Media Hijinks - Casting, Spin-offs, Sequels and Reboots

The first bit of news up today at Media Hijinks is a mixed blessing.  Probably most folks out there know by now that the Terminator franchise is continuing.  Old Arnie has said he wants to do more and the power-that-be got a little trigger happy with it, putting the okay on three more films and an accompanying television series.  We still don’t know properly whether they’re remaking, rebooting or just making more sequels, but what we do now know is that they’ve just cast the role of Sarah Connor.

As it turns out, the Game of Thrones cast will be taking a second crack at the role.  Lena Headey (AKA Cersei) played the role during The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Now, Emilia Clarke (AKA Daenerys) is set to step into those shoes.  It’s a bit of GoT incest going on here, but I’m liking the decision.  I’m still not sold on them making more Terminator flicks (they’ve just gotten worse and worse as time moved on), but I am a bit more hopeful now.

Second up, the folks over at Columbia are looking to exploit the only super-hero property they have in an effort to stay competitive in the market’s biggest trend.  Unfortunately, the only property they have access to is The Amazing Spider-Man.  Sure, there are a few interesting characters that could hold their own in a movie, but instead of choosing new heroes to tap, they’ve gone a completely different route and elected to make some super-villain flicks.  Both Venom and The Sinister Six have scripts in development.  While I wonder at the validity of putting super-villains as main characters in a movie, it’s still a very interesting idea and one that I will be keeping an eye on for sure.

Next up, some truly horrible news for fans of Leslie Nielson and The Naked Gun franchise that he made so popular.  The folks in Hollywood have decided to return to the well and plan on rebooting the series.  Seriously… I just don’t even know what to say here.  The funny of these films relied so much on Nielson’s deadpan performance that I can’t fathom how they would do this without creating a complete pile of crap.  For more info on that one, you can head to this site and read more about it.

And finally, the pseudo-zombie film that will soon become a franchise - World War Z is moving ahead with a sequel.  They have their director and are ready to go.  And yes, Brad Pitt is still involved.  Will it be better than the first one?  I don’t think it’s possible for it to be any worse, so I’m going to say yes.  Hell, maybe they’ll even use some of the original source material in this one!

I hate you Hollywood.

Until next week, don’t despair - there’s always a chance that some of these bad ideas will be scrapped before they start.

Photo Credits -

Emilia Clarke courtesy of aceshowbiz.com