the most anticipated...

[crippled_avenger]

The Informers
On the other hand, Australian director Gregor Jordan's ode to the 80s, "The Informers", seems so out of place at this festival. Sure it's a guilty pleasure film full of copious amounts of sex and nudity, which is not objectionable per se, but a script helps, and actors who can solidly interpret characters.

Based on author Bret Easton Ellis' rambling tales of 1980s Los Angeles, "The Informers" is a multi-strand narrative set in 1984 Los Angeles, centered on an array of characters who represent both the top of the heap (a Hollywood dream merchant, a dissolute rock star, an aging newscaster) and the bottom (a voyeuristic doorman, an amoral ex-con).

Connecting the intertwining strands are a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs -- and one another --with abandon, never realizing that they are dancing on the edge of a volcano. I get what Ellis was doing, commenting on the sexual excesses of the 80s when AIDS was first coming into being, and the disease is certainly part of the film. But the screenplay, co-written by first-timer Nicholas Jarecki, along with novelist Ellis, has no depth whatsoever, but a meaningless series of unsympathetic caricatures, brought to life by a bevy of attractive, soulless actors.

None of this is the fault of director Jordan, an accomplished filmmaker who can only shoot the material available to him. He has a fluid, visual style, and the film certainly looks stylish and perfectly captures the period. With the exception of pros Billy Bob Thornton and a striking Kim Basinger, "The Informers" has very little to offer, apart from numerous sex scenes, drug-taking and the weirdest, out of place character played by Mickey Rourke who needs to think about the choices he makes.

This film about perpetual self-destruction is an unnecessary addition to Sundance, and it is likely given the film's bad reviews, that a theatrical release is an unlikely event, but rather relegated to cable and DVD. As a huge admirer of Gregor's work, it is unfortunate that he opted to do something this shallow and narratively incohesive, but then you're only as good as your source material and therein lay the problem.

[crippled_avenger]

Routh, Whitman, Pill Join "Scott Pilgrim"By Garth FranklinTuesday, January 20th 2009 3:10am Even more names have joined the cast of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" for Universal Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

"Pilgrim" centers on young slacker Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who meets the woman of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but finds he can win her heart only by battling and defeating her seven evil ex-boyfriends.

Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns") plays the third evil boyfriend, Todd Ingram, a rocker with vegan psychic powers.

Mae Whitman ("Tinker Bell," "Avatar: The Last Airbender") is Roxy Richter, the fourth ex, a female who is half-ninja.

Satya Bhabha plays an ex-boyfriend who can summon demon hipster girls at will.

Brie Larson ("United States of Tara") plays Pilgrim's ex-girlfriend, Envy Adams, for whom he still has feelings.

Mark Webber ("The Hottest State," "Broken Flowers") is Stephen Stills - the lead singer of Pilgrim's rock band.

Alison Pill ("Milk," "The Book of Daniel") is the band's drummer while Johnny Simmons ("Evan Almighty," "The Spirit") is Young Neil, the band's biggest fan.

Finally Anna Kendrick ("Twilight," "Rocket Science") is Pilgrim's sister.

Edgar Wright co-penned and will direct the adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's cult favorite graphic novel which features romance, teen angst and plenty of fantastical action.

Marc Platt, Eric Gitter, Nira Park and Wright are producing.

[DušMan]

Two feel Joss Whedon's 'Cabin' pressure
Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford eye horror feature

By Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez

Jan 21, 2009, 01:00 AM ET

Richard Jenkins, left, and Bradley Whitford (Getty Images photos)

Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are moving to "The Cabin in the Woods."

Jenkins is on board and Whitford is in final negotiations to star in the mystery-shrouded MGM/UA horror project written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who also is directing. Whedon is producing.

Much like "Cloverfield," which Goddard scripted, the "Cabin" story line provides a new twist on a classic scenario -- in this case the young-people-stranded-in-the-woods horror trope.

"It's really just your basic typecasting: When you need two actors to run through the woods in low-cut nighties, you immediately think of Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford," Goddard joked.

Whedon said the casting signals what kind of movie they are hoping to make. "They're the first proof that though 'The Cabin in the Woods' is a classic horror film, it isn't one you've seen before."

While the studio and filmmakers were loath to provide character details, it is understood that Jenkins and Whitford will play white-collar co-workers with a mysterious connection to the cabin.

The UA production is prepping for a spring shoot and will open wide Feb. 5, 2010, with MGM distributing.

MGM, which Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman Mary Parent spent much of 2008 rebuilding, has a lot riding on Whedon and Goddard's genre effort. It will be -- after the planned September opening of the studio's "Fame" revamp -- only the second homegrown production of the recharged Parent regime.

Gersh-repped Jenkins is riding high on his SAG and Film Independent Spirit awards noms for "The Visitor." He most recently was seen in "Burn After Reading" and "Step Brothers." He is additionally repped by Bill Treusch.

Whitford, repped by Endeavor and Greenlight Management, most recently appeared in "Bottle Shock" and "An American Crime."

[crippled_avenger]

Warner Bros. is turning to Tom and Jerry to create its own "Alvin and the Chipmunks"-like family franchise.
Plans are to bring the constantly warring cat and mouse to life as CG characters that run around in live-action settings.

Studio-based Dan Lin, currently producing the upcoming "Sherlock Holmes" and exec producer on "Terminator: Salvation," will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home.

Eric Gravning is penning the script.

Scribe wrote "B-Minor," which has Ron Howard attached to helm at Universal; "Mr. Burnout," which is set up at Participant Prods.; as well as "Class Act" at Walden Media, with Halle Berry aboard to star.

Warners owns the rights to Hanna-Barbera's slate of popular animated properties and has several of them in development for bigscreen adaptation.

Those include Robert Rodriguez's version of "The Jetsons" and producer Donald De Line's "Yogi Bear."

The live-action/animated combo has worked for Warners before.

The studio successfully turned "Scooby-Doo" into a live-action franchise with two films that earned a combined $457 million theatrically and a direct-to-DVD feature in the works. It cast the Looney Tunes characters opposite Michael Jordan in "Space Jam" long before that, and there was Joe Dante's "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," starring Brendan Fraser, in 2003.

Interest in the new projects certainly ramped up after "Alvin and the Chipmunks" earned a whopping $360 million worldwide, besting even Fox's predictions for the pic, which was budgeted at $60 million. A sequel was quickly greenlit, with the singing rodents skedded to hit the screen again in 2010.

Revenue potential from worldwide box office, DVD, games and merchandise sales, as well as the potential for sequels and earnings from TV and homevid spinoffs, is considered too good to pass up.

The built-in familiarity of the characters has studio bosses feeling they're not taking the kind of risk associated with creating a new property marketing mavens must promote from scratch.

"Tom and Jerry" originated as a series of 114 animated shorts, produced by MGM's toon studio between 1940 and 1960, and won seven Academy Awards. New toons were produced after that, and Warner Bros. released "Tom and Jerry: The Movie" in 1992 as a feature-length toon.

Lin will produce "Tom and Jerry" through his Lin Pictures, while Jon Silk will co-produce.

Lin is also producing Cameron Diaz starrer "The Box" and Ricky Gervais starrer "This Side of Truth," and he's exec producer on Rodriguez's "Shorts."

[crippled_avenger]

Tom Wilkinson and Jim Belushi round out the cast of Roman Polanski's "The Ghost." Lensing on the thriller based on the Robert Harris novel of the same name is to begin Feb. 4 in Berlin.
Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Williams had been previously announced as cast members.

Screenplay, penned by Harris and Polanski, centers on a former British prime minister who's holed up on an island writing his memoirs when his aide drowns, triggering political and sexual intrigue.

Polanski's producing along with Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde. Shoot will take place mainly at Studio Babelsberg.

Summit Intl., which has a longstanding relationship with Polanski and the producers, is repping the film for RP Prods. and has pre-sold "The Ghost" to Pathe in France; Kinowelt in Germany; Optimum in the U.K.; Rai Cinema in Italy; Acme UAB in the Baltic states; Dutch Filmworks in Benelux; and SPI Intl. in Eastern Europe.

A U.S. distributor has yet to be announced. ICM is representing North American rights.

Wednesday's announcement came as an appeals court issued a stay on a hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court over Polanski's request for a dismissal of his conviction for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

[crippled_avenger]

Story  

Berlinale's 2009 Panorama programme finalised
Martin Blaney in Berlin
21 Jan 2009 18:01

 

The section's main programme will open on February 5 with Danish actress-director Rie Rasmussen's debut feature Human Zoo while the Panorama Special strand will kick off with another debut, North (Nord) by Norway's Rune Denstad Langlo.

The final raft of titles to be confirmed include world premieres of new films from German directors Andreas Struck (Sleeping Songs), Jochen Hick (The Good American) and Marco Wilms (Comrade Couture), Russia's Pavel Bardin (Russia 88) and Hong Kong's Simon Chung (End Of Love)


In addition, Korean-born Sung-Hyung Cho brings her new documentary Home From Home to Berlin. The film looks at ex-pat Koreans returning to Korea after 30 years of living and working in Germany to spend their retirement in a purpose-built "German village".


In addition to celebrating 30 years of programming, the Panorama is also marking 10 years of the Panorama Audience Award by re-screening all of the winning films from the past decade - from Spanish filmmaker Benito Zambrano's Alone in 1998 to Eran Riklis's Lemon Tree in 2008.


