the most anticipated...

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When the list of pre-strike priority projects got leaked the other week, one of the surprise inclusions was the long-troubled live-action "Dragonball Z" movie.

The film had been in development a few years back and then seem to have stalled. As the craze for all things DBZ did down, it was expected that the film was also going to quietly disappear as well.

Now, CHUD reports that former "X-Files" helmer turned big screen director James Wong ("Final Destination," "The One") will write and direct the project which goes into production as early as this November in Canada.

Casting notices are now out for the characters of Goku, Bulma, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Mai, Lord Piccolo, Chi Chi and Gohan. Check out the article for the full character breakdowns.

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"Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf is teaming with "Disturbia" director D.J. Caruso and writer J.H. Wyman to create a comic-book-style TV drama reports Sci-Fi Wire.

Based on "Johnny Dynamite," the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins ("Road to Perdition"), the pilot will use the same green-screen technology utilised in films like "Sky Captain," "Sin City" and "300".

In the show, ex-cop Dynamite travels to Las Vegas in search of his missing girlfriend, only to discover that Satan is living there, buying and selling souls. Dynamite ends up getting involved in the lives of those unfortunate souls who've been touched by the devil.

Caruso is attached to direct the pilot, with Wyman (Keen Eddie) writing the script.

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CHUD reports that "Charlie's Angels" director McG is in talks to helm a fourth "Terminator" which is being rushed to be ready pre-strike.

A script just got turned in last week to The Halcyon Company who are pushing this into a pre-production start right away. Set after the apocalypse, this story has John Connor organizing the surviving humans to resist Skynet's army of robots.

Meanwhile Aint it Cool reports that despite being attached to a fourth "Fast and the Furious", actor Vin Diesel is also in talks to be a part of this project - taking the role of the killer robot this time.

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October 2, 2007 -- 'WE MUST live like angels and produce like the devil!" wrote Luis Muñoz Marin.

SACHA COHEN, a k a Borat, and his lady, Isla Fisher, are likely new par ents as we speak.

So, congratulations! But the other bit story is that Sacha is hot to remake the Blake Edwards/Peter Sellers cult comedy of 1968, "The Party." (Use of the word "cult" means that it was a flop but is affectionately regarded by movie fans.) The plot seems perfect for Cohen. A bumbling Indian extra named Hrundri V. Bakshi attends an over-the-top Hollywood bash and totally disrupts everything.

Producer-director Edwards and Cohen recently met at a screening of "The Party" in Santa Monica. They talked a long time.

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Eddie Murphy and helmer Brian Robbins ("Norbit," "Starship Dave") are in final negotiations to reteam for the DreamWorks comedy "A Thousand Words" reports Variety.

The story centers on a glib man who finds out that he has only 1,000 words left to speak before he dies.

Steve Koren ("Click") penned the screenplay. DreamWorks is eyeing a pre-strike start date. Murphy is currently shooting the comedy "Nowhereland" for Paramount Pictures.

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WHITE JAZZ

CAST, George Clooney;
EXEC PROD, Patrick Choi, Kendall Morgan-Rhodes, Bo Hyde;
PROD, George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Clark Peterson, Michelle Grace, Diane Nabatoff;
DIR, Joe Carnahan;
SCR, James Ellroy, Matthew Michael Carnahan, Christopher Cleveland.

Shoot Dates: Approximately January 15, 2008 (in Los Angeles).


STORY
The film is about Dave Klein, a vice cop senseing he's being set up by the police commissioner, he sets out to expose a decades-old network of corruption engineered by the LAPD in late 1950s Los Angeles.

Breakdowns

Boyce Bradley
30-37. Bradley is Chief of Detectives, Lt. Klein's superior, "Smartest man in town. And one of the richest." Reptilian in the extreme, manipulative and self-serving, he turns Klein into his personal stooge. Pumped on his own power, clearly pleased with his cunning strategy, he thinks he's got Klein acting as his personal gopher. Bradley is in for a rude awakeneing when he learns that Klein has got him over a barrel - that he's finally been beaten. Lead;

Fritz Koeing
50s, German born, a former US Spymaster. He is the Head of the LAPD's Intelligence Division. Open, with a big laugh and a "great white grin," considered by Klein to be "the best inspector" on the force, he turns out to be a corrupt and greedy cop, with eye for human frailty. He'll be damned if the slums and hot spots for human vice (which he runs and from which he profits) will be turned into stadiums. He's perfectly willing to kill
to preserve the status quo. Lead;

Pete Bondurant
40-45, big and intimidating, living with Klein's sister. Pete is a one-time LA Sheriff, "bounced when he beat-dead a prisoner who spit at him." He nows
works for Howard Huges as a full-time muscle. A man who does pretty much anything for the right price, he's hired by Klein to help frame and degrade a public figure. Later, he sets Klein up with one of Hughes' men, saddened but compliant when he must pummel Klein within an inch of his life. Lead;

Geoffrey Milteer
Late 20s, a small, effete blond man. He is one of Howard Hughes' lapdog lawyers. Humorless and prissy, he explains to Klein that he's being hired to destroy a certain actress who has violated her contract by acting a Z-grade horror movie. Lead;

Welles Noonan
Early 40s, a U.S. Attorney, an "Ivy League Crimefighter". He's "launching a big boxing probe as a way to begin prying into everything else crooked and
corrupt in LA." He's keeping a close eye on Klein, determined to nail him on numerous counts. Vicious, hard-edged, he wants to mess with Klein's head, get him to trust him;

Captain Dan Wilhite
Early 40s, head of the LAPD Narcotics Division. He's a "Michigan Catholic poisoned by 25 years in this desert. Recently divorced despite seven kids with his ex." Roiling over with bile and a sneering attitude, he's angry to see Lt. Klein investigating his case, made even angrier when he learns that Bradley had ordered him to the crime scene. We later learn that he had sent Klein on a wild goose chase, all in an effort to cover his own ass. We also discover that he is the so-called Peeper who's getting his jollies watching a drug pusher's young daughter strip for him;

Lester Lake
African-American, a "one-time velvet-voiced crooner," he is the owner of a black jazz club, whose "dabble in the dope trade cost him a set of slashed vocal cords." High on reefer, he tells Klein that the elusive Tommy Magdalena (son of a big-time drug pusher) had stopped by and cleaned out his safe;

Mickey Cohen
62, a washed up gangster. He's a one-time LA crime kingpin and West Coast mob heavy who "now trawls for loose change." He's seen cooking on the set of a Z-grade movie, slinging hash for the extras;

Meg
Klein's sister. Pete's lover. Meg is a hardened yet still sultry woman, with a dry sense of humor. She and Klein share an easy banter;

Mortant Diskant
50. A public figure, running for City Council, a supporter of the migrant farm workers. He is forced to back down from the campaign. Kidnapped and photographed in a compromising situation by Klein, he has no choice but to give up his political aspirations;

George Ainge
30s, a creepy, thuggish type, with lots of jail house tattoos. He's an old friend of Glenda's, the guy who's supposed to help stage a kidnapping. Convinced Klein has been hired by Glenda to retrieve a murder weapon, he crosses the line when he calls Glenda a whore. Klein is about to take him out when Stemmons intervenes;

Tom Bethune
Late 20s-Early 30s. One of the city's young turks, running for an important City Council seat, Tom Bethune is smarmy, greedy and corrupt, joined at the hip to Bradley;

Director Sid Frizell
This very fey man, first seen fingering a snuff-box, he is the director of the low-rent horror movie starring Glenda Bledsoe. He believes the staged
kidnapping will provide terrific publicity;

Sanderline Johnson
20s-30s. A professional boxer and now a subpoenaed Federal witness, with the the mind of grade-schooler and a history of mental illness, Sanderline sidelines as a legbreaker for the Mob. About to testify in court, oblivious to the danger he's in, he is pushed to his death of Klein who tries to make the whole thing look like a suicide;

