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Last week, Variety reported that 20th Century Fox found their screenwriter for the sequel to this year’s Wolverine movie which is currently being called (unimaginatively) X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2.

Uncredited X-Men screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie is the man whose pitch won over the Fox and Marvel executives, and according to Michael Fleming, the story will be based on or adapted from the first Wolverine solo miniseries known as “The Samurai” which was originally crafted by writer Chris Claremont and artist Frank Miller.

The most interesting part about this to me is that McQuarrie also wrote The Usual Suspects which automatically raises the interest level for me because I loved Suspects‘ plot twists, turns, and interaction between the characters and personalities.

Also, as much as I didn’t mind the Wolverine movie, I definitely wouldn’t mind even more a movie that’s based on a proven storyline; I mean, for crying out loud, the original miniseries was written in 1982 and to this day, it’s such a core part of the canon and his personality that people love that you really couldn’t haven’t gone wrong with that.

Now if we could only keep Gavin Hood away from the directorial duties, maybe this sequel has a chance of joining the list of movies whose sequels are better than the first installments.

Related Posts: Deadpool gets his own X-Movie; Wolvie gets a sequel (updated)

The entertainment bloggers have racked up another point in the unending battle to confirm news ahead of everyone else as Drew McWeeny scored an exclusive for HitFix.com with the news that X-Men writer and director Bryan Singer will be back at the helm of Battlestar Galactica, which the trades were quick to independently confirm (but not give credit to the source).

I say “back at the helm” because apparently, Singer’s wanted to make a movie about a space aircraft carrier that carries the last members of a humanoid species which is being chased across the galaxy by robotic warriors while they search for a safe haven called Earth for quite some time, but his plans to work on that project were derailed by the fallout from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But wait, you cry! Didn’t we just finish watching (or re-watching) a TV miniseries, then TV series called “Battlestar Galactica” which was also based on the same 1978 TV series as Singer’s new project?

Why yes, we did, but according to McWeeny, there’s always room for more Jello Cylons; go and really read the HitFix article because he’s dug up links to some fantastic backstory on Singer’s almost decade-long love of BSG, which includes a weird bit of irony from frequent Singer collaborator Tom DeSanto:

We actually had commitments [for our version of Battlestar Galactica] from three feature directors who loved the script and wanted to do it, but [20th Century Fox] seemed to lose interest. Then when “Firefly” was announced, I knew we were done at Fox, because that was the sci-fi show they were going to get behind.

There have been no plot details, and so far, Singer and “BSG” (yes, both series) screenwriter Glen Larson are the only creative people who have been named a deal with Universal to work on a Battlestar movie which isn’t tied to any previous version—which means that everyone’s free to come up with whatever crackpot theories they want to regarding what a new Battlestar Galactica movie would be like!

So let’s hear it: If you were pitching a BSG movie to Singer and Larson, what would yours be?

I really don’t know what to think about the news from Variety about the acquisition of the rights to do another film version of The Diary of Anne Frank by Disney to be written and directed by David Mamet.

Yes, that David Mamet, the one who wrote Glengarry Glen Ross, and wrote and directed State and Main, who is known for his manipulation of the English language into new and perverse itierations.

That David Mamet. Is going to be directing a film for Disney. About Anne Frank.

Even more mind-blowing to me is the reveal that Andrew Braunsberg is the producer, he who also produced Being There, which was way better and more trippy than Forrest Gump was and as such was a better movie.

Apparently, Braunsberg had been trying to get these rights from the Frank estate as well as the estates of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich who wrote the stage adaptation. The new film will be an amalgamation of words and scenes from the diary, the stage play, and new material from Mamet; apparently, he’s already working on the script.

I don’t know about you, but I am utterly blown away by this news and cannot wait to hear more.

According to Variety, Frank Langella is “in talks” to star in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps as Lewis Zabel, an “old-time” broker who mentors Shia LaBeouf’s character. But if that’s so, what the hell is Michael Douglas going to be doing in the movie? Since there isn’t a source cited, I really don’t know what to think of the summary that’s on the IMDB page:

As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader’s mentor.

The trade mag also names Josh Brolin (the upcoming Jonah Hex) as “circling a part” in the film, and I’m guessing that his character would be a dramatic foil to LaBeouf’s.

