the most anticipated...

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David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Gary Cole and Amber Heard are teaming for the dramedy "The Joneses" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story is a social commentary, and centers on a picture-perfect family that moves into a suburban neighborhood and immediately becomes the toast of the town, loved and envied by all.

But the reality is they are a commissioned fake family put together by a marketing company as a way to introduce new luxury-level products to neighborhoods around the world.

Duchovny plays the fake father, a man undergoing a crisis of confidence because he is living a lie.

Moore is the mother, a career-driven woman who struggles with her growing feelings toward her fake husband.

Heard plays the fake daughter who is trying to seduce her fake dad while looking for a rich man. Cole plays a neighbor.

Derrick Borte penned and will direct the film. Shooting is scheduled to begin mid-October in Atlanta.

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Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman and Faizon Love are teaming for Universal Pictures comedy "Couples Retreat" says The Hollywood Reporter

Favreau penned the script about four couples who go to a tropical island resort.

While one couple is there to work on their marriage, the others are there to play but soon discover that participation in the resort's couples therapy is not optional.

Peter Billingsley penned the story with shooting scheduled to begin late October in Bora Bora and Los Angeles.

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NEW YORK -- Nicolas Cage will reteam with "Gone in Sixty Seconds" director Dominic Sena for the supernatural thriller "Season of the Witch."

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media and Atlas Entertainment are backing the project, with Atlas founder Charles Roven and partner Alex Gartner set as producers.

Cage plays a 14th century knight transporting a girl suspected of being the witch behind the Black Plague. His compatriots help him bring the girl to an abbey of monks trained in exorcising demons.

"Witch," written by Bragi Schut Jr. (CBS' "Threshold"), is set to begin production in early November in Austria and Hungary.

Aside from reteaming the director and star, the project marks the second partnership between Relativity and Atlas ("The Bank Job"). It also reunites Cage with his "City of Angels" producer Roven, whose recent experience with another knight ("The Dark Knight") has become the second-highest-grossing film in history.

Cage is repped by CAA, and Sena is repped by CAA and Anonymous Content.

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The rumors of Brett Ratner directing the big screen re-invention of "Conan the Barbarian" seem to have been premature.

According to Latino Review, the "Rush Hour" helmer wasn't offered the gig but did have a meeting with Nu Image about the job.

In fact several directors have met with the company about the job in recent weeks. The company desperately wanted Robert Rodriguez for the film but he can't do it due to his busy schedule.

Other names mentioned include some commendable talent like Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ("28 Weeks Later"), Neil Marshall ("The Descent," "Doomsday") and James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") along with some less than exciting names like The Strause Brothers ("AVP: Requiem"), along with Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor ("Crank," "Pathology").

[Milosh]

Cage plays a 14th century knight transporting a girl suspected of being the witch behind the Black Plague. His compatriots help him bring the girl to an abbey of monks trained in exorcising demons.

Uuu, Kejdž kao srednjevekovni vitez, samo ta slika je dovoljna da se uhvatim za stomak, a kad se na to dodaju očekivana perika i eventualni pokušaj nekog evropskog akcenta ovo ima potencijala da bude zaista urnebesno, mada ne verujem da će nadmašiti rimejk Wicker Mana...

[crippled_avenger]

Tarantino has found an Inglorious projectionist
September 19th, 2008 - 2pm GMT / (posted by Sebastian)
There is a character in Inglorious Basterds called Marcel, the projectionist in Shosanna's movie theater, one of the major locations of the film. We can now confirm that a French actor that goes with the cool-sounding name (imagine Mr Pink saying this) Jacky Ido has been cast for this role, which I will now tentatively describe as Melanie Laurent's character's side-kick. We've also managed to get most of the already known cast confirmed, just to rule out confusion. On our Inglorious Bastards cast & characters page you'll see those that are 100% seperated from those names and characters where we're not yet so sure. We'll bring you more pretty soon. Curious readers can dive into our Forums and will find the very first picture from the set of the film there. Thanks for reading everyone, have a wonderful start into a great weekend.

Update: The great folks at The Playlist also note that French actor Denis Menochet has also been cast, for a role yet unknown.

[Albedo 0]

Cage plays a 14th century knight transporting a girl suspected of being the witch behind the Black Plague. His compatriots help him bring the girl to an abbey of monks trained in exorcising demons.

Uuu, Kejdž kao srednjevekovni vitez, samo ta slika je dovoljna da se uhvatim za stomak, a kad se na to dodaju očekivana perika i eventualni pokušaj nekog evropskog akcenta ovo ima potencijala da bude zaista urnebesno, mada ne verujem da će nadmašiti rimejk Wicker Mana...

Nemoj da si toliki pesimista, ovaj put Kejdž nosi oklop  

[crippled_avenger]

While visiting the set of the upcoming motion-capture adventure "Tintin", Simon Pegg may have scored himself and his regular on-screen cohort a gig.

Pegg tells The Times Online that Steven Spielberg told the "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead" actor that "Hey, maybe you and Nick Frost could play the Thompson Twins".

Pegg seemed to be floored by the idea, and many online have already expressed excitement (including myself). Despite their physical differences, the mo-cap technology essentially allows these two actors to play identical twins in the CG animated feature.

In the books, Thomson and Thompson are a pair of bumbling and incompetent detectives who essentially provide the comic relief for the series - always pursuing the wrong suspect and often getting into more misunderstandings than actual police work while Tintin and Captain Haddock are the ones to uncover the nefarious conspiracies underway. They appeared in a total of seventeen of the twenty-four adventures penned between 1930 and 1986.

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Mania.Com reports that Dreamworks film about Edward Teach, aka the pirate Blackbeard, is still moving forward with Paul Greengrass possibly at the helm.

According to a source, Greengrass leads the short list of candidates to direct the project penned by David Franzoni ("Amistad," "Gladiator") which would incorporate a more serious R-rated take into the world of piracy than the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films or Disney's family classic "Blackbeard's Ghost".

Producer Barry Josephson is still backing Franzoni's take on the subject despite some reservation since it's announcement.

