WIRE Buzz: Jon Hamm joins stellar Alpha Gang cast; animated Deathstroke film targets trailer; more

Alpha Gang, a comedic sci-fi film about a botched alien invasion, just announced a stellar cast that includes Jon Hamm (Good Omens), Andrea Riseborough (Obivion), Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road), Charlotte Gainsburg (Melancholia), Mackenzie Davis (Black Mirror), Sofia Boutella (The Mummy), and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead).

Per Deadline, the film follows a crew of "armed and dangerous," merciless aliens who are hellbent on conquering Earth, until their insidious plans are thwarted by the most fickle of things: human emotion. "But hopefully they can still annihilate mankind before it's too late."

The film will be directed by brothers David and Nathan Zellner, with the former handling screenwriting duties as well. No word yet on which cast members will play emotionally-burdened aliens and which will play the humans trying to save the world, but the film promises to be a fun, humorous, and action-packed experience.

While the cast and directors are set, we still have plenty of time to ponder whether Hamm — who recently played an angel with psychopathic tendencies in the Amazon Prime series Good Omens, will play an emo-laden alien or a ne'er-do-well human — as production on the film isn't scheduled to start until 2021 somewhere in Eastern Europe.

DC's anti-hero Deathstroke is getting his own animated feature-length movie. The film, Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons, will focus on the double-life of Slade Wilson (voiced by Gotham's Michael Chiklis), whose secret career as a deadly mercenary assassin collides with his humdrum family life when those he loves are threatened by the terror group, H.I.V.E.

In the trailer that dropped today, we see that H.I.V.E has kidnapped Slade's son Joseph in an attempt to get Deathstroke to work for them. The trailer hints, of course, that things don't go as H.I.V.E expected, and that Slade will also get help from Lady Shiva (Panta Mosleh).

Some of the film's 87 minutes have already run as animated shorts, the first five of which appeared on CW Seed. This release of the film, however, will have nearly 50 minutes of never-before-seen content for those who need a little more Deathstroke in their lives.

The feature, produced by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, will drop digitally on Aug. 4, while the Blu-ray Combo Pack lands Aug. 18.

Weta Digital, co-founded by The Lord of the Ring's Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, just announced the creation of Weta Animated, a new division that will create original content for the first time in the visual effects company's history.

The entirety of Weta Digital will also now be led by Prem Akkaraju, whose previous credits include being the co-founder of SR Labs with Sean Parker, and chief content officer at SFX Entertainment. Under the leadership of Akkaraju, and with writing and creative input from Jackson and Walsh, Weta Animated will focus on projects for both the large and small screen, including streaming services.

"We are huge fans of animated storytelling in all of its forms, but it can be a long, protracted, and often costly way to make movies," Jackson said in a press release. "That's, in part, why we have created this company — to change the model and open the doors to filmmakers and storytellers who might not otherwise be given the chance to show what they can do."

No news yet on the specifics of what Weta Animated's new original content will be, but we can only hope that it will include additional stories from the world of J.R.R. Tolkien.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)