Posted Sep 5th 2008 11:03AM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Deals, Warner Brothers
A double Academy Award winner is going back to the future. Denzel Washington will star in the post-apocalyptic drama Book of Eli, to be directed by Albert and Allen Hughes, according to Variety. He will play "a lone hero in a not-too-distant apocalyptic future who must fight across America to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption." Sounds like the best of all possible worlds, doesn't it? Denzel as an intellectual action hero of the future.
Denzel has been resolutely dealing with modern-day problems for the last decade, so maybe he felt like a change of pace. As far as I can tell, the only time that Denzel's tipped his toe into future waters was back in 1995 with Brett Leonard's Virtuosity. In that movie, set just four years into the future, he faced off against a virtual reality Russell Crowe. How far into the future will Book of Eli be set? Who gets the blame for the apocalypse? Will this be a tale of weary, wary survivors or vengeful warriors? And what's in that book, anyway?
Amazingly, this will be the first feature from The Hughes Brothers since 2001's graphic novel adapatation From Hell. They'll be working from a script originally written by Gary Whitta (the two new Akira films) and re-written by Anthony Peckham (Clint Eastwood's upcoming The Human Factor and Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros). Joel Silver is on board as one of the producers. Filming begins in January.
Posted Sep 5th 2008 10:02AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Thrillers, Casting, Deals, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, Tom Cruise
I bet when you woke up this morning, you thought the same thing I did: "When are we going to get to see
Tom Cruise viciously murder a whole bunch of people on the big screen ... again?" Right? We're SO on the same wavelength here, like internet, movie-related soul mates from outer space! That said, fellow soul mate,
Variety tells us that Cruise and United Artists have acquired rights to
The Monster of Florence, based on the book by Douglas Preston. Cruise will produce and possibly star, though there's no word on whether he'd play the killer or one of the men trying to crack the case.
This is actually a pretty crazy story, and I believe it was the subject of a recent
48 Hours Mystery (or
Dateline) where these two guys -- Preston and Italian journalist Mario Spezi -- were on an intense search to find out who exactly committed eight gruesome double homicides between the years of 1968 and 1985. Both men claimed to have found the guy, but then -- since they knew so much about the case -- both became actual suspects themselves. It's a pretty wild story and one that's ripe for the big-screen treatment. Only problem is it kinda suffers from "the Zodiac issue" where no one currently knows who the killer is, and so they won't be able to tie a nice, shiny bow around this puppy. Regardless, it's a good story and I'm curious to see what they do with it. You?
Posted Sep 4th 2008 8:05PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Deals, Fandom, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
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We've stayed away from all the
Ghostbusters rumors these past couple days because last time we crossed this road, we were told nothing existed. Well, seems that's not at all true:
Variety reports that
Lee Eisenberg and
Gene Stupnitsky (
The Office, Year One) have been asked to write a script for a
Ghostbusters sequel (reported earlier today by
Pajiba.com) that may or may not "pass the torch to a new group of ghost chasers." Funnily enough -- and even though he flat out told us he had nothing to do with it -- this is totally in line with those early rumors that "The Apatow Clan" would be involved in some capacity; namely Seth Rogen. When
we asked him about it during the
Pineapple Express junket, however, the man denied knowing a thing. Then again, he's an actor ... and he's paid pretty damn well to pretend.
The Apatow connection is also there in that these two writers are behind the Apatow-produced
Year One, which, ahem, is being directed by Harold Ramis -- who, in case you forgot, played Dr. Egon Spengler in both
Ghostbuster movies. No word from Columbia Pictures on the project, and
Variety is simply throwing out all the same fluff that's been reported on other sites for months now. Could we see a reunion and a torch passing? Will the Apatow folks take over the
Ghostbusters franchise? I'd certainly be down for it.
You?
(And now we shall continue to run circles around this monster until someone finally caves ...)