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Despite reports she's no longer attached, Moviehole has confirmed that Angelina Jolie has now officially signed onto Phil Noyce's "Edwin A. Salt".

The fictional film centers on a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy.

She eludes capture by superiors who are convinced she is out to assassinate the president. While trying to reunite with her family, she struggles to prove someone else is the traitor.

Pre-production has commenced with a projected shoot date of February 16th 2009. A source also says that the film will now simply be titled "Salt".

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"Wanted" and "Night Watch" director Timur Bekmambetov will helm a reimagining of the Herman Melville's 1851 literary classic "Moby Dick" for Universal Pictures reports Variety.

Adam Cooper and Bill Collage will pen the screenplay which ditches Ishmael's narration in favour of a "action-adventure revenge story" that allows the filmmakers to depict the white whale's decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab's Pequod.

Ahab himself will be depicted more as a charismatic leader rather than the brooding obsessive, a controversial move considering the whole point of the novel is the destructive nature of relentless obsession.

Scott Stuber, Jim Lemley, Cormac and Marianne Wibberley will produce.

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Legendary British horror production company Hammer Films is back in business with "The Wake Wood" filming kicking off this week says The Hollywood Reporter.

Timothy Spall, Aidan Gillen and Eva Birthistle star in the story about grieving parents who are given the opportunity to spend three more days with their only daughter after she is killed by a savage dog.

David Keating helms from a screenplay he co-wrote with Brendan McCarthy. Shooting kicks off in Ireland for a release next Fall.

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Shane Black ("Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang") will direct the Universal Pictures spy thriller "Cold Warrior" says Variety.

Chuck Mondry penned the story about a Cold War-era spy who comes out of retirement to team with a younger agent from the new school to confront a domestic terrorism threat orchestrated by Russia.

Michelle Manning ("The Eye," "The Dirt") is producing. David Greenblatt and Anthony Bagarozzi are also producing.

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Year: 2008
Directors: Marcel Sarmiento / Gadi Harel
Writers: Trent Haaga
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: agentorange
Rating: 6 out of 10

There's no getting around it - Deadgirl is one of the most severely messed up films I've seen in a while. It's an extreme exercise in taboo subject matter that turns the horror genre on its head and might even have the power to make some viewers regret ever falling in love with horror altogether. However, as a critic, I can't help but be drawn to films like Deadgirl because they make me re-evaluate the criteria by which I judge movies. It's like someone said "you think you know movies? Well get a load of this!" and then showed you something you never knew movies could do. And don't get me wrong, I've seen a heck of a lot of different kinds of films and many that have affected me the very same way; it's just that it's rare that a film can a) truly shock and b)remain engaging even after the viewing. Right now it's the day after and I keep asking myself; why was I glued to the screen and completely mesmerized by a film who's subject matter I was so very repulsed by? That's what I'll be trying to wrestle with in this review.

Deadgirl is about two highschool kids, Rickie and JT (played by two of the oldest looking 16 year olds in history), who skip school and break into an old abandoned hospital. While exploring the many basement tunnels they stumble across a woman wrapped in plastic and strapped to a stretcher. She appears dead but upon further inspection is anything but. In fact, the truth is she can't be killed (I've decided to save how they find this out for you to discover on your own). Rickie wants to free her but, the obviously disturbed and sexually confused JT has other plans. What follows is a moral tug of war between two friends that'll have you itching for a positive resolution that doesn't really come.

The intersting thing about Deadgirl is that its ability to shock doesn't come from scare tactics, gore, suspense, or even its overt sexuality, but from its seeming moral ambivalence. Your never quite sure where the filmmakers are taking you, why they're taking you there, and what their message is. It's almost as if the film is a blank canvas upon which you can paint your own feelings. For example, if you want the film to be a critique of the currently oversexed and confused male libido you can, but there's every possibility you wouldn't be right. I've never looked to films to provide answers, in fact I like it when they pose questions and make you think, but it's almost like the deeper you get into Deadgirl, the further away you get from understanding what it's all about. It's kind of weird.

I've read other reviewers discuss the film's "dark humor," and actually John Allison, who reviewed the film for us as part if TIFF's Midnight Madness, compared Deadgirl to other recent boundary pushing films like Blood Car (which I loved), while others have referenced Teeth, and On the Doll. But, unlike Blood Car which was so obviously satirical and humorous, Deadgirl's humor (if there even is humor) rarely shines through. As far as I'm concerned there's not a laugh in the whole thing so if anyone's laughing at this film I can only imagine it's that kind of awkward "this is messed" kind of laughter.

Despite being way to old to be playing high school students, actors Shiloh Fernandez (Jericho) and Noah Segan (Fanboys, The Brothers Bloom), both give extremely strong performances in this film. You can tell they're feeding off each others performance and pushing each other to hit new extremes. I like that aspect of the film. In terms of any of the other characters in the film, they're all given pretty short shrift and are mostly one dimensional. Of course big props gotta go out to Jenny Spain who played the titular dead girl. Considering she endured no end of torment and spent the entire film in the nude, she managed to play the role with intense dignity. She is both beautiful and terrifying and will no doubt become some kid of weirdo icon in the years to come.

I also really liked how the film played with zombie traditions without being overt. One film that came to mind while watching Deadgirl was Kathryn Bigelow's vampire flick Near Dark which, as many of you will know, never uses the word vampire. Well, Deadgirl is a zombie film that never uses the world zombie. And, honestly, as disturbing and twisted as the ending is, I thought it was great and probably the reason the film has stayed with me so long.

There's also a part of me that wishes the film had been executed a little better in places. Some awkward pacing at times made the film loose momentum and probably ended up making it loose some points. Over all though, the flick is solid and will be of interest to many people out looking for a new kind of extreme cinema.

[crippled_avenger]

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Das Baader Meinhof Complex)
Fionnuala Halligan in London
26 Sep 2008 07:00

 


Dir Uli Edel. Ger. 2008. 149mins.

