks his first major feature film role after years of working on television. The film shoots in Prague next month for a October 21, 2016 release.
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Kevin Connolly – best known for his role as Eric Murphy on HBO’s Entourage and the recent film adaptation – will direct the long-in-development Gotti biopic about notorious crime boss John Gotti. John Travolta has long been attached to the lead role and remains onboard, though the pivotal role of John Gotti’s son has yet to be cast.
Connolly has previously directed episodes of Entourage as well as the ESPN documentary Big Shot and indie Gardener of Eden. However, Gotti marks his biggest directorial project yet and could prove to be a major, if past interest in crime dramas of this kind proves to be an indicator. Gotti is anticipating to begin production in January 2016.
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The teaser trailer has been released for Where to Invade Them, the latest documentary film from writer/director Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11). The film features Moore spending time in numerous foreign countries, where he explores their alternative methods for handling the same social and economic problems the United States faces.
Moore’s first film in six years, Where to Invade Next marks yet another potentially controversial work in which the filmmaker tackles divisive sociopolitical topics. Previous films have delved into the U.S. health care industry, the 9/11 attacks and American gun violence (in his Oscar-winning 2002 release Bowling for Columbine). Where to Invade Next premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival but has yet to receive an official theatrical release date.
