Category: News

I’ve been thinking a lot about screenwriters recently because I’ll be helping a friend do a reading in March and any time I hear that a writer or a writing team has landed a deal, I give a little cheer because I know how hard it is to create new stories for a jaded audience.

I’m not sure how much this applies to writers Michael Diliberti and Matthew Sullivan who sold their script L.A. P.I. to Rough House, the production company set up by actor Danny McBride and his collaborators Jody Hill (director of Observe and Report) and David Gordon Green (director of Pineapple Express and Your Highness, which also stars McBride).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hill will direct and McBride will star as a private investigator in L.A.—obviously—but almost every other detail about the plot is being kept tightly under wrap.

I can’t decide whether or not this is a good move as when you think about Los Angeles and fictional private detectives, you think about Phillip Marlowe or Jim Rockford, right? Also, the film is being described as an action-comedy, which I think means there’s going to be less sleuthing and more antics, which as a fan of the detective genre I’m not sure I can fully support.

This isn’t the first deal for Diliberti and Sullivan, as they’ve been tasked with re-adapting Brewster’s Millions for Warner Bros., and according to IMDBPro, their first script Comic Con has an option out on it, but doesn’t state which studio has it.

In an awards ceremony that featured David Hyde Pierce performing a rap song which name-checked the films in contention, the winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival dramatic Grand Jury Prize was Winter’s Bone directed by Debra Granik, adapted from the novel by David Woodrell. (The complete list of Sundance winners is here.)

However, it was Roadside Attractions who was the big winner, according to Variety, because they were able to pick up the North American distribution rights for perhaps under half a million dollars, outbidding and outlasting Apparition, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Sony Pictures Classics, and the Weinstein Co.

The film, for which Granik and Anne Rosellini also won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, stars Jennifer Lawrence (Lauren Pearson from “The Bill Engvall Show”) as a teen living in the Ozarks whose meth-dealing father has put up the family home as a bond against being held in jail till his court appearance and has since disappeared. It’s up to the teen to conduct her own “Dog the Bounty Hunter”-style hunt, and she doesn’t even have a black SUV or a large bosomed-assistant/wife at her disposal.

Two other films also picked up distribution deals:

The Killer Inside Me: No matter what you say, Gordon and Anne Thompson, I’m not sure I want to see this film which was decried by audience members just minutes after finishing up its screening for scenes of graphic violence between its star deputy sherrif Casey Affleck upon his prostitute lover Jessica Alba. I’m lucky enough that I will not be triggered upon seeing the movie, but there are very many people who will not be. There’s a long conversation to be had about the value of graphic violence in film, but I think I’ll save it for another article.

IFC Films is the lucky studio that picked up the rights for just over $1 million for the film which was directed by Michael Winterbottom and adapted from the 1952 novel by Jim Thompson (who also wrote the novel which was the basis for The Grifters).

Blue Valentine: Written/directed by Derek Cianfrance and starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as a married couple on the verge of divorce, The Weinstein Co. picked up the North American theatrical and Pan-Asian satellite rights for something in the “low seven figures,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Including the previously announced pick-ups and that of the documentaries Family Affair and Waiting for Superman, the international rights sale of Holy Rollers and the U.S. distribution of foreign language Contracorriente (aka Undertow), this brings the total number of deals made at Sundance to 10; many are taking that to be an indicator that the industry has bounced back:

“There’s a sense of relief and comfort that the market is still pretty healthy,” said Micah Green, co-head of [Creatie Artists Agency]’s film finance group. “The pace of sales is more deliberate now. If you check back in three to four months, I think you’ll find more films will have sold than in previous years. The market is more fragmented, so there’s less of a herd mentality. People are responding more to the films than who else is chasing them.”

Let’s just hope the industry’s also strong enough to support the sale of two large film catalogs, eh?

As the sun set over the wintry and cold panorama of film goers, swag hunters, celebs, critics, actual movie fans, and some phonies in Park City, Utah at the Sundance film festival yesterday, three different sets of directors, cast members and producers could celebrate for they had all landed the best honor there is to be had at the festival: a domestic distribution deal.

