● Netflix officially launched its teaser on Thursday for Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead, a new post-apocalyptic heist thriller that sees a band of mercenaries pull off an impossible heist in the middle of a zombie outbreak. The film stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Raúl Castillo, Michael Cassidy, and Garret Dillahunt. The film streams May 21.
● Matt Charman, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind Bridge Of Spies, will take the helm for sci-fi thriller, The Mothership, from Netflix and MRC. The film has cast upcoming Bruised and Moonfall actress Halle Berry as a fearless woman who embarks on a journey with her children to find her mysteriously-disappeared husband after discovering a strange extraterrestrial object under their home. Automatik’s Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones will produce, with Berry exec producing with Danny Stillman. (Collider)
● David Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker, the respective director and screenwriter of seething detective horror procedural, Se7en, will direct an adaptation of Alexis Nolent novel, The Killer. Trade news reports that Michael Fassbender is in talks to star for the cinematic telling of “a cold-blooded assassin who begins to have psychological crisis in a world with no moral compass”. Ceán Chaffin will serve as producer for the Netflix-bound project. (Deadline)
● Netflix officially houses the rights to Bluff, a dark new pirate feature that will reunite Zoe Saldana with Haven helmer Frank E. Flowers. Penned by Joe Ballarini, the Cayman Islands-set 17th century thriller sees Saldana as “Ercell, a Caribbean woman whose secret past is revealed when her island is invaded by vicious buccaneers.” Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr. notes that “…The intention is to blend visceral action and historical fiction to create a real action vehicle as the heroine fights against the atrocities committed by the pirates.
● Warner Bros. Pictures is revving up DC Films adaptation, Blue Beetle, according to The Wrap. Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings) will direct from a script by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala), based on Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski’s 1939 creation, and will focus on the Jamie Reyes-led arc debuting the first superhero movie starring a Latino character for both labels.
● Following a fifteen-day shoot with a break in-between per local quarantine periods and safety protocols, filming on action thriller Echo 8 wrapped this week marking actress and producer Maria Tran’s narrative feature debut. Penned by Elizabeth H. Vu, the film centers on a highly trained assassin who finds herself in a strange house with no memories of how she got there, in the wake of a specialized mission gone awry. (Fairfield Champion)
● The official title of the next Spider-Man film is Spider-Man: No Way Home, following teaser announcements by the cast earlier this week. Rejoining director Jon Watts, Tom Holland will reprise his role once again as Marvel segues into its next phase of the cinematic universe with the studio plotting the film’s release date for December 27, 2021.