Reuben Ruiz
20s. A muscled middle-weight boxer. He's a wise-ass, confused as to why he's being arrested;

Biddie
She is an old biddie in a threadbare bathroom, with dyed orange hair and a "burnt butter grin". Clearly crazy, she tells the police what she saw on
the night Hector Magdalena disappeared;

Officer
This well-built police officer from the Wilshire Station interviews the Biddie;

Rock Rockwell
This buff looking actor is starring opposite Glenda in a Z-rated picture. He doesn't like the kidnapping scam, fearful that his body will fall apart if he's out of action for too long;

Tommy Magdalena
20s. He is the elusive son of missing drug dealer, Hector Magdelena. He tries to flee from Klein, later gunned down as Klein tries to get him to cough up the name of his dad's killer;

Ring Announcer
This fight announcer explains to the disappointed crowd that Rock-a-Bye Ruiz will not be fighting this evening;

Bob Galladet
Another of the city's young turks. He is the District Attorney, not the smartest man in town. He's in tight with Bradley;

Quiff
A young law student who doesn't want it known that he's gay, he agrees to be photographed in a compromising position with Morton Diskant;

Madge Magdalena
50, an old matriarch, "hanging by the thinnest thread,". She is the wife of a drug dealer. 50+, with dyed blonde bouffant hair, she cries while
downing belts of wine after learning that her husband has disappeared, probably murdered;

Lucile Magdalena
20s, with big bedroom eyes, wearing a top two sizes too small. She is the indifferent daughter of the missing / murdered drug dealer. We later learn of her twisted relationship with the much older Dan Wilhite;

Bartender
This massive bartender with hands the size of catcher's mitts is Sanderline Johnson's second cousin. He gives Klein a warning about not using his gun hand to lift his drink. Obviously, he knows that Klein killed Sanderline;

Reporter #1 & #3
These reporters are eager to get a statement from Tom Bethune after he wins the City Council seat;

Werewolf
This actor is playing a werewolf in the horror film starring Glenda Bledsoe;

Secretary
She is Bradley's secretary, disapproving of Klein's informal tone;

Reporter #2
This reporter challenges Bradley when he mentions the potentially damning information concerning surprise witnesses who will appear before
the Federal Grand jury;

Six Pack
This well-built, squeaky clean officer asks Klein about what's causing the terrible smell inside the trunk of his car.

[crippled_avenger]

Movie Writers Eye Early Walkout
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By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: September 29, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 — As Hollywood's studios rush to shoot movies before contracts with actors and directors expire in June, strategists for the industry's writers, facing an earlier deadline of their own, are considering whether to force a stop to the action.

Over the last few days, negotiators for the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East, whose contract with entertainment companies expires on Oct. 31, have been taking a hard look at the almost 150 feature films that are candidates for production by early next year, according to people involved with the talks who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

As many as three-quarters of those pictures — including projects as prominent as "The Justice League of America" at Warner Brothers and "Another Night," the proposed sequel to "Night at the Museum," at 20th Century Fox — appear not to have final scripts.

The question at hand is whether writers, in the event no deal is reached, can inflict maximum damage on their bargaining opponents by striking immediately rather than continuing to work and letting the studios add those films to their strike stockpile.

Negotiators for the guilds and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios and networks, are scheduled to meet again on Thursday. Guild negotiators could ask their 12,000 members for strike authorization in advance of the contract's expiration. And they appear to be gathering information that would support a call for a walkout in November, rather than later, when the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America will also be in talks.

If writers were to strike before scripts are delivered, tens of millions of dollars already spent, and hundreds of millions in future revenue, could be lost.

Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for the producers' alliance, said the studios had never assumed writers would keep working after the expiration of their contract. "Every studio and every network has contingency plans," she said, and those plans "assume there could be a walkout on Oct. 31."

Neal Sacharow, director of communications for the Writers Guild of America West, declined to comment.

A walkout by Hollywood's writers would bring the first widespread shutdown of the entertainment industry since a five-month writers' strike in 1988. But given the prickly tenor of negotiations so far, companies have been banking movies and television episodes that could fill schedules for months to come. New signals that the guild is ready to strike are just as clearly intended to intensify the pressure on the studios and networks.

Still, guild leaders are looking for signs that some companies, under pressure to book another potential blockbuster or two before production grinds to a halt, have left themselves exposed.

This month the latest round of talks brought little progress on issues like the producers' request to restructure the residuals system, or the writers' insistence on extending payments for new media. Studios, meanwhile, continued to sign stars and filmmakers for feature films that can begin shooting by early next year and finish before a June 30 contract expiration with the actors and directors unions.

Those feature films are now being seen as high-value targets by those at the writers guild who advocate an immediate walkout should no deal be reached.

Only this month Warner Brothers began a last-minute push to prepare its "Justice League of America," a multisuperhero extravaganza to be directed by George Miller ("Happy Feet," "Mad Max") early next year — if the studio can get a viable script together, never mind a complicated cast. Kieran and Michele Mulroney, who did uncredited work on "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," have worked on the project, which still does not have a so-called green light to begin production. A spokeswoman for Warner Brothers declined comment.

Similarly, 20th Century Fox is in hurry-up mode on "Another Night," the hoped-for sequel to "Night at the Museum," which was released late last year and took in more than $250 million at the domestic box office. Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, who wrote the original, have been working on a script. A Fox spokesman declined to comment about the project's status.

Among the many films that have been pushing toward production before June are "Wolverine" at Fox, "G.I. Joe" at Paramount, "The Wolf Man" at Universal and "The Soloist" at DreamWorks. Whether any particular picture remains on track is uncertain, as the status of films changes quickly and often in the face of scheduling pressures.

On the television front, networks have similarly been booking business that would apparently bump up against a Nov. 1 strike deadline, if it is set. Only this week, for instance, ABC ordered six episodes of "Section 8," a new science fiction series from the writer Zak Penn and the BermanBraun production company. A quickly called strike would also complicate the networks' planning for the 2008-9 season, because they are starting to work on pilots to show advertisers in the spring.

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Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. are scrabbling over a suitable co-production arrangement for director Martin Scorsese's next potential project "The Wolf of Wall Street" reports The Los Angeles Times.

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in the adaptation of the just-published cash-coke-and-corruption memoir being adapted by Emmy-winning "Sopranos" writer-producer Terence Winter.

The autobiography follows New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, a flashy, drug-abusing, hooker-hiring, model-marrying master of the universe sent to jail for securities fraud and money laundering in the '90s.

The catch is the project is setup at Warners, not Paramount where Scorsese has his directing deal. If Scorsese were to make a film at Warners, Paramount has the option to own half of it and co-distribute.

DiCaprio and Scorsese are looking to make this their next project and hope to finish before next year's strike. But the film's future remains up in the air, whilst Scorsese has four other features in development at Paramount.

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News
Todd Phillips to helm 'Hangover'
Joe Rickey

Source: The Hollywood Reporter


According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has picked up Hangover, a comedy spec from Jon Lucas and Scott Moore with Todd Phillips on board to direct and produce.

The story follows three friends who lose the groom at his Las Vegas bachelor party 48 hours before the wedding and must retrace their inebriated bad decisions to figure out where things went wrong.

Sources said the writers' deal was north of $2 million. The studio is eying Hangover as a pre-strike movie.

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Moviehole reports that the trouble-plagued Wesley Snipes has spent the majority of October filming a sequel to his lacklustre 2000 actioneer "The Art of War".

The original had Snipes playing Neil Shaw, an operative for a United Nations covert black ops squad framed for murdering the Chinese ambassador.

A direct-to-video sequel starring Anthony 'Treach' Criss as Neil Shaw recently wrapped filming. That film is now apparently being retitled as "Intervention".

