This just in: The STW Daily Streaming News Round Up featuring all the news that’s fit to (digitally) print for Monday, June 20th, 2022. Nicole Kidman, Guy Ritchie, and more.
Everybody Has a Podcast These Days
Including the Obamas and SNL alum Will Forte who are joining forces for Bodkin, a new scripted series heading to Netflix. Bodkin is a dark comedy that follows a group of true crime podcasters as they travel to Ireland to investigate the disappearance of three people from a rural town.
The show comes courtesy of Higher Ground, Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company which previously produced the Academy Award-nominated documentary Crip Camp.
Along with Forte, the cast will feature Siobhán Cullen (The Long Call), Robyn Cara (Trying), David Wilmot (Station Eleven), and Chris Walley (The Last Voyage Of The Demeter).
No release date info as of yet, but with the ink just now drying, some time in 2023 is a good bet.
Nicole Kidman Heads to the Midwest
Currently streaming in Robert Eggers’ viking epic The Northman on Peacock, Aussie actor Nicole Kidman continues to stay busy with a new project where she’ll pull double duty as both actor and producer. After a packed 2021 that saw the release of Nine Perfect Strangers (streaming on Hulu) and Oscar-wannabe Being the Ricardos on Prime Video, Kidman heads back to Amazon for the midwestern thriller Holland, Michigan.
The film is based on a script from Andrew Sodroski (Manhunt) that topped the 2013 Black List (the list of the best unproduced film scripts of the year). Taking a bit of a Hitchcockian tone, the story explores all the secrets that lurk beneath a small midwestern town. Perhaps Kidman will channel her character from 1995’s To Die For, another film that explored the deadly secrets hidden in small town America.
The film will be directed by Mimi Cave, best known for the comedy horror thriller Fresh which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Searchlight Pictures.
No release date as of yet, but the thriller will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video. More Nicole Kidman!
Guy Ritchie is a Disney Adult, Apparently
The Snatch director, initially known for his stylish comedic crime capers, is heading back to the Disney-verse for the second time. After helming the live-action remake of Aladdin to mixed reviews, the Mouse House has tapped Ritchie to return to give 1997’s Hercules the same live-action treatment.
It’s not entirely clear who the intended audience is for Disney’s never-ending live-action remakes. Millennials/90’s kids/Disney adults looking for a nostalgia fix? People who are still actual children? The CGI of the live-action films often falls into the most terrifying low points of the uncanny valley which has to be a deterrent for small children.
Regardless of who is actually going to see them, it’s clear that somebody is. The live-action Aladdin pulled $1 billion globally, despite a creepily blue Will Smith as the Genie.
The latest announcement makes it clear that as long as somebody is buying a ticket, Disney will keep cranking them out. The fact that the 1997 animated version of Hercules offered up an underwhelming box-office performance in comparison with earlier hits like The Lion King and The Little Mermaid seems to not be slowing momentum down.
The choice to head back to Disney is perhaps a little strange for Ritchie. In recent years he’d done a bit of a homecoming, returning to his London crime caper roots with the popular and well-received The Gentlemen. And Ritchie currently has a promising untitled Jake Gyllenhaal action thriller in the bag just waiting for release. So the return to Disney seems a little incongruent with the action auteur’s most recent creative direction. What motivated Ritchie? Perhaps money, but perhaps he just really really really loves all things Disney.
No release date yet, but Disney dollars to donuts, the new Hercules will be streaming exclusively on Disney+.