Antoine Fuqua Leaves Scarface Reboot, Diego Luna Set as Lead

In development news, Antoine Fuqua has stepped down as director of Universal Studios’ upcoming Scarface remake. Fuqua had been attached to the project since last year, but was forced to leave due to scheduling conflicts. A sequel to his 2014 thriller The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, has been moved up the slate at Sony Pictures, forcing him to choose between the two. Now that he has opted for the latter, Universal is on the hunt for a replacement so that they can begin pre-production immediately. While it has lost a director, the project shouldn’t bleed too much momentum after announcing Rogue One’s Diego Luna will star in the lead role. This will mark the third rendition of the original 1932 immigrant tale chronicling the rise and fall of a gangster trying to make it in America. The original followed Italian-American Tony Camonte, while Brian De Palma’s 1983 remake gave us Al Pacino at his scenery-chewing “Say Hello to my little friend” best as the Cuban-American Tony Montana. This time around the story will follow a Mexican-American immigrant trying to wheel and deal his way to the top of the organized crime world, but there’s no word on which Tony Diego Luna will be playing.

Final Trailer for Logan Shows Off X-23

Fox has dropped the final trailer for Logan ahead of its early March release date. In what is widely considered to be Hugh Jackman’s final role as everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed Canadian mutant, Logan finds the character several years after  the previous X-Men films, when mutants seem to have all but disappeared from the world. Gradually losing his healing factor and saddled with taking care of an increasingly senile Professor Xavier, Wolverine’s world is turned upside down one more time when he encounters a young girl with similar powers to his own. The girl, played by newcomer Dafne Keen, appeared briefly in a previous trailer, sparking rumors that she was X-23, the female clone of Wolverine introduced in the comics back in 2004. Those rumors have been all but confirmed with this latest teaser, as we actually see snippets of her unsheathing claws and ripping through an entire team of heavily armed gunmen. There’s still a lot of the movie we haven’t seen, and Fox still hasn’t gotten Wolverine quite right in his two previous solo outings, but this is shaping up to be a fitting goodbye to the character that Jackman has inhabited for more than 15 years. I for one, cannot wait to see what Logan has in store when it hits theaters on March 3, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH3OxVFvTeg

Phylicia Rashad Joins Black Panther?

First up this week is more Marvel Cinematic Universe casting news. The latest addition rumored to be joining the cast is Cosby show alum and all-around perfect human being Phylicia Rashad. Everyone’s favorite black TV mom before Tracee Ellis Ross is speculated to be joining the already crowded superhero film after an interview with the previous latest cast member, Sterling K. Brown. The quote in question comes from an article in The Undefeated, where Brown let this tidbit slip: “...to be with Michael B. Jordan after the incredible work he’s done in Creed. Danai Gurira, Phylicia Rashad, Forest Whitaker - like, it’s embarrassing.” Embarrassing indeed, Mr. Brown! All sorts of fan news outlets have been taking the quote and running with it for the past 48 hours. Curiouser still - the MCU’s covert ops team has already made sure to scrub the quote from existence in the article, which has only served to fan the flames of speculation even further. If fandom reaction is any indication, this is yet another spot-on casting choice for Marvel, whether they want to admit to it or not just yet. I mean, it can’t hurt to have the first African-American to win a Tony for Best Actress on board, can it?

Hidden Figures Beats Out Rogue One in Weekend Box Office

Hidden Figures may not have won big on awards night, but the biopic about NASA’s black female engineers pulled out what many are calling an underdog victory at the weekend box office. The New York Times initially reported that Hidden Figures had tied with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but final numbers showed Figures slightly outpacing the sci-fi epic by about $700,000. The fact that Hidden Figures was playing in about half as many theaters as its competitor lends extra weight to the accomplishment. Cast member Janelle Monae took a moment to celebrate the achievement in a post on her Instagram page that has garnered more than 41,000 likes. And yes, Rogue One is in its fourth week, and yes, it’s still on track to gross way more than Hidden Figures could ever hope for, but just...let us have this one, mkay?

[h/t Variety]