Posted Oct 2nd 2008 5:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Deals, Warner Brothers, Scripts, Family Films
Sometimes I oooh over talk of re-energizing an old franchise; sometimes I cringe and sometimes, like today, my brow is so damned furrowed that I probably have about 20 new wrinkles.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Warner Bros. is going back to Yogi Bear and
YellowJellystone Park.
Oh yes, the Hanna-Barbera classic is getting developed into a big-screen feature by the pens of
Joshua Sternin and
Jeffrey Ventimilia, with
Ash Brannon attached to direct. That means a mixture of
That 70's Show exec producers and the co-writer and director of
Surf's Up. It will be live-action with a CG Yogi and Boo Boo.
Now sure, the chipmunks made a comeback, but at least they have an uber popular Christmas song that keeps them in the memory banks. Something like
Speed Racer had the effects going for it. Will kids go wild for a character from the '50s that gets into good-natured fun at a park? And who would voice them? Better yet, simply: WHY? Maybe I'm in the minority, but this doesn't seem like the best idea.
What do you think? Weigh in below ...
Posted Oct 2nd 2008 11:35AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Deals, Paramount, Scripts, Newsstand
I already smell Oscar nominations for this one. According to
Variety,
Martin Scorsese and
Robert De Niro are re-teaming for
I Heard You Paint Houses, based on Charles Brandt's book. And another Scorsese alumni is writing the script --
Steve Zaillian, who not only scripted
Gangs of New York, but won an Oscar for
Schindler's List. See what I mean? A contender for Best Picture, and it isn't even filmed yet.
The topic is familiar stomping ground for Scorsese and De Niro -- organized crime. De Niro will play the main man of
Houses, Frank 'the Irishman' Sheeran, who reportedly committed more than 25 mob murders. One of these was supposedly Jimmy Hoffa, who he confessed to killing and dismembering on the orders of mob boss Russell Bufalino. And if you're wondering about the title, it has a wonderfully gruesome origin: it's mob slang for a contract killing, due to the mess left behind on walls and floors when you carry one out.
Sheeran confessed all to Brandt, who befriended him before his death in 2003. While this seemed to clear up the mystery surrounding Hoffa's disappearance, controversy still reigns.
Other hitman have confessed to the crime since Sheeran, and lacking conclusive DNA evidence or a body, nothing can be proved or denied. The FBI stopped looking for Hoffa's body in 2006. But Hoffa's fate is like the identity of Jack the Ripper -- no one will ever stop confessing, wondering, or looking.
As I said at the start, this movie has a perfect pedigree. But for the sake of argument, do you think it's just
too safe? We all realize Scorsese knows a mob thriller like the back of his hand, and we know De Niro can play a guy who, well, paints houses to chilling perfection. I'd love to see Scorsese court some of that
Last Temptation of Christ controversy again, but perhaps that's just too cocky of me to question.
Posted Oct 1st 2008 7:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Independent, Thrillers, Deals, Scripts, Newsstand, War
Liam Neeson's thriller
Taken hasn't hit stateside yet -- but it looks like its director,
Pierre Morel, already has another job. Relativity Media acquired the rights to
Arne Schmidt's screenplay
Hunter-Killer, based on Don Keith and Commander George Wallace's novel
Firing Point.
Hunter-Killer fills a giant gap in today's cinema -- there just aren't enough movies set on submarines. (Have you ever toured one? If you can stop yourself from imitating Sean Connery or
Das Boot, they really are terrifying places to be.) The story follows an American submarine commander and a team of Navy SEALS who must avert all-out war, rescue the Russian President in the midst of a coup,
and defeat a renegade Admiral. No word on casting yet, but it will be fun to see what up-and-coming action stars land the macho parts -- particularly since American cinema is reportedly quite short of them.
It sounds a bit like
The Hunt for Red October, which isn't a bad thing -- and it's a pretty timely choice for Relativity in light of recent geopolitical events. After
Eastern Promises, I thought we were going to see Russian mafia dramas replace the Italian and Irish ones ... but instead, the Russians are making a huge comeback as the villains of action cinema. Coincidence, or savvy optioning on the part of Hollywood? Who knows? It definitely feels like 1980 again ... and I'm okay with that. Are you?