Posted Sep 4th 2008 6:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Deals, Paramount, Scripts, Newsstand
After the unpleasantness that was
You, Me and Dupree,
Anthony and
Joe Russo are looking to explore a different kind of darkness -- the gritty and corrupt city of Ciudad del Este. According to
Variety, they're set to direct
Ciudad, which will be based on a graphic novel they're writing for Oni Press.
The story will follow a battered hostage negotiator, who travels to Paraguay and the above mentioned city to rescue a kidnap victim. They've been researching the story for years, traveling to crime-infested cities across the world to flesh it out more. Ciudad del Este is next on the travel agenda, a city labeled by the U.S. government as "a threat to national security" that shelters terrorists, drug runners, and all manner of scary people. So stay safe, you two.
The brothers are said to be aiming for a return to their indie roots with this one -- they were formerly behind
Pieces, and the seedy George Clooney outing
Welcome to Collinwood. (That's a bit of a lost film, isn't it? Weren't those the days when people were still screaming he should have stayed on
ER? How things change.) I wish I could say more, but the graphic novel won't be out until 2009, and there's nary a preview on Oni's website. All we can do at this point is give them props for their research, wonder if George Clooney liked them enough to play the weary hostage negotiator, and make glib comparisons to
Proof of Life or even
Man on Fire.
Posted Sep 4th 2008 1:15PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Paramount, Sony, RumorMonger, Distribution
We all know that
David Fincher is an uncompromising director (and why shouldn't he be? The guy is one of the best working today). But, even if you don't like the man, you have to admire someone who is truly willing to put his money where his mouth is. In an interview
unearthed by The Playlist,
Heavy Metal publisher (and Fincher's collaborator on the
Metal reboot), Kevin Eastman, confirmed that the reason for the project's move from Paramount to Sony was not because of problems with the sex and violence (as earlier
reported), but because of another film altogether. When
Metal first jumped studios, there was speculation that Fincher was having trouble getting the green light because of
Metal's risqué subject matter. But, it wasn't
Metal they were fighting about, it was Fincher's upcoming fantasy tale,
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
According to Eastman, "We developed it [
Heavy Metal] for Paramount in January... And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, '
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time... and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with
Benjamin, we're not going to green light any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, f**k you, I'm going to set up [
Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there." You can't help but wonder what Paramount was thinking? Maybe the likely answer is that they were not prepared for Fincher to call their bluff.
After the jump ... guess who's directing Heavy Metal???Continue reading Fincher Battles Paramount; Del Toro, Snyder Among 'Heavy Metal' Directors
Posted Sep 3rd 2008 11:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Mystery & Suspense, Scripts, Family Films, Newsstand, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg
Remember that ginormous project called
39 Clues that was
announced awhile back -- a worldwide mystery to span books, interactive games, trading cards and a movie deal, courtesy of Steven Spielberg? The first book in the series,
The Maze of Bones, hits shelves all over the world next Tuesday, the same day as its interactive online game. Will it spark an obsession along the lines of
Twilight or
Harry Potter? Time will tell.
Steven Spielberg has confidence in it, though. Acccording to
Variety, he's hired his old pal
Jeff Nathanson to pen the script, marking their fourth collaboration together. They paired up previously on
The Terminal,
Catch Me If You Can, and
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Spielberg is still eying
Clues' director's chair, and it will be interesting to see where this can fit into his busy schedule, where
Tintin and
Lincoln were taking precedence. Does he want this worldwide money hunt (the prize for solving the project's mystery is $10,000) to be over
before the movie, or will the bloom be off the rose by then? What if the whole multiplatform concept fails spectacularly? Are the books still filmable? The ambition of
39 Clues leaves me doubting whether it can deliver -- but I can hardly pretend to have better judgment than Spielberg. At any rate, I'll be watching the book pages with interest to see what audiences make of
The Maze of Bones -- if anyone out there buys it, give us the scoop!
