Category: News

I don’t know what it is about director Steven Soderbergh, but I’ll bet you that some other filmmakers currently at the Toronto Film Festival are pissed that a film he’s directing that he hasn’t even started has already been picked up for distribution when their finished pictures haven’t yet.

From the article by Variety writer Michael Fleming, Soderbergh’s newest film called Knockout has been picked up by Lionsgate Films for domestic distribution with Mandate handling the international sales. The film will also be fully financed by Relativity Media.

Written by Lem Dobbs (The Limey) and starring Gina Carano (a mixed martial artist and nouveau American Gladiator) the film is to be a spy thriller in the vein of La Femme Nikita, and filming will begin in January 2010 in Ireland, Turkey, and the United States.

I’m not sure I ever talked about this before, but back when I was living in Southern California, I had the pleasure of being at official Disney-sponsored press events as both a reporter for Sequential Tart.com and as a press liaison as a Disney Cast Member.

As such, I think I can definitely envision how D23, the first Disney “fan convention”—and allegedly, its answer to the San Diego Comic Con—kicked off on Friday and how almost all the presentations were run. Thankfully, the Associated Press was also there to cover the first day, and here’s a rundown of the crunchy news bits:

• The title of the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie is Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides, and it will be released in Summer 2011. Incidentally, it goes without saying that Johnny Depp was on hand and was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow while Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook gave this announcement and arrived on stage at the Anaheim Convention Center in a pirate ship, yes? (Source: AP)
• Guillermo del Toro appeared via video from New Zealand to discuss the deal he has with Disney to produce “scarier” animated features via the new brand “Disney Double Dare You.” The first movie will be called Trollhunters, based on an original story by del Toro (Source: AP)
• Robert Zemeckis was also on-hand to show off footage from the upcoming 3-D version of A Christmas Carol, the one that has Jim Carrey playing eight different parts. His next project with Disney will be a 3-D adaptation of the Beatles’ 1968 classic animated film Yellow Submarine. (Source: AP)

I’d be surprised if there was more news to come this weekend because it’d be hard to follow Johnny Depp and a pirate ship, right?

Repeated with what was probably some glee at the Toronto Film Festival, Variety reported that director Peter Berg has reunited stars Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Batemam to do a sequel to the hit anti-hero film Hancock.

Though there hasn’t been any confirmation from Sony/Columbia with a release date or anything like that or any corroboration from the stars’ representatives, Berg’s exact words were “Everybody’s going to come back for a sequel” and you can’t get more unambiguous than that, right?

A previous report from The Hollywood Reporter noted that Berg and writers Adam Fierro (“Dexter”) and Glen Mazzara (“The Shield”) have been working on a script that explores more about the world from which Hancock and his star-crossed lover got their powers and immortality by giving them a bad guy for them to team up against—though I wonder how hard it will be for them since they can’t be in each others’ presence without losing their powers.

We’ll keep you appraised on this one as things develop.

In spite of the fact that Variety writer Michael Fleming is calling it a Big Lebowswki-esque reunion, I’m pleased at the news that Jeff Bridges is “in discussions” to star in the Coen brothers’ redo of True Grit.

The article gives a little more detail on what Joel and Ethan Coen and producer Scott Rudin plan on doing with the film to distinguish it from the 1969 original starring John Wayne:

Story centers on a 14-year-old girl who tags along with an aging U.S. marshal, Rooster Cogburn, and another lawman to track the outlaw who killed her father. The original told the story from Cogburn’s point of view, but the new version will work from the viewpoint of the girl.

And since it’s Jeff Bridges and all, I can’t help but think about the great chemistry he had with Jodelle Ferland in Terry Gilliam’s Tideland and wonder if they’ll be able to find another child actor like her to play against Bridges.

According to Variety, Nu Image/Millennium Films and Sylvester Stallone have come to an agreement regarding the fifth installment of the Rambo franchise that re-kicked off last year: it’s totally on.

Stallone will be back to direct and star in the film, which will have John Rambo fighting human traffickers and drug lords in an attempt to save a girl who has been kidnapped at the U.S.-Mexico border.

I have to wonder, though, exactly how this newest one will be different from all the other Rambo movies or even Stallone’s upcoming work in The Expendables. There is a time and place for big, dumb, action movies and while I normally love them, I also love it when the plot makes a little bit of sense and I like the characters enough to want them to survive the next explosion.

Blake Lively (“Gossip Girl”) and Chris Cooper (Syriana) are the latest to sign on to Ben Affleck’s crime thriller The Town, said The Hollywood Reporter last week. She will play the ex-girlfriend to Affleck’s bank robber and the troubled sister of one of Affleck’s team members while Cooper is in negotiations to play Affleck’s father.

Related Posts: Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall join The Town (updated: Jeremy Renner, too?), Ben Affleck back behind the camera with The Town

In what Variety is calling the first major development deal ever since Dreamworks officially split from Paramount Pictures, studio CEO and co-chair Stacey Snider announced that it had acquired the movie rights to Pirate Latitudes, the last book to be written by Michael Crichton before his death last November.

Found by Crichton’s assistant, Latitudes is set in the mid 1600s and is about a plan to raid Port Royal in Jamaica and sail away with the treasures that are being held on a Spanish galleon; the book will see publication this fall.

As far as the movie adaptation goes, Steven Spielberg is set up to be the movie’s producer, and Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp will adapt; the hope is that Spielberg will direct as well.

