The Random – New Mutants, Sin City, Alex Rider, Avatar and more

Charlie Heaton

The Random is a round-up of various bits and pieces of news.

• Charlie Heaton, who played Jonathan Bryers in Stranger Things, is in negotiations to join the cast of Fox’s New Mutants. He will play Sam Guthrie, also known as Cannonball, a teen who propels himself into the air and is invulnerable while doing so. Henry Zaga (Teen Wolf, 13 Reasons Why) will play Roberto da Costa, AKA Sunspot. – THR
• Frank Miller’s comic series Sin City is being developed as a TV series by TWC/Dimension. Glen Mazzara (The Shield, The Walking Dead and The Omen) is writing it while Len Wiseman (Sleepy Hollow and Lucifer) will direct. Stephen L’Heureux (Sin City: A Dame To Kill For) will oversee this and produce with Miller, Mazzara, Wiseman and Bob & Harvey Weinstein – Deadline
• Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star in Peter Farrelly’s Green Book.” Farrelly will direct from a script he co-wrote with Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie. Currie and Jim Burke will produce. The story is set in 1962 and follows Tony Lip, one of the best bouncers in New York City who is in need of work after his nightclub, the Copacabana, shuts down. He takes a gig chauffeuring a highly educated piano-playing prodigy who wants Lips to go on tour with him in the Deep South. While the two clash at first, a bond eventually grows as they travel deeper into the racially charged region – Variety
• Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Edge of Seventeen) is in negotiations to star in Paramount’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) will direct. Steinfeld will play a tomboy who also holds a job as a mechanic after school. Christina Hodson (Shut In) wrote the script – THR
• Joel David Moore (Bones) is set to reprise the role of scientist Norm Spellman in the upcoming Avatar sequels from Fox – Deadline
• Thor: Ragnarok gets a crazy fan made animated trailer.

• Odette Annable will be joining the cast of The CW’s Supergirl in the role of Reign, and will serve as Supergirl’s primary adversary in Season 3 – DC
• Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider book series is beind developed for a TV show at ITV, with Guy Burt (Borgias) attached to the project. UK based drama producer Eleventh Hour Films has optioned the books and will make the series, which is being developed with ITV and is expected to attract international partners. The series will follow the adventures of teenage super-spy Rider on his missions to save the world. The TV series will skew older than the novels, which target teen boys, and will be presented as event dramas for family audiences. The series was adapted for the big screen with The Weinstein Company’s 2006 feature “Alex Rider: Stormbreaker – Variety
• Michelle Williams has joined Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty and will play the part of Avery LeClaire, the stunning cosmetics company boss to Schumer’s Renee Bennett. Renee Bennett (Schumer) knows what it’s like to be average in a world of the genetically blessed. After falling off an exercise bike and banging her head, she believes a spell has suddenly made her gorgeous. Except to everyone else, she looks exactly the same – Deadline
• Janelle Monáe will star in an episode of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams anthology series. She will star opposite Juno Temple in an episode called Autofac. When a group of human rebels realizes that the autofacs’ stranglehold on the planet’s resources means that they might never have a chance to take back control of production, they stage an attack against the machines. Monáe is set to play Alexis, a representative for the Autofac, while Temple is set to play Emily, a woman who organizes the rebel attack on the Autofac flagship factory. Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams will air on Channel 4 in the UK later this year and come to Amazon Prime shortly thereafter. – io9
• Check out the poster for the new version of Murder on the Orient Express.