The additional confirmed titles completing the programme are:


Panorama Main Programme

A North Chinese Girl by Zou Peng, People's Republic of China (WP)

Raging Sun, Raging Sky by Julián Hernández, Mexico (WP)

Retribution by Paulo Pons, Brazil


Russia 88 by Pavel Bardin, Russian Federation (WP)

Sleeping Songs by Andreas Struck, Germany (WP)

Strella by Panos H. Koutras, Greece (WP)

Panorama Special

Claustrophobia by Ivy Ho, Hong Kong, China

End Of Love by Simon Chung, Hong Kong, China (WP)

North by Rune Denstad Langlo, Norway (WP)

Short Cut To Hollywood by Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Germany, Austria, USA (WP)

Yang Yang by Yu-Chieh Cheng, Taiwan (WP)

Panorama Dokumente

City Of Borders by Yun Suh, USA (WP)

Comrade Couture by Marco Wilms, Germany (WP)

Home From Home by Sung-Hyung Cho, Germany (WP)

Kashmir: Journey To Freedom by Udi Aloni, USA/Israel

Kiss The Moon by Kha lid Gill, Germany (WP)

Off Ways by Uli M Schueppel, Germany (WP)

The Good American by Jochen Hick, Germany (WP)

The Yes Men Fix The World by Mike Bonanno, Andy Bichlbaum, Kurt Engfehr, USA

War And Love In Kabul by Helga Reidemeister, Germany (WP)


Supporting Films

575 Castro Street by Jenni Olson, USA

Gevald by Netalie Braun, Israel

Queer Sarajevo Festival 2008 by Masa Hilcisin, Cazim Dervisevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (WP)

The Casuarina Cove by Junfeng Boo, Singapore (WP)

The End Of The Pig Is The Beginning Of The Sausage by John Edward Heys, Germany (WP)

[crippled_avenger]

Dare
Tim Grierson in Park City
in Los Angeles
22 Jan 2009 06:59

 


Dir: Adam Salky . US. 2009. 90 mins.

Addressing serious themes through deceptively campy humour and outrageous sexual antics, Dare manages to revamp teen-movie archetypes. Director Adam Salky and screenwriter David Brind go for shock value in their tale of three students who cope with their final semester of high school by seducing one another, but while not all the filmmakers' gambits work, this low-budget comedy is thematically daring and increasingly engrossing as it rolls along.

Dare presents a marketing challenge in that the film has no major stars, except for Emmy Rossum who has appeared in The Day After Tomorrow and the film version of The Phantom Of The Opera. That, coupled with the film's frank sexual themes (including mild scenes of homosexuality), could make this a difficult theatrical proposition, although ancillary markets might be more receptive.

Split into three sections, Dare traces the lives of three high school students. Alexa (Rossum) is tired of being pigeonholed as the good girl and decides to sex up her image. Alexa's best friend Ben (Ashley Springer) is beginning to wonder if he might be gay. Johnny (Zach Gilford) is the class heartthrob who attracts both Alexa and Ben because of his bad-boy persona. Alexa and Johnny begin a sexual relationship, but soon Ben's interest in Johnny complicates that romance.

Adapted from a short film which focused on just Ben and Johnny, Dare has been expanded to include the Alexa character, who becomes the catalyst for a series of sexual explorations between the three students. At first, director Adam Salky seems to be settling for broad satire at the expense of these three cookie-cutter archetypes, but once each character "dares" to take his or her own sexual risk, it becomes clear that David Brind's screenplay is using these funny, titillating exploits to make larger points about the eternal adolescent desire to feel accepted and popular.

Dare craftily dramatises the different power shifts going on among these three characters, and the film's flamboyant, tawdry style gives the material a juicy vitality. On occasion, Salky allows the bed-hopping to descend into soap-opera theatrics, but for the most part Dare offers a wised-up reconsideration of the standard teen-movie clichés about jocks and cheerleaders that's as refreshing as it is legitimately sexy.

Taking their cue from Dare's lascivious overtones, the cast members deliver pert performances which never lose their grounding in recognisable behaviour. Emmy Rossum nicely negotiates Alexa's self-conscious transition from polite prude to sassy vixen while demonstrating that the uptight young woman still exists within this new persona. Once Ben embraces his homosexuality, Ashley Springer gives his character a seductive innocence that seems to be blossoming right in front of our eyes. And as the hunky Johnny, Zach Gilford possesses an androgynous handsomeness that makes his true romantic desires a teasing mystery which powers much of the film's forward momentum.

Production companies

Next Wednesday

Gigantic Pictures

US/International Sales

Cinetic Media

(1) 212 204 7979

Producers

Mary Jane Skalski

Jason Orans

Co-producer

David Brind

Screenplay

David Brind

Cinematography

Michael Fimognari

Production designer

Jennifer Dehghan

Editor

John F. Lyons

Music

Duncan Sheik

David Poe

Main cast:

Emmy Rossum

Zach Gilford

Ashley Springer

Ana Gasteyer

Rooney Mara

Sandra Bernhard

Alan Cumming

[crippled_avenger]

Adventureland

Tim Grierson in Park City
22 Jan 2009 07:00

 


Dir/scr: Greg Mottola. US. 2008. 107 mins.

Writer-director Greg Mottola's 80s-set Adventureland feels like a sweeter, more personal riff on Superbad (2007), the raunchy summer smash which he also directed. Jesse Eisenberg's winning performance and a choice soundtrack contribute significantly to a warm love story about two likeminded souls sharing a memorable summer working at a woebegone amusement park.

This goes out in the US on March 27 through Miramax, which will be hoping to attract the same fanbase as Superbad ($170m worldwide). Star Jesse Eisenberg drew accolades for his role in 2005's The Squid And The Whale, but Twilight's Kirsten Stewart as the female love interest will be the main draw here after her vampire romance's $324m worldwide take pre-Christmas.

In the summer of 1987, brainy college graduate James (Eisenberg) must take a summer job if he's to advance any further academically. With few options available, he signs on at Adventureland, a rundown local amusement park. Things look up, though, after he meets Em (Stewart), a cool, edgy girl who also works at Adventureland and shares his love of modern rock. They hit it off, but she doesn't tell him that she's secretly having an affair with the park's married mechanic (Ryan Reynolds).

Greg Mottola started out by writing and directing indie comedy The Daytrippers before directing mainstream movies such as Superbad. Adventureland represents a return to Mottola's roots, but if this comedy's broad humour and pop-culture period detail recall the style of Superbad, his writing here gives the story a heartfelt quality that was largely lacking in his for-hire studio feature. His lead character James may be a sensitive intellectual, but it's very believable that his hip demeanour would click with the gorgeous, introspective Em since they both dream of a larger world outside their shabby surroundings. Mottola supplies his leads with bouncy dialogue that rarely feels merely clever.

As he did in The Squid And The Whale, Eisenberg projects a sense of precocious intelligence and quiet confidence that belies his youthful countenance. James is certainly nerdy, but Eisenberg doesn't rely on self-deprecating gimmicks to elicit sympathy – instead, it's his brains and self-possession that make him attractive. As James's dream girl, Stewart conveys Em's flirtatious spirit while also hinting at the troubles secretly eating away at her.

The celebrated indie-rock band Yo La Tengo provide the wistful score, but the soundtrack is dominated by music supervisor Tracy McKnight's deft song selections (from The New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Big Star, The Replacements and others) which effectively accentuate the emotions of key scenes without overshadowing them.

Production companies

This Is That

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment

Domestic distribution/international sales

Miramax

+ 1 212 941 3800

Producers

Ted Hope

Anne Carey

Sidney Kimmel

Cinematography

Terry Stacey

Production designer

Stephen Beatrice

Editor

Anne McCabe

Music

Yo La Tengo

Main cast:

Jesse Eisenberg

Kristen Stewart

Ryan Reynolds

Martin Starr

Bill Hader

Kristen Wiig

[crippled_avenger]

Grace
By JOHN ANDERSON
'Grace'
• All Sundance Coverage

An Anchor Bay Entertainment (in North America) release of an Indigomotion presentation of an ArieScope Pictures production in association with Dark Eye Entertainment. (International sales: Lightning Entertainment, Los Angeles.) Produced by Kevin DeWalt, Cory Neal, Adam Green, Ingo Volkammer. Executive producers, Scott Einbinder, Simon Edery. Directed, written by Paul Solet.

Madeline - Jordan Ladd
Patricia - Samantha Ferris
Vivian - Gabrielle Rose
Henry - Serge Houde
Michael - Stephen Park
Dr. Sohn - Malcolm Stewart
 "Rosemary's Vegan Vampire Baby" might have been the title of "Grace," a satirical creepfest that mines modern motherhood for all its latent terror: Breastfeeding. Baby monitors. Mothers-in-law. Splatter freaks will suckle on "Grace's" high corpuscle count and others will laugh at the sendup of post-natal obsessiveness. But progressive parents beware: When the movie's besieged mom fixes her problem child a bottle filled with meat juice squeezed from plastic-wrapped beef roasts, you may just lose your mind.
Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) is first seen staring at the ceiling while having sex with her alternately dull and nasty husband Michael (Stephen Park). When, after Madeline gets pregnant, the couple visits midwife Patricia Lang (Samantha Ferris) -- who happens to be Madeline's ex-lover -- Michael asks insulting questions and has a skeptical attitude. On the way home, Michael won't let a car pass them on the road, causing an accident that kills both Michael and the nonborn baby.