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Universal Pictures has boarded Japanese actioner "Midnight Eagle" and will release the pic in North America this year.
Agreement was struck between Japanese studio Shochiku and Universal Pictures Japan. Deal sees Universal Japan become a co-producer of the Izuru Narushima-helmed pic.

In a first for U, studio is named as manager of a consortium of firms producing a Japanese movie and will see its logo appear in "Midnight Eagle's" opening credits. Japanese films are regularly bankrolled by a group of firms including theater owners and strategic marketing partners. The "Midnight Eagle" consortium includes 12 companies.

Pic had its world preem Tuesday at Hollywood's Egyptian Theater and will open the Tokyo Intl. Film Fest this month. It will be released in Japanese theaters by Shochiku in November.

The $10 million actioner sees a standoff between Japan and secret agents from an unknown foreign country, after a U.S. Stealth fighter crashes into a Japanese mountainside. Screenplay is by Yasuo Hasegawa and Kenzaburo Iida based on the novel by Tetsuo Takashima.

Pic boasted massive co-operation from country's Defense Agency and Ground and Air Self-Defense forces.

It stars Takao Osawa, Yuko Takeuchi, Hiroshi Tamaki, Eisaku Yoshida, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Nao Omori, Ken Ishiguro and Tatsuya Fuji.

"We are very pleased to be part of the Midnight Eagle Partners Consortium and to join in bringing this motion picture to worldwide audiences. We look forward to continuing to develop and expand our involvement with Japanese cinema, and are excited about the potential of this movie," said Jason Resnick, senior VP and general manager, worldwide acquisitions, for Universal Pictures.

"We're truly excited to be working with Universal Pictures, not only for the first co-production, which has already been a great experience, but now also for the U.S. release of the film," said Teruki Matsumoto, managing director of Shochiku's motion picture operations.

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Empire Online recently caught up with "Crank" co-directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine who confirmed a sequel to their 2006 Jason Statham actioneer is planned.

Despite the character apparently falling to his death at the end of the first film, Taylor says "Crank 2 will pick up exactly where Crank one ends. It's a true sequel. Jason Statham will return. It's not a prequel, it's not his brother, it's not a dream sequence. He will [scrape himself off the floor]".

"It's going to be more sexual, more violent - more of everything. We realise with a movie like Crank, you can't do a sequel and do 60% or 70% of what the original was. You have to go twice as hard. So that's what we're going to do. If we're going to live up to the first one with the sequel - we're taking it WAY past the point of the first one" adds Taylor.

"Crank 2" is set to start shooting on April 25th.

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New Line has hired scribe Laeta Kalogridis ("Alexander," "Pathfinder") to overhaul Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein's "Darksiders" vampire script reports Variety.

The story revolves around an FBI agent who teams up with a bunch of bloodsuckers to catch an arms trader with biochemical weapons.

Once Kalogridis finishes her rewrite, the project will go back out to directors. Kalogridis is currently writer-executive producer on NBC's "Bionic Woman."

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Apocalypse Code
Russian hit Apocalypse Code enters international top 10
Diana Lodderhose in London
10 Oct 2007 14:49

 

Russian action hit Apocalypse Code was the highest non-US entry into the international top 40 this weekend, taking $3.6m from 697 screens. For the full chart, compiled by Len Klady, click here.

The film, directed by Vadim Shmelev, just made the top 10 and enjoyed a $5,167 screen average from three territories. It generated $3.5m from Russia alone. The story follows a secret agent who has been dispatched to help defuse four atomic bombs, which have been placed around the world. It is distributed by Caroprokat.

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Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," putting the project on the fast track to begin production in early 2008 reports Variety.

Halcyon is producing 'Salvation' which plans to reinvent James Cameron's cyborg saga with a storyline to be told over the course of a trilogy set in the future. The producers said that the new film will carry the size and scale of "Terminator 3," and will have an event-sized budget.

"T3" scribes John Brancato and Michael Ferris penned the screenplay, whilst a director is being finalised (McG is the odds-on favorite). The producers said it wasn't yet clear whether Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back for his fourth appearance in the franchise, but they've left it open for him to do a cameo.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, which distributed "T3" in most overseas territories, is expected to get first crack at international distribution. A Summer 2009 release date set.

[Ghoul]

"Terminator Salivation: The Torture Begins"

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Antoine Fuqua ("King Arthur," "Training Day") will direct and Oliver Stone will produce "Escobar," a biopic about the notorious Colombian cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar, for J2 Pictures reports Variety.

The project aspires to be the first of two rival pics on the subject to make it into production, the other being the Joe Carnahan directed "Killing Pablo," an adaptation of the Mark Bowden book with Javier Bardem and Christian Bale attached to star.

"Escobar" is based on "Mi Hermano Pablo," a book written by Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who served as his brother's accountant and confidant. David McKenna ("Blow," "American History X") is working on a rewrite under the supervision of Stone and Fuqua.

Financing is in place and production is slated to begin the in first quarter of 2008 in Colombia and Puerto Rico.

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George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio are in discussions to team for the Warner Bros. Pictures political thriller "Farragut North," based on the upcoming Broadway play by Beau Willimon.

Clooney would direct, DiCaprio would star and both would produce the adaptation of the play which is loosely based on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential election campaign, during which Willimon worked for the Democrat.

The story follows a young, idealistic communications director who works for an inspiring, though unorthodox, presidential candidate. During the campaign, his career is done in by more seasoned politicos who thrive on poisonous partisan politics, dirty tricks and back-stabbing.

Mike Nichols ("Primary Colors") is slated to direct the play which is set to open in Fall 2008 with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead. Willimon, who's also adapting the 2002 British mini-series "The Jury" into a feature film, has adapted his own work.

No dates have yet been set, though it's looking likely to be a post-strike project.

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Scribe Daniel Waters ("Heathers," "Batman Returns") has been tapped to adapt Lindsay Moran's memoir "Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy" for Paramount Vantage says The Hollywood Reporter.

Karen Tenkhoff ("The Motorcycle Diaries") is producing the story about Moran who decided to follow her childhood dream of becoming a spy. She soon discovered that the life was more isolating than anything else, with her not able to tell even her closest confidants or boyfriends what she did for a living.

Waters is also developing his first TV project, the 90-minute pilot "Earthlings," for the Sci-Fi Channel and Fox Television. The tone is described as a darker and subversive successor to such shows as "Mork & Mindy" or "3rd Rock From the Sun."

The story follows three aliens on Earth who try to save the planet but are continually vexed by humankind's irrational behavior, which seems to find ways to defeat their good intentions. The project is being sited as a companion show to the network's "Eureka".

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Sony Pictures has acquired "Empire," a drama that John Logan ("Gladiator," "The Aviator") will write for Michael Mann to direct and Will Smith to headline and produce through Overbrook Entertainment reports Variety.

Whilst plot details are being kept under wraps, word is that Smith will play a contemporary global media mogul. Mann and Smith previously teamed on "Ali", and both produced Smith's big summer 2008 project "Hancock".

Mann is in the process of locking down a film he'll direct early next year. Smith is presently in pre-production on "Seven Pounds" with "Pursuit of Happyness" director Gabriele Muccino.

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When you make a film about a ruthless assassin, you know to expect at least a moderate level of violence. Unfortunately when you're adapting a video game into a film, getting those teenagers to fork out for tickets is also a priority.

Twitchfilm reported Tuesday night that Director Xavier Gens has been taken off the film adaptation of the video game "Hitman". This is not unusual, several films this year alone have seen rough cuts by foreign directors handed over to other filmmakers to re-edit or reshoot.

What is unusual about this situation is that the film Gens shot isn't weak, but rather quite different than expected. Gens apparently took inspiration from John Woo's early Hong Kong action film work, and so turned in an explicitly violent, very bloody cut of the film that would have guaranteed the film a hard R rating.