An extremely-ambitious undertaking which succeeds completely on a technical level, The Baader Meinhof Complex reunites Downfall's producer-screenwriter Bernd Eichinger with his college friend and Christiane F and Last Exit to Brooklyn director Uli Edel. Looking very much like a further mining of the modern German political history seam which has compellingly produced both Downfall and The Lives of Others, The Baader Meinhof Complex is engrossing on many levels – except for, fatally, an emotional one.

Deftly relating the events that rocked Germany in the 1970s as the Baader Meinhof Gang – or the Red Army Faction – wielded its crazed mixture of ultra-left-wing ideology with vicious terrorism, The Baader Meinhof Complex will have an inbuilt audience of viewers who remember that vivid era, skewing male and upmarket. Younger crowds will take more convincing, but this fascinating lesson in recent European history will have no trouble attracting significant returns on that continent, led naturally by Germany. America will be very difficult for this lengthy, complex film, however, although an Oscar nomination (it has been submitted in this category) could help.

The RAF was born from the student protest movements of the 1960s when a highly-politicised post-war generation took to the streets, inspired by events in Vietnam and behind the "Iron curtain". In West Germany, there was understandably a strong desire not to repeat the mistakes of the recent past and a distrust of the political establishment which included former Nazi Party members. The Bader Meinhof Gang started out as a loose group of ultra-left-wing student radicals making a noise: by the end, it was an almost-aimless professional terrorist group allied to the PLO and involved in cross-border extortion, kidnapping, murder and bombings. It did not officially cease to exist until 1998.

In electing to write this film Eichinger, working in close collaboration with Stefan Aust – a journalist at the time and author of the book on which this is based – set himself two major challenges. The first was to capture a wide-ranging series of events set over an entire decade with a large cast of characters who have very little screen time to establish themselves. This is so confidently tackled, Eichinger and Edel almost make it look easy. However, and this is a large caveat, every single person in this film, with the exception of a briefly-sketched police investigator (Ganz) is unsympathetic to the point of being revolting. Eichinger overcame this hurdle with Downfall; he can't manage it here – there are too many of them, and they're all creeps.

The Baader Meinhof Complex restricts itself to the events between bloody protests against the Shah in Berlin in 1967 and the "German autumn" a decade later – the Lufthansa hijacking and the kidnapping of German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer. The film would seem to have at its centre the character of Ulrike Meinhof (Gedeck), the left-wing journalist-turned-terrorist. But as Gedeck opts to play one of the world's most notoriously evil women as a depressed, mumbling drone, attention falls instead to the more traditionally-psychopathic Andreas Baader (Bleibrtau) and his hardline girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin (Wokalek). They get little screentime, though, in the face of so many RAF members, bombings, bank heists, murders, and even a bout of guerrilla training in Palestine (the RAF and the PLO were closely linked: when the PLO stormed the 1972 Munich Olympics, one of its demands was the release of Baader and Meinhof)..

The production prides itself on being historically accurate, down to using transcripts of the Gang's Stammheim prison trials and even the number of bullets used in its gruesome assassinations. This is a controversial subject in Germany, and Edel is at pains to be dispassionate. Dramatically, though, The Baader Meinhof Complex will hold very little suspense for people who lived through these times: the resolution of the German autumn was as memorable in its day as the War on Terror is now. For today's younger, politically-aware demographic (not as high now as it was then), this is a fascinating look at the birth of modern terrorism. The RAF itself may seem dated with its Marxist, Maoist rants, but as the production is at pains to point out, it does have resonance with what is happening now.

Technically, this is shot up-close and personal; Edel makes heavy use of handheld, but it's not jarring. Score is minimal, although opening the film with Janis Joplin (Mercedes Benz) and closing it with Bob Dylan (Blowin' In The Wind) seems at odds with the spirit of what unfolds onscreen, even if the timing is roughly right. In opting to shoot the film in quasi-documentary style – moving efficiently but crisply from one event to another – Edel keeps the viewer at a distance from the people onscreen and emotionally The Bader Meinhof Complex flatlines, even as it fascinates.

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Helen Mirren will play a Mossad agent in helmer John Madden's "The Debt" for Miramax Films says Variety.

An English-language remake of Israeli thriller "Ha-hov", the story deals with three Israeli Mossad agents tracking down a Nazi war criminal over 30 years.

"Stardust" scribes Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman will pen the script. Shooting will commence next year in the U.K., Germany and Israel.

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Camilla Belle ("10,000 B.C.," "When A Stranger Calls") has joined the cast of the psychological thriller "Three Stories About Joan" says One India.

As previously announced, Bruce Willis makes his feature directorial debut on the film which also stars Owen Wilson and Kieran Culkin.

Belle portrays the titular Joan in a story about the three phases of her life that prompt her to lose her grip on reality. Willis will play Belle's character's father.

Christopher Alexander and Sam Applebaum penned the script and production is scheduled to begin in October in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys-Myers are teaming for the thriller "From Paris With Love" for EuroCorp reports Variety.

Luc Besson and Adi Hasak wrote the script that centers on an embassy employee and an American covert agent who become involved in a high-stakes mission.

Besson also produces and Pierre Morrel directs the sub-$55 million project which just began an 11-week shoot in the City of Lights.

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"Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves has signed on to write and direct the Amerian remake of the acclaied Swedish horror flick "Let the Right One In" for Overture Films and Hammer Films says the trades.

Based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the original (titled: "Lat Den Ratte Komma In") followed a bullied boy whose desire for revenge becomes intertwined with his growing love for a young female neighbor who happens to be a vampire.

It won the best narrative feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival and is scheduled for a limited release in the US on October 24th. The US remake would likely hit theaters sometime late 2009.

Reeves is also readying the thriller "The Invisible Woman" which he is writing and directing. It follows a housewife who turns to a life of crime.

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MGM has hired writer-director Steve Pink ("Accepted") to script a remake of the 1988 comedy "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Itself a remake of the 1964 film "Bedtime Story" with Marlon Brando and David Niven, the Frank Oz-directed 'Scoundrels' starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine as mirror-opposite conmen competing to scam money from a seemingly guileless American woman and banish each other from their South of France hunting ground.

