The Random: 48 Hrs. remake, Kill or Be Killed, The IT Crowd, Star Wars Christmas Special, The Electric State and more

The Electric State

– Benny and Josh Safdie, the brother filmmaking team behind the Robert Pattinson crime thriller Good Time, will tackle the remake of 48 Hrs. for Paramount Players. The original had Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte as a convict and cop, respectively, who teamed up to catch a pair of cop killers within 48 hours – THR

– Showtime has announced that Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Catherine Keener (Get Out) has been cast as a series regular in the upcoming Showtime half-hour comedy Kidding. The series stars Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey in his first series regular role in more than two decades and reunites him with Oscar winner Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), who will direct the project.

– On this episode of “Fear Box,” John Boyega and Gwendoline Christie take on the scary challenge of sticking their hands in a box and touching surprise creatures like bearded dragons, a boa snake, a dog, and even BB-8.

– James Gunn has signed on to produce an untitled horror feature with The H Collective. Written by James’ brother Brian and cousin Mark Gunn, James will produce the project in between writing the highly-anticipated feature Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and starting production. Gunn’s longtime collaborator David Yarovesky will direct.

– Russo Brothers Studio has just won a heated bidding war for The Electric State, an illustrated novel from Simon Stålenhag. Andy Muschietti, who directed one of the year’s biggest hits with It, is negotiating to direct the film. He will produce with Barbara Muschietti. RBS principals Joe and Anthony Russo will produce with them, and their production head Mike Larocca will be executive producer – In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car approaches the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to be unraveling ever faster as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in – Deadline

– The Force is strong with this DIY Star Wars trailer! Take a ride on a millennium falcon made of cardboard, because you don’t need CGI to visit a galaxy far, far away, just imagination! Join the Homemade Movies crew for their last episode, on the appropriately titled, The Last Jedi!

– HBO and Larry David will be teaming up again for Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10.

– Director Chad Stahelski is teaming up with his John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk to bring to the big screen Kill or Be Killed, a comic book from Winter Soldier creator Ed Brubaker. Dan Casey, who previously adapted the Brubaker comic Incognito, now set up at Columbia, is attached to write the script. The project tells of a depressed college student who attempts suicide. He survives due to unlikely events but is soon visited by a demon who explains that he was the one who spared the student’s life. But there’s a price to be paid: Going forward, the young man will be allowed to live one month for every person he kills. Sean Phillips draws the comic, which is currently being published by Image Comics – THR

– NBC is taking another crack at adapting the British sitcom The IT Crowd for American audiences. Original series creator Graham Linehan is set to write and executive produce a reimagining of the show, which follows the employees in the IT department of a massive corporation. Patrick Daly and Jon Rolph will also executive produce, with Universal Television producing. The original series starred Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, Chris Morris and Matt Berry. It ran for four seasons on Britain’s Channel 4. A one-hour finale special was released in 2013. This marks NBC’s third attempt to create an American version of the series, though it will be the first that Linehan will write – Variety

– Watch this video that takes your through the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special.