Sci-Fi Movies Coming Soon: Knight Rider Reboot In The Works
This list of sci-fi movies coming soon includes massive studio tentpoles, stand-alone adventures, new additions to fan-favorite franchises, and esoteric indies that rely more on ideas and storytelling than resources.
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We’ve said it a number of times before, but it’s good to be a sci-fi fan right now. There are tons of fantastic speculative fiction books popping up every day, the current golden age of television definitely encompasses the genre, and there’s an avalanche of sci-fi movies to look forward to.
That list of sci-fi movies include massive studio tentpoles, stand-alone adventures, new additions to fan-favorite franchises, and esoteric indies that rely more on ideas and storytelling than resources. We have quite a bit to look forward to.
With that in mind, we’ve assembled a list of the most anticipated sci-fi movies coming our way. For the most part, we don’t include superhero movies, unless they’re explicitly hard sci-fi. (Look, we’re as jazzed for Thor: Love and Thunder as anyone, but that will get plenty of play elsewhere.) We also keep it pretty strictly sci-fi rather than fantasy—think robots and spaceships rather than orcs and elves. Otherwise, this gets unwieldy in short order.
These are the biggest, boldest, most interesting sci-fi and fantasy movies headed your way.
Free Guy—December 11, 2020
Free Guy stars Ryan Reynolds as a Non-Player Character (NPC) living in a open open world video game like Grand Theft Auto, without realizing he’s in a video game. That is until one day, he decides he’s tired of being an NPC and starts trying to become a hero.
The movie is directed by Shawn Levy, who’s helmed such family friendly films as the Night at the Museum trilogy, Cheaper By The Dozen and Real Steel. He’s also done far less family friendly movies like The Internship and Date Night. Expect Free Guy to fall somewhere between those two extremes.
Infinite—May 28, 2021
Based on the book The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz—a tome written as if it was a lost text recently unearthed—Infinite follows a secret society of people with perfect recall of their past lives. In Antoine Fuqua’s adaptation, Mark Wahlberg (who replaced Chris Evans) plays a presumed-schizophrenic man who discovers what he believed to be hallucinations are actually memories from earlier lives, a fact he must to use to defeat a great evil.
In Fuqua’s hands, you can bet this will be an action-heavy sci-fi movie romp. Joining Wahlberg on his quest is a cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rupert Friend, Dylan O’Brien, Sophie Cookson, and Jason Mantzoukas.
Monster Hunter—April 23, 2021
Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, The Three Musketeers) brings another video game to life with this sci-fi film loosely based on the Capcom game, Monster Hunter. With this, he also brings his frequent on-screen collaborator, Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil), to star. This story follows Jovovich’s Lt. Artemis and her brave soldiers as they are transported to a new world where they battle for survival against enemies with incredible powers.
It seems it’s also a movie where everyone has a gigantic sword or in some cases two gigantic swords. Here’s Milla Jovovich showing off hers for Empire…
Heres the movie’s first ever posters…
And here’s a leaked version of the Monster Hunter trailer. No official version yet…
Dune—December 18, 2020
Though David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 novel has a cult following, many have long considered Dune unfilmable. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s psychedelic attempt fizzled, and the 2000 miniseries…leaves much to be desired. But that’s not going to stop Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) from trying to bring the epic saga of Paul Atreides and the Spice trade of Arrakis to the big screen.
The production split the mammoth book into two sci-fi movies—probably a good idea—and the Blade Runner 2049 director enlisted an absolutely stacked cast. The credits include Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, and probably you at some point.
- Go in depth with Dune 2020: All We Know About The New Movie
The Purge 5—TBA
Four sci-fi movies and a series deep, the Purge franchise is still going strong. 2018’s The First Purge—actually the fourth film—became the highest-grossing entry in the series. The low-budget, socially-minded horror films imagines a world where all crime is legal for one night, and in 2020, we will Purge again. There’s not usually a ton of crossover from one film to the next—the exception being from Anarchy to Election Year—so despite a lack of solid plot details, expect this film to look at new characters and offer a different perspective from previous chapters.
