News Round-Up
Odeon/UCI back down in Alice in Wonderland dispute
The news that Odeon had refused to show Alice in Wonderland was discussed earlier this week, dependent on your viewpoint the good/bad newsis that the cinema chain announce today that they now WILL be showing the Tim Burton remake after an agreement was struck between the two parties. Full story here.
Cooper chooses another hangover over war
Bradley Cooper has pulled out of This Means War, a rom-com directed by McG and also featuring Reese Witherspoon. Initial reports suggest that Cooper pulled out because of scheduling conflicts between this and The Hangover 2, not because the plot of This Means War sounds pants.
New Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer
Looks pretty pointless and in parts looks like a shot for shot remake. Also features the most ridiculous villain voice since The Punisher.
A shortlist for Paranormal Activity 2 directors is announced….
…. and there is one definite surprise in Brian De Palma. While I would be interested to see what the Scarface director would come up with, my inclination is with Brad Anderson, the director of two fantastic films Session 9 and The Machinist (possibly Christian Bale’s best performance). Full shortlist here.
Marlon Wayans on playing Richard Pryor
This is something I am completely on board with. While he was in the Scary Movie series, White Chicks and Little Man, it’s easy to forget he was also fantastic in Requiem for a dream. I had him down on my list for “Actors We Could Make Great” and I think this could be the film to do it. In this article with the LA Times, Marlon defends some undefendable films, talks about getting the role ahead of Eddie Murphy and discusses why Pryor deserves a film about him. Note: White Chicks and Little Man grossed $215 million in total and a White Chicks 2 is on the way.
Zach Galifianakis is a miracle worker!
He must be, he carried everyone in The Hangover! Galifianakis is set to star in a supernatural buddy comedy (might sound like a made up subgenre, but check out the fantastic The Revenant when it finally manages to get released – makes Shaun of The Dead seem as funny as Epic Movie). Will be good to see ZaGa (it may catch on if I use it enough) shake his comedy muscles and no doubt I will be completely onboard by the time a director is announced.
Round Up – Michael Moore To Go Fiction
Michael Moore is, according to an interview with the Detroit News, planning to transition into narrative filmmaking. Not sure that will be much of a transition for our ‘documentarian’ there.
Though this will please my podcast co-host, it won’t please anyone else. David Twohy and Vin Diesel are hard at work on another Chronicles of Riddick film.
The trailer for The Killing Room is pretty interesting but, to be honest, seems like a little too much is given away as to the tone of the film. We’ll see.
Netflix and Disney-ABC have signed an agreement for a number of top shows on the network to be streamed through the service. Big step into Hulu’s market for Netflix… perhaps not smart to meddle and better to concentrate on making a great movie streaming service first.
The great Michael C Hall from Dexter is to star in an indie comedy called East Fifth Bliss, about a guy who has a relationship with the eighteen-year-old daughter of a buddy.
News Morsels
Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment is to team with Sony on an adaptation of the life of John Keller, a former marine reponsible for saving 244 of his neighbours in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. I feel tears and Oscars around the corner.
Steven Soderbergh is interviewed, fascinatingly, on Suicide Girls. With The Girlfriend Experience, Sasha Grey does the same with The AV Club.
Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford has signed up to star in the remake of Footloose, replacing the long-attached Zac Efron.
Zach Braff has signed on to direct, rewrite and star in Swingles, from a spec script by Duncan Birmingham. I liked Garden State first time, less second.
President Barack Obama has delivered his verdict on Star Trek.
The great Peter Yates film, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, starring Robert Mitchum, has been released through Criterion. It’s reviewed by RoS here.
Round Up
George Clooney has signed on to star in A Very Private Gentleman, the adaptation of the Martin Booth novel being helmed by Anton Corbijn, the famed photographer and director of the excellent Joy Division biopic Control.
Sean Penn is to star in the English language debut of Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Il Divo, called This Must Be the Place. Penn will play an aging rock star who becomes bored in retirement and makes a decision to track down the killer of his father.
Lynne Ramsey, the prodigiously talented director of Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, is bringing Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin to the big screen.
The trailer has shown up for Sherlock Holmes, the Guy Ritchie-directed take on the character, and features another comic tour-de-force from Robert Downey Jr.
Ben Stiller has been talking up Zoolander 2 in an interview with the UK’s own Screenrush.
Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha is to be released in a brand-spanking-new Blu-ray edition through Criterion.
Chris Hemsworth, who made a genuine impression in his ten minutes in Star Trek, is to play Thor.
Dustin Lance Black, the writer of Milk, has lined up Liam Neeson and Jennifer Connelly for his directorial debut, What’s Wrong with Virginia?
John Goodman has apparently joined the cast of The Cross, the new sci-fi from Andrew Niccol starring Orlando Bloom, Vincent Cassel and Olga Kurylenko.