Apparently after seeing Gens' cut of the film the studio removed him from the project and placed Nicolas De Toth in control of a new edit of the film. De Toth did a similar job earlier this year with Fox's "Live Free or Die Hard," changing a more bloody R-rated picture into a PG-13.

IGN followed up on the report late yesterday, with studio sources confirming that De Toth was hired, but strongly denied the rest - saying Gens is still working on the film which will definitely be "a true "R" and a not a "bloodless version."

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The Long Good Friday is not only a jewel in the crown of British cinema, it's one of the best crime movies ever made. That's just true, you can ask anybody. So when it was announced it was being remade, many film fans were taken aback. When it was announced that directing duties would be taken by Paul WS Anderson (Alien Vs Predator, Resident Evil), many film fans turned purple and, in some cases, fell over. So, when we caught up with Mr Anderson recently, we had to give him the right to defend his remake. So, why do it at all?

"To win Oscars!" he laughed. "Actually, it's one of my favourite films and I've been pursuing the rights to it for years and years, as have a lot of people, and Hand Made (who own the rights) turned them all down, including Martin Scorsese". Why, you may wonder, would anyone choose Anderson over Scorsese, for anything other than a 5-a-side football match? "I had a take on it that they really liked and I think they knew that I would respect the original movie enough to keep the essence of the original film".

Where the Bob Hoskins-starring 1980s original was set in the grubby world of London gangsters getting entangled with the IRA, Anderson's take is, predictably, relocating to somewhere altogether more glossy.

"It's not the IRA in ours, but it is another terrorist organisation, and we're doing it in Miami, so we're re-imagining it for America Otherwise the story beats and characters will pretty much play out. It will have the same human cortège scene at the start; the spitting in the face; he's been away somewhere, but it won't have been to New York...I think the script [of the original film], Barrie Keeffe's original screenplay, is so good. And the story is a great story with a great twist in it. And it's pretty remarkable that your lead character is a gangster and you really root for him. I think it's  a great movie for a remake, because outside of the UK it's virtually unknown and it was very much a movie of its time. It really captured that London of that time in the same way we're hopefully going to capture Miami of right now".

Anderson is currently writing the script himself (!) and says he's not too far from finishing. "it's not going to be that hard. It's like, what did Barrie Keeffe do?...It's not quite [a cut and paste job]. The dialogue will have to change... it's so East-End London. But the structure will be exactly the same, but instead of the grimy east end bathhouse it'll be the super sleek pool at the Delano hotel".

We have to say, we're still hugely suspicious and don't see why the movie needs to be remade, since it being "of its time" is part of the attraction. The era it chronicled doesn't really exist anymore, what with 'the troubles' (Irish, not women's) having become less prominent in Britain. But could the fact that Anderson won the rights over anyone else mean he actually has something interesting to bring to it? We'll feel more reassured if he finds another role for Charlie from Casualty.

Olly Richards

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Director/ Screenwriter Terry George talks about impending strike
By Wilson Morales

October 7, 2007

If you haven't followed what's been happening in Hollywood as of late, studios are scrambling to get a lot of films done before the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike goes into effect. While interviewing Director/ Screenwriter Terry George on his latest directing film, "Reservation Road", he happened to mention that he's on the negotiating team for the WGA and gave his take on the situation.

What's your opinion on the strike that may happen months from now?

Terry George: I'm at the heart of it. I'm on the negotiating committee for the WGA. I don't know. If you look at the circumstances, here's basically what the studios are saying at the moment. This is an antiquated system here and we want to revisit the residual situation. The residual is what most actors and writers live off. It's that little bit of money you get back when a film shows. They say they want to go back to a profit base distribution thing. I still get statements on "Hotel Rwanda" which basically says we are $20 million dollars in the red and with "In The Name of the Father", we are $16 million dollars in the red. Hollywood bookkeeping is beyond mafia bookkeeping. So the notion that writers and actors work until they declare a profit is ridiculous. It's a smoke screen to get away from what this all about, which is that the whole industry is moving over to the internet and the new media. All we are saying is to give us a little piece of that and we would be very happy with it. I don't know if they think they can bust the WGA or the whole industry or make a change here, but we're not going for it. We're not asking for a lot. We're asking for a portion of this; and they have been trying over the last few years with reality TV shows and non-union writers just to chip away at that. My mood and the mood of some of the Guild is 'Let's not wait til June 30th'. They all think we are going to wait til June 30th and wait for the actors to come out and by that time they would have stock piled 200 films and it will be a defacto strike anyway. I'm all for going as soon as we can. Let's get it out there and see. Given the level of profit that's been made now and the "Frank Purdue-ization" of the whole product, to turn around and say the writers and eventually the actors shouldn't have a piece of that is ludicrous.


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What is the likelihood of an early strike?

TG: It depends. There's been nothing offered. There's been no ability to talk at the minute. They haven't come up with anything on a discussion where you can sit down and actually have a conversation about. We are going to vote on an authorization to strike, the Guild; the whole membership will give the committee the authorization to call a strike. I think it will be almost unanimous.


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Are we looking at the end of October?

TG: That's when the contract ends. The media at the minute talks about dates like it will be November 1st or October 30th. We're not stupid enough to call a date that everyone else decides for us. We are going to look at the most strategic time if they are not willing to negotiate and then make that move then or go the membership and say, "Look, this is basically an attempt to destroy this union which I think it is or to weaken everyone to the point of where, the future of the whole industry, being a virgin again or something.


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What would be the reason you wouldn't go on strike now?

TG: Well, you have to see where they are going. The sense I get from the membership is total solidarity and from the actors as well. I'm not sure about the directors. There's definitely a solidarity about this. But the other side isn't stupid either. They obviously have tactics that they are lining up to deal with us. They've already bagged a lot of stuff. But it seems enormous greedy of them of what they are doing at the minute. We had this situation when the DVDs first came in, when they went to the union and said, "In the wake of a strike before that was very acrimonious, here's the DVDs and it cost $80 and it's new technology and so it evolves into something else and we're going to do this, let me deal with it until we investigate, which is like .500 percent. "Hotel Rwanda" made some $23 million at the box office and $48 million on DVD, and writers and actors were excluded from that profit. So I supposed it's easy for me because I made some money from it but there are a lot of writers who on smaller budgets and if we go out early, then we may have to wait the six months til the actors come along. Who knows? It just depends.

[crippled_avenger]

Updated Pre-Strike Priority List!
Source: skamanfu October 10, 2007


In September, ComingSoon.net posted a list of projects the studios were making a priority before the possible Writers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes. We've now received an updated list which you can view below. The list includes the projected start of production for each film. If no date is listed, it is hopeful to go pre-strike:

COLUMBIA
AGAINST ALL ENEMIES Feb
ANGELS AND DEMONS 18-Feb
BOND 22 7-Jan-08
BROTHERS 27-Nov
JULIE AND JULIA March
NICK AND NORAH's 22-Oct
SEVEN POUNDS Late Feb
STEP BROTHERS
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 19-Feb
YEAR ONE 14-Jan

DIMENSION FILMS
COMEBACK 7-Nov

DISNEY
BEDTIME STORIES 28-Jan
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC 15-Jan
ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN March 08
HANNA MONTANA
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3
PROPOSAL
WHEN IN ROME MAYBE

DREAMWORKS
1000 WORDS March
EAGLE EYE November
GHOST TOWN Nov
HOTEL FOR DOGS 29-Oct
LOVELY BONES November
THE SOLOIST Jan
WEDNESDAY 28-Jan

FOX
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 8-Mar
DRAGON BALL Z FALL 08
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL 12/3/2007
WOLVERINE 7-Nov

FOX 2000
MAGNETO 1-Jan

FOX ATOMIC
TICKET TO RIDE Nov. 8, 07
12 ROUNDS Feb

FOCUS
BFF March
HARVEY MILK 14-Jan

HBO
GREY GARDENS 22-Oct

MIRAMAX
DOUBT 1-Dec
ADVENTURELAND Oct

MGM
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR 2 Feb

NEW LINE
17- 3-Dec
FOR SALE Jan/ Feb
FOUR CHRISTMASES 5-Dec
GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST 19-Feb
MY SISTERS KEEPER 3-Mar

