the most anticipated...

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Ali, kako možeš da misliš o Wachowskima kada samo post iznad imaš plot novog Melovog filma, prave katoličke fantazije o prijateljstvu odraslog muškarca i dečaka?

[Meho Krljic]

Musliman u meni se meškolji.

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Warner Bros. has filled out its 2011 release schedule, skedding sequels "Final Destination 5," "Journey to the Center of the Earth 2," Gothic horror story "Red Riding Hood" and ensemble comedy "New Year's Eve."

"Red Riding Hood," starring Amanda Seyfried and directed by Catherine Hardwicke," has been set for April 22. And as for New Line franchises, "Final Destination 5" will open Aug. 26, with "Journey 2" launching Sept. 23 and "New Year's Eve," a spinoff from ensemble comedy "Valentine's Day," slotted for Dec. 9.

New Line has been developing "New Year's Eve" -- with some of the characters from "Valentine's Day" -- as a project set in New York City on New Year's Eve. "Valentine's Day" was a solid performer with $110 million domestically and another $100 million internationally.

Three other New Line titles have also been dated, with exorcism drama "The Rite" set for Jan. 28, marital comedy "Hall Pass" for Feb. 25 and workplace laffer "Horrible Bosses" on July 29. Casting firmed up last week for "Bosses," which will feature Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx.

Stephen Soderbergh's viral outbreak drama "Contagion," with Matt Damon and Kate Winslet, has been set for Oct. 21; Alcon's "Late Bloomer," based on Ken Baker's memoir about delayed adolescence, will open up Aug. 12; Dark Castle's "Unknown White Male," starring Liam Neeson, is set for Jan. 7; and its "Apparition," starring Ashley Greene, opens Sept. 9.

Warner Bros. had announced release dates previously for its 2011 tentpoles -- "The Hangover 2" on May 26, "Green Lantern" on June 17 and the second part of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on July 15.

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Well, looks like David Fincher's schedule is getting busy - albeit with a new job many never expected. Disney is in negotiations with the "Fight Club" and "Zodiac" helmer to direct a new take on the classic Jules Verne story "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" says Heat Vision.

A few months back the studio scrapped a previous $150 million prequel adaptation in development with McG at the helm, making it one of the most visible victims of the post-Dick Cook regime change. Now it seems they're moving forward with the property in a different form - one that they're in talks with Scott Z. Burns ("The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Informant") to write.

According to the site, the resurrection came via Fincher himself who approached the studio with the desire to do a "four-quadrant tentpole movie", a sharp contrast from his resume of mostly dark adult dramas and thrillers. The project was then developed quietly until the last few days when talks with Burns and Fincher became inevitably public, and is being described as an epic on a "Star Wars"-esque level.

Timing wise though it's likely the film won't get into production until well into next year, leaving Fincher time to shoot another film beforehand - most likely "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" remake.

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Ethan Hawke has signed on to the sub-$10 million CIA thriller "The Numbers Station" for Content Film International says Variety.

The story follows a disgraced black ops agent tasked with a dead-end job of protecting a young woman in the Nevada desert. The two have to fight to survive when they come under attack.

Kasper Barfoed ("The Candidate") directs from a script by F. Scott Frazier. Hawke, Sean Furst and Bryan Furst will produce and filming kicks off in September.

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The studios have been seeking foreign rights to stock up their international pipelines.

Warner Bros and Sony's acquisitions teams have been looking to hoover up foreign rights in Cannes as the studios seek to fill their dwindling international pipelines.

Warner Bros International Film Acquisitions president Camela Galano has struck a five-territory deal with Morgan Creek for the Jim Sheridan thriller Dream House, acquiring rights in the UK, France, Spain, Australia/New Zealand and Latin America.

Galano also closed a deal with Nu Image to buy Conan for Warner Bros in Germany.

Production has just wrapped on Dream House starring Daniel Craig (pictured), Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts. Danny Diamond and Brian Robinson closed further deals for Morgan Creek with ProSieben in Germany and Medusa in Italy.

Meanwhile Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has licensed all rights from Focus Features International to Joe Wright's thriller Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana outside of North America, the UK, Australia/NZ, Greece, Israel, Middle East, and CIS.

Morgan Creek has pre-sold the Keanu Reeves sci-fi romance Passengers To Medusa in Italy and to Telemunchen for Germany. Company founder Jim Robinson and director Gabriele Muccino were in town to introduce the $90m project to buyers.

Robinson described Passengers as an Adam and Eve story set in is the future, Reeves will play a mechanic on a 120-year journey to a colonised planet in another galaxy. On board a massive vessel containing 5,000 pods of humans in suspended animated, he awakens 100 years too soon and decides to wake up a beautiful journalist with whom he has fallen in love. Problems ensue when she learns about his act, and the ship begins to malfunction.

"The response to [Passengers] in Cannes is tremendous," Diamond said. "In addition to the deals we have already closed, we are currently closing deals with other distributors. We expect more significant announcements within the next few days."

Universal holds North American rights to all Morgan Creek productions through 2013.

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Clive Owen will star in the action thriller "Medallion" for Parlay Films says Screen Daily.

The story follows a bank robber fresh out of prison who learns that a former accomplice has kidnapped his daughter and stashed her in the trunk of a Manhattan cab.

The robber has six hours to find her, or fork over $50 million in ransom money. David Guggenheim penned the script.

Jesse T Kennedy, McG, James Holt and Matthew Joynes are producing. Filming takes place in New York and Toronto this Fall.

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CANNES -- John Landis says he can't get the movies he wants to make bankrolled in Hollywood so he came to the U.K. to find one.

It worked out well for him as he is putting the final touches to "Burke and Hare," starring Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis and Isla Fisher.

Landis said his wife, the Oscar nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman, told him to check out British indie production companies, "because they still take risks and make interesting movies."

He was having lunch at Ealing Studios with fellow filmmaker and friend Gurinder Chadha when she suggested he go meet with Ealing chief Barnaby Thompson.

More Cannes coverage    
Landis said he was amazed the film's writers -- "St Trinians" scribes Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcrofthad -- reinvented two down and dirty murdering psychopaths into wannabe rom-com heroes.

It follows the travails of two real life Irish roustabouts William Burke and William Hare who discover there's money to be made in supplying Edinburgh's doctors with fresh bodies for dissection.

"It's like they'd [Ashworth and Moorcroft] turned Charles Manson into Sydney Carton," Landis laughed.

He said he went to more than 40 production companies on the way to finding a script he wanted to do and was greeted the same way in every one. With suspicion. "What do you want with us here," Landis said was a common reaction. "We can't pay you."

He said that while shooting commercials and videos has been an exceptionally lucrative way of working in recent years, he loved making a tightly budgeted, necessarily quick shoot.

Landis and his stars Pegg and Serkis landed in Cannes to help Ealing Studios International flog the movie to buyers.

Pegg and Serkis are both at pains to highlight just how tricky a balancing act it was to portray murderous, nasty killers in a romantic comedy.

"Ah, they're my evil Laurel and Hardy," said Landis, not quite as bothered as the duo.

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"Final Destination" helmer James Wong is set to write and direct a remake of Yasuo Inoue's Japanese thriller "The Neighbor Number 13" for Distant Horizon says Indiewire.

The original followed a young boy who becomes psychologically disturbed by an extreme case of schoolyard bullying.

A decade on, he's obsessed with righting that wrong - no matter what dangerous moral ground he treads over along the way.

Anant Singh and Brian Cox will produce. Shooting kicks off later this year for release next Fall.

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Fassbender Wanted For "Woman In Black"

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By Garth Franklin Friday May 14th 2010 02:07PM
Fassbender Wanted For "Woman In Black"

Michael Fassbender looks to have emerged as the front runner to star in "The Woman In Black" for Hammer Films and Alliance Films says The Playlist.

Financing is locked for the 3D adaptation of Susan Hill's gothic supernatural horror novel about a young solicitor who takes up a short residence at Eel Marsh House, a desolate and secluded coastal mansion cut off at high tide from the nearby market town.

Alone and sorting out the affairs of the elderly widow owner who recently died, the lawyer is spooked by unexplained noises and visions of a mysterious woman in black. The book has been adapted into a memorable stage play that has been done around the world for over two decades.

It also exists as a hard-to-find 1989 ITV low-budget TV movie which is in such demand that there's a minor black market in illegal copies of the short-lived DVD release. Much like 70's TV movie "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", the 'Woman' TV movie scores praise for its effective unsettling atmosphere created through premise, sound and suggestion.

Jane Goldman ("Stardust," "Kick Ass") adapted the script while James Watkins ("Eden Lake") will direct. Colin Farrell was previously linked to the role but looks to have bowed out with his recent commitments to "Horrible Bosses" and the "Fright Night" remake.

