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Emmerich Wants Two ID4 Sequels, Fox Says No
13 November 2009 2:22 PM, PST
While doing press for 2012, director Roland Emmerich has told some outlets this is his last mass-destruction movie, calling it the “mother of all disaster movies.” However, other press interviewers have asked about the sequel to Independence Day that keeps popping up in the news.
Emmerich doesn’t see the contradiction, instead expanding on his comments a month ago concerning the idea stages for a sequel. In an interview with MTV, the director said, “What we want to do in the next – it’s actually two movies – we want to do a bigger arc. Independence Day was always like the king who leads his troops into battle against an evil force, and that stays like that.” The “we” he’s referring to is likely himself and Dean Devlin, the co-writer of ID4 and producer of several other Emmerich disasters.
The follow-up question was about the name for this epic, which Emmerich »
- Jeff Leins
Super Troopers 2 Update, Brian Cox to Return
13 November 2009 10:15 AM, PST
The Broken Lizard crew is inching closer to a green light for Super Troopers 2. The script is almost complete, the financing is in place, and the original cast is lined up.
The good news comes from an interview between the Movie Cultists and four of the five members of Broken Lizard about their next release, The Slammin’ Salmon (which I thought was funny, by the way). Jay Chandrasekhar is set to direct again and confirms “we have the financing, so we’re going to try to make a deal with Fox.” Fox Searchlight distributed the original cult comedy in 2001.
Steve Lemme added, “We’re three drafts into it.” In January, Chandrasekhar and Paul Soter talked to MovieWeb about the concept as the writing phase was just getting underway. They said the plot will pick up a few months after the first movie and the crew is recruited to patrol the Canadian border. »
- Jeff Leins
‘Up’ Will Beat 19 Other Films for Animation Oscar
12 November 2009 10:45 PM, PST
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a list of the twenty films vying for the “Best Animated Feature” Oscar in March 2010. The category allows for five nominees, but has only included three potential winners one time since 2001 when the category was added.
This year the Academy is allowing ten nominees for “Best Picture,” which means Pixar’s Up has a solid chance of becoming the second animated film to compete for the highest honor. (The first was 1991’s Beauty and the Beast.) However, this year is proving itself a great year for film and a competitive race for the Oscar, so the animation studio may have to settle for this consolation prize.
A surprise announcement is extremely unlikely given the quality of Up’s storytelling, but there have been upsets in the category before. Pixar’s Cars lost to Happy Feet in 2006 and Monsters Inc. fell to Shrek in 2001. Then again, »
- Jeff Leins
Scream 4 Writer Talks Sequel Influences
12 November 2009 10:20 PM, PST
Screenwriter Kevin Williamson is busy these days. He’s writing the script to Scream 4, producing episodes of “The Vampire Diaries,” Tweeting, and now writing/directing a remake of 1987’s The Bedroom Window.
Williamson is the sole reason I’m excited about a fourth Scream movie. Sure, Wes Craven may or may not sign to direct it, but the return of the writer from the first three films gives me hope for a worthwhile slasher. The meta Scream series has been somewhat reliable in parodying horror cliches, so I’m crossing my fingers for a slice and dice of modern cliches.
What does Williamson have in mind? He told the NY Post, “I’ve [included] manga comics, Asian ghost girl movies, there’s some PG-13 horror movies in there, vampire movies, M. Night Shyamalan movies and torture porn movies, even though they’ve come and gone.”
Sounds like he’s tackling quite a bit. »
- Jeff Leins
Zemeckis Directing Motion Capture Nutcracker?
12 November 2009 8:21 PM, PST
Not content with taking three beloved books and turning them into expensive, glass-eyed renderings, Robert Zemeckis is planning yet another Christmas-themed motion capture movie.
The director of The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol is considering a 3-D animated adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” According to Pajiba’s source, it will not be a re-creation of the Tchaikovsky ballet, so at least the creepy cartoons won’t be in tights.
Instead it will be a period piece set in 19th century Russia about the origins of the Nutcracker and the battle between the dolls and the mice.
