Hollywood Déjà Vu News: Aug. 31, 2009
Sequels
So much for Rambo being a relic of the Reagan era. Sylvester Stallone will hit the weight room again to get in muscle-rippling shape for Rambo 5, which he’ll also direct, per Variety. Seemingly picking up from where last year’s Rambo (right) left off, everyone’s favorite one-man killing machine will mow down all those who try to stop him from rescuing a girl kidnapped by human traffickers and drug lords near the U.S.-Mexico border. Nice to have Rambo back home causing mayhem after shooting up Thailand, Afghanistan, and Burma. No word yet whether Rambo 6 will pit our hero against the U.S. Social Security Administration in a bloody fight to secure greater retirement benefits.
Miami, brace yourself for the return of those Bad Boys. Eager to remain in the Will Smith business, Columbia Pictures has Peter Craig writing Bad Boys 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This comes hot on the heels of the studio announcing it was setting in motion Hancock 2 (see yesterday’s news update). Smith also has an I am Legend prequel in the works at Warner Bros. If Smith has any sense, he would walk away from all three sequels—at least until he really needs a big hit—and try to build upon his dramatic performances in The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds.
Michael Myers is dead. Long live Michael Myers. In the wake of Halloween II’s $17.4 million opening weekend, the Weinstein Co. is rushing into production a threequel that will be released in 3-D in the summer of 2010, according to the L.A. Times. Guess that’s what happens when you’re soundly beaten at the box office by another horror film that just so happens to be in 3-D, The Final Destination. Director Rob Zombie won’t return for Halloween 3D, presumably because he’s too busy with his Blob remake or he’s had enough of terrorizing Haddonfield. The Weinstein Co. is in talks with a director with a horror background. Whether Myers will return from the grave for Halloween 3D remains to be seen. FYI, this new Halloween won’t be the Weinstein Co.’s only 3-D fright fest in 2010: Piranha 3D swims into theaters April 16.
Oh, and just don’t expect to see Kate Beckinsale climb into her Underworld rubber catsuit and kick undead butt in 3-D. Not yet, at least. Screen Gems may have penciled in the 3-D Underworld 4 for a Jan. 11, 2011 release, but Beckinsale knows nothing about a proposed new vampires-vs.-Lycans trilogy or whether she intends to return as that sexy Death Dealer, Selene. “I think if they came up with an amazing script I wouldn’t be adverse to it,” Beckinsale tells Collider. “But it’s not planned or anything.” After the redundant Rise of the Lycans, please let Beckinsale be right. Somehow, though, I suspect the Underworld will continue without Beckinsale if Screen Gem can find another drop-dead gorgeous Death Dealer to squeeze into her catsuit.
Goodness knows what today’s announcement that Disney intends to spend $4 billion acquiring Marvel means in the grand scheme of things for my favorite comic-book heroes—please spare us a Marvel Team-Up featuring The Silver Surfer and Buzz Lightyear—but it won’t affect existing deals with the likes of Paramount, Fox and Sony, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That’s both good and bad news. Marvel has creative control over the five interconnected films Paramount will distribute—Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, Avengers, and Iron Man 3—while Sony can be trusted to develop three new Spider-Man sequels that’s worthy of the first trilogy. But Fox continues to mishandle its Marvel properties, from the unabashedly kid-friendly Fantastic Four to this summer’s disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine. How great it would be if the Disney deal means Marvel can eventually wrestle back control of the likes of Daredevil, Fantastic Four and X-Men from Fox and integrate them into the mythology it is attempting to establish with Iron Man, Avengers, etc. And as much as I would like to think Marvel could give us The Punisher we have desperately wanted after two failed attempts by Lionsgate, I don’t see that gun-toting harbinger of Frank Castle being at home at the House that Mickey Mouse Built.
Remakes
While Marvel continues to dominate at the movie theaters, rival D.C. needs to get its act together. And who better to get things rolling than… Swamp Thing? The busy Collider reports that producer Joel Silver is the latest to attempt to turn that big, stinky mass of vegetable matter into a household name. To one-up the two previous films from the 1980s and the 1990s TV series, Silver may go the 3-D route. Count us in if Silver offers a scratch-and-sniff card with every ticket purchased to Swamp Thing.


Death has come for Michael Myers.
SEQUELS
30. (26) Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
NEW/POTENTIAL FRANCHISES
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, and Scout Taylor-Compton
Death has come for Michael Myers.

The Final Destination
Halloween II