There's Going to Be a Breaking Bad Movie (and Other Culture News)
Welcome back to The Monitor, Wired’s round-up of the latest in the world of culture: big casting announcements, can’t-miss trailer-launches, and other film and TV news you might have missed. Think of it as your twice-a-week catch-up on what’s happening now. (Just don’t expect any updates on the actual What’s Happening Now!!–at least until that show gets a gritty Hulu reboot in mid-2020.)
Cine-Meth Paradiso
Five years after the blues-y series finale of Breaking Bad, creator Vince Gilligan is reportedly working on a two-hour follow-up feature based on his still-beloved drug drama. Though few specifics about the movie have been revealed so far–including whether it will play in theaters, or air on the increasingly spin-off-obsessed AMC–Slashfilm reports it will focus on Jesse Pinkman, the troubled meth-wiz played by Aaron Paul. Breaking Bad debuted ten years ago to initially so-so ratings, before finding a wider audience through Netflix; it eventually became one of the most acclaimed series of all time, winning numerous Emmys, including acting awards for Paul and Bryan Cranston, who played the nefarious chemist-turned-kingpin Walter White. “I have not read the script,” Cranston said this week. “So there's the question of whether or not we'll even see Walter White in this movie.” Heisenberg uncertainty aside, hopefully we’ll be able to hear him knocking.
Another Green World
The first names for the DC Extended Universe’s forthcoming Swamp Thing series have been revealed: Andy Bean, who recently wrapped up work on It: Chapter Two, will play Alec Holland, the scientist who goes into a walking, talking vegetative state when he’s transformed into the eco-hero Swamp Thing. That titular green giant, meanwhile, will be portrayed by Derek Mears, who played Jason Vorhees in 2008’s Friday the 13th reboot. The streaming series, which also stars Jennifer Beals and Virgina Madsen, debuts in 2019, nearly forty years after Wes Craven’s weird (and weirdly forgotten?) theatrical film.
Do You Like Hairy Movies?
Animation studio Laika, producer of such hits as Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, has released the first trailer or next year’s Missing Link, starring Zach Galifianakis as an eight-foot-tall Sasquatch who becomes buddies with Hugh Jackman’s explorer. And Netflix unveiled a lengthy look at Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, the long-delayed Jungle Book adaptation directed by CGI-con Andy Serkis, and featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, and Christian Bale as the voices of various chatty creatures. The service recently acquired the movie from Warner Bros., which had started production on the film in 2015; it will stream on Netflix next month, just in time for the overcrowded jungle known as the holiday movie season.
Netflix Heads to the Pacific
The streaming service has announced production on several new anime series, including small-screen versions of the kaiju-crazed franchise Pacific Rim, and an expansion of Netflix’s own Altered Carbon series. The line-up also includes Yasuke–featuring Lakeith Stanfield as an ex-ronin who’s brought out of retirement to help protect a super-powered child–and Cagaster of an Insect Cage, about a disease that turns people into massive killer insects. Time to call in Johnny Rico.