It was a big week of geek showbiz news, winding up with the Oscar ceremony, and we wrap it all up here.
Dune won six Academy Awards at the ceremony Sunday night, for Best Cinematography, Visual Effects, Production Design, Film Editing, Original Score, and Sound. This brings a new round of visibility to the film, and to the many products, include games and graphic novels, tied to it.
A package for a live-action Voltron feature is being shopped in Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The package includes Rawson Marshall Thurber (Red Notice) as co-writer and director, and Ellen Shanman as co-writer. The last media exposure for the property came via the Netflix animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender, ending in 2017 (see “‘Voltron’ S2 Trailer“). Netflix is not in the running for the feature, according to the report.
Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday Addams in the 90s Addams Family features, has joined the cast of the Tim Burton Netflix series Wednesday, according to Deadline. Her role has not been revealed, but it will not be as an older Wednesday according to the report. Netflix announced the casting for major roles last August (see “’Wednesday Casting“): Catherine Zeta-Jones will play Morticia, Luis Guzman will play Gomez, and Jenna Ortega will star in the title role.
Netflix is dropping two new series based on comics in April: Heartstopper, based on the webcomic (collected by Graphix, see “Graphix to Publish ‘Heartstopper’“), and Samurai Rabbit, based on Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo (from IDW Publishing, see “’Samurai Rabbit’ on Netflix“). There’s some footage from both in the video below.
A sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong (see “Trailer for ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’“) will begin shooting in Australia later this year, according to Screen Queensland via Deadline, expanding the Monsterverse to five films. Legendary is also developing a TV series (co-created by Matt Fraction) set in the Monsterverse universe (see “Monsterverse Series“).
Nickelodeon has greenlit a 20-episode first season of HexVet, a new animated preschool series based on the Sam Davies graphic novel series published by BOOM! Studios under its KaBOOM! imprint, the company announced. The series will launch in the U.S. in 2023. Product licensing will be led by Paramount Consumer Products. Source: ICv2
