WIRE Buzz: Stallone goes full Plissken; Tenacious D rocking new comic; Urban Legend

Sylvester Stallone (The Expendables) is heading to a dystopian future in Little America, an upcoming, Escape From New York-esque action-thriller from producer Michael Bay, Deadline has confirmed.

Taking place in a world where the United States has transformed into a war zone after going bankrupt, the movie follows a former Army Ranger (Stallone), who is hired to find the daughter of an Asian billionaire. Joined by the missing woman's "skilled sister," the Ranger plunges into Little America, "a walled-off city within a city in Hong Kong where many Americans have fled."

Credit: Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Principal photography is expected to begin this summer after Stallone wraps up Samaritan. Rowan Athale wrote the screenplay and is slated to direct the project as well.

According to Deadline's report, "AGC Studios is launching [the film] at the European Film Market where it is likely to be among the most in-demand packages."

Tenacious D, the famous comedy rock duo created by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, will continue to melt faces with a new graphic novel hand-drawn by Black himself, SYFY WIRE confirmed today. Co-written by Black and Gass, the comic is an extension of the Post-Apocalypto album and animated web series of the same name.

Comprising 180 pages, the book finds the band navigating the end of the world after an atomic blast wipes out a good chunk of the world's entire population. Surviving in a 1950s refrigerator (shoutout Crystal Skull), Tenacious D's two members "quickly learn that new forms of evil have spawned from the blast." What follows is an epic adventure full of time travel, space exploration, and "some tried and true daddy issues."

Credit: Fantagraphics

Credit: Fantagraphics

Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books will release the graphic novel on Sep. 15 for $29.99 a pop.

“When we finished this book there was only one publisher we ever really considered," the band said in an official statement. "Fantagraphics has been the shining beacon of creativity in comic books for decades. We are thrilled to release our magnum opus with the undisputed greatest and best comic book publisher in the world. Fantagraphics 4 life."

“I've been a fan of Tenacious D for years and am absolutely excited to publish Post-
Apocalypto!” added Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “It's about time these guys conquered yet another artistic medium."

Black and Gass also plan to narrate a read-along audiobook version, complete with music.

"It was really just a reaction to the times," Black said at Fantastic Fest in 2018. "Then we were like 'We gotta go post-apocalyptic.' And we realized all the best movies are post-apocalyptic. You got Terminator, Road Warrior, Matrix. Those are the three best movies. That's objectively true."

Created in 1994, Tenacious D has enjoyed an impressive pop culture track record that includes: a short-lived TV show on HBO and the release of four studio albums. The band hit the big screen in 2006's The Pick of Destiny, where Black and Gass enter into a rock competition with Satan himself (played by the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl).

Directed by Liam Lynch, the movie (which bombed at the box office) featured an impressive supporting cast of: Paul F. Tompkins, Amy Adams, Tim Robbins, Meat Loaf, John C. Reilly, and Amy Poehler.

Urban Legend, a new slasher flick from Sony Screen Gems, has found its director in the form of Colin Minihan (What Keeps You Alive), writes Deadline.

Sounding eerily similar to TriStar Pictures' 1998 movie of the same name, Urban Legend  "will introduce an iconic new slasher for the digital age in a world where internet urban legends are born and move at a terrifying pace."

The story is said to follow a group of college students trying to uncover the maniac behind a series of strange deaths that resemble urban legends from "the darkest corners of social media."

While Deadline isn't casting it as such, this project may very well be a 21st Century remake of the '98 original, which was a modest box office success, despite rather negative reviews from critics. The movie starred a young Jared Leto and a pair of famous horror icons: Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Brad Dourif (Child's Play). It also spawned two follow-ups, Urban Legends: Final Cut and Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, in 2000 and 2005 respectively.

Turning internet-based legends and challenges into horror movies seems to be a hot trend in Hollywood these days. Sony released the ill-fated Slender Man in 2018, while Orion is currently developing a "Momo Challenge" project. Emagine Content and November 11th Pictures' Getaway is Momo-inspired as well.

Sony did not immediately clarify any details for SYFY WIRE