The Kids Are All Right: Focus Features picked up this drama/comedy which stars Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a lesbian couple whose children do some sleuthing and find out that their biological father is Mark Ruffalo. I have to say that I love the premise of this movie because it’s rather unique among all the kinds of stories one could tell about the new nuclear family.

Directed by and co-written by indie-familiar Lisa Cholodenko, Focus will be releasing Kids in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and South Africa to the tune of $4.8 million but they haven’t announced when they would be doing so.

Hesher: I never thought I’d hear the word “hesher” ever again, but here it is as the name of Joseph Gordon-Leavitt’s character in a drama about a motherless boy (played by Devin Brochu) who forms an unlikely friendship with Hesher and Natalie Portman’s character and what happens when their lifestyles collide. Newmarket Films picked up the U.S. distribution rights for $1 million and there’s apparently a deal in the works to bring the film to Canada as well.

Twelve: The only reason why the $2 million purchase of the domestic rights to Joel Schumacher’s teen drama—which hasn’t even made its public debut yet—would make sense to me would be if either the buyers received a private screening or if Hannover House is trying to capitalize on the “Let’s watch rich Manhattan teens ruin their lives” zeitgeist.

Based on the novel by Nick McDonell, the ensemble drama features a performance by Chace Crawford as a teenage drug dealer who sells pot to his rich prep school friends and takes place over the course of five days at the turn of the 21st century.

Sundance closes its festival this coming Sunday. (Source: Variety)

In one of his op-ed pieces, Entertainment Weekly‘s Owen Gleiberman declared that thanks to Twilight: New Moon, the age of Hollywood trying to placate only the 18 to 34-year old male demographic was over.

I am understandably torn about this.

I think it’s totally awesome that Hollywood is starting to take young women’s needs seriously when it comes to entertainment. The success of the High School Musical TV franchise was built on the yearnings of teenage girls, and those yearnings also lead to the silver screen debut of the franchise earning over $90 million in the U.S.

With New Moon earning over $142 million in its opening weekend and shattering the record previously held by the similarly age-range targeted The Dark Knight, it proves without a doubt that young women will flock to the movie theaters just as much as young men will.

My problem is that what the average teenage girl normally wants out of her entertainment isn’t very good, nor would any of it pass a Bechdel test because the average teenage girl is mostly concerned with teenage boys and whether or not they’ll think she’s pretty due to the demands of her raging hormones and the societal pressure surrounding her. There’s only so many different kinds of movies one can make that would appeal to this inner need, and I doubt you’ll see any of them on an American Film Institute Top 100 list or winning any major awards.

The feminist within me is warring with my inner critic, mostly because when I add in this report that women are taking on stronger roles in TV production and actually making good series that a wide audience wants to watch, it would almost make me think that an increase in female studio presidents or chairs or an increase in the ranks of female directors and screenwriters would mean that there would be a corresponding increase in the variety of stories for female characters in movies.

And that’s where I’d be wrong.

As reported by Jezebel.com during a conversation they had with New York Times movie critic Manohla Dargis, the fact that women like Universal Pictures co-chair Donna Langley exist means absolutely nothing when you compare it to Hollywood’s total output over the last decade:

For me the most sobering thing of the last ten years is that there really was a point where four of the studios were run by women… and you would have thought that would lead to an uptick of women directors. I’m not saying I’ve done a systematic analysis, but it doesn’t look like it changed very much… Working within the system has not worked. It has not helped women filmmakers or, even more important, you and me, women audiences, to have women in the studio system. … I think the studio system as it exists now is a no-win situation for women filmmakers.

The sad thing is that this isn’t a fight that’s new to me. When I started writing for Sequential Tart in either 2000 or 2001, one of the things that impressed me about the group as a whole is that though the online comics ‘zine was–and still is!–written, edited, and published only by women, what a variety of tastes and styles we had!

The common refrain and what made me sad to leave Tart after I was hired at Wizard Entertainment was that our strength as a ‘zine and an arbiter of taste was our diversity in what we liked. Sure, there was a great propensity towards indie comics more than mainstream comics, but that’s because just like Hollywood, the majority of mainstream comics stories and characters in the U.S. haven’t been written by or created for women and girls since the industry began.

Thankfully, girls who want to read comics that reflect who they are as people can turn to Japanese manga to fill that void. There is no equivalent substitute for female film fans, and to answer the question why would probably entail me getting a sociology degree.