Posted Sep 3rd 2008 9:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Politics, Comic/Superhero/Geek
The date has been set for Warner Bros and Fox to go head to head -- and it should soothe the fearful. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, the studios will be going before the judge on January 6th. There's plenty of time, even at a snail's pace, for the issue to be resolved before the March 6th opening. (It's like the court is going along with the movie marketing -- we'll get a video journal the same day. There really
is no such thing as bad publicity in Tinseltown!)
Furthermore, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allan Feess says that Fox shouldn't attempt to file a preliminary injunction against Warners to stop the release of the film because the issues surrounding the case were too complex to be solved in an interim basis. Instead, both studios are being ordered to put their cases together, and start expedited discovery and depositions. This thing could get quite big -- as the
New York Times pointed out, Paramount, Legendary Pictures, and even Universal could get hauled into it, alongside Lawrence Gordon, who's really the man in question in all this.
And remember, this is if it actually makes it to court. This could easily be settled before Christmas, with Warners handing over a nice chunk of
The Dark Knight change just to be done with it. (How appropriate that Bruce Wayne help out other costumed vigilantes.) It depends how fierce the studio is feeling, and how certain they are of their case -- but all signs point to you keeping your March 6th moviegoing plans.
You really have to feel bad for the cast and crew on this one, though. All that happy buzz of ComicCon panels and promo posters squashed under a heap of legalese. Oh well, at least Fox can't take away what we've already been given. Check out our
Watchmen gallery below.
Posted Sep 3rd 2008 8:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Deals, Warner Brothers, Scripts, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
There's an interesting trend going on in film right now -- everyone is grabbing up classic characters of pulp and adventure literature right and left. We've got Conan, Sherlock Holmes, John Carter, and now Tarzan. There's a sociological study in here for an aspiring student.
Tarzan has seen many a reboot, and there's always whispers of someone wanting to make a new version. This current project has been floating around since 2003 (the same year Warner Bros tried to bring
Tarzan to television and the modern city), and once boasted Guillermo del Toro's name. Now, according to
Variety, it has landed in the hands of
Stephen Sommers, who is cowriting a script with
Stuart Beattie. Beattie boasts some impressive credits, like
Pirates of the Caribbean and
Collateral, so the Lord of the Apes might be in quite capable hands.
But Sommers' movies tend to fall a bit short of expectation, to put it kindly. And I mean it kindly, from someone who does actually own
Van Helsing -- I could write a long defense as to why, but it really just comes down to liking Hugh Jackman and David Wenham a lot. But, in my defense, I reportedly audibly booed the ending when I saw it at the theater, though I can't remember if it was because they so visibly CGI'd pants on a naked post-werewolf Jackman, or the floating head of Kate Beckinsale. I think it was the floating head, but knowing me, it may have been the pants.
So, while I want to think about how cool a new
Tarzan movie could be, what hot dude they'll put in a loincloth, how feisty Jane will be, I can't. Because I'm picturing the whole thing saddled with the same CGI Sommers has used since
The Mummy, a jungle peppered with apes that can stretch their jaws for miles. Am I wrong, readers?
Posted Sep 2nd 2008 9:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand, Steven Spielberg, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Games and Game Movies
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While you suffer through those back to school blues ...
Guitar Hero: The Movie -- I have to start with this one. Have to! Because not only are we talking about a possible big-screen movie based on the popular video game, but we're also about to tell you who wants to direct the thing. Can you guess? Here's a hint: It's not Uwe Boll. And if it's not Boll, it has to be ... Ratner! YES! (I really do think I love this maniac in a totally platonic, yet sadistic way -- sorta how you love a great movie villain.) Anyway,
Brett Ratner tells
MTV that he'd love to make a
Guitar Hero movie, possibly about "a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the 'Guitar Hero' competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts." Ratner adds, "I would love to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie. " I'm leaving this one to you, folks -- have at it!