Only time will tell when it comes to nebulous details.

Related Posts: Oliver Stone + Shia LaBeouf = Wall Street 2?, Fox says “Greed is gooder” by fast-tracking Wall Street sequel

After learning that Forbes magazine had once considered Jennifer Aniston to be the most bankable female lead in a movie, I became a little interested in knowing what she’d be doing next. And don’t you love it when the universe delivers?

According to Variety, Aniston’s next film is Goree Girls, which is based on the true story about an inmates in a 1940s women’s prison who formed one of the first all-female popular country-western bands.

The movie, which starts production in January, will be directed by feature film neophyte Michael Sucsy (HBO’s Grey Gardens) and rewritten by him as well from drafts by John Lee Hancock (2004’s The Alamo) and Margaret Nagel (“Side Order of Life”).

The most interesting part about Michael Fleming’s article is his reveal that this was once a DreamWorks production and that Overnight Productions is rescuing it from turnaround, because from there he talks some more about the risks studios take when they decide to let a project go:

No studio wants to let go of a project that can be turned into a hit elsewhere and come back to haunt its original owner, as the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire did to Warner Bros. and Twilight did to Paramount. In picking up material from turnaround, Overnight is trying to remove some of the risk of such regret by paying back most of the overhead and interest charges spent to develop the project and by giving the studio first crack at distribution.

Aniston has a fine indie film resume (The Good Girl, Friends with Money) and I’m really looking forward to seeing which other actresses they’ll cast her with for this project. I guess the only major question I have is: Can she sing?

Or at least that’s what trade papers Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are saying.

At least Variety is hedging their bets, with writer Michael Fleming saying, “While [Rob Marshall’s] involvement wasn’t confirmed over the weekend, things look good enough that the studio is said to have begun casting new characters that will appear in the picture.”

THR‘s Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit are aiming for inciting fanboy and fangirl ire by subtly dismissing Marshall’s work on the Academy Award winning Chicago and the upcoming Nine with the Weinstein Co.: “Marshall … is not an obvious choice for a loud action-and-mayhem tentpole. But presumably, if he can corral the singing, acting and dancing talents of [his Nine stars] he can handle cannon battles, funny monkeys and angry natives.”

Me? I’m reserving judgment for the official release of the news, but one tidbit from the THR article is a bit encouraging:

When Verbinski exited the franchise in April, the studio sought a fresh take to continue the pirate voyage on a potentially smaller scale.

The encouraging part is that by having a smaller budget, they could be trying to return to the feel that made the first film such a surprising success. After all, none of Erroll Flynn’s swashbuckling movies had fancy-schmancy CG in them, and they’re still being honored with special viewings to this day—Cambridge, MA’s Brattle Theater, I’m looking at you. (They also had simpler plots that don’t require at least five different people explaining the end of it on the Movie Spoiler.com website.)

I don’t know about you, but contrary to previously reported rumors, if they either go with following Will’s adventures on the Dutchman or Elizabeth’s troubles being the Pirate King, I’d be happy with such a film. Insert a few key cameo appearances from the freaking prolific and busy Johnny Depp, and that’s a pirate film worth seeing.

Related Posts: Verbinski leaves the Pirate life, BioShock is NOT necessarily next

Not content to let the Predator franchise re-surge alone, 20th Century Fox has revived the Alien franchise with a script that will finally see original director Ridley Scott return.

According to Variety, untested screenwriter Jon Spaihts is the lucky sonuvagun who booked this job, after coming off two successful script sales that have Keanu Reeves attached to star (Shadow 19 at Warner Bros., Passengers at Morgan Creek).

From the article:

The film is set up to be a prequel to the groundbreaking 1979 film that Scott directed. It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

The article goes on to say that the studio and Scott loved his take on the scenario and that it’s the first of the franchise to be directed by Scott, which really has me wondering: exactly what is in this script that’s so uniquely different from the original to keep the story fresh and yet something that isn’t in the existing sequels that hooked Scott enough to be interested?

Call me cautiously optimistic, but this could actually be something I’d be interested in.

If you were hoping to do some howling at the moon this fall in anticipation of Benecio del Toro’s turn as the titular role in The Wolfman (which is a reboot of the classic Universal Pictures movie monster franchise), I’m afraid you’re going to be gravely disappointed.

