Lashana Lynch Cast as Miss Honey in Netflix’s Matilda Film

According to The Hollywood Reporter, No Time to Die star Lashana Lynch has entered the final negotiations to portray the role of Miss Honey in Netflix’s newest musical film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel Matilda. It was previously rumored that Emmy winner Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) was being eyed for the role of Miss Honey, previously played by Embeth Davidtz (Army of Darkness) in 1996’s Mara Wilson-led film adaptation.

RELATED:  Taika Waititi to Direct Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Animated Series

Based on the popular UK and Broadway musical stage play titled Matilda The Musical, the cast for the film may serve as a No Time to Die reunion between Lynch and Ralph Fiennes, who is currently in talks to star in the role of bullying headmistress Miss Trunchbull, though no confirmation has been given on his casting since word broke of his negotiations in May 2020.

First published in 1988, the novel revolves around the story of a 5-year-old named Matilda Wormwood, who likes to play pranks on her negligent parents such as secretly bleaching her father’s hair. Other than her parents, the cruel headmistress Miss Agatha Trunchbull is also her biggest nemesis. Although she seems like a mischievous girl, Matilda has promising and high intellectual abilities which are far different from other kids of the same age. The only adult who appreciates and understands her is her teacher, Ms. Jennifer Honey.

Pick up a copy of the book here!

Matilda was first adapted into film in 1996 by actor-director Danny DeVito with Mara Wilson taking on the titular role. Meanwhile, Dennis Kelly’s Matilda The Musical has been running in London since 2011 and had also had a successful Broadway run from 2013-2017. The Netflix film will also be helmed by the original show’s director Matthew Warchus.

Roald Dahl stories have long inspired award-winning feature films and stage productions. But now, for the first time, Netflix in partnership with The Roald Dahl Story Company will bring together the highest quality creative, visual, and writing teams to extend the stories in this first-of-its-kind slate of premium animated event series and specials for audiences of all ages and for families to enjoy together. Netflix intends to remain faithful to the quintessential spirit and tone of Dahl while also building out an imaginative story universe that expands far beyond the pages of the books themselves.

RELATED: No Time to Die: Lashana Lynch on Film’s Approach to Female Characters

The list of titles in the agreement between Netflix and the Roald Dahl Story Company includes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Boy — Tales of Childhood, Going Solo, The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Henry Sugar, Billy and the Minpins, The Magic Finger, Esio Trot, Dirty Beasts, and Rhyme Stew.

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January 5 Blu-ray, Digital and DVD Releases

Welcome to ComingSoon.net’s January 5 Blu-ray, Digital HD and DVD column! We’ve highlighted this week’s releases in detailed write-ups of different titles below! Click each highlighted title to purchase through Amazon! 

New Movies on Blu-ray/DVD

Love and Monsters
In a monster-infested world, Joel (Dylan O’Brien) learns his high school sweetheart (Jessica Henwick) is just 80 miles away. Now, Joel must discover his inner hero, facing unknown dangers on the impossible journey to be with the girl of his dreams.

Girl (DVD)
A young woman (Bella Thorne) heads back to her hometown, intent on exacting revenge on her abusive father, only to discover someone beat her to it. She soon finds herself prey to a sinister sheriff (Mickey Rourke) and his wicked brother (Chad Faust) as she slowly uncovers a family legacy more disturbing than she ever could have imagined.

Criterion Corner

Three Films by Luis Buñuel
On Blu-ray for the first time. More than four decades after he took a razorblade to an eyeball and shocked the world with Un chien andalou, arch-iconoclast Luis Buñuel capped his astonishing career with three final provocations—The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire—in which his renegade, free-associating surrealism reached its audacious, self-detonating endgame.

Reissues

The Train
Screen greats Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau star in this suspense-laden tale of justice and retribution as a French Resistance fighter (Lancaster) attempts to stop a Nazi commander from looting the art treasures of Paris.

Rough Night in Jericho
A former lawman turned gang boss takes over a small town – all except for the stage line and its pretty young owner, who stands her ground by calling in a handsome gunfighter to settle the score.