I remember when I was younger, I went on a huge Crichton kick both movie-wise and novels-wise and I almost always loved his novels more than I loved the movie adaptations of them, especially Sphere.

However, I have to wonder, just as arkonbey did in the comments to this post, isn’t the time for pirate movies either over or now entirely within the realm of Disney and Captain Jack Sparrow? Would audiences go and see a movie about pirates who don’t mince and wear black kohl around their eyes?

Only time (and the cast list) will tell.

One of the things I keep forgetting about Jet Li is that he’s actually more than just a kung fu star. Luckily, his next Chinese-language project will help me remember.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Li will star with Taiwanese actress Kwai Lun-mei in an Edko Films production written by Chinese screenwriter Xue Xiao-lu (and he’ll be taking on directing duties for the first time, too) for a film known as Ocean Paradise.

Clifford Coonan from Variety added later on that film would be “set in the harbor city of Qingdao and focuses on father-son relationships.”

At 43, both Li and Ip Man star Donnie Yen (who at 46 noted that he wanted to stop doing action movies in four years) are at the right age to have chosen retirement from action films and it’s my sincere hope that both men can transition their abilities into a new place in the entertainment world.

And yet, I can’t help but wonder: who is the next great Asian movie star going to be?

According to Variety, Susan Sarandon is “in negotiations” to play Shia LaBeouf’s mom in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2 sequel. As she’s one of my favorite actresses, if there isn’t an awesome steamy scene between her character and Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko, I will be very upset.

Related Posts: Frank Langella joins cast of Wall Street 2; can Josh Brolin be far behind?, Oliver Stone + Shia LeBeouf = Wall Street 2?, Fox says “Greed is gooder” by fast-tracking Wall Street seque

When Universal Pictures decided to film the Bioshock movie overseas to take advantage of tax-credits that other countries are offering, it looks like they automatically lost Pirates of the Carribbean 3 director Gore Verbinski in the process. The reason Verbinski can’t do the movie now is that he’s locked into sticking around the U.S. while work is done on the upcoming Rango which features the voice of Johnny Depp.

But not to worry!

According to Variety, the studio is in talks with 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to pick up that slack, and I’m actually quite pleased by this result.

Fresnadillo is a fine choice as a director because of the work he did with the “zombie” sequel movie which scored at 71% fresh on the Tomatometer and came in second place to Spider-Man 3 when it debuted a week after that film did. Also considering the fact that Bioshock has an other worldly, non-North American feel to it, even the move to filming abroad was a great decision.

Now, the decision rests in videogame company Take-Two’s hands and by God, I hope they don’t drop the ball on this.

Related Posts: BioShock gives Universal sticker shock, Verbinski leaves the Pirate life, BioShock is NOT necessarily next

It’s almost as if Hollywood is not even trying anymore.

Variety reported last night that Peter Chelsom (Shall We Dance?, Hannah Montana: The Movie) will be directing a movie for CBS Films about four friends who travel to Las Vegas when one of them is on the verge of getting married.

If you think this sounds awfully similar to this summer’s sleeper hit The Hangover, you’d be right but here’s the “twist” that is keeping the CBS’ movie from being “too derivative”—the guys will be in their 60s!

Quoth Chelsom in the article when asked about the movie:

These are four guys from Coney Island, who, when we meet them, think they are invincible. I think the film should attract four great stars in that age range.

The script is by Bolt and Fred Claus writer Dan Fogelman with Julie & Julia‘s Laurence Mark producing.

I can’t wait to see who they get to be in this movie.

The cast for Love and Other Drugs, which is based on a non-fiction tale about a Viagra salesman, is shaping up with the addition of veteran supporting actress and indie movie star Judy Greer.

According to Variety, she will play star Jake Gyllenhaal’s trainee instructor at the pharmaceutical company where real-life salesman Jamie Reidy eventually learned that he could manipulate the system to make $100,000 a year without working full-time.

Production is set to begin in September.

Related Posts: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway teaming up to push Drugs?

I think I know who to blame for the news that Warner Bros. and Hollywood Gang Productions will be remaking Outland, the 1981 sci-fi thriller which starred Sean Connery: It’s all director Duncan Jones’ fault.

Think about it. If it weren’t for Moon being so freaking fantastic and Jones constantly being quoted as saying that Outland was one of his inspirations for making the film, then it wouldn’t have been brought back into the collective consciousness. And this might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Producer Gianni Nunnari with Hollywood Gang is quoted in Variety as saying, “At its core, Outland is a version of High Noon in outer space, as two courageous people take a stand against a gang of ruthless conspirators at the highest level”—which while true is also sad to say that after having seen it a while ago, that is the only thing about that movie that I remember.

Michael Davis, who wrote and directed Shoot ‘Em Up with Clive Owen, will be directing from a Chad St. John script.

Rosario Dawson—who was last seen in Seven Pounds with Will Smith—has been cast to star alongside Chris Pine and on-again-off-again star Denzel Washington in the runaway train drama. No word on what her role is, but the Variety article claims that it’s based on real-life events.

Related Posts: Denzel Washington is still Unstoppable

[Yeah, I thought I was above this kind of headline, too, but man—the comedy just writes itself. – TL]

Variiety reported yesterday that Summit Entertainment was “in talks” to acquire the worldwide rights to Beaver, starring Mel Gibson as a depressed man whose only comfort is his hand… covered by beaver puppet. Jodie Foster is directing, and the production is set to start this fall in New York.

Related Posts: Mel Gibson has a part in Jodie Foster’s Beaver