The new incarnation will be updated for a contemporary time and Pink, who also co-wrote "High Fidelity" and "Grosse Pointe Blank", is working out how to make their actions credible whilst still behaving in totally outrageous and absurd ways.

The project joins a string of remakes that MGM has in the works including "Red Dawn," "RoboCop," "Poltergeist" and "Fame".

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DreamWorks has extended their option on the film rights to John Wyndham's 1968 science fiction novel "Chocky" that Spielberg is apparently keen to make his next directing project reports Reuters.

The story centers on a boy who has a mysterious imaginary friend with whom he frequently argues. As the boy's father gets increasingly suspicious, it becomes clear that an alien entity has taken up residence in the boy's consciousness.

Things with Spielberg remain up in the air as despite his Dreamworks company having split with Paramount, that studio claims it owns all DreamWorks-developed properties outright. Thus right now it's still unsure what properties will make the crossover to the new independent Dreamworks and its likely new distributor Universal.

Amongt the projects on Spielberg's to-do list are "The Trial of the Chicago 7," an Abraham Lincoln biopic, "Cowboys and Aliens," "The 39 Clues" and of course the "Tintin" trilogy.

"Tintin" has lately been a priority but hit the snag last week of losing half its financing. Paramount has offered to fully foot the bill, but to do so comes with certain undisclosed financial caveats that may be too strick - leaving Spielberg to opt instead on waiting to find another financier for the other half of the project.

There's also talk that Spielberg might try to do "Tintin" and "Chocky" simultaneously due to the very different nature of the productions (ie. shoot "Chocky" during the extensive CG animation time on "Tintin").

"Chocky" was previously translated into a 1984 UK TV series. Wyndham's other and more famous sci-fi works include "The Midwich Cuckoos" which has been twice adapted on film as "Village of the Damned" in 1960 & 1995, the post-apocalyptic telepathy tale "The Chrysalids", and of course one of the most famous books ever written - the killer plant saga "The Day of the Triffids".

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Brad Furman ("The Take") is set to direct the suspense thriller "Valet" for Warner Bros. Pictures reports the trades.

Matthew Aldrich will rewrite Alan McElroy's original screenplay inspired by true events of a parking attendant who becomes obsessed with a female customer and systematically inserts himself into her life.

The production is being fast-tracked to begin shooting in the first quarter of 2009.

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Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone, who has arrived to Bulgaria reportedly looking for locations for his new Rambo 5 movie, met Sunday Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov, an ardent fan of Sly.

Borisov is the only politician Mr Stallone is to meet during his short trip to Bulgaria that includes visits to the Nu Boyana film studios and the Worldwide FX company that made the special effects for Rambo 4.

Speculations that Rambo 5 would be shot in Bulgaria have been circulating for months. Representatives of Nu Image said it is too early to predict where the film will be shot.

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Michael De Luca, Alison Rosenzweig and Michael Gaeta are developing a remake of the 1987 Mickey Rourke supernatural thriller "Angel Heart" reports Variety.

The trio optioned the rights to the film from a private U.K. firm as well as the book rights to William Hjortsberg's novel "Falling Angel" from which it was adapted.

The novel follows the exploits of Harry Angel, a New York detective hired by a mysterious client to track down a once-popular performer indebted to him.

While pursuing this seemingly routine investigation, Harry encounters dark and supernatural forces. Alan Parker helmed the original which starred Mickey Rourke, Lisa Bonet, and a memorable turn by Robert De Niro as the client who turned out to be The Devil himself.

[crippled_avenger]

Christina Ricci has joined the cast of Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo's horror prject "After.Life" reports Ace Showbiz.

The story chronicles a young woman in a transitional state between life and death who fights to avoid being buried alive while also concerns a funeral director who holds her fate in his hands.

Shooting is slated to begin November 10th in New York, no release date has yet been set. Kate Bosworth was previously cast in the project.

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With its flagship series "Smallville" likely in its final season, The CW is developing a new show entitled "The Graysons" based on the early days of Batman sidekick Robin reports IGN.

Just as "Smallville" focuses on Clark Kent in the years before he became Superman, "The Graysons" will follow the world of Dick "DJ" Grayson before he takes on the iconic Robin identity and aligns himself with Batman.

In the one-hour "Graysons," which will be set in modern times, young DJ will face challenges involving first loves, young rivals and his family as he grows up.

"Smallville" executive producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson have come up with an original take on the character and will steer the series alongside "Supernatural" executive producer McG.

[crippled_avenger]

Relativity Media has acquired the spec script "Hunter-Killer" by Ed Arnett (aka. Arne Schmidt) reports Variety.

Based on Don Keith and George Wallace's novel "Firing Point", the story follows an American sub commander and a Navy SEAL team that must rescue the Russian president and defeat a renegade admiral who's attempting a coup.

Pierre Morel ("District B13") is negotiating to direct. Ryan Kavanaugh, Neal Moritz and Toby Jaffe will produce.

[cutter]

ТАРОТ СРбИЈА!

[crippled_avenger]

Body Of Lies
Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles
03 Oct 2008 01:27

 

Dir: Ridley Scott. US. 2008. 129 mins.

Ridley Scott employs all his cinematic tricks to craft a heart-thumping action thriller in Body Of Lies, which blends thematic elements of Syriana, Rendition and The Kingdom and then churns them through a high octane Bourne blender. More gripping to watch in the moment than enjoyable to recall at its end, the film is bound to chalk up some heavweight box office numbers courtesy of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, but it's far from a "four quadrant" movie. Young men will respond to the earsplitting intensity, but many women and older audiences might be turned off by the subject of terrorism, harrowing images of suicide bombings and graphic scenes of torture and violence.

Domestic box office numbers are likely to be in the same range as Black Hawk Down and American Gangster ($110m-$130m), while international numbers might be as great if not greater – DiCaprio's last two films, Blood Diamond and The Departed, were bigger hits overseas than in North America.