Tintorera… Tiger Shark
From cult filmmaker René Cardona Jr. (Survive!, Guyana-Cult of the Damned, Treasure of the Amazon), enter the world of a trio of beautiful young people, the hot sexy beaches of Mexico… and a giant, hungry Tiger Shark known as Tintorera! When two handsome shark hunters, Steven (Hugo Stiglitz; Nightmare City, Survive!, Counterforce), Miguel (Andrés Garcia; Day of the Assassin, The Bermuda Triangle) hook up with Gabriella (Susan George; Straw Dogs, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, The House Where Evil Dwells), everything seems to be paradise until Tintorera strikes, eating the beachgoers and endangering the lives of the trio.

The Secret War of Harry Frigg
The story of a good-for-nothing goldbrick whose only talent is escaping from the Army stockade. Sent behind enemy lines to free five Allied generals held prisoner in an Italian villa, Harry Frigg (Paul Newman), hardly the dedicated type, becomes sidetracked from his zany mission by a sexy Italian Contessa (Sylva Koscina). He finally uses his talent to escape, and his new rank of Major General to create havoc in this wild and brilliantly satirical tale of World War II.

Ingagi (Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture 8)
The exploitation cinema had its share of scandalous films, but none is so mired in controversy as the bizarre pseudo-documentary Ingagi. Purporting to be an ethnographic journey into the wilds of Africa, it combines authentic footage purloined from other films, with outrageous scenes staged for the camera in Los Angeles. Among the hoaxes perpetrated are the discovery of the “tortadillo,” a heretofore unknown species of animal, and the exposure of an indigenous cult that worships (and sacrifices its women to) gorillas—a particularly racist concept that would resurface in films for years, most notably as the dramatic springboard for King Kong.

New On Digital HD

Shadow in the Cloud
A female WWII pilot traveling with top secret documents on a B-17 Flying Fortress encounters an evil presence on board the flight.

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Exclusive: John Rhys-Davies Talks Indy 5!

The next Indiana Jones film is coming from Lucasfilm, but will fan favorite character Sallah be along for the ride? During a conversation with Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Shannara Chronicles) about the upcoming release of lost horror classic Grizzly II: Revenge from Gravitas Ventures on January 8, we asked the jovial thesp if he will be back. While he stopped short of complete confirmation, he did raise our hopes and confirmed a May start date for filming!

Click here to order the long lost (now found) 1983 horror sequel Grizzly II: Revenge!

“I understand the film is going to be made, allegedly in May,” Rhys-Davies told us. “I have the slightest skepticism that the world will be able to shoot a movie like that in May. I suppose it is possible that I will be asked to be in it. If nominated I will serve! (laughs) But I think we ought to wait a little bit longer and, you know, let our masters actually make announcements and then you can either share my joy or my disappointment. Is that suitably diplomatic?”

The character of Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir appeared in both the original Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and it’s second sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Rhys-Davies reportedly turned down a small cameo in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Do you want to see the great bearded Egyptian excavator return? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for our full interview with Rhys-Davies shortly!

RELATED: CS Soapbox: 5 McGuffins Indiana Jones Should Look for in Indy 5!

It was announced in February that Steven Spielberg, who directed all of the previous Indiana Jones films, had exited the project as director but will remain on as a producer. Oscar winner James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari, Logan) will direct this new installment set to conclude the franchise, which will arrive on July 29, 2022.

Indiana Jones 5 has been in development since 2016 and originally had Ford returning for a theatrical release date set for July 19, 2019, but was constantly pushed back after multiple rewrites came from Jonathan Kasdan, son of Raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence, once original writer David Koepp exited the project.

RELATED: Check Out Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Bad Batch Sizzle Reel!

Famed archaeologist and explorer Indiana Jones was introduced in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films of All Time – and later thrilled audiences in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The four films have brought in nearly $2 billion at the global box office.

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Mike Flanagan reveals Revival adaptation no longer happening

While busy with a number of projects for both the big and small screen, fans have come to adore Mike Flanagan’s adaptations of Stephen King’s bibliography but after much excitement and development of bringing Revival to the screen for Warner Bros., it appears that the project is now dead again.

RELATED: Mike Flanagan’s Next Netflix Horror Series Midnight Mass Wraps Filming

Sadly, it’s not. That project won’t be moving forward unfortunately. While REVIVAL and MIDNIGHT MASS both involve priests, MIDNIGHT MASS was conceived several years before REVIVAL was published, and similarities stop at the white collar. Really wish I could’ve done them both!

— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) January 4, 2021

Flanagan was attached to pen the script for the adaptation at Warner Bros. Pictures and had the option to also step into the director’s chair on the project. A film adaptation was previously in the works at Universal Pictures with Josh Boone set to write and direct the project while also working on his iteration of The Stand, but after lingering in development hell the rights were picked up by Warner Bros., while Boone’s version of the 1978 novel premiered on CBS All Access last month. Flanagan had told The Kingscast last July that he had completed the first draft of his screenplay, so it’s currently unknown as to why the project will no longer be moving forward with the Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor showrunner at the helm.

Pick up your copy of the novel here!

Originally published in 2014, the novel centered on a relationship between a heroin-addicted musician and a dubious faith healer with a hidden agenda, with the minister obsessed with trying to find a way to communicate with his departed wife and child but accidentally taps into a Lovecraftian horror.

Flanagan was working with producing partner Trevor Macy on the adaptation of Revival, with Macy set to produce via the duo’s Intrepid Pictures, who recently acquired the rights to develop an adaptation of the 1994 horror novel The Midnight Club at Netflix in expanding Flangan’s working relationship with the streaming service.

RELATED: Mike Flanagan’s Dream Project is to Adapt Stephen King’s The Dark Tower

The 42-year-old writer/director previously dipped his toe into the world of King with the 2017 adaptation of his 1992 novel Gerald’s Game for Netflix, which received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike, and continued with the big screen adaptation of the 2013 sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, which despite receiving strong reviews was considered a box office disappointment, grossing only $72.3 million on a $45 million budget, squashing follow-up plans.

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New to Stream: Magnolia Selects’ January 2021 Lineup

Magnolia Selects has unveiled its full list of titles set to debut on the streaming service in January, including the acclaimed indie dramedy Tangerine, Roar Uthaug’s nearly-Oscar-nominated disaster pic The Wave and two of Oscar winner Bong Joon-Ho’s acclaimed early works, The Host and Mother! You can check out the full list below!

RELATED: New to Stream: HBO Max January 2021 Highlights

Available 1/5

Tangerine

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon

Sunshine Superman

Available 1/12

Synchronicity 

Tiger House

School Life

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

Available 1/19

Noma: My Perfect Storm

Experimenter

A War

Available 1/26

Last Circus

Stage Fright

Entertainment

The Host

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun

Mother

The Wave

Gonzo

RELATED: Full Schedule for Disney 2021 Movies and TV Shows Released!

Magnolia Selects is a curated collection of films and television series that spans across all genres, brought to you by Magnolia Pictures. The streamer offers a free 7-day trial to new subscribers, with monthly subscriptions priced at $4.99 per month.

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Win four tickets to The Mads: A Night of Shorts 2 live riff!

Just a month after giving audiences a holiday treat with a live riff of Santa Claus vs. The Devil, beloved Mystery Science Theater 3000 duo Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff, collectively known as The Mads, are coming back for a special livestream entitled A Night of Shorts 2 and Dumb Industries has provided ComingSoon.net with four complimentary tickets for our readers to win! All you have to do to win is email your name with the subject line “A NIGHT OF SHORTS 2” to [email protected] and four lucky winners will be chosen on Monday, January 11!

RELATED: Enter ComingSoon’s Love and Monsters Giveaway From Paramount!

Won’t be long now! Tuesday, Jan 12, 8pm, @TraceBeaulieu and I perform our next live streaming @MST3K-style movie riffing event, NIGHT OF SHORTS 2. Only 10 bucks, a portion benefits @FINfoodMN. https://t.co/CPeBty7NP7

— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) January 4, 2021

The January 12 livestream will be the seventh online event The Mads have produced in collaboration with Dumb Industries, which will find Beaulieu & Trace riffing on an all new collection of vintage educational short films, followed by a special Q&A with The Mads and fellow MST3K co-star Mary Jo Pehl, who played Pearl Forrester on the cult TV show.

Previous guests for The Mads’ livestreams have included Victoria Price (daughter of horror legend Vincent Price), Jonah Ray (host of Mystery Science Theater 3000), Dana Gould (Stan Against Evil), Andy Kindler (Maron, Bob’s Burgers), J. Elvis Weinstein (writer for MST3K), and Rich Koz (host of MeTV’s Svengooglie).

While The Mads have yet to officially offer any of their livestream recordings for sale, all ticket holders receive a link to download a recording of the show afterwards, as long as tickets are purchased prior to the broadcast. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit The Friends in Need Food Shelf, a community-funded food shelf and 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving the residents of Cottage Grove, St. Paul Park, Newport and Grey Cloud Island in Minnesota.