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: In case you're interested in seeing what a standard Persian-esque set looks like,
Korben.info has put up a few select shots (see one above) of the
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time set. Based on the popular video game (hurray for themes in posts!),
Prince of Persia stars Jake "I didn't know he was Persian" Gyllenhaal as a young prince who teams up with a hottie princess (Gemma Arterton) to stop an evil ruler from doing evil things.
A director has been chosen to remake Poltergeist and Cinematical says we likey him ... after the jump ...Continue reading Fanboy Bites: 'Persia' Pics, 'Poltergeist' Remake and 'Guitar Hero: The Movie'??
Posted Sep 2nd 2008 3:45PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Casting, Deals, RumorMonger
If you are a fan of
Chuck Palahniuk then today might be your lucky day, because it looks like audiences could be getting more Palahniuk (and his merry band of screw-ups) on the big screen than they can shake a stick at. Before you get too excited, keep in mind that Mr. Palahniuk loves to mess with people, so we should probably take this news with an enormous grain of salt. The latest chatter to hit the net is that the feature film version of Palahniuk's 2002 novel,
Lullaby, has begun the casting process. But that's not all! According to The Cult (the official fan site for the author),
Rant (a great 50's sci-fi inspired tale) has also been
optioned by an unnamed producer.
The
news about
Lullaby comes from Film School Rejects, who claim that they got their scoop from the man himself. According to Rejects, "
Lullaby, an adaptation that hasn't been tracked nearly as closely as his other works, is already at the casting stage. The financing is in place, and even though the production won't tell Palahniuk who they are looking to cast, he believes they are waiting for a concrete production start day to make the announcement." I don't mean to be cynical, but don't you think if this was the real deal, Palahniuk would have been told that information?
Continue reading Are More Chuck Palahniuk Novels Headed for the Big Screen?
Posted Sep 2nd 2008 12:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Exhibition, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Frakking lawsuits.
Last month,
Elisabeth alerted you to the legal turmoil bubbling around
Watchmen. Basically, 20th Century Fox used to have the rights, and claim they still have them, so they're trying to prevent Warner Brothers from releasing the eagerly awaited film. Warner Brothers, meanwhile, claims that Fox has sat silently until the film was set to go, knowing full well what was happening.
Now
The New York Times says that Warner is pushing for a trial date of April, with Fox pushing for June. Assuming that the film can't be released until this is cleared up, we might not only not get
Watchmen in March, but also not in the summer of 2009. Will we have to wait until 2010? I don't want to think about it. There's a whole swarm of moviegoers peeved about the
Harry Potter delay. I can't imagine what a year-long delay would do to
Watchmen fiends. Where's Doctor Manhattan when you need him? Or a jail-storming Nite Owl and Silk Spectre?
Posted Aug 30th 2008 5:33PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Music & Musicals, Deals, Scripts
Bringing the story of John Lennon and Mark David Chapman to the big screen didn't help
Chapter 27. But perhaps a story of his life, one without Jared Leto and Lindsay Lohan, will fare better. And I raise that perhaps to a probably since this new biopic is coming from the writer of
Control, which makes the news pretty damn sweet.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that a new biopic centering on John Lennon is in the works. Titled
Nowhere Boy, the film was written by
Matt Greenhalgh and will be helmed by visual director
Sam Taylor-Wood.
Nowhere will focus on Lennon's "childhood and subsequent journey to icon status." Basically, just the earlier years, and not the time that brought Yoko, Julian, and Sean. The script is said to portray his personal life as "a lonely teenager growing up as his aunt and the mother who gave him up fight for his love. His only escape is music, art, and his fateful friendship with Paul McCartney."
Casting is underway now, with plans to shoot on location in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool. I imagine that we'll see a collection of lesser and bigger actors flood the roles, but do you have anyone in mind for the famous Beatle(s)?
