Disney Fires Bob, Hires Bob

Tonight! Welcome your new DC Movie Overlords, MGM welcomes Spiderman’s friends, Carrie Ann Moss joins Star Wars, and we remember Kevin Conrroy, Gallagher, Jason David Frank and more. 


DC Comics
During a global Zoom meeting with Warner Bros Discovery employees, CEO David Zaslav introduced new DC Studio heads James Gunn and Peter Sgran marking their first appearance thoghters since being named to the posts at the end of October, Safran, talked about his love for DC Properties like Aquaman and Shazam while Gunn spoke about how he loves the interaction of Superman and Batman, and how they’re the same and different at the same time. No new projects were announced but Safran did say he had a penchant for superheroes like Metal Men And Bat-mite. According to sources, Zaslav expressed his excitement to have the duo on board and the great characters they’re bound to spring to life. Gunn acknowledged Zaslav’s admiration for DC and thanked him for the opportunity to lead the brand.

David Iacono (The Flight Attendant, The Summer I Turned Pretty) has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri and Kassius Nelson in Dead Boy Detectives, HBO Max’s upcoming drama series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman. The series hails from The Flight Attendant’s Steve Yockey, Doom Patrol’s Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. Iacono will play David the Demon, a powerful and threatening demon who torments Crystal and the Dead Boys.

Additional series stars include Briana Cuoco as Jenny the Butcher, Ruth Connell as the Night Nurse, Yuyu Kitamura as Niko, and Jenn Lyon as Esther. Michael Beach, Joshua Colley and Lindsey Gort recur.

The eight-part series is described as a fresh take on a ghost story that explores loss, grief, and death through the lens of Edwin Payne (Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Revri), two dead British teenagers, and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace (Nelson). So, it’s a lot like a vintage detective series — only darker and on acid.

Marvel
MGM+, the linear network formerly known as Epix, and Amazon Prime Video have ordered several series based on the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters.Spider-Man spin-off series Silk: Spider Society, which has been in the works for some time, will be the first show to emerge from the pact with The Walking Dead’s Angela Kang set as showrunner. Silk: Spider Society is based on characters created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos and inspired by the Marvel comics. It follows Cindy Moon, a Korean-American woman bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker, as she escapes imprisonment and searches for her missing family on her way to becoming the superhero known as Silk. The deal is a culmination of a complex web of rights that meant the series will have to debut first on a linear network, in this case MGM+, which is set to be relaunched with its new name in January. MGM+ will have the first window in the U.S. and the series will then air on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service in the States. Internationally, the series will also air on the Amazon streamer in 240 countries and territories. The pact includes over 900 Marvel characters that Sony controls as part of an arrangement that pre-dates Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. It has been a top priority for the studio, which signed a massive deal with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse pair Phil Lord and Chris Miller in 2019. The duo will exec produce the suite of series with Spider-Man franchise producer Amy Pascal.

Star Wars
A new Star Wars miniatures skirmish game is coming next year. Atomic Mass Games, the Asmodee Studio that currently produces the Star Wars: Legion and Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures tabletop games, have announced Star Wars: Shatterpoint, a new skirmish game featuring iconic characters from the Star Wars universe. The game will be released in June 2023 and will be released alongside existing Star Wars products. Players will build a strike team of characters, such as Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze or Lord Maul, and have them compete in battles with evolving mission objectives.
One key difference between Star Wars: Shatterpoint and Star Wars: Legion is that the Shatterpoint appears to focus on a smaller "strike team" of characters as opposed to a larger army. Players will be able to choose either thematic squads or mix and match characters to form custom squads, similar to how Marvel: Crisis Protocol allows players to build teams featuring characters from wildly different rosters. As with other miniatures games, players will be able to build and paint miniatures for Star Wars: Shatterpoint. Atomic Mass Games will preview the new Star Wars game at Adepticon 2023. The game will be released next summer.