RELATED: Exclusive Don’t Tell a Soul Clip Starring Rainn Wilson & Jack Dylan Grazer

Tickets for The Mads: A Night of Shorts 2 are on sale now for $10.

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Disney’s Live-Action Little Mermaid Adds The Undoing’s Noma Dumezweni

After revealing its full star-studded cast last month, Disney’s upcoming live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid is expanding its roster a little further with the addition of The Undoing alum Noma Dumezweni as a character not seen in the beloved animated original, according to Deadline.

RELATED: Little Mermaid Cast, Plus Pinocchio & Peter Pan Films Go to Disney+

Halle Bailey will portray Ariel in the movie with Javier Bardem set to play King Triton, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Melissa McCarthy, who will play the role of the sea witch Ursula.

Mary Poppins Returns director Rob Marshall will helm the film which features a script by David Magee (Life of Pi, Mary Poppins Returns). No stranger to musicals, or working for Disney, Marshall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his feature film debut, Chicago. Since then, he’s directed the likes of Memoirs of a Geisha and Nine. Marshall has also made his last three films at Disney, including Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into the Woods, and the Poppins sequel.

Purchase the original animated film here.

For their new version of The Little Mermaid, Disney is pairing Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken to create a blend of old and new songs that will be featured in the upcoming big screen version. Miranda and Marshall also worked together on Mary Poppins Returns.

RELATED: Javier Bardem in Talks for King Triton in Disney’s Little Mermaid

Disney’s animated The Little Mermaid made over $211 million at the box office and became a bestseller on home video, popularizing songs like “Under The Sea” and “Part of Your World.” Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s Danish fairy tale, it tells the story of a 16-year-old mermaid princess named Ariel who longs to be human.

(Photo Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

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Orson Welles’ Magnificent Ambersons being reconstructed via animation

With all the news coming forward about Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it seems that another marred masterpiece may yet get its day in the sun. According to Wellesnet, the long-lost original cut of Orson Welles’ 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons is getting a reconstruction from documentary filmmaker Brian Robert Rose (When I Last Saw Jesse), who will use animation to complete the footage originally excised by RKO that is now considered lost.

Click here to purchase The Magnificent Ambersons on Criterion Blu-ray!

RELATED: CS Interview: Peter Bogdanovich on The Other Side of the Wind

Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons traces the downfall of the wealthy Midwestern American family of the title with the onset of the automobile age. It starred Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt and Agnes Moorehead, and was Welles’ followup film to his now enshrined Citizen Kane. The director’s original cut ran 132 minutes in length and got a mixed response in previews, particularly for its dark, elaborate ending. While Welles was away in Brazil shooting the (later abandoned) documentary It’s All True, RKO effectively seized the film from him and, with the help of editor (and later acclaimed director) Robert Wise trimmed the film down to a lean 88 minutes with a jarring, crudely shot happy ending tonally inconsistent with the rest of the movie. Although a print of the original cut was sent to Welles in Brazil it has never been recovered, and the footage was ultimately destroyed by the studio.

“Many scenes could be recreated thanks to surviving frame enlargements,” Rose told Wellesnet. “For other scenes where more complex camera movements were involved, I relied upon stills, diagrams of camera movement and the layout of the sets which, when reconstructed in a 3D space allowed a greater degree of understanding as to how Welles filmed. This enabled a high degree of certainty in capturing what was lost in a way that will hopefully do justice to Welles’ original vision, so much so that it will be possible, for the first time, to see Ambersons in its entirety — all 132 minutes. The version I have created is now in exact synchronicity to the cutting documents of March 1942 and runs 131 minutes and 45 seconds. But the characters at this point are only the first sketches, what in animator terminology are called pencil tests. The task now is to fine tune the performances, aided by critical feedback by many individuals who have offered scholarly and artistic advice on this project. The film must next go through a period of revision, after which it will enter the ‘ink and paint’ stage where all the characters will be refined with added details, along with further details in the sets, background characters and so on.”

Rose says he believes the remaining work on the reconstruction could take at least another two years, and will hopefully be ready in time for the film’s 80th Anniversary in 2022. One snag in the works is that Rose does not technically hold the rights to the film, which he is embarking on as a scholarly project. He hopes that it will be authorized for proper distribution by the time it is completed. This is similar to the “Recobbled Cut” of Richard Williams’ animated movie The Thief and the Cobbler, which was done by fans and is now considered to be the definitive version of that unfinished masterpiece. Another notable example of this is Turner Classic Movies’ reconstruction of lost silent film London After Midnight, which utilized the original script and film stills to give viewers a close approximation to the original.