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"The Silent House"
Bottom Line: Your basic haunted house movie, shot in a single take for nonstop tension.
CANNES -- As basic as its title, "The Silent House" is about as classic a horror film as you can get. A young woman and her father spend the night in a remote farmhouse, where a psychopath is on the loose. Shot with three actors and, hats off to Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernandez and his crew, in one single 78-minute take on an HD digital camera, the tension is nonstop. The drawback to this Elle Driver pickup is a one-note story line that is a little too simplistic and guessable for audiences weaned on the flamboyant modernity of Tarantino and sophistication of Amenabar, putting a certain cap on its commercial prospects.

Which is not to knock a meticulously crafted first feature, made on what must have been quite a minimal budget. Hernandez skillfully uses the horror genre to communicate a single emotion, fear, as realistically as possible. Enjoy it those who may.

A man and his late-teen daughter tramp through the fields to an abandoned country house, which the owner, Nestor, has commissioned them to get into shape before he puts it up for sale. They plan to set to work early in the morning. After her father has fallen asleep in a chair, Laura (Florencia Colucci) hears a loud noise coming from overhead. She forces him to investigate, disobeying Nestor�s orders not to go upstairs. A few thumps and bumps later, the father returns a bloody corpse, with his hands tied behind his back.

More Cannes coverage    
Thus begins a nightmarish night for Laura who, shaking with horror and fright, has to go upstairs to retrieve the key to the front door, her only way out of the murderous house. A hand-held camera follows her like a ill-intentioned shadow as she inspects each nook and cranny in search of the key. Young Colucci gives a tour-de-force, Actors Studio-y type of performance which tends to be very high-key but, given the fact there was no chance for retakes, is nonetheless nerve-wracking.

But a screaming, out-of-control girl doing all the most illogical things under emotional strain does not a modern heroine make, and as good as Colucci is at communicating raw fear, her character is just not very appealing. In another film, a wimp like Laura would be earmarked for grisly death in the first act. "The Silent House," however, is based on a real story from the 1940s (which explains the annoying absence of cell phones) and has another agenda. Laura's  behavior is ultimately explained in a plot twist that predates "Psycho," which most viewers will spot coming from a very long way off.

Pedro Luque's cinematography takes up the challenge of shooting in near-darkness, playing with that which can barely be perceived, shadowy mirrors, Polaroid instant photos. Also very effective is a restrained sound mix that throws in jarring noises and creepy children�s ditties at just the right time.

Venue: Festival de Cannes -- Directors' Fortnight
Sales: Elle Driver
Production company: Tokio Films
Cast: Florencia Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, Gustavo Alonso, Maria Salazar
Director: Gustavo Hernandez
Screenwriter: Oscar Estevez
Producer: Gustavo Rojo
Director of photography: Pedro Luque
Production designer: Federico Capra
Music: Hernan Gonzalez
Editor: Gustavo Hernandez
No rating, 78 minutes

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Bottom Line: Satisfying thriller involving the sinister games people play in life and in video games.
CANNES -- The potential perils of anonymity on the Internet are employed for sinister effect in Gilles Marchand's "Black Heaven" (L'Autre Monde), an intelligent thriller in which the suspense takes its time but pays off well at the end.

The tale of a decent French kid caught up in a dangerously seductive interactive online game, with many scenes set inside the game itself, should prosper in French-speaking territories and is well worth a look for an English-language remake.

Things start off slowly with youthful lovers Gaspard (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) and Marion (Pauline Etienne) enjoying the summer by the beach. Finding a lost mobile phone, their curiosity is piqued by images on it of a beautiful blonde and text messages by the man who presumably owns the phone that suggest intrigue and a secret assignation.

As a lark, the youngsters go to the appointed meeting place, spot the couple and follow them into the woods where, to their horror, the pair attempts suicide having tied a pipe to their car's exhaust. The man dies, but Gaspard and Marion save the blonde.

More Cannes coverage    
Gaspard also pockets a video camera placed on the dashboard of the suicidal couple's vehicle. Viewing it alone, he discovers that the blonde, named Sam (Louise Bourgoin), plays an avatar videogame called "Black Hole" and quickly obtains a copy and goes inside.

Through a somewhat contrived coincidence, Gaspard also meets the hot-blooded and tempting blonde in real life. Despite his affection for Marion and a warning from the woman's brother, Vincent (Melvil Poupard), that she is not well and was only just released from hospital, he falls under her spell.

With sequences alternating between real events and the artificiality of the world of the videogame, the picture appears to lose its way in the middle section, but it turns out that director and co-writer Marchand knows what he's doing and where he's going. The twists, when they come, are riveting.

Leprince-Ringuet and Etienne are fresh-faced and appealing as the youngsters and they handle the early innocence and growing alarm with assurance, while Poupard is effective in making Vincent both sympathetic and potentially threatening.

It is Bourgoin that most moviegoers will remember, however, with a peachy sex appeal that she makes electric but also with the capacity to demonstrate great inner turmoil and inconsolable sadness.

Venue: Festival de Cannes -- Out of Competition
Production: Haut et Court
Cast: Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Louise Bourgoin, Melvil Poupard, Pauline Etienne
Director: Gilles Marchand
Screenwriter: Gilles Marchand, Dominik Moll
Director of photography: Celine Bozon
Production designer: Jeremie Sfez
Music: Anthony Gonzales
Costume designer: Joana George-Rossi
Editor: Nelly Quettier
Sales: Memento Films International
No rating, 100 minutes

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Bottom Line: A dysfunctional cannibal family in Mexico City takes a bite into the quality horror genre.
CANNES -- "We Are What We Are," the soberly told story of a family of hapless cannibals, falls into the category of quality horror that embraces titles like "Let the Right One In" and other modern genre-stretchers. Though less intriguing than the Swedish vampire tale, this Mexican film still has the chops to nibble a small piece out of the over-saturated vampire market. Toying with gruesome violence and sexual taboos, the film is an interesting fusion of horror and psychodrama, buoyed by a striking teen cast filled with brooding hunger.

This first feature, confidently directed by Jorge Michel Grau, is perhaps too dark and relentlessly humorless to find wide international audiences; another limiting factor is the difficulty of identifying with any of the characters, who are played expressively but still remain abstract and alien, distant from the viewer.

A man staggers down a city street and dies in front of a shopping mall. When the autopsy turns up a woman's manicured finger in his stomach, the coroner cynically comments to the police, "You'd be surprised how many people eat each other in this city." Food for thought, indeed.

The deceased, a poor wretch who lived in abject misery, leaves behind a widow and three children, slowly revealed to be a family of cannibals who live on human flesh. With their bread-winner gone, the wild-eyed mother and her handsome adolescent brood are in a quandary: where to find their next meal, which they must consume in an obscure ritual by candlelight, or die.

More Cannes coverage    
Sabina (Paulina Gaitan of "Sin Nombre") decides that her older brother must become the family's new "leader," but Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) is immature and insecure in the role his sister has chosen for him. He is challenged both by his violent brother Julian (Alan Chavez) and his half-crazed mother (Carmen Beato), the Ma Barker of the clan.

The mother, who seems to have more than a few screws loose, is fixated on "whores," who her late husband was apparently very fond of, and refuses to perform the ritual when Alfredo and Julian bring home a local streetwalker as their first catch. "We're monsters, Julian," she remarks in a lucid moment. Beato's unpredictable reactions add a few tiny touches of humor to the dark proceedings.

When out "hunting," the boys act with impunity, grabbing anyone they chance upon without fear they'll be stopped. Their only nemesis arrives in the form of two cops, neither bright nor honest, who chase after them without realizing what they're up against.

Like young lions out on their first hunts, the brothers are awkward at the game and some prey slips through their fingers. When street kids elude them, they turn to the sex trade for their prey. In desperation, Alfredo picks up a boy in a gay disco. Is Alfredo secretly gay? Or is he just using himself as bait to draw his pickup into a mortal trap? And is there something incestuous going on between Julian and Sabina? These and other questions add a spicy note but remain unsolved in Grau's arty script, and in the end seem immaterial.

Santiago Sanchez's velvety cinematography emphasizes the sordidness of the surroundings, where violence holds the family together.

Venue: Festival de Cannes -- Directors' Fortnight
Production companies: Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica, Fondo para la Produccion Cinematografica de Calidad Mexico
Cast: Francisco Barreiro, Alan Chavez, Paulina Gaitan, Carmen Beato, Jorge Zarate, Esteban Soberanes
Director: Jorge Michel Grau
Screenwriter: Jorge Michel Grau
Producer: Nicolas Celis
Director of photography: Santiago Sanchez
Production designer: Alejandro Garcia
Music: Enrico Chapela
Editor: Rodrigo Rios
Sales: Wild Bunch
No rating, 89 minutes

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James Gray's red-hot adventure project is based on a true story.

Inferno Entertainment has come aboard as international sales agent on James Gray's red-hot adventure project The Lost City Of Z to star Brad Pitt.

Buyers have been flocking to the project, which is being styled in the vein of Lawrence Of Arabia and is based on Gray's adapted screenplay of David Grann's recent bestseller.

