Category: News

The bad thing about being the directors of Little Miss Sunshine is that for the three years after it came out, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris had to keep answering the “So, how are you going to follow that?” question?

Understandably, it was a difficult question for the married duo to answer because when the first feature film you direct goes from being a typical indie film with financing problems, budget shortcuts, and a bevy of producers to grossing over $100 million worldwide and being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, you kinda have to pick your next project carefully.

So far, two films have been attributed to being under their care (Used Guys and The Abstinence Teacher, but it’s this latest one that I think really has the legs to go the distance.

According to Variety, the pair will be directing Paul Rudd in Will for Paramount Pictures, with Zach Galifianakis in negotiations to co-star.

The plot is described as follows:

Story centers on an ordinary guy (Rudd) who lives in a world where people’s lives and destinies are being written by scribes in Heaven. The man wakes up one day to find that his heavenly writer has decided to no longer draft his life, and he must go about his day unscripted.

That makes it feel like Stranger Than Fiction in reverse, but I think I’m kinda digging the magical realism of a world where people know for certain that someone is in charge of their destinies and what happens to someone who suddenly has to be in charge of himself.

Upon finding out that Demetri Martin originally pitched the movie to Dreamworks and that Paramount got custody of it when they broke up in 2008, it makes me wonder if Martin is also in negotiations to be involved as either a scriptwriter or part of the cast, and I think he’d be great doing either.

As predicted, thanks to the production delay on Spider-Man 4, the studio had to give up its May 6, 2011 release date, but that’s not the detail I’m most interested in out of this story from The Hollywood Reporter.

According to writers Carl DiOrio and Borys Kit, the conflict about the script is a fight once again between director Sam Raimi and the studio:

Raimi wants to have a criminal known as the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film while the studio, which dislikes the idea of the winged wrongdoer, is pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain.

Upon reading that Raimi has had this fight with the studio before, and when he capitulated, we got the mess that was Spider-Man 3, it’s all I can do to keep from putting my head in my hands.

In any case, even if a miracle happened and the two sides were able to come to a compromise, they won’t be able to get the release date back because Paramount Pictures swooped in to claim the spot in the name of Thor. Complicating matters is Walt Disney Pictures also announcing the release date for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as May 20, 2011.

Related Posts: Spider-Man 4 falls while Deadpool rises, and other stories

What was originally a winter break for the pre-production team at Spider-Man 4 has turned into a layoff as an unnamed source deep inside Sony Pictures stated that production has stopped on the movie, citing the script problem rumors that have been circulating since last month: “We will not start until we have it right. The feeling is we are not going to rush it to make the [May 6, 2001] date.” Considering that the previous installment in the franchise featured an overly long dance number in the middle of the movie, I’m perfectly alright with a delay. (Source: Variety)

Meanwhile over in Marvel anti-hero land, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick from the hit Zombieland have been tapped to write the X-Men spinoff movie Deadpool. This is a team that’s on a roll, by the way, because the two also took a whack at Venom and recently sold a script called Earth Vs. Moon to Universal Pictures. (Source: Variety)

And finally, despite all the love that’s been bestowed on James Cameron’s Avatar—which equals $1.063 billion dollars’ worth worldwide to date—there’s at least one organization that is hating on it. Enter SceneSmoking.org which gave the movie a “black lung” for its depiction of environmentally-friendly scientist Dr. Grace Augustine as being an avid smoker.

I give Cameron props for defending his movie when he responded in a written statement, “From a character perspective, we were showing that Grace doesn’t care about her human body, only her avatar body.” I’m choosing to take those props away again because Cameron went on to say: “which again is a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games.”

What the hell kind of message is that, when the deus ex flora-and-fauna-ina at the end of the movie is the protagonist being able to leave his human body behind forever in order to live in his 10-foot tall non-parapalegic blue one?! (Source: NY Times)

UPDATE: A new story making the rounds about John Malkovich “confirming” a Vulture role seems to be getting a little distorted. According to BadTaste.it (via Coming Soon), Malkovich appeared on an Italian sports show and “not only didn’t deny his involvement, confirmed that he’s waiting for the final script to be sent to him, and that the movie has been delayed. He also hopes that shooting will begin as soon as possible.” This doesn’t really say much, other than that the producers hope to have him involved.

