Film News Roundup – August 2009 – Week 2
Williamson: Scream 4 to start new trilogy
“Oh, it’s a new trilogy,” writer Kevin Williamson said. “It’s 10 years later. It is Gale Weathers 10 years later… Sheriff Dewey, I’m sorry, Deputy Dewey, oops,” Williamson backpedaled. “It’s Dewey and Gale, and that’s it [from the original cast]. They met on the set. We all watched it happen, so the idea that we got ‘em back and that their relationship is sort of the emotional core of Scream 4 … so it’ll be a lot of fun.”
James McTeigue Reveals Next Project, The Raven, Updates Altered Carbon
The filmmaker, for the first time ever, reveals details about his next project — James is currently casting a period thriller titled The Raven, a fictionalized account of the final five “mysterious” days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life. Apparently the famous writer joins the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories.
RAIN to Awaken The Dragon?
A noir-style remake of “Enter the Dragon,” the 1973 martial arts classic that made Bruce Lee a global star, Sutter said he’s writing “Awaken the Dragon” as a contemporized drama about a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk into the bloody world of underground martial arts fight clubs. You know who Warner Bros. is gung ho on playing the Monk? Korean megastar RAIN!
Director Berg envisions an epic adventure Dune film
“[The book] was much more muscular and adventurous, more violent and possibly even a little bit more fun,” director Peter Berg said. “I think those are all elements of my experience of the book that can be brought in without offending the die-hard fans of the Bene Gesserit and Kwisatz Haderach. There’s a more dynamic film to be made.”
‘Orphanage’ remake finds a director
Larry Fessenden takes reins of New Line pic
Actor-producer-director Larry Fessenden has signed on to helm “The Orphanage,” New Line’s remake of the Guillermo del Toro-produced Spanish-language horror movie. Fessenden also has written the script with del Toro, who is producing the new film with Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson of Contrafilm.
‘Riding Hood’ gets Gothic twist
‘Orphan’ writer partners with Appian for new take
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way banner is developing a Gothic reimagining of “Little Red Riding Hood” with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson. The “Red Riding Hood” project’s been developed internally at Appian Way but isn’t being positioned as a possible acting vehicle for DiCaprio. The best-known version of the story — in which a wolf disguises himself to fool a girl delivering food to her sick grandmother in the forest — was published in the 19th century by the Brothers Grimm. Earlier oral versions of the tale, which date back to the Middle Ages, are far darker and sometimes involve a werewolf rather than a wolf; the first published version, by Charles Perrault, concludes with Red Riding Hood eaten by the wolf, with no happy ending.
‘Mission Impossible 4′ recruits scribes
Applebaum, Nemec to pen script for Paramount
Paramount Pictures and producers Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams have officially lit the fuse on “Mission: Impossible IV,” setting Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec to write the screenplay. While those scribes aren’t big feature names yet, they join a roster of writers who transitioned from Abrams TV series creations to pen the features he directs and produces through his Bad Robot banner. Applebaum and Nemec spent four seasons with Abrams as co-exec producers of “Alias,” and they will script “M:I 4″ based on a story Abrams wrote with them
Del Toro returns to scare fare
Mexican helmer reteams with Rodar y Rodar
The prolific Mexican multihyphenate, currently in New Zealand prepping “The Hobbit,” will produce the dark Spanish-language thriller “Los ojos de Julia” (“Julia’s Eyes”) along with Barcelona’s Rodar y Rodar.
Eric Heisserer Talks ‘The Thing’ Prequel/Remake
“It’s a really fascinating way to construct a story because were doing it by autopsy, by examining very, very closely everything we know about the Norwegian camp and about the events that happened there from photos and video footage that’s recovered,” he continues, “from a visit to the base, the director, producer and I have gone through it countless times marking, you know, there’s a fire axe in the door, we have to account for that…were having to reverse engineer it, so those details all matter to us ‘cause it all has to make sense.”
McG Talks T5
Salvation helmer on what went wrong and what to expect next.
“…it wasn’t a unanimous world of ‘[Expletive] yeah, we love Terminator Salvation.’ There were plenty of people who kicked us in the ass over it. But the film will end up doing about $400 million bucks and internationally it was very well received – better than it was here in the States. But we live in a domestic intensive, Hollywood film world and I take it very personally. I take it very seriously. And clearly I didn’t do a good enough job on that picture and I didn’t satisfy the fanbase to the degree that I would expect to satisfy them. And I take that very seriously and I just work that much more diligently to make sure I do that in the next one.”
Screen Gems Moving Ahead with Underworld 4
ShockTillYouDrop.com has learned exclusively that Sony’s Screen Gems is moving ahead with a fourth film in the “Underworld” franchise and is targeting a January 21, 2011 release. The movie will be shot in 3-D.
Four in training for ‘Red Dawn’ remake
Josh Hutcherson, Isabel Lucas among latest castings
They join Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck and Adrianne Palicki in the revamp of the 1984 action movie about a group of teenagers who form an insurgency when their town is invaded — this time by Chinese and Russian soldiers. The young cast heads off in a few weeks for military training in an undisclosed location.
Master Chief and HALO May Be Coming to the Big Screen Sooner than Expected with a New Big Name Producer
IESB has learned exclusively that one of the biggest producers in Hollywood history is currently in active negotiations to develop the feature film adaptation and no it’s not Jerry Bruckheimer or Peter Jackson. It’s the man behind Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones and Transformers, Mr. Steven Spielberg.
Robert Rodriguez is already whacking his Machete
The writer-director said he’s making terrific progress, thanks in no small part to the film’s aggressive shooting schedule. “It was amazing,” Rodriguez said of the first week’s dailies. “It’s going really good. That’s the shortest film schedule since El Mariachi. Mariachi was a 14-day shoot, Desperado was a 35-day shoot, and this is about half of the time we had on Shorts, which was a really short shoot—around 42 days. So you have to make quick decisions, and it comes out better. The energy is much better.”
Ice Man Adaptation Put on Ice
After hearing that Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, She’s the Man) was being considered for the lead in the screen adaptation of The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, author Phil Carlo hit the panic button. “I had to turn him down. I really hated the idea of Channing Tatum. I told di Bonaventura that this is not the guy to play one of the most feared killers of the 20th Century,” explained Carlo.
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.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
The Great Movie Never Made – Podcast Special
Rare Unsigned Copy – Book Review
Universal Soldier: Regeneration – Podcast Review
The Big Racket – Movie Review
The Men Who Stare At Goats – CSW Podcast Review
Slice Of Life – Book Review
Games Roundup – Week Three, March 2010
Signs of the Apocalypse Roundup – March 2010 – Week 1
Comic News Roundup – March 2010 – Week 1
TV News Roundup – March 2010 – Week 1
The Top and Bottom 5 films of 2009 – A (Cool) Shite Poll
The (official unofficial) Top 5 Video Games of 2009!
Australia’s R18+ Discussion Paper and Submissions – The Great Debate
Separation City – Paul Middleditch Interview
Kick Ass: Aaron Johnson – Interview
Planet Hulk: Josh Fine – Interview
Star Chicks – Interview
Van Diemen’s Land: Jonathan auf der Heide – Interview
Predators – Movie Trailer
Predators – Featurette
The Losers – Movie Trailer
Tron Legacy – Full Trailer
Iron Man 2 – Trailer 2