The true story takes place in the early twentieth century and charts 30 years in the life of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a former decorated British soldier turned explorer.

Fawcett developed an obsession for the Amazon and became convinced that an advanced civilisation lived within the interior after several adrenaline-fuelled expeditions where he narrowly escaped death from tribal encounters, deadly animals and devastating diseases.

He eventually lost backing for the trips and self-funded a final trek into the Amazon with his son from which neither returned.

It is understood Pitt's Plan B will produce. Inferno's Bill Johnson and Jim Siebel declined to comment, however they would most likely come aboard as executive producers.

Buyer enthusiasm and the tantalising prospect of such a broadly commercial role for Pitt would indicate that once the key elements come together The Lost City Of Z could commence principal photography after Pitt completes filming on the baseball drama Moneyball.

Inferno has been ramping up its commercial, star-driven slate. The Los Angeles-based company introduced Joe Carnahan's thriller The Grey to buyers in Berlin, while Robert De Niro has joined Jason Statham and Clive Owen on thriller The Killer Elite, now in production, and Anthony Hopkins recently joined the cast of Arabian Nights.

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The film will be based on the true story of 1940s serial killers Martha beck and Raymond Fernandez.

Producer Michael Gentile's The Film is prepping the next project from Fabrice du Welz, Alleluia.

The Calvaire and Vinyan director is planning a road movie based on the true story of 1940s serial killers Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez. Du Welz has co-written the script with Vincent Tavier and has cast Beatrice Dalle (pictured), Bouli Lanners  and Virginie Efira. He will begin shooting in early 2011.

Also on Gentile's upcoming slate is the Julie Delpy comedy Skylab, which Mars Distribution will release in France, and novelist Frederic Beigbeder's directorial debut, L'Amour Dure Trois Ans.

Beigbeder is adapting from his own book of the same title and will begin shooting in 2011. Guillaume Gallienne stars in the comedy, which poses the idea that romantic relationships can really only last three years.

Gentile is also working on Syngue Sabour: Pierre De Patience, which will be adapted from the book by Atiq Rahimi, who will also direct. The project, about a woman's struggles in Afghanistan, will shoot in Morocco and Kabul.  The Film is producing with Studio 37 in as a co-producer. Shooting will start at the end of the year on the Jean-Claude Carriere script

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Deals done with Portugal (Ecofilmes), Hungary (Mokep), Czech Republic (North Video), Russia (Art Pictures) and Benelux (Lumiere) with the UK in talks.

Memento Films International has closed deals on gothic suspense thriller The Monk (pictured), the latest picture from Dominik Moll.

The director's fourth film, starring Vincent Cassell, Sergi Lopez, Deborah Francois and Geraldine Chaplin has been picked up in the following territories: Portugal (Ecofilmes), Hungary (Mokep), Czech Republic (North Video), Russia (Art Pictures) and Benelux (Lumiere) with the UK in talks.

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BBC Films reveals a raft of new projects and partnerships including its second project with Scottish comedian Armando Iannucci.

BBC Films and In The Loop director Armando Iannucci are to team up again on a new $20m (£13.8m) London-based project Out The Window, scripted by Iannucci with Will Smith and Roger Drew.

Hingeing on voyeurism, the film is about an incident that is witnessed but deeply misinterpreted, setting off a series of events that spiral out of control. BBC Films' creative director Christine Langan said that there will be "significant US casting" on the film. A US partner is expected to board the project soon.

Langan also confirmed that David Linde's new company Lava Bear is partnering with BBC Films on Peter Morgan's new project £6 million Three Sixty; a multi-stranded tale of love and sexual obsession inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 play, La Ronde.

Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein is in final negotiations for The Weinstein Company to come on board My Week With Marilyn. Michelle Williams is set to star as Marilyn Monroe in the film, written by Adrian Hodges, directed by Simon Curtis and produced by David Parfitt. "[Weinstein] really gets it. His excitement has been very encouraging," Langan said.

The film is billed as a compassionate comedy about Colin Clark's secret week with the most famous woman on earth, Marilyn Monroe, in 1956. She was in London filming The Prince And The Showgirl with Laurence Olivier.

The BBC is also working on an adaptation of Claire Tomalin's award-winning biography of Nelly Tenan, a young actress who has an affair with Charles Dickens. The Invisible Woman has been scripted by Abi Morgan and is being produced by Stewart Mackinnon at Headline Pictures.

Titles in pre-production include "classic" ghost story The Awakening, starring Rebecca Hall, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West.  Stephen Volk has written the screenplay with Nick Murphy, who also directs. David Thompson is producing.  Studio Canal is handling international sales.

The UK broadcast is also developing Quartet, Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, starring Dame Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. It is being sold by HanWay Film. Ronald Harwood has just delivered what Langan described a "strong new draft" of the screenplay.

Stephen Fry is writing a new draft of Hallelujah!, a recreation of the build up to the first performance of Handel's Messiah, the most famous choral work ever created. It will be produced by Gina Carter with Fry directing.

Langan confirmed that former British middle distance runners Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett have "pretty much" given their blessing to Ovett And Coe, the new film about their rivalry that will be ready for the 2012 London Olympics.

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Dir: Gustavo Hernandez. Uruguay. 2010. 78mins

Arsty horror gets a new twist in Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernandez' impressive debut. After horror films shot all or in part by the protagonists (The Blair Witch Project,Paranormal Activity) or by a camera crew who are themselves characters ([REC]), we get a classic external camera eye - but one which tracks the action in real time, in a single take. More than just an exercise, this is a stylish, handheld house-of-horrors number, which like the best examples of the genre uses suspense rather than gore to rack up the tension.

    It could do well in the intelligent horror niche if carefully targeted.

The film is also pioneering in its use of HD technology. This is only the second feature film in the world, and the first in Latin America, to be shot on a 'still' camera - the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The resolution looks fine on a big screen even in the low-light conditions that apply for most of the film. With a budget of $6,000, this is a remarkable achievement - and one that opens up all sorts of possibilities for low-budget filmmakers with the right sort of script.

These budgetary and technical feats will no doubt form a part of the film's marketing strategy. US distributors are apparently already circling the film, and it could do well in the intelligent horror niche if carefully targeted. Its darkly dour tone and indie look make breakout success a la Paranormal Activity unlikely, but this could be a steady performer nevertheless, with vigorous auxiliary prospects if fanboy downloading can be contained.

The film opens with a woman - or perhaps an older teenage girl, it's difficult to gauge - following a middle-aged man across an overgrown field towards a neglected, battened up summerhouse. They turn out to be father and daughter, Wilson (Tripaldi) and Laura (Colucci - impressive, especially in view of the single take). An acquaintance, Nestor (Alonso) turns up in an SUV and they chat briefly. The house seems to belong to Nestor, while Laura and her father are there to make it look presentable so that it can be sold. Nestor warns the others not to go upstairs because it's not safe - then he heads off to town to get supplies.

Rays of sunlight filter through the shuttered up windows as Laura's father settles down to sleep, and encourages her to do the same. This day/night puzzle provides the first hint that all is not right, but our doubts are put aside as soon as danger looms, in the form of strange bangings from outside and upstairs. Laura persuades her skeptical father to go upstairs to investigate. When the inevitable happens, she is left alone in a house, which has been locked, on the outside with the invisible threat.

The camera tracks Laura closely; she's illuminated only by the light of the electric torch she carries. When it goes out at one point for several minutes, we're as in the dark as she is - seeing only brief flashes thanks to the Polaroid camera that she's grabbed hold of. The house is tastily designed, menacing with its china animals, dusty photos and old radios, but not over-the-top creepy until two-thirds of the way in when a terrified Laura explores the upstairs rooms. Eerie electro suspense music and a horror sound design that avoids the usual clichés underline the tension.

There's a twist towards the end - backed up by a neat shift in the camera's point of view. To have done this all in one take is impressive; to have done it all in one take on a digital camera is well-nigh miraculous.

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Relativity Media has acquired US rights to the sci-fi thriller Skyline in a deal that takes one of the most sophisticated effects-driven independent features off the market.

Ryan Kavanaugh and Tucker Tooley of Relativity will serve as executive producers along with Brett Ratner, who brought the project to the company, and Brian Tyler, who is composing the score.

CAA packaged the film and brokered the deal with Industry Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobsen on behalf of the film-makers.

IM Global pre-sold much of the film in Berlin based on a promo. Rights have gone to Momentum Pictures (UK), SND (France), Eagle (Italy), Wild Bunch (Germany), Hopscotch (Australia), Splendid (Benelux), Nordisk (Scandinavia), CP Media (Russia), Korea Screen (South Korea), and Playarte (Latin America).

Skyline co-directors Greg and Colin Strause previously directed Aliens Vs Predators: Requiemand their Santa Monica-based effects house Hydraulx has created effects on such films as Avatar, Iron Man 2 and the upcoming Gulliver's Travels.