Scott and his brilliant editor Pietro Scalia are expert at creating a visual patchwork of images that maximizes the tension in every scene. Here, even more than in Syriana or the third Bourne movie, communication is key - on omnipresent TV broadcasts, through cellphones and SMS texts, internet and email. Most effectively, the film-makers shoot extensively from the air to emulate the Predator surveillance system which tracks activities on the ground from unmanned aircraft. The fact that the CIA in Virginia can watch live aerial images of their agents walking down a street in Jordan or Dubai is as technologically wondrous as it is morally disturbing; for Scott it's a chance to create elaborate action sequences from multiple cameras on the ground as well as from the air.

The film starts as CIA near-east chief Ed Hoffman (a portly Crowe) reads out a report about the enormous challenges of fighting the war on terror, and then moves to Iraq where his top intelligence man Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is working on the ground to ferret out troublemakers. The pressure is on to locate extremist leader Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul) who has begun a wave of terrorist attacks on western cities.

Following a lead to Jordan, Ferris enlists the support of the supersmooth Hani Salaam (Strong, creating the film's most memorable characterisation), head of Jordanian intelligence, and the two keep watch on a safehouse for Jihaadists in Amman, but when Hoffman blows the operation, Ferris is thrown out of the country. That's when he and Hoffman devise an audacious scheme to flush out Al-Saleem – by creating an imaginary terrorist organization.

Respect for human life on both sides is minimal and, just as much as the terrorists, Scott goes to some lengths to show the Hoffman and Ferris characters causing the deaths of innocent people without a second thought. Ferris may be portrayed as having a conscience – he even has a love interest – but his dark work for his country always comes first.

Despite the admirable moral ambiguity, however, there's something discomfiting about the notion that the middle eastern conflicts can now act as fodder for expensive Hollywood action movies. A sequence in which the Noordermarkt in Amsterdam is obliterated by a suicide bomber, causing over 100 deaths, feels almost pornographic.

Production company
Scott Free Productions
De Line Pictures

Worldwide distribution
Warner Bros

Executive producers
Michael Costigan
Charles JD Schlissel

Producers
Donald De Line
Ridley Scott

Screenplay
William Monahan
Based on the novel by David Ignatius

Cinematography
Alexander Witt

Production design
Arthur Max

Editor
Pietro Scalia

Music
Marc Streitenfeld

Main cast
Leonardo DiCaprio
Russell Crowe
Mark Strong
Golshifteh Farahani
Oscar Isaac
Simon McBurney

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NBC is developing a new take on homeland security from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and writer Matthew Carnahan ("Dirt"), reports Variety.

Fuqua, Carnahan and Michael De Luca will executive produce "ICE," which will be set in the world of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division of Homeland Security. Universal Media Studios will produce.

Created as part of the post-9/11 homeland security overhaul, "ICE" is charged with being on the lookout for the trafficking of everything that crosses the U.S. borders, from arms, drugs and counterfeit money to weapons of mass destruction, stolen antiquities and even human slaves.

Carnahan will create the project, while Fuqua will direct. Alissa Phillips and Mary Alice Haney, who originated the project, will co-produce.

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Overture Films is set to remake the Icelandic whodunit "Jar City" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The original centered on a police detective whose investigation of a murder leads to the uncovering of secrets and corruption in a small Icelandic town as well as an exploration of his own relationships.

The new version will shift the action to a small Louisiana town. Michael Ross will adapt the screenplay and original helmer Baltasar Kormakur will serve as a producer on the remake.

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Assorted sequel talks today, lets begin:

'The Cottage' director Paul Andrew Willams is tipped to be helming "28 Months Later", the second sequel to Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" according to JoBlo.

Actor Columbus Short has confirms to IGN that he is up for the role of Murtaugh's son in "Lethal Weapon 5". He adds that the film is being fast tracked into production.

It sounds highly dubious, but China Daily reports that Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn will re-team on a sequel to "The Break-Up" with Aniston offered $20 million.

Finally, Lionsgate has launched the full official site for Lexi Alexander's "Punisher: War Zone".

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Kevin Costner plans to reprise his role of Crash Davis in the follow-up to the 1988 baseball-themed romantic comedy "Bull Durham" reports The New York Post.

Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are expected to return for the second film with the later playing the married owners of a Major League Baseball team Costner's character manages.

Kristen Kerr (TVs "Dexter") is also being considered to play one of Costner's love interests in the film. Costner recently met with director Ron Shelton to discuss the project.

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Despite the economic downturn, the various studios are getting ready to move forward as more than forty productions get underway early next year reports Variety.

Due to the writers strike and the threat of an actors strike, studios quickly rushed through approval on projects in late 2007 before grinding approvals to a halt for much of the last twelve months.

Now with the writer's strike over and the threat of an actor's strike being offset by stubborn and prolonged in-fighting, a rush has begun to get projects into production and fill release date slots in 2010 and 2011 that are going begging.

It's a two-edged sword despite financing for these films having already been secured. On the one hand with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) situation still unresolved and no more 'strike insurance' on offer, studios take a risk of losing millions if SAG does go on strike.

On the other is that the window is quickly closing on time to have product ready for release in 2010 and 2011, economic slowdowns if anything drive more people to the movies, and the actors themselves are keen to get back to work if only to ensure paychecks keep coming during these uncertain times.