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that he’s definitely starring as the Vulture; only that he’s interested — and waiting to see a script.

Kevin Smith hasn’t directed any films that he hasn’t written himself, and perhaps there’s a reason for that. However, he took that chance and some of the results could be seen before Sherlock Holmes over the weekend:

Of course, true Smith fans know that Cop Out had been going by a different title all throughout filming, and Smith explained to Entertainment Weekly why the movie isn’t called A Couple of Dicks:

[What] I had gone through with Zack and Miri Make a Porno—”porno” had become very problematic, it became tough for us to advertise [the film], blah blah blah. Warner Bros. decided, “Hey man, we’ll call the networks and see if we’re going to get any problems [with A Couple of Dicks as a title], months before the movie’s ever going to come out.” The top 3 networks—CBS, ABC, NBC—said we can’t run one of your spots before 9 o’clock.

Smith goes on to say that it was a quick decision on everyone’s part because of the Holmes trailer opportunity and that he’s somewhat pleased by the meta aspect of the name. I will admit that I also thought the same thing when I first saw the trailer: that doing this movie is a complete and total cop out for Smith.

Cop Out will be released in the U.S. on February 26, 2010.

Ever since the end of the Screen Actors Guild strike in June and the end of the Writer’s Guild strike in February 2008, there’s one thing that’s been on my mind: If the the newness of the Internet is both the reason why it’s hard to calculate royalties for writers and actors and the only way people are watching movies these days, then why is it that Internet-distributed releases haven’t fared well enough for the studios to take notice?

Jack Selby, a former senior vice president at PayPal, hopes to see a change in all of that because according to Variety, he and producer Duncan Montgomery along with writer-director Tiller Russell are teaming up to film and release digital productions via their new production house, Horsethief Pictures.

The first movie on their slate is called The Last Rites of Ransom Pride, and it stars Scott Speedman as Pride and Lizzy Caplan as his lover Juliette Flowers, with Dwight Yoakam, Jason Priestly, Kris Kristofferson, and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles. Horsethief plans to not only release the movie on the Internet next spring, they’re also planning an Internet assault via all the usual social networking systems and viral interactive games as well as a talent outreach and movie blog outreach.

Just like how the marketing folks at Focus Features chose 50 lucky bloggers to receive props from the Coraline movie, Horsethief has already begun its Internet assault by handing over an exclusive clip to the gang at FilmSchoolRejects.com. The write-up by Neil Miller also goes more into depth about Horsethief’s endeavors:

They’ve already started a viral campaign at WhoKilledtheDwarf.com, a website dedicated to the character of The Dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage. [Ed. note: Spoiler, much?] They will also be reaching out to fans via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites, including having the actors reach out directly.

But that’s not all. There are also these two very interesting (and somewhat dangerous) bits of interactivity:

• Horsethief is launching a unique songwriting contest, where fans can submit their own original songs. Fans will vote and select the winner and the announcement will be made by Grammy winning American singer-songwriter and star of The Last Rites of Ransom Pride Dwight Yoakam. The winner will have their song placed in the official movie trailer.
• Horsethief has kicked off a comic book creation contest, where fans can submit their ideas for the comic book based on the script, the winner will be chosen by Ben Edlund, writer of “The Tick” and will receive a first look deal with Horsethief Pictures.

Miller’s a little skeptical of how all the interactive stuff is going to turn out, but I’m a little more optimistic because I personally know a few talented songwriters and comics writers who might be able to bang out a quick pitch or demo over a weekend at very little loss of time to them.

Anyway, I’m definitely eager to see if anything comes of this because if it does… it’s definitely going to help change the way movies get made and people get paid out of them.

Apparently the thing to do these days is that when you have a movie premiere, you hire some telegenic actors to interview people on your red carpet and stream it live via Ustream for your official MySpace page.

That’s just the thing that the folks in the Avatar marketing department did for the movie premiere last night, and it was one of the crew members at Flickchart.com who was paying attention to the feed whose ears perked up during director Bryan Singer’s interview when he mentioned that he’d signed a deal to direct the next X-Men Origins film.

