In the Works: Reboots, Revivals, and More

A new 4K restoration of James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), converted to 3D, is heading to theaters on August 25. Now James Wigney of the New Corp Australia Network reports that “Cameron says he is in negotiations to oversee a new ‘three-film arc’ if the ongoing issues with the rights to the franchise can be resolved. The rights to make the films have changed several times since the release of the first film, but under U.S. copyright law some rights will revert to Cameron in 2019.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, who turns seventy tomorrow, “would be involved ‘to some extent’ in the proposed trilogy but the plan would be to introduce new characters to ‘pass the baton.’”

That’s via the Playlist’s Kevin Jagernauth, who also reports that Tom Hardy “has signed up to produce and star in My War Gone By, I Miss It So. Based on the book by war correspondent Anthony Loyd, the film will tell his true story of leaving the British army, and heading to the front lines of the Bosnian conflict, then returning home, where he battled heroin addiction.”

“Former President Bill Clinton will come to Hollywood this week with James Patterson, his writing partner on the upcoming novel The President Is Missing,” reports Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. “Sources said that Clinton and Patterson will be meeting with studios and networks to pitch the book for a movie or TV deal.”

Fleming also has the latest on J. C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier, which has been in and out of development hell for nearly seven years now. This “thriller set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge” began as a Paramount picture written by Mark Boal for Kathryn Bigelow (Detroit) to direct. Tom Hanks, Will Smith, and Johnny Depp all circled for a while; Tom Hardy, Channing Tatum, and most recently, Ben Affleck have been attached and detached. Now it’s revived as a $70 million Netflix project with a cast led by Mark Wahlberg (still in talks), Charlie Hunnam, and Garrett Hedlund.

Paul Feig (Bridesmaids,Ghostbusters) will direct Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, and Henry Golding in A Simple Favor. The Hollywood Reporter’s Rebecca Ford: “The story follows mommy blogger Stephanie (Kendrick), who seeks to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily's (Lively) sudden disappearance from their small town. Stephanie is joined by Emily's husband, Sean (Golding), in this thriller filled with twists and betrayals, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge.”

“Danny Glover, David Cross, and Patton Oswalt have joined the cast of writer/director Boots Riley’s directorial debut Sorry to Bother You,” reports Deadline’s Anita Busch. It’s “about a black telemarketer with self-esteem issues who discovers a magical key to business success, propelling him to the upper echelons of the hierarchy just as his activist comrades are rising up against unjust labor practices. When he uncovers the macabre secret of his corporate overlords, he must decide whether to stand up or sell out.”

“Nick Offerman will star in Brett Haley’s upcoming musical drama Hearts Beat Loud opposite Kiersey Clemons,” reports Variety’s Dave McNary. Haley says it’s “about the connective power of music and the unexpected friendship that blossoms between a father and daughter as they are brought closer together through their songs, at a pivotal point in their lives when they are both about to make important decisions about their future.”

Series

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is set to direct the new TNT drama One Day She’ll Darken, which reunites her with star Chris Pine,” reports Michael Schneider for IndieWire. “TNT has given a straight-to-series order to the six-episode hour-long show . . . inspired by the autobiography of Fauna Hodel, a white woman who was given up by her teenage birth mother and ended up being raised in an African American family. She eventually discovers that she was actually the product of incest and that her real-life father was Dr. George Hodel, the man who is often suspected to be the real-life ‘Black Dahlia’ killer responsible for the murder of Elizabeth Short. (Some have also suggested he might have been the Zodiac Killer.)”

Moonlight actor Mahershala Ali “has closed a deal to star” in Season 3 of True Detective. Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva notes that HBO president of programming Casey Bloys has said that “a third season of True Detective is much further along than a potential second installment of The Night Of.Deadwood creator David Milch is working on True Detective with its creator, Nic Pizzolatto.

“In this age of endless reboots, reimaginings and revivals, small-screen versions of Citizen Kane and Cat People might offend purists but could make absolute sense to content-hungry programmers—depending on how a new lawsuit against RKO Pictures gets resolved.” Deadline’s Dominic Patten explains.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are executive producing City on a Hill for Showtime. As Elbert Wyche reports for Screen, it’s “a fictional account of what was called the ‘Boston Miracle.’ At the center is an African-American district attorney who comes in from Brooklyn advocating change and the unlikely alliance he forms with a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran who is invested in maintaining the status quo. Together they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to encompass and eventually upend Boston’s city-wide criminal justice system.”

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon “are attached to star in an untitled series exploring morning shows and the larger New York media scene that they inhabit.” Lesley Goldberg has more in the Hollywood Reporter.

John Crowley (Brooklyn; and currently working on a feature adaptation of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch) will direct playwright Nick Payne’s adaptation of Rupert Thomson’s 1987 novel Dreams of Leaving, reports Orlando Parfitt for Screen. It’s “set in the fictional English village of New Egypt; an idyllic haven of traditional values and attitudes. However, by resisting change with an iron fist, it has secretly made prisoners of its inhabitants. Moses is one villager who escaped the village as a boy and has grown up in contemporary London. Questioning his identity, he begins to unearth chilling secrets of his past that will lead him back to the village of his birth.”

“Jon Stewart will return to stand up comedy in a special for HBO, the former Daily Show host’s first such special in over 20 years,” reports Joe Otterson for Variety.

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