Category: News

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite shows was “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Like any good “Dukes” fan, I’ve gleefully repressed the Coy and Vance years, mostly to focus on the good clean fun of watching Bo and Luke Duke foil the corrupt mayor and become the secret justice-seekers in their county.

It’s no surprise, then, that I’d follow the post-Hazzard careers of the actors with some interest, which makes this news about John Schneider’s next feature film most unusual.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Schneider who left the show “Smallville” after its 100th episode will be starring in a movie called Doonby; the plot goes like this:

In the feature film, John Schneider stars as Sam Doonby, a happy-go-lucky drifter who takes up residence in a small Texas town but seems suspiciously immune to the misfortunes that beset the other townsfolk.

Reporter Paul Bond adds that the film will take elements from It’s a Wonderful Life and Crazy Heart to create something new; however, what it really sounds like to me what they’re doing is more in line with Being There.

Doonby will be directed by British filmmaker Peter Mackenzie, who also wrote the script, and Robert Davi will be playing the town’s sherrif. A quick search to see what other films Mackenzie had worked on brought me to the film’s website and I have to admit that based on its unsophistication, I wonder exactly how low-budget this production will be (or if that’s even the movie’s real website).

Filming will take place at Spiderwood Studios near Austin, Texas.

Ever since the Cold War broke out between the U.S. and Russia, Hollywood has had a fascination with international espionage and the CIA, a government agency whom conspiracy theorists love because they can blame them for almost everything.

New York Times magazine investigative journalist Peter Landesman is no exception, and his latest venture into film making is proof-positive of this. According to an exclusive from Jay A. Fernandez at The Hollywood Reporter, Landesman and producer Brad Weston (Bad Santa, Patriot Down) have sold a pitch to Graham King who will produce under his GK Films banner.

And even though Fernandez wasn’t able to get a logline out of them, I’m still fascinated by the idea behind the story:

“As someone who glanced against the world of spies as a journalist, I wanted to be surprised again,” Landesman said. “The operative and intelligence world is a layer cake: the deeper you go, the more covert, the more dangerous.

“The spy genre has tapped most layers, but as an investigative journalist, I began to get wind of one that remained elusive: a layer of operative and intelligence gathering that is virtually without oversight, directed by a small handful, who do things no one will hear of, occasionally at cross-purposes with agencies like the CIA. The DNA of this film is pulled from that world.”

Advising Landesman on the production as a consultant is former CIA officer Robert Grenier who during his career was assistant deputy director of the CIA for counterterrorism and an undercover field agent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, adding that extra layer of verisimilitude.

There’s just something about spies that sparks the romantic imagination because of the secret nature of their work. There’s also the fact that the work is mostly nationalistic in nature, because almost everything a spy does is done largely to promote one nation’s interests over another’s.

I remember one afternoon while I was hanging with one of the future staff writers to this blog where we had a two hour conversation/debate over how the the fictional intelligence community in “Burn Notice” works, thanks to our having finally watched the Season 3 finale (beware of possible spoilers). My point was that it didn’t make sense to me that for someone like Michael Weston who was so dedicated to their work for so long to have been so easily set up by Management and that the rest of the intelligence community truly believed that he was a bad guy just didn’t make sense at all.

To hear that an upcoming film is going to feature details about how real intelligence works and to showcase something new in a spy movie? That just makes me giddy with glee.

No word yet on whether Landesman will be writing his very first script or if they’ll tap someone else to do it.

Ever since he stepped away from the Footloose adaptation, High School Musical graduate Zac Efron hasn’t been on my radar much because I’m a grown woman whose fictional crushes aren’t on guys who are 10 years younger than I am (mostly). However, the news of what Efron has decided his first self-produced movie will be has got me very intrigued.