PARAMOUNT
GI JOE 8-Feb
DON READY LIKES CARS 3-Dec
HOBSON'S CHOICE
MORNING GLORY March
STAR TREK 07 November
UNTITLED WAYANS BROTHERS

UNIVERSAL
BARBARELLA
BIG BROTHERS
CIRQUE DU FREAK Jan or Feb
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON FEB
FAST AND FURIOUS 4 4-Feb-08
LAND OF THE LOST End of Feb
THE CHANGELING Oct. 15, 07
TRAVELING Jan or Feb
WOLFMAN 28-Jan

UNITED ARTISTS
PINKVILLE 3-Dec

WARNER BROTHERS
JUSTICE LEAGUE 11-Feb
SHANTARAM 10-Jan
HEART SHAPED BOX Jan
WHITE JAZZ 14-Jan
YES MAN 22-Oct

WEINSTEIN
NINE 1-Mar
COMEBACK 7-Nov
SOUL MEN
SHANGHAI Feb

WORKING TITLE
GREEN ZONE Feb
STATE OF PLAY Mid Nov
LOST FOR WORDS 8-Mar
THE BOAT THAT ROCKED March

2929 Entertainment
BURNING PLANE 5-Nov

LAKESHORE
THE GAME 5-Nov

INDIES
A SINGLE MAN end Jan 2008
Amelia Earhart March
CHILLED IN MIAMI 7-Jan
Dreams of a Dying Heart Jan
HUMAN CONTRACT 5-Nov
LAST BATTLE DREAMER 18-Nov
LOVE RANCH Jan
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS March
OLD FASHION ORGY Jan
ON THE ROAD Feb
PERSONAL EFFECTS 12-Nov
REC Nov. 12, 07
SEX DRIVE Nov. 12
THE LAST FULL MEASURE 20-Nov
THE LAUNDRY WARRIOR
The Open Road Nov. 12, 07
THE RANI Jan
THE ROAD 11-Feb
THE WRESTLER 7-Jan
TREE OF LIFE March
WHIP IT March/April

[crippled_avenger]

Updated Pre-Strike Priority List!
Source: skamanfu October 10, 2007


In September, ComingSoon.net posted a list of projects the studios were making a priority before the possible Writers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes. We've now received an updated list which you can view below. The list includes the projected start of production for each film. If no date is listed, it is hopeful to go pre-strike:

COLUMBIA
AGAINST ALL ENEMIES Feb
ANGELS AND DEMONS 18-Feb
BOND 22 7-Jan-08
BROTHERS 27-Nov
JULIE AND JULIA March
NICK AND NORAH's 22-Oct
SEVEN POUNDS Late Feb
STEP BROTHERS
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 19-Feb
YEAR ONE 14-Jan

DIMENSION FILMS
COMEBACK 7-Nov

DISNEY
BEDTIME STORIES 28-Jan
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC 15-Jan
ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN March 08
HANNA MONTANA
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3
PROPOSAL
WHEN IN ROME MAYBE

DREAMWORKS
1000 WORDS March
EAGLE EYE November
GHOST TOWN Nov
HOTEL FOR DOGS 29-Oct
LOVELY BONES November
THE SOLOIST Jan
WEDNESDAY 28-Jan

FOX
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 8-Mar
DRAGON BALL Z FALL 08
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL 12/3/2007
WOLVERINE 7-Nov

FOX 2000
MAGNETO 1-Jan

FOX ATOMIC
TICKET TO RIDE Nov. 8, 07
12 ROUNDS Feb

FOCUS
BFF March
HARVEY MILK 14-Jan

HBO
GREY GARDENS 22-Oct

MIRAMAX
DOUBT 1-Dec
ADVENTURELAND Oct

MGM
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR 2 Feb

NEW LINE
17- 3-Dec
FOR SALE Jan/ Feb
FOUR CHRISTMASES 5-Dec
GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST 19-Feb
MY SISTERS KEEPER 3-Mar

PARAMOUNT
GI JOE 8-Feb
DON READY LIKES CARS 3-Dec
HOBSON'S CHOICE
MORNING GLORY March
STAR TREK 07 November
UNTITLED WAYANS BROTHERS

UNIVERSAL
BARBARELLA
BIG BROTHERS
CIRQUE DU FREAK Jan or Feb
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON FEB
FAST AND FURIOUS 4 4-Feb-08
LAND OF THE LOST End of Feb
THE CHANGELING Oct. 15, 07
TRAVELING Jan or Feb
WOLFMAN 28-Jan

UNITED ARTISTS
PINKVILLE 3-Dec

WARNER BROTHERS
JUSTICE LEAGUE 11-Feb
SHANTARAM 10-Jan
HEART SHAPED BOX Jan
WHITE JAZZ 14-Jan
YES MAN 22-Oct

WEINSTEIN
NINE 1-Mar
COMEBACK 7-Nov
SOUL MEN
SHANGHAI Feb

WORKING TITLE
GREEN ZONE Feb
STATE OF PLAY Mid Nov
LOST FOR WORDS 8-Mar
THE BOAT THAT ROCKED March

2929 Entertainment
BURNING PLANE 5-Nov

LAKESHORE
THE GAME 5-Nov

INDIES
A SINGLE MAN end Jan 2008
Amelia Earhart March
CHILLED IN MIAMI 7-Jan
Dreams of a Dying Heart Jan
HUMAN CONTRACT 5-Nov
LAST BATTLE DREAMER 18-Nov
LOVE RANCH Jan
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS March
OLD FASHION ORGY Jan
ON THE ROAD Feb
PERSONAL EFFECTS 12-Nov
REC Nov. 12, 07
SEX DRIVE Nov. 12
THE LAST FULL MEASURE 20-Nov
THE LAUNDRY WARRIOR
The Open Road Nov. 12, 07
THE RANI Jan
THE ROAD 11-Feb
THE WRESTLER 7-Jan
TREE OF LIFE March
WHIP IT March/April

[crippled_avenger]

Around forty actors tested for roles in the big-budgeted Warner Bros. tentpole movie "Justice League of America" over the weekend in Los Angeles for Director George Miller says The Hollywood Reporter.

The likes of Adam Brody, Joseph Cross, D.J. Cotrona, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Angarano, Teresa Palmer, Max Thieriot, Common, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Scott Porter all tried out at the marathon casting session.

What's most revealing though is that the names confirm that Miller is skewing very young (around mid 20's) with his cast. The director is due to present his findings to the studio midweek.

Meanwhile, "Lord of the Rings" designers WETA are reportedly designing the new Batman and Superman suits says Obsessed with Film. Cinematographer Dean Semler is set to serve as director of photography.

[crippled_avenger]

99 Francs
(France)
By LISA NESSELSONA Pathe release of an Ilan Goldman presentation of a Film 99 Francs, Pathe, Arte France Cinema production, with participation of Canal Plus and CineCinema. (International sales: Pathe, Paris.) Produced by Ilan Goldman. Executive producers, Catherine Morisse-Monceau, Marc Vade. Directed by Jan Kounen. Screenplay, Nicolas and Bruno; adaptation, Jan Kounen, with complicity of Frederic Beigbeder, based on the novel by Beigbeder.

An overpaid, cocaine-addled Parisian ad man is so disgusted by his craven, manipulative profession that he kills himself in "99 Francs." Wait! No, he doesn't. Well, maybe he does. Jan Kounen, the Carlos Castaneda of hipster helmers, injects a massive dose of pleasingly hallucinatory visuals into this screen adaptation of Gallic media gadfly Frederic Beigbeder's zeitgeist-nailing novel. Pic features yet another zesty, near-irresistable perf by Jean Dujardin ("Brice de Nice," "OSS 117") as smartass creative type Octave, whose professional success holds the germ of personal failure.
Predominantly young auds are turning out for the film, released Sept. 26, a stylish roller coaster that deploys the kinetic vocabulary of cinema and advertising to denounce the hollow center of consumer society.