Or so we think: Insisting on carrying the fetus to term, Madeline -- and everyone else -- is stunned when the baby is born alive. But rather than being Mommy's little bundle of joy, little Grace turns out to be a nipple-gnawing malcontent who attracts flies.

Hitchcock was renowned for imbuing the most pedestrian object with dread, and, while Solet certainly isn't pretending to be that subtle, he does bestow a sense of crawling tension upon the most benign, or even beneficent, subject -- hospitals, doctors, airbags, tofu, animal-oriented cable TV, a cat, a package of liver. It's both hilarious and politically piquant.

Madeline might have been able to rear little Grace if it were not for her mother-in-law Vivian (Gabriella Rose), who refers to Madeline as "that woman my son married" and is intent on wresting Grace away from her. Enlisting her own feckless Dr. Sohn (Malcolm Stewart) to declare Madeline incompetent, Vivian starts lactating herself in anticipation of getting the baby.

In the showdown between mother and mother-in-law, "Grace" is overcome with spasm of violence that is alternately sick-funny and downright chilling, but doesn't cancel out the intelligence, or at least drollery, with which so much of the film is put together. The cast, Ferris, Ladd and Rose specifically, play it with tongues pretty firmly in cheek. Squeamish-making script by Solet treats its aud's sense of propriety the way a baby treats a diaper.

Production values are good, but the baby-doll stand-ins can be pretty obvious.

[crippled_avenger]

Bill Hader and SNL scribe Simon Rich have written a slasher movie for Judd Apatow to produce according to CHUD

"It's partially Straw Dogs meets Halloween meets Home Alone meets Monster Squad" says the funnyman and "Superbad" star.

When will it get done? "I don't know if it's even going to get made. Judd met with us and said "I want to do a horror movie with you. I want to see you in a slasher movie."'

[crippled_avenger]

Despite talk of an "Arrested Development" movie barreling forward, former co-star of the sitcom Michael Cera tells MTV News that it's still early days yet.

"There's no script or anything, so the movie I think is more hypothetical than people think. I'd possibly play the part. I'd possibly put the script in my shredder...I'm enjoying being the villain" said the actor who is in Sundance at present promoting "Paper Heart".

Show creator Mitch Hurwitz was quoted last year as saying that Cera was the lone holdout of the original cast and Hurwitz doesn't want to write the script until he's confirmed the cast for the film.

Despite Cera's reluctance he's still open to the project and is "very interested to see what the story is with [the film]."

[crippled_avenger]

Horror director Alexandre Aja ("The Hills Have Eyes," "Mirrors") is considering a big screen version of Didier van Cauwelaert's satirical novel "The Gospel According to Jimmy" according to Sci-Fi Wire.

What's the plot? "You have to imagine, a few years from now, the Republicans want to get back in the White House, and the only thing that they find is like an old cloning project ... to clone Jesus from a blood cell on the Shroud of Turin. And one subject had survived, and he's fixing pools in L.A., named Jimmy. And they're going to find him and ask him to come back and help them to get back to power."

Who'd make a good Jesus? Aja thinks that Seth Rogen would be perfect casting. The project is still in early stages as a writer is being sought to adapt the property.

[crippled_avenger]

PARK CITY -- There's nothing funnier than Nazi zombies.

IFC Films, which had remained quiet throughout most of the Sundance Film Festival, suddenly jumped Wednesday to purchase U.S. distribution rights to the Norwegian horror-comedy "Dead Snow." Elle Driver also sold the film in foreign territories Germany, Benelux, the U.K. and Canada.

The mixed-genre flick premiered Saturday night in the Park City at Midnight section at the Egyptian Theatre, where interest was high enough that people were turned away. Written and directed by Tommy Wirkola, the film follows eight medical students who head into the mountains for a skiing vacation only to find themselves sharing the slopes with maniacal Nazi zombies intent on turning the snow blood red.

IFC Films' Arianna Bocco negotiated the deal with Adeline Fontan Tessaur and Eva Diederix at Elle Driver.

"We are thrilled to work with Tommy and our friends at Elle Driver on this unique film," IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring said. "Tommy is a talented new filmmaker in world cinema, and we look forward to helping introduce him to U.S. audiences."

The indie distributor plans to release the film this year.

[crippled_avenger]

Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley are teaming for the British gangster thriller "London Boulevard" reports The Daily Mail.

Farrell will star as a South London criminal who was just released from prison and tries to turn his life around by becoming a handyman for a reclusive actress (Knightley).

"The Departed" and "Kingdom of Heaven" scribe William Monaghan makes his directorial debut on the project and is adapting Ken Bruen's original novel which is obviously inspired by the classic "Sunset Boulevard".

Shooting is slated to begin this summer in London and surrounding areas.

[crippled_avenger]

Endgame
Mike Goodridge in Park City
26 Jan 2009 12:55

 

Dir: Peter Travis. 2009. UK. 109 mins.

A fascinating subject – the behind-the-scenes negotiations between the ANC and South African government to end apartheid in 1985 – gets an intelligent if unremarkable screen treatment in Endgame, a made-for-TV thriller which had its world premiere at Sundance. Encompassing too many plot strands and characters in its 109 minutes, Endgame is ultimately bogged down in plot, leaving it unable to capture the story's emotional heft.

On a scene-by-scene basis, the film is absorbing, courtesy of director Pete Travis' urgent hand-held documentary style and a cast of excellent actors. But its international theatrical prospects are far from certain. South African stories have not been embraced by audiences of late (The Country Of My Skull, Red Dust, Catch A Fire, Goodbye Bafana) and Endgame will probably work best as the high-end TV movie it was designed to be. Perhaps the South African revolution will be better served by a grander theatrical treatment courtesy of Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in The Human Factor, due out later this year.

The film, which doesn't track any one character, but keeps several plots going at the same time, begins by following Michael Young (Miller), the director of communications for mining outfit Consolidated Goldfield, as he is smuggled into an ANC stronghold. Although assumed by many to be a supporter of the apartheid regime, Consolidated was looking to secure its future in a South Africa which would inevitably overturn the white government. Young is charged with sponsoring talks between the ANC and influential Afrikaners representing President Botha.

Young manages to secure the participation of Professor Willie Esterhuyse (Hurt) as the lead white negotiator with future president Thabo Mbeki (Ejiofor) representing the ANC. Botha's head of intelligence Neil Barnard (Strong, in a slippery role not dissimilar from his Jordanian intelligence chief in Body Of Lies) ensures that Esterhuyse keeps him fully abreast of the conversations which take place at a country house in England.

But Barnard is also initiating talks with Nelson Mandela himself, moving him out of prison and into more comfortable quarters and then trying to negotiate with him separately from the ANC. By dividing Mandela from the ANC, he hopes to be able to control the inevitable changeover. As the negotiations carry on on both fronts, tensions run increasingly high, especially when Botha has a stroke and FW de Klerk steps into office.

Some of the best historical films from The Queen to Frost/Nixon tell their bigger stories from the point of view of one or two characters, and indeed Travis himself made a stunning debut by exploring the Omagh bombing as it affected one family. Endgame chooses to cover multiple famous figures from Mandela, Mbeki and Oliver Tambo to de Klerk, Botha and Esterhuyse, and inevitably suffers from a lack of focus.

But as he showed in Omagh and his Hollywood debut Vantage Point, Travis is incredibly gifted at building tension, and there are scenes here – notably a car chase in which Mbeki is almost driven off the road – which are about as well-orchestrated and visceral as it gets.

Production companies

Daybreak Pictures

Channel 4

Target Entertainment Group

Masterpiece

International sales

Target Entertainment Group

+ 44 870 164 7474

Producers

David Aukin

Hal Vogel

Screenplay

Paula Milne, based on The Fall Of Apartheid by Robert Harvey

Cinematography

David Odd

Production designer

Chris Roope

Editor

Clive Barrett

Dominic Strevens

Music

Martin Phipps

Main cast

William Hurt

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Jonny Lee Miller

Mark Strong

Clarke Peters

Derek Jacobi

Timothy West

[crippled_avenger]

Sundance
Kimjongilia
(Documentary -- U.S.-South Korea-France)
By JOHN ANDERSON
Former North Korean army captain Park Myung-ho, as seen in KIMJONGILIA, directed by N.C. Heikin Former North Korean army captain Park Myung-ho, as seen in director N.C. Heikin's 'Kimjongilia.'

A Green Garnet Prods. presentation. (International sales: Visit Films, New York.) Produced by Robert Pepin, David Novack, Young-sun Cho. Executive producer, Mike Figgis. Co-producers, Su Kim, the Saylors brothers. Co-executive producer, James Egan. Directed by N.C. Heikin.
 Offering interviews, info, interpretive dance and generous helpings of North Korean kitsch, "Kimjongilia" tells us one thing we probably already know: That Kim Jong-Il, the despot with the black bouffant, is one of the world's worst at-large criminals, possibly mad, and with a legacy of horror that reaches across generations. Helmer N.C. Heikin orders up her indictment of the "Dear Leader" in a manner passionate and artistic, elevating fascinating, woeful facts into a wholly elevated realm. While mainstream theatrical isn't in the cards, this doc seems likely to lead a healthy life on cable, at festivals and in arthouses.
The Kim dynasty was established 60 years ago when the current leader's father, Kim Il-Sung, established North Korea as a Marxist state, invaded the south and kicked off the Korean War. Despite the "Great Leader's" brutality and incompetence, he was a revered, even mythic figure: "He can travel miles while sitting down," is just one of the claims made for him by the North Korean people, whose fealty to the Kims is portrayed by Heikin as that of an abused child to its parent.

