Film News Roundup – November 2009 – Week 2
Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey Join Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan
Aronofky’s Black Swan is a supernatural drama is set in the world of New York City Ballet. Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a veteran ballerina who finds herself locked in to a competitive showdown with a rival dancer named Lilly (played by Mila Kunis) “with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance.” The big twist is that Portman’s character is not sure whether her rival is a supernatural apparition or if she is having delusions.
Vendome, Mark Gordon cast Jake Gyllenhaal in thriller Source Code
Philippe Rousselet’s Vendome Pictures has announced its first project, teaming with Mark Gordon on the sci-fi thriller Source Code starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Duncan Jones, fresh from his critically acclaimed low budget sci-fi Moon, will direct the story of a US soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown commuter and is forced to live and relive a train bombing until he can find the perpetrator.
‘Seven’ team reuniting for ‘Peter Proud’ adaptation
David Fincher is attached to direct the new adaptation of the Max Ehrlich novel, “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud”, which will be penned by Andrew Kevin Walker. “Proud” centers on a college professor who begins having recurring dreams and nightmares and, realizing they are images of a past life, decides to search out the source of the visions. With his girlfriend in tow, he discovers a woman and her grown-up daughter who are keys to his past life.
Is Jean Reno making a comeback? 22 BULLETS (L’IMMORTEL) suggests so!
Reno is signed on to star in 22 Bullets (L’Immortel) an actioner being directed by actor-turned-director Richard Berry and adapted from Franz-Olivier Giesbert’s bestselling novel: After a long, brutal and successful career in the Marseille mafia, Charly Matteï has gone straight. For three years, he has lived a quiet life devoted to his wife and two young children. Then, one winter morning, he is left for dead on the docks of the old port with 22 bullets in his body. Somehow he survives. And goes looking for Tony Zacchia, the only man who would dare to try to kill him. Zacchia made just one mistake: he failed.
Dan Aykroyd Toplines John Landis’ ‘Burke and Hare’
Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters) will be joining Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), David Tennant (“Doctor Who”) and Bill Nighy (Underworld films) in the John Landis dircted black comedy Burke and Hare. Based on a true story, Burke And Hare is about two 19th century graverobbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school.
First Up From Sushi Typhoon, ALIEN VS NINJA!
Fresh on the heels of the announcement of the brand new Sushi Typhoon label of cult excess from Japan’s Nikkatsu Corporation comes the specifics of the first product of the new label. From writer-director Seiji Chiba and action director Yuji Shimomura – the writer and director of Death Trance, respectively – comes Alien Vs Ninja!
Jem and the Holograms Coming to the Big Screen?
The “Jem and the Holograms” movie is in not only in development, but that at least initially, someone named John Chu (The Secret of the Magic Gourd) was attached to direct the project. Universal and Hasbro are trying to decide now whether to go ahead with the movie, or launch a new television series first. That’s still an open question, although no matter which way it goes, Peter Barsocchini is in the mix, to either produce or write the script — he scripted all four High School Musical films. At this stage, the movie looks at least a couple of years down the road.
‘Ring’ director to helm ‘Voice’ pic
Hideo Nakata comes aboard Zanuck’s supernatural thriller
Hideo Nakata, who directed the original Japanese version of “The Ring” and the second English version “The Ring Two,” has been tapped to direct Zanuck Independent’s supernatural thriller “Voice From the Stone.” “Voice,” adapted from an Italian novel of the same name, centers on a female child psychologist who takes on the case of a young boy who made a promise to his dying mother to remain silent until her spirit returns.
Guillermo Del Toro On Making The Hobbit
“I think one of the designs I’m the proudest of is Smaug. Obviously he took the longest. It’s actually still active: we’re finishing his colour palette and a little bit of the texture. But the bulk of the design took about a year, solid. It’s because of the unique features of the dragon. Early in production I came up with a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made. The problem was implementing that idea. But I think we’ve nailed it.”
Prince of Persia Producer Jerry Bruckheimer And Creator Jordan Mechner
The movie is mostly based on ‘The Sands of Time’ which is the 2003 game that UBI Soft Montreal. Rather than try to do a literal retelling of the game, what I pitched to Jerry and Disney in 2004 and I think what movie very much is, is characters and elements, some of the coolest elements from the game sort of reconfigured into a story that makes a good movie. That’s pretty much what we set out to do from the beginning.