RELATED: CS Interview: Frank Marshall on The Other Side of the Wind

Welles had at one point years after the debacle attempted to film a new ending from scratch with the then still-living cast members 20 years later, but the project never came together. In 2002 filmmaker Alfonso Arau (A Walk in the Clouds) directed a remake of The Magnificent Ambersons supposedly based on Welles’ original script, but the poorly-recieved A&E television movie starring Madeleine Stowe, Bruce Greenwood and Jonathan Rhys Meyers contains the same tacked-on happy ending as the original. Variety referred to it as, “Just one more sad step in the tragic film history of ‘The Magnificent Ambersons.’” On a brighter note, Welles’ film was a major inspiration for Wes Anderson’s 2001 smash The Royal Tenenbaums, which also chronicled the downfall of a -far quirkier- family.

Are you excited to finally be able to experience the Orson Welles cut of The Magnificent Ambersons? Let us know in the comments below!

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Tiffany Haddish in Talks for Landscape With Invisible Hand

After reigning the world of comedy since her breakout turns in Girls Trip and The Carmichael Show, Emmy winner Tiffany Haddish is gearing up to explore the stars as she has entered final negotiations with MGM to lead the film adaptation of M.T. Anderson’s Landscape with Invisible Hand, according to Deadline.

RELATED: Tiffany Haddish Joins Nicolas Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Published in 2017, the novel is set in the near future after an alien species known as the Vuuv have essentially taken over the planet as their technology has eliminated a number of jobs and caused the global economy to collapse. The story centers on aspiring artist Adam as he and his neighbor Cleo hatch a plan to pretend to be romantically involved and stream their dating life to the aliens, who are fascinated by the human concept of true love, for money to support their families but as the pressure begins to take a toll on their psyches, they struggle to keep the plan going without causing their families to go bankrupt.

Click here to purchase the acclaimed 2017 novel!

The film is being written and directed by Cory Finley, who first broke out to rave reviews with his directorial debut Thoroughbreds and followed it up with the Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney-starring HBO drama Bad Education, which took home the Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie.

The project is being produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures, who jointly acquired the rights to the novel in 2017 and developed it together before bringing the package to MGM, which will be releasing the title theatrically in the U.S. via United Artists Releasing.

RELATED: Homecoming Queen: Tiffany Haddish to Star in Amblin Partners’ New Comedy Film

Haddish, who was most recently seen alongside Rose Byrne in the Paramount comedy Like a Boss, will next be seen in the road hidden camera comedy Bad Trip, the third installment in the SpongeBob film franchise Sponge on the Run, the Jerrod Carmichael-helmed On the Count of Three and Nicolas Cage action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

(Photo Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix)

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Exclusive Don’t Tell a Soul Clip Starring Rainn Wilson & Jack Dylan Grazer

ComingSoon.net has an exclusive clip for the upcoming thriller Don’t Tell a Soul starring Emmy nominee Rainn Wilson (The Office, Utopia, Super), Jack Dylan Grazer (IT, IT Chapter Two, Shazam!), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Voyagers), and BAFTA nominee Mena Suvari (American Beauty, What Lies Below, American Woman). You can check out the clip now in the player below!

RELATED: Exclusive Love and Monsters Deleted Scene Clip Starring Dylan O’Brien

While stealing money to help their sick mother (Suvari), teen brothers Matt and Joey (Whitehead and Grazer) are surprised by Hamby (Wilson), a security officer who gives chase and is then trapped in a well. Over the next few days, Joey and Hamby forge an uneasy relationship. Hamby tells Joey he’ll keep quiet if Joey sets him free. But Hamby holds another secret, one that will threaten Joey and his family, in this twist-filled, cat-and-mouse thriller.

Don’t Tell a Soul is written and directed by Alex McAulay (Flower, Cult). Producers include Chris Mangano and Merry-Kay Poe, with Matt Bronson and Steve Poe executive producing.

RELATED: Exclusive Traces Clip Starring Martin Compston & Molly Windsor

The movie will arrive in select theaters, on Digital, and On Demand on January 15.

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