Need a quick recap of the past week in movie news? Here are the highlights:
A new Tomb Raider director: Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander remains on track to reprise her role as video game icon Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider sequel, following-up the 2018 reboot. Deadline reports that the action-adventure movie now has a fresh director on board, as well: Misha Green, showrunner and executive producer of HBO’s series Lovecraft Country and director of one of its episodes, will make her feature screenwriting and directing debut with Tomb Raider 2.
A new Spy Kids franchise: Speaking of rebooted franchises, Spy Kids is being reimagined for a new series of action movies that will now be focused on a multicultural family of secret agents. According to Deadline, original creator and director Robert Rodriguez, who personally helmed the first four Spy Kids features, released between 2001 and 2011, and produced its recent animated series spin-off for Netflix, will return to write and direct this next incarnation.
A Sinister reunion: Oscar-nominated actor Ethan Hawke will reunite with his Sinister writer/director, Scott Derrickson, and The Purge producer Blumhouse for The Black Phone, according to Variety. The horror movie, based on a Joe Hill short story, will be co-written by Derrickson and regular collaborator Robert Cargill, who also worked on Sinister. No information has been revealed as to whom Hawke will be playing in the adaptation, which is about a boy who can talk to the dead via telephone.
Jared Leto is Adrift with Darren Aronofsky: Speaking of actor and director reunions, Oscar-winner Jared Leto will re-team with Requiem for a Dream filmmaker Darren Aronofsky for another new Blumhouse horror project, according to Deadline. Aronofsky is also co-writing the movie, which is titled Adrift and based on a short story by Koji Suzuki (The Ring) about an abandoned yacht being towed back to shore by a fishing boat. Leto will presumably play the crew member tasked with manning the “ghost ship.”
Timothée Chalamet re-teams with Luca Guadagnino: And here’s one more actor and director reunion. Deadline reports that Call Me By Your Name Oscar-nominees Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino are working together again, this time on a horror movie titled Bones & All, which will also star actress Taylor Russell (Waves). Screenwriter Dave Kajganich (Guadagnino’s Suspiria) is adapting the novel of the same name about a young woman who kills and eats the people she loves.
Corey Hawkins to star in Dracula spin-off: Back to the subject of mysterious crew disappearances on the open sea, Last Voyage of the Demeter is moving forward with Kong: Skull Island and Straight Outta Compton actor Corey Hawkins in the lead. According to Deadline, the movie expands upon the chapter in Bram Stoker’s Dracula involving the ship carrying the iconic vampire to London, and it will be directed by Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Trollhunter helmer André Øvredal.