Posted Sep 29th 2008 2:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Drama, Romance, Casting, Universal, Scripts, Newsstand
The wires (yes, I still think of them like that) were buzzing all weekend with
MTV's big scoop -- that while
Russell Crowe and
Ridley Scott were out promoting
Body of Lies, the network cornered them about the long-delayed
Nottingham, Scott's revisionist Robin Hood story. There have been a lot of names attached to the role of Robin Hood, ranging from Christian Bale to newcomer
Sam Riley.Forget all of that because now, from Scott himself, comes the announcement that Crowe will be playing
both roles. Mum on the details, the director would only say it was "a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes." I would take that to mean that the Sheriff of Nottingham becomes Robin Hood after having to steal from the poor one too many times ... or they're twins, which would be pretty lame, especially for Scott and Crowe.
But wait -- there's more!
CHUD points out that in reading the original screenplay, they noticed the Sheriff was caught between a tyrant king and a less-than-heroic Robin Hood. Nothing in this script indicated the Sheriff and Robin Hood could be played by the same actor. Now,
Brian Helgeland came in and did a rewrite, and much depends on that.
The medievalist in me suspects this is less shockingly revisionist than a return to the old medieval legends, where Robin Hood was merely an outlaw who beheaded people from time to time, not the Robin of Locksley we all know and love. It's a pretty flexible legend, and I'm very anxious to see what Scott does with it ... when it finally heads into production, that is.
Posted Sep 26th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Deals, Paramount, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand
If you read my posts regularly, you might be under the impression that the only movies that make me truly weak in the knees are Marvel adaptations. But my heart belongs more to rogue cops than it does superheroes, and if I could have my film wish, it would be for a renaissance of the action/thriller. And you know, I think it might be on its way ...
First comes a story from
The Hollywood Reporter that Paramount has hired
Josh Olson to adapt Lee Child's novel
One Shot. It's the ninth in Child's Jack Reacher series -- why they aren't adapting the first, I have no idea. Now, I haven't read the series, but from all accounts Reacher is the kind of man we haven't seen onscreen since Harry Callahan or Wendell "Bud" White. And that's why Olson (who was also behind the adaptation of
A History of Violence) took the job: "I had just finished watching the first two
Dirty Harry movies on Blu-ray. And I thought, 'No one's making movies like that anymore.' It coincided perfectly. It's just the kind of movie that I haven't seen in a while. It's a tough, smart, action-oriented thriller." (In a really funny twist, I was watching
Dirty Harry last weekend and thinking the same thing -- and also how much I want to date Clint Eastwood circa 1971.)
Obviously,
One Shot isn't enough to revive the genre, but
Entertainment Weekly reports that rumors continue to gather around
Lethal Weapon 5, particularly with
Shane Black's Cold Warrior catching everyone's interest. Seems he's down for writing
and directing the fifth installment, though all waits on the approval of
Mel Gibson. I'm intrigued by the new story details, as it introduces a pair of young New York cops. Now, if
Lethal Weapon 5 was more of a reboot/origin story for two new characters who could carry some films of their own, well,
that would be pretty darn cool.
Continue reading Cops & Killers: 'Lethal Weapon 5: New Recruits' and Lee Child's 'One Shot'
Posted Sep 26th 2008 9:40AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
We end the week with all kinds of intriguing possibilities and rumors -- try to contain your joy at the
Ghostbusters 3 bit, especially if you're at work. We can't have your employers finding out you're reading
Cinematical on the clock!
- Bill Murray is at Fantastic Fest, undoubtedly partying with our writers and promoting City of Ember and at the film's Q&A, AICN's Kraken (a stellar guy) asked the question we all wanted the answer too -- would Murray return for Ghostbusters 3? Murray thinks the scriptwriters (borrowed, you'll remember, from The Office) are off to a good start, that enough time has passed to heal the Ghostbusters 2 wounds, and he would definitely be open to playing Peter Venkman again. In fact, his enthusiasm for the franchise was rekindled by recording the voice for the upcoming video game -- and he had even been singing the theme song in public. There's video of Murray's answer up at AICN, so check it out, and get your hopes up.
- One of the questions surrounding Iron Man 2 was its change-up on the writing front. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby weren't returning, their job was taken by Justin Theroux, and we all frowned a little inside. But MTV has the scoop that they're unavailable for Iron Man 2 because they're working on something else for Marvel. Fergus wouldn't specify what, he just dropped maddening hints. "There are some really juicy [movies] that we are very much talking intensely with Marvel about ... We're interested in working on a bunch of these other Marvel projections and everything in the Marvel canon is fair game. We have a lot of ideas about all this, but until they officially ask us to come do one of these we'll keep our mouths closed about the actual ideas. It's moving along nicely but nothing official yet. But, yes, we are planning on working on some of those movies. That much I'll say." At this point, all of the Marvel movies have writers -- and impressive ones at that. Either they're replacing someone, or it's a new character altogether. Guess away.