Yet, just as the fight goes on for female comics fans to be served entertainment by the Big Two that appeals to them without pandering or completely missing the point, one can hope that the second decade of the 21st century can start to turn things around for women who love movies.

Or at least he’s in negotiations to do so.

According to Variety, Sam Worthington is currently working out a deal to star in Universal Pictures’ Dracula Year Zero which will be directed by Alex Proyas (Dark City, Knowing) from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

Though the trade says the exact plot of the movie is a secret, Steven James Snyder over at Techland.com had a conversation with Proyas where he revealed a bit more about how he’s approaching this most iconic of movie monsters:

It’s all about how Vlad of Transylvania became this creature; the choices that he made to make him into this tragic character. It’s so intriguing to me, to approach this as a character study on a huge, epic canvas. The script is from these two young guys who have never really done a script before, but they basically did their thing and have reinvented the whole context of this most familiar personality.

It’s worth it to note that the original novel by Bram Stoker was itself a reworking of the history of Transylvanian lore about Vlad the Impaler combined with subtle influences of Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel Carmilla and John Polidori’s The Vampyre, both of which preceded Stoker’s publication.

Of course, Universal’s re-telling of the vampire story is part of a major bid to re-establish the studio in the public’s eye as the place to go when you want to see a movie featuring monsters and I have a feeling that the fate of this new Dracula movie is going to rest with how audiences react to the upcoming The Wolfman in February.

It’s been only four days so far, but already the distribution rights to a movie have been negotiated at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The lucky winners of the “first Sundance get” award are Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes, screenwriter Chris Sparling, and producers Peter Safran and Adrian Guerra whose Buried made its world premiere during the “Park City at Midnight” series on Saturday. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as an unlucky contract driver in Iraq whose convoy gets attacked by insurgents and he winds buried alive in a coffin, which appealed to Lionsgate.

According to Variety‘s insiders, the deal was done for between $3 million and $4 million, and was helped along by the fact that apparently the first screening was so packed that buyers from Fox Searchlight had to leave Sundance to go see it in Salt Lake City the next day.

As much as I love Ryan Reynolds, though, I am a bit concerned about the logistics of this movie, as anyone who watches “Mythbusters” knows that it is nearly impossible for someone who is buried alive in a coffin underground to live long enough to break free from it due to rising carbon dioxide levels inside the coffin. It doesn’t help to know that Reynolds’ character is buried with a candle in the coffin because as everyone knows, fire needs oxygen in order to sustain itself, thus rapidly depleting the available supply for the poor contract worker.

There’s no word yet on when the film will be released.

Related Posts: Ryan Reynolds to be Buried alive

If there’s one thing I appreciate about director Robert Rodriguez, it’s that when the man says he’s going to do something like make an entire movie based on a “throwaway” trailer that he made to run with a different movie, not only does he do it, other people give him money for it.

A perfect example would be 20th Century Fox picking up the domestic distribution rights to Rodriguez’ Machete, beating out Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate according to Variety. Or how about Sony Pictures and some other smaller overseas distributors buying the international distribution rights sight almost unseen, which gave him enough money to make the movie last year in Austin, Texas?

Having just caught From Dusk Till Dawn the other day, I’m definitely in the mood for a great revenge flick full of fancy knife-wielding, possibly some explosions, bombastic dialogue, and a whole lot of heart, which I am sure Machete will deliver in spades.

No word yet on when the film will be released.

Related Posts: Robert Rodriguez to bring Predators, Machete to the big screen

It’s been a while since the words “A John Landis Film” have crossed the silver screen, so I’m pleased to note some news regarding his next feature film project.

It was announced last August that John Landis would be working on a horror comedy called Burke and Hare with British actor Simon Pegg. Now, The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Heat Vision” blog is reporting that Andy Serkis will be co-starring with Pegg, replacing David Tennant.

From a script by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft (St. Trinian’s), the film is about two gravediggers whose first names were both William and also happened to be the earliest serial killers in Britain.

(Ooh! Etymology fun time! It’s from these two killers that we get the verb “to burke” which a free dictionary defines as “To execute (someone) by suffocation so as to leave the body intact and suitable for dissection.” And it’s not just regular strangulation, either, as there’s usually an element of chest compression as well.)