Franchise creator James DeMonaco handles the script, while Everardo Gout (Luke Cage, TNT’s Snowpiercer) takes over the directing duties. The only actors currently attached are Tenoch Huerta and Ana de la Reguera, both veterans of Narcos. Though still in pre-production, July might seem an ambitious release date, but they tend to crank these out pretty quick.
Ghostbusters Afterlife—March 5, 2021
Looks like Dan Aykroyd will finally get his wish for a third Ghostbusters movie with the original cast. He’s been talking about it forever, but it never really gained any traction—Bill Murray was reportedly a vocal hold-out, and after the death of Harold Ramis, the idea felt doomed. Not so, apparently.
Under the eye of director Jason Reitman (Juno), Ghostbusters Afterlife wrapped production in October 2019. The film sees Murray, Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts reprise their roles.
Get more in-depth on this sci-fi sequel with our full Ghostbusters: Afterlife Guide.
BIOS—April 16, 2021
Throw a dog into just about anything and we’re in. Even better if there’s a robot. Case in point, Bios. The story revolves around a post-apocalyptic world where a dying inventor, played by Tom Hanks, makes a robot, played by Caleb Landry Jones, to protect him and his dog as they head out on a journey. Sounds like a little bit like a mashup of A Boy and His Dog, Homeward Bound, and Sea of Rust. Written by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell, Miguel Sapochnik (Game of Thrones) handles the director’s job. If nothing else, it will be fun to see Hanks co-star with a dog for the first time since Turner and Hooch.
Godzilla Vs. Kong—May 21, 2021
Finally, we’re going to get an answer to that age-old question: which iconic movie monster would win in a fight, Godzilla or King Kong? And You’re Next director Adam Wingard has promised we’ll get a definitive answer, unlike 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, which ended with some ambiguity.
We got a look at the first footage from the film, featuring a flash of King Kong throwing one heck of a punch at Godzilla. Unfortunately it has been removed due to copyright violations from the person who posted it.
The new sci-fi movie action picks up in the wake of Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, so it’s probably safe to assume there will be some fun creature on creature violence along with a collection of flat, bland human characters we don’t really care about. But come on, a giant great ape punching a skyscraper-tall lizard that breathes fire? What’s not to get excited about?
The Tomorrow War—December 25, 2020
Dealing with lingering past traumas is the worst, especially when there’s an alien invasion to contend with in the here and now. Which is just what the protagonist of The Tomorrow War has to deal with, both literally and figuratively in this case. With humanity losing a futuristic war against an extraterrestrial aggressor, scientists find a way to draft soldiers from the past into their current conflict.
Directed by Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie) this sci-fi movie stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, and J.K. Simmons. We’ll see if it makes its scheduled Christmas 2020 release date, as filming just began in September 2019 and this feels like a movie that requires a lot of time in post-production.
Syncrhonic—TBA 2020
After their mind-bending, indie sci-fi movie, The Endless, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead returned with Syncrhonic. Another hit on the festival circuit, this film finds the writer/director duo with more resources to play with, most notably a bigger budget and stars like Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. The plot also seems suitably weird for Benson and Moorhead to tackle. We follow two New Orleans paramedics—Mackie and Dornan—as they come face to face with a new designer drug that has strange and horrific effects on its users, like time travel. Innovative and off-kilter, this sounds like another bizarro genre joint that takes on big ideas with creativity and style.
Jiu Jitsu—TBA 2020
Nicolas Cage’s late-stage career is…let’s call it a mixed bag. For every high point like Mandy, there are five forgettable paycheck movies we stumble across on Netflix and had no idea existed. But when he peaks, there’s a sheer mania to his movies, and this one sounds like a doozy.
