Sequel Bits: ‘Fast 8,’ ‘Inferno,’ ‘Star Trek Beyond,’ ‘Pitch Perfect 3,’ ‘The Predator,’ ‘The Wolverine 3,’ ‘Finding Dory’
In today’s edition of Sequel Bits:
Fast 8is the first major Hollywood movie to shoot in Cuba, which was placed under a commercial and economic embargo by the United States in 1960. Now that relations between America and Cuba have finally started to relax, we can expect to see more movies start to film there…and as you can see in the video below, the cast and crew of the latestFast and Furiousmovie aren’t being shy about their enthusiasm for shooting in Havana. After all, this series is all about traveling the world and finding new and exciting cities to completely destroy. Why should Cuba be exempt?
#F8 is making history in Cuba. #FastFridays
A video posted by Fast & Furious (@fastandfuriousmovie) onMay 6, 2016 at 3:09pm PDT
Yesterday, the first trailer forInfernoarrived the world cried out “Wait a second, they made another Robert Langdon movie? Who watches these things? Did anyone likeThe Da Vinci CodeandAngels & Demonsthat much? Does anyone like these movies outside ofRon HowardandTom Hanks, who are really far too talented to be making a third movie about a professor and an attractive young woman gallivanting around Europe solving stupid mysteries?” Yes. The world said all of that. Anyway, the first poster forInfernohas arrived as well and it features exactly what you’d expect: ominous lighting, a more ominous tagline, a cathedral ceiling, and silhouettes and people running. Because that’s all anyone does in the movie. They look at art and they run.
Varietyreports thatElise Neal, whose past credits includeThe Hughleys,Scream 2,First Impression, andHollywood Divas, has joined the cast ofThe Wolverine 3. LikeBoyd Holbrook,Stephen Merchant,Richard E. GrantandEriq La Sallebefore her, the nature of her role in the film is being kept under wraps by 20th Century Fox. However, we do know that the film has recently begun filming under the direction ofJames Mangold, will loosely adapt the “Old Man Logan” storyline, and will chase thatDeadpoolmoney by going R-rated. We can probably expect to hear more about this film soon because right now, we have no idea who anyone is playing.
Universal has announced thatPitch Perfect 3will no longer open on July 19, 2025,but will instead open onJuly 21, 2017. Interestingly, this was the sequel’s original release date before it was delayed to August, so whatever concerns the studio originally had seem to have dissipated. And maybe they shouldn’t have too many concerts, asPitch Perfect 2was an enormous hit, catapulting off the sleeper hit status of the original film and becoming an bonafide blockbuster with international grosses nearing $300 million. The exact plot ofPitch Perfect 3remains unknown (part two left the door open for a sequel, albeit one without many of the original cast members), butElizabeth Banksis set to return to the director’s chair once she’s done doing whatever the hell it is she’s doing inPower Rangers.
With his third feature film as a director,The Nice Guys, opening later this month, Shane Black has been fielding questions about thePredatorsequel/reboot he’s been writing for the past few years. Speaking withAgence France-Presse(viaAvP Galaxy), Black said that he expects to start filing in September or October of this year. He also explained that thatThe Predator(as it is supposedly called) will be a much larger film than the previous entires in the series:
Black said it would be a significantly ‘bigger’ film than its three predecessors. “To the best of my knowledge, the train is rolling. It took some convincing because they’ve been putting out these movies all along with a $50-60 million budget, and they all had a guaranteed return.”
Black famously rewrote the original 1987Predatorwhile on set, even creating a new character (Hawkins) so he could play a role. If anyone can get this series back on track, and if anyone can convince us that a big budget “event” Predator movie is a good thing, it’s him.
John Cho, who plays Sulu in the newStar Trekmovie series, recently sat down with Famous Monsters of Filmland (viaTrek Movie) to chat aboutStar Trek Beyondas part of a feature onTrek’s 50th anniversary. Here he is explaining how he was initially nervous about Justin Lin stepping in for J.J. Abrams, but his fears were ungrounded:
[Justin Lin] cared about the mythology, he cared about the world, he cared about getting it right, he cared about moving the characters forward. … I think we all had question marks; it’s tough to be told that the guy you made two successful movies with isn’t going to be helming the third one. But we were all just really pleasantly surprised as we eased into working with him.
Cho also went on to explain thatBeyond’s screenplay reminded him of the original series, a tone that they didn’t quite capture with the first two movies:
When I read the script, my emotional impression was that it felt very much like the best of the original series. It felt like theseriesfelt to me. And the first [film] that we made didn’t entirely feel like that to me.
Everyone’s hearts seem to be in the right place when it comes toStar Trek Beyond, but the stench of that first teaser trailer still hangs over every piece of news. Paramount needs to release something new as soon as possible.
The Turtle Talk with Crush show at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park is one of the cutest attractions in the entire park, allowing people to actually interact with Crush the turtle fromFinding Nemoas he fields questions from the audience. WithFinding Doryhitting theaters soon, the show has received an update. Now, Crush will be joined by new characters like Destiny the whale shark, Bailey the beluga whale and Hank the “septopus,” as well as other familiar faces like Dory, Squirt, Nemo, and Marlin. You can watch a video featuring some of the new interactions above.
