Movie News

image from USA Today

General News:

Disney has bought Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal. The acquisition, which has been approved by each company’s board of directors but is still waiting for the approval of Marvel shareholders and anti-trust clearance, closes the end of this year. The plan, according to Disney CEO Robert Iger, is to aggressively expand its audience “across multiple platforms and territories.”… “It gives us a treasure trove of content.” Disney would have the rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. More here and here.

North American anime distributor ADV shuts down. Anime Network will continue as it “has always been a separate entity from ADV.” Another article here.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus will release in the UK October 16, and in the US December 25.

The Weinstein Company has acquired all rights to The King’s Speech in North America, Germany, France, Benelux, Scandinavia, China, Hong Kong and Latin America from See-Saw Films and Bedlam Productions. The Colin Firth/Geoffrey Rush starrer is about a “man who would become King George VI, the father of the current Queen, Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ‘Bertie’ VI (Colin Firth) reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded nervous stammer and considered unfit to be King, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country into war.” Director Tom Hooper will begin shooting later this year, with a planned 2010 release.

Oscar Isaac has joined Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch.

Daniel Craig will star in the Morgan Creek’s Dream House. Directed by Jim Sheridan the psychological thriller is about “a successful publishing executive who quits his job in New York City to relocate his family and two daughters to a beautiful house in a small New England town. They soon learn their home was once the murder scene of a mother and her children, believed to be at the hands of the husband who survived.” Production is scheduled to start January 25, 2010, in Toronto.

Hayden Christensen will play a reporter in Brad Anderson’s indie thriller Vanishing on Seventh Street. “The story is set in a once-thriving city where shadowy forms cause residents to inexplicably disappear. Five survivors fight to stay alive while grappling with the meaning of existence.” Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo are in negotiations. Filming starts mid-October in Detroit.

Patrick Lussier will direct Nicolas Cage in Drive Angry. Co-written by Lussier and Todd Farmer, it’s 3-D revenge thriller about “a man driven by rage who is chasing the people who killed his daughter and kidnapped her baby. The vendetta/rescue spins out of control as the chase gets bloodier by the mile, leaving bodies strewn along the highway.” [So it’s a “feel good” movie, right?] Shooting begins April in New Orleans.

Kelly McGillis has joined Damici, Danielle Harris, and Conor Paolo in Jim Mickle’s epic vampire road film Stake Land. Written by Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, it “takes place following a global spread of vampirism. McGillis plays a nun who joins a small team of survivors as they make a treacherous journey north to safety through the war-torn U.S.” It’s produced by Dark Sky Films and Glass Eye Pix.

Prequels; Sequels & Remakes:

Star Trek returns to IMAX for a two-week limited engagement.

Tron: Legacy will come out December 17, 2010.

A July 10, 2010 release date has been announced for The Twilight Saga’s Eclipse.



image from theonering.net

Guillermo del Toro on the rumors that The Hobbit will be 3-D: “As a co-writer and director of this film (who works with the design teams, costume teams, creature teams, VFX teams every day of the week), let me be very clear one more time: we are not talking about 3D, we are NOT writing the screenplay for 3D right now- we are hiring my DoP Guillermo Navarro to shoot the film and we are not discussing 3D with him either or with WETA digital or WB or anyone else.”

Nu Image/Millennium Films has green-lit the fifth Rambo movie, which will star and be directed by Sylvester Stallone. The “storyline revolves around Rambo fighting his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border.” Productions starts in the spring.

Ben Ketai will direct 30 Days of Night sequel 30 Days of Night: Dark Days. “The sequel will focus on the character of Stella Oleson, the wife of Sherriff Eben Oleson, who has published a book on the vampire attack on the Alaskan town of Barrow and who subsequently draws the attention of a vampire clan in Los Angeles.” Stella, played by Melissa George in the first, will be recast for the second which begins filming this October in Vancouver.

Bob Weinstein says that development has started on the next Halloween movie, which will be in 3-D and called Halloween 3-D [Distant cousin to Jaws 3-D?]. Reportedly Patrick Lussier is in negotiations to take over directing from Rob Zombie.

Columbia Pictures is developing a third Bad Boys movie, and have hired Peter Craig to write the screenplay.

Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara will write Hancock 2. Will Smith is the only sure return in the cast at the moment.

Ericson Core has signed to direct XXX: The Return of Xander Cage. Rob Cohen, who directed the first, was on board but left for Regency’s Medieval. Vin Diesel is still attached to star.

Fox has hired Akiva Goldsman and Michael Greene, as producer and writer respectively, to “reboot” the Fantastic Four movie franchise.