The basic premise is an ancient order of Jiu Jitsu fighters regularly battle to protect the Earth from alien invaders. In addition to Cage, the cast includes a who’s who of current cinematic badasses, like Tony Jaa, Frank Grillo, Rick Yune, and JuJu Chan. So, in addition to being absolutely bananas, the action should be nothing short of stellar. Can’t wait to witness this craziness and see Nic Cage use martial arts to save the world.
Chaos Walking—TBA 2020
We’re not quite in the midst of a deluge of YA sci-fi movies like a few years ago, where every other release was an adaptation of a series of dystopian books for young readers. It hasn’t disappeared entirely, but it’s not as ubiquitous. But based on Patrick Ness’s novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Chaos Walking hopes to recapture some of the subgenre’s glory days.
Directed by Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow), the action explores a world where a pathogen supposedly killed all women and where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts. This project has been in the works for a long time and faced delays and reshoots—it finished principal photography in November 2017—but with a script by Charlie Kaufman (and five other credited writers) and a cast featuring Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Cynthia Erivo, and Nick Jonas, it’s hard not to be intrigued by the possibilities.
After Yang—TBA 2020
Set in a world where you can buy robot children, a father and daughter struggle to save the life of their android family member, Yang. Directed by filmmaker and video essayist, Kogonada (Columbus), and produced by A24, this adaptation of Alexander Weinstein’s short story, “Goodbye to Yang,” is sure to be an introspective, meditative take on science fiction. And with a cast anchored by Colin Farrell, Haley Lu Richardson, and Golshifteh Farahani, this could wind up being something very unique and special.
The Division—TBA
Video game movies are a dicey proposition, but if we’re going to get hyped about any of them, The Division has a metric ton of potential. Fronted by Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal, this adaptation of the Tom Clancy-created shooter has John Wick and Atomic Blonde director David Leitch at the helm, so you know the action will be top-tier.
The plot follows a bio-terrorist attack on Black Friday in New York City and the elite force deployed to restore order as society collapses. This has been in development since 2016, and thus far has only moved forward in fits and stops. We’ll have to wait to see if it ever actually materializes, but The Division does appear to at least be inching ahead. If and when this sci-fi movie drops, you can even watch it from the comfort of your couch, since it’s a Netflix project.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3—TBA
The road to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been a bumpy one thus far. Marvel fired James Gunn, who co-wrote and directed the first two Guardians films, which caused a revolt among fans and cast members. Eventually they re-hired him, and things have moved steadily forward, though we’re still in the early goings.
Right now, we don’t know much about the story, but in the wake of Avengers: Endgame, the fate of Gamora, and the events of upcoming MCU movies, the team has plenty to contend with—though Adam Warlock reportedly plays a part in the saga. The core cast—Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper—will reportedly reprise their roles, but other details are sparse. As far as a release date, Marvel has a number of slots open in 2022 and 2023, and production is slated to kick off in 2020, though Gunn has to direct the Suicide Squad sequel first.
Stowaway—TBA 2020
Sci-fi movies are full of stowaways, but what if that stowaway snuck onto a ship bound for Mars and the crew didn’t discover them until it was too late to turn back? In Stowaway, this person presents the crew with a moral dilemma of how to handle the situation as they hurtle through space with rapidly dwindling resources. Starring Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, and Daniel Dae Kim, Arctic director Joe Penna’s film looks to have lots of high-stakes drama, fraught tension, and conflict, all in a contained, compressed space the characters can’t escape. Sounds like a winning recipe.
Voyagers—TBA
Described as Lord of the Flies in space, director Neil Burger returns to the sci-fi movie genre with Voyagers, set to set sail in 2020. Probably. Principal photography kicked off in June of 2019, so who’s to say. Set in a not-so-distant future, the story follows 30 young men and women blasted into space on a multi-generational mission. Their goal is to establish a colony on a newly discovered planet, but things don’t go as planned, and the crew devolves into feral madness. As they deal with external threats, the real danger may be inside all along. It’s an intriguing premise, and one with a cast including Colin Farrell, Lily-Rose Depp, and Tye Sheridan to back it up.
