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Film News Roundup “ July 2009 “ Week 2

Nimrod Antal chases down ‘Predators’
Fox horror film produced by Robert Rodriguez
Nimrod Antal, the director of the horror film “Vacancy,” has been hired to direct “Predators” for Fox and producer Robert Rodriguez. The studio and the filmmakers aim to return to the franchise’s roots as a character-driven action movie. In this version, a group of humans will find themselves stranded on a planet home to Predators and must survive the horrors they encounter.

Amy Adams set to join ‘Fighter’
Circles drama starring Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg
Amy Adams is in final negotiations to star opposite Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in “The Fighter”. The movie revolves around the life of boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and trainer-brother Dick Eklund (Bale), chronicling their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund’s battle with drugs and Ward’s eventual world championship in London. Adams will play Charlene, a tough, gritty bartender and former college high-jumper from Massachusetts who ends up dating Mickey.

Actors not afraid of ‘Dark’ redo
Guy Pearce, Bailee Madison set for Miramax thriller
Guy Pearce is in final negotiations and Bailee Madison is set to star with Katie Holmes in “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” Miramax’s supernatural thriller being directed by Guillermo del Toro protege Troy Nixey. “Dark” is based on a 1973 ABC telefilm about a young girl who moves in with her father and his girlfriend and discovers they are sharing the house with demonic creatures.

‘Asteroids’ lands at Universal
Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing game adaptation
Universal has won a four-studio bidding war to pick up the film rights to the classic Atari video game “Asteroids.” Matthew Lopez will write the script for the feature adaptation, which will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

Sony shuffles 2010 comedies
‘Grown Ups,’ ‘Green Hornet’ to drop next summer
Switching up its 2010 comedy lineup, Sony has decided to move Adam Sandler buddy comedy “Grown Ups” out of March and into the heart of summer. “Grown Ups” will open June 25, the date originally staked out for the studio’s Seth Rogen action-comedy “The Green Hornet,” which now bows July 9.

Phase 4 gambles on ‘Poker House’
Film unit acquires rights to Petty pic
Newly minted Phase 4 Films has acquired U.S. rights to “The Poker House,” the directorial debut of thesp Lori Petty, and set a July 17 theatrical release. “The Poker House,” starring Selma Blair, David Alan Grier and Jennifer Lawrence, is a portrait of life in a poor small town in Iowa in 1976. Petty and Grier co-wrote the script.

Bondarchuk connects with webizens
Producer plans film about social networking site
A comedy set around the romantic adventures of the hip young Russians who log on in their millions every day to the country’s top social networking site Odnoklassniki.ru, the film will be produced by Fedor Bondarchuk’s Moscow-based Art Pictures Studio. Bondarchuk, son of the famous Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk, is one of Russia’s leading actors turned producer-directors.

Bill Nighy gets his own magic show (at last)
Bill Nighy has an announcement. “I don’t think I’m allowed to say it but I’m going to be in the next Harry Potter film,” he tells us. “I won’t say which character, but he’s a goodie. I just got the gig.” If you don’t mind us saying, it’s about time, Bill. The rangy actor has been dropping hints for aeons, once complaining that he was “the only British actor who hasn’t been in Harry Potter”. But has he read the books? “Not yet, but I will!” he says. “It’s rather like being in a Shakespeare that way, you know?” Mm.

Rapper The Game Being Heavily Consider For B.A Baracus role in ‘The A-Team’
Online buzz has it that the role was going to another rapper-turned-actor, Common, but with his recent casting opposite Queen Latifah in ‘Just Right,’ he may not finish filming before ‘The A-Team’ get rolling in August. Other possible candidates have included Ice Cube and mixed martial arts fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

‘T.J. Hooker’ will patrol bigscreen
Chuck Russell in talks to direct adaptation
“T.J. Hooker” is headed for the bigscreen as an action comedy. Chuck Russell (“The Scorpion King,” “The Mask”) is in talks to direct. The writing team of Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson will script the story, which focuses on the relationship between the title character and his father.

John Woo To Direct International War Epic About The Flying Tigers
A press conference has been held in China to announce the production of John Woo’s next film. The film will unsurprisingly feature a mix of ËœHollywood’ and Chinese movie stars. The Flying Tigers, more officially known as The 1st American Volunteer Group, flew missions against the Japanese in World War 2. They apparently destroyed 300 enemy aircraft while suffering only 14 casualties, for which they were paid a bonus.

‘Harry Potter’ returns to PG territory
How will rating affect Warner film?
Neither the studio nor the filmmakers went into the ratings process with the intention of securing a PG rating for “Half-Blood Prince,” insiders said. Rather, the ratings board determined that nothing depicted on the screen warranted the more restrictive PG-13 designation. “Half-Blood Prince” is no lighter in tone than the previous two films, according to early reviews. From a box office perspective, PG titles fall squarely in the family category, one of the most lucrative for any moviehouse.

DreamWorks eyes View-Master pic
In negotiations with Mattel to buy movie rights to the toy
Remember View-Master, the Fisher-Price toy with those little 3D picture discs of mountains, rivers and caverns that you could rotate through a viewfinder? Well, DreamWorks is in negotiations to acquire movie rights to the toy from Mattel (which owns Fisher-Price) and has asked Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to do some “Transformers”-style magic on it. Brad Caleb Kane, who worked as a writer-producer on the duo’s Fox series “Fringe,” is on board to write the screenplay. Kurtzman and Orci would produce.

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

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About The Author

Scott From LA

Scott is an art director, writer and comics creator living in Los Angeles. He has been a pop culture maven from a very young age. His very first job was as a manager of a comic book store. He spent several years working in a video store, and yes, we are talking VHS tapes. A student of literature and Writing, he brings his obsessive love of comic book trivia, movie history and science fiction/fantasy writing to bear on the work he does for CoolShite.

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Article Information

  • Posted: Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
  • Author: Scott From LA
  • Filed Under: Movie News, News
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

One Response to “Film News Roundup “ July 2009 “ Week 2”
  1. Kimberley Kimberley says:

    Seriously just want John Woo & Chow-Yun Fat back together.. (for a better action film, to remind us of ‘The Killer’ or ‘Hard Boiled’)

    And Harry Potter being PG? Grrr.. wrong. It shouldn’t be! Each film/book is progressively darker and therefore it shouldn’t be toned down in order to keep a younger audience.

    July 8, 2009 at 9:32 pm

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