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News Roundup

Film News Roundup – July 2010 – Week 1

Film News Roundup – July 2010 – Week 1

Raimi On For WoW, Not For Oz
“There’s a lot more work to do though, and we’re trying to be really good to the game,” he said. “It really comes out of our love for the landscapes they created, the guys at Blizzard, and these really iconic, mythic characters. We’re trying to find a really great character and great character interaction to base the story on.”

Gore: Persia Won’t Stop BioShock
Verbinski gives us an exclusive update on the game-to-film.
Verbinski doesn’t believe the mediocre performance of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at the U.S. box office has dampened BioShock’s chances of making it to the screen. “No, I think BioShock’s a rare one because it’s actually a great story,” he said. “Me? I don’t want to make movies based on videogames, but BioShock’s the one Oedipal, crazy kind of — it’s just got really good bones, and we’re really trying to figure out a way to make it work.”

M. Night Shyamalan Reveals ‘The Last Airbender’ Deleted Scenes
“The single most difficult decision was [cutting] the Kyoshi Warriors,” he said of a chapter in the story that involves Aang, Sokka, and Katara encountering a group of female warriors along their travels. We shot [the scene] and they were amazing, and we spent an unbelievable amount of time choreographing them,” he explained. “And they just distracted from the movie, because the movie wasn’t about them.”

George Miller Following MAD MAX: FURY ROAD With MAD MAX: FURIOSA!
George Miller is working on not one but TWO new Mad Max films, the duo slated to be shot back to back. The title already known to the public is Mad Max: Fury Road and word is that Fury Road will be followed immediately by Mad Max: Furiosa. The two films will reportedly be shot back to back for rapid release.

Star Trek writer adapting Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit for a film
One of Robert A. Heinlein greatest novels, Have Space Suit—Will Travel—the last the author published specifically for a young audience—is being adapted for the big screen by Harry Kloor, who’s written for Star Trek: Voyager and Earth: Final Conflict. “I was inspired to become a scientist and science fiction writer in part by reading the works of Grand Master Robert Heinlein,” said Kloor, who has also written the upcoming animated feature Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey.

Updates on ‘IT’ and ‘Pet Sematary’ Remakes
“In all of my talks with the studio, [It] has only ever been discussed as a single feature film. The book’s length is clearly more suited to a mini-series—and I understand very well why they went that route the last time around—but I think the book’s content is really more appropriate for cinema. I told the studio from the beginning that I felt I needed to be able to write for an R rating, since I wanted to be as candid as the novel about the terrible things the characters go through as kids. They agreed and off I went.”

TIMUR BELMAMBETOV STRUCK BY BLACK LIGHTNING
Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov is eying a remake of the Russian-language Chernaya Molniya (Black Lightning) for Universal.  The original garnered big attention when it was released last December, grossing a total of $20 million.

Warner Bros. to Develop TALES OF FROM THE GANGSTER SQUAD
Warner Bros. is looking to make a film called Tales From the Gangster Squad. This is being set up as an action movie that will bring together an ensemble cast of top-level actors, much like what we saw with The Departed. The movie will be based on a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times written by Paul Lieberman back in 2008. The articles examine an LAPD unit that’s set up in the 1940s to fend off the growing influence of the East Coast Mafia in the city. The police group ended up becoming very powerful, and the battles with the Mafia escalated leading to mayhem and betrayals.

Judd Apatow Developing Pee-wee Herman Film
Since Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman  started to work his way back to the spotlight, he’s been talking about making two movies. One would be for adults, and one for kids. And now there’s word that one of these two films is being developed for Universal by Judd Apatow, with Reubens and Paul Rust writing.

Meryl Streep to play Margaret Thatcher
Meryl Streep is in talks to reteam with her “Mamma Mia!” director Phyllida Lloyd for “The Iron Lady,” a biopic of the controversial and long-governing former British prime minister. Jim Broadbent is in talks to play Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis, for the pic. “Lady” is based on a script by Abi Morgan and, as described by Pathe, “tells the story of a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and insightful portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman.”

Andy Serkis to play rebellious chimp Caesar in Planet of the Apes
British actor Andy Serkis will play ape leader Caesar in the upcoming 20th Century Fox reboot/prequel Rise of the Apes. As with Gollum and Kong, Serkis won’t actually “play” Caesar in furry makeup. He’ll don a wetsuit with funny little motion sensors all over it to provide the template for the character, which will be created through CG. Rise of the Apes, which is a very loose retelling of the fourth entry in the original series—1972′s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes—follows the story of a human scientist whose genetic experiments result in the creation of the superintelligent Caesar, who eventually becomes the linchpin for an ape revolution. Roddy McDowall played Caesar in the original film.

Does Gore Verbinski have a ‘Secret Life’ at Fox?
As the trailer for his new animated movie “Rango” sprang onto the web today, director Gore Verbinski entered negotiations with Fox to helm the studio’s long-in-development adaptation of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and John Goldwyn are producing the new “Mitty” project, which derives from James Thurber’s classic 1939 short story. Thurber’s story, which has been filmed before, centers on a man who escapes his unexciting daily life by delving into elaborate daydreams in which he is suddenly a heroic character.

Jude Law cast in Scorsese’s ‘Cabret’
Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee also added to project
Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths have been cast in Martin Scorsese’s live-action 3D adventure “Hugo Cabret.” The new cast members join Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz and Helen McCrory in the GK Films-produced adaptation of Brian Selznick’s bestselling 2007 book, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” “The Aviator” scribe John Logan wrote the screenplay. “Cabret,” which won the Caldecott Medal and a National Book Award, tells the story of an orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station who encounters a broken machine, an eccentric girl and a reserved toy shop manager.

‘Cloudy’ directors play with ‘Lego’
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the helmers behind Sony Animation’s hit “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” are in final negotiations to write and direct the Lego movie, which is being produced by Dan Lin and Roy Lee. Jill Wilfert at Lego is exec producing. The plot is being kept under wraps, but it will be an adventure in the Lego world mixing live action and animation.

Kinks’ ‘Schoolboys’ to become film musical
Bobcat Goldthwait wrote, will direct movie based on album
Bobcat Goldthwait, who will direct the movie, has penned a script based on the 1975 LP. The songs were written by Kinks frontman Ray Davies, who will executive produce the project. Goldthwait’s script tells the story of a schoolboy and his gang who are constantly in trouble with their teachers and fellow pupils. One day, the student is humiliated by his headmaster and vows to fight back against “the Establishment.” He later becomes Mr. Flash, the villain of the Kinks’ albums “Preservation Act 1″ (1973) and “Preservation Act 2″ (1974).

The Cutting Room Floor

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

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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.

Article Information

  • Posted: Saturday, July 10th, 2010
  • Author: Scott From LA
  • Filed Under: Movie News,News
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