Beigbeder's book -- amusingly retitled "14,99 euros," followed by "6,20 euros" for the paperback, after the franc bit the dust -- has sold over half a million copies since its publication in 2000. Pic's action is set in 2001.

Kounen was a smart choice, as his 2004 feature "Blueberry" (certainly the costliest and least commercial hallucinogen-themed Western ever made) and docs "Other Worlds" and "Darshan" all posit spiritual realms ordinary noggins can't begin to comprehend. Kounen got his start in advertising (prior to making notorious short "Vibroboy" and his splashy 1997 feature debut "Doberman"), and he ably illustrates how literally sickening it is that $500 billion a year worldwide is spent plugging predominantly useless products, when a fraction of that, per the United Nations, would alleviate world hunger.

At pic's outset, whirling kaleidoscopic imagery morphs into a sardonic billboard. It's a rainy night, and Octave is about to leap off the skyscraper housing his employer, mega-agency Ross & Witchcraft. All Octave ever wanted was to create ad campaigns. He got his wish, but it led to the voiceover realization that "Man is a product like any other, with an expiration date. Everything is transitory: love, art, planet earth, you, me -- especially me."

Helmer uses gobs of techniques from the digital arsenal to establish, in flashback, what the world looks like to unraveling Octave, a leading light at R&W. Octave and his sidekick Charlie (Jocelyn Quivrin) present their latest concept for a commercial to the agency's biggest client, a dairy products giant.

Their ad, for a low-calorie yogurt, is funny in a sexy and cerebral way, but the CEO wants something more conventional to appeal to harried housewives. The switch in tone proves to be a turning point in Octave's coke-snorting life. When Octave is too cavalier toward g.f. Sophie (Vahina Giocante), who then leaves him, nothing makes him feel better for long.

Drama hinges on whether Octave will play along with the client and outdo himself in the unconscionable exploitation of hapless consumers, or find a way to rebel from within the system.

Pic seems like a fairly standard, if extremely stylish, tale for much of its running time, only to bifurcate into less expected territory. Post-credits coda shows how one of history's first commercials was benign, but the devil is in the details.

As came to pass concerning "Wall Street's" Gordon Gecko, who was not intended as a role model but became one anyway for a certain segment of society, some viewers may miss the pic's message about advertising being anything but neutral and benign. Ironically, this cautionary tale has enough seductive razzle-dazzle and allure to be mistaken for a commercial for life in the really, really fast lane.

Frantic venture borders on exhausting, but boasts a few exceptional highlights. These include Octave's attempt to convince a model family that nobody on earth lives or speaks in slogans the way they do, and an animated seg in Miami in which Octave, Charlie and a model swallow mystery pills and go cruising in a convertible to cream pedestrians.

The late Stanley Kubrick would have recognized vast swaths of the classical score pic happens to employ.

More than one option(Co) StudioCanal
(Co) Canal Plus
More than one option(Co) Arte France Cinema
(Co) ARTE France
More than one option(Co) Doberman
(Film) Doberman
Camera (color, widescreen), David Ungaro; editor, Anny Danche; music, Jean-Jacques Hertz, Francois Roy; production designer, Michel Barthelemy; costume designers, Chattoune and Fab; sound (Dolby), Laurent Lafran, Alain Feat, Jean-Paul Hurier; visual effects supervisor, Rodolphe Chabrier; associate producer, Catherine Morisse-Monceau; assistant director, Mathias Honore; casting, Pierre Jacques Benichou. Reviewed at MK2 Odeon, Paris, Sept 30, 2007. Running time: 102 MIN.
With Jean Dujardin, Jocelyn Quivrin, Patrick Mille, Vahina Giocante, Elisa Tovati, Nicolas Marie, Frederic Beigbeder, Dominique Bettenfeld

[crippled_avenger]

Wild Bunch adds thriller Pop Skull ahead of Rome
Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte in Paris
17 Oct 2007 15:29

 

In addition to the recently announced acquisition of Hayo Freitag's The Three Robbers, Wild Bunch has picked up Pop Skull heading into the Rome Film Festival.

The film, made for just a $2,000 budget, was found by Wild Bunch on 24-year-old director Adam Wingard's MySpace page. The trailer posted on MySpace had a "much more cinematic look compared to the other films on MySpace," according to Wild Bunch Distribution's Jerome Rougier.

The horror/thriller is very reminiscent of director Darren Aronofsky's work, according to Wild Bunch sales chief Vincent Maraval.

According to the film's website, Pop Skull "depicts the lonely and disjointed life of Daniel, a young Alabama pill addict, as his efforts to cope with the trials of his day-to-day life collide with the increasing influence of murderous and displaced spirits that inhabit his home."

The Three Robbers, meanwhile, will screen in the Alice In The City out of competition section at Rome . Wild Bunch's Second Wind from director Alain Corneau has a berth in the Cinema 2007 competition while the Alice In The City competition will feature Hana Makhmalbaf's Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame. Pop Skull and Rolf de Heer's Dr. Plonk are running in the Extra/Other Visions sidebar.

[crippled_avenger]

Fox 2000 and director Tony Scott are teaming on a feature about Don Aronow, the inventor of the cigarette boat reports Variety.

Aronow was a self-made millionaire businessman and powerboat racing's world champ for 10 straight years. His cigarette boat became a favorite of Colombian drug smugglers looking to import their product into Miami in the 1980s.

Aronow got a $20 million contract to build boats for U.S. Customs agents to catch the smugglers. He was eventually gunned down in 1987 in a mob-style hit in Miami.

Based on a script Michael A.M. Lerner is penning, Scott intends to helm the film once he wraps work on the Denzel Washington-led remake of "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" for Sony Pictures.

[crippled_avenger]

A casting notice went out to agents today asking reps to put forward their best "twins".

Two "Retardedly hot," 21-year-old females are needed for a pivotal scene in the new Gerard Butler pic, "Game".

The characters are described as being ''horny trouble makers that pop up on Simon's screens wanting to chat with the young computer genius who controls Kable". And good news for us/bad news for their parents.... Nudity is required.

Directed by Neveldine & Taylor, "Game" is a non-stop action thriller set in a dystopian near future where live human beings are remote-controlled in mass-scale, multiplayer games and simulated worlds. Gerard Butler plays a fighter who breaks free to save his wife and daughter.

[crippled_avenger]

Jason Statham talked with MTV News this weekend and revealed the status of various projects he's attached too.

In terms of the "Crank" sequel - "If you thought the first one was crazy, this is ridiculous. It's mad. I couldn't resist working with those chaps again. It gives me a chance to go wild in the aisles."

Despite his character's apparent death, he says the film will be a true sequel and will start after the events of the first film - "I'm not robotic. It's a follow-up."

Meanwhile the prospects of a third "Transporter" are good it seems - "I have a massive yearning to do Part 3 with Luc [Besson]. I think it will happen [soon]...Luc is coming up here in a week or so and we'll have a talk about ['Transporter']...just been waiting for the script to be in a good spot."

Finally he confirmed he's not attached to the "G.I. Joe" film in any capacity.

[crippled_avenger]

George Clooney has dropped out of the starring role in Joe Carnahan's crime drama, "White Jazz" reports Entertainment Weekly.

The indie project, based on the James Ellroy novel, was initially supposed to begin filming in early 2008.

The reasoning for the departure is purely timing - "It just simply came down to scheduling. George continues to believe in the project and in Joe [Carnahan]" says Clooney's producing partner, Grant Heslov.