As we learn, North Korean policy is to purge three generations of an offender, so many of Heikin's interview subjects -- who spoke from various locations outside North Korea -- were born or grew up in the current Kim's gulag of concentration camps, where stealing food, shirking work or just having a bad attitude means execution by firing squad. A quick death might be preferable, given North Korea's inability to feed its people: As many as 3.5 million may have perished during the famine of the mid-'90s when world food aid was diverted to the elite, and the common Korean left to die.

The horrors of life as portrayed by Heikin's subjects, all Kim victims, are both ameliorated and elevated by the director's devices, which include a smattering of cheesy Kim-era film and art; the brief introduction of the national flower, the Kimjongilia; and, most intriguingly, a uniformed female traffic agent, whose occasional appearances and dancing provides an anguished, abstract and mute commentary on many unspeakable things.

Production values are tops, notably Peterson Almeida and Mary Lampson's editing.

More than one option(Person) David Novack
ADR, ADR Mixer, Audio Mixer
(Person) David Novack
More than one option(Person) James Egan
Executive Producer
(Person) James Egan
ProducerCamera (color), Kyle Saylors; editors, Peterson Almeida, Mary Lampson; consulting editor, Kate Amend; music, Michael Gordon; animator, Wilhelm Ogterop. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema -- competing), Jan. 21, 2009. Running time: 74 MIN.
(Korean dialogue)

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Wayne Kramer to direct 'Automatic'
Warner Bros.taps helmer for buddy action film
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Kramer


Pic is a buddy action film in the vein of "Lethal Weapon" and is being produced by Joel Silver, whose Silver Pictures launched that franchise for WB.

Story follows two rookie cops out to make their mark and who team with a female former Delta Force operative to stop a mercenary who has stolen a cache of weapons.

The most recent draft was written by Marc Wolff. The hope is to get the film into production later this year.

Kramer, who'll do a pass on the script, last directed "Running Scared" and "The Cooler." He most recently completed writing and directing "Crossing Over," which will be released Feb. 27 by the Weinstein Co.

Kramer's repped by Endeavor and Artist Talent Mgmt.

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Endgame
(U.K.)
By JUSTIN CHANG
'Endgame'
• All Sundance Coverage

A Channel 4, Target Entertainment Group and Masterpiece presentation of a Daybreak Pictures production. (International sales: Target Entertainment Group, London.) Produced by David Aukin, Hal Vogel. Executive producers, Liza Marshall, Arwel Rees, Ian Jones, Alison Rayson, Rebecca Eaton. Co-producer, David Wicht. Directed by Pete Travis. Screenplay, Paula Milne, based on the book "The Fall of Apartheid" by Robert Harvey.

Prof. Willie Esterhuyse - William Hurt
Thabo Mbeki - Chiwetel Ejiofor
Michael Young - Jonny Lee Miller
Neil Barnard - Mark Strong
Nelson Mandela - Clarke Peters
Oliver Tambo - John Kani
Rudolph Agnew - Derek Jacobi
P.W. Botha - Timothy West
 The groundbreaking secret talks that precipitated the end of apartheid in South Africa are recounted crisply and involvingly in "Endgame." A proficient docudrama that simplifies and streamlines as much as it illuminates, director Pete Travis' crackling third feature (after "Omagh" and "Vantage Point") attempts something dramatically difficult -- putting a series of behind-closed-doors debates front and center -- and largely pulls it off, a few fiery car-bomb explosions notwithstanding. Strong performances, widescreen visual sweep and an ultimately inspiring tale of clandestine heroics should secure offshore arthouse berths for this well-made British telepic.
Adapted from Robert Harvey's "The Fall of Apartheid," "Endgame" begins in 1985, with President P.W. Botha's segregationist regime already on the brink of collapse; terrorist attacks by the left-wing African National Congress have become commonplace, and Nelson Mandela, in the final days of his 27-year prison term, has the sympathy of the world.

But change turns out to be economically motivated, as Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller), chairman of the British mining company Consolidated Goldfields, sets out to initiate talks between white Afrikaner leaders and the ANC in an effort to ensure a peaceful transition and protect his company's interests.

Quietly determined and persistent, Young arranges for a series of roundtable discussions to take place at an estate in the English countryside, far from the frontlines, between ANC leader Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Afrikaner professor Willie Esterhuyse (William Hurt). Esterhuyse is encouraged to "play along" by Neil Barnard (Mark Strong), the shrewd head of South Africa's National Intelligence Service, who is undertaking private negotiations of his own with the imprisoned Mandela (played with gravity by Clarke Peters, who resembles Mandela somewhat physically).

Using a vigorous editing style (by Clive Barrett and Dominic Strevens) and handheld Super 16 lensing (by David Odd), Travis approximates a less feverish version of Paul Greengrass' shaky-cam realist aesthetic. He turns the events into a political boardroom thriller that emphasizes rhetoric and warring ideologies as Esterhuyse and Mbeki clash over such subjects as power sharing, the release of political prisoners and the culture of fear ensnaring both sides.

Footage shot in South Africa is always of the tense, imminent-danger variety, and both Mbeki and Esterhuyse are made well aware that they're putting their lives at risk. A renegade ANC attack on civilians, shot from the bomber's perspective, carries a sickeningly suspenseful charge reminiscent of "The Battle of Algiers."

"Endgame" may leave some viewers wishing Peter Morgan -- the writer of such speculative political fictions such as "The Queen," "The Deal" and "Frost/Nixon" -- had tackled the project, which might have benefited from Morgan's deep-dish sense of characterization and way of finding intriguing entry points into the material. Paula Milne's efficient screenplay, which condenses the 12 actual meetings into a more workable number, doesn't get very deep inside Esterhuyse and Mbeki's heads, but Hurt and the ever-charismatic Ejiofor nicely convey the respect and friendship that develops between the two men as their talks gain traction.

Strong, carving a small niche for himself playing elegant men of power ("Body of Lies," "RocknRolla"), gets across the intelligence of a man seeking to gain political leverage. As the slightly tweedy Young, Miller recedes into the background as the discussions take centerstage but conveys presence and purpose throughout.

Pic's conclusion emphasizes the precedent-setting nature of the secret negotiations and the ANC's advisory role to other radical groups such as the IRA and, currently, Hamas. Tech credits are suitably rough-and-ready, with a fine blowup to 35mm at the Sundance screening caught.
Camera (color, Super 16-to-35mm, widescreen), David Odd; editors, Clive Barrett, Dominic Strevens; music, Martin Phipps; production designer, Chris Roope; set decorator, Neesh Ruben; costume designer, Dinah Collin; sound (Dolby Digital), Chris Ashworth; supervising sound editor, Kevin A. Brazier; re-recording mixers, Jamie Roden, Mark Paterson; visual effects, Molinare, Men From Mars; line producers, Nina Heyns, Lorraine Goodman; assistant director, Mark Goddard; casting, Celestia Fox. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 19, 2009. Running time: 109 MIN. (English, Afrikaans, Xhosa dialogue)

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Production officially got underway yesterday on the first of the "Tintin" 3D motion capture films which Steven Spielberg is directing for Paramount Pictures according to a press announcement.

"Defiance" stars Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig have joined the production as the titular reporter and the villainous pirate Red Rackham respectively. The casting of Craig is an odd choice as the Rackham character literally appears on just three pages of the graphic novel and has barely any lines.

Gad Elmaleh and Mackenzie Crook have also joined the cast in supporting roles, as has Toby Jones ("Infamous," "The Mist") whom, though unconfirmed, seems likely to be playing Professor Cuthbert Calculus.

The five join the already cast Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Captain Haddock and the Thompson twins respectively.

New "Doctor Who" showrunner Stephen Moffat, "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead" writer/director Edgar Wright, and Wright's "Ant-Man" co-scribe Joe Cornish adapted Herge's two-part graphic novels "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure" for the first feature.

Officially titled "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn", the film is on schedule for release in 2011.

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Whilst making the press rounds this morning for CORALINE, Neil Gaiman revealed that the film adaptation of his Newbery Award-winning tome, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, has finally landed a director. And it's not, as previously assumed/hoped, Henry Selick.

No, it's Neil Jordan, who once upon a time spun an elegant retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" called THE COMPANY OF WOLVES. Though that film was much darker and far more sensual than Gaiman's kid-skewing yarn, it shows you how seriously Jordan takes his fairy tales. And, along with INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (as well as passages of the flawed-but-fascinating IN DREAMS), it also gives you an idea of how perfectly suited he is to this material. There will be no dulling of edges under Jordan's watch.

If you haven't read Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, it's a rather inventive variation on THE JUNGLE BOOK, with the protagonist being raised by ghosts instead of animals. I'm thrilled that it won the Newbery, and can't wait to see what Jordan does with it.

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Joe Carnahan in negotiations to direct
By Borys Kit

Jan 27, 2009, 08:23 PM ET
Fox's big-screen version of "A-Team" looks to be finally coming together.

Joe Carnahan is in negotiations to helm the action movie with Ridley and Tony Scott's shingle Scott Free coming on board as producers. Stephen J. Cannell, who co-created the show, is also producing.