The upcoming film slates of the major studios are as follows (some are already well into production and will be unaffected):

Sony Pictures:
"2012" - The Roland Emmerich-helmed global disaster epic
"Angels & Demons" - The Tom Hanks-led 'Da Vinci Code' prequel
"The Green Hornet" - Stephen Chow-directed superhero film with Seth Rogen
"Salt" - The Phillip Noyce-helmed, Angelina Jolie spy thriller
"Zombieland" - The Ruben Fleischer-directed zombie buddy movie

Walt Disney Pictures:
"Alice in Wonderland" - Tim Burton's new take on the Lewis Carrol classic
"Mars Needs Moms" - A Robert Zemeckis-produced motion-capture film
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" - A Jon Turteltaub-directed, Nicolas Cage thriller
"TR2N" - The sequel to cult 80's sci-fi flick "Tron"
"Wild Hogs 2" - Comedy sequel once again helmed by Walt Becker

20th Century Fox:
"The A-Team" - The John Singleton-directed film based on the 80's series
"Alvin and the Chipmunks 2" - The sequel to the recent family smash hit
"Avatar" - The James Cameron-directed 3D sci-fi fantasy
"Date Night" - Shawn Levy-helmed rom-com with Steve Carell and Tina Fey
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" - A live-action take on the comic about a student
"Family Wedding" - Rick Famuyiwa-helmed African-American family drama
"Night at the Museum 2" - The sequel to the Ben Stiller fantasy comedy hit
"Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" - Chris Columbus-directed family film
"Orbit" - Thriller about a civilian stuck alone in space when a shuttle crew dies
"Ramona" - The Fox-Walden fantasy based on Beverly Cleary's novel series
"Tooth Fairy" - Dwayne Johnson tries to save the tooth fairy kingdom
"Town House" - John Carney-directed comedy about a dead rocker's son

MGM Films:
"The Cabin in the Woods" - The Drew Goddard-directed horror flick
"Fame" - The Kevin Tancharoen-helmed remake of the 80's musical
"The Matarese Circle" - David Cronenberg helmed political thriller adaptation
"RoboCop" - Darren Aronofsky-helmed remake of the sci-fi classic.

Marvel Studios:
"Iron Man 2" - The Jon Favreau-directed sequel with Robert Downey Jr.
"Thor" - The Kenneth Branagh-helmed viking god feature

Miramax:
"The Debt" - John Madden-directed thriller with Helen Mirren
"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" - A remake of the 1973 TV horror movie
"Man on a Train" - An intergenerational drama

New Line:
"Gears of War" - The Len Wiseman-helmed video game adaptation
"A Nightmare on Elm Street" - The Wesley Strick-directed remake
"Sex and the City 2" - The sequel to this year's hit comedy
"Torrente" - Remake of Spanish dark comedy about a corrupt cop

Paramount Pictures:
"Beverly Hills Cop 4" - The Brett Ratner-directed Eddie Murphy sequel
"Footloose" - The Kenny Ortega-directed musical remake with Zac Efron
"The Last Airbender" - The M. Night Shyamalan-helmed cartoon adaptation
"Morning Glory" - Roger Michell-directed comedy about a female producer
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" - The robot action-fueled sequel
"Us and Them"

Universal Pictures:
"BioShock" - The Gore Verbinski-helmed adaptation of the video game.
"Couples Retreat" - The Peter Billingsley-directed comedy with Vince Vaughn
"Funny People" - Judd Apatow-directed dramedy about stand-up comedians
"Get Him to the Greek" - The Nicholas Stoller-directed comedy.
"Nottingham" - The Ridley Scott-helmed Robin Hood story with Russell Crowe
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" - Edgar Wright-directed comedy with Michael Cera
Untitled Nancy Meyers Comedy - Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin star.

Warner Bros. Pictures:
"The Book of Eli" - The Denzel Washington post-apocalyptic western
"Clash of the Titans" - Louis Leterrier-helmed remake of the 80's classic
"Hangover" - Todd Phillips-helmed comedy about a bachelor party
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" - The two-part final installment
"Human Factor" - Clint Eastwood-directed drama with Morgan Freeman
"Jonah Hex" - The Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor-helmed comic adaptation
"Suckerpunch" - The Zack Snyder-directed action fantasy
"Terminator Salvation" - The McG-helmed sci-fi action sequel

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Millennium Films is plotting a remake of 2004 French heist drama "Le Convoyeur," and the studio is negotiating with Eric Bana to star and F. Gary Gray to direct.
Scripted by David Ayer and Andrew Kevin Walker, the drama has been retitled "Armored" and relocated to Michigan. Story follows a man who takes a job for an armored car company and ingratiates himself with his co-workers, who trust him enough to make him part of their heist plans. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, the man had his own motives for taking the job.

Bana flirted with the project last year before going off to play the villain in the J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Trek," but he's back and has a deal negotiated down to what sources described as a $7.5 million paycheck. His participation, though, is contingent on scheduling: "Armored" is skedded to begin shooting April 1, and Bana is committed to promoting "Star Trek," which Paramount releases May 8. Bana also stars with Rachel McAdams in "The Time Traveler's Wife" for Warner Bros.

"Armored" likely will be retitled because of an upcoming Screen Gems drama that bears the title. Gray, who has helmed heist films "The Italian Job" and "Set It Off," last directed "Be Cool."

Pic is being produced by Michaels Goldwyn partners Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn, Emmett/Furla's Randall Emmett, Avi Lerner and Michael Aguilar.

Bana has returned to his roots as a standup comedian in the Judd Apatow-directed "Funny People," which is shooting, and he is also making his directing debut on "Love the Beast," a documentary about his and other men's obsession with fixing and racing cars.

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Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear, Seven Years in Tibet) is in talks to direct Relativity Media's bounty hunter tale "Kashmir" says Empire Online.

The D.B. Weiss-scripted story revolves around three ex-mercenaries who stumble upon information as to where a wanted terrorist will be for a short period of time.

They decide to brave a trip into the volatile region between Pakistan and India to catch the terrorist and claim the $30 million bounty on his head.

Each man has a different motive for taking the dangerous journey, and their loyalties are tested when the going gets rough.

Relativity's Ryan Kavanaugh, David Benioff Guymon Casady and Michael De Luca will produce. Shooting will begin late spring.

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Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh has cast precocious porn star Sasha Grey as the lead in his upcoming feature, "The Girlfriend Experience," Adult Video News reported.

The low-budget drama, currently shooting in Gotham, chronicles the life of a high-price call girl, is part of Soderbergh's six-pic deal with multimedia entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Pic was written by "Ocean's 13" scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien and will bow under the Magnolia Pictures shingle.

The 20-year-old Grey entered the skin biz just after her 18th birthday and has appeared in scores of XXX flicks. In January she became the youngest recipienct of AVN's Female Performer of the Year award.