Director JD Dillard’s Star Wars project that was announced back in February of 2020 is not going forward. The Wrap spoke with Dillard about it during his press tour for Devotion and he said that Swars Wars was quote “no longer a thing and that “it was not for a lack of trying.  And when pressed future on that hsi type of Star Wars movie would fell like he talked about how the Star Wasr computer game TIE Fighter changed his life quote “My dad being an aviator, we had a bunch of flight simulators,” Dillard said, including “TIE Fighter.” “I’m playing this game for months. And my dad’s flying it with me. And I’m like, ‘Man, this game is just so cool.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, you know, this game comes from a series of movies.’ And I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ That is where I watched ‘Star Wars’ for the first time and realized the full scope of what it meant to world build because I’d been playing this pseudo-16-bit game.”

Also not happening: Disney’s “The Return of the Rocketeer,” a project that Dillard has been linked to since 2020. “I am not on that movie,” Dillard said. “But, you know, it’s tricky. I love, love, love ‘The Rocketeer.’ What I have a slightly hard time wrapping my head around now is going back to pre-1970 aviation. You know, I’m not saying never. But I think I need a breather from period aviation.” While Dillard admits that he has “no idea what version of that story they’re putting together,” he is fairly confident that “it would have a lot of common DNA with ‘Devotion.’” “I’m definitely trying to, as hopefully you can tell between ‘Sleight,’ ‘Sweetheart’ and ‘Devotion,’ not to make the same movie twice. I’m going to keep it steady on that.”

Carrie Ann Moss of The Matrix fame has joined the Star Wars universe was part of Disney Plus’ THe Acolyte, a mystery thriller set duing the waning years of the High Republic Era about a century before the Phantom Menance. Moss role is as yet Unknown, but she joins Amada Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, and Dean-Charles Chapman.



Geek




https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/disney-robert-iger.html
Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount have set 2025 theatrical release dates for a new SpongeBob Squarepants movie and Aang Avatar title.

The fourth SpongeBob big screen feature will debut in cinemas on May 23, 2025 while Aang Avatar will open on Oct. 10, 2025.

To date, the three SpongeBob movies, the first which kicked off in 2004, have grossed $470.9M WW. The last movie, SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, due to theaters being closed in NYC and LA during the pandemic, received a theatrical release in Canada, but debuted on Paramount+ in the U.S. The highest grossing of the movies was 2015’s SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which made over $325M WW. Avatar Aang is the title character and protagonist of Nickelodeon’s animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. M.  Night Shyamalan directed a 2010 live action movie based on the series which grossed close to $320M WW.

Millie Gibson is joining the cast of the BBC’s “Doctor Who.”

She will play Ruby Sunday, the new companion of the Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa.

Gibson is best known for starring in British soap opera “Coronation Street” in the series regular role of Kelly Neelan from 2019 to 2022. Her other screen credits include the ITV drama “Butterfly,” the BBC drama “Love, Lies and Records” and the CBBC children’s series “Jamie Johnson.”

Jay Leno is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery from burns he suffered in a gasoline fire earlier this week, Dr. Peter Grossman of the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The comedian suffered burns to his hands, face and chest in a fire that erupted Monday while he worked on a car in his Burbank garage where he stores his vintage cars. Grossman said Leno was underneath a car when the fire began, and he suffered “pretty significant burns to his face and hands.” Grossman said the former Tonight Show host underwent a grafting surgery, and will undergo a second procedure later this week for what he described as “deep second-degree burns, and possibly some third-degree burns.” He has also been undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy to hasten the healing process.

Sources tell Deadline that 20th Century Studios are close to making a new Alien movie with Cailee Spaeny in talks to star and Fede Alvarez directing and Scott Free producing. Spaeny is set to play Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla opposite Jacob Elordi as Elvis. She also has the Alex Garland pic Civil War and was recently seen in How It Ends.

Lionsgate has acquired the feature adaptation of hit Sega video game Streets of Rage, which John Wick franchise creator and scribe Derek Kolstad is writing. He also is producing alongside the videogame brand’s Toru Nakahara; dj2 Entertainment’s Dmitri M. Johnson, Timothy I. Stevenson and Dan Jevons; and Escape Artists’ Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Tony Shaw. Streets of Rage was one of the most popular videogame franchises of the ’90s, with Sega publishing three games between 1991 and 1994. In 2020, the long-awaited fourth game in the series was released to rave reviews and became a bestseller.