The trek to bring "A-Team" to the big screen has been a long one, with various actors, directors and writers landing on it before springing off of it. John Singleton was last attached, but ultimately left after casting issues stalled the project.

Carnahan, meanwhile, has been facing challenges with his passion projects that were to have been follow-ups to his kinetic movies "Smokin' Aces" and "Narc." "White Jazz" was muted when it encountered casting and financing issues. "Bunny Lake Is Missing" disappeared when star Reese Witherspoon hopped away.

Fox is betting this is the right combination, setting a June 11, 2010, release date for the feature, which is written by Skip Woods.

Carnahan seems like an ideal candidate for "A-Team," which told the adventures of a group of US Army Special Forces who are on the run for a crime they didn't commit. The team included Hannibal, the leader whose favorite line was "I love it when plan comes together; Face, a ladies man; Howling Mad Murdock, an unstable pilot; and B.A. Baracus, the surly muscle (B.A. stands for "Bad Attitude").

The 1980s series became a pop cultural phenomenon, with the theme song played by high school bands across the continent, made a star out of Mr. T, who played Baracus, and unleashed a slew of catchphrases onto the public.

Carnahan's gritty and grounded action style would be well-complemented by the Scotts. Tony Scott practically invented MTV-style shooting with his slick movies, ranging from "Top Gun" to "Man on Fire," while Ridley Scott's oeuvre, with such titles as "Gladiator," "Black Hawk Down" and "Body of Lies," is equally muscular.

Carnahan is repped by Endeavor.

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Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner Jose Padilha ("Elite Squad") is set to helm the international thriller "The Sigma Protocol" for Universal Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on the final completed novel of the late "Bourne Identity" author Robert Ludlum, the 2001 thriller follows the son of a Holocaust survivor who gets entangled in an international conspiracy by industrialists and financiers to take advantage of wartime technology that reverses aging .

"Iron Man" co-writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum are penning the script which will update the novel, use the current economic climate and make the protagonist a Wall Street type who specializes in the economy of catastrophic events, known as "black swan events."

Shooting will kick off in the Summer in various European locations. Padilha is also attached to direct the thriller "The Willing Patriot" for Warner Bros. and the drug tale "Marching Powder" for Plan B.

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WB, Joel Silver shaping He-Man film
John Stevenson to direct live action 'Masters'
By MICHAEL FLEMING, MICHAEL FLEMING
Silver


Stevenson


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Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver have set "Kung Fu Panda" co-director John Stevenson to make his live-action directing debut on "Masters of the Universe," a reimagining of the signature Mattel toy line.
Pic will revolve around He-Man, a prince who transforms into a warrior and becomes the last hope for a magical land being ravaged by the evil Skeletor.

Silver is producing through his Silver Pictures banner. Mattel's Barry Waldo will be exec producer.

WB acquired the property in 2007, and Justin Marks wrote the first draft of the script based on a story he developed with Neil Ellice.

The Mattel property was adapted into the 1980s cartoon series "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."

The property was previously turned into a campy flop by Cannon Films in 1987, with Dolph Lungdren as He-Man and "Frost/Nixon" star Frank Langella as the villainous Skeletor.

The film project is a big priority for Mattel, which licenses a high-end line of He-Man toys that are popular with hardcore collectors.

Hollywood has become a magnet for branded toy-line properties, as DreamWorks and Paramount ready a June 26 release for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and Paramount preps for an Aug. 7 release on "G.I. Joe." Both began as toy lines that became hit animated series.

Waldo said Stevenson's vision to elevate the material matched with Mattel's desire to see He-Man become a big studio film. Mattel has also brought its "Hot Wheels" film to WB and Silver.

"John had such passion that we found ourselves running to catch up with his vision," Waldo said.

Stevenson has also worked on "Shrek" and "Shrek 2," "Madagascar" and "James and the Giant Peach." He began his career working for Jim Henson on projects that included "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth."

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Scott Derrickson to direct 'Hyperion'
Trevor Sands adapting Dan Simmons' novels
By MICHAEL FLEMING




"The Day the Earth Stood Still" helmer Scott Derrickson is set to direct "Hyperion Cantos" for Warner Bros. and GK Films.
Derrickson boards a project that will take two Dan Simmons sci-fi novels -- "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion" -- and meld them into one film being scripted by Trevor Sands.

Story is set in the distant future, as a space war threatens Hyperion, a planet known for the Time Tombs -- large artifacts that can move through time and are guarded by a gruesome monster called the Shrike.

Sands co-wrote and directed the 2002 film "Inside." Recently he's worked on Dimension's "Six Million Dollar Man" and adapted the David Brin sci-fi novel "Startide Rising" for Paramount.

Derrickson is also attached to direct "Paradise Lost" at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Derrickson also co-scripted "Devil's Knot" for Dimension Films with Paul Boardman, his writing partner on "The Exorcism of Emily Rose."

King just wrapped "Edge of Darkness" with Mel Gibson.

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Channing Tatum ("GI Joe," "Step Up") and director Dito Montiel are teaming up for a third time in "The Brotherhood of the Rose" for Warner Bros. Pictures reports Variety.

In David Morrell novel, two orphans are raised by a CIA operative to become assassins, only to become targets themselves.

Montiel ("Fighting," "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints") is rewriting Adam Cozad's earlier draft. Robert Mitchum starred in a two-part NBC miniseries adaptation.

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Exclusive Images Reveal McG's Terminator Salvation Vision
By Hugh Hart January 30, 2009 | 6:57:00 PMCategories: Movies, Sci-Fi  



New types of killer robots and a science-inspired conception of post-apocalyptic Earth are helping McG turn Terminator Salvation into an eye-scorching sci-fi flick.

The director knows it will take considerable polish to restore the franchise's sheen in the wake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's much-maligned 2003 swan song, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. And he cheerfully acknowledges that some observers initially questioned the wisdom of reviving the Terminator franchise with him at the helm.

"Nobody heard 'Terminator 4' and said, 'Oh that's a great idea -- I know, let's get McG to do it!" said McG when he rolled clips from his upcoming movie in Los Angeles earlier this month. "This asshole who did Charlie's Angels, and what kind of cock calls himself McG?'"

With one eye on the screen and the other on reactions from fans and journalists gathered at the Directors Guild of American screening room, the former music video director showed off the post-Judgment Day world he's crafting for Terminator Salvation. The scenes showed new Terminator models and bleak vistas from a nuke-ravaged Earth destroyed by sentient computer network Skynet.

Work-in–progress action sequences looked impressive enough to suggest that McG and his collaborators might just restore the franchise to its former glory.

The following exclusive concept art and images reveal McG's vision for Terminator Salvation as the director talks about putting the pieces together in time for the movie's May 22 release.

Getting the Robots Right: "The first film shows Schwarzenegger's T-800 coming from 2029 back in time," McG said. "Salvation takes place in 2018, so you see the R&D that went into the T-800. It's like the polio vaccine: You've got to go through a lot of lab rats to get to vaccine. In this film, humans are the lab rats. Skynet is testing on us to figure out how to make a photorealistic, leaner, smaller, more capable machine -- the T-800."



Skynet's arsenal includes the "Hydrabot," designed to seek and destroy humans trying to swim to safety.

A.I. Meets Skynet: "Artificial intelligence was so foreign during the glory days of '70s and '80s science fiction -– Blade Runner, Alien, Terminator," Mc G said. "In this day and age, it's here! You spell a word wrong on your BlackBerry, it spells it right for you. You got a bad knee, they put a titanium one in there. If you're depressed, we're not going to talk about your mom and dad, we're going to manipulate your serotonin re-uptake inhibitor and you're going to feel better in two weeks. I've always loved stories about 'That which makes us great will be our undoing.'"



Technology ramps up in Terminator Salvation with remote-controlled motorcycles dispatched by Skynet to destroy the humans.

Post-Apocalyptic Cinematography: "We talked to the people who monitored Chernobyl about what the world would sound and look and taste and feel like after the bombs have gone off," said McG. "Then we got a dead Kodak stock. We baked it in the sun a little bit too long to damage the film, and then we shot on uncorrected Panavision lenses that flare more easily and aren't quite as sharp as Primo lenses but have an interesting patina. Most importantly we added three times as much silver in the processing than one traditionally would to a color stock. Add it all up and you get this otherworldly, desolate feeling."



McG consulted with Caltech scientists to gather information on what a post-Judgment Day planet might look like.

Visual Effects: "It's critical to push the visual effects forward in this film," said McG. "In Terminator 2, when Robert Patrick's head came apart, that's pushing it forward. So we hired Charlie Gibson who's won two Academy Awards and did Gore Verbinski's last four or five movies. He's up there at [Industrial Light & Magic] cooking up a few things that I can say in fairness will go beyond viewers' expectation."



Calming James Cameron's Skepticism: "I didn't want to feel like the guy who gave birth to the Terminator is against what we're doing, so I go to see James Cameron to kiss the ring and tell him what I was trying to do," McG said. "He's cordial but says, 'I'm not going to endorse your movie. I reserve the right to hate it. But I wish you well, and if you're going to make a Terminator I'd prefer you make a good one to a bad one.'"



The devastation wreaked by Skynet in 2028 includes Hollywood's landmark Capital Records building, which lay in ruins.

The Quest for Credibility: "To get some credibility back into the Terminator mythology, we had to show the fans we really mean business by getting a great John Connor," McG said. "To me the choice was very simple: Christian Bale."

