The leaves are beginning to turn and showbiz news is piling up. Time to rake it all in with another round-up!
WandaVision director Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Marvel’s Fantastic Four feature, according to Variety. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige announced at San Diego Comic-Con that the first Marvel Studios FF film will be released on November 8, 2024 as part of MCU Phase 6 (see “Geek Movie Calendar 2024“). As a result of the move, Shakman is off Star Trek 4 (see “’Star Trek 4’ Gets Director“).
HBO Max’s House of the Dragon drew 9.99 million viewers for its premiere episode, according to Variety. The first episode, which dropped on Sunday August 21, 2022 (see “‘House of the Dragon’“), outperformed the viewership of the first Game of Thrones episode (4.2 million viewers in 2011), but fell short of the 17.9 million viewers that watched the first episode of Game of Thrones‘ final season in 2019. These viewer numbers garnered House of the Dragon a renewal for a second season, which was announced via the series’ Twitter account a few days later (see below).
Warner Discovery is closing in on producer Dan Lin as its head of DC, according to Deadline. The anticipated restructuring would put a single executive in charge of all DC films and TV, similar to Kevin Feige’s role at Marvel Studios, a move that would raise DC’s media profile at the media giant. There are a number of entanglements that would have to be resolved for Lin to be placed in the new role, including Lin’s production pipeline, and no offer has been made to date. Lin’s production oeuvre includes four Lego films, the Sherlock Holmes series, It, and Aladdin.
Warner Bros. has pushed back two DC films, announcing new dates for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, according to Variety. The Shazam! sequel has been moved from December 2022 to March 17, 2023, the date previously occupied by the Aquaman sequel, which has moved to December 25, 2023. Shazam!: Fury of the Gods (see “Shazam! Trailer“)has a wide open weekend for its open rather than competing against the Avatar sequel, while Aquaman and Lost Kingdom will now open a few days after Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (see “Geek Movie Calender: 2023“).
A King Kong live-action series is in early development stages for Disney+, according to Deadline. Disney has tapped James Wan’s Atomic Monster Productions to develop the series, which will be written by Paper Girls series creator Stephany Folsom (see “‘Paper Girls“). Folsom and Wan will also serve as executive producers on the project alongside Michael Clear and Rob Hacket for Atomic Monster and Dannie Festa and Marc Manus for World Builder Entertainment.
Netflix has greenlit a live-action Parasyte series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new series, Parasyte: The Grey, will be a reimagining of the popular manga series (see “‘Parasyte’“) that tells the story of parasitic aliens that take over human hosts in order to quietly conquer Earth for themselves. Yeon Sang-ho, Korean director of Train to Busan, will helm of this project, and Jeon So-nee, Koo Kyo-hwan, and Lee Jung-hyun have already been cast in the series.
Netflix has renewed The Umbrella Academy for a fourth season, which will be its last, the streamer announced. The deal was announced in conjunction with the announcement of an overall deal with showrunner Steve Blackman. Season 3 dropped June 22 (see “’The Umbrella Academy’ S3 Trailer“).Source: ICv2