According to Variety, the movie will now be released on February 12, 2010 as counter-programming to a slew of love-themed movies including the New Line’s star-filled romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, a Robert Pattinson-starring romantic drama called Remember Me, and Disney’s 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast.

Moving into its November 6 timeslot this year will be an alien abduction drama starring Milla Jovovich called The 4th Kind, which the studio had picked up from Gold Circle Films.

Four other movies that got moved around on Universal’s plate include:

March 12: Green Zone — Directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon, it’s the story of a pair of CIA agents who are trailing some WMDs and the foreign journalist who is following them for the story.

April 16: MacGruber — It’s based on skit which is a parody of a popular TV show which is also getting its own feature adaptation.

June 11: Get Him to the Greek — A sequel of sorts to Forgetting Sarah Marshall where the rock star who got in Jason Segel’s way is now the MacGuffin, er, “star” who needs to be escorted to the world famous Greek theater in L.A. by a neophyte intern.

Somewhere in the First Quarter 2010: Repo Men — Not to be confused with the 1980s punk cult hit and definitely not to be confused with Repo! The Genetic Opera with which it shares a basic concept—a future megacorporation which provides organ transplants on a payment plan also repossesses them if you fall behind in payments—the film stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and was once known as Repossession Mambo. I think I like the old name better.

In an exclusive chat, the horror film lovers at Bloody-Disgusting.com were able to get Saw co-creator James Wan to ‘fess up that he’s in final negotiations to co-write and direct the long-awaited live-action adaptation of Konami’s hit videogame series Castlevania.

An article in Variety has a few more details, including that originally, the rights to the franchise were picked up by Crystal Sky Entertainment’s president Steven Paul (Ghost Rider) in 2005 and has gone through two directors already (Paul W.S. Anderson and Sylvain White). Ian Jeffers will be the other co-writer on the script.

As for what Wan has in store for our favorite video game vampire hunters, it’s best noted in this quote from the B-D.com article:

“The thing I love about what Konami did with Castlevania, was taking the iconic Dracula mythology and Eastern-European setting, and retelling it with a Japanese pop-cultural sensibility,” he continues. “That’s the East-meets-West tone I want to visually expand on for the film. I’m thrilled by the opportunity to make a highly stylized, fantasy, action film that focuses on the gothic storyline and the cool, anime-like characters. For once, the human hero is as sexy and dangerous as the vampire villain, and his weapon of choice was what attracted me to the project in the first place—The Vampire Killer Whip.”

You can check out the B-D.com article for a teaser poster image, too.

“The 3d animation panel was blocked out by Twillight twats. WTF. They should clear the hall. *seethe*”
—neonumbra, on Twitter

Like many of you, I am not at the San Diego Comic Con (I still refuse to call it Comic Con International) which is now more of a “movies-and-television-and-video games-and-other things mainstream companies with boatloads of money think geeks will like-and-comics” convention than anything else—as seen in this image that our friends at ComingSoon.net snapped of the line to get into Hall H, that coveted place where all the new movies get pimped and where Robert Pattinson first learned to really fear fangirls.

However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t know what’s going on movie-wise because all you have to do is either a) watch stuff slide by via the #sdcc tag on Twitter or b) wait for us to compile all the best news to post the following morning.

James Cameron shows off bits of his Avatar
Reporter Kristina Rettig described the 20 minutes of highly anticipated footage from Avatar that director James Cameron unleashed during his time slot in Hall H as a “sci fi fever dream,” but you’ll get the chance to view it for yourself as on August 21, he will be releasing 15 minutes of footage to select 3D and IMAX theaters across the nation just for those of us who are not at the convention. Isn’t that nice of him? (Source: Variety)

Terry Gilliam shows off bits of his Imaginarium
Making his first-ever SDCC appearance, director Terry Gilliam showed five minutes of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, received an Inkpot award for excellence in films, and confirmed that yes, he really is going to do his The Man Who Killed Don Quixote movie.

Most interesting (to me) quote from the panel about the character of Dr. Parnassus: This character, Gilliam said, was inspired by Tony Blair—”one of [England’s] greatest prime ministers, who got us into a very silly war”—someone whose silver tongue is so persuasive that even he believes what he says. (Source: Variety)

Women kick ass the most in sci-fi films, says Sigourney Weaver
At the Entertainment Weekly panel, actors Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Zoe Saldana (Star Trek), Eliza Dushku (“Dollhouse”) and Elizabeth Mitchell (“Lost”) all seem to agree that it’s in science fiction movies and TV that female characters get the most awesome characterization.