Also starring in the film will be Isla Fisher as Pegg’s girlfriend and possible accomplice and Tom Wilkinson as an anatomy lecturer who unknowingly buys the duo’s victims in his search for teaching supplies.

Filming will begin in the U.K. at the end of this month.

I’ve read many thrillers where the soldier of fortune or archaeologist or secret agent sneaks into some temple in Cambodia or Peru or whatever, to steal the eye of an ancient idol. He then runs for his very life as fuming natives chase him to carve out his giblets. The opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark is a good example.

But. Has anyone ever done a scene in a movie where someone from another land (okay, how about Tony Jaa?) comes to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and makes off with the little plate that holds the Host? And he’s then chased out into the street by the outraged congregation? And shot at by irked cops who happen to be Irish-American and good Catholic boys? Do you think anyone would catch the reversal or would audiences just be whispering to each, “What the hell?”
–Dr Hermes, while describing a movie that I’d definitely pay good money to see.

While you’re at it, check out his gallery of obscure movie stills, complete with commentary. It’s this kind of thing that was made for moving to a WordPress-type blog, you know? I sure do wish someone would show him how to make one because this is some great material that deserves a wider audience.

O, to be Mickey Rourke.

One minute, your career is hanging by a thread, the next, you’ve won a Golden Globe, have an Academy Award nomination, and movie offers are once again pouring at your feet. And now, Bill Murray joins the cast of your next indie movie? That’s gotta be pretty sweet.

From MTV.com‘s movie blog comes the news that Bill Murray will be replacing Toby Kebbell as the villain in Passion Play which stars Rourke as a down-on-his-luck trumpet player who is trying to rescue a sideshow freak who has wings growing out of her back (played by Megan Fox) from Murray’s gangster.

Currently filming in New Mexico, the movie is the directorial debut of screenwriter Mitch Glazer who previously worked with Murray on Scrooged. Already, the paparazzi are covering this movie like white on rice and have already reported on the possibility of Fox appearing topless in the movie. No, I am not going to link to those images because we’re a safe-for-work blog.

In a very smart move by the folks behind Iron Man 2 and Thor, Clark Gregg will be reprising his role from Iron Man as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson in both movies, and according to Marc Graser, Marvel is making sure that all the actors they get for those key supporting roles have their schedules cleared to crossover into the other movies. Now that’s some forward synergistic thinking. Too bad comic book editors don’t think the same way. (Source: Variety)

It’s time to get out your calendars, for it’s movie release date updating time! In this edition, Paramount Pictures will be releasing True Grit on December 25 while Footloose will be vacating the June 18 spot due to losing director Kenny Ortega. Am I the only one who thinks it a little funny to like the plot of one movie’s re-adaptation, but not another? (Source: Variety)

Finally, to those of you who are creators and hope to see your creations in print and on film, I urge you: read carefully this seemingly dry piece about who owns the copyright to the Sherlock Holmes character. Currently, the ex-wife of a producer whose husband made a 1954 TV series is battling it out with the non-direct descendants of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, all because Doyle’s oldest son’s widow was able to wrest control away from his youngest daughter back in the 1970s. (Source: The New York Times)

Bolstered by his Golden Globe nomination for (500) Days of Summer, Marc Webb has decided to tempt the fates and a fanboy storm by signing on to direct the trouble-plagued Spider-Man 4 movie.

As reported in Variety and ComingSoon.net, Webb will be working from a script written by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) and will be carefully watched by producers Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin as they re-ramp up production later this year.

In discussing his reasons for working on the project, Webb said in a statement:

This is a dream come true and I couldn’t be more aware of the challenge, responsibility, or opportunity. Sam Raimi’s virtuoso rendering of Spider-Man is a humbling precedent to follow and build upon. The first three films are beloved for good reason. But I think the Spider-Man mythology transcends not only generations but directors as well. I am signing on not to “take over” from Sam. That would be impossible. Not to mention arrogant. I’m here because there’s an opportunity for ideas, stories, and histories that will add a new dimension, canvas, and creative voice to Spider-Man.

