Last week it was announced that Ed Skrein had joined the Hellboy reboot in the role of Major Ben Daimio, a member of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. But more importantly, Ben Daimio is an Asian character, which caused a stir among comic book fans particularly in the light of this year’s Ghost in the Shell. In a statement released yesterday, Skrein announced he was stepping away from the project. “It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voice in the Arts”, said Skrein. “I feel it is important to honour and respect that. There I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately. Representation of ethnic diversity is important, especially to me as I have a mixed heritage family.” Read more here.
CAMERON FULL TILT ON AVATAR SEQUELS
It’s been eight years since James Cameron’s Avatar, but the director is finally on course for all those sequels he’s promised. That’s right guys and girls, it’s finally happening. “Oh, we’re in production,” Cameron told EW. “We’re in full-tilt production. We’re in what we call ‘scouting,’ which basically is shooting for me. I’m on the stage all day long during the scouting process, because there are no sets or locations, other than in the virtual world, so I do all my location-scouting with a troop of actors that go through the virtual sets, and give me a sense of the scale and position, lighting, that sort of thing. Then, I’m in rehearsals with my principal cast and I start with them at the end of September.” Read more here.
To mark what would have been the 100th birthday of legendary comic creator Jack Kirby, Evangeline Lilly has taken to Twitter to unveil the first image from the Marvel sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, which sees her character Hope Van Dyne suited up as The Wasp. Check it out here.
STARSKY AND HUTCH REBOOTED …AGAIN
Yep, classic TV show Starsky and Hutch is getting the reboot treatment (again) according to Deadline by Guardians of the Galaxy directer James Gunn. However Gunn himself took to Twitter to say that more news was to come, and don’t believe everything you read. Read the statement here.
There has been so much talk over the last few months about the Joss Whedon-directed reshoots on Justice League, with some sources even claiming the ending has been completely reworked. But now according to Mark Hughes over at Superhero News, the reshoots aren’t that large and are still in-keeping with Snyder’s original vision. “The amount of content that has been shot and is being shot is still pretty much what they expected and figured was going to be happening,” he said. “They haven’t said ‘oh, we need to add additional – we need to do a whole bunch more,’ or anything like that at this point, so, the footage and the amount of footage in the film, as of right now, the majority of the footage that you’re going to see on the screen is still the footage that was previously shot during principal photography.” Read more here.
In a new interview with Empire, Ezra Miller has said that The Flash joining the Justice League is like a fanboy dream come true for the young kid. “He’s [like] the 13-year-old Metallica fan, and Metallica says, ‘We lost our drummer in a freak accident. We need you to play drums, bro!’ [And he’s like] ‘I don’t even have drumsticks!'” Read more here.
With FrightFest now done and dusted, and you can read our reviews for titles like Tragedy Girls, Better Watch Out, The Villainess, Eat Locals, Mayhem, Double Date, To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story, Attack of the Adult Babies, Victor Crowley and more. Read them all here.
Originally published August 29, 2017. Updated April 17, 2018.
