Las Vegas — Margot Robbie wants another toy. The “Barbie” producer and star is developing a Monopoly movie with Hasbro and Lionsgate, the companies revealed Wednesday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Robbie and LuckyChap completed “Barbie” after years of development standstill. Over $1.4 billion in ticket sales made the film the 2023 box office champ. Now they'll apply that concept to the classic board game.
Lionsgate is producing a new “The Blair Witch Project” with Blumhouse, the studio behind “The Purge” and “M3GAN.” It will be the first of a multi-year deal between Jason Blum's company and Lionsgate, using the studio's library. The first “Blair Witch” was a big office hit in 1999. It made $248 million, produced two sequels, and altered horror movie aesthetics.
“I’m a huge admirer of ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ which mainstreamed found footage horror and became a cultural phenomenon,” Blum remarked. “I don’t think there would have been a ‘Paranormal Activity’ without a ‘Blair Witch,’ so this feels like a truly special opportunity and I’m excited to see where it leads.”
Lionsgate had a good 2023 with films like “John Wick 4,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and “Saw X” and is optimistic about its upcoming theatrical releases, including Eli Roth's long-delayed “Borderlands,” which will open in August. “Borderlands” starring Kevin Hart, Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ariana Greenblatt was announced in 2015 and shot in 2021, however it had production troubles and delays. Roth and Greenblatt were ecstatic by their Caesar's Palace stage experience.
Roth remarked, “We had the time of our lives making it and I think audiences are going to love it. It was this wild, hilarious, weird, chaotic functional family.” Greenblatt, who shot “Borderlands” before “Barbie,” said it was her best set experience. On Aug. 23, the firm will release a new version of “The Crow,” directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs.
The 1994 film based on the comic book series starring Brandon Lee. Lee was shot and killed by a prosthetic gun with a fake bullet during filming. Alex Proyas, the film's director, opposes a remake. Henry Cavill also discussed a 2025 Guy Ritchie action film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, “In the Grey,” and a new “Highlander” film with “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski.
Ansari showed exhibitors his new picture “Good Fortune,” which he wrote, directed, and appears in with angel-playing Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen. “I have to thank all the exhibitors who left the strip club this morning to come to the Lionsgate presentation,” Ansari said.
“Good Fortune” is about a poor man who trades lives with a richer man and learns the incorrect lesson that money solves all his problems. Ansari wanted to make a film comedy. “It means the world to make a theater-bound film,” he remarked. The release date for “Good Fortune” is unknown.
The lecture ended with Fogelson reviewing Antoine Fuqua's Michael Jackson movie "Michael." Producer Graham King, who worked on “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “The Departed,” discussed the filming. “I’m looking forward to giving the audience a thrill ride they’ve never seen,” King remarked.
He promised the film would “get into all of it”—including his public and private life—and provide “an inside look into the most prolific artist that ever lived”. 30 Jackson songs and performances will be in the film. In April 2025, Jaafar Jackson stars in “Michael.” “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” directed by Ritchie, opens next week, followed by Renny Harlin's horror film “The Strangers-Chapter 1” in May, Halle Berry's thriller “Never Let Go” in September, and “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” in November
Mel Gibson's Mark Wahlberg-starring action film “Flight Risk” is in production, as is the John Wick spinoff “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas, due out next year. “We’re sorry we asked you all to wait another year for it,” said Lionsgate's Adam Fogelson. He did tease the Ballerina's explosive debut with fire, swords, and Reeves.
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