For Grey, who lists Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Catherine Breillat among her favorite filmmakers, "Girlfriend" will be her third legit film appearance in 2009, having notched small parts in Dick Rude's indie "Quit" and Canadian horror project "Smash Cut."

"To have the opportunity to work for an Academy Award-winning auteur is truly a great honor," Grey told AVN. "I've been an admirer of Soderbergh's films for years, and I am elated that I have been given a leading role in a character-driven film."

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Acclaimed Australian director Peter Weir ("The Truman Show," "Master and Commander") is set to direct the fact-based story "The Way Back" reports Variety.

The story deals with soldiers being captured by the Sovier Red Army in 1939 and his journey to freedom with other inmates when they escaped a year later.

The group crossed the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas, finally settling in Tibet and India.

Weir wrote the script and based it on several sources, most notably the Slavomir Rawicz book of the same name. Production begins in March in Bulgaria.

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The new live-action film version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe entitled "Grayskull" has been canceled at Warner Bros. Pictures reports Latino Review.

The studio apparently gave executives at Silver Pictures a short list of A-list directors they would consider making the film (eg. Doug Liman, Bryan Singer) and most passed.

The few remaining up and coming directors who were keen however weren't comfortable enough for Warners to go with.

Another reason is that two executives who were championing the project at Silver Pictures left the company last month.

Justin Marks penned the script for the property which was well-reviewed online.

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Hugh Grant has left the rom-com "Lost for Words" from Universal Pictures and Working Title reports Variety.

Grant had agreed last summer to play a British actor approached to star in a film by a Chinese director (Ziyi Zhang). After a flirtation with her translator, the actor falls for the director.

Grant cites creative differences for the departure from the Susanne Bier-directed project. A spokeswoman for Grant said, "They were not able to get a script everyone agreed on but it's our understanding that Working Title is moving ahead with the project and Hugh wishes them well."

Jamie Curtis and Dan Mazer wrote the script.

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Neil Gaiman confirms that once David Fincher replaced Alexandre Aja on the film adaptation of Charles Burns' acclaimed graphic novel "Black Hole", he and fellow "Beowulf" scribe Roger Avary stepped away from the project.

"David explained his process consisted of having over ten drafts, done over and over, and Roger and I were sort of asked if we wanted to, if we were interested in doing that. And we definitely weren't" Gaiman says in an interview with MTV News.

Fincher still has their last draft of the script but Gaiman admits he doesn't know the status of the project any further than that.

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ScreenDaily Home > Story  

Joe Dante ready to enter the 3D Hole
Jeremy Kay in Los Angeles
22 Oct 2008 23:07

 

Joe Dante will commence shooting the 3D supernatural thriller The Hole starring Teri Polo, Chris Massoglia and Haley Bennett  for Bold Films and Benderspink in Vancouver on December 2.

Bold Films International will commence pre-sales at AFM next month on the story of two brothers and their neighbour who discover a mysterious hole in the basement of their new home that forces them to confront their deepest fears. Mark Smith wrote the screenplay.

Bold's David Lancaster and Michel Litvak are producing and Bold's Gary Michael Walters serves as executive producer alongside Benderspink's J C Spink and Chris Bender.

"This is essentially a family oriented story and I was drawn to it by the quality of the writing and the characters, which were above average for this kind of film," said Dante, whose long line of credits include Gremlins, Piranha, The Howling, Small Soldiers and Innerspace.

"Bold Films strives to stay on the cutting edge of creativity and technology," Walters said. "With visionary director Joe Dante at the helm we have decided to take advantage of the recent advances and shoot The Hole in 3D. The unique advantages of 3D create endless opportunities for a story of this nature."

Massoglia will star for Universal in Chris Weitz's 2009 release Cirque Du Freak opposite Salma Hayek. Bennett stars in the upcoming horror feature The Haunting Of Molly Hartley that Freestyle Releasing is scheduled to release on October 31.

She will also appear in December in Fox's comedy Marley And Me opposite Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson.

Bold's AFM slate include the thriller Jack to be directed by Joseph Ruben. The company wrapped production in the summer on Legion starring Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson and Charles S Dutton. Screen Gems will release in North American and SPRI is handling the overseas roll-out.

Benderspink's roster of films includes The Butterfly Effect, A History Of Violence, The Ring, American Wedding and Red Eye.

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WB nabs Colombian hostage pitch
Di Bonaventura, Burns to produce thriller
By MICHAEL FLEMING
WB is adapting the story of last summer's hostage rescue in Colombia.

Warner Bros. has acquired an untitled action thriller pitch about the rescue of 15 hostages from the Colombian jungle last summer. Peter Landesman has been set to write the script.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Scott Z. Burns will produce with McLarty Media, the showbiz consulting arm of D.C.-based international advisory firm McLarty Associates.

The film will focus on Operacion Jaque, a five-year plan to locate and rescue three Americans who had been captured in 2003 by Colombian guerilla group FARC. The covert effort involved numerous governments, diplomats and intelligence services and a vast network of spies, military advisers and soldiers plus high-tech surveillance measures.

WB becomes the second major studio to put a rescue film in development. Sony's Screen Gems is working on "Operation Checkmate," a drama being scripted by Jessica Postigo, with Simon Brand to direct. Though fellow captive, Ingrid Betancourt, signed with French lit agent Susanna Lea and CAA, she has not made a movie deal to date.

The WB film will rely heavily on McLarty Associates as a resource. The consulting group was involved in the entire operation, having been hired by Northrop Grumman, which employed the three Americans.

McLarty's efforts were led by managing director Stephen Donehoo, the firm's resident expert in Latin America's Andean region. McLarty Media managing director Rich Klein was integral in plugging the company into the film package. Both Klein and Donehoo will be co-producers and McLarty is taking its first film production credit.

Landesman is a foreign correspondent for the New York Times Magazine. He most recently adapted the memoir of Mark Felt, the former FBI honcho who revealed himself to be the famed "Deep Throat" informant in the Watergate scandal, into a pic for Universal and Playtone.