Rob Zombie will be making a second remake [*sigh*] of The Blob. Originally done in 1958 (the first remake was in 1988) and starring Steve McQueen, the story is about red goo that comes from outer space and grows as it eats people. Says Zombie, “My intention is not to have a big red blobby thing; that’s the first thing I want to change. That gigantic Jell-O-looking thing might have been scary to audiences in the 1950s, but people would laugh now. I have a totally different take, one that’s pretty dark.” [Because, ya know, a movie called The BLOB being about a blob is like freakin’ crazy right?]

Rebecca De Mornay will play Mother in Darren Lynn Bousman’s remake of the 1980 Troma slasher Mother’s Day. Jaime King and Shawn Ashmore will also star.

Warner Brothers is remaking 1981’s Outland. Yes, that Outland. It’ll be written by Chad St. John and directed by Michael Davis, who will expand on the concept of the original to make it a tentpole film. “The story takes place in an orbiting city around the moon, where a cop uncovers a murderous conspiracy endangering the entire city. With a week before his retirement back to Earth, our hero has to choose between walking away with his wife, or taking on a private army with his overachieving ex-partner and wife’s former boyfriend.”

Adaptations:

Nikolaj Arcel will direct, and Guillermo del Toro will produce, Warner’s Deadman movie. The DC comic created by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino is about “Boston Brand, a circus acrobat who is murdered and who in the afterlife is granted, by the goddess Rama Kushna, the ability to endure as a ghost who can control the bodies of the living in order to avenge his own death and further cause of justice.”

Guy Ritchie will direct Warner Brothers’ adaptation of DC’s alien bounty hunter Lobo. Don Payne wrote the latest draft of the script of what will be a PG-13 movie heavy on visuals. Warner wants “Ritchie [to] bring the irreverent, gruff tone of past films like “Snatch” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.”” Production should start sometime early next year.

Jon Favreau will direct the movie for Cowboys and Aliens. Based on Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley’s graphic novel, it’ll reteam Favreau with Robert Downey Jr. and co-screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. “The sci-fi Western explores what would happen if the traditional Old West enemies — cowboys and Native Americans — found the prairie attacked by aliens in mid-1800s Arizona.”

Al Gough and Miles Millar will adapt James Frey and Jobie Hughes’ novel I Am Number 4 for DreamWorks. First in a six-book series, it’s about “a group of nine aliens whose home planet is destroyed. They escape to Earth disguised as teenagers, and the title character discovers he and the others are still being hunted by the enemy that destroyed their planet.”

DreamWorks has the rights to Michael Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes, with hopes to make it a Spielberg producing and directing vehicle. David Koepp will adapt Crichton’s final manuscript about “a daring plan to infiltrate Port Royal, Jamaica, one of the world’s richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure.” HarperCollins plans to publish the novel November 24.

Emile Hirsch will star in Catherine Hardwicke’s version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Says Hirsch, “We want to make it like a horror, scary-movie Hamlet. Like a supernatural with like a mystical bent to it, set in college and following these cool characters. It’s all in Shakespeare verse, so it’s going to be kind of like the cool, darker answer to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. We’re making Hamlet a musician, so it should be pretty cool.” [*cries*]

Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, and Jeremy Renner will star in Warner Brothers’ The Town. Affleck will also direct the adaptation of Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves about “bank manager (Hall), the career criminal (Affleck) who stole more than her heart and the dedicated FBI agent (Hamm) trying to bust the crook and his gang, of which Renner is a part.” Chris Cooper is in negotiations to star as well.

Miramax has the rights to Ernessa Carter’s novel 32 Candles. ”A fairy tale about an ugly duckling from a Mississippi town who escapes to Los Angeles the novel’s central character reinvents herself as a beautiful lounge singer and runs into her high school crush.”

Bruckheimer Films has hired Derek Haas and Michael Brandt to adapt Haas’ short story Shake. It’s “a thriller centering on an FBI agent battling his own body and the elements while hunting down a killer.”

After Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet movie was pushed back five months, (July 7, 2010, to December 17, 2010) Columbia Pictures has released a statement saying that principle photography has already started. Also, David Harbour and Tom Wilkinson have joined the cast.

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has replaced Gore Verbinski as director on Universal’s Bioshock movie after delays caused scheduling conflicts with Verbinski’s other projects.

Brett Simmons is writing and directing horror movie Husk for After Dark Films. Based on his own short film, “The story sees five friends on a weekend trip who become stranded in isolated farmland when crows attack their SUV. They soon realize that the corn fields are inhabited by reanimated human scarecrows who reproduce by killing and force their undead victims to join their ranks.” C.J. Thomason, Wes Chatham, and Devon Gray have been cast.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases:

Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season – September 1
Heroes: Season Three – September 1
Fringe: The Complete First Season – September 8
An American Werewolf in London Full Moon Edition – September 15
X-Men Origins: Wolverine – September 15
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies – September 29
Futurama: The Complete Collection 1999-2009 – October 13
The Prisoner: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) – October 27 [28 September in the UK]
Farscape: The Complete Series – November 17
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea – December 8 in Japan