Fox are developing two shows set in the X-Men Universe

Fox have long wanted to make a TV series set in the X-Men universe, now it seems that they’ve reached an agreement with Marvel, which will not only allow them to develop one TV series set in that universe, but two.

Fox producers Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner, and Simon Kinberg will colabirate with Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory to bring the shows to our screens.

The first series is called Legion. It’s being written and helmed by Fargo creator Noah Hawley. The second series, Hellfire is being developed by Evan Katz (24: Live Another Day), Manny Coto (24), Patrick McKay (Star Trek 3), and JD Payne (Star Trek 3).

Legion will  introduce us to the story of David Haller, David has battled with mental illness his whole life, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic in his teenage years,  he’s been in and out of various psychiatric facilities for years. After an encounter with a another patient, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.

I loved Fargo, I thought it was a marvelous adaptation of the Cohen brothers movie. Hawley is a great choice to take on this project and I’m sure he will bring us something magical.

FX said:

“Legion is just the sort of ambitious story that Noah excels at. His adaption of Fargo for television was one of the most acclaimed television events in recent memory. It’s also an honor to partner with Marvel on Legion and to enlist such an accomplished team of Executive Producers to create this pilot.”

Hellfire will be set in the mid-late 1960s, and follows a young Special Agent who learns that a power-hungry woman with extraordinary abilities is working with a clandestine society of millionaires – known as ‘The Hellfire Club’ – to take over the world.

It’s unknown at this point if anyone from the film universe will appear.

I’m very interested to see how these projects turn out. It’s actually surprising that Fox and Marvel have made a deal together, it’s well documented that the two studios don’t see eye-to-eye. Marvel haven’t allowed Fox to release X-Men toys since 2003.

 

Blu Ray Review-San Andreas

San Andreas is the latest big-budget-natural-disaster-summer-movie-epic.

California is suffering from the largest earthquakes in history and the only person that can save mankind is The Rock, in a little boat.

Ray (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is a helicopter rescue pilot, forced to abandon his mission in order to save his daughter.

Technically speaking, San Andreas is an impressive achievement. It realistically depicts various well-known Los Angeles and San Francisco landmarks, crumbling to the ground in the wake of destruction.

What prevents this from being an enjoyable film is that the screenplay takes itself too seriously, whist using cheesy clitches. It wastes the talent of Paul Giamatti, whose character only exists to provide exposition.

The film also squanderes the action-hero charisma Johnson presented in the fast and furious franchise. Had this been a film about a rouge helicopter pilot saving the people of San Andreas, this could have been an enjoyable popcorn movie. Instead it shifts all its focus on one family and never feels more than a big budget SyFy movie.

Is Miles Moreals in the new Spider-Man movie?

When it was announced that Sony and Marvel would be working together to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. As we know Tom Holland was ultimately cast as Peter Parker, but many fans had hoped Andrew Garfield would return and die heroically as Peter Parker, paving way for Miles Moreales to take over. 

In an interview with Yahoo, the new Spider-Man director Jon Watts was asked if there had been any thoughts about Miles taking over the mantle. What’s interesting is that he hinted that Miles may still be in the film:

“I can’t talk about that, because, you know, that will reveal too much. We’re still writing the story…we haven’t finished all the way through the story yet, so who knows.”

I admit, that isn’t much to go on. But I do suspect that we’ll see Miles pop up at some point. By the time the planned Spider-Man trilogy ends most of the current Marvel actors will be at the end of their contracts and looking to move on. The introduction of Miles Moreales would allow them to refresh the brand without having to completely reboot.

Sean Pertwee talks about playing the Third Doctor 

Doctor Who fans have long debated and demanded that Sean Pertwee pick up his dad’s cape, jump in Bessie and play his dad’s incarnation of The Doctor. Last Halloween we got a glimpse of it when he went to a party dressed in an improvised third Doctor costume. 

 
After that, a fan mocked up a very realistic image of Sean in the role.

  

Well, speaking to the radio times the question of playing the Doctor came up. 

Pertwee Jr. said:

“It would be an honour, but I think I would be completely terrified,“ he explained. “They’re large boots to fill. My dad would have absolutely split his sides if I did that, I’m laughing just thinking of his reaction.”

“Doctor Who was a huge thing in my life, but the thing is my father was just an actor. I was surrounded by extrodinary people all my life. The people he was interested in weren’t actors, they were artists, pirates, smugglers, butchers, florists, whatever. My recollection of being brought up by my dad was in Ibiza, so I remember this idyllic bohemian lifestyle.”

Read the full interview here. 

Big Finish review-Doctor Who:Criss-Cross

Pete and I had a chat about Doctor Who: Criss Cross, by Big Finish.

Martyn: With over 16 years of audio adventures, the biggest problem with the Doctor Who range used to be ‘where do you start?’

Pete: In a way, everyone jumps into Doctor Who in the middle; there’s a certain joy to discovering the world we’re dropped into, in our own order.