Round Up
Terry Gilliam is to make the incredibly insane decision to relaunch his Don Quixote project.
Check out the very cool Where the Wild Things Are blog.
Rob Marshall’s Nine has a very interesting trailer.
Al Pacino is considering taking the lead role in the adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink by Stephen Gaghan, the writer of Traffic and writer/director of Syriana.
Mila Kunis and Mark Ruffalo have joined the cast of Date Night.
Round Up: Rachel Weisz = Hedy Lamarr
Rachel Weisz has reportedly been signed up to star as Hedy Lamarr in Face Value, a biopic being directed by Amy Redford.
Disney has released thirty-eight photos from Up. It looks beautiful.
Fox is teaming with Blue Sky Studios for Rio, a 3D animation to be directed by Ice Age’s Carlos Saldanha.
Jason Patric is looking likely to sign up to play the villain in The Losers, the adaptation of the comic series by Andy Diggle.
Antonio Banderas has signed up to star in The Big Bang, a neo-noir thriller following a detective in LA hired to find a stripper. Doesn’t sound too ‘neo’.
Chinese director Lou Ye is to defy the authorities in his home country by premiering his new film, Spring Fever, at the Cannes Film Festival. Ye was reprimanded after showing his Summer Palace without permission in 2006.
Takashi Miike has been given the greenlight to shoot a new samurai film, Thirteen Assassins.
Round Up – Branagh Talks Thor
Kenneth Branagh has been chatting about Thor on the tour for his BBC series Wallander, saying filming on the Marvel adaptation is due to kick-off in January.
ContentFilm has struck a deal for the distribution rights to Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, the follow-up to her brilliant Red Road debut, for the French market ahead of its in-competition bow at the Cannes Film Festival.
Paolo Sorrentino is to head the 2009 Un Certain Regard jury at Cannes, the out-of-competition prize at the Festival. His Il Divo won the prize in 2008. Incidentally, Isabel Huppert is heading the main jury alongside James Gray, Asia Argento, Robin Wright Penn and Hindi film star Sharmilla Tagore.
NBC has unveiled its pick-ups for the new season, including six new projects along with (surely) a surprise re-up for Heroes and an encouraging one for Office spin-off Parks & Recreation.
A Rand Corp report, published by the MPA, has found “substantial evidence” that D-Company, the organised crime syndicate-turned-terrorist group, has received funding from film piracy.
Enormo Round-Up
So I’ve been extremely busy with film-watching and outings all this week, so I have had no time to put together nice posts and news for you all to enjoy. Today though, sitting in bed and vegging like a pro, I will provide a round-up of all the interesting happenings from the past week in film.
It’s been confirmed that Jonathan Nolan will not be credited for writing Terminator Salvation. In laterally-related news, Christian Bale said he will commit to the next Batman movie, with or without the presence of Christopher Nolan.
Universal has confirmed plans to remake Drop Dead Fred, the cult classic early-90s movie starring Rik Mayall, with Russell Brand to take over the lead role. This will go alongside the previously announced remake of Dudley Moore-vehicle Arthur for our cheeky chappy.
An interview with Lauren Shuler Donner has seen her say that spin-off vehicles for both Gambit and Deadpool will come, if she has her way. Given the utterly awful Wolverine, that would be something of a result to have a movie which will provide us with easily the two most interesting characters from the film.
Todd McFarlane has entered talks over bringing Spawn back to the screen. It was made before to a very poor reception in 1997. During the interview, with IESB, he also talked a little about the David Fincher-helmed Torso, the adaptation of the Brian Michael Bendis graphic novel. That was dropped by Paramount but McFarlane believes another house will pick it up given the presence of Matt Damon in the lead and Rachel McAdams alongside him.
Some photos have emerged of Megan Fox in Jonah Hex, the adaptation of the John Albano-penned DC series. As you would imagine from a movie about a gonzo version of the Wild West, Fox has eschewed the demure look in favour of chicken house chic. Fox did experience a mild disappointment this week, beat to the FHM 100 Sexiest Women poll’s top spot by Girls Aloud’s Cheryl Cole.
Rainn Wilson, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman have joined the cast of Hesher, an indie dramedy to be directed by Spencer Susser. /Film has a host of extra information on this, including a really bewitching zombie short directed by Susser.
Here’s an odd one. The next movie coming from Zhang Yimou, the helmer of the astounding Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is reportedly a remake of the Coens’ Blood Simple.
McG and Michael Bay could well end up slapping ’em out on the table and bringing out the rulers, should the challenge put forth by the former to the latter become reality. Yes, McG has challenged Bay to a dick-measuring contest.
So apparently Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas and Shia LeBoeuf have signed up to take on a sequel to Wall Street, Stone’s visceral attack on the lack of ethics involved in big money trading. It seems a little late at this point but, praise be, no Charlie Sheen.