As previously reported, the “new” fourth film may be a “reboot” of the franchise… kinda. Exact details are sketchy, but the current scuttlebutt has the movie taking place when Peter Parker is still a high school kid, learning how to deal with his powers and survive not just fights with burglars but school bullies as well. How much of this would take place within the existing timeline of the movies is to be seen, if at all.

In addition, exactly how much fanboy favor will bless or condemn the new direction will depend on whom they choose to be the “new” Spider-Man, and names that have been tossed around include Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson and Jim Sturgess from 21 and The Other Boleyn Girl.

As I was writing this, Gordon popped online to remind me that Webb started off his career as a director of music videos (some of which you can see on his website here) and that Webb’s confirmation as director means that we’ll have to wait a bit to see his re-imagining of Jesus Christ Superstar for Universal Pictures—which leaves me just a little disappointed because if movie audiences are going to have to endure another version of the Christ story, we might as well get one with singing, dancing, and a soulful Judas, right?

Related Posts: “Spider-Man 4 No More”?! Not exactly… (updated), Additional details on Spider-Man 4 delay, including Thor and Pirates 4 release dates, Quick Cuts: Spider-Man 4 falls while Deadpool rises, and other stories (updated)

More cast members are being added to director Duncan Jones’ next project Source Code and I couldn’t be happier.

According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Heat Vision” blog Michelle Monaghan will star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as his love interest and Vera Farmiga is in negotiations to play the communications officer in charge of helping Gyllenhaal’s soldier navigate the mindscape of a witness to terrorist bombing and is forced to relive it in order to identify the culprits.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea that a movie about the very science fiction-y concept of being able to transfer your consciousness into another body is not beginning and ending with Avatar. A recent review by Donnie Sturges over at Spwug.com reminded me that James Cameron didn’t make a science fiction movie at all, because that wasn’t his goal.

Jones strikes me as the kind of director who isn’t going to bury the questions that such technology asks underneath the guise of an action movie or something else like that.

Filming is set to begin in March.

Related Posts: Director Duncan Jones, actor Jake Gyllenhaal go straight to the Source for Summit Entertainment

If there’s anyone out there with a spare $100,000 who has ever wanted to host a movie premiere in their living room, have I got a deal for you.

Webcomics author Ryan Estrada will be turning his Zuda Comics creation The Kind You Don’t Bring Home to Mother into a feature-length animated movie and he’s taken to the Internet to do some fundraising, asking fans and/or random passers-by to donate money to help produce the film.

Written and directed by Estrada, the plot of the movie goes as such:

The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother is an upcoming independent animated feature directed by Ryan Estrada. It’s a movie about a werewolf, but with one small difference. It takes place between full moons.

With four weeks of freedom until her next transformation, Julia Hobson faces a whole new set of horrors. First dates, disapproving parents, awkward social situations, and the looming lunar deadline that makes her wonder if her new relationship will last the full moon.

It’s only a matter of time before David Duncan finds out if Julia really is the girl of his dreams, or if life with a lycanthrope turns out to be too much to handle.

The rewards for donation range from having your name appear in the credits to having your dog become a extra. Estrada estimates that it would take $100,000 to fully finance this project, but if someone wanted to pay for the entire movie, he will do the following:

• Write a scene into the movie featuring the donor and his family
• Fly out to where you are to record voices for the speaking parts
• Hold the world premiere in the person’s home

(I’m sure, by the way, that Estrada will also apologize for getting “Superfreak” stuck in your head the same way it’s been stuck in mine for the last hour of research for this story.)

If you happen to have a couple thousand lying around and have always dreamed of investing in an indie film—because who doesn’t, really?—you can dig a little deeper on the website to find this information about investment opportunities:

The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother, LLC has 20 shares. Each share is worth $5,000 dollars. Investment into the film involves the purchase of a minimum of one share and agreeing to the Operator’s Agreement for The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother, LLC.

The Operator’s Agreement isn’t on the website, and I doubt Estrada’s going to share that info without us ponying up $5K first.

However, one of the things I like about this project is that Home to Mother will feature 2D animation over live-action backgrounds, already making it look more unique than anything else that’s out there right now. The plot’s also just that right mix between slice-of-life romantic comedy and horror that tickles my brain.

There’s no word from Estrada yet on who will be cast as Julia and/or David or how many of the other characters from the webcomic are going to make the transition to the big screen version.