Sci-Fi Movies In Early Development
Knight Rider | In Development
The classic 80s television movie Knight Rider is being turned into a movie according to the trades. It’s in development with Spyglass Media Group and Atomic Monster productions. Horror director James Wan is also involved as a producer and may direct, though I wouldn’t expect him to give it a horror movie twist. TJ Fixman is writing the script and he’s a former video game writer, which should tell you a lot about where this project is headed.
Knight Rider, of course, is the story of an invincible AI car named K.I.T.T. and a man with no history who has assumed the name of Michael Knight. Together they fight crime. In a world where Tesla’s exist, a car that can drive itself and that talks seems a little less fantastic, so they’ll have their work cut out for them to make this interesting as a modern day movie.
A Patriot | In Development
A Patriot is written and supposed to be directed by Dan Pringle. It’s the story of a border guard in a futuristic authoritarian state. The guard starts to question the regime she works for and that sets the plot in motion.
The sci-fi movie was originally supposed to shoot in 2019 with Eva Green to star as the main character alongside Tim Robbins, Helen Hunt and Kathy Bates. However, the production company, White Lantern Film, was taken over by Sherborne Media Capital and the whole thing has degenerated into chaos. It’s not clear if A Patriot is still happening at all now.
What is clear is that if it does happen, Eva Green will likely not be involved. Sherborne terminated her contract when they took over and now Eva Green is suing them according to The Daily Mail. She wants $1 million in damages which her suit claims she is entitled to if her contract is terminated. On the other hand, Sherborne claims she was in breach of that contract, though no one seems to know what that breach was.
Attack the Block 2 | Early Discussion
In 2011 we called Attack the Block the year’s best sci-fi movie. It’s the movie that launched John Boyega into stardom and it seemed well set up for a sequel. That never happened. But now things may be moving on Attack the Block 2.
Attack the Block writer/director Joe Cornish says he’s been talking to Boyega about making the sequel. He reveals in an interview with Script Apart, “We’ve got ideas. I met with John a couple of months ago to talk about it,” the filmmaker revealed. “We’ve always had ideas after the first one, but obviously we’ve both been busy doing different things. In a way, the longer you leave it, the more interesting it is. So that’s all I’ll say.”
Labyrinth 2 | In Development
Four years after the death of David Bowie, Labyrinth 2 is happening. It’s moving forward at TriStar Pictures with Lisa Henson, Brian Henson, and The Jim Henson Company heavily involved.
The original 1986 Labyrinth was written by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, and directed by the late great Jim Henson. The sequel will be helmed by Scott Derrickson, who is currently finishing up work on the new adaptation of Dune.
While the first movie starred Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, it was really Bowie that carried the picture in a villainous turn. It’s hard to imagine them replacing him, but they’ll have to, if Labyrinth 2 is moving forward.
Magic The Gathering | Early Development
Netflix is working on turning the popular trading card game Magic the Gathering into a live action movie. As the film’s lead they’re courting Angelina Jolie. If they get her, she’d star as Liliana Vess, one of the most powerful characters in the Magic the Gathering universe.
Gamepedia describes Liliana Vess as, “a human planeswalker from Dominaria and is both a master necromancer and a healer.” The character actually does look a lot like Angelina Jolie. Here’s what Liliana Vess looks like…
Though it might seem odd to try and turn a trading card game into a narrative, there have been a number of novels and other tie-ins to the game which have already done that. In particularly the War of the Spark novels are a pivotal part of Magic the Gathering’s lore and it’s likely that Netflix may adapt at least parts of this story for their film.
Austin Powers 4 | Early Discussions
The Austin Powers movies were a comedy juggernaut in the late nineties. Quoted by everyone until people literally couldn’t stand the idea of them anymore, they eventually faded away. But now might be the perfect time for an Austin Powers comeback, at least according to the movies’ director Jay Roach.