I know I have been hammering Zemeckis the last few weeks for his obsession with performance capture technology, but I can’t be the only one tiring of this gimmick. Does the Nutcracker really need the performance of a high-profile actor when his jaw just goes up and down? »
- Jeff Leins
Harvey Keitel Joins ‘Little Fockers’
12 November 2009 2:50 PM, PST
Harvey Keitel has joined the cast of Little Fockers, the latest in the continuing Meet the Parents trilogy starring Ben Stiller. This will re-team him once again with acting legend Robert De Niro.
Keitel will play a contractor employed by Stiller’s character, reports THR. The plot focuses on the Fockers struggling to raise two 5-year-old twins.
Teri Polo, Blythe Danner, and Owen Wilson are also returning. Jessica Alba and Laura Dern are new additions for the July 2010 addition. Paul Weitz is taking over directing duties from Jay Roach, who will stay on as a producer.
Try as I might, I can’t get excited about a third one. I thought Meet the Parents was silly fun, but the second was a mess trying too hard to be funny. Besides, Keitel isn’t necessarily known for his comedic roles. His last true comedy was Be Cool…
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- Jeff Leins
Second Alice in Wonderland Poster
12 November 2009 12:52 PM, PST
Walt Disney has release the second poster in a series of three one sheets promoting Tim Burton’s re-imagination of Alice in Wonderland. The first debuted earlier this week and featured the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), and the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry).
The second is equally vibrant, layering the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) in front of Alice (Mia Wasikowska) and the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
You can subscribe to the Mad Hatter’s Facebook page for the third and any other updates before the released on March 5, 2010. Of course, the entire banner already leaked to the Internet, so we know the next will feature Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter and the first glimpse of the Alan Rickman-voiced Caterpillar.
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- Jeff Leins
J.J. Abrams No Longer Adapting Dark Tower
12 November 2009 11:34 AM, PST
J.J. Abrams is unfortunately not adapting Stephen King’s sprawling Dark Tower series. The director/producer had expressed interest in May along with “Lost” executive producer Damon Lindelof, but it seems the possibility was too good to be true. The two even went as far as purchasing the option from King for $19.
In an interview with MTV this week, Abrams said, “The Dark Tower thing is tricky. It’s such an important piece of writing. The truth is that Damon and I are not looking at that right now.”
Lindelof confirmed this by telling USA Today after six years of working on “Lost,” the last thing he wants to do is dive into the seven-novel series. The challenge of staying faithful to the material is the sticking point for Lindelof, who referenced Zack Snyder’s difficulty in bringing Watchmen to the screen.
Update: At a Walmart in Dundalk, Maryland, Stephen King »
- Jeff Leins
The Monopoly Movie is Worse Than We Thought
12 November 2009 10:46 AM, PST
Can we get one thing out of the way? Monopoly is boring. The entire game is rolling the dice, passing money around the table and occasionally, when the excitement is at its riveting peak, drawing a card.
It’s an educational game for kids learning to count money or a welcome diversion when a severe thunderstorm sends you back to the stone age, but in this modern, fast-paced world of instant entertainment, sitting down for a 12-hour traditional board game just becomes tedious.
Sure, everyone has played it before, but how recently and how many times have you truly finished a game? Monopoly games usually end when everyone gets bored and surrenders, or a player flips the board in a fit of rage, sending tiny green houses flying.
Universal purchased the movie rights to Monopoly from Hasbro in early 2008 as part of a six-year partnership to bring more toy properties to the big screen. »
- Jeff Leins
Info on Paranormal Activity Director’s Area 51
11 November 2009 2:15 PM, PST
Writer/director Oren Peli is currently shooting his follow-up to the super successful Paranormal Activity. It’s a science-fiction slanted story about three teenagers (another cast of unknowns) who try to uncover more about the secretive military facility Area 51.
Up to this point Peli has been trying to keep things under wraps for his next low-budget “found footage” film, which might have been possible if he made it before Pa became the most profitable movie ever. Now he’ll have to contend with a little thing called the Internet, which gets their hands on everything worth having (and some things that aren’t).