Bale Just Says No: "I met Bale at a pub in England while he was shooting Dark Knight," McG said. "He said, "I'm not interested in action, I'm not interested in pyrotechnics, I'm interested in story. If you can get the script to a place where actors on stage could just read it, naked, and it would be compelling for two hours because the characters change and evolve, then we'd have something to talk about." We had a respectful conversation, I gave him Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to read but his answer was: "Until it's on the page, I'm not doing it."

The Jonathan Nolan Rewrite: "I went to Jonah Nolan, who co-wrote The Dark Knight," said McG, "and A) has a good dynamic with Christian, and B) he's a very intelligent guy who puts story and character at the forefront. So after Jonah worked on the script, we got Christian on board."



Sam Worthington, left right, plays the mysterious man who may -- or may not -- help Christian Bale's John Connor destroy Skynet.

Co-star Sam Worthington: "Alan Horn, the guy who runs Warner Bros., likes to kid, 'If you want a tough guy, you've got to hire somebody from Australia,'" McG said. "Sam's a pretty powerful screen presence. He can hold his own with Bale in a two-shot."



Connor's Story: "John Connor doesn't come into the picture saying, 'Follow me and everything's going to be cool,'" said McG. "He's just one of many soldiers when we meet him. It's like [Spider-Man] where you're Peter Parker: 'Hey I'm just a lowly high school photographer,' and he learns with great power comes great responsibility. Or the hacker [in The Matrix]: 'They call me Neo, who cares?' 'quot;No man, you're the one, you're going to lead us!' Of course Luke Skywalker, on and on, all those Joseph Campbell archetypes. So this is the story of how John Connor becomes leader of the resistance. He has to earn it."

Machine Music: "I wanted the sound of the resistance to be very delicate, reminiscent of Gustavo Santaolalla's analog guitar, so I thought of putting Gustavo together with Thom Yorke of Radiohead for the machine sound," said McG. "But their schedules were too tough, so then Danny Elfman articulated his sonic vision for the picture. He's a huge Terminator fan. I wish I could show you his house. Elfman lives in a haunted house that has strange prosthetic limbs from the turn of the century hanging on the wall."



Flesh-and-Blood Robots: "A lot of people make CG movies where actors are emoting to poles with tennis balls on top of them," said McG. "That's the last thing I wanted to do. I don't like dealing with cartoons, so to speak. I wanted real robots for the actors to interface with so you could get that grittiness and realism. There's an archetype shape to the T-800. We needed body types to suggest the robot that would combat John Connor, and Roland Kickinger is a good body type. His shoulders are huge, his waist is narrow. The [Industrial Light & Magic] guys used their calipers to measure shoulder spatial differences and said he'd make a good body double. Roland as an individual is not in the movie."


Stop Them Before They Multiply: "Imagine it's 1944 and we sneak into Hitler's Germany and find all these V-2 rockets with nuclear tips they're not supposed to have," said McG. "We'd go back to the powers that be and explain, 'This is a huge problem; it's going to change everything.' That's what happens with Connor –-he's got to raise the curtain and defeat Skynet because the launch of the T-800 means curtains for everyone."

The Third Act: "Is Skynet smart enough to use the best parts of ourselves against ourselves? Can we trust the machine?" Mc G asked. "Therein lies the rub and that's what act three is all about. The ending of this film is elliptical. It's going to make a lot of people mad and you'll see lot of people scratching their heads. It's not disposable, where you forget about it before you even get to the parking lot. It's going to make you think."

Images courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

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Universal Pictures is ready to drop the puck on its "Slap Shot" remake, setting Dean Parisot to direct the redo of the 1977 hockey comedy classic.
Peter Steinfeld ("21") is penning the script; Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce.

The original starred Paul Newman as the fading player/coach of a minor league hockey team. Trying to hype the Charlestown Chiefs for a possible move South, the coach ramps up interest by turning his team into a group of brawling thugs.

When Steinfeld took the writing job and spoke about it last summer, Internet pundits were critical of the notion of updating a favorite sports film. Yet such nostalgic resistance certainly did not hurt "The Longest Yard, remake, a global hit that grossed far more than the original.

Parisot last helmed a remake of another comedy "Fun With Dick and Jane."

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Bill Murray and Lucas Black have joined the cast of the period dramatic thriller "Get Low" for the Zanuck Co.
Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek star in the Aaron Schneider-helmed pic, which is based on the true story of Felix "Bush" Breazeale, a Tennessee recluse who planned his own funeral in 1938 while he was still alive and could enjoy it. Schneider, C. Gaby Mitchell and Chris Provenzano penned the screenplay.

Murray and Black play partners at the funeral home.

"Get Low," which starts shooting this week in Georgia, is being financed by K5 Intl., the Germany- and U.K.-based worldwide sales and finance firm. Richard, Dean and Harrison Zanuck are producing.

Murray most recently starred in Walden Media's "City of Ember."

Black recently wrapped a starring role in Screen Gems' "Legion," opposite Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid.

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Warner Bros. has set Aaron Sorkin to write "The Challenge," a courtroom drama for George Clooney's Smoke House shingle.
Clooney is producing with Smoke House partner Grant Heslov. Clooney may direct and hopes to play Navy lawyer Charles Swift in the drama about the effort by Swift and Georgetown U. law professor Neal Katyal to ensure a fair trial for Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, who'd been held at Guantanamo Bay for five years.

WB and Smoke House got started on the project over the summer by optioning Jonathan Mahler book "The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power" (Daily Variety, Aug. 13).More than one option(Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
(Co) Daily Variety

The courtroom drama wouldn't debate Hamdan's guilt or innocence but chart the dogged efforts of the two lawyers who sue the president because they feel the U.S. government has broken the law and violated the Constitution.

Captured in 2001 in Afghanistan while transporting two missiles in a car, Hamdan was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 5½ years by a military commission for providing material support to Al-Qaeda. He was cleared of the terrorism conspiracy charges that would have drawn a much longer sentence.

Sorkin, who most recently penned "Charlie Wilson's War," is working on a film about the formation of the social network Facebook. He's also prepping for production on DreamWorks pic "The Trial of the Chicago 7," to be directed by Ben Stiller.

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The legendary John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog, In the Mouth of Madness, The Thing), will direct The Ward, written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen. Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) has signed on to star. The Ward is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen (played by Heard) is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined. Production is scheduled for a May start.

Amber Heard""The Ward" is the kind of script that I've been looking for: a complex, visceral story, full of suspense and scares," said Carpenter. "I am especially pleased to be working with Amber because I know she will create a powerful central performance."

"The Ward" is being produced by Doug Mankoff, Mike Marcus and Andy Spaulding of Echo Lake Entertainment, which recently wrapped production on "The Joneses", co-starring Heard. Financing and producing alongside Echo Lake will be Peter Block and his recently launched company A Bigger Boat.

"Working with John Carpenter on "The Ward" is a dream come true; fans everywhere, me included, have been waiting for just this kind of thriller from him. It's great to be able to tackle it with the Echo Lake gang whose work I've also admired for years," said Block.

Heard is repped by Endeavor, Hyler Management and attorney Karl Austen. Her credits include "Pineapple Express," "Never Back Down," and "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" as well as the series "Californication". Carpenter is repped by William Morris and Echo Lake Management. Writers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen are repped by Larchmont Literary Agency.

Echo Lake has added more commercial fare such as "The Ward" and "The Joneses" to its long track record of award winning arthouse films including titles like "Tsotsi", "Water", and "Away From Her". "We are excited to bring our focus on quality to bigger, more mainstream films" says Doug Mankoff, President of Echo Lake. "We saw firsthand what a great job Amber did on "The Joneses" and we knew that she and John Carpenter would make a perfect combination for "The Ward"."

FilmNation, the sales company started by Glen Basner, will begin international sales on the film at the Berlin Film Market next week.

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Sony Pictures has scored the film rights to Danielle Trussoni's 'Da Vinci Code-esque' first novel "Angelology" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Will Smith's Overbrook and Marc Forster's Apparatus production companies will produce the story of a nun in New York who unwittingly reignites an ancient war between Angelologists, a group who studies angels, and a race of monster-like descendants of angels and humans called the Nephilim.

Fusing Biblical lore, the Orpheus myth, and the fall of rebel angels - the property sparked a fierce bidding war between Sony, Warners and Universal for the rights to make the project.

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Director Marcus Nispel, best known for helming the horror remakes "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the upcoming "Friday the 13th", already has two further projects in mind.

Talking with STYD, the first is the cloning thriller "Immaculate Conception". The story? "A girl gets pregnant, doesn't know why. You find out that she's part of an experiment. A splinter group of the church found a rusty old nail in the hills of Golgotha and they've harvested the DNA they believe is from Jesus Christ."

He adds that the tone is much more thriller than horror - "You think it goes like Rosemary's Baby but it's not a horror movie. It's like 'Marathon Man' or 'Coma'".

As for the second? Well it sounds similar to the Preston/Child novel "Reliquary". Entitled "Pod", it explores the seven sub-levels under Manhattan. Nispel says that "When they dig deep they find something they shouldn't have."

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Nicolas Chartier's high-flying Los Angeles financing and sales company Voltage Pictures arrives at EFM with its most prestigious slate to date led by new work from Robert Redford and Terry Gilliam.

Chartier is in Berlin to introduce buyers to Robert Redford's romantic thriller The Company You Keep that is ready to shoot in July following a long gestation period that had previously seen it set up at Fox Searchlight.