The story takes place in a downtown Los Angeles high-rise where two friends wake up from a party to discoverdiscover an all-out war has started between an unknown alien force and humans. The Brothers Strause produced with Kristian Andresen and co-screenwriter Liam O'Donnell.

Donald Faison, Eric Balfour, David Zayas, Scottie Thompson and Brittney Daniel star. Joshua Cordes and O'Donnell wrote the screenplay.

"The Brothers Strause are the magicians behind so many of today's ground breaking visual effects," Kavanaugh said. "We're excited to partner with them and to help provide the right environment to bring Greg and Colin's vision to the masses. It's unique to find a sci-fi thriller with these kind of epic visuals that actually has a heart."

"Skyline represents the next evolution of our careers," Greg Strause said. "To have it in the hands of Relativity and Brett, who share our pioneering spirit, is simply awesome," Colin Strause added.

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Kristen Scott Thomas, Jeremy Irons and Tony Shalhoub have joined the conspiracy thriller "Tangier" according to a posting on the Inferno Distribution website (via The Playlist).

The story follows a young soldier (Emile Hirsch) who goes AWOL in Tangier and gets hired as the minder of a wealthy socialite whose husband appears to be involved in espionage.

Sean Gullette directs and Darren Aronofsky produces through his Protozoa Pictures.

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Ewan McGregor has joined the cast of Terry Gilliam's long-delayed and once-aborted passion project "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" says Empire Online.

Gilliam previously tried to adapt the property into a $35 million feature starring Johnny Depp back in 2000, but the film famously fell apart during production. Ten years on, Gilliam is finally having another crack at it, this time with a smaller $20 million budget.

If the story remains the same, McGregor will take over the Depp role of an advertising executive who travels back to 17th century Spain and becomes caught up in the adventures of Don Quixote. Robert Duvall has already been cast as Quixote, a role Jean Rochefort was to play in the original.

Filming on 'Quixote' is scheduled to kick off in September.

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John Hurt has joined the cast of controversial director Lars Von Trier's psychological disaster film "Melancholia" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The $7.5 million-budgeted sci-fi feature apparently revolves around another planet entering the Earth's orbit, which threatens to destroy our planet. Worldwide panic ensues.

Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling and Udo Kier star.

Filming kicks off in Sweden in July and will likely premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next May - the same place Von Trier's "Antichrist" debuted last year to intense reaction.

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Zoe Saldana ("The Losers," "Star Trek") is in early negotiations to join the Luc Besson-produced drama "Columbiana" for EuropaCorp says Heat Vision.

Saldana will play a stone-cold assassin who commits contract killings for her uncle's company by day. On her time off though, she commits vigilante murders in the hope of finding the mobster responsible for her parents' murder which she witnessed as a child in Bogota, Columbia.

Besson and Robert Mark Kamen wrote the script while Olivier Megaton ("Transporter 3") will helm the project which begins filming later this Summer.

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Jemaine Clement to be baddie in 'Men in Black 3'

"Flight of the Conchords" star Jemaine Clement is in final negotiations to play one of the villains in Columbia's "Men in Black 3."

Clement_jemaine_200 Will Smith recently signed his deal to return as the alien-chasing government agent, as did returning director Barry Sonnenfeld.

Most of the action is taking place in 1969, with Josh Brolin playing a young Tommy Lee Jones, who will bookend the movie.

Most of the new casting will be the villains, whose identities, look and super-abilities are being kept under lock and key. It is known that Clement is playing a villain named Boris, who is described as being charmy and creepy at the same time. (The name Yaz was used as a filler name, and since the script is still being polished, there is a chance the name may change again.)

The CAA-repped Kiwi made a name for himself as one-half of the comedic singing duo in HBO's "Conchords" and has been slowly making inroads into features. He appeared in the little-seen "Gentlemen Broncos" and has a role in the Steve Carrell-Paul Rudd comedy "Dinner for Schmucks."

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Celluloid Nightmares will handle international sales on Thomas Cappelen Malling's action comedy.

Celluloid Nightmares, the genre partnership between Celluloid Dreams and Los Angeles-based XYZ Films, has picked up international sales here on Thomas Cappelen Malling's action comedy Norwegian Ninja.

Buyer response has already been strong and Celluloid founder Hengameh Panahi and Nightmares head of international sales Travis Stevens anticipates brisk business.

Norwegian Ninja is a novel twist on the true story of Arne Treholt, the Cold War Norwegian diplomat charged with spying for the Russians.

The storyline posits that Treholt was in a fact a ninja entrusted by King Olav to lead a secret force of shadow warriors.

The film stars Mads Ousdal, Jon Oigarden and Linn Stokke and is produced by Eric Vogel. Euforia Film will release in Norway on August 13.

XYZ Films founders Nate Bolotin, Aram Tertzakian and Nick Spicer will take the lead in talking to potential US distributors.

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5 x Favela: Now By Ourselves -- Film Review
By Ray Bennett, May 18, 2010 09:49 ET
"5 x Favela"
CANNES -- Five short films set in the hillside slums of Rio de Janeiro and directed by young filmmakers who live there make up a film that renews faith in the kind of moviemaking that lives and breathes, and reflects the human spirit in all its colors.

It's the result of a project set up by Brazilian producers Carlos Diegues and Renata De Almeida Magalhaes that involved 200 youngsters in filmmaking workshops and master classes by such directors as Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Ruy Guerra, Fernando Meirelles and Walter Salles.

Made using the same crew, the films reflect the experiences and vision of the youngsters, whose work offers an unblinking view of life in the favelas where poverty rules. Hopes are often dashed there and lives can be short but the talent on display in the mix of grim reality and everyday kindness gives cause for optimism.

The pace of life in the favelas shown in the films combines cheerful camaraderie and fearful suspicion with gangs rampant, police corrupt and neighborhoods protective.

More Cannes coverage    
The first short, titled "Source of Income," directed by Manaira Carneiro and Wagner Moraes, shows a decent young man winning a place at law school only to find that he cannot afford the bus fare, let alone textbooks. Rich classmates automatically assume that living in the favela gives him access to drugs and, to prevent his mother resorting to a loan shark, he decides to start dealing with near catastrophic results.

In "Rice and Beans," directed by Rodrigo Felha and Cacau Amaral, a small boy decides to give his father a rare treat on his birthday by earning enough to buy a chicken for the dinner table. With a buddy, he washes a car and clears horse manure from the street but the car owner says he cannot pay until the next day and local bullies take their other earnings. They decide to steal a chicken but a story related later by the father makes the son decide to make up for his actions.

The harshest tale is "A Violin Concert," directed by Luciano Vidigal, in which three childhood friends end up on opposite sides of the law. One man is now a police officer and the other a gangster who involves his musician girlfriend in a violent gang war. The punishment meted out when rival tribes clash is shockingly brutal and leaves the cop with only one terrible way to keep his friends from suffering.

"Let It Fly," directed by Cadu Barcellos, is reminiscent of "The Kite Runner," with boys flying kites from rooftops. But when one kite is cut and lands in another favela, a boy must risk his life going to retrieve it.

A favela community faces a blazing hot Christmas Day without electricity in "Let There Be Light," directed by Luciana Bezerra. With food to cook, beer to chill, and decorative lights to be plugged in, family and friends are anxious for one frightened lineman to fix things. It doesn't look good until the man decides to break the rules.

The final image of one patch of light on a dark mountain seems to sum up what the project means and suggests that the future of Brazilian filmmaking is in good hands.

Venue: Festival de Cannes -- Out of Competition
Production: Luz Magica
Cast: Silvio Guindane, Gregorio Duvivier, Hugo Carvana; Juan Paiva, Pablo Vinicius, Flavio Bauraqui, Thiago Martins, Cintia Rosa, Samuel De Assis, Feihao,Victor Carvalho, Joyce Lohanne, Luis Fernando, Marcio Vito, Joao Carlos, Dila Guerra
Directors: Manaira Carneiro & Wagner Moraes, Rodrigo Felha & Cacau Amaral, Luciano Vidigal, Cadu Barcellos, Luciana Bezerra
Producers: Carlos Diegues, Renata De Almeida Magalhaes
Director of photography: Alexandre Ramos
Production designers: Pedro Paulo, Rafael Cabeca
Music: Guto Graca Mello
Editor: Quito Ribeiro
Sales: Elle Driver
No rating, 103 minutes

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Underground -- Film Review
By Duane Byrge, May 18, 2010 03:37 ET
Bottom Line: A winning slice of new life on tried-and-true horror elements.
CANNES -- "Underground" digs deep into the genre stockpile and splices on a smart new twist on the mad-scientist story. A well-made horror entertainment, "Underground" will appeal to fans of the genre and surely venture above ground in the profits department.

In this topical new spin on an old story, a U.S. government scientist has concocted a ferocious genetic species that should make the fighting man extinct. But, in the grand tradition of mad-scientist tales, the experiment has gone madly awry and the U.S. military has abandoned the crazed doctor and his mutant species. They're now entombed in the underground cavern of a former military base. Alas, the underground military base is now that haunted house into which into which two Iraq veterans (Ross Thomas, Adrian R'Mante) meander after a wild night of partying and drinking.

