1. Maybe Power Rangers would have worked as a PG

Power Rangers flopped. It wasn’t a complete surprise, but considering the kitsch factor and the potential for global appeal, it was still a little bit of a surprise that it took just $140 million from a $100 million budget. Now, you could blame that on the largely unknown cast, the plot, the direction or the general fatigue for this sort of nostalgia-crap – sure you could. But have you considered that the problem was actually the film’s rating? Director Dean Israelite has.

In an interview with Screen Rant, the director stated that “if the movie had been rated PG, there would have been more traffic… because the movie is a tame PG-13.” Without that traffic, rumours of a sequel remain just that, but that’s not to say it won’t happen. Especially when Power Rangers toy sales are up 122.8% in the past year.

2. Hugh Jackman will give it some Hart for The Frontrunner

Variety reports that Hugh Jackman will play former Democratic Senator Gary Hart in Jason Reitman’s upcoming political drama, The Frontrunner. Hart was the frontrunner (just like the film!) for Democratic Presidential candidate in 1988 but fell from grace after rumours of infidelity surfaced. Instead, Michael Dukakis would go onto win the Democratic nomination before losing (massively) to George H.W. Bush. The Democrats would never again make the mistake of putting their hopes in a man with a propensity for sexual scandal. Reitman – who wrote the screenplay alongside Matt Bai and Jay Carson – will direct and co-produce, the latter as part of his Right of Way Films banner.

3. Jumanji keeps the dodgy CGI, ditches everything else for the reboot

The first trailer for Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle has been released. Now, you may be thinking “but Dwayne Johnson was already in a film called Welcome to the Jungle, won’t that confuse him when he calculates his royalties?” Well, probably not, as we suspect Mr Johnson uses an accountant, plus Welcome to the Jungle was known as The Rundown in many territories. The new trailer bears little relation to its source material, to the extent that we won’t bother listing why (except that not even the typeface is the same), but it does feature an attempt at knowing humour, Nick Jonas and Dwayne Johnson saying “Oy vey.” Finally.  

4. Toni Erdmann to get the Girls treatment. Maybe

Jack Nicholson’s long-awaited return to the silver screen could be scripted by the Girls team. This comes via Deadline which reports that Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner – who collaborated on the hit HBO show – are in negotiations to pen the script for the Toni Erdmann remake. The original, a 2016 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, follows a prank-prone father who creates an alter ego and inserts himself into his daughter’s life on one of her business trips. Things are all a bit up in the air on the project but it’s obvious that Paramount are keen to move forward with Nicholson’s return.

5. Once rejected, now accepted: Julian Dennison joins Deadpool 2

Even though adding wisecracking kids to the thrills and spills of an action movie is really more of a Shane Black thing, that hasn’t stopped Deadpool 2 director David Leitch doing the same. Ryan Reynolds posted an image to Instagram on Wednesday that showed the Merc with a Mouth carrying new co-star Julian Dennison.

Giving Julian Dennison a warm ??L welcome as we stare off into our beautiful future together. #RickyBakerPool #NZ

A post shared by Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds) on

Dennison is best known for starring in our #2 Top-film of 2016, Hunt for the Wilderpeople. He is also known for not choosing the skuxx life but for having it choose him. No word yet on the who the actor will be playing but he’ll link up alongside Josh Brolin’s Cable, Morena Baccarin’s Vanessa and Zazie Beetz’s Domino.

6. The Bellas are back in the Pitch Perfect 3 trailer

The trailer for Pitch Perfect 3 has been unleashed on the world. And this time out, the bellas are going *record scratch* overseas?! Yes, with those plucky songstresses having graduated, the gang find life in the real world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That is, until they all decide to reunite for an overseas USO tour. Hi-jinks ensue. While this should be fantastic news, Pitch Perfect 3 can’t help but look like a straight-to-video affair. Plus Fat Amy wears a “Make America Eat Again” hat that probably killed at the read-through, before the film got delayed five months from July to December this year. Of course, this is just a trailer, and Pitch Perfect has always had a particularly winning ensemble. We’ll remain optimistic and hope it’s not the hope that kills you.  

7. Academy widens membership to include more top-calibre talent people

The Academy – the shadowy cabal which hands out tiny golden people each year – has recruited more initiates to its ranks. This time out, the enigmatic collective bolstered its number by summoning 774 new members, beating last year’s 683 invitations. Some say the cream of Hollywood’s crop have been co-opted by this movement, with invitations extended to Adam Driver, Dwayne Johnson, Priyanka Chopra, Margot Robbie, Kristen Stewart, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele and the Russo brothers. More importantly, Lou Ferrigno, Betty White and Warwick Davis made the cut! Crucially, for an organisation trumpeting its advancement of diversity, the new class is 39% female (an all-time high) and 30% people of colour! Variety has a nice graphical breakdown if you can’t imagine what a group of 683 largely beautiful people looks like.