WIRE Buzz: Wonder Woman 1984 lassos premiere time; Diego Luna talks Andor’s cinematic roots; more

Fans have been anticipating Wonder Woman 1984 on the big and small screen since Warner Bros. first announced it would be released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. Well, now they'll also know exactly when the much-hyped movie is dropping.

HBO Max tweeted today that Wonder Woman 1984 will start streaming at precisely 12 p.m. ET. The film will only be available to stream on the platform for 31 days from its release, at no extra cost to subscribers.

WW 1984 isn't the first movie to go the streaming route, given the ongoing global pandemic. Pixar's Soul is set to drop Christmas Day on Disney+, and will be available to all subscribers right way, instead of requiring them to pay extra to watch it early as the platform had done for Mulan when it was released a few months ago. 

Wonder Woman 1984 is a sequel to the box-office smashing 2017 origin story of Diana Prince. The follow-up, also directed by Patty Jenkins (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron) and starring Gal Gadot in the titular role, picks up decades after the first film, with Diana living in the '80s and maintaining a secret identity as a superhero while also working for the Smithsonian. But when a mysterious magic stone that grants people their deepest wish appears and starts wreaking havoc, she knows she has to step in and save the world, lest it descend into chaos. 

Chris Pine (Star Trek) also stars, along with Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live). 

Wonder Woman 1984 flies into theaters and onto HBO Max on Dec. 25. 

Lucasfilm and Disney recently wowed fans with what feels like a whole new galaxy’s worth of fresh Star Wars content heading to the small screen. Among the 10 projects Disney recently previewed that will be warping to Disney+ is the previously-announced Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel series featuring Diego Luna as Rogue One’s Cassian Andor.

Titled simply Andor, the live action series will serve as an episodic backstory for Cassian’s Rebel exploits before he met his heroic, tragic fate on the big screen at the battle on Scarif. Luna, who’s currently filming Andor in London, recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and dropped some small — but neat — details about how Lucasfilm is stepping up its TV production game.

Luna remained coy about just how much (or how little) Andor might rely on the same StageCraft virtual production technique that’s brought The Mandalorian’s unique environments vividly to life. But he did say that his series will likely share some production DNA with Rogue One itself.

“I think the format of a series is amazing because we have a lot of time to explore all those layers. What happens in Rogue One is something we can actually reflect on, and what’s behind something like [Cassian’s sacrifice],” he said. “The way we’re shooting this reminds me of how we shot the film, and the amount of work behind this TV series reminds me of the work you do for a film. It feels like we’re doing a very long movie.”

With the stepped-up cinematic visuals of The Mandalorian’s Season 2 finale still fresh in our minds, the idea that another Star Wars series is swinging for the big-screen fences sounds like exciting stuff — even if Andor ends up forging its own production path to get us there.

The creative writing mind behind Disney’s The Descendants is sprinkling magic dust over a reported new TV movie project set to be based on her new kids’ fantasy book series.

Deadline reports that New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz (The Descendants, The Witches of East End) has teamed with Motion Picture Company of America to adapt Cruz’s just-released The Thirteenth Fairy as a small-screen film, though there’s no early word on where the movie might land.

Credit: Macmillan

Published by Macmillan, The Thirteenth Fairy marks the first installment in Cruz’s new middle-grade book series The Chronicles of Never After. The book tells the story of a middle school-aged girl named Filomena Jefferson-Cho, who discovers she’s being followed in real life by the aptly-named Jack Stalker — the protagonist of a fantasy world she thought only existed in her head.

Finding out there’s much more to her imagined land than even she first dreamt, Filomena “is thrust into a world of fairies, sorcerers, dragons and slayers, where an evil queen is determined to wipe out the fairy tribes,” according to the book’s description. “To save the kingdom, Filomena and her new friends must find the truth behind the tale of the Thirteenth Fairy before it’s too late.”

Details about the movie, including a release date, its creative team, and possible casting haven’t yet been revealed, so stay tuned.