More Cannes coverage    
After a knock-down drag-out with hothead homeys in a local bar, they find themselves lured into the abandoned bunker. They've also got their womenfolk with them and a couple of gung-ho buddies.

Trapped in the dank, horror-chamber, the group is now the prey of the mutant military warriors, dubbed troglomorphs by their manic creator. The trogs are blood-lusting fiends with superhuman powers.

In this well-wired entertainment, screenwriters Charles Morris, Jr. and Harold Gold have smartly connected horror-plot elements into a riveting entertainment. Rafael Eisenman's kinetic direction maxes the suspense and jeopardy, aided by his skilled technical team. Throughout, "Underground" is energized by director of photography Zoran Popovic's tight shooting and editor Joe Shugart's forceful pacing.

Venue: Festival de Cannes -- Market
Sales: TriCoast Worldwide
Production: Sunrise Media Group
Cast: Ross Thomas, Sofia Pernas, Adrian R'Mante, Jeff D'Agostino, Hayley Knight, Christine Evangelista. Inbar Lavi, Jack Donner
Director: Rafael Eisenman
Screenwriters: Charles Morris, Jr., Harold Gold
Producer: CB Barnett
Executive producers: Ami Artzi, Van Burrows, Strath Hamilton, Marcy Levitas Hamilton, Anthony Gudas, Robert Folk
Director of photography: Zoran Popovic
Production designer: Frank Bollinger
Editor: Joe Shugart
No Rating, 110 minute

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Spanish filmmaker Daniel Benmayor ("Paintball," "Bruc") has been hired to direct a sequel to the 2007 video game-based action feature "Hitman" for 20th Century Fox reports Deadline.

Xavier Gens directed the original $30 million film which starred Timothy Olyphant as the bald assassin Agent 47, a film which went on to gross $100 million worldwide. Whether or not Olyphant will return is still unclear but there's an option on him to return.

Story details will borrow from the video game "Hitman 5" in which a beaten Agent 47 must build himself back psychologically and physically to reclaim his mantle as world's most feared assassin.

Daniel Casey has penned the most recent draft of the sequel, taking over scripting duties from Kyle Ward. Adrian Askarieh, Alex Young and Chuck Gordon will return as producers. Shooting could kick off as early as this Fall.

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Both Daniel Day-Lewis and Ben Whishaw's names have emerged as apparent contenders to play Victorian-era author Charles Dickens in "The Invisible Woman" for BBC Films reports The Guardian.

Based on Claire Tomalin's novel which Abi Morgan ("Brick Lane") will adapt, the story follows the relationship between a middle-aged Dickens and 18-year-old actress Nelly Ternan, a woman he fell in love with and ultimately left his wife for. The relationship was kept quiet from the public to avoid a scandal.

Anthony Hopkins, Simon Callow, Derek Jacobi, Roy Dotrice and Adrian Rawlins among others have portrayed the character on screen before.

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British actress Romola Garai ("Atonement," "Emma") is in negotiations to join the romantic comedy "One Day" for Focus Features says Reuters.

David Nicholls adapts his own novel about two people (Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess) who meet for the first time during their Edinburgh University graduation in 1988 and meet on St. Swithin's day (July 15th) every year for the next two decades.

Over that time the pair lead their lives and have relationships with others until they realise they're meant for each other. Garai will play the woman Sturgess' character marries, and then divorces during those two decades.

Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig ("An Education") will direct. Nina Jacobson will produce and shooting kicks off this Summer in London.

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by Sara Wayland    Posted:May 22nd, 2010 at 8:58 pm

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Producer Joel Silver Logans Run Swamp Thing slice

After seeing just one still of the movie in a trade paper, and then being sent the finished film, producer Joel Silver thought it was so effective that he ended up acquiring the rights to the horror feature Splice. Although he was always open to the possibility, acquiring an already-finished product was something he had never done before, under his Dark Castle banner.

While at the press day for the disturbing thriller, which stars Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, the prolific producer also discussed a long list of other projects that he currently has in various stages, including Unknown White Male, The Apparition, The Factory and Project X.  He also talked about the disappointing box office for The Losers, his hopes to get Logan's Run and Forbidden Planet into production, what's holding up Swamp Thing and his thoughts on 3-D, as well as confirming that he is no longer working with The Wachowskis. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Here's some of the highlight's of the interview in bullet points.  Further down is the transcript of the entire interview:

PROJECT X

    * Says they start filming July 6
    * Calls it a "wild action-comedy"
    * For more on the Todd Phillips project, click hereLogans Run movie poster

LOGAN'S RUN

    * Says they're working on the script now and the film was almost in production then Bryan Singer went to work on Superman
    * Says "ten years ago, there weren't that many young movie stars who could star in a movie like that. But now, there are a lot of young actors who could do that."
    * Confirms the new adaptation goes back to the book

WACHOWSKI'S

    * "There's nothing right now. They're off on their own path now. I'm not dealing with them now."

SWAMP THING

    * They were close to making it and then an issue with the rights came up. He says, "We actually developed a couple of drafts and were close, but then, all of a sudden, it became evident that the motion picture rights were not held by Warner Bros. Even though DC owned the underlying material, the movie that was made by Embassy with Adrienne Barbeau was owned by another company."

THE APPARITION

    * Says it's "a really scary haunted house movie with Sebastian Stan and Ashley Greene. They also really are just totally in it with the story. It's like Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity. It's about a little house in a cul-de-sac in the Valley, where a lot of the houses didn't get finished because of the financial crisis. It's not built on a graveyard or anything. It's this really modern world and, into this world, comes a really, really scary story, and they are terrific with it."

–

And here's the full interview.  Again, Splice opens June 4.  You can watch some clips from the movie here.

joel_silverQuestion: How were you made aware of this film?

Joel Silver: I saw one of the stills of the movie in one of the trade papers and it intrigued me. I like the Frankenstein story and I'm a big fan of gothic horror, and I just thought it was an interesting idea and a new way to tell the story. I saw the log line, said that I would like to see the movie, they sent me the movie and I had no idea what I was going to see. I had not read the script. I just watched the movie. When that scene came along, I said, "They're not going to show us that. They can't possibly show that." And then, I said, "I can't deal with this." I just felt it was so effective that people would want to see the movie. Warner Bros. doesn't even have an acquisition department anymore. They don't acquire anything. There are very few acquisition departments left in town. The smaller companies have them, but the bigger studios really don't. And, Dark Castle had the ability to do that, so I showed it to the studio and they said, "Let's go for it."

Is that the first time you've ever done that?

Silver:  Yeah. Dark Castle has released 11 films, up to this point. This will be our 12th movie, and I felt that it said my message, and it's the audience that I wanted to go after. I think it will work. I hope it works.

Has this opened up the possibility of more acquisitions?

Silver:  I always said, from the beginning of our model, that I would do this, if something came along. And, when this came along, it made sense. Sure. We'll see what happens. If it works and people respond and it does good then, sure, I'll do it. I'm open to it. But, the movie was so special. Vincenzo [Natali] had a hard time making it. He worked on it for eight years. Cube was eight years ago. He really tried to get this together, and the mainstream studios weren't supportive of it, so he had to make it off the grid. When he made it and we saw it, we brought it back into the grid. So, it worked out just fine.

What were the studios turned off by?Splice-movie-poster

Silver:  The idea is fresh, but it's not like it's never been done before. There's The Island of Dr. Moreau and Species. There have been movies that have had this type of idea, but I just think maybe the concept was too out there. But, it wasn't for me.

What changes did you make to the film?

Silver:  Vincenzo had just rushed to get it done for the festival circuit and he had stuff that he wanted to do, that he had more time to do. There was not an immediate schedule. There was a schedule and we had a date, but he was able to go through it and tweak some things, fix some visual effects, do a new dub and really do what he wanted to do, like work on the main title, and I was supportive in helping him do that. Most people that see the movie, who saw it in Sundance, will probably note even be able to tell what was done. But, he feels better.

This film seems open to a sequel. Is that something you've thought about?

Silver:  I always like to make sequels. It's a nice business to be in. It would be nice if this movie can generate that much interest. I'd love to continue the story. It's designed for that. But, the audience has to respond to it. If they do, then we'll take about it, sure.

When you make films like this, do you consider how much to show the creature?

Silver:  When I made Predator, I remember that I was so conscious about not showing the creature. I just didn't want to show up because he looked so silly. I just cut off of him. I'd go to him for a minute, and then I'd cut away. I didn't want to let people study what is a big rubber face. But, when Vincenzo made this movie, he hangs on Dren (Delphine Chaneac). You just can't take your eyes off of her. You're looking at her wondering, "What is different about her? What did they do?" You just can't take your eyes off of her. It's just incredible.

What other films do you have in the pipeline, under Dark Castle?