To view the interview for yourself, check out the below, fast-forwarding to where the pin is stuck in the middle of the slider bar:

UPDATE: Fox has since confirmed Singer’s signing and has also announced that screenwriter Jamie Moss (Street Kings, Ghost in the Shell) has been brought on for a “back to the drawing board” rewrite, as THR put it.

Courtesy of Variety comes the news that Sony Pictures has optioned the English-language screen rights to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; I automatically curse because that’s one more book that needs to jump to the top of my “to read” list.

In fact, I’m actually a little angry to be covering this news today because this means that I have to summarize the plot; thank goodness deceased author Stieg Larsson’s website provides a very blissfully brief one:

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone from her own deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate.

(My usual M.O. when reading a book or watching a movie is to know as little as possible before going into it so that I’m surprised. Yes, I know that makes going to the movies a little difficult, but considering that I underwent a near-media blackout for X-Men and was rewarded with awesomeness, I firmly stand by my method.)

Writing Michael Fleming notes that the deal hasn’t been finalized because there’s a bit of contention between Larsson’s parents and his longtime partner Eva Gabrielsson over the rights. If this isn’t a data point in an argument over why civil or common-law unions aren’t strong enough—even for heterosexual couples—I don’t know what is.

Despite not having a final deal, Steve Zaillian (American Gangster, Moneyball) has been approached to write the script. A Swedish-language film starring Michael Nyqvist (as Blomkvist) and Noomi Rapacehas (as hacker Lisbeth Salander) already been made, earning almost $100 million after its release last February. Music Box Films acquired the U.S. distribution rights; no word yet on if or when they’ll release it.

The news that Mel Gibson is making another period epic which will likely feature some pretty awesome battle scenes is not a surprise. I mean, of the four movies he’s directed, none of them have taken place in the present day and only one of them can’t be considered an epic (The Man Without a Face, which I liked).

(In fact, a more enterprising person—like a film student—could probably write a whole paper on why Gibson’s directorial efforts don’t take place in the modern day. If someone out there does write such a paper, I’d like to be mentioned in your bibliography, please.)

However, joining him on his next period drama will be Leonardo DiCaprio, and the two are going to set sail for the Scandinavian countries to make an epic about Vikings. Currently unnamed, the film is being written by William Monahan (The Departed, Kingdom of Heaven) and filming is set to begin in Fall 2010.

According to Variety, the thread that links Gibson, DiCaprio, and Monahan together is producer Graham King who has worked with Gibson once (Edge of Darkness), DiCaprio four times (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Blood Diamond) and Monahan three times (including Body of Lies and London Boulevard).

Of the collaboration, King told the trade paper, “This will be an awe-inspiring story, created with some of the industry’s finest cinematic talent, and I am just over the moon to be making this film with Mel, Leo and Bill.”

Considering that they’re not going to start filming till fall, it looks like I won’t be hearing more news about this project for at least two more months. It’s definitely one that I’m going to keep my eye out for, though.

The lurcher hit of the year, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies hit everyone who reads books with surprise and delight at how seamless the insertion of a zombie apocalypse was with the 19th century romantic novel by Jane Austen.

Now comes word that Natalie Portman liked it so much that her production house handsomecharlie and Darko Films with Lionsgate as the financier and distributor have won the bidding war over the rights to the film adaptation for which she will star as Miss Elizabeth Bennett. At Variety, producing partner Annette Savitch had this to say:

Natalie and I are longtime passionate fans of Jane Austen’s books and this a fresh, fun and thought-provoking way to approach her work…. The idea of zombies running rampant in 19th century England may sound odd, but it lends a modern sense of urgency to a well known love story.

I totally love Portman, mostly because she’s got a wicked sense of humor that hits you from out of nowhere. And… it’s never a bad time when I get to link to and watch this again.

Related Posts: Jane Austen and zombies and aliens and vampires, oh my!

Drones, the film I co-directed with Adam Busch, got into the Slamdance Film Festival. We’ve known for about a week and it’s been really rough not to scream the news out to everyone in the whole world. Now, the cat is out of the bag, so I can finally scream, but I’m so damn tired that all I can do is give a quick “yip” of happiness.