CAA now represents North American rights to the big budget starring vehicle for Redford, who will direct and produce through his Wildwood label alongside Kingsgate Films' Greg Shapiro and Chartier.

Based on Neil Gordon's 2003 novel, The Company You Keep tells of a former radical activist who goes on the run for the sake of his young daughter after his identity is revealed.

Meanwhile Terry Gilliam is preparing a May 1 start date on the fantasy Zero Theorem, which will star Billy Bob Thornton and is being produced by Richard and Dean Zanuck.

The story revolves around a reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst who is hard at work on a project designed to discover the meaning or life or its lack thereof. CAA is again handling North American rights.

Gilliam is currently in post-production on The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus which features Christopher Plummer, the late Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.

Chartier is riding high following Anchor Bay's $3.5m Sundance acquisition of North American and Australian rights to David Mackenzie's LA hustler drama Spread starring Ashton Kutcher, while Summit Entertainment is preparing to release Kathryn Bigelow's war thriller The Hurt Locker, which Chartier produced with Shapiro.

Voltage will also talk to buyers here about Big Eyes, the drama about artist Margaret Keane starring Kate Hudson that is set to go in May, and the Steven Seagal action title A Dangerous Man that starts shooting on March 1. Chartier will also unveil eight minutes of footage from George A Romero's latest zombie installment ... Of The Dead, currently in post.

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Martin Campbell, who has twice reinvented the James Bond franchise with 1995's "Goldeneye" and 2006's "Casino Royale", is in negotiations to direct the "Green Lantern" film for Warner Bros. Pictures reports Variety.

The attachment of such an in-demand action director has moved the DC Comics hero adaptation into a much higher priority window at the studio, cementing the project's place as a major 2010 or 2011 tentpole for the studio.

Greg Berlanti, who was previously attached to direct before leaving the project for "This Is Where I Leave You", wrote the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Berlanti and Donald DeLine will produce.

Campbell, who also helmed the two Antonio Banderas-led "Zorro" films and "Vertical Limit", recently wrapped up work on the Mel Gibson-led thriller "Edge of Darkness" - a remake of the 80's British mini-series of the same name which he also helmed.

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For their upcoming "Three Stooges" project, you can't blame the Farrelly Brothers for aiming high.

According to In Touch via Just Jared, the filmmakers are seeking both Johnny Depp and Sean Penn for their upcoming remake/anthology film.

"They want Johnny to play Moe and Sean Penn will be Larry - they're still looking to cast Curly" an insider apparently told the paper.

No names are confirmed and Film Drunk adds that the Depp rumor is bogus, though they add that Billy West is meeting with Sean Penn in L.A. today and tomorrow to help him work on his Larry impression/dialect.

Either way the Farrellys won't begin work on the project til they complete their current film "Walter the Farting Dog" starring the Jonas Brothers which kicks off production this spring.

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Orlando Bloom ("Pirates of the Caribbean"), Vincent Cassel ("Eastern Promises," "Ocean's 12") and Olga Kurylenko ("Quantum of Solace," "Hitman") are set to star in the Australia-France-Germany co-production "The Cross" reports Variety.

Set against the backdrop of a futuristic border town, Bloom plays a man seeking to cross a mysterious border, something no one else has achieved.

Cassel, meanwhile, is the guard who will go to any lengths to foil him. Kurylenko takes the female lead.

Andrew Niccol ("Lord of War," "Gattaca") helms the $24 million production which begins filming this July in Australia.

Wieland Schulz-Keil, Jonathan Shteinman, Jean-Vincent Puzos, Remi Burah and Niccol will produce.

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Brandon Routh tells Collider that Edgar Wright's upcoming "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" adaptation will fuse live action with some scenes of traditional animation.

Routh, who plays one of the evil ex-boyfriends of Pilgrim's love interest Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) also says the the script finishes the comic which is currently in its fifth volume of six.

Routh adds that filming on the other comic book adaptation he's attached to, "Dylan Dog", gets underway this April or May in New Orleans.

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Steven Soderbergh is in talks to direct Sony Pictures adaptation of Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" reports Variety.

The book focuses on Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who used a sophisticated computer analysis system to piece together a team that regularly contended for the World Series despite a payroll dramatically lower than such big-market rivals as the New York Yankees.

Brad Pitt has been circling the project for a year. Around the same time Steve Zaillian signed on to adapt the book after original scripter Stan Chervin left the project.

Soderbergh is looking to make the picture his next directing assignment, putting his Cleopatra-themed musical "Cleo" on hold for a year. Michael De Luca and Rachael Horovitz are producing.

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Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman will team up for the romantic comedy "The Baster" for Mandate Pictures reports the trades.

Bateman and Aniston will play best friends Wally and Kassie. When neurotic and insecure Wally learns that Kassie plans to become pregnant through artificial insemination, he secretly replaces the donor's semen with his own and must live with the secret that he is the father of her child.

Will Speck and Josh Gordon ("Blades of Glory") will direct from a script by Allan Loeb ("21") based on Jeffrey Eugenides' short story.

Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa will produce. Filming kicks off this Spring in New York.

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James Purefoy (HBO's "Rome"), Robert Carlyle ("The Full Monty"), Bob Hoskins ("") and William Moseley ("The Chronicles of Narnia") have joined the cast of medieval action thriller "Ironclad" for ContentFilm International says The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on a legendary story, "Ironclad" is set in 13th century England and tells the story of a formidable Knight Templar (Purefoy) and his "Magnificent Seven" who defended historic Rochester Castle against the tyrant, King John (Paul Giamatti), and his mercenary army.

Pete Postlethwaite, Lord Richard Attenborough, Colm Meany and Angus McFayden also star.

The film was initially to start production but got held up due to financing issues. Now it's raring to go again with a Summer start of production planned. Rick Benattar and Andrew Curtis are producing.

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Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan ("An Education," TV's "Doctor Who") are in talks to topline "The Electric Slide" for Myriad Pictures says the trades.

The film is based on the true story of Eddie Dodson (McGregor), a Los Angeles-based furniture salesman who owned a high-end boutique furniture store on Melrose Avenue in L.A. in the 1980s.

He lived the Hollywood lifestyle, partying and hanging out with celebrity friends, when he fell in love and took the biggest risk of his life to impress his new girlfriend (Mulligan) - he robbed a bank. Dodson went on to rob more than 72 banks in the L.A. area before the FBI finally nailed him.

Tristan Patterson penned the script and will make his directorial debut. Christine Vachon, Brad Simpson, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Jocelyn Hayes produce.

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Amber Heard ("Pineapple Express," "The Informers") is in talks to star opposite Johnny Depp in "The Rum Diary", beating out the likes of Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley says The Hollywood Reporter.

An adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel, the story follows a washed-up, hard-drinking journalist named Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) in 1950s Puerto Rico.

Heard will play Chenault, the free-spirited girlfriend of a fellow journalist who cheats on him with Kemp, trying to convince him to run away with her.

The role of Sanderson has not been cast. Bruce Robinson is writing and directing.

Depp, Christi Dembrowski and Graham King are producing. Filming begins March 30 in Puerto Rico.

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Berlin
Love Exposure
Ai No Mukidashi (Japan)
By RUSSELL EDWARDS
Religion, family and sexual mores are satirically skewered and roasted slowly in the iconoclastic, overlong Japanese indie 'Love Exposure.'
• Complete Berlin festival coverage

An Omega Project, Entertainment Inc., Studio Three Co. production. (International sales: Phantom Film Co., Tokyo.) Produced by Toyoyuki Yokohama, Shinya Kawai. Directed, written by Sion Sono.

With: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Ando, Atsuro Watabe, Makiko Watanabe.
 Religion, family and sexual mores are satirically skewered and roasted slowly in the iconoclastic, overlong Japanese indie "Love Exposure." Evoking an unhinged Ken Russell on a sushi binge, helmer Sion Sono's rep for excess ("Suicide Club") is consolidated by this delirious, hypnotic four-hour marathon about a teenage up-skirt snapper and his sacred love. Sono napalms Nipponese society's sugar coating by drawing on and transcending the trash aesthetic that excites fanboy Japanologists. Though far too long for midnight slots, fests bidding for cutting-edge status will pounce.
Tokyo teen Yu Honda (Takahiro Nishijima) is the traumatized son of a widower-cum-Catholic priest (Atsuro Watabe), who begins a sexual liaison with parishioner Kaori (Makiko Watanabe). When Dad's affair comes to a halt, he begins admonishing his son to confess to so many sins that the 17-year-old takes up new ones to appease his father's increased religious zeal.

One "sin," surreptitiously taking candid photographs of panties worn by female pedestrians, becomes a vocation. Unfortunately, a deal with a porn company comes undone when Yu turns down starring roles because he admits he's saving his priapic member for a Virgin Mary-like ideal woman.

On cue, narrative introduces feisty schoolgirl Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), who loathes men and enjoys beating them up for their moronic attitudes. Yu falls in love and tries to win her -- in full knowledge that exposure of his superstar status will enrage her.

Observing the development of this bizarre courtship is religious cult rep Aya Koike (Sakura Ando). Aya not only wants to claim Yoko for herself but aims to convert each of the protags to her own spiritual cause. Pointed (and pointless) violence ensues at various intervals, beginning with Aya's castration of her comatose father.

