Movie News

General News:

Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Entertainment movie studio will eliminate nearly 800 jobs, or 10 percent of its global work force with most of the jobs will coming out of the studio’s headquarters in Burbank, California, in a mix of layoffs, the elimination of open positions and outsourcing.

“North American anime distributor Bandai Entertainment has confirmed that it is re-evaluating its operations due to the worsening economy and will reduce its full-time staff. The company is currently finalizing its strategy for the next three years, and more details will be available when this process is complete. When asked about how many people would be laid off, President Ken Iyadomi said, ‘Those details are not final yet.’ The company currently has 19 full-time staffers, and the layoffs will affect production and other departments. However, many of those laid off will remain on board as contracted consultants to finish their current projects.”

2012 has been bumped from the summer blockbuster date of July 10 to November 13, 2009. Sony officially says it’s because Quantum of Solace did so well with its November release.

Filming on Alexander Aja’s Pirahna 3-D has been pushed back. “We were stuck with a release date of next summer, and because of that we were almost going to shoot the movie during fall and winter when 99 percent of the movie is taking place on the water and under the water, which is just like the most stupid thing ever. So we all came back to our senses, and we decided to change the release date and move it to spring.”

IFC Films has the U.S. rights to Norwegian horror comedy Dead Snow. They plan to release Tommy Wirkola’s movie, about medical student co-eds on a ski holiday who meet up with evil Nazi zombies, in 2009.

Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford will be in Joss Whedon’s top secret horror The Cabin in the Woods. Written by Whedon and Drew Goddard, who will also direct, all they’ve said is it’ll be twist on the group of young people stuck in the woods story. UA are preparing to film this spring, with MGM distributing a wide release February 5, 2010.

Abigail Breslin will star in Gore Verbinski’s animated adventure Rango (also has Johnny Depp), Doug Woods animated wildflower movie The Wild Bunch (Willem Dafoe, Willie Nelson, Elizabeth Hurley, and Chris Klein), and horror comedy Zombieland.

Prequels; Sequel & Remakes:

John August will be writing the new stop motion animated Frankenweenie. It’s about a man who brings his dog back to life after it’s killed by a car. Like Tim Burton’s (who is producing) 1984 original, it’ll be black and white and have much of the same artists and crew used in Corpse Bride. The plan is for a 2011 release.

Michael Uslan on rebooting The Shadow: “I think the one thing going in is we all see The Shadow as more of a force of nature than a specific person in a secret identity. The Shadow may actually be many people. We’ve gone back to the pulp roots, the comic book roots of The Shadow, with a dash of the radio roots. But we’ve deeply ensconced ourselves in the world of pulps and comics.” … “Sam [Raimi] and Josh Donen are my partners and we have it set up Sony, and a wonderful writer named Siavash Farahani who has worked for me before is writing the screenplay. It’s coming along great, we’re very excited about it. You know, it takes time to nurture these things. You probably know all the stories. The first ‘Batman’ film took me 10 years to get made.”

J. K. Simmons has confirmed he will return as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man 4.

Dakota Fanning is in negotiations to play Jane in Twilight sequel New Moon.

While not all the contracts are officially signed, producers say Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, and Kim Cattrall are on board for a Sex and the City sequel.

Quentin Tarantino says anime studio Production I.G. has finished a new seven minute short for an expanded version of Kill Bill. It’s in Kill Bill Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren.

Neil Marshall Stevens says he’s started working on the script for another Amityville Horror movie, Amityville Tapes. No word on what, specifically, it’s about yet.

Nathan Fillion on a Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog sequel: “There is talk about a Dr. Horrible sequel. It’s actually in one of the songs on the Dr. Horrible DVD commentary music. [Joss Whedon’s] busy with Dollhouse right now, and I’m a little bit busy with Castle right now, so not in the near future, no.”

Pierce Brosnan on his Thomas Crown Affair sequel/Topkapi remake: “We are full steam ahead. Full steam ahead. If we do not have it by this year, then we shall just say we gave a best effort. But Mary Parent is a magnificent supporter of the piece. Mr. Paul Verhoeven is still with us as a director and we have great executives over there at MGM now, who are passionate to make this film. So, we have a fabulous writer.”

