Ben-Hur
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Screenwriter: Keith Clarke and John Ridley
Cast: Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer, Rodrigo Santoro.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 123 minutes
Release Date: August 19, 2016

Since studios are big on remakes that use expensive CGI to achieve looks or stunts that couldn’t have otherwise been achieved when the film was first released, it only made sense that we get a remake for Ben-Hur. But just because it sounds good on paper doesn’t exactly mean that it should be made. Then again, if done well, it could avoid being a complete disaster.

And so that is where the new Ben-Hur from director Timur Bekmambetov finds itself. The film starring Jack Huston as the title character finds itself following other contemporary remakes that just don’t quite measure up to the originals despite their well-intentions to update the age-old story for a modern audience.

Since it is May, networks are announcing which shows are getting pilots, another season, and which shows are being cancelled. ABC’s two Marvel flagship series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, are getting new seasons, but the AoS spinoff that was suppose to star Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood is not getting the greenlight. More below.

Deadline was the first to break the news. According to them, ABC has put the breaks on the AoS spinoff, which would have been lead by Palicki and Blood.

A movie adaptation of Boston Strong, a book about the Boston Marathon bombings and manhunt that followed, was first announced back in July of 2013. Now comes word that Massachusetts native Casey Affleck is set to star in and produce the movie.

The book is written by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge, and the rights to adapt it were optioned by The Fighter writers Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy, who penned the spec script.

The first trailer for the upcoming Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side has been released online.

The movie stars OutKast’s André Benjamin as the legendary musician before he made it big, and also stars Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger, The Pillars of the Earth) and Imogen Poots (That Awkward Moment, Fright Night).

You can watch the trailer for Jimi: All Is by My Side and read a synopsis below.

Andre 3000, best known as one half of the hip hop pop duo OutKast, known for their smash hit “Hey Ya,” is set to portray Jimi Hendrix in an upcoming biopic which will focus on the legendary guitar player’s life in England in just before he recorded Are You Experienced?. That album was released in 1967 and changed the game of rock and roll forever, propelling Hendrix into the superstar stratosphere in the process.

Plagued by a few setbacks and loopholes from the Jimi Hendrix estate, the project has finally been greenlit and is due to start shooting in a few weeks in Wickow County and Dublin in Ireland, reports the Irish TV Network (via Rolling Stone).