Perf s have a legit tinge that suggests thesps drawn from avantgarde theater. But Mitsushima's turn as Yoko commands the screen. Tech credits are good enough.

More than one option(Person) Makiko Watanabe
Assistant Director, Actor, Screenplay
(Person) Makiko Watanabe
Assistant Camera, Assistant Camera Operator, Camera AssistantMore than one option(Film) The Suicide Club
(Film) Jisatsu Circle
More than one option(Person) Ken Russell
Director, Theme Lyrics, Actor
(Person) Ken Russell
Art Director, Assistant Property Master, CarpenterCamera (color, widescreen, HD-to-35mm), Sohei Tanigawa; editor, Junichi Ito; music, Tomohide Harada; production designer, Takashi Matsuzuka; sound, Yasushi Eguchi, Hajime Komiya. Reviewed on DVD, Sydney, Jan. 26, 2009. (In Berlin Film Festival -- Forum.) Running time: 237 MIN.

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Beast Stalker
Ching yan (Hong Kong)
By DEREK ELLEYRead other reviews about this film

Powered By An Emperor Motion Pictures release of an Emperor Classic Films Co., Sil-Metropole Organization production. (International sales: Emperor, Hong Kong.) Produced by Albert Lee, Cheung Hong-tat, Candy Leung. Executive producer, Albert Yeung, Song Dai. Directed by Dante Lam. Screenplay, Jack Ng; story, Lam.

With: Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung, Zhang Jingchu, Miao Pu, Liu Kai-chi, Keung Ho-man, Kwong Jing-hung, Sherman Chung, Zhang He, Wong Suet-yin, Wong Sum-yin.
(Cantonese, Mandarin dilogue)
 Crying out for a Stateside remake from its opening reel, stygian crimer "Beast Stalker" grips like a vise, and is unquestionably the finest Asian action-psychodrama since South Korea's "The Chaser" last year. A major return to form by genre helmer Dante Lam, after his promising start a decade ago with pics like "Beast Cop" and "Jiang Hu -- The Triad Zone," this drama about a traumatized cop hunting down a child kidnapper to exorcise his own demons may have some Western theatrical potential as well as beastly upside on ancillary. Local haul late last year was a satisfying HK$8 million ($1 million).
While Lam's tight, claustrophobic direction finds a balance between pure action and character development, equal kudos are due scripter Jack Ng (who wrote the classic Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung starrer "SPL," plus several earlier Lam items like "Hit Team"). Dense, Swiss-clock-like screenplay, with overlapping patterns of guilt and fractured friendships, pulls several satisfying surprises on its audience right up to a final "oh, wow!" revelation that finally closes the plot circle.

Heading the strong cast is Nicholas Tse, downplaying his usual matinee-idol cool as Tong Fei, the young blowhard leader of a bunch of cops. Tong bawls out a colleague (Kwong Jing-hung) for screwing up a gambling bust that almost causes the death of another cop, Sun (Liu Kai-chi) -- a snafu that triggers the main story, as Tong and Sun, while chatting afterward, happen to spot a car carrying triad boss Cheung Yat-tung (Keung Ho-man), who has been rescued by his buddies en route to a court hearing for armed robbery.

Brief but electrically staged car chase ends in a tragedy that involves Cheung's prosecuting attorney, Ann Gao (mainland actress Zhang Jingchu), and sets up the guilt that drives Tong throughout the rest of the movie.

Three months later, Tong is on leave to settle his personal problems and becomes attached to Gao's young daughter, Ling-ling (Wong Suet-yin). When Ling-ling is kidnapped by killer-for-hire Hung King (Nick Cheung), Tong goes on a personal mission to save the kid, whom Cheung is using to force Gao to compromise some conclusive evidence against him.

Early in this section,the film starts playing with the audience's perceptions by including an unannounced flashback that seems to be taking place in the present. But such tricks serve to keep the tension ramped up rather than willfully confuse the viewer, and the complex web of relationships among cops, criminals, Gao and even Hung are cleverly resolved, right up to the final frame, as the action unfolds.

The plot does rely on some unlikely coincidences, but the leaps of imagination refreshingly recall a more devil-may-care era of Hong Kong production in which auds were expected to just go for the cinematic ride. As the pursuit of Hung starts in earnest -- much of it set within a geographically small area of the city -- the tension hardly lets up. Finale doesn't quite manage to cap the preceding setpieces, but the surprise coda does.

Tse, often a variable young star, is impressive here and has good buddy chemistry with Liu throughout. But it's Cheung, one of the territory's most underrated actors, who's the standout, turning a repellent, one-eyed killer into almost a figure of sympathy. Zhang, so good in mainland movies like "The Road," as well as Hong Kong drama "Protege," is OK here as the equally guilt-plagued attorney.

Action staging by Tung Wai, rhythmic-atmospheric score by Henry Lai and some tenebrous lensing keep the drama tight and ticking over.

More than one option(Person) Albert Lee
Actor, Carpenter, Photography
(Person) Albert Lee
Actor, Music Supervisor, Song
(Person) Albert Lee
Executive Producer
(Person) Albert Lee
ActorMore than one option(Film) Yol
(Film) La Strada
(Film) Jol
(Film) The Road
Bae Chang-ho, Bae Chang-ho
(Film) Fangxiang Zhi Lu
(Film) The Road
Camera (color), Cheung Man-po, Tse Chung-to; editor, Chan Ki-hop; music, Henry Lai; production designer, Yau Wai-ming; art director, Kong Hun-lim; sound (Dolby), Tam Tak-wing, Nip Kei-wing; action choreographer, Tung Wai; car stunts, Bruce Law; assistant director, Yiu Man-kei. Reviewed on DVD, London, Jan. 14, 2009. (In Berlin Film Festival -- Forum, Special Screenings.) Running time: 113 MIN.

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Mickey Rourke is to reteam with Walter Hill in the action thriller St. Vincent
Mickey Rourke reteams with Hill
Jeremy Kay in Berlin
07 Feb 2009 06:32

 

Mickey Rourke's remarkable comeback continues apace as the white-hot Oscar nominee reunites with his Johnny Handsome director Walter Hill on the action thriller St Vincent, set to begin filming later this year.



Stuart Ford's IM Global is handling international sales and has reported feverish early interest from buyers in Berlin keen to see the next powerhouse performance from Rourke, who will be seeking to add a BATFA on Sunday to his earlier Golden Globe win for his acclaimed return to form in The Wrestler.



ICM is handling North American rights to the Occupant Films and Secret Handshake Entertainment production about an assassin who masquerades as a priest in order to finish off a high level informant, only to undergo a crisis of conscience when he takes confession from his target.



Occupant's Keith Calder, Joe Neurauter and Felipe Marino will produce along with Secret Handshake's Dena Hysell and Joe Gressis. ICM represents Rourke and Hill, back together for the first time in 20 years, and negotiated the deal with Occupant's attorney Erik Hyman on behalf of the producers.



Rourke recently won the best dramatic actor Golden Globe for his performance as a washed out fighter who tries to claw back personal and professional integrity in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. The role has also earned Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations.



Occupant Films was set up in 2005 and announced its arrival with Toronto 2006 midnight hit All The Boys Love Mandy Lane and last year's Sundance audience award winner The Wackness, both directed by Jonathan Levine. Secret Handshake is preparing Michael J Weithorn's comedy A Little Help starring Jenna Fischer and Chris O'Donnell.

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Europacorp is planning a 15-20 million Euro, French-language adaptation of American author Douglas Kennedy's book "The Big Picture" says Variety.

Released under the title "L'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie", the story follows a successful lawyer whose life turns upside down and finds himself on the run with a new identity.

Eric Lartigau ("Prete-moi ta main") will direct the project which begins filming at the end of May.

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Timothy Hutton has joined Roman Polanski's "The Ghost" for says The Hollywood Reporter.

The film tells the tale of a ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) who is hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan). When he uncovers secrets, his own life is put in jeopardy.

Hutton plays the role of the prime minister's American lawyer. Tom Wilkinson, James Belushi and Kim Cattrall also star.

Shooting kicks off this week in Berlin. Polanski, Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde and Patrick Wachsberger are producing.

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Kate Hudson, Elias Koteas, Bill Pullman and Ned Beatty have joined the psychological thriller "The Killer Inside Me" for Wild Bunch says Screen Daily.

Based on the novel by Jim Thompson, the story follows a West Texas sheriff and his downward spiral from a boring small-town cop into a ruthless, sociopathic murderer.

Michael Winterbottom directs the $13 million project which also stars Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba.

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Former "Doctor Who" companion turned writer/director Noel Clarke ("Kidulthood") has joined the cast of th sword-and-sandals pic "Centurion" for Pathe International says The Hollywood Reporter.

Neil Marshall ("The Descent," "Doomsday") helms the story which is set during the Roman invasion of Britain in 117 AD.

The story follows Quintus Dias, sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, who marches north with General Virilus' famed Ninth Legion under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon.

Michael Fassbender, Dominic West and Olga Kurylenko also star in the film which is due to shoot at the end of Feburary in Scotland and London. Christian Colson will produce.

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Chloe Sevigny, Michael Shannon and Willem Dafoe have joined Werner Herzog's upcoming psychological horror thriller "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" according to Production Weekly via JoBlo.

Loosely based on a true story, it centers on a man who apparently acts out some play in his mind and ends up killing his mother with a sword.

Herzog is presently finishing up the Nicolas Cage-led remak of "Bad Lieutenant".