Hot directing team Radio Silence will next helm the reboot of Escape From New York for 20th Century Studios.

The Picture Company partners Andrew Rona & Alex Heineman will produce the film along with Radio Silence.

Original filmmaker John Carpenter will serve as executive producer of the film, which is a Studiocanal library title; the French company will hold distribution rights in several territories. The Picture Company has an overall deal with Studiocanal. Radio Silence is made up of filmmaking team Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett and Chad Villella. Its last film, a relaunch of the the Scream franchise, was a hit for Paramount which went on to gross $140 million at the worldwide box office and was also critically acclaimed.

Longtime actor John Aniston – Days of Our Lives icon, and the father of Jennifer Aniston – has died at the age of 89. John Aniston had a pretty storied career of his own. Born in Greece in 1933, Aniston's family left Europe for America when he was just two (and WWII was on the horizon), settling outside the Philadelphia area in Chester, Pennsylvania. Aniston would work in his family's restaurant and attend Penn State, where he majored in Theater Arts. He would leave college and serve in the Navy (Panama region) before serving in the reserves.

By 1962, when he was just about to turn thirty, Aniston broke into acting. While taking small roles in famous shows like Mission: Impossible, Kojak, and Airwolf, Aniston found a lane doing sitcom and soap opera roles. Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, That Girl, and other shows eventually led him to Days of Our Lives, his longest and best-known career role. Aniston first appeared on Days in 1970 as one character (Eric Richards); he was brought back in `1985 and recast as Victor Kiriakis, a ruthless Greek mobster and businessman. Aniston would keep playing the role right up until his death. He would also appear on numerous other sitcom and genre shows, including Cold Case, Mad Men, and Star Trek: Voyager. John Aniston was given the lifetime achievement honor at the Daytime Emmy Awards this year, for having appeared in more than 3,700 episodes of Days of our Lives.

Kymberly Herrin, who played the “Dream Ghost” in Ghostbusters and appeared in a ZZ Top video that cemented the band as MTV stars, has died. Herrin was a model who covered more than a dozen magazines and was a two-time Playboy Playmate before being cast in the 1984 music video for ZZ Top’s “Legs.” The clip was a third in an over-the-top trilogy that also included “Gimme All Your Lovin'” and “Sharp Dressed Man” Herrin also landed a pair of roles in popular 1984 films: Robert Zemeckis’ Romancing the Stone, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, and Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters, which featured Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver, among others. Herrin has a brief but memorable role in the latter as was cast as the floating apparition who appeared above a sleeping Ackroyd’s bed and appeared to do more than float. Herrin also had small roles on the big screen in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Road House (1987) and Moving Violations (1985) and guested on the TV dramas Matt Houston and St. Elsewhere.

Kymberly is survived by her mother, Billie Dodson; her brother, Mark Herrin; along with several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. She was 65 years old.

Marvel and DC Artist Carlos Pacheco has died after a short battle with ALS."Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neuromuscular disease. ALS is characterized by a progressive degeneration of motor nerve cells in the brain (upper motor neurons) and spinal cord (lower motor neurons). When the motor neurons can no longer send impulses to the muscles, the muscles begin to waste away (atrophy), causing increased muscle weakness. ALS does not impair a person's intellectual reasoning, vision, hearing or sense of taste, smell and touch. In most cases, ALS does not affect a person's sexual, bowel or bladder functions." Panheco who was lived in Spain and started his carrer doing Spansh language editnos of Marvel Comics. Pacheco's first published superhero comic was an eight-page story titled American Soldier with writer and translator Antonio Moreno, and published as a back-up in Marvel Héroes #41 (May 1991)Pacheco first got attention in the United States for his work as penciller on Dark Guard, a four-issue Marvel UK title, and the first book he fully drew by himself. He would later do work for such Marvel comics as Age of Ultron, Avengers Forever, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Men, among others. He also did somer work for the Distinquished Competition including Arrowsmtih, Final Crisis, The Flash, Green Lanter and Superman. Before announcing his retirement from ALS earlkier this year, he did the cover for Marvel’s Damage Control. In September 2022, Pacheco announced on his Facebook page that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Pacheco died at La Línea Hospital in La Línea de la Concepción, on 9 November 2022,[2][12] at around 7.30pm CET, at the age of 60.

