Just last week author Mark Harris announced his latest project on twitter: a Netflix docuseries based on his book about Hollywood and World War II. Today Netflix has officially announced the project with the first trailer for a series cinephiles and history buffs will want to clear their calendars for.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm and the rights to distribute Indiana Jones, rumors began circulating about the studios’ intentions to reboot the franchise and cast a younger actor in Harrison Ford’s iconic role. That’s not the case, however, as Ford is reuniting with Steven Spielberg for Indiana Jones 5, while recent comments from studio chief Bob Iger suggested that there are still plans to reboot Indy sometime in the near future. As it turns out, those plans may be a bit bigger than Iger implied.
With few exceptions, Oscar Isaac has been enjoying a steady run of great roles over the last few years, working with directors like the Coen Brothers, J.J. Abrams and Alex Garland — all of whom quickly helped to transform the actor into one of our most beloved stars. Things are only getting better from here, as Isaac’s next project could see him teaming up with anther great director.
Ready Player One was always meant to be a movie. With a plot that centers on millenial nostalgia for early ’90s video games, movies, and television shows, and a thoroughly likable group of characters, Ready Player One has been on many science-fiction fans’ most anticipated movie list since the movie rights were optioned. And on Friday, screenwriter Zak Penn posted on Twitter that production on the Steven Spielberg-led film adaptation had finally begun.
Following the epic (and epically not great) Hobbit trilogy, we all kind of assumed that Peter Jackson would take a little break from filmmaking. A blockbuster trilogy is exhausting and the guy has clearly earned a good nap or two. In news that may come as a bit of a surprise, it looks like the filmmaker is not only planning a new project, but he’s already begun working on it in secret — well, not so secret anymore, as Steven Spielberg has spilled the beans.
The BFG — or “Big Friendly Giant” — spends his days in Giant Country, collecting dreams from a magical tree and distributing them to the people of the world. He seems like just the sort of character who would appeal to Steven Spielberg, a big friendly giant of the film world whose work has stimulated the imaginations of millions of moviegoers. But Spielberg doesn’t fully communicate that appeal with his film version of The BFG, which contains a fair amount of lovely images but may be the director’s most listless and dramatically inert movie in decades.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Disney has repeatedly assured fans that they have no (current) plans to reboot Indiana Jones or replace Harrison Ford in the iconic role anytime soon — well, at least not in Indiana Jones 5, which re-teams Ford with series director Steven Spielberg for one more outing. According to Disney chief Bob Iger, however, the forthcoming sequel won’t be the last of the Indy franchise, and it definitely sounds like they do have plans to reboot the series — to some extent — after all.
Steven Spielberg has a long history with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and her husband, producer Frank Marshall. It’s a relationship that dates way back to the formation of Amblin, and continues today as the three friends have helped each other on various projects, including Jurassic World and the upcoming Indiana Jones 5. It was Kennedy who found Colin Trevorrow for the Jurassic Park sequel, having recently worked with another young up-and-coming director on a potential Star Wars anthology project. That director was Josh Trank, and if you mention that name to Spielberg, he’ll do a great Mean Girls impression.
Steven Spielberg has only gotten busier in recent years; the prolific director has been adding a fair amount of projects to his growing to-do list, including Indiana Jones 5, set to hit theaters in 2019. Harrison Ford will return to reprise his iconic role as the archaeological adventurer despite repeatedly denied rumors that Disney is looking to pass the torch to a new star. If you had any remaining doubts, Spielberg himself assures fans that Ford isn’t going anywhere — at least not in his Indy universe.