Recently he offered an update to MovieWeb on the long talked about fourth Austin Powers movie. Apparently it’s something he’s actively talking about with star Mike Myers, on a pretty regular basis.
Roach says, “We talk about it once a month, but until we know what it specifically wants to be. I don’t disagree that there is a classic battle in the Austin films, that of sort of love versus fear and paranoia, and color versus colorlessness, and music versus fear. Dr. Evil, there are some aspects of the way the world works right now that seem very Dr. Evil-y to me. I’ll just put it that way. But no, we don’t have a specific plan for anything right now.”
It sounds like they really want to do it, if they get the story right. Roach continues, “I root for it too. I root for it to come back, and so does Mike. We all have for a long time, it’s just always been, when the right story comes up and we know what it is, and that’s pretty much up to Mike.”
If they get the story and they end up wanting to move forward, given how much money the first three movies made they’ll likely have no trouble getting some studio to fund it. Still, if we ever do get Austin Powers 4 it sounds like the movie is a long, long way off.
Voldemort | Early Development
Thanks to the success of Joker, making movies about infamous villains is all the rage in Hollywood. So of course Warner Bros. is thinking of making a movie about Voldemort.
Word is that a Lord Voldemort origins movie is in early development at the studio that brought us Harry Potter. They even have a star in mind. To play Voldemort they’re looking at Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp.
Right now even if this rumor is true, the Lord Voldemort movie is still only in early stages. We’ll keep an eye on this one as it develops… or doesn’t.
Resident Evil Reboot | Early Development
In 2016 we got Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, but despite the title it wasn’t the end of the franchise. There’s a Netflix series on the way, and there’s a movie reboot too.
Johannes Roberts is writing the movie. The only official details leaked up til now are that it’s a reboot. But now word is that it’s not the kind of reboot that just rehashes what previous movies have done, it’s going in a different direction.
Where the last movie series focused on Alice as played by Milla Jovovich, these sources say the star of the reboot will be Claire Redfield. The Claire Redfield character is big in the games and she was in the Milla Jovovich series of movies. There she was played by Ali Larter. But she was never really the focus.
For the Resident Evil reboot, Claire will have grown up with her brother Chris in a Raccoon City orphanage. There children go missing under mysterious circumstances. When they grow up, Chris becomes a cop and things start to go sideways. Claire tries to convince him to leave the city, right when the zombie outbreak happens.
To play Claire, several different outlets are reporting that Samara Weaving is a top contender for the part. Samara can currently be seen in the crazy, over the top, Daniel Radcliffe action movie Guns Akimbo. Kaya Scodelario is also up for the part
Rumored names for other roles in the sci-fi action film include Abigail Breslin for Jill Valentine, Brenton Thwaits for Chris Redfield, and Theo James as Wesker.
Borderlands | Early Development
Lionsgate Studios has been working on a movie version of the popular Borderlands video game series since 2015, but it’s only now gaining momentum and actually moving forward. They’ve hired a director and one with vision: It’s Eli Roth.
Randy Pitchford is the CEO of Gearbox, the company responsible for the Borderland games. That makes this announcement as official as it gets.
For the uninitiated, Borderlands is an action-role playing first person shooter. It’s set in an outer space western setting. They’ve released four Borderlands games so far with the first coming out in 2009 and the most recent being released in 2019.
Akira | Early Development
A live-action movie version of the iconic anime Akira has long been in the works. The 1988 anime movie is about the leader of a biker gang living in a futuristic Neo-Tokyo. His friend acquires telekinetic powers and things go sideways.
The Akira movie project has moved from writer to director since 2002, always seeming like it’s about to be made, but never actually getting made. The latest attempt to make Akira landed in the hands of director Taika Waititi, who most recently won acclaim with his Oscar nominated movie Jojo Rabbit. Taika is currently working on Thor Love And Thunder, a sequel to the last Thor movie which he also directed.