On the business side, the merger between agency giant William Morris and Endeavour has been approved. Relativity and Lionsgate have brokered a distribution agreement which will cover around five movies per year. Time Warner has announced a 14 per cent fall in profits in the first quarter, primarily owing to problems with AOL, which it is looking to spin-off imminently, and in Time Inc, the magazine side of the conglomerate.
Cinematical has a review of Departures, the Japanese foreign film Oscar winner from this year.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro will open the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes.
Benicio del Toro is reportedly in talks to play Brett Easton Ellis in an adaptation of his Lunar Park.
Here’s a first look at Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man 2.
The Forgotten, the indie comic series by Evan Young and Jareth Grealish, has been optioned for a movie adaptation.
Bruce Willis is reportedly being courted to star in Red, an adaptation of the Warren Ellis-penned series.
The BBC has commissioned more The Thick of It from Armando Ianucci, coming on the back of the success of In the Loop.
Warner Bros has acquired the rights to Death Note, the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba.
Mike Newell is in talks to direct a new version of The Lone Ranger.
Fox Searchlight has picked up Whip It, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore starring Ellen Page.
Iran’s About Elly has won the jury prize at Tribeca.
Trailers: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen – District 9 – Mother
Round Up: Shandling Joins Iron Man 2!
Garry Shandling, the notoriously prickly star of the genius Larry Sanders Show, has signed up to star in Iron Man 2.
The first trailer for Bong Joon Ho’s Mother has arrived on Twitch.
Channing Tatum is not Nordic-looking enough to play Thor.
Maria Bello has signed on for Adam Sandler’s as-yet-untitled reunion ensemble comedy.
A man committed suicide this week during a showing of Watchmen.
In case you missed it, our buddies at Film Chair have a host of clips from Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop.
Round Up: Ricci Joins Sandler Porn Comedy
Christina Ricci has joined the cast of Born to be a Star, a porn-concerned comedy written by Adam Sandler and directed by (no, not that one) Tom Brady.
/Film has the first full trailer for Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst.
John Woo’s post-war drama 1949 has been cancelled.
Steven Soderbergh has released the poster for his new movie, The Girlfriend Experience.
Round Up: DeWitt Joins Company Men
Rachel Getting Married star Rosemarie DeWitt has joined the cast of Company Men, the John Wells movie starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner. Chris Cooper is also in talks.
Noah Baumbach has begun shooting a new film, starring Ben Stiller, about a man who house-sits for his brother.
Night of the Creeps is finally coming to DVD.
Edward Furlong has signed up for the new Uwe Boll project about aid workers in Darfur. Seriously.
Alex Billington at First Showing has some thoughts on the new Woody Allen movie.
Round Up: Barrymore and Long to Go Distance
Drew Barrymore is to star alongside former/possibly still paramour Justin Long in Going the Distance, being directed by American Teen’s Nanette Burstein.
Kevin MacDonald is to direct the Roman military drama The Eagle of the Ninth.
Vin Diesel has explained his thinking behind turning down Daredevil and his ambitions to create his own superhero movies.
Tween poppet and hick-superstar Miley Cyrus has been signed to star in The Last Song, a novel/screenplay hybrid thing from Notebook author Nicholas Sparks.
People in the UK! A chance to see the brilliant Let the Right One In is available to you.
Round Up: Stone For Easy-A
Emma Stone, the Jonah Hill love interest in Superbad and probably the best thing about The Rocker, is to star in Easy-A, a modern retelling of The Scarlett Letter. For those uninterested, please understand, this is one of the Ginger Posterchilds and therefore must be supported for equal rights reasons.
Cinema Spy has an interview with Sci-Fi Channel’s president, Dave Howe, on the rebranding of the channel under the moniker SyFy and the plans for the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica.
The Karate Kid remake is to be called The Kung Fu Kid… Oh, dear.
A new budget agreement reached in New York over the weekend will see the state free up a further $350m for an existing film and television tax credit program.
Round Up: Ramis Talking Ghostbusters 3
Harold Ramis has been talking about Ghostbusters 3 and has apparently revealed some possible plot points.
Tony Scott is taking on the action movie Unstoppable, about a runaway train.
Toby Maguire is moving up from riding horses to jump into Grand Prix cars.
David O Russell has been tapped to direct The Silver Linings Playbook.
John Sayles is to take on an adaptation of Guillaume Prevost’s The Book of Time.
Round Up: Blunt for Sarah Marshall Spin-Off
MOD favourite Emily Blunt is reportedly signed on to star alongside Russell Brand in the Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off, Get Him to the Greek. UPDATE: Apparently, this is not true.
The Italian trailer for Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s Game has turned up. The two are the duo that brought the cinematic poetry dubbed Crank.
A host of stand-up comedy features are to come to theatres in the US in the coming year.
Limp Bizkit front-man Fred Durst is to direct Psycho Killer, a movie written by Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker.
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