Adaptations:

John August will write Columbia’s Preacher movie, based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic, with Sam Mendes being hired to direct.

Here’s the latest casting rundown for Edgar Wright’s adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram, Brie Larson as Envy Adams, Mae Whitman as Roxy Richter, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, and Anna Kendrick as Pilgrim’s sister, Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, Alison Pill is the band’s drummer, Johnny Simmons is Young Neil, Aubrey Plaza plays Webber’s on-again-off-again girlfriend, and Satya Bhabha plays “an ex-boyfriend who can summon demon hipster girls at will.” The movie will shoot in Toronto, and the fifth volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel comes out February.

Warner Sunset/Reprise Records will release the Watchmen soundtrack March 3.

Columbia has won the rights to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Developed as a directing vehicle for Roland Emmerich, he will also produce with Michael Wimer. “Originally published as a series of eight short stories in Astounding Magazine beginning in 1942, ‘Foundation’ is a complex saga about humans who are scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. A psycho-historian who can scientifically read the future sees an imminent empire collapse and prepares to save the knowledge of mankind.” After tying Fox and Warner Brothers together through New Line, the rights were allowed to expire by WB (considering the Watchmen mess) with an idea to make a new deal with a clear chain of rights when Sony and Emmerich made a surprise bid. [Doh!]

Tom Wilkinson and John Belushi hae been cast in Roman Polanski’s thriller Ghost. Based on Robert Harris’ novel about “a former British prime minister who’s holed up on an island writing his memoirs when his aide drowns, triggering political and sexual intrigue.” Harris and Polanski adapted the script, and production starts February in Berlin.

Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes, and John C. Reilly will star in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s comedy The Extra Man. Adapted by Pulcini and Springer Berman from Jonathan Ames’s novel, it’s about “a failed playwright who works as an escort for rich widows on the Upper East Side. He develops a mentor-student relationship with a troubled aspiring playwright.” Filming starts February in New York.

Universal has the rights to David Wroblewski’s novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. “a mute teenager who lives on a farm in Wisconsin with a family that’s raised a coveted breed of dog for generations. Sawtelle’s father dies mysteriously after his uncle comes to stay with the family, which sends the youth fleeing into the woods with three of his dogs.” Playtone and Harpo Films are producing.

Keira Knightley and Collin Farrell will star in William Monahan’s (in his directorial debut) adaptation of Ken Bruen’s novel London Boulevard. Monahan also wrote the script about “a South London criminal who, after release from prison, tries to give up the gangster life by becoming a handyman for a reclusive young actress.” Shooting starts this summer.

Fox Searchlight has hired Marc Webb to direct, and Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber to write, the movie version of Tim Tharp’s coming of age dramedy The Spectacular Now. 21 Laps will produce, with Billy Rosenberg steering development.

Warner Brothers will turn Tom and Jerry into a CG/live action mix movie. Producer Dan Lin is developing the project with Eric Gravning writing. It’ll be an origin story about how the two met, started their rivalry, and then have them getting lost in Chicago and find their way home. WB owns the rights to Hanna-Barbera’s slate of animated titles, and Tom and Jerry is one of the many adaptations.

Erwin Stoff says that Cowboy Bebop will not be an origin story, “We start with [the main character, bounty hunter Spike Spiegel], when he is in his present life already.” Also that Shinichiro Watanabe will be the first to see the script and help choose a director.

J. Michael Straczynski on the possibility of a Babylon 5 movie: “Ironically, WB never seemed interested in doing a big B5 movie just on its own terms, in recognition for what it is and was. But now that I’m suddenly doing all this movie work, they’ve started calling and saying, ‘So, how big a movie would it have to be for you to come back and make a B5 movie for us?’ So we’ll see.”

After TV show Cupid was cut from 13 episodes to 8 [ouch for Cupid!] writer Rob Thomas says he’s written on that Veronica Mars movie idea. “Joel Silver does have a certain pile of money that he can decide on and he called me asking if we — you know, can we do this now? So I know that Kristin [Bell] wants to do it. I want to do it. Joel wants to do it, and now I suddenly find myself with enough time to write that script.” It would “open just days before her college graduation, so Veronica would be just at the end of her college career.” Jason Dohring and Enrico Colantoni have also been approached about reprising their roles.