Movies
Will Smith Passing ‘Independence Day’ Torch To ‘Chronicle’ Star?
Chronicle and “Friday Night Lights” star Michael B. Jordan, pictured middle, is being eyed for a major role in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day sequel, multiple individuals familiar with the 20th Century Fox project have told TheWrap.
To be clear, Jordan has not yet received an offer, nor does one seem imminent. Emmerich has met with several up-and-coming young actors, including Jordan, who is high on the studio’s list. Fox execs like Jordan for the part — his name has been thrown around repeatedly in creative meetings — and Jordan is interested, multiple individuals with knowledge of the star’s thinking have told TheWrap.
Should Fox make an offer, the studio would effectively be doubling down on Jordan’s star potential, as the actor is poised to play the Human Torch in its Fantastic Four reboot.
They also add that it’s unclear whether Will Smith will return for the sequel, or what part Jordan is being eyed for. A representative for Smith told TheWrap that the actor’s status regarding the Independence Day sequel remains unchanged — meaning he’s not officially involved at this time.
Smith could be paired with Jordan or “pass the torch” to the rising star, who would then take over the franchise should Fox move forward with additional installments. After all, the sequel is known as ID Forever Part I.
Emmerich recently sat down with screenwriter James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man) and producers Dean Devlin and Harald Kloser to discuss the sequel, which is scheduled to blow up theaters on July 3, 2015, though recent reports suggest it could be delayed to 2016. Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman are expected to reprise their roles.
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.