The project was set up at Warner Independent Pictires, but according to a spokesperson there, the film had dropped off its slate. Clooney's Smoke House productions was attached to produce, whether that will still be the case is uncertain.

[crippled_avenger]

Amber Heard and Chris Isaak have joined the ensemble cast of "The Informers," an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel being directed by Gregor Jordan says The Hollywood Reporter.

Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the script follows seven stories taking course during a week in the life of movie executives, rock stars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters.

Heard plays a sexually promiscuous woman caught up in the decadence of 1980s L.A., while Isaak will play a sex- and alcohol-obsessed father who takes his young son to Hawaii.

Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Brandon Routh, Winona Ryder and Mickey Rourke have already been cast. Ellis and Nick Jarecki co-wrote the script and shooting is under way in Los Angeles before moving to Uruguay and Buenos Aires.

[crippled_avenger]

"X2" and "Superman Returns" scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris have opted not to come back and pen a sequel to last year's 'Superman' with Warners now taking pitches from other writers reports Variety.

The "Superman" film franchise's future is presently in a kind of limbo state thanks to the impending Hollywood production strike, Director Bryan Singer's busy schedule, the upcoming and much further along "Justice League" movie (which has Superman as a major character), and the lukewarm critical and box-office reaction to 'Returns'.

As a result there's industry talk that, much like the upcoming "The Incredible Hulk" with Ed Norton, the studio plans to start afresh - basically ignoring the last film to start a whole new continuity.

The studio however has denied such plans, saying the next would be a sequel with Brandon Routh returning. Either way Legendary Pictures will be back to co-develop and co-finance the project.

The delay means the project would certainly not go into production until 2009 at the earliest - making a Summer 2010 release seem the obvious choice to give the studio a revolving cycle of Summer superhero films (Batman 2 in 2008, Justice League in 2009, Superman 2 in 2010, Batman 3 in 2011, etc.)

Dougherty and Harris are presently in pursuit of directing gigs, Dougherty's horror comedy "Trick 'r Treat" opening early next year has already built some very positive industry buzz.

[crippled_avenger]

Evo sta kaze Carnahan o Clooneyeovom odlasku:

Kids:

Rough weekend. I had a bad feeling after they pushed 'Leatherheads' to April
because of the extensive post on that film that something was going to have
to give. Also, George is neck deep in the Coen bros. film at the moment and
trying to do 'Michael Clayton' press which will likely carry over into Awards
season...SO...they wanted to see about pushing White Jazz back, which I
really don't want to do. I've been waiting awhile to make this one and I wasn't
content to sit on my hands.

Right now, (actually it began on friday) we're in the process of trying to plug
a guy into this movie that, if it works, would be pretty f*cking amazing. No,
INCREDIBLY f*cking amazing, so we'll see what happens.

No tears kids. This is the business. It happens all the time and you've got to
have the balls and the ability to push past in spite of these setbacks.

We march on.

JC

[crippled_avenger]

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will reteam early next year on "Shutter Island," a Laeta Kalogridis-scripted adaptation of the Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River," "Gone Baby Gone") novel reports Variety.

Drama is set in 1954, with DiCaprio in final talks to play U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.

The Paramount and Sony Pictures co-production is being rushed forward for a March start of shooting. Filming will likely take place in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Nova Scotia.

[crippled_avenger]

"Juno" writer-director Diablo Cody and "Transformers" actress Megan Fox are teaming for Fox Atomic's comedic supernatural thriller "Jennifer's Body" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story, described as similar in tone to "Heathers" and "Beetlejuice," follows a cheerleader with a perfect life who becomes the girl from hell when she gets possessed and begins killing boys in a small town. Her best friend must then find a way to stop her.

Atomic is aiming to make the project before a possible writers strike and Fox is currently in negotiations to star.

[crippled_avenger]

Woody Harrelson and Oliver Stone are re-teaming for the director's Vietnam War drama "Pinkville" for United Artists & MGM Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

Harrelson joins Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum, who already have been cast in the mystery drama based on the infamous 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which upward of 500 people -- mostly women, children and the elderly -- were killed by U.S. soldiers. The massacre ended up being a turning point in the war.

Harrelson will play Col. Henderson, the conflicted officer in charge of the task force that committed the massacre. Willis will portray William R. Peers, the real-life Army general who investigated the incident.

Tatum will play Hugh Thompson Jr., an Army helicopter pilot who aided the villagers and later testified against the soldiers. Michael Pena is also onboard, whilst Mikko Alanne wrote the script.

[crippled_avenger]

Jamie Foxx is set to play the lead in DreamWorks Pictures "The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness, and Civil Rights" reports the trades.

Foxx will play Prentice Earl Sanders, one of two trailblazing black detectives who set out to solve a series of racially motivated serial killings that rocked San Francisco in the fall and winter of 1973-74.

Ultimately, Sanders -- who, along with writer Bennett Cohen, recounted the story in the book on which the film is based -- ends up becoming the chief of police after the detectives successfully win their own battle against racism and harassment within the force.

Matthew Michael Carnahan ("The Kingdom") is penning the script.

[crippled_avenger]

Director Michael Mann ("Heat") is developing "Frankie Machine" as a star vehicle for Robert De Niro at Paramount Pictures reports Variety.

An adaptation of Don Winslow novel "The Winter of Frankie Machine," De Niro will play Frank Machianno, a mob hitman who has retired to run a bait shop.

He agrees to help the son of a mob boss resolve a dispute with another Mafioso but is forced to turn into Frankie Machine again when he realizes he's been set up to be killed.

Alex Tse has just been set to do a major overhaul of the concept and Brian Koppelman and David Levien's original draft.

[crippled_avenger]

Jim Caviezel ("The Passion of the Christ") and Aussie actress Claudia Karvan have joined the cast of the Jamie Blanks-directed remake of Colin Eggleston's thriller "Long Weekend" reports Shock til You Drop.

Blanks is adamant that there will be no computer effects, and plans to stick closely to the original both story and shooting wise - "I don't want to re-invent it, I want to remake it, put my style on it. The couple in the film, they're relationship isn't going to be so cut-and-dry as in the original film. There will be some complexities to that, but I'm going to go for the ambiguity the original had - maybe nature rose up, maybe it didn't. That'll all be in place."

Everett De Roche ("Storm Warning," "Razorback," "Road Games") is adapting "Weekend" based on the script he wrote nearly 30 years ago. Blanks is currently preparing to shoot in some remote areas of the Victorian coastline of South-Eastern Australia.

[crippled_avenger]

Warners has picked up the comedy pitch "Murray at Large" for "Road Trip" and "Starsky and Hutch" helmer Todd Phillips to produce and direct reports Variety.

The comedy revolves around Murray Farkus, a pillar of his community who, when falsely accused of an unspeakable crime, goes on the run to clear his name and reputation. The story is loosely based on Phillips' own Uncle Murray.

Phillips will write with Jeremy Garelick after finishing helming "The Hangover" for Warners who is fast-tracking the project as a potential pre-strike movie.

[crippled_avenger]

New Line has picked up "Drafted," a comic book adaptation to be produced by Benderspink.

In the book, aliens come to Earth and warn mankind of an imminent invasion from another alien species. The first group of aliens drafts humans into boot camps and trains them to defend themselves against the invaders.

The company secured the film rights to the Devil's Due Publishing property at Comic Con International in July.

Richard Brener and Dave Neustadter are shepherding for New Line, while Jake Weiner and Jon Silk will oversee for Benderspink. Josh Blaylock of Devil's Due is co-producing. Writers are being sought.

"Drafted" is the latest comic book property being developed by Benderspink, which has muscled its way as one of the go-to places for comics since producing the critically acclaimed adaptation "A History of Violence."


Other comic-based projects the company is developing include "Y: The Last Man," "Ex Machina" and "Power and Glory" at New Line; "Ghouly Boys" at Mandate; "Pet Robots" at Disney; "Preacher" at HBO; and "The Pro" at Spike TV.

