![james wan]()
Yesterday came the news that Wan will helm Warner Bros.’ adaptation of the DC Comics hero
Aquaman, and right after that Sony announced that the
Conjuring and
Furious 7 helmer will also be handling directing duties on its
Robotech adaptation. Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton are producing, with a script by Michael Gordon.
(SF)
Amid a shakeup of NBC’s comedy programming department, Bajaria has been promoted to president of Universal Television while the studio’s comedy chief, Tracey Pakosta, shifts to NBC as exec VP of comedy programming. Bajaria had been exec VP of Universal TV since joining the Peacock in 2011. The promotion is a recognition of her success in revitalizing NBC’s revamped production operation.
(VAR)
After tackling the life of baseball great Jackie Robinson with
42, Legendary is returning to the ballpark with a biopic of Roberto Clemente, the Pittsburgh Pirates legend who was the first Latino inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The company has picked up the rights to David Maraniss’ book
Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero and has entered into an agreement with Clemente’s family for his life rights.
(THR)
The film division of Jack Ma’s online empire made the announcement, and the Hong Kong-listed film unit said it will use the extra funds on acquisitions to boost its presence in the growing Chinese film market. Alibaba Pictures has seen its share price rocket by 160% this year amid consumer confidence both in the perception it is being positioned to become a major player in China.
(DH)
The
Community star will play Tad O’Malley, the loudmouth anchor of a popular Internet news network that forms an unlikely alliance with Mulder as the FBI agents return for a six-episode revival, presumably with more conspiracies to investigate or strange events to encounter. He joins stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, as well as Mitch Pileggi. The six-episode event series will premiere in 2016.
(EMP)
Fringe and
Sleepy Hollow star John Noble will be joining the cast of the hit CBS drama for a season-long arc to play the detective’s estranged (and much-discussed) father. Season 3 ended with Sherlock suffering a relapse and once again hooked on heroin and word that his father had found out and was on his way. He will arrive with the start of the new season in the fall.
(EW)
During a hilarious interview with Howard Stern, Jason Alexander — George Constanza himself— revealed that it was all about the cast’s difficulty working with actress Heidi Swedberg. Alexander goes out of his way to praise the actress as a person, but goes into detail about what led to the fateful, and much reviled, decision that ended Season 7 of the show. A three-minute audio snippet of the interview is included and worth your time if you’re a
Seinfeld fan.
(CB)
Universal has released the first images from the upcoming thriller, based on real events, that details the horrific 1996 tragedy on the world’s highest mountain in which eight climbers were killed. Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson and Jake Gyllenhaal star in the film, which hits theaters September 18th.
(TP)
Fox Searchlight Pictures has just revealed the trailer for the new comedy drama starring Greta Gerwig and newcomer Lola Kirke. The film re-teams Gerwig with Academy Award-nominated director Noah Baumbach, who previously worked with the star on both Greenberg and Frances Ha. Baumbach and Gerwig also collborated on the Mistress America screenplay. It hits theaters August 14th.
(CS)
There are six people who could actually make those big budget, tentpole pictures happen, and you don’t know any of them. On the other hand, there are about three thousand people who can work with a small, low-budget script, and you know a lot of them.
(SS)
