Best Stories Of The Week: Star Wars, The Hateful Eight, Rick & Morty, Martin Scorsese And More

While it wasn't a very busy news week in general, there were a whole slew of updates about Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the future of the Star Wars universe as it gets completely reinvigorated by a new trilogy. We've got that news all covered in a forthcoming D23 roundup. Other than that, this edition of Best Stories of the Week still has some good stuff.

Below we recap the week that included a third season renewal for Rick & Morty, casting for The Joker in the LEGO Batman movie, news on Will Smith's involvement in the Bad Boys sequels, an Inside Out short film and more. Plus there's also trailers for The Hateful Eight, Bryan Cranston in Trumbo, a quick teaser for HBO's Westworld series and a few others.

Check out all of the Best Stories of the Week after the jump!

Tom Hardy has a deal to produce an adaptation of the Vertigo comic book 100 Bullets, and there's a chance he may star. The story begins with one man who gives people who have been wronged the chance to exact violence revenge by giving them an untraceable pistol and one hundred bullets. Find out more about the project right here.

The series returns on September 13th.

Some winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture don't age well, and in retrospect, another film should probably have taken home the big prize. However, some are met with disdain as soon as they win, and that was the case with Crash. And for those who believe the film wrongly won the top prize at the Oscars back in 2005, director Paul Haggis actually agrees with you. Find out more in our original story.

The film arrives on September 18th.

Netflix has ordered a new series called Mascots from This is Spinal Tap and Best in Show director Christopher Guest. The series will be another trademark mockumentary story following the excitement of the 8th World Mascot Association Championships, where a group of "unusual" men and women, with big heads and furry suits, compete to win the prestigious Gold Fluffy Award and be crowned Best Mascot in the World. Find out more over here.

The indie doesn't have a US release date yet.

David Fincher had two series in development, one was a US adaptation of Utopia while the other was Video Synchronicity. Sadly, it appears both of those projects are now dead in the water. Find out what happened with them over here.

The streaming service has ordered a second season of Sense8, the sci-fi series from Andy & Lana Wachowski, the directing duo behind The Matrix and Cloud Atlas. Find out more in our original story right here.

The special debuts on HBO on October 17th.

Baywatch is getting the big screen treatment in the form of a raunchy action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, and it sounds like he has a handsome co-star coming on board with Zac Efron entering talks for one of the lead roles. Find out more right here.

The sequel arrive January 15th, 2016.

Tom Cruise will be shooting Jack Reacher 2 before the year is out, and the female lead has just been revealed with The Avengers and How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders taking the role. Find out more in our original story.

Disney Channel has a follow-up to The Lion King in the works in the form of a TV movie that will lead into an all-new animated series. Rob Lowe will voice adult Simba this time, and James Earl Jones will pop up occasionally as the ghost of Mufasa. Find out more about the new Disney project over here.

The film arrives on October 23rd.

The Purge 3 may have already been ordered for a July 2016 release, but before Frank Grillo signed on to the project, there wasn't a script in place for the sequel just yet. Find out what Grillo had to say about how the sequel came together in our exclusive story on the matter.

The movie arrives on October 23rd.

There's a new Friday the 13th series in development at The CW, but it's much different than the version that was percolating last year. Find out what you can expect from this new television approach to the iconic horror franchise in our original report.

The HBO series has been over for quite some time, but as several older TV shows begin to emerge with limited series returns, the cable network is thinking about making a movie to follow their western series Deadwood. Find out what we know so far right here.

Even though the series adaptation of Constantine may be canceled, that's not stopping The CW from bringing star Matt Ryan over to Arrow for a guest appearance as the DC Comics character for what is being called a one-shot episode. Get the details on the DC Comics television crossover right here.

In the aftermath of Fantastic Four bombing at the box office, the blame game is being played between the studio and director Josh Trank. More details emerged over the previous week, including some things that went wrong behind the scenes, from a constantly changing script to some drastic changes that were made to the final act of the film. Here's a round-up of articles on the aftermath of Fantastic Four:

There's a rumor going around that director Steven Spielberg is trying to bring iconic actor Gene Wilder out of retirement for a role in one of his upcoming movies. However, it's not clear which project that might be. Find out more in our original report right here.

The series returns on September 19th.

Pixar has a new short in the works featuring the characters of Inside Out, and the story will focus on Riley (and by association, her emotions) going on a first date. Will this new romantic interest die for Riley though? Find out more about the short in our full story.

Will Smith launched his career with the NBC comedy series, and now he's in development of a reboot of the series Fresh Prince of Bel-Air which he will produce. But will this be a sequel-ish reboot like Fuller House or something more like a remake? Find out in our original report.

Another star from the original Ghostbusters has been confirmed for a cameo in the reboot of the franchise from director Paul Feig, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. But since some maybe don't want to know who it is, we'll let you find out by reading the full story. In addition, a certain rock star may also be making a cameo.

The drama arrives on November 6th.

The series Rick & Morty has quickly gained a big following, and while the second season just started a few weeks ago, Adult Swim is wasting no time renewing the animated series for a third season. Find out more right here.

The show premieres in 2016 on HBO.

Even though Sony got fans excited by announcing two Bad Boys sequels for release in 2017 and 2019, a new report has surfaced saying that Will Smith hasn't decided if he wants to just produce the movies or also star in them. Find out what's going on with the sequels in our original story.

Patrick Stewart has confirmed that he will return as Professor X for Wolverine 3, and it will be a rather significant role in what will be Hugh Jackman's final turn as the adamantium clad mutant. Find out more right here.

After making movies like Gangs of New York, Shutter Island and The Departed before, director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio are looking to reteam again with an adaptation of Devil in the White City. Get the full scoop on the project right here.

A spy photo was snapped on the set of Captain America: Civil War, giving us our first look at Black Panther in his full costume. In addition, the photos reveal who Black Panther was seen with in this particular scene. Get all the details right here.

The LEGO Batman animated movie has just gained a villain with The Hangover star and comedian Zach Galifianakis lending his voice to The Joker for the Warner Bros. Animation movie. Find out more in the full story.

There were a slew of Star Wars updates over the past week, making the sci-fi saga the top story for a few days, and rather than singling them all out individually, we rounded them all up here for you to check out:

The film debuts on December 25th and expands in January 2016.