Full Plot Details are in for Nicolas Cage’s Drive Angry
Drive Angry stars Nicolas Cage as Milton, a hardened felon who has broken out for one last chance at redemption. Hell bent on stopping a vicious cult of fanatics who murdered his daughter, he has three days to stop them before they sacrifice his infant granddaughter beneath a full moon. Milton must use his anger to go beyond all human limits in order to save his last connection with humanity.
2012 premiere: Roland Emmerich on his appetite for destruction
“When Dean Devlin and I made ‘Independence Day,’ it had a lot of destruction in there and it became very successful. It became a signature for me. And I realized that people get very excited when things blow up. When we blew up the White House, people applauded! Because of ‘Independence Day,’ I get money to makes these kinds of movies.”
Michael Fassbender calls CENTURION “A Roman Chase Film”
“It’s basically about a group of Roman soldiers trying to get back across the border. It sort of surrounds the legend of the Ninth Legion. What happened in this myth is the Ninth Legion went over the border into the highlands to suppress this tribal community that was wreaking havoc on their outposts. They were trying to suppress this race. It was kind of like the Gaul situation where they couldn’t manage to suppress this tribal sort of community in France. So they sent the Ninth Legion in, which was one of the best Legions they had, and they disappeared. Five thousand men got wiped out. They never came back. So it’s basically Neil’s take around that myth.”
Matrix producer plans Muhammad biopic
Barrie Osborne, part of the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings films, says the new production ‘will educate people about the true meaning of Islam’
Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam”.
Will Smith & Steven Spielberg’s Old Boy DEAD!
that OLDBOY remake Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were suppose to do a film that was based on the Japanese manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. At the time DreamWorks was in the process of securing the rights along with MANDATE, until NOW. According to a trusted source…It’s DEAD! Mandate and DreamWorks didn’t see eye to eye therefore DreamWorks has apparently walked away.
The Cutting Room Floor
- 1-1 With Chiwetel Ejiofor On ‘2012’
- ‘Man on WIre’ director James Marsh to direct ‘Vatican Tapes’
- Ray Winstone to star in thriller ‘Red Snow’
- Image buys Geena Davis dark comedy
- French mini-major Gaumont picks up ‘De Force’ crime thriller
- Method Man cast for ‘The Mortician 3D’
- Zach Galifianakis eyeing voice Humpty Dumpty in ‘Puss in Boots’
- Fox picks up Peruvian computer-animated pic ‘The Dolphin, Story of a Dreamer’
- Sony eyes ‘Agora’ for U.S. distribution
- Who are the bad guys in Peter Berg’s ‘Battleship’ film? ALIENS!
- Wil Wheaton Voiced Romulans in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek
- Daniel Craig set for psychological thriller ‘Dream House’
- Faris, Aykroyd, Timberlake in for live-action/CG animated ‘Yogi Bear’
- Master creature-maker Phil Tippett rises to ‘New Moon’ challenge
- Danny Boyle, Searchlight team for ‘127 Hours’
- ‘High Fidelity’ writer, director reteam for dramedy ‘Lay the Favorite’
- Bradley Cooper set to star in ‘Dark Fields’
- Johnny Depp is in negotiations for ‘The Tourist’
- ‘Twilight’s’ Ashley Greene eyes ‘The Apparition’
- Bryan Singer’s Battlestar Galactica movie allegedly under way
- Official Casting for Oren Peli’s ‘Area 51′
- ‘Scream 4′ Writer Kevin Williamson Reveals Exclusive Details
- The beloved Berenstain Bears meet the big screen
- Roadside Attractions acquires social satire ‘The Joneses’
- Roald Dahl’s ‘Big Friendly Giant’ to be adapted
- Sally Hawkins, William H. Macy headline 80s coming-of-age comedy ‘Dirty Girl’
- Gerard Butler off to war in ‘Coriolanus’
- J.J. Abrams Secretely Working on 500 Rads
- Michael Fassbender, Forest Whitaker, William H. Macy, Thomas Haden Church in ‘A Single Shot’
- Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle teaming up in Irish drama ‘The Guard’
- Scorsese Still Looking for His Sinatra
- Warner Japan tackles ‘The Last Chushingura‘, period drama samurai pic
- Sigourney Weaver, John C. Reilly join comedy ‘Cedar Rapids’
- Writer/Director Richard Kelly Exclusive Video Interview ‘THE BOX’
- Chris Pine Attached to Ben Affleck’s ‘The Blade Itself’
- 3D reworking of ‘Arabian Nights’ gets director
- ‘Robopocalypse’ fast-tracked at DreamWorks
- Owen Wilson signs on for ‘Marmaduke’
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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