Joel SilverSilver:  I just finished shooting a movie called Unknown White Male, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who did Orphan. In my mind, Orphan is a very similar idea to Splice, in that it has two great actors – Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard – who committed to this wacky story with this little girl, like Sarah [Polley] and Adrien [Brody] did. They really are in it and they really make you believe it. Unknown White Male is with Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones and Aidan Quinn. It's a Hitchcockian thriller, but it's really smart and really interesting, and I think it's going to be a good movie. I haven't seen it yet because we just finished shooting, but I think it's going to be a very good movie. And, I did a picture called The Apparition, which is a really scary haunted house movie with Sebastian Stan and Ashley Greene. They also really are just totally in it with the story. It's like Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity. It's about a little house in a cul-de-sac in the Valley, where a lot of the houses didn't get finished because of the financial crisis. It's not built on a graveyard or anything. It's this really modern world and, into this world, comes a really, really scary story, and they are terrific with it.

As Liam Neeson gets older, he seems to be getting more and more action roles. What is it about him?

Silver:  It's a really thrilling idea. It's a thrilling story. He plays a scientist doctor, who's on his way to a medical conference in Berlin. He arrives at the hotel and realizes that he left his briefcase at the airport. He goes back to the airport to get his briefcase, and there's a horrible car accident on the way. He wakes up, after a few days in a coma, and he doesn't have any ID and nobody knows where he's been. He goes back to see his wife and she doesn't know who he is and she's married to somebody else. It's a pretty strange story that goes in a really good direction. It's pretty fantastic. It's great. And, he plays that character so well. He's this guy who has to figure out what's happening and has to live on his wits. It's good. It's strong. January Jones plays the wife, and Diane Kruger plays this girl that helps him.

Todd_Phillips_image What's going on with The Factory?

Silver:  We're still working on that now. It's a pretty disturbing movie too. That's down the line.

How do you do so much? Are you on every set?

Silver:  Look, I have a good group. I have good people that work for me, and we just keep hoping that we can keep making movies. We start shooting a movie that's not Dark Castle – it's for Warner Bros. – on July 6th, called Project X, that I'm doing with Todd Phillips. That's a wild action-comedy. We have a good team. We find good things and keep trying to make them.

How do you decide what to keep under Dark Castle and what to do with bigger studios?

Silver:  It's generally budget-based. Generally, pictures that we can make for a certain price go to Dark Castle, and the ones that cost more than that go somewhere else. We developed The Book of Eli in Dark Castle, but we couldn't do it at Dark Castle because it became too expensive of a movie. And then, Warner Bros. didn't really want to make it either because they thought it was a little weird, so it went on to Alcon Entertainment. You have more options now, today. But, it just depends on the budget. Project X is a very inexpensive movie, but it was done with Todd, which is a Warner Bros. deal. It's all a serpentine situation. Both Unknown White Male and The Apparition are Warner Bros. pictures. The next Sherlock Holmes film is not a Dark Castle movie either. It just depends on the picture.

What's Project X about?

Silver:  That's something I really can't get into.

What do you think about Adrien Brody doing Predators?Joel Silver image - producer

Silver:  I don't really know that much about it, but I'm sure it's going to be an interesting picture. I've been there and done that, though.

Is there a movie that you think should never be done again?

Silver:  I'm told they're going to make Commando again. That was one that I felt was not an effective picture. Maybe they can do a better job. I liked the movie, but it was very simplistic when we made it, and kind of silly. I'm always interested in seeing these pictures and seeing what they do with them. I hear they're doing an Exorcist type movie being made again. They've always been remaking movies, since the beginning of time. They've always made sequels. Someone once said to me, "Didn't you invent sequels?," and I said, "No, Francis the talking mule invented sequels." There's always been things happening, and sometimes movies come out better than others. People want to see them, and they keep making them. We'll see what happens. How many times have they made Sherlock Holmes? And, we did a good movie.

What do you think about 3-D? Do you think it's just a gimmick, or do you think it will be around for awhile?

Silver:  It's real. Anytime you can sell a $20 ticket, it's going to be real.

How far are you with Logan's Run?

Silver:  It's going to happen. We're working on it. I believe in that. We're trying to get that made. I've always wanted to make that.

What is the most important element for you to get that going?logans_run_movie_image__1_

Silver:  We're writing a script now. What people don't understand is that movies are sometimes like fruit. They're perishable. They can go on the shelf and, if you don't eat them by a certain time, they're gone. But sometimes, they can come back. You can put them in a can and bring them out again. But, we got really close with that, a couple years ago. Bryan Singer wanted to make the movie and we got really close. We has a script that we were developing, and we were practically in production on the movie, and then he left to do Superman and it went down, and we couldn't really get it up again. The thing about it now is that there are really a lot of young people. Ten years ago, there weren't that many young movie stars who could star in a movie like that. But now, there are a lot of young actors who could do that. The idea of a youth-based society that you live in for a certain time and then you no longer live anymore is an interesting idea for a movie, but you need young people that people want to go see. And, there are people out there now that I think people would be intrigued with seeing, so it's a realistic thing again. So, we're trying to do it. I'd say to you that I think we're going to get there this time, but who knows? But, I think we will.

Does your take on it go back to the book?

Silver:  Yes, it goes back to the book. The book was a trilogy. There were three books about a society of 21-year-old people, who if they don't accept it, get chased by a runner. All that stuff is there. It's all in the story. It's pretty cool. Michael York was probably in his 40's when he was playing that part, but there are a lot of people that could do it now. It's still that notion about sanctuary, and all the stuff that's in that book is there. This was all pre-Matrix, about a computer type entity that controlled the society. A lot of movies were influenced by Logan's Run, like Minority Report. A lot of films have those elements in them. But, I think that we can get it made today.

Will you do another project with The Wachowskis?

Silver:  There's nothing right now. They're off on their own path now. I'm not dealing with them now.

After doing The Losers, are you looking to pursue more comic book films?

Silver:  Sure, of course. I've always wanted to make Swamp Thing. I like Swamp Thing. I think it's a good idea, and I thought it would be a good venue for a 3-D movie, but there were rights issues with Swamp Thing. We were developing a script. We actually developed a couple of drafts and were close, but then, all of a sudden, it became evident that the motion picture rights were not held by Warner Bros. Even though DC owned the underlying material, the movie that was made by Embassy with Adrienne Barbeau was owned by another company. It's complicated. So, we're trying to work it out. Forbidden Planet was the same thing. I really want to make that movie, and it was very hard to clear the rights. It took years to get the rights cleared for that, but we finally cleared it, so I'd like to make that. I like that story. It's The Tempest, but I like the way it evolved into that movie, so I'd like to make that one day.

How do you feel about how The Losers performed at the box office?

Silver:  It didn't work. I liked the movie. Looking at The A-Team and The Expendables, and they're much more expensive films than The Losers was. It was a very inexpensive movie. And, we all went down there hoping to pull it off. I liked it, but either it wasn't fresh enough, it wasn't unique enough or it didn't draw an audience enough.

What would you do differently, if you could do it again?

Silver:  I don't know. The Losers of the comic book is what we made. That's what it was. We did what it was. I don't know if having a lot of bigger names in it would have made a difference. Warner Bros. tried to make it 10 years ago, and maybe that's when it should have been made.

Do you think that there just isn't the interest, if it's not Batman, Spider-Man, Superman or Iron Man?

Silver:  Iron Man was not a prevalent, important character. He wasn't. Downey wanted the role desperately, at the beginning, and they didn't really want to go with him. He didn't even really know about Iron Man. Yes, he was on television in the morning, but it wasn't like Batman, Spider-Man and Superman. But, that movie is the single most saleable character that Marvel owns now – more than Spider-Man, and more than anything – because of those movies. Men in Black was a weird, off-the-grid comic book. It depends on how the movie is. And, when Downey made Iron Man, he wasn't Will Smith. It's just that that movie did create a lot of interest in the character and in those comic books, in general. And, they're making a third Men in Black now. The reality is that each movie has got to be seen in its own light. Warner Bros. tried to make a Justice League movie for years and then they shut it down. Now, The Avengers will be the first superhero team movie. With Downey and Chris Evans, who is in The Losers, and all these guys, it could be a huge movie. We'll see.

[Meho Krljic]

Director quits 'Hobbit' film over production delay

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro said Monday that production delays have forced him to quit the planned film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a two-part prequel to New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson's blockbuster trilogy "Lord of the Rings."

"In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life," del Toro told a "Lord of the Rings" fan website.

"After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures," he said, noting the film still hadn't been given the green light by MGM, the struggling Hollywood studio.

Matt Dravitzki, a spokesman for "Hobbit" producer and "Lord Of The Rings" director Jackson, said del Toro would not be speaking to reporters Monday.

The announcement by del Toro reflected Jackson and del Toro's "full sentiments at this time," he said.

Del Toro would continue to co-write the screenplays with Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens.