Continue reading Geek Daily: 'Ghostbusters 3', Secret Marvel Projects, and Gasps From 'Justice League Mortal'
Posted Sep 25th 2008 2:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Deals, Scripts, Remakes and Sequels
First up, there's a whole new buddy comedy on the way from the writers of
Harold & Kumar --
Jon Hurwitz and
Hayden Schlossberg.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that the duo have whipped up a new pic called
'Til Beth Do Us Part. Like H&K, the film will focus on two twenty-something guys, but instead of focusing on the great high, it's about how a friendship is put to the test once one of them gets engaged. I bet you anything this came from those Amsterdam-set follow-ups on the
Guantanamo Bay DVD. We should hear more soon -- the plan is to get this comedy in production by early next year.
But there's also
White Dad, according to
THR. This spec, which comes from writer Alan Yang, is being kept completely under wraps. It shouldn't be too hard to make some possible guesses. The writer is a Yang, and it's about white dads, so maybe it's about a Chinese kid adopted by a white family? Stay tuned!
And finally, there's
Matt Reeves.
THR reports the
Cloverfield director is going to write and direct a remake of the Swedish horror film
Let the Right One In. The premise of this flick would've sent my teen penchant for vampires into overdrive -- "a bullied boy whose desire for revenge becomes intertwined with his growing love for a girl who happens to be a vampire." It won an award for Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, and
Scott loved it, so this should be good stuff. We can see the original next month, when it is appropriately released on October 24.
Posted Sep 23rd 2008 1:35PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Deals, Universal, Scripts, Newsstand, War
I would be a huge dork if I began this post with the sentence, "This is the best news ever," but it kind of is. One of my favorite (and yours too) scriptwriters is making a return to the big screen -- and may it be a triumphant one. According to
Variety,
Shane Black is directing
Cold Warrior for Universal Pictures from a script penned by Chuck Mondry. This will be his second outing as a director -- his first was, of course, the fantastic
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
And frankly,
Warrior sounds like a film from the heyday of 80's action. It centers on a spy from the Cold War era who comes out of retirement and teams up with a younger agent to thwart a Russian domestic terrorism plot. It couldn't be more timely given how icy relations are with our Eastern neighbors. (The Russians didn't get to take much of a break from big-screen villainy, did they? I thought their comeback would just arrive via the Russian Mafia, not as terrorists again.)
This is going to be a blast to watch -- from the description, I want to believe it's old-school Black, but it could just as easily go into dark and serious
Breach territory. Obviously, my fondness for macho men, snappy one-liners, and heavy gunfire hope it's the former. That's the kind of movie that can cure all ills and make you forget your economic woes, isn't it?
Posted Sep 23rd 2008 12:35PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Music & Musicals, Romance, Casting, Deals, Scripts
Last year,
John Sayles wonderfully took on the world of blues, guitars, and rock 'n' roll with
Honeydripper. Now it looks like that was a warm-up for something even better. In a discussion with
Collider,
Charles S. Dutton revealed that he's working on an HBO miniseries about Louis Armstrong with
Quincy Jones, and Sayles is writing the script. Dutton might play the older Louis, and might direct the first few hours of the 6-hour-long miniseries. "Quincy and I were trying to do it 15 years ago. The mistake we were making was that we were trying to do it as a 2 hour film. And Louie's life is just so huge you just can't..." Move over John Adams. I'm betting this wonder team can kick the founding father's butt.
Meanwhile, the
cast continues to grow for James Keach's
Waiting for Forever.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film will star
Tom Sturridge, with
Jaime King,
Nikki Blonsky,
Scott Mechlowicz,
Riley Smith,
Blythe Danner, and
Richard Jenkins also grabbing parts. While it initially seemed to be a stranger/stalker story, it's now being described as a film about "a wanderer who tries to reconnect with his childhood love, an actress in Hollywood." Sturridge will play the guy, and King will play his sister-in-law who helps him after he's spurned by his brother. The rest of the roles haven't been shared.