Leo Gallagher, the watermelon-smashing prop comic known as Gallagher, has died. He was 76.

His former manager, Craig Marquardo, told The Hollywood Reporter that Gallagher died Friday in Palm Springs after a short health battle. He was surrounded by family.

The comic had suffered a host of heart attacks, something he and David Letterman talked about during an appearance on Late Show With David Letterman in 2012.

Gallagher became a household name in 1980 with his comedy special, An Uncensored Evening, which was directed by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees.
Gallagher’s biggest comic touch was employing a sledgehammer. He became famous for using a hand-made tool he dubbed the “Sledge-O-Matic,” where he would smash food onstage and spray it into the audience.
He is survived by his son, Barnaby, and his daughter, Aimee, who appeared with him on his TV specials when she was a child. He was 76.

The voice of Batman for a generation, Kevin Conroy has passed away after a brief battle with cancer. Conroy is best known for voicing Batman for 1992’s Batman The Animated Series. Conroy was born on November 30, 1955, in Westbury, New York, Conroy moved to New York City in 1973 when he earned a full scholarship to attend the Juilliard School's drama division, studying under actor John Houseman. While there, he roomed with Robin Williams, who was in the same group as both Conroy and Kelsey Grammer.[6] After graduating from Juilliard in 1978, he toured with Houseman's acting group The Acting Company. In 1980, Conroy decided to try his hand in television and moved out to California. He landed a role in the daytime soap opera Another World. After a stint in theater, he returned to television in the 1985 TV movie Covenant and had a role on another daytime soap drama, Search for Tomorrow. Conroy played gay lawyer Bart Fallmont on Dynasty from 1985 to 1986.[8] He was a series regular on Ohara in 1987, and as the company commander on Tour of Duty from 1987 to 1988, before starring in a series of television movies.        Though initially cast as one of the show's main characters, his role on the show was reduced while it filmed in Hawaii and he ended up spending much of his time doing portraits of tourists on the Honolulu boardwalk. Conroy also guest starred on shows such as Cheers, Search for Tomorrow, Matlock and Murphy Brown. He voiced Batman: The Animated Series from 1992 to 1995 as well as in other animated projects These spin-offs include the TV shows The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), Batman Beyond (1999–2001, in which he portrays an elderly Bruce Wayne retired from crimefighting), Justice League (2001–2004), and Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006), as well as the theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993),[12][13] and the direct-to-video films Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003). He also voiced Batman for the character's guest appearances in the DCAU's Superman: The Animated Series, and other projects. He also made lots of appearances on the comicon circuit Conroy died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City from intestinal cancer on November 10, 2022, at the age of 66. He did not publicly disclose that he was ill.[34]

Jason David Frank , famous for playing the Green Power Ranger in the 90’s series Mighty Morphin Power rangers has passed away. Justine Hunt, Frank’s manager, said in a statement Sunday that Frank passed away. She did not name the cause of death or say when he died, but asked for “privacy of his family and friends during this horrible time as we come to terms with the loss of such a wonderful human being.”Though his role wasn’t intended to be permanent, Frank was later brought back as the White Ranger and the leader of the team. Across spinoff TV series, Frank’s Tommy Oliver returned as other rangers, as well, including Red Zeo Ranger, the Red Turbo Ranger and the Black Dino Ranger. He also played him in the films “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie” and “Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie,” and made a cameo in the 2017 reboot “Power Rangers.” A practitioner of martial arts, Frank fought in several mixed martial arts bouts in 2009 and 2010. Most recently, he filmed “Legend of the White Dragon,” a film that was partially funded with a Kickstarter and included other past “Power Rangers” cast members. John David Frank was 49 years old.

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