Jackson reached a deal in late 2007 to make two films of "The Hobbit." He is serving as joint executive producer with Walsh.

Last week, del Toro, who directed "Pan's Labyrinth," "Blade" and the two "Hellboy" movies, told journalists the "Hobbit" films, which have been plagued by delays, still hadn't been given the go ahead.

"There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved," del Toro said. "They do hold a considerable portion of the rights."

Reports emerged late last year that MGM was teetering on bankruptcy and del Toro said those issues had caught the "Hobbit" films in a "tangled negotiation."

"We have designed all the creatures. We've designed the sets and the wardrobe. We have done animatics and planned battles sequences ... We are very, very prepared for when it is finally triggered," he said.

Jackson told http://www.TheOneRing.net: "We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave The Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone's control, has compromised his commitment to other long term projects.

"The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn't feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. Guillermo is one of the most remarkable creative spirits I've ever encountered and it has been a complete joy working with him."

He would discuss options for a new director with MGM this week, Jackson told the website.

"We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing preproduction work," he said.

Last month, Jackson dismissed rumors that the "Hobbit" movies have been delayed by production problems, insisting the project was still in its early stages.

He told Moviefone.com, "Well, it's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date. I mean it's sort of interesting because the studio has never greenlit The Hobbit, so therefore The Hobbit has never been officially announced as a 'go' project, nor have we ever announced a date."

[crippled_avenger]

Producer Walter Parkes is lining up a remake of the 1948 Graham Greene-penned feature "The Fallen Idol" which his production company and Studio Canal will develop together reports Deadline.

The Carol Reed-directed original follows Phillipe, a diplomat's young son who idolises the family butler Baines. In reality Baines is stuck in a loveless marriage and is seeing a younger woman.

After an argument, Baines' wife accidentally falls from a landing to her death. Phillipe mistakenly believes he has seen Baines deliberately murder her and Phillipe's attempts to protect Baines only makes matters worse with the police.

The award-winning and Oscar-nominated project is based on Greene's short story "The Basement Room". Reed and Green teamed up again a year later to film the more well-known cinematic classic "The Third Man".

David Farr ("Hanna," TV's "Spooks") is penning the screenplay of the new version which moves the action to modern-day India and follows an 11-year-old American boy whose family will live in a large colonial mansion run by an English couple.

The shift allows them to explore both the sexual awakening themes and the class issues of the short story to better effect, and makes the world outside the house both more alluring and dangerous than the original's post-war London setting.

Parkes plans to have a script, director, cast and budget in place before going out to financiers.

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Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures and South Korean CJ Entertainment are teaming up to finance and produce three major features reports Heat Vision.

The first is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's young-adult novel "The Graveyard Book." Neil Jordan is writing the script and directing the story which centers on a young boy raised in a graveyard and educated by ghosts.

The second is the coming-of-age comedy "Killer Pizza" based on the Greg Taylor novel. Adam Green ("Hatchet") is set to write the project about a 14-year-old boy who lands a summer job at pizza parlour which turns out to be a front for a monster-hunting organisation.

The third is "Carpe Demon", an adaptation of Julie Kenner's novel about a stay-at-home mother who is charged with cleaning up her demon-ridden small town. Columbus will pen a new draft of the screenplay.

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Bruce Willis is in early talks to join the prison escape drama "The Tomb" for Summit Entertainment reports Deadline.

Willis would play Ray Breslin, a world-famous structural engineer and security expert who designs escape-proof prisons.

He soon finds himself framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed and must find a way to escape and track down the person responsible.

Antoine Fuqua ("King Arthur," "Training Day") is circling to potentially direct the project which Miles Chapman and Jason Keller are penning.

Robbie Brenner and Mark Canton are producing.

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Travis Beacham ("Clash of the Titans") has sold the sci-fi epic treatment "Pacific Rim" to Legendary Pictures reports The Wrap.

The story is set on a future Earth under attack from malevolent creatures, so the people of the world must band together and use highly advanced technology to thwart the growing menace.

Beacham has only written a very detailed twenty-five page treatment thus far, but Legendary is rushing forward to have the film ready as a Summer 2013 tentpole.

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Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe ("The Last Samurai," "Batman Begins") is rumoured to be in early talks to make his directorial debut reports Pajiba.

Entitled "442nd", the independently produced period drama is based on the true story of an American-Japanese military unit assembled during World War II and sent on virtual suicide missions in the European theatre.

The unit was so successful in the fight against the Nazis they became the most decorated unit in American military history. Bill Gerber ("Gran Torino") is producing alongside management company Roar which represents Watanabe.

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Through his deal at Reliance, Brad Pitt's Plan B has scored the film rights to Tom Rachman's journalism-themed novel "The Imperfectionists" reports Deadline New York.

Set around an English-language newspaper in Rome, the novel explores the professional and personal lives of a group of oddball journos working against the odds and without modern technology.

Rachman, a former Associated Press writer in Rome, based the book off his own experiences and covers the topics of both the collision of professional and personal lives, and the decline in daily print publications.

Plan B's also hired Alfonso Gomez-Rejon to both adapt and direct a film version of the Jonathan Lethem novel "The Fortress Of Solitude" about two teenage friends, one black and one white, who discover a magic ring. Spanning the 70's to the 90's, it explores issues of race, gentrification, self-discovery, and music.

Gomez-Rejon has served as second unit director on numerous films in recent years including "State of Play," "Babel," "Julie and Julia" and the upcoming "Eat Pray Love" and "The Eagle of the Ninth".

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Though his Christian Bale-led frontier feature "The Revenant" is probably his next film, The Playlist reports that Aussie director John Hillcoat ("The Road," "The Proposition") will likely move on to a remake of a neo-noir classic after that.

That film? Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 effort "Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) about a freshly released aristocratic thief, an escaped murderer and an ex-police sniper teaming for a jewel heist while a revenge-seeking mob boss, a nightclub owner and a pimp try trap them.

The project was originally setup with John Woo directing back in 2004 at Paramount Pictures and later Johnnie To came onboard while the likes of Liam Neeson, Tim Roth and Orlando Bloom were attached to star.

Now, a Production Weekly posting indicates an offer is out to Hillcoat to direct the film, something Hillcoat hinted at this past week saying the post-Revenant project is a "contemporary....crime thriller, set in Hong Kong and Macao" which matches the description.

Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Arthur Sarkissian, Brett Ratner and Jay Stern will apparently produce.

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Legendary horror helmer John Carpenter has signed on to direct Hilary Swank in Fangland.

The flick, which will be an adaptation of John Marks' 2008 novel of the same name, is the fourth project that Carpenter has been linked to this year. The man who brought us the original Halloween has also signed on to The Ward, L.A. Gothic and The Prince.

It marks a return to features for Carpenter, who hasn't directed a movie since 2001's critical flop Ghosts Of Mars. He has, however, kept his skills sharp by helming two episodes of TV series Masters Of Horror.

Fangland will star Swank as Evangeline Harker, the producer of a 60 Minutes-style TV news magazine.

Fangland Hilary Swank John Carpenter

If the film follows the book, Harker will be sent on an assignment to Transylvania while odd emails, coffins and a strange man named Torgu pitch up at the New York office.

Here's hoping Fangland is a better horror effort for Swank than her last stab at the genre with 2007's misfire The Reaping.

Carpenter's The Ward, starring Amber Heard as a young woman who is haunted by a ghost in an asylum, is out this summer.

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Brad Pitt's Plan B production company has optioned film rights to Tom Rachman's debut novel The Imperfectionists, the author confirmed to ScreenDaily.

While he refrained to speak about any financial or negotiations details, Rachman did say the producers from Plan B contacted his agent, Susan Golomb, to forge the deal. "I am elated, it's marvelous. One of the things with this book is that a lot of people who read it said it would make a great film, and I was delighted that Plan B felt similarly," Rachman told ScreenDaily in a phone interview from London.

The Pitt deal came just weeks after an extremely positive review by novelist Christopher Buckley landed on the front page of the Sunday Book Review of the New York Times. Buckley compared the narrative to a Rubik's Cube and said the book "is so good I had to read it twice to figure out how he pulled it off."

Rachman's debut has actually been going strong since its completion when the title nabbed a six-figure publisher's advance at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2008 from Dial Press, part of Random House – in a deal which was already long shot for any writer in the current economy.

"Many publishers were interested at the auction and we went with Dial," he said. "It all  happened in a manner of days. It was one of the most thrilling weeks of life, I went from being another aspiring would-be novelist to having enough [money] to write on. It was one of the most joyous moments in my life."

The Imperfectionists is about a struggling English-language newspaper in Rome founded in the 1950s by an American businessman named Cyrus Ott, run today by his grandson Oliver. Characters include the ego-driven reporter, willing to betray his own kid as a source, the resident lonely heart and of course, the "grammar cop" as well as one reader.

"It has tragic and comic parts to it," says Rachman of the story.