Posted Aug 30th 2008 1:03PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, RumorMonger, 20th Century Fox, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Just one week after news
surfaced that the big-screen
Voltron was going into turnaround with Fox's Relativity Media, Latino Review is now
reporting that
Max Makowski has been signed to direct the live-action update. Now I know what you are thinking: 'Who the heck is Max Makowski?' Well, he might not be a household name, but according to Latino's sources "he's actually a great choice." Well, I guess we will have to take their word for it, because Makowski has a pretty scant list of credits to his name. The Brazilian born writer-director has been hired to direct an update of the 70's TV series
Kung-Fu, along with penning the
update to
Hawaii Five-O.
Voltron has been languishing over at Fox since 2005, and other than a few
rumblings about Justin Marks' script, the project seemed to have stalled. Marks' take is described as "a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico. Five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders." But now that Relativity has finally secured the rights to the big-guy, I guess all the loose ends have been tied up. Besides, what's one more giant robot movie to add to the
pile?
So if you are a hard-core
Voltron fan with nothing but contempt for a live action version, at least you can take solace in the fact that nothing has been confirmed -- but you might want to get used to the idea of an 'MTV generation'
Pidge now.
Posted Aug 30th 2008 9:03AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Horror, Deals, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
I haven't quite processed the notion of a
Poltergeist remake just yet -- it still seems more conceptual than actual to me. Yet the fact that
they've picked a pair of screenwriters, and that the late Heather O'Rourke has
condemned the remake from the grave, tell me that it's about as actual as it gets. Now
Bloody-Disgusting has started a rumor that
Vadim Perelman -- quasi-arthouse director of
House of Sand and Fog and
The Life Before Her Eyes -- is in "heavy talks" to direct the new movie. That would be a heck of a contrast to the screenwriters of
Boogeyman.
I'm as down on this project as everyone else -- the original film is a moment in time that ought not be disturbed -- but I like the idea of Perelman, mostly because I like the notion of otherwise "respectable" directors trying their hand at genre films. His brooding, portentous style might be a good fit for
Poltergeist, I guess. And maybe this will wind up like the doomed adaptation of
The Talisman, to which Perelman was attached for a while (and which he seems far better suited to), never making it past the development stage.
Anyway, I emphasize that I'm commenting on a rumor, not relaying hard news. Make of it what you will.
Posted Aug 29th 2008 6:33PM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Drama, Deals, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Warner Independent Pictures, Distribution, Fox Searchlight, Toronto International Film Festival
It's so heartwarming to see rival studios playing nice with each other, even if it's only for purely financial reasons. It's especially good when the result of their cooperation is that a film by
Danny Boyle (pictured) will get the theatrical release it deserves.
Slumdog Millionaire, about a Mumbai street kid who strikes it rich on an Indian game show before having his knowledge called into question, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next week. And now it'll hit multiplexes, too, on Nov. 28, thanks to a deal hammered out this week between Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros.
The film was originally part of Warner Independent Pictures' slate. But that division got
shut down earlier this year, and Warner Bros. was left to deal with its leftover movies. It's like Warner Independent was a slightly irresponsible young adult, and
Slumdog Millionaire was one of its children. Then Warner Independent died penniless in the gutter, and the child's grandmother, Warner Bros., being the only living relative, got custody. And Nana Warner Bros. loves the kid, thinks it's a great movie that people will enjoy, but ol' WB is on a fixed income and can't really support it. WB has kids of its own still living at home, for crying out loud.
So WB sidled up to Fox Searchlight, the dashing playboy son of billionaire Twentieth Century Fox, and struck up a relationship that involves Fox Searchlight paying for the film's marketing and distribution. Nobody has any illusions about this arrangement -- there's certainly no romance involved -- and they all live happily ever after. I just hope Fox Searchlight's dad doesn't find out, considering mean old Twentieth Century Fox is busy
suing Warner Bros. over
Watchmen. It's a pretty thorny situation, but hey, you gotta do what's best for the kids. It takes a village, right?
Continue reading WB and Fox Searchlight Team Up to Release Danny Boyle's Latest
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