This week in news: Michael B. Jordan eyes The Thomas Crown Affair (and that nice-looking Monet over there), Justice League gets a start date, Jon Bernthal tackles Baby Driver and Martin Freeman unmasked in Cap 3...
Michael B. Jordan goes from light heavyweight crown to Thomas Crown
With Fantastic Four now a distant, if horrible memory, Creed star Michael B. Jordan is fast developing into a bona fide leading man. This week brought news of another reboot for the charismatic Californian, this time in The Thomas Crown Affair. MGM have had their eye on a lead for a romantic heist caper – Take Hart meets Heat - and this week settled on Jordan to follow in the stealthy footsteps of Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan as the debonair art thief. Unusually, there’s no screenwriter or director attached but with the hot-as-magma Jordan toplining, neither can be too far away.
Justice League gets cracking in April
Justice League has been in Hollywood's “will they/won’t they?” basket for some time, with uncertainty, rumours, and rumours of other rumours all clouding the inception of a unified DC cinematic universal. Well, in a move to confound even the most determined naysayer, the project got an official start date this week. If you see – deep breath – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman, The Flash or Cyborg on April 11, please point them in the direction of the set.
Martin Freeman in Captain America: Civil War
With 7,287 characters appearing, some of Captain America: Civil War dramatis personae were always likely to remain shrouded in mystery. One such was the man played by Martin Freeman - at least, until now. The cover story in the new issue of Empire revealed not only his name - Everett Ross – but his likely whereabouts as the Cap vs Iron Man clash plays out. In Empire’s exclusive picture he’s found backed up by a German SWAT team and Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, Cap’s comic-book girlfriend. Head here for a closer look.
King of the swingers
The advance word on Jon Favreau’s new Disney take on The Jungle Book is that its combination of live action and digital technology will dazzle our eyes with its beauty and elegance. New Empire stills, released in the latest issue this week, confirmed that. There was a new look at Mowgli (Neel Sethi) and his panther pal Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), as well as this look at super-sized ape King Louie (Christopher Walken). Head here for the full story.
Bern, baby, Bern
From The Walking Dead to Fury to Sicario to Me And Earl And The Dying Girl to Daredevil, Jon Bernthal is making plenty of good choices at the moment. This week’s news saw him continue the pattern, with a role in Edgar Wright’s action-comedy-thriller-type-thing Baby Driver. All we know so far is that J-Bern will be playing a guy called Griff, and there aren’t too many movie Griffs who turn out to be good'uns. Also, that his impressive array of co-stars includes Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Eliza Gonzalez, Ansel Elgort.
DeKnight’s watch
With his old show, Daredevil, limbering up for a second season, Steven S. DeKnight has bigger Kaiju to fry. The show-runner will be kicking off his big-screen directorial career at the sharp end with Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 mecha-mayhem. That news brings confirmation that the project, on-again/off-again for the past couple of years, will be delivering more Jaeger-on-Kaiju action for fans.