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John Travolta is negotiating to join the cast of the Tony Scott-directed remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123" at Sony Pictures reports Variety.

Travolta will play the leader of a quartet that hijacks a Gotham subway train and threatens to kill the passengers unless a ransom is paid, a role originated in the 1974 film by Robert Shaw.

Denzel Washington plays the chief detective of security for the subway, a role originated by Walter Matthau. David Koepp wrote the script and production is set to begin early next year.

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about how he was approached to do MIRRORS and how he nearly passed on the project, "I was approached right after THE HILLS HAVE EYES to do MIRROR and I was wondering if I would have to do the sequel [to HILLS]," he continues, "I was approached by New Regency with the script by the title INTO THE MIRROR - that was the title at the time - I read the script and didn't connect at all to the script or the story. They asked me before I was going to pass, they basically asked me to watch the Korean movie and I really liked the opening scene and the ending – but I didn't connect with the movie itself. I thought it was an amazing topic; it was something really scary, new and different... way closer to THE SHINING, but a different style."

One thing that Aja is quickly being known for his the level of gore in his films, I wondered if MIRRORS would lack the blood flow being that it was a remake to a Japanese horror film. He assures us that this isn't like those other Japanese remakes, "It's super graphic [and] really gory. I didn't want to direct THE RING or DARK WATER; I really wanted to do something following the track of THE SHINING. For me it's a movie that found a great balance between graphic gore and supernatural stuff as well."

He recently wrapped shooting on MIRRORS< which is said to features some insane gore from the dudes at KNB; Aja tells us how this pars up to his first two films, "I just finished my director's cut and I'm really, really excited. I think we have something that is really graphic, really gory and really violent and at the same very scary; it's much scarier than what I did before."

One thing that Aja wanted to make clear was that both MIRRORS and PIRANHA aren't remakes. "We are writing PIRANHA now. You read everywhere that it's a remake, but MIRRORS is completely not a remake at all," he tells B-D, "HILLS was really a remake [while] MIRRORS is really a new story based on the original. PIRANHA is not a remake at all either - we were asked by Weinstein Company to think about a new PIRANHA movie, not a remake to the original." He concludes by clarifying, "It's not a remake of all the James Cameron movies – it's only about the same kind of fish."

One ting that we found concerning is that "sea monster" movies don't appear to be doing very well, we asked him what makes this different from films like PRIMEVAL and ROGUE. He explains that his is going to be one hell of a ride, "My idea of the writing right now is to approach the project as if I was building a rollercoaster. It's a complete differ approach than HILLS or P2; it's like building an attraction," he continues, "It's going to be scary and great- it's a very different approach from anything we've done before."

Lastly Aja confirms that he's still attached to BLACK HOLE, "I'm still attached to BLACK HOLE – it's the best graphic novel I have ever read," he exclaims with loads of excitement and energy.

You can watch this spot for the full interview soon and check out P2 in theaters everywhere on November 9.

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Toho to remake Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress
Jason Gray in Tokyo
30 Oct 2007 04:54

 

Japanese studio Toho is set to produce a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1958 samurai film The Hidden Fortress, to be directed by Shinji Higuchi.

Special effects expert Higuchi moved into the director's chair two years ago with submarine thriller Lorelei and had a top ten hit last year with Sinking Of Japan which grossed $46.8m.

The $13m remake is scheduled to start shooting on November 1 in time for a May 10, 2008 release.

The lead role will be played by 24-year-old Jun Matsumoto. Primarily a TV actor, Matsumoto is also the youngest member of popular boy band Arashi.

The character played by Toshiro Mifune in the original will be played by Hiroshi Abe, who has a large role in Fuji TV's current hit Hero. Misa Uehara's role will be played by Masami Nagasawa (Nada SoSo).

The original film is also famous for being an inspiration for George Lucas' original outline for Star Wars, with certain elements of the two bumbling lead characters carried over into the characters of C-3PO and R2-D2.

Higuchi got permission from Kurosawa Productions to create a single, younger character (Matsumoto) to reflect the aimless youth of today.

The announcement is the latest in a string of completed and announced Kurosawa remakes, including recently broadcast made-for-TV versions of Ikiru and High And Low and producer Haruki Kadokawa's big-budget remake of Sanjuro, starring Bayside Shakedown's Yuji Oda.

Sanjuro , which stays faithful to the original screenplay, makes its market debut at this week's AFM on Toho's slate. An animated series of Kurosawa's Yojimbo was produced in 2001.

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Rhys Meyers to play comic book hero Mandrake for Omega/Baldwin
Jeremy Kay in Los Angeles
31 Oct 2007 05:00

 

Jonathan Rhys Meyers will star as the eponymous hero of Omega Entertainment/Baldwin Entertainment Group's (BEG) adventure film Mandrake, which Chuck Russell will direct.

The film is the first from Omega and BEG's first-look deal to go into production and will shoot in China and the US in early 2008. Omega is financing and distributing worldwide, and producing with BEG and Hyde Park Entertainment.

Mandrake is an updated take on the classic Hearst comic book, featuring the title character as an extreme escape artist thrown into the high stakes world of international espionage.

"One of the most exciting things for me as a director is when I know I have a star who will make an indelible impression on a role, and become the catalyst for an entire film," Russell said.

"This is a rare opportunity to reinvent one of the all-time classic comic book characters and create a new kind of hero for international audiences."

Markus Barmettler and Enrique Steiger formed Omega Entertainment in 2006. Former Lakeshore president of international distribution Peter Rogers joined earlier this year as president.

BEG's credits include Death Sentence, Ray, Sahara, and Swimming Upstream. Upcoming productions include Vadim Pearlman's adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged to star Angelina Jolie, a baseball drama to star Robert Redford, and Deepa Mehta's drama Luna.

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Danish Film Institute supports $7.2m viking epic
Jacob Wendt Jensen in Copenhagen
30 Oct 2007 06:32

 

Nicolas Winding Refn is getting ready to shoot Valhalla Rising with support from the Danish Film Institute.

The national institute is guaranteeing $1.1m (Euros 0.8m) of its $7.2m (Euros 5.1m) budget.

National star Mads Mikkelsen plays a mute Viking who while escaping from imprisonment in Scotland accidentally discovers America.

The shoot is expected to start in spring 2008 primarily in Scotland.

Winding Refn has written the story with Norwegian writer Roy Jacobsen and the film is described as being inspired by Mad Max and Deliverance albeit with a detailed attention to tenth century details with for example beginning tension between Christians and heathens.

The soundtrack will be composed partly by Glasgow-based rock band Mogwai whose previous work includes Sicko, Miami Vice and Wicker Park.

Nicolas Winding Refn is primarily known for his Pusher-trilogy and the thriller Fear X with John Turturro in the leading role.

Lately he directed Marple: Nemesis for UK television. Valhalla Rising will be produced by Nimbus Film lately specializing in production of big local budget films compared to an average of $3.5m (Euros 2.5m).

Before Valhalla Rising, Nimbus Film will release war epic Flame and Citron directed by Ole Christian Madsen also starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hanns Zischler early in 2008.

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"Crank 2: High Voltage" has officially been greenlit at Lionsgate and Lakeshore Entertainment reports the trades.

Writer-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are back, as is Jason Statham who will reprise his role of hitman Chev Chelios in "Crank 2." The studio has also picked up Neveldine and Taylor's next project - the cyber thriller "Game".

In the "Crank" sequel, Chev faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered artificial ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working. A chase begins through Los Angeles.

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Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan and game maker Capcom will jointly produce the 3D computer-animated feature "Biohazard: Degeneration," based on the "Resident Evil" films and games reports Variety.

The "Resident Evil" franchise is known as the "Biohazard" series in Japan and the story for the feature will be based on the hit game series.

The director and other cast and crew are yet to be announced, but a late 2008 release is scheduled.