It was reported earlier this week that Shazam would be heading into production next February, and this has now been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. The film will be helmed by David F. Sandberg, who is directing Annabelle: Creation for WB’s sister company New Line. Peter Safran, who is producing Annabelle: Creation as well as James Wan’s Aquaman, is apparently in negotiations to reunite with Sandberg and produce the film. Shamaz! will likely be released in 2019. Read more here.
Venom director Ruben Fleischer has been talking to Variety about what attracted him to the Spider-Man spin-off saying, “There’s a dark element to [Venom] and a wit that has always appealed to me. [Eddie and the symbiote] become almost a third being, which is what Venom is. There’s a famous quote: ‘You’re Eddie Brock. I’m the symbiote. Together we are Venom.” Silver & Black director Gina Prince-Bythewood also spoke about her movie, which you can read here.
CANCEL THE APOCALYPSE, AGAIN
Coming out from San Diego Comic Con, the first bit of footage from Pacific Rim: Uprising, the Steven DeKnight-directed sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 sci-fi actioner Pacific Rim. Check it out here.
MCU ARTWORK
With the San Diego Comic-Con now in full swing, we’ve got a look at a couple of pieces of promo artwork for Marvel Studios’ next two superhero blockbusters, Thor: Ragnarok – featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Hela (Cate Blanchett) – along with Black Panther, which sees T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) joined by Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Okoye (Danai Gurira). Check them out here.
The video game movie revoultion continues its full-swing, with The Hollywood Reporter reporting Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are in final negotiations to write and direct a movie adaptation of classic series Mega Man. No word yet on whether it will be live action or animated. Read more here.
Avengers: Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo have revealed that, unsurprisingly, they would like to helm a Star Wars movie down the line. “I sat in a theater when I was 11 years old and watched The Empire Strikes Back from 10 in the morning until 10 at night the day it came out,” said Joe Russo in an interview with Variety. “To say we’re obsessed with Star Wars is an understatement. We’d absolutely love to do a Star Wars film.” Read more here.
Gary Collinson has published his annual pre-SDCC edition of The Week in Spandex, which you can read here.
