Daniel Kaluuya gets distressingly existential about the Barney movie he’s producing for Mattel. Jamie Foxx could be hunting vampires at Netflix. Nia Da Costa teases Candyman’s approach to making a monster. Plus, Sigourney Weaver talks diving deep (literally) for Avatar, and don’t expect Clancy Brown to return on The Mandalorian. Spoilers, away!
Barney & Friends
Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya briefly discussed the Barney the Dinosaur movie he’s producing for Mattel in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, and how it will...go some places?
Barney taught us, ‘I love you, you love me. Won’t you say you love me too?’ That’s one of the first songs I remember, and what happens when that isn’t true? I thought that was really heartbreaking. I have no idea why but it feels like that makes sense. It feels like there’s something unexpected that can be poignant but optimistic. Especially at this time now, I think that’s really, really needed.
Day Shift
Deadline reports Jamie Foxx is attached to star in Day Shift, an upcoming vampire movie at Netflix from writer Tyler Tice and director J.J. Perry. Foxx is said to play “a hard-working blue-collar dad who just wants to provide a good life for his quick-witted 8-year old daughter, but his mundane San Fernando Valley pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income, hunting and killing vampires.”
Tremors 8
Michael Gross spoke to Comic Book about the surprise death of Burt Gummer in Tremors: Shrieker Island, now available to watch on Netflix.
We shot it both ways, where everybody’s mourning Burt, and he climbs up over the cliff and looks at all of them in mourning and goes, ‘Jesus, God, I’m not dead.’ And he’s really pissed off at them. It’s like, ‘How would you possibly think...?’ But he’s bloodied, just he’s a mess. He looks like he’s been through an earthquake, crushed by a house, but he’s alive. And he says, ‘You idiots. Of course, I’m alive.’
They decided it just had this punch. Frankly, I thought to myself — I didn’t express it to them, but I thought to myself — ‘Maybe Universal’s getting a little tired of this franchise.’ Because this wasn’t my idea.
I said, ‘I can live with this. Because they came to me. They said, ‘Look, you’ve been doing this so long. What do you think?’ And I said, ‘Well, as long as we kind of leave the door open.’ I mean, I can kind of see an eighth film where it opens with Burt in a hospital bed, in a full body cast and saying, ‘I survived.’ He could hardly move a muscle. And maybe eight is...if I had a concept for eight, it would be Burt horribly injured, but in a motorized, weaponized wheelchair that has rocket mounts on the side and can leave an oil slick behind like James Bond’s car. So nobody can chase him.
Wicked
Deadline also reports Wicked director Stephen Daldry has left the project due to a “creative casualty” of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Reportedly, Universal wanted the movie “mounted more quickly than Daldry was comfortable moving” even after it came to light “a shortage of stage space in London” would make it impossible to film on schedule.
The Boogeyman
A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods provided Comic Book with an update on their adaptation of Stephen King’s The Boogeyman.
We’ve got a script that we’re super excited about. I think development is kind of growing and changing and evolving, but it’s been ... I don’t know. It was a really fun project.
Candyman
In conversation with /Film, Nia DaCosta stated the Candyman remake will see the titular characters bee-encrusted chest slowly develop over the course of the film as a “rash.”
In the original, he’s already a fully formed … I guess monster, we’ll say, because that’s definitely how he’s positioned in the original film, as a monster,” And so, it’s really like a reveal of like, ‘Here’s my chest. I’m fully formed, I’m fully grotesque,’ and in this one, we really wanted it to be a slow progression, and for me, I really wanted to trigger the response of like, you know when all of us have had a rash or something, and we’re like, hmm, what’s that? Maybe it’s a heat rash, and then maybe it doesn’t go away for a while and you’re like, hm, interesting. Should I go to the doctor? No, it’s probably fine. And then for a vast majority of people, it goes away. In this movie, of course, it doesn’t go away, it gets worse, and so I wanted to have that effect. If someone goes home after watching this movie and looks at their own rash, or bump, or mosquito bite and is a little more freaked out, then I’ve done my job. And that’s really what I wanted to do, it’s about getting inside the head of the audience and really viscerally disturbing them and tracking it psychologically with the sense of the main character.
Avatar 2-5
In conversation with The New York Times (via IndieWire), Sigourney Weaver discussed the extensive scuba training she received in preparation for the next four Avatar movies.
My hope is that what I receive from the universe is even more outrageous than anything I can think of,” Weaver said. “I don’t really say to myself, ‘Well, you can’t do this.’ Or, ‘You can’t do that.’ Let me at it! And we’ll see. [I was] learning how to not to squint or clamp their mouths shut — both natural reactions when you’re submerged — during take after take in a gigantic water tank.
Weaver also had weights tied to her waist as professional divers sped her back to the surface for air at “brief, regular intervals.”
I had some concerns. But that’s what the training was for. And I really wanted to do it. I didn’t want anyone to think, ‘Oh, she’s old, she can’t do this.’
The Craft: Legacy
The Craft: Legacy has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for “thematic elements, crude and sexual content, language and brief drug material.” [Bloody-Disgusting]
Thor: Love and Thunder
Chris Hemsworth revealed Thor: Love and Thunder recently had its first script meeting on Instagram.
Terrific first script meeting for “Thor Love and Thunder” with our ever fearless leader Taika Waititi. My notes were so detailed and intense that the only way for Taika to fully absorb them was to roll himself into a tight cocoon and bake in the endless possibilities of where the film will take us. The bloke in the background was equally riveted by my storytelling prowess.
Come Play
Universal has released to new clips from Come Play, the upcoming Gillian Jacobs horror movie about a boy’s legitimately supernatural imaginary friend.
The Venture Bros.
According to Doc Hammer, he and Jackson Publick have been in talks with Adult Swim about a potential post-cancelation wrap-up special for The Venture Bros., in light of season seven’s unconventional ending.
We would never end the show with one of our characters going away. We have a character walking away from the Venture family, which is not the way Jackson and I think of the Ventures. There is love and family at the core of all this, and yes [it’s] dysfunctional... but love and family is a deep part of our show. And to have somebody flip his gears and just go off in search for himself... that’s not the kind of ending we would ever write. That doesn’t feel good to me.
[NPR]
Untitled David Weil Anthology
Amazon has ordered a new sci-fi anthology series from Hunters David Weil described as “dramatic and thought-provoking.” The currently untitled project will “tell seven unique character-driven stories” exploring “the deeper meaning of human connection in the near future.”
[Deadline]
The Mandalorian
During a recent interview with The People’s Movies, Clancy Brown stated he is unlikely to reprise his role as Burg the Devaronian on The Mandalorian.
Nobody has talked to me so probably not.
Soulmates
Finally, Bill Skarsgård doesn’t dance in a clip from next week’s episode of Soulmates.
Banner art by Jim Cooke.