The Hollywood Reporter also posts that a
Slate magazine article by David Plotz and Hanna Rosin is getting turned into a film. The pair "attempted to emulate a real-life pair of Buddhist teachers who vowed to never be more than 15 feet from each other" by tying themselves together with string for 24 hours.
Ron Burch and
David Kidd are penning the script. I wonder if they'll get into the groove by tying themselves together as well ... which begs the question: Which actor and actress would you like to see tied together for 24 hours?
Posted Sep 23rd 2008 10:32AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Deals, Universal, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
This may be the oddest mix of director and material that you might read all year. According to
Variety,
Timur Bekmambetov (
Wanted) will be directing an adaptation of Herman Melville's
Moby Dick for Universal, who made a big pre-emptive buy of this revisionist take. Not surprisingly, it won't be the "Call me Ishmael" version that you remember from school. In fact, Ishmael probably won't even be in it.
Adam Cooper and
Ben Collage are penning the screenplay, and taking what they call "a graphic novel approach" to a book considered to be one of the best in the English language. (In Hollywood talk nowadays, this means "It will look like
300.") Moby Dick becomes a kind of Jaws in this version, where we will see him wreaking havoc on the seas long before he encounters Captain Ahab and the Pequod. Ahab won't become the obsessive and destructive captain, but a brave and charismatic leader. (Yeah, there was a moral there, but who needs that nowadays?) Bekmambetov is looking to apply his frenetic visual flair to the story of the great white whale. I think we all know what the style is, and what this will look like. Moby's white body will look terrific splattered with blood as he drags ships down to the depths at high speed.
Honestly,
Moby Dick is
not one of my favorite books, and it's only an academic snarkiness that balks at a Bekmambetov version. Besides, it's going to be pretty funny when audience members rush to Borders to buy a copy of the book, imagining it to be packed with gore and brawny heroes, not "to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee!"
Posted Sep 22nd 2008 3:40PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Deals, Scripts
As much as some might wish for a change that leads back to the days of
Permanent Midnight and
Reality Bites,
Ben Stiller is superglued to comedy.
Variety reports that he will direct a new flick, written by Kevin Napier, called
The Station. Taking a cue from the success of
Tropic Thunder, the comedy will focus on "a covert CIA office in South America." No specifics are being shared about what happens in this office, but it's not hard to imagine the possibilities when Stiller is involved.
But that's not the only South American comedy on the way.
Variety also reports that
Stephen Hopkins (
Californication) has signed on to helm a romcom called
Chasing Bohemia. This will be an adaptation of Carmen Michael's book
Chasing Bohemia -- A Year of Living Recklessly in Rio de Janeiro.
Stateside,
Variety posts that Barbarian Films has grabbed an indie action film called
Jonah. Methinks
Brandon Boyce, who wrote and will direct the pic, has been watching
The Professional. The film centers on "a team of hitmen led by a veteran and his 14-year-old protege who are pursued by a hotshot FBI agent." His previous projects,
Apt Pupil and
Wicker Park, were interesting, so maybe he'll take this world of young kids and hitmen in an entirely new direction. But it might help to steer clear of the one-word name titles.
Leon, meet
Jonah.
Lastly: Would you ever merge romance with nuclear disaster?
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Miramax has picked up a period romance drama called
Muchas Gracias, Bob Oppenheimer. The film, based on a true story, will follow an American serviceman sent to Spain in the '60s after a military plane crashes, detonating four hydrogen bombs. He's meant to appease the fishing town, but while on the job, he gets himself some romance as well.
Posted Sep 18th 2008 2:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Scripts, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images
- /Film has a bunch of new photos from The Spirit, the film the Internet and Lionsgate forgot. The photos are so snazzy they nearly erase memories of toilets always being funny, and giant wrenches existing in mud lakes. I can still admire the retro clothes, and how well Gabriel Macht looks in a mask, can't I?
- And lest you think Will Eisner is the only comic legend being abused, Patrick Wilson told MTV that, yes, the studio has talked about the possibilities of a Watchmen sequel. "It's all been talked about. Financially, they like to do that. But all of us, Zack [Snyder] included, all go, 'How on Earth could you do a sequel or prequel?' Certainly, artistically, I can't fathom how it would happen. But hey, if Alan Moore writes it, I'd love to read it." Given the solid endings of both Watchmen and 300, I say you combine the two impossible sequels into one insane film, throw in wizards, ninjas, and Jason Statham and just call it good.