As for Saldana’s reaction to a question about how a Wonder Woman movie would be cast, it’s best noted below:

Saldana had an answer for why Hollywood will probably cast a 25-year-old hottie as Wonder Woman if and when the movie ever becomes a reality: “Sixty-five-year-old men want to see 25-year-old women,” she lamented. “They are the ones predominantly cutting the checks.”

There’s more bits in video clips at the end of the article. (Source: Entertainment Weekly)

I’m of two minds of what to think about the news from Variety that Denzel Washington is still in the cast of Unstoppable, a movie about two engineers who must stop an unmanned runaway train from spilling its toxic cargo all over the place.

Two weeks ago, pre-production on the film that’s will be directed by Tony Scott from a Mark Bomback script came to a halt when Washington and the executives at 20th Century Fox couldn’t see eye-to-eye on what he should be paid. The studio was looking to reduce the budget on the film to $90 million and one of the places they were cutting was the salaries of the movie’s leads: Washington and Chris Pine (Star Trek).

Pine was to be taking a cut from $9 million to $6 million and the studio wanted to shave $4 million from Washington’s usual $20 million income. Washington balked, and his people told everyone that he was now suddenly free to look at other movie offers.

It’s a risky move for actors to make while in negotiations, but it paid off in the end for Washington because Fox scrambled to get another deal and script together for him and while he was on the publicity junket for The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (which is also directed by Tony Scott, and wouldn’t you have wanted to be a fly on the wall when the two were in an elevator alone or at the bar?) and suddenly Washington’s back in the picture which will start filming in Pittsburgh in the fall.

The reason why I’m of two minds about the film is while I understand Washington’s need to maintain his current level of income because he is definitely a $20 million dollar-a-project caliber of performer, just like the guys at Film School Rejects.com, I don’t think that quality of production should suffer because an actor wants to maintain a certain level of income.

Unstoppable sounds like it’s going to be an effects-heavy film, what with having to build scale-model replicas of parts of trains for Washington and Pine to crawl and run around, perhaps some climactic train crash to either film as a model (oh, wouldn’t it be awesome to see miniatures in movies again?) or a CG-spectacle. It also has a formulaic plot, which means extra care has to be taken with the script and/or its on-set rewrites to make it seem more than just the average action flick.

At the same time, according to a study Forbes magazine made of how bankable a star really is, it wasn’t a well-schooled, well-trained veteran like Washington who draws the multi-million dollar crowds; it’s actors like Matt Damon and Jennifer Aniston who earned $29 dollars and $17 dollars respectively for each dollar they got paid in 2007 where Washington only earned $10.

Of course, the other thing that’s on my mind that I can never really escape from is the fact that actors like Washington who do help enrich our popular and social culture through their work are also paid several times more than what high school teachers and social workers make, and those people save lives. What’s a $4 million cut, honestly—or about $2 million after taxes get taken out?

In any case, the deal was made and the film’s back on schedule, and that’s what’s important, right?

In a surprise pre-Comic Con announcement, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures announced today that they’ve signed on Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell, Spider Man franchise) to direct the feature film adaptation of their long-running computer series Warcraft.

From the article at ComingSoon.net:

“At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story,” said Raimi. “I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen.”

The production team he’s speaking of includes Charles Roven who does have a lot of winners on his plate like The Dark Knight and 12 Monkeys. However, he also was the producer for Cadillac Man, which is the only movie I have ever wanted to walk out of because the beginning was just so dull and unlikable.

Other members of the team include his producing partner Alex Gartner, Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni from Legendary Pictures, and Raimi and his producing partner Joshua Donen (of course). Raimi’s other partner Robert Tapert will be an executive producer and on Blizzard’s side Chris Metzen will be a co-producer and has written the script. (Incidentally? I was a freshman and Metzen was a senior at the same high school. It’s so nice to know he’s doing so well.) On the money end, the film will be co-financed by Warner Bros. as part of an existing deal with Legendary Pictures.