From The Hollywood Reporter‘s Heat Vision blog comes the exclusive news that Warner Bros. picked up the rights to the remake of a Swedish film called Snabba cash—which translates into “easy money”—as a vehicle for Efron and the production house he’s gotten set up with them. Based on the original novel by Jens Lapidus, Efron would play Johan Westlund, a young financial wiz who looks to maintain his free-wheeling lifestyle by becoming a drug runner for a coke dealer.

The best part of this deal can be found here:

The deal, in the high six figures, has a progress to production, or “short fuse” clause, which means that if Warners sits on it for too long, the rights revert back to the producers.

I can only imagine how great that would feel for someone who’s selling their remake rights to know that if they take too long to do something with your property, you’ll get the rights back sooner rather than later.

Unlike the bloggers at the L.A. Times, I’m not convinced that the quick pick-up of Snabba‘s remake rights is a harbinger of a slew of Swedish crime films waiting to wing their way over to the states. I am then quickly reminded of the fact that after The Ring hit the U.S. shores like a tsunami, studios rushed to remake and/or re-release scores of Japanese horror films because they were just that different enough from what we’ve seen to be new (to us) again.

Still, there are worse genres to be transferred from other countries to ours.

When I was recently out on the town and killing time before a midnight screening of The Neverending Story with two of my future writers for this blog, we were killing time in a Best Buy when we passed a guy who was wearing a “Joss Whedon is my Master Now” T-shirt. He was duly fist-bumped as we turned for the double-take, and my geek heart grew one size larger.

Now, I fear that my Whedon-loving heart is exploding—and not entirely from boundless excitement. While I was toiling away in the trenches yesterday, Variety confirmed an April Fool’s Day IESB.net exclusive report that the Serenity director and Wonder Woman screenwriter would be directing The Avengers for Marvel Studios.

Marc Graser at the paper trade noted that part of the negotiations included Whedon taking a pass at the script which was previously written by Zak Penn. The core cast is set with Chris Evans taking on the Captain America role, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Chris Hemsworth as Thor.

There’s no word yet on who will be taking on the Hulk role or if any of the many women who have been Avengers over the years will be in the movie, but considering that Whedon’s muses have mostly been female, I’d be surprised if the Scarlet Witch didn’t at least make the cut.

I will be perfectly honest and say that my love for Whedon’s work peaked with “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and foundered with “Dollhouse.” Like the guys at Penny Arcade, I only found bits and pieces of the TV series fascinating but didn’t like it enough to continue watching after the sixth episode.

Just as most newly announced these days, I’m being cautiously optimistic that it will be good—and bracing myself for a reality where a Whedon-helmed Avengers won’t be good.

Filming will begin in early 2011.

It looks like the Footloose movie adaptation is cursed as Chace Crawford’s reps confirmed to reporter Nicole Sterling that the “Gossip Girl” star would no longer be appearing as Ren McCormack, the rebel dancer with a heart of gold and hips of steel. Sterling’s own sources claim that the “GG” series is the culprit and not the loss of Kenny Ortega. “Dancing With the Stars” golden girl Julianne Hough is still on track to be the female lead… this week, that is. (Source: EW.com)

And speaking of Kevin Bacon, he’s joining the cast of Steve Carrell’s untitled comedy about divorce as an “alpha male” character who has an affair with his wife, Julianne Moore. The movie begins shooting later this month. (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)

Finally, as one of the “new media” bloggers but also as one who wanted (and still wants) to break into “dead-tree” journalism, I’m not sure what to think about this opinion article by Howard Kurtz which speaks briefly about the differences between an accredited movie/literary/restaurant critic and Joe/Jill Average blogger because I can’t take a side just as the writer can’t.

As a writer, I know that in order to be able to be a better one, I need to read as much as I can and I don’t necessarily have that kind of time. But someone who reads for a living and can take the time to do the research and explore all the avenues is going to be better than I am at determining whether or not something is good or great. This requires more thought. (Source: The Washington Post)

Related Posts: Director Kenny Ortega won’t be getting Footloose, Zac Efron beats feet from Footloose and into a new Life