"We're fed so many post-9/11 movies filled with political ambiguity, but this story is unequivocally about good vs. evil, with a happy ending," Landesman said. "FARC once represented an idea of freedom for peasants, but it became a purely evil narco-trafficking and hostage-taking mechanism."

McLarty and Burns are repped by UTA; Landesman is repped by CAA.

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"Saw" producers Twisted Pictures and the Roseblood Movie Company, the horror/thriller division of RKO Pictures, are teaming for remakes or four RKO horror classics from the 30's and 40's reports Variety.

Andy Fickman will direct at least one of the films which include:

Five Came Back (1939): Lucille Ball and John Carradine star in the John Farrow-directed feature about a flight to South America which crash lands in the jungle. As the pilots rush to fix the plane, they realise it can only carry five of the twelve passengers back, and time is running out as head hunters get closer.

I Walked With a Zombie (1943): The Jacques Tourneur-directed story of a young Canadian nurse who comes to the West Indies to care for the seemingly paralysed wife of a plantation manager. The nurse becomes resolute to cure her, even if she needs to use a voodoo ceremony.

The Body Snatcher (1945): Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff starred in this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's story of a surgeon who hires a cabman to dig up graves to provide him with fresh corpses for dissection. The cabman soon turns to murder to get new corpses for the doctor. Robert Wise ("The Sound of Music," "The Day the Earth Stood Still") directed.

Bedlam (1946): Boris Karloff and Anna Lee starred in this Mark Robson-directed adaptation of William Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress". Set in an insane asylum, an artistocrat's protege seeks to reform the conditions at the mad house, much to the chagrin of the apothecary general.

RKO chairman Ted Hartley is producing the remakes with Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Carl Mazzocone.

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Brian Levy's New School Media has optioned "Fight Club" and "Choke" author Chuck Palahniuk's 2005 novel "Haunted" says the trades.

The story revolves around a group of characters who answer an ad for a writers retreat and unwittingly end up competing in a "Survivor"-like scenario, where the host withholds heat, power and food.

As the storytellers grow more desperate they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show or film that they expect will be made from their plight.

Belgian helmer Koen Mortier ("Ex-Drummer") will adapt and direct.

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Could the big-screen adaptation of Runaways be Marvel Studios' Goonies? Kevin Feige sure hopes so.

"I love the idea of kids banding together, discovering this thing," the president of production tells MTV.com, "which I think all kids secretly wonder at one time or another whether their parents are good or evil. Well, these guys find out, unfortunately, that their parents happen to be supervillains. I loved, when I was a kid, movies like Goonies and Explorers — and a non-genre example of that is Stand by Me — the idea that when I came home from school, I could go on an adventure anywhere."

Announced in May, Runaways is based on the Marvel Comics series created in 2003 by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. In it, a group of teen-agers discover their parents are part of a crime organization called the Pride. The kids defeat their parents, and then protect Los Angeles from the criminals who pour in to fill the void in the underworld.

Vaughan is writing the script, which Feige says will essentially follow the comic's initial story arc.

Marvel's movie slate is filled through 2012, which will see the release of The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers; Runaways will come sometime after.

It also may signal a new direction for Marvel Studios films, as it's unlikely to feature the cameos and Easter eggs that form the building blocks of the current stable.

"If it fits a dramatic moment that we want to get across in the film, we would be able to do that — but I wouldn't want to rely on having Iron Man come in and wave every five minutes so we can put that in the commercial and sell more," Feige said.

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Soderbergh to make 3-D 'Cleopatra'
Live-action musical may star Zeta-Jones
By MICHAEL FLEMING, ELSA KESLASSY
Soderbergh


Zeta-Jones


Jackman


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For his next directing effort, Steven Soderbergh is plotting a 3-D live-action rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra.
He is courting Catherine Zeta-Jones to play the Egyptian queen and Hugh Jackman to play her lover, Marc Antony.

The $30 million "Cleo" will be shopped for financing and distribution within the next two weeks. Greg Jacobs is producing with Casey Silver.

The music has been written by the indie rock band Guided by Voices, and the script is by James Greer, a former bass player for the band and an author.

While Soderbergh has recently done a spate of wildly different projects, this one will be his first full-blown musical.

Soderbergh, who's about to release the Benicio Del Toro starrer "Che" and wrapped Matt Damon starrer "The Informant," is also prepping a Richard LaGravanese-scripted Liberace film at Warner Bros., with Michael Douglas attached to play the entertainer and Damon to play his companion, who sued him for palimony.

Before "Cleo," Soderbergh's directing "The Girlfriend Experience," setting porn star Sasha Grey to play a $10,000-a-night call girl in a film that will be simultaneously distributed in theaters, on DVD and on the HDNet movie channel by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's HDNet label.

Calls to Soderbergh's reps went unreturned.

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Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to the Electronic Arts video game "Army of Two" reports the trades.

Having sold more than a million units since it launched in March, the two-player game is a contest in which a pair of private military contractors fight their way through a web of intrigue.

"The Bourne Ultimatum" co-writer Scott Z. Burns will adapt the property which will fast-track the project to begin production in 2009.

Scott Stuber will produce with EA, the first time the video game manufacturer has been directly involved in a film production.

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Chris Columbus is in negotiations to direct the long-gestating "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" for Paramount Pictures reports Variety.

Jim Carrey is still set to star as newspaper columnist-explorer Robert Ripley who goes on strange adventures that defy explanation.

Originally slated to go into production last year with Tim Burton at the helm, Columbus has pitched a new concept that Paramount and Carrey sparked to.

As a result, the original China-based storyline will be scrapped. The studio will soon hire a writer to draft the project and is aiming for a 2011 release.

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Ben Stiller is in early talks to direct DreamWorks narrative film version of "The Trial of the Chicago 7", a project which the likes of Paul Greengrass and Steven Spielberg have been candidates to helm says The Hollywood Reporter.

The political drama about the 1968 riots at the Democratic convention and their aftermath would mark a departure for Stiller who's helming work has been on comedies like "Tropic Thunder" and "Zoolander".

Under terms of the DreamWorks/Paramount separation agreement, DreamWorks has taken over development of the project and wants to put the film into production right away.