ENTERTAINMENT

Screen: Coming soon to a screen near you

Todd Hill
Reporter

The first of the year is generally a good time to announce new and exciting initiatives. We're more than five weeks past that point now, but when something is as new and exciting as what I'm about to announce, any time is a good time.

Several times a day, news crosses my desk of new movies or TV series in development. Some are reboots, re-imaginings, rehashes — in other words, some of these projects are definitely neither new nor exciting. But a few are, or they at least present intriguing possibilities, and that's news worth sharing.

So, in that spirit, today this column inaugurates what's expected to be a periodic feature about planned screen titles to watch out for, with the necessary caveat that not everything that's announced always sees the light of day.

Actress Lauren Graham answers questions about the upcoming season of "Gilmore Girls" during The CW's Television Critics Association press conference in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, July 17, 2006. (AP Photo/Lucas Jackson)

'Gilmore Girls'

Back in the '00's, the WB network, followed by the CW network, had a big hit on their hands with the series "The Gilmore Girls," starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. It was a show about families and friends, living in Connecticut and speaking very quickly. Rapid-fire dialogue eventually became the show's rather annoying trademark.

Nine years after its 153rd and final episode aired, "Gilmore Girls" is coming back, this time to Netflix, which will stream the reboot. A title for the new undertaking hasn't been announced, but how about "The Gilmore Girls?" It's also unknown whether the project will take the form of an episodic series or a handful of longer movies.

The announcement is just the latest indication, however, that streaming has planted itself in the media world as a programming format that viewers have embraced. Everyone who starred in the original "Gilmore Girls" is coming back for this reincarnation, as are the earlier show's producers.

Stan Laurel carried on with his new movie in which he and Oliver Hardy do a dance routine in Hollywood on Oct. 14, 1936, despite the fact his wife, Virginia Ruth, sued him in Los Angeles for separate maintenance, asking $1,235 a month. She said he earns $70,000 a picture. She also complained he was glum, highly nervous, excitable, had a violent temper and told her he married her to spite his first wife. They were wed at Florence, Ariz., on Sept. 23, 1935. (AP Photo)

'Stan & Ollie'

It would take a miniseries, a long one, to tell the whole showbiz story of Laurel and Hardy, the legendary comedy duo who starred in a staggering amount of movies, many of them shorts, from 1921 ("The Lucky Dog") to 1951 ("Atoll K"). The pair, who got started individually in entertainment in the 1910s, remained an act until 1956. That's a lot of water under the bridge.

A new movie will focus on Laurel and Hardy's final years in showbiz, when they toured variety halls in Britain to exceptionally warm receptions. Casting is everything with a project like this, and Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, the announced stars, seem like very good choices. The movie, titled "Stan & Ollie," is being developed by BBC Films. Expect this production to be more affectionate than anything, but that might not be such a bad thing.

This film publicity image released by Universal Pictures shows Jordana Brewster, left, and Paul Walker in a scene from "Fast & Furious 6." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Giles Keyte)

'Fast and Furious'

This is one film franchise that just won't go away, but as long as the fans turn out and the movies make money, there's no reason why it should. The eighth installment in this series has plans to shoot in Cuba, a very real possibility since President Barack Obama ended this country's embargo of the island nation 90 miles south of Florida.

The movie wouldn't be the first American production to shoot in Cuba since that happened. An indie film titled "Papa," about novelist Ernest Hemingway, already has been. But the "Furious" franchise requires a vast film-making infrastructure, something Cuba doesn't come close to having. The eighth "Furious" film is slated to hit theaters in April 2017, with the ninth coming out in 2019 and the 10th in 2021, in case you want to plan ahead.

Men of the British Expeditionary Force who fled Flanders, as they arrived at a South Coast port in England on May 31, 1940. One Soldier assists a wounded colleague. (AP Photo)

'Dunkirk'

When Christopher Nolan announces what his next project will be, it's news. The filmmaker behind such movies as the "Dark Knight" titles, "Inception" and "Interstellar" is now turning his attention to World War II, specifically a dark moment for Great Britain from early in the conflict, the evacuation of Dunkirk.

British troops were forced to evacuate the Flemish port community in May 1940 after being surrounded by the Germans, who could have destroyed them if they so chose. The Brits left behind 40,000 military vehicles and other equipment in their haste to escape. The Allies didn't regain control of Dunkirk until May 1945.

Nolan's upcoming film of the same name, to be released in 2017, will feature a largely unknown cast, although Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy are slated to star.

Actor James Franco participates in the "11.23.63" panel at the Hulu 2016 Winter TCA on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

'Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'
Actor James Franco's career is a real puzzler. Few actors like to be tied to any specific character or type of role for long, but Franco has gone out of his way to attach himself to a variety of unusual projects, going so far as to appear on TV's "General Hospital" from time to time. His latest oddity is a remake of the 1996 TV movie "Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?," which starred Tori Spelling as a woman with a stalker for a boyfriend. The film wound up airing on NBC after no theatrical distributor would touch it.

Franco will executive produce the remake, which will air this year on Lifetime, a basic cable network that's been trying to shake things up lately. Last year it aired "A Deadly Adoption," a pulpy TV movie that somehow managed to land Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig as stars, followed by an audience of 6 million viewers.

thill3@nncogannett.com

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Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