Taika’s Akira was supposed to be on the fast-track, but now he offers this update: “The whole thing went on hold. We had to keep pushing the dates, and it encroached on the Thor dates, which were immovable. So Akira ended up shifting two years down the track… Post-Thor. So I’m not sure if even in two years I’d be — I don’t know what I’m doing in f—ing two days. I think eventually it will happen. I’m just not sure if I’ll be doing it.”
So the good news here is that Akira is probably still happening… at some point. The bad news is that no one seems to know exactly when, and when the sci-fi movie finally does happen, it probably won’t be the incredibly talented Taika Waititi making it.
Event Horizon Remake—TBA
Reports say a remake of the 1997 space horror movie Event Horizon is in very early development stages. The original was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and word is they hope to have him back for the new one.
When it was released in 1997 Event Horizon received lukewarm response at the box office. It later caught fire on home video and has become something of a cult classic among science fiction fans in the interim. The original movie starred Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill, among others. The plot involves a rescue vessel responding to a distress call from an experimental lost starship called the Event Horizon.
No word yet on if Fishburne or Neill might return for the new sci-fi movie. But rumor has it that frequent Paul W.S. Anderson collaborator Milla Jovovich will take on one of the movie’s leading roles.
Star Trek 4—TBA
After Star Trek Beyond, the rebooted Trek franchise seemed dead in the water. Sure, the TV side of things keeps chugging away, but as far as movies go, we were limited to the will he/won’t he dialogue surrounding a potential Quentin Tarantino take on Star Trek. Until very recently, that is.
Paramount recently announced that Noah Hawley, the driving force behind FX’s Fargo and Legion, will write and direct Star Trek 4, and that stars like Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, and Zachary Quinto are ready to board the Enterprise once again. The original idea was for Pine’s James T. Kirk to reunite with his father from J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot, played by Chris Hemsworth, via time travel, though it seems like that plot has been scrapped.
- Go in-depth with Star Trek 4: All About The Next Movie
Riddick 4: Furya—TBA
Star Vin Diesel has long talked about making a fourth entry in the Riddick franchise. The last movie was released in 2013 and while it didn’t exactly burn up the box office, it was moderately cheap to make and so wasn’t a disaster. Apparently a script for the fourth movie exists and Vin has it in his possession.
Planet Of The Apes—TBA
Disney acquired Fox, the studio that owns the Planet of the Apes franchise, in 2019. In the wake of that acquisition they’ve announced a new Planet of the Apes, one that won’t involve the creative team behind the most recent string of Planet of the Apes sequels.
Instead, Maze Runner director Wes Ball has been hired to helm the new Planet of the Apes. Given the change in both ownership for the franchise and the creatives behind it, speculation is that this may be a total Planet of the Apes reboot rather than a sequel to 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes.
Sci-Fi Movies On The Distant Horizon
Overwatch—Rumored Development
Overwatch is a multiplayer first person shooter developed by Blizzard, the company behind the legendary Starcraft franchise. You’d think that Blizzard would be working to turn their most iconic game, Starcraft, into a movie. Instead, rumor has it that we’re getting a feature film based on Overwatch.
This source claims Star Wars luminary Daisy Ridley is their top choice to star in the Overwatch movie. She’d play Lena Oxton or as she’s better known in the game, Tracer.
The Overwatch game is set in 60 years in the future and takes place a few decades after something called the Omnic Crisis. The Omnic Crisis involved the unleashing of murderous robots on the population by an artificial intelligence. “Overwatch” is the name of the organization in charge of fighting the bots off.
Moonfall—In Development
Director Roland Emmerich turned disaster movies into box office gold and made the genre what it is. In the nineties and early-2000s he cranked out eye-popping, world-ending, spectacle movies like Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. In recent years Hollywood has shied away from big budget disaster movies, but now Emmerich is working on a project that may bring them back.
