WIRE Buzz: Zoe Kravitz keeping up Catwoman training; Universal builds LEGO movie deal; more

Just because coronavirus quarantines and social distancing have called off almost all film and TV productions, that doesn't mean their stars can rest easy. That goes double when playing Catwoman. Zoe Kravitz, who is taking on the antihero for filmmaker Matt Reeves' The Batman, hasn't been filming since production on the movie closed down last month — but she's still staying ready to play the acrobatic rival/ally of the Caped Crusader.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, the actress explained that she had to keep up with her superhero training even if the comic book movie has been bumped to the future. "So I mean, it's not like the studio called and said, 'Don't get fat, b****,'" Kravitz said. "But I had been training now for maybe four or five months and the first couple weeks that I self quarantined, I remember texting the director, I texted Matt and I was like, ‘We might have to make the cat suit a few sizes bigger when this is over.'"

Catwoman's iconic black catsuit is usually depicted as skintight and meant to cut a lean, mean silhouette — something hard to maintain alone. But Kravitz has been in constant contact with her Batman team. The actress said she's "been working out virtually with [her] trainer David Higgins five days a week," just so that, when production picks back up again in the future, she doesn't "have to start from scratch."

What kind of stuntwork is she going to have to pull off?! We shall see when The Batman arrives for its newly slated Oct. 1, 2021 debut.

Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Next, the LEGO film franchise will be moving away from Warner Bros. now that a new deal has been struck between the building block company and Universal Pictures (which is owned by NBCUniversal, which also owns SYFY WIRE).

According to Deadline, the five-year exclusive deal yanks the franchise kickstarted by the surprise 2014 hit The LEGO Movie from under WB, giving the property that's earned over $1B at the box office to Universal for a new direction.

While Universal lacks some of the superhero IP that WB started playing with in The LEGO Batman Movie, it certainly has a lot of franchises already in bed with LEGO — like the dino-filled world of Jurassic Park, which has already been mined with a LEGO TV miniseries. Who knows, maybe they'll add the Dark Universe to the LEGO Universe.

And finally, IT’S ALIVE!

We’re referring of course, to live theater. Although the coronavirus has shuttered theater doors and put a stop to all public gatherings, people can still enjoy live performance on their laptops and mobile devices, courtesy of companies like the National Theatre. And what is the National Theatre playing next week? Why, a production of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. IT’S ALIVE! 

Courtesy of National Theatre At Home, the company’s theatrical production based on Mary Shelley’s classic novel written for the stage by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle will stream on YouTube next week. In the production, which played in movie theaters back in 2012, Cumberbatch and Miller swap the roles of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Check out these two featurettes on the production below:

The two versions of Frankenstein will stream on YouTube, with the video featuring Cumberbatch as the creature streaming from April 30 at 2 p.m. through May 7 at 2 p.m.; and the video with Miller in the creature role (and Cumberbatch playing the Strange Doctor) available from May 1 at 2 p.m. through May 8 at 2 p.m. (all times ET).