M: It can still seem daunting for new listeners to climb on board the Big Finish train. Recently they’ve decided to play down the continuity of the first 200 and provide a fresh jumping on point for new listeners. The first three focused on the Seventh Doctor and Mel.

P: Return of the Sontarans was really fun; I liked your review.

M: Criss-Cross kicks off a brand new trilogy for the Sixth Doctor and Constance Clarke. In a very time-wimey way, we met her in The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure.

P: The extras for that mention how Colin Baker needed some convincing to sign his character’s death warrant. But he needn’t have worried; it just left me wanting more. It must have helped him, though, to have a glimpse of the future in there.

M: Written by Matt Fitton, Criss-Cross tells the story of the ‘Wrens’ working at the Bletchley Park codebreaking facility in World War II. They start out dealing with and becoming suspicious of the eccentric ‘Doctor John Smith.’

P: This is super timely, too. There’s a new book by Tessa Dunlop about the women of Bletchley Park, BBC2 have just done a doco on somebody besides Alan Turing and of course there’s the Imitation Game film with Cumberbatch.

M: This one’s a gripping war-time story – suspicion and espionage, with hints of sci-fi thrown in. The characters are spies, double agents, Nazis and code-breakers. Matt Fitton manages to perfectly encapsulate the horrendous situations people in war often found themselves. The period feels authentic and Constance Clarke is very much of her time.

P: They’ve given her an absent husband like Emma Peel had, but perhaps not like that; we’ll see. Mrs Clarke is both a foil and an asset, which is really good for ‘old sixie.’ Miranda Raison pitches it just right; I remember her from Wreck of the Titan. I’m also hoping to see her in A Winter’s Tale, a new live HD theatre project Kenneth Branagh is doing.

M: Colin is at the top of his game here, the chemistry with Miranda Raison is impeccable, it’s up there with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, or Ten and Donna.

[amazon_link asins=’1781785473′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’bawi-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’a17796fa-6c9b-11e8-aee6-3ba1b1a66e7b’]

John Hurt returns as The War Doctor for Big Finish

Big Finish announced today that John Hurt will reprise his role as The War Doctor for a series of audios.

The adventures of The War Doctor will be told over four box sets, each containing three linked hour-long episodes. The first is titled ‘Only The Monstrous’ and is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

“The story of the Doctor who refuses to call himself the Doctor in order to do the unthinkable upon the ultimate battlefield — all of space and time — was irresistible to me,” says Nicholas. “Such a deeply disturbing and engaging character created by the formidable talents of writer Steven Moffat and actor John Hurt. It’s such a privilege to be working on this.”

The cast of The War Doctor also includes Jacqueline Pearce, who plays Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra — an arch manipulator who is waging the Time War against the Daleks. Jacqueline starred in The Two Doctors as Chessene and she is known to many science fiction fans for her role as Servalan in the cult classic Blake’s 7.

Only The Monstrous will be released in December 2015 and will be followed in February 2016 by the second volume, Infernal Devices, which is written by John Dorney, Phil Mulryne and Matt Fitton. Volumes Three and Four are currently in pre-production.

In addition to The War Doctor, November 2017 also sees a prequel box set to the saga, Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor — The Time War, which will follow the early stages of the Time War from the Eighth Doctor’s perspective. Paul McGann stars, alongside characters first introduced in the War Doctor box sets.

If you only listen to one podcast with John Hurt, listen to the one he did with Big Finish. If you listen to two podcasts with John Hurt, then listen to my podcast with John Hurt.

Lethal Weapon TV series in development 

A Lethal Weapon reboot has spent years in potential development. Now, FOX and Warner bros are partnering up to bring us a TV adaptation.

Here’s the synopsis:

Texan cop and former Navy SEAL Martin Riggs who, following the loss of his wife and baby, moves to Los Angeles to start anew. There, he gets partnered with LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh who, having recently suffered a heart attack, must avoid any stress in his life.

Richard Donner and Shane Black aren’t involved and Gibson and Glover are too old for this shit. 

Doctor Who spin-off in development 

Breaking News, not content with their 3 hit shows set in a school (Waterloo Road, Big School, Bad Education). The BBC announced today that they’re making a Doctor Who spin-off set in a school.
Class will consist of 8 x 45-minute episodes and will be written by Young Adult author Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls). Class is a Young Adult (teenager) series set in the contemporary Coal Hill school, in London.
Current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, will act as executive producer on Class.

He said:

“No one has documented the dark and exhilarating world of the teenager like Patrick Ness, and now we’re bringing his brilliant story-telling into Doctor Who. This is growing up in modern Britain – but with monsters!”

Ness added:

“I’m astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself. There’s so much room there for all kinds of amazing stories, and to work with Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin to find a place to tell one of my own has been an absolute joy. I can’t wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your A-levels.”

Class is expected to air towards the end of 2016.