● The official series trailer is out for Netflix’s Shadow And Bone, created by Eric Heisserer and based on the Fantasy novel franchise from author Leigh Bardugo. Set to premiere on April 23, the series is set in the Grishaverse novels, and centers on Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a lowly soldier and orphan who awakens an extraordinary power that could be the key to setting her country free from the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold.
● New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures have since scaled back the release of Mortal Kombat, moving it to April 23. Simon McQuoid makes his feature directing debut from a script by Greg Russo, and stars Lewis Tan as a washed-up MMA fighter thrust into an epic death tournament that will decide not only the fate of the realms, but his own destiny in the wake of a longstanding rivalry between ninja clans.
● Monkey Master is the name of the latest endeavor from producers, action auteur John Woo, and Stan Lee collaborator Sharad Devarajan. “Based on an unreleased comic book series and story created by Marvel maven Lee and Graphic India co-founder and CEO Devarajan, the film will follow New York City archeologist Li Yong who discovers an ancient prophecy about the Chinese legend of The Monkey King that brings him to India where he uncovers a hidden power that transforms him into a modern-day superhero – the Monkey Master.” VARIETY
● Upcoming Bruised star/director Halle Berry is joining actor Mark Wahlberg for Our Man In Jersey from Netflix. The new spy flick is billed as a “blue collar James Bond” and has Wahlberg also producing the film in reunion with Stephen Levinson (Spenser Confidential), with David Guggenheim (Safe House) penning the script. VARIETY
● Adam Wingard is on a hot streak of late now that he’s reportedly the subject of talks to direct a CG adaptation of Thundercats. Based on the classic 1985 animated series, Thundercats centers on a band of humanoid cat-like beings forced to flee their dying planet, only to face a new threat they must now face down with the help of the Sword Of Omens and the Eye Of Thundera. DEADLINE
● RLJE Films has acquired the North American rights to SXSW darling, The Spine Of Night. The hand-rotoscoped animated fantasy horror is written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, and centers on a group of heroes from different eras who must band together when ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. The film stars Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel and Joe Manganiello. SCREENANARCHY
●The official trailer is out for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The new, animated weekly series launching exclusively on Disney+ from Tuesday May 4 with a 70-minute premiere “follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in “The Clone Wars”) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch – a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army – each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew.”