While some have said the newsroom in The Imperfectionists is thinly veiled as the International Herald Tribune offices in Paris, where Rachman worked editing stints as he wrote the novel Rachman denies this. Rachman also worked as an AP correspondent in Rome for several years.

"People who know either or both places acknowledge it's not like those places, it's not depiction of where I worked. You wouldn't recognize the people" [from those newsrooms], Rachman says.

Rachman, who was born in London and raised in Canada, studied Film Theory at the University of Toronto before going on to work for the AP in New York. In addition to Rome, he has been on assignment to Turkey, Japan, South Korea and Egypt. He has also reported from India and Sri Lanka.

The author, age 35, now resides in Rome where he is working on his second novel, which he says is top secret.

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Former "Doctor Who" star David Tennant and rising young these Christopher Mintz-Plasse ("Superbad," "Kick-Ass") have joined the cast of the "Fright Night" remake for Dreamworks Pictures says Reuters.

The original 1985 cult film followed Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), a young man who is convinced his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire and seeks the help of his girlfriend (Amanda Bearse), his nerdy and condescending friend Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffreys) and ageing horror actor turned late night TV host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) to help him.

The new film, scripted by Marti Noxon and directed by Craig Gillespie, moves the action to Las Vegas. Tennant will take on the Peter Vincent role which has been reimagined as a Las Vegas magician and self-proclaimed vampire expert whose show revolves around horror-movie imagery. When Charley (Anton Yelchin) tries to enlist his help however, he's less than helpful.

Mintz-Plasse will play the Evil Ed role, the nerdy friend who ends up joining Dandrige (Colin Farrell). Toni Collette has already been cast as the teen's disbelieving mom who falls under the vampire's spell. That character essentially takes over the plot threads of Charley's girlfriend in the original.

Filming kicks off in July.

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Three heist movies in development scored announcements today, one of which actually sounds like it has potential.

The first marks another collaboration of "Valhalla Rising" director Nicholas Winding Refn and star Mads Mikkelsen reports The Playlist.

Plot details on that film are being kept under wraps, though "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Gore Verbinski is slated to produce the film which likely won't go into production until both Refn and Mikkelsen get through several other separate projects first.

The second heist film is "Now You See Me", a heist spec script by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt ("Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time") that Summit Entertainment recently picked up says The Hollywood Reporter.

"Star Trek" and "Transformers" scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman will produce the story about several very talented illusionists who pull off a series of daring bank heists during their performances.

The third and most mysterious is an "internationally set heist movie" from "The Shield" writer and story editor John Hlavin reports Reuters. The action thriller has been picked up by Dreamworks Pictures, while no producers are yet attached.

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Max Minghella ("Agora," "Bee Season") is set to join the $40 million sci-fi thriller "The Darkest Hour" for New Regency and Summit Entertainment reports Variety.

The story follows a group of kids struggling to survive in Moscow after an alien invasion. Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor and Joel Kinnaman also star.

Chris Gorak ("Right at Your Door") directs from a script by Les Bohem and Jon Spaihts he re-wrote. Timur Bekmambetov and Tom Jacobson will produce with filming kicking off in Russia this Summer.

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If nothing else, David Ellis knows how to make a fun film - "Snakes on a Plane" is the proof in the puddin' there.

But that film, says the amiable filmmaker, should've and could've been better.

''I think we relied on the Buzz too much and did not market the movie correctly'', Ellis, who I first met a few years back at San Diego Comic-Con over brewskies and baseball, told me this morning.

It was a lesson learnt, and since then Ellis has made sure a meter of film isn't rolled until the films are definitely ready to go.

Ellis, who's as crazy about surfing as he is shooting (movies), has a fairly busy couple of years ahead of him.

First up is another 3D movie for Ellis, who's last movie, 2009's "The Final Destination", also took advantage of the in-your-face gimmick.

"Shark Night is going to be killer and shoots this summer in Shreveport LA", Ellis says of a project that's set up over at Incentive.

That film, like "Final Destination", lends itself perfectly to 3D, says the filmmaker.

"I love the depth of a 3D movie - it's how we view life, and I also love the interactive experience."

After "Shark Night", Ellis is booked to do "War Monkeys", based on the comic of the same name, a thriller with "Star Wars" actor Hayden Christensen, and something 'fun' with Milla Jovovich.

''War Monkeys is a fun script and, I guess you'd say, has a Snakes on a Plane-vibe about it. People haven't seen Monkeys with guns!", he says. "I also have a great script called Genesis Code with Hayden Christensen and another titled Bad Luck with Milla Jovovich. And there's several others."

"Genesis Code", written by Kevin Bernhardt, tells of a former national security expert (Christensen) who, while investigating the murder of his only sister and her young son, discovers that a religious sect called The Shadow of the Cross may be involved. With the help of his sister's friend Ana, they follow the clues to a clinic in the mountains of Italy, where a terrifying secret experiment has been conducted - successfully. The results are so threatening to the foundation of the Church that they will do anything to keep it from being revealed.

The $30 million dollar horror "Bad Luck", headlined by "Resident Evil" star Jovovich, tells of a group of friends find their lives changed when the superstitions they don't believe in begin to come true.

Ellis still hopes to make "Humpty Dumpty", based on the script by Billy Majestic about a half-human, half-alien creature embarks on a murderous rampage after his alien mother is abused by two rednecks in the Deep South, sometime too. But for the moment, it's on hold.

"Humpty Dumpty is still a work in progress, but one that I would love to do", says Ellis.

Ellis says he's having the time of his life at the moment.

"I am blessed to have great projects with great producers and actors"

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Now this is surprising. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are not only moving forward with plans for a sequel to this year's "Clash of the Titans" remake, the studio seems to have made it a major priority.

In fact, The Los Angeles Times reports that the pair are planning to begin shooting the sequel as early as January with Jonathan Liebesman ("Battle: Los Angeles," "Darkness Falls") the top contender to direct. He would replace Louis Leterrier.

Despite weak reviews, 'Titans' is one of the year's biggest earners with a $486.8 million worldwide haul thus far from a relatively modest $125 million budget.

The plan for the sequel is properly shoot in 3D, and part of the reason for the hurry is to lock in star Sam Worthington. The Aussie actor gets to work on the "Avatar" sequel which will likely shoot sometime in the second half of 2011.

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"The Hangover" scene stealer Zach Galifianakis is apparently in talks with producers to take on the title role in the long-gestating remake of "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" over at Warner Bros. Pictures reports The Los Angeles Times.

Don Knotts starred in the studio's 1964 original, which centered on the title character, an otherwise bland man who transforms into a talking fish. He soon becomes a World War II hero when he helps spot and thwart enemy warships for the Allies.

The picture was a live action-animated hybrid (ala segments of "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"), while this new version will likely utilise CG animation alongside the live-action. Robin Williams and Jim Carrey were among the stars who've been previously attached to the project.

Kevin Lima ("Enchanted") was hired around this time last year to direct. Akiva Goldsman, Bill Gerber, Paula Weinstein and James Lassiter are producing.

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The Irish Times - Friday, June 18, 2010
Jolie to carry on up the Nile?

It always seemed inevitable that somebody would eventually get round to casting Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra. That person is powerful producer Scott Rudin, who has secured the rights to Cleopatra: A Life, an upcoming book by Stacy Schiff, and has made no secret of the fact that he wants the all-seeing Jolie for the title role.
When some wiseacre (half in jest, surely), suggested that Brad Pitt might play Mark Antony, Rudin did not demur. Shades of Burton and Taylor?

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David Cronenberg ("A History of Violence," "Eastern Promises") is attached to direct a film adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's 1997 novel "As She Climbed Across the Table" for Film Rites reports Pajiba.

The sci-fi satire follows a sociologist named Philip Engstrand who is romantically obsessed with particle physicist Alice Coombs. Alice meanwhile is obsessed with her work, or rather 'The Lack' - an artificially-created miniature black hole inside her laboratory that appears to have its own personality and intelligence.

Philip becomes jealous of Alice and the Lack's relationship and his curiosity leads him to explore the pocket universes inside The Lack. "Schindler's List" screen writer Steve Zallian will produce.

Where this will fit in Cronenberg's schedule is anyone's guess. The helmer is currently at work on "A Dangerous Method" and recently talked about doing a sequel to "Eastern Promises". He was also linked to adaptations of Don Delillo's "Cosmopolis" and Robert Ludlum's "The Matarese Circle" until both projects got put on hold last year.

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Director Fernando Meirelles ("City of God," "The Constant Gardener") and writer Peter Morgan ("The Queen," "Frost/Nixon") are set to team for the sexual sociology drama "360" at ORF Fernsehfilm and BBC Films says Deadline.

Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 play 'Reigen', the story examines sexual morals within and between social classes, using various pairs of characters who have sexual encounters in and outside of their social classes. The most famous previous adaptation of the work was 1950 French drama "La Ronde".

Universal co-chairman David Linde is aboard as executive producer. Other producers are being locked down presently.