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WIRE Buzz: Disney+ Tron series over before it starts; Stranger Things 4 heads to New Mexico; more
Bad news for Tron fans. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that a Tron streaming series had secretly been in the works earlier this year at Disney+, but the folks at the Mouse House opted to scrap it before it was even announced.
John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years A Slave, showrunner of ABC's anthology series American Crime, and The Other Side of the DC Universe author, was developing the show for the streaming service. No word why it never got off the ground, or whether it would have even featured any of the same characters as its predecessors — 1982's big screen sci-fi classic and its 2010 Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel, Tron: Legacy.
Other shows Disney+ had in development that reportedly got the axe included a Disney villains drama, Book of Enchantment, and Muppets Live Another Day, a scripted comedy featuring Kermit and friends.
Stranger Things 4 isn't taking a break from its fictional setting of Hawkins, Indiana, but it is moving.
In a change of scenery from its usual shooting locations in Atlanta, Netflix's hit sci-fi series will be filming a large chunk of the highly anticipated fourth season in New Mexico.
Netflix Vice Presidents of Physical Production, Patty Whitcher and Momita SenGupta, broke the news at Deadline's Hot Spots: New Mexico conference, telling the trade that the move is all part of the Duffer Brothers' master plan to make Season 4 "bigger, bolder and more intricate than ever."
According to the execs, Stranger Things will film at Albuquerque Studios, which the Streaming Giant purchased back in 2018, marking the first time the show's been out of the ATL for any extended period of time.
No word exactly what that means plot-wise. When last we left the gang in last summer's season finale, David Harbour's Jim Hopper had survived the explosion underneath the Starcourt Mall only to turn up in a snowy Soviet prison, as a brief teaser for Season 4 revealed last month. Netflix also recently teased another VHS-style video of a table read reuniting cast members including Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, and Noah Schnapp.
A premiere date has yet to be announced by Netflix, but hopefully we'll see Stranger Things 4 later this year.
Blink and you might have missed Vin Diesel taking a break from The Fast and the Furious series to try his fists in the fantasy realm with 2015's The Last Witch Hunter (not that the Fast movies aren't fantasy as well with all those flying cars and over-the-top stunts).
In the not-exactly-a-hit film, Diesel played Kaulder, an immortal knight who works as a witch hunter for the Order of the Axe and Cross (an organization keeping the peace between humans and witches) and embarks on a quest to prevent the evil Witch Queen from unleashing a terrible plague on New York.
Alas, The Last Witch Hunter, which cost upwards of $90 million to make, grossed less than double that with $146 million in worldwide ticket sales — about as much as it cost to market it. While generally hated by critics and a far cry from Diesel's previous box office hauls, the would-be blockbuster fared better with audiences, earning a 43% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
And now, like the eternal hero at the center of this dark tale, efforts to turn The Last Witch Hunter into a franchise live on.
While making the promotional rounds for his upcoming superhero film Bloodshot, due out March 13, Diesel told Collider that Lionsgate is apparently developing the sequel.
"Lionsgate is coming and saying, 'We’re putting a writer on for the next one.' That’s kinda cool!" said the star. "And this is just recent, by the way. But … I’m in a meeting with Lionsgate and they’re actively creating the sequel to The Last Witch Hunter."
We'll see if we ever see it. But as they say in Hollywood, IP springs eternal.
