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There’s a lot on the horizon given the recent focus on adult animation, video games, and Star Wars shaping much of the media landscape.
After the success of “Sonic the Hedgehog”, will we be seeing more video game movies? If the “Bob’s Burgers” movie is a hit, will there be a sequel? And are we really getting a fifth Indiana Jones film? Find out what happened last week in film.
More Video Game Shows
Video games are starting to become a bigger focus for movies. This year has already seen the release of two of them. “Uncharted” was based on the adventure game series and drew in a decent box office with Tom Holland and Mark Whalberg starring. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” showcased that a video game audience would return for a sequel with the Sega property garnering an even heavier box office gross.
So what’s next on the video game media front for jumping into other mediums? Well, the titles to look out for would be Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn and Gran Turismo. The firmest show at this point seems to be an adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawn, a post-apocalyptic action-adventure game where players fight all manner of mechanized monsters. According to Variety, Netflix is currently in the early stages of development. Gran Turismo, a racing game series, is still in the early stages of development and has yet to confirm a distributor.
This news comes on top of other video game series currently in development. Amazon Prime has an adaptation of the period action game God of War in development while HBO is developing the survival zombie game series The Last of Us.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Confirmed
With the big success of “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” this year, it’s a no-brainer that Paramount is pushing ahead with a third film in the works. After all, the second film ended with a post-credit cliffhanger of revealing the next villain, the black-colored hedgehog Shadow who is noted in the games as an antagonist. But who will voice the character?
While the third film has been confirmed, the voice actor for Shadow is still a secret. The filmmakers have only revealed that they’re speaking with a big Hollywood actor to lend their voice to the CGI character. It’s similar to how Paramount kept the voice of Knuckles a secret, only revealing that it was Idris Elba prior to the trailer reveal.
Social media speculation right now is that Robert Pattinson may be the voice chosen. We’ll just have to wait and see. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is currently speculated for a theatrical release sometime in 2024.
More Bob’s Burgers?
“The Bob’s Burgers Movie”, based on the successful animated sitcom, was released this weekend. It remains to be seen just how well the movie will do but there’s a chance at a sequel considering Bob’s Burgers is still running strong on Fox after more than ten seasons. So will there be a sequel movie?
According to series co-creator Loren Bouchard, through Total Film, he’s already thought about what would happen with the next film:
“Even halfway through, we talked about how we want to do another one. We started joking about what we would do differently for the next one or start talking about ‘the next one as a fun wink to each other, which meant ‘I’m having fun, are you?’ At the same time, you don’t want to just crap one out. The story would absolutely have to be deserving.
You don’t want to do one of those until you’re really, really ready – both in terms of what you’re going to talk about and how it’s going to differentiate itself from the show. Now we’ve got to differentiate it from the first movie. I know I can speak for everyone who worked on the movie and say it is an incredible joy to make one of these things. We would be fools not to try and do it again if somebody gives us the chance.”
Bouchard also broke down the process for how they went about conceiving the film:
“We love character-driven storytelling. It’s our code, it is the show; it is character-driven at its core. One of the first things we did right at the beginning of thinking about the movie was, ‘How could each character have a crisis that’s personal to them?’ How could the thing that they think defines them be the thing that’s challenged, and that they have to face squarely? Then we just threaded it through: each character had to go through this.”
First Look at Indiana Jones 5
The talk of a fifth Indiana Jones film has been in the works for the longest time. The last Indiana Jones film debuted in 2008 with Harrison Ford once more starring as the lead in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Ford starred opposite Shia LaBeouf who played his adult son and it was looking like LaBeouf would be taking on the hat and whip. But as that film proved, Ford won’t give up that role so easily.
Now Ford is back again for his fifth film as Indiana Jones. A teaser poster has been revealed that showcases Ford as Jones, appearing on a bridge and in silhouette. It’s quite the striking image although the image has been circulating through social media with some noting that Jones in shadow looks surprisingly like Freddy Kreuger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.
James Mangold (“Logan”, “Ford v Ferrari”) is directing the film and it still seems to be in production as an official title has not been chosen at this time. What we do have is the theatrical release date scheduled for June 30, 2023.
Bryce Dallas Howard Continues Directing Star Wars
Bryce Dallas Howard made a big jump from acting into directing by lending his directorial talent to the Star Wars series “The Mandalorian”. Of that show, she’s directed season 1, episode 4 (The Sanctuary), and season 2, episode 3 (The Heiress). She’s also directed an episode of one of the recent Star Wars series, “The Book of Boba Fett”.
The Hollywood Reporter has reportedly said that season three will once more feature Howard directing. If officially confirmed, she’ll become one of the leading directors of Star Wars media, right alongside Dave Filoni who is not only directing The Mandalorian but the upcoming Star Wars spin-off “Ashoka”, featuring the titular Jedi character who appeared in “The Mandalorian”.
The Mandalorian Season 3 is speculated to be debuting on Disney+ in February 2023.