Emmerich’s next movie is called Moonfall and it’s an all-star ensemble, sci-fi disaster movie in the vein of Armageddon. Actor Josh Gad was the first member of the ensemble cast, and he’ll play that disheveled, disorganized genius scientist character that ends up in every disaster movie. Now Halle Berry has joined the cast as well and the official word is that she’ll play a former astronaut turned NASA administrator. Hopefully the movie will find an excuse for her to get out from behind the desk and into a space suit… one… last… time.
The plot of Moonfall involves exactly what the title suggests. The moon gets knocked out of orbit and set on a collision course with Earth. A team of heroes is sent to the moon to stop it, Armageddon style.
The Island Of Doctor Moreau— In Development
Sony Pictures is working on a new version of The Island of Doctor Moreau. The story is based the classic H.G. Wells novel of the same name, about a mad scientist who conducts crazy experiments creating human/animal hybrids.
The most noteworthy time it’s been a movie in the past was a 1996 movie starring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando in one of his last roles. That Island of Dr. Moreau was savaged by critics and nominated for six Razzie awards. So there’s nowhere to go but up.
Word is that Sony is considering Dwayne Johnson for the lead role in their new Doctor Moreau. Their version would follow a “tracker” named Miles Cassidy looking for the mysterious missing scientist Dr. Moreau in order to cure his ailing daughter. Cassidy is the hero of the story and that’s who they want The Rock to play. No word yet on who they want for the mad scientist, but obviously that’s a critical component of getting this crazy story to work.
Mars Attacks! Remake — Rumored Development
When the Tim Burton movie Mars Attacks! debuted in 1996 it received a mixed response from audiences and critics alike. Since then, the tongue-in-cheek alien invasion story has become something of a cult classic sci-fi movie. So Warner Bros. wants to remake it.
Reports indicate that this will be a modern day updating of the Mars Attacks! story. Best of all, Warner Bros. is working to get Tim Burton back to direct the new sci-fi movie.
No word yet on if Burton is actually interested and it’s safe to assume that if they can’t get him, the WB will simply go to someone else. Mars Attacks! is suddenly a hot property after the 2020 Super Bowl in which the Mars Attacks! aliens played a prominent role in this Wal-Mart Super Bowl commercial…
Honey I Shrunk The Kids 4—TBA
Honey I Shrunk the kids is coming back and it’s not a reboot of the original Honey I Shrunk the Kid series, but a sequel. The voice of Frozen’s Olaf, Josh Gad, will star as an adult Adam Szalinski as he follows in his father’s footsteps to develop new shrinking technology, of the type that caused him so much trouble as a child.
Disney has previously released three movies in the series: Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, and Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. The director of the original Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Joe Johnston, is now attached to helm this new film.
When it was released in 1989 the original Honey I Shrunk the Kids was a huge hit for Disney. It even earned an attraction at the Disney theme parks. It also skyrocketed the career of director Joe Johnston who avoided involvement in the less successful sequels. Johnston went on to direct such classics as The Rocketeer, Jumanji, and October Sky. More recently he directed Captain America: The First Avenger.
Power Rangers—TBA
Paramount Pictures has an existing relationship with Hasbro, and that toy company currently owns the rights to the Power Rangers. Both companies are hungry for more franchise money, so it makes sense they’d capitalize on one of the recognizable names in their stable.
They’re going for name recognition but also apparently jumping on the modern trend of gender-swapping characters. Word is they’re turning the Red Power Ranger into a woman, which means the Power Rangers team will now be female-dominated. The Blue Ranger is also expected to be gay now, as a way to embrace diversity.
There have been many versions of the Power Rangers over the years. The most iconic and well-known version has three boys as the Red, Black, and Blue Rangers with two girls as the Pink and Green Rangers. Traditionally the Red Ranger has been the group’s leader.
It actually hasn’t been that long since we got a Power Rangers movie. The last one was released in 2017, to very little fanfare. It’s unclear whether this new one will be a sequel to the 2017 Mighty Morphin’ sci-fi movie, but given that barely anyone even remembers that movie happened, I would bet on it being a reboot.