As for the plot, there are several theories as to what it could be, according to the Wikipedia entry for the computer game series:

2006: THR reports that the movie will be part of the shared universe of Warcraft, but not be a direct adaptation of any of its games or expansion packs.

2007: Announcements at Blizzard’s own convention BlizzCon (and reported by WarcraftMovieChronicles.com) reveal that they’re aiming for a 2009 release date (which I assume they’re now revising since they only just announced a director), the budget will be close to $100 million, it will be a PG-13 movie of about 2 1/2 hours, and the movie will follow a “bad-ass” hero who fights for the Alliance made up of humans, elves, dwarves, and other “good” creatures.

I’m sure that with the sold out SDCC coming up this weekend and BlizzCon on August 21 and 22, there will be more information coming out about the movie, so I’m reserving my judgment till then.

Over a year after it was initially reported, some casting details are coming out of Summit Entertainment regarding the adaptation of the DC/Wildstorm comic Red, courtesy of Variety.

Originally written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Cully Hamner, the trade magazine claims that Morgan Freeman is “in talks” to star in Red with Bruce Willis (whom The Hollywood Reporter said in April was also “in talks”).

The details in the THR story point to Willis taking on the role of Paul Moses, a former CIA agent who is targeted by an assassin sent by new director Michael Beesley; that looks like a role for Freeman, but I can’t confirm that.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian (GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Salt) are producing with DC executive Gregory Noveck serving as executive producer. Brothers Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber (Whiteout) are adapting/writing the script, and the film is set for a 2010 release date… which means they’d better finish up these negotiations and get a director, soon!

Related Posts: Quick Cuts: More Funny People, Red, RoboCop, Turok

I’m going to come right out and say it, and I don’t care too much who knows:

I don’t think I mind too much that they’re going to make a live-action Hong Kong Phooey movie…except for the part where it’s just “a little bit racist.”

Announced last weekend when I actually had access to the Internet, Variety noted that Alcon Entertainment (Dude, Where’s My Car?, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) will be in charge of the live-action/animated adaptation of the 1974 Hanna Barbera cartoon about a bumbling superhero whose secret identity is that of a janitor at the police station. Oh, and he’s also an anthropomorphic dog.

Alex Zamm (Inspector Gadget 2) is directing from a David A. Goodman (Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost) script, and Alcon studio presidents Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are two of the producers, with Brett Ratner and Jay Stern (Rush Hour movies) rounding out the set.

I’m also going to come right out and say this: I actually liked Underdog, because it took the idea of an anthropomorphic superhero dog and was able to insert it into the “real world” in a very entertaining way. A large part of that was the performance of lead villain Simon Barsinister, as played by Peter Dinklage (Death at a Funeral) of whom I first took notice in The Station Agent, one of my favorite indie movies of all time—and it doesn’t look like I’m the only one who thinks so.

If Zamm, Goodman, and the rest can successfully navigate this picture past its “This was really cool in the 1970s when everybody was ‘kung fu fighting'” origins, then this might not actually be a completely terrible idea.

It was a difficult decision to make, but The Hollywood Reporter has two stories up on how Green Lantern director Martin Campbell, producers Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti, and the Warner Bros. studio execs finally narrowed their choices for the titular role down to Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake–and now they’re stating that it’s Reynolds’ role to lose.

According to the first article, each of them had a favorite, it was difficult to come to a consensus on who should get the part, and of course they’re not revealing which person or entity won when Reynolds went into final negotiations yesterday.

The most interesting part about this story is that not only did all three have to come in to do a second round of screen tests, but that this process started last Monday, when a deal with two of the three actors had expired, which meant they would be free to sign deals with other movies whose production schedules matched up with Lantern‘s, and that everyone involved was able to wait about a week before someone blabbed to the media.

Of the three, I think that Timberlake would have been the most awkward choice because while he has proven himself to be a gifted actor, he’s still behind Cooper and Reynolds when it comes to chops. Between the two, I would have had a difficult time choosing, too.

The movie begins shooting in January, 2010, and is set to open in December.

Update (7/13/09): Variety put a new article up late last night saying that, indeed, Ryan Reynolds is now “set” as the star of Green Lantern — meaning the contracts are signed. This shit is official, kids!

Related Posts: Green Lantern gets different director… maybe?; Deadpool gets his own X-Movie; Wolvie gets a sequel (updated)