Latino Review acquired a copy of Peli’s short script/outline for the movie and reveals a bit about where this thing is headed, though the dialogue will be improvised by the small crew. What’s the consensus though? It’s basically “Paranormal Activity with aliens. »
- Jeff Leins
Clash of the Titans Teaser Trailer
11 November 2009 11:41 AM, PST
Warner Bros has released the trailer for Clash of the Titans, a remake under the direction of Louis Leterrier. Full of guitar riffs (The Used’s “Bird and the Worm”) and quick cuts, the studio is making it clear this won’t be anything like the stop-motion original. There’s also a Medusa that doesn’t turn a man to stone, high-flying Perseus (sans winged horse), and a Texas-sized scorpion none too happy with the swords and sandal humans.
There’s hardly a mention of it’s cast, which includes Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston, and more. The CGI scorpion gets top billing, I guess.
Last gripe, what’s with the tag line? “Titans will clash.” That’s the best they could come up with? “Well, the movie is called Clash of the Titans, so we need something catchy and… Oh, Mad Men is on! »
- Jeff Leins
Kick-Ass Teaser Trailer and Poster
11 November 2009 11:17 AM, PST
Lionsgate has officially release the teaser trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, an adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book series.
This is the first footage from the comic comedy outside of Comic-Con’s Hall H and it looks great. Most of the clips come from the very beginning of the film, aside from the various introductions.
I love that they didn’t even bother introducing Nicolas Cage’s superhero character, Big Daddy. Perhaps that’s for a later date and probably in a red band trailer if they want to do his best scene justice.
In case you missed it, last week we showed you a few character poster and now the movie’s official website is also live, though there’s not much to it yet. Plus I added a brand new poster below from MySpace.
There’s a lot of excitement about this movie, which Vaughn made »
- Jeff Leins
Will Smith Wants Flowers for Algernon, Oscar
10 November 2009 2:23 PM, PST
Will Smith may be the world’s biggest movie star, but he’s still chasing that elusive Oscar. Nominated twice and coming up empty-handed, Smith has set his sights on the next awards-grabber and it isn’t the dreaded Oldboy remake (more on that at the bottom).
Smith is attached to star in Flowers for Algernon, a science fiction story that tugs at your heart strings based on the beloved 1959 novel by Daniel Keyes. According to Pajiba, the movie is being set up at Sony Pictures and Smith will produce under his Overbrook Entertainment banner.
Gabriele Muccino, director of Smith’s latest two Oscar bids (Seven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness), may direct.
In the story I was forced to read in school, Algernon is a lab mouse subjected to experimental surgery to increase its intelligence. The protagonist is Charlie, a mentally disabled man and the first human test subject for the same procedure. »
- Jeff Leins
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Script Review
10 November 2009 1:53 PM, PST
It doesn’t matter what anyone writes about New Moon at this point. Fans of the Twilight saga made up their minds to see the sequel long before Robert Pattinson was dodging taxis trying to escape hordes of those same impressionable Twilighters. I confess to having read the Stephenie Meyer novels, but I was baffled by the appeal of the cheaply made original by Catherine Hardwicke.
Though now the franchise is an established hit, so Summit Entertainment is throwing more money around. The small studio replaced Hardwicke with a director more experienced with effects (Chris Weitz), but kept screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg for the faithful follow-ups. With the Twilight frenzy mounting, I perused a draft and compiled my thoughts.
The script begins with Bella (Kristen Stewart) quoting a line from “Romeo and Juliet” that reads “these violent delights have violent ends…” which might have been clever foreshadowing if she didn’t »
- Jeff Leins
Emmerich Planning ‘2012′ TV Spin-Off
10 November 2009 1:48 PM, PST
Roland Emmerich is already planning his next disaster. The director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and the upcoming 2012 has publicly said he is done making destruction movies, calling this one the “mother of all disaster films.”
However, Emmerich is not ruling out a post-apocalyptic continuation on the small screen. According to Entertainment Weekly, Roland Emmerich is working on “2013″ with the movie’s executive producer Mark Gordon. “It’s about what happens after the disaster,” Emmerich said last week. “It is about the resettling of Earth.”
The team has already entered into discussions with ABC to develop the drama, which may focus on survivors on a small island building a new world. Obviously someone lives through the “end of the world,” otherwise there wouldn’t be a need for a sequel of any kind. Way to spoil your own movie, Emmerich.