Did I just use the word ‘yip’? Yes, I did.
—Actress/author, and now, director Amber Benson, on how her week has been. (You can follow her on Twitter here.)

As long as there have been journeys to the East, Hollywood has had a fascination for the “Westerner in Japan” story, the most recent being Tom Cruise’s turn in The Last Samurai or Bill Murray’s in Lost in Translation, both in 2003.

Now, it’s the ladies’ turn as Kate Bosworth’s first production project Lost Girls and Love Hotels will be directed by French director Jean-Marc Vallee (The Young Victoria), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on the debut novel of Canadian Catherine Hanrahan, the screenplay by Nadia Conners (The 11th Hour) looks a little like this:

The story centers on a woman (Bosworth) who tries to forget her past while working in Tokyo as an English specialist at a stewardess training institute by day and losing herself in a sex- and drug-addled oblivion by night. She finds herself on the road to redemption when she becomes interested in a missing Western girl.

The article goes on to recount a whole bunch of other stories that are getting Hollywood interest, including the upcoming (and very un-PC-ly titled) debut memoir Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me by Lisa Fineberg Cook which got its rights optioned by Chickflicks Productions, Jake Adelstein’s non-fictional Tokyo Vice (perhaps buoyed by Adelstein’s recent appearance on “The Daily Show”), and the “Vertigo Pop! Tokyo” comics miniseries by Jonathan Vankin and Seth Fisher (you can read an article about the miniseries here).

To try and explain the fascination Westerners (and the U.S. in particular) have with Japan might be partially rooted in what happened 68 years and two days ago, when Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor and single-handedly changed that country’s destiny. Who were these people who dared to cross an ocean almost undetected and wreaked so much havoc?

There’s also an entire generation of Americans who have been raised to see Japanese culture as “cool”—particularly its animation and comics—and not only have some of them traveled to Japan to visit, several have lived there as expatriates.

As someone who has not only always wanted to go to Japan but has friends who currently live or have lived there, I hope the movie does justice to the actual experience…but I’m also not holding my breath.

We commit ourselves to be a media with a sense of national responsibility. Now that foreigners can produce a popular movie out of the story Hua Mulan, why can’t we Chinese present its own to the world?
—Guo Shu, executive president of Starlight International Media Group, explaining why China’s new Mulan should be superior to the Disney version

Apple’s got the exclusive trailer for Brooklyn’s Finest (which you can download in HD as well) and I have to say that the more I see, the more I like it and am intrigued by it.

Apple’s description of the plot is as thus:

Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Golden Globe®-winner Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke) has discovered there’s no line he won’t cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children. And Clarence “Tango” Butler (Oscar® nominee Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn’s most infamous drug dealers. With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world’s most difficult jobs. When NYPD’s Operation Clean Up targets the notoriously drug-ridden BK housing project, all three officers find themselves swept away by the violence and corruption of Brooklyn’s gritty 65th Precinct and its most treacherous criminals. During seven fateful days, Eddie, Sal and Tango find themselves hurtling inextricably toward the same fatal crime scene and a shattering collision with destiny. The film captures the volatile and deadly world of one of New York’s most dangerous precincts through the eyes of the men and women pledged to protect and serve, as they face the wrenching choices that make them Brooklyn’s Finest.

As a Brooklyner myself, I was wondering exactly where this precinct was; a quick Google search informed me that there is no actual “65th Precinct” because it was de-commissioned a while ago. The building where it once stood (scroll down a bit) is located in Brownsville and is now covered by the 73rd Precinct.

Anyway, what intrigues me about this story is not just first-time screenwriter Michael C. Martin’s rags-to-celluloid story, but the story itself. From the trailer, it looks as if everything is going to unfold in a Crash-like way with twists and turns, with the viewer cheering for one character in one moment and hating him soundly the next.

The movie gets its U.S. release on March 5, 2010.

Related Posts: Quick Cut: Brooklyn’s Finest gets resold to Overture, Making Out with the Media: The Sundance deals, Making Out with the Media: Mike Meyers is a Bastard, and Other Stories