- According to Dread Central, Brett Ratner is considering the role of director on that Conan franchise reboot. Like with any Ratner project, we'll hold our cries for help till things are made official.
Continue reading Geek Daily: Sex With 'The Spirit,' Viggo Talks 'Hobbit' and 'Watchmen 2' ... Already?
Posted Sep 15th 2008 8:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Deals, Scripts
Some news bites for you:
- Almost a year ago, Natalie Portman whipped up her own shingle and started to look into making Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness. She was hoping to get Jake and Maggie's mom, Naomi Foner, to pen it. Things have changed a bit since then, as Variety reports. The project is still in the works, but now Portman is planning to film it in the novel's original language -- Hebrew.
- If no one is making a documentary about your family, make it yourself! Variety reports that Ozzy's son, Jack Osbourne, is whipping up a documentary on his famous dad, with the help of mom Sharon. He says: "MTV couldn't show the darkness and so they used all the goofy things, but that's not really who he was at the time." He continues: "I want people to see John Osbourne as the guy I grew up with, the tormented, complex musician whose personal demons manifest themselves in so many crazy, unique ways."
- Ehren Kruger, who was the pen behind Transformers, is now looking to God, but in a more bloody and bad guy-filled way. Variety reports that he will adapt Boston Teran's God is a Bullet, which focuses on "the journey of a California lawman forced to go undercover to rescue his daughter from the ruthless gang of criminals who've abducted her." Let's hope big machines with bad dialogue don't enter the mix.
Continue reading News Bites: Director Natalie Portman, Ozzy, God & Gambit
Posted Sep 15th 2008 3:26PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
I have to tread ever-so-carefully on anything about
Y: The Last Man because I'm
so behind (I know, I know, but it was a really long series and trades are expensive). But to all of you who finished
Brian K. Vaughan's series,
UGO's interview with
D.J. Caruso may wind you up.
According to Caruso, the script for the first film has been turned in to Warner Bros (which Vaughan collaborated with them on), and they're waiting for the green light. They're hoping to start shooting as early as winter of 2009, and the studio is aiming for a release date of late 2010. And, yes, they're targeting more than one film -- Caruso hopes it will be one of three, with the first movie ending when Yorick and his monkey, Ampersand, meet Dr Mann and are separated. (Yes! Dr. Mann
will be in it! As will 711, though neither have any actors associated with them yet)
As for casting, they still want
Shia LaBeouf to play the title role of Yorick (the only surviving male mammal on the planet earth). "I just think Shia would bring such a fun sort of humor to it. And at the same time, keep Yorick sort of grounded and real with the action sequences and all the other stuff," says Caruso.
And what
of 355? Is Alicia Keyes playing her? Not yet. Caruso adds, "She's definitely someone to consider. I thought she did a really cool job in [
Smoking Aces] ... I'd love to have sort of a (Robert) DeNiro/(Charles) Grodin relationship between 355 and (Yorick). Kind of a
Midnight Run relationship ...I think Alicia's a great girl and everything but I have to make sure that she can handle the acting part of it."
So, readers, think they're on the right track? The script sounds promising, but I'm still not sold on LaBeouf. Who would be your ideal cast for this?
Posted Sep 14th 2008 5:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Drama, Scripts, Newsstand
One of
Darren Aronofsky's most intriguing ideas may actually come to fruition now that everyone with money likes him again. He wants to make
a Biblical epic about Noah, who he calls "a dark, complicated character." Lest you think it has been forgotten between
The Wrestler and
Robocop, Aronofsky told
/film that it's not only still on -- he's finished the script:
"I wrote it. Me and
Ari Handel, the guy who worked on
The Fountain. It's a great script and it's HUGE. And we're starting to feel out talent. And then we'll probably try and set it up ... [the budget] is big. I mean, Look... It's the end of the world and it's the second most famous ship after the Titanic. So I'm not sure why any studio won't want to make it. It's a really cool project and I think it's really timely because it's about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what's going on on this planet. So I think it's got these big, big themes that connect with us. Noah was the first environmentalist. He's a really interesting character. Hopefully they'll let me make it."
Now that he's in the spotlight again -- the deserved center of huge buzz and Oscar talk -- I suspect a studio may just make a grab for it. Surely, there has to be a studio president, somewhere, who really liked
The Fountain, and wouldn't mind funding another epic by Aronofsky and Handel? We may actually live to see the day when a studio is dying to buy an Aronofsky movie.
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