The plot of the movie will involve time travel. The Power Rangers are being sent back in time to the 1990s, which not so coincidentally was the franchise’s real heyday. Once there they must find their way back home. Zords aren’t equipped with a flux capacitor, so getting back may not be easy.
The script is being written by Patrick Burleigh, who last wrote the script for Peter Rabbit 2. Hiring him suggests they’re clearly going for a kid audience, though the plot suggests they’re going for pure nostalgia which will only appeal to adults who remember the Power Rangers from their youth. Mining the past to reboot the present is Hollywood’s primary mode of operation in the current era of moviemaking.
Casting The Power Rangers
There have been a lot of names swirling around casting on this movie, but two of the biggest are Stranger Things co-stars Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard. Various sources have been reporting that Wolfhard is up for the role of the Blue Ranger in the movie. The latest is that Millie Bobby Brown is up for the role of the Black Ranger.
Meanwhile, in another casting connection, Sophia Lillis is being eyed to play the group’s leader, the Red Ranger. Lillis co-starred with Finn Wolfhard in the new version of IT.
The Black Hole Remake – TBA
The 1979 Disney space opera The Black Hole is something of a cult-hit among serious science fiction fans. It told the story of a group of astronauts who discover a mysterious ship named Cygnus, hovering on the edge of a black hole. Aboard it is a madman, a madman determined to take the plunge into a black hole itself, while dragging them along with him. At the time it was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced and it wasn’t exactly a huge success at the box office. So it makes sense that it has sat on a dusty Disney shelf, largely ignored by the company, until now.
Various sources are reporting that Disney plans to remake The Black Hole. The original sci-fi movie had an all-star cast featuring at the time huge names like Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowell, Maximilian Schell, and Slim Pickens. I’d expect Disney to try and stack the remake too, but as of yet there’s no word on who they’re eyeing to cast.
Rumor does have it, however, that they’re eyeing Tim Burton to direct. If they can’t get Burton, they want someone similar, which suggests a certain style choice for the film. The 1979 version of The Black Hole was dark, gritty, hard-sci-fi with a few funny robots mixed in. It’s hard to imagine what that might look like, seen through a Tim Burton lens.
Live Die Repeat and Repeat – TBA
Writer/director Doug Liman is working on a sequel to his critically acclaimed 2014 sci-fi movie Edge of Tomorrow. If you’re wondering why it’s called Live Die Repeat and Repeat, it’s because Edge of Tomorrow was originally titled Live Die Repeat before studio suits jumped in and changed the name at the last minute.
Based on an anime movie called All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow starred Tom Cruise as a soldier fighting alien invaders when he’s killed… only to wake up and find himself in the near past on a crash course to repeat everything he’s already done over again. As he lives, dies and repeats over and over again, he starts to learn the patterns and eventually his ability becomes something like a super-power, allowing him to beat the alien invaders at their own game. Imagine Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day as a war movie, and you’ve got the idea.
Edge of Tomorrow 2 is currently underway and they’re calling it Live. Die. Repeat And Repeat. Go in-depth on the sequel plans with Edge of Tomorrow 2: Live Die Repeat And Repeating To A Sequel.
Mega Man – TBA
Video game makers Capcom have long been in pursuit of a live-action version of their popular Mega Man franchise. Now it looks like it’s actually moving forward. Mattson Tomlin has just been hired to write the Mega Man movie script.
Tomlin is a Russian-born writer who has previously only written two films, though one of them was a biggie. He co-wrote The Batman reboot movie with the film’s director Matt Reeves. That movie is currently in production with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne.
Mega Man first gained popularity on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It originated in Japan where it’s known as Rocketman. In the story behind the first Mega Man series, the main character is an android created by a lab scientist named Dr. Light. He’s converted into a fighting machine in order to battle rogue robots being used for nefarious purposes by Dr. Light’s former partner Dr. Wily.
