With the Oscars this past week, comes a lot of new movie news. The scandalous film, Fifty Shades of Grey, has been greenlit for two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, with the second installment to come in 2016.
Since the first film of the trilogy has already made over $400 million dollars, it’s no wonder why Universal Pictures is jumping on the franchise wagon with this property. It’s clear that sex sells.
The world of James Bond is also being graced with another installment. Spectre is set to come out Nov. 16, 2015. Starring Daniel Craig as 007, the first picture was released last week, showing James Bond atop a snowy mountain fighting Dave Bautista’s character, who is the main villain of the film.
Bautista, who is best known as Drax from last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, will take a turn playing a villain.
From the world of video game movies, the upcoming film Assassin’s Creed has just gained momentum, as Marion Cotillard has been confirmed as joining the cast. Best known for playing Talia Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises, Cotillard was very recently nominated for the French film Two Days One Night. While she did not win on Sunday night, it is never a mistake for a film to add Academy recognized talent.
Also coming out soon is the fifth Pirates movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, to which Javier Bardem has just been added to the cast. Having won an Oscar for his terrifying performance in No Country for Old Men, hopefully this addition to the cast will turn around the critical reception of the franchise, though the franchise has grossed $3.7 billion dollars.
Finally, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has been confirmed as the director for the upcoming Alien 5.
The Aliens franchise has spawned four films since 1979, in addition to two crossovers with the Predators franchise and a spinoff with Prometheus. This will be Blomkamp’s next project after Chappie, coming out next week on March 6th. Blomkamp has developed a gritty sci-fi style, which fits in perfectly with the Alien universe.
Concept art has been released with Sigourney Weaver inside of a xenomorph body, so Weaver will likely return, especially considering she has worked with Blomkamp in Chappie.
The big question is what this new project means for Prometheus, which is set to have sequels in the future directed by Alien director Ridley Scott. Only time will tell if the franchise will pursue Aliens or Prometheus as the focus of the overall story arc.