It will likely depend on how the public perceives the movie this weekend. »
- Jeff Leins
McAdams Rumored as Spider-Man 4 Villain
9 November 2009 11:03 PM, PST
Another week and another weak comic book movie rumor. If it’s not Eddie Murphy as the Riddler or Cher as Catwoman, it’s some secondhand whisper about Spider-Man 4.
The script for the Spidey sequel has been completed after several re-writes, so it’s about that time for returning director Sam Raimi to start casting. Tobey Maguire has already agreed to play Peter Parker again and Kirsten Dunst is back as Mary Jane Watson. The big question is who is the villain, or should I say… are the villains?
Mania.com thinks they have the answer. According to their “reliable sources,” Rachel McAdams has met with producers to play Felicia Hardy, better known as the Black Cat, in Spider-Man 4.
In the comics, Hardy is a “cat” burglar and a love interest to Spider-Man, transforming from an enemy to an ally in the story. She’s a flirtatious, catty little minx too. »
- Jeff Leins
Poster for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
9 November 2009 10:13 PM, PST
Walt Disney Pictures has released a new poster for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, the first in a series of three one sheets on the way. The studio is utilizing the social networking site Facebook to spread the word about their very important date (March 5, 2010) by giving first looks to those who become “Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter.” Another 7,500 fans and they’ll reveal a second…
Pictured in this section of the series are the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and Tweedledee/Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas).
Next up will be the Caterpillar and a frolicking Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), followed by a poster of Alice and the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen). I know this because the full picture has already leaked online at /Film via AMC Theater’s promotional magazine. Slashfilm also has a »
- Jeff Leins
Deleted Scene: Latoya Jackson in ‘Bruno’
9 November 2009 9:45 PM, PST
In the days following Michael Jackson’s death, Universal Pictures made the quick decision to cut a bit from Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy documentary Brüno that involved the pop performer and his sister Latoya. At the time, the studio said it was out of “sensitivity for the Jackson family.”
However, with the DVD hitting shelves next week (Nov. 17) and This Is It exploiting his death already, the deleted scene has surfaced. You can see why it was cut from the movie, though it’s not particularly funny either. An easy decision when there’s not much to lose from the omission.
Here’s the scene, and if it looks familiar it’s because they used the same gag on Paula Abdul:
Plus a bonus clip. Ex-baseball player Pete Rose in the same situation:
»
- Jeff Leins
Is Avatar’s Budget Half a Billion, or Half That?
9 November 2009 4:02 PM, PST
An article in the New York Times has caused quite a stir today in the movie community after it claimed a $500 million budget for James Cameron’s 3-D film, Avatar.
Michael Cieply’s report wonders if Fox can turn a profit from a production that costs half a billion, a total that includes everything from paying the special effects wizards to TV spots on Nickelodeon. The studio claims the costs of making the actual movie are around $230 million, possibly a low-ball number (like most studio budget estimates) but still under the roughly $267 million spent on 1997’s Titanic after an adjustment for inflation.
Cieply writes Fox will likely spend somewhere around $150 million to market Avatar globally, but how does that suddenly add up to 500? It continues to say $250M in domestic ticket sales would mean Fox was in the black, a seemingly arbitrary number even when you figure in outside investors. »
- Jeff Leins
Jones, Gyllenhaal to Program ‘Source Code’
9 November 2009 11:59 AM, PST
Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations for the science fiction thriller Source Code with Moon director Duncan Jones. Summit Entertainment will distribute in the U.S., according to Screen Daily.
Gyllenhaal will play a soldier who wakes up in another man’s body and must relive a train explosion over again until he’s able to solve the mystery behind it. It’s Groundhog Day meets 12 Monkeys, plus a little Matrix.
Ben Ripley’s phenomenal script for the film made the 2007 Black List for best un-produced screenplays above other potential films like Book of Eli, Adventureland, and Salt (which I just reviewed). I’ve read it and hope to put something together soon on its greatness. The latest version includes revisions by screenwriter Billy Ray.
This will be the second feature for Jones, who gained recognition this year with his futuristic isolation story and has been campaigning heavily for a Sam Rockwell Oscar nomination. »
- Jeff Leins
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