Posted Dec 3rd 2008 10:45AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Casting, Deals, Fandom, Newsstand
Twilight! Okay, now that that's out of the way, we have some very good news for you
Kristen Stewart fans out there. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, Stewart has signed to play rocker Joan Jett in a new flick called
The Runaways. The film will follow Jett and bandmate Cherie Currie from their "meteoric rise as teenagers to their dissolution and disillusionment." The Runaways, of course, was the name of the very successful and influential all-girl band from the '70s, which included Jett, Currie, Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox. They lasted about four years together before Jett went off and continued to rock out with the Blackhearts in the '80s (
I Love Rock N' Roll, anyone?), and still continues to do her thing till this day (I actually saw her open for another band a couple years ago at Madison Square Garden).
Not only will this flick include a nice refreshing story about female rockers (for once), as well as some great music, but it will also give us a chance to see Stewart really let her hair down. My one criticism of Stewart over the past couple years is that she's, well, a little boring to watch on screen -- always playing the confused, distant and awkward teen. I've been dying to see her
break rock out of her shell and get down with her bad self. Really looking forward to this one.
The Runaways is looking to begin production early next year and will work around Stewart's commitment to star in the
Twilight sequel,
New Moon, (phew!) which will also begin shooting in early 2009.
Posted Dec 3rd 2008 10:03AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Lionsgate Films, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Religious, Western
There are some great things to discuss, today, so let's just jump right in. But take a moment to admire the art , because I couldn't let
Scott Weinberg outshine me anymore!
- Rendering my Tuesday column somewhat obsolete, George Miller has informed the world that he is still attached to Justice League Mortal, and that the film is still very much alive. Apparently, he was never even on the Australian television show to make such fatal statements. Oh well. We can still talk about whether or not you can ever make a Justice League movie, right? [via SuperheroHype]
- Kevin McKidd told IGN that he is in the running for Thor -- and not for a secondary character, as he previously said, but as the god himself. Nothing is definite, there's just a lot of talk back and forth, but he's very excited that Kenneth Branagh is on board. It's a deal I'd like to see done, as the combo of McKidd and Branagh seems like a winner to me. (I particularly like that IGN caught McKidd at the Punisher: War Zone premiere -- Titus Pollo and Lucius Vorenus, together again!)
- Lexi Alexander might replace Neveldine and Taylor as the director of Jonah Hex. She told Latino Review that she had been sent the script, and really liked it. "I like it even more that Mr. Josh Brolin is still attached. Who knows if he'll stay, but it's more exciting than I thought. You get a story like this you think, 'Oh God, I'm going to be doing the same thing over and over again.' but it's really, really interesting." I haven't seen Punisher: War Zone yet, but all the reviews are positive, and indicate she'd have a similar take to Neveldine and Taylor. Go for it, Alexander!
- Also wanted -- one director for Magdalena. Gale Anne Hurd is looking. She has her cast lined up, and now she just needs a director. They'll have a very prepared star in Jenna Dewan, who Hurd says has "steeped herself" in the character. [via ShockTillYouDrop]
- The running time for Watchmen currently clocks at 2 hours, 35 minutes. Zack Snyder envisions the director's cut to be 3 hours and 10 minutes. And he's putting Tales of the Black Freighter together as you read this. [SciFi Wire]
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 6:35PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Casting
In October,
Eric D. Snider shared the wildly strange and awesome news that
Steven Soderbergh was following uber-long biopics with a rock-singing Cleopatra in three dimensions. Soderbergh had set his sights on two unsurprising leads -- Catherine Zeta Jones and Hugh Jackman (Marc Antony). But that left one major hole to fill -- the sandals of Caesar himself.
According to
MTV, that honor will be given to
Ray motherfrakking Winstone. The thought of him playing the iconic figure in a rock opera -- it just sounds too good to be true. Anyhow, the filmmaker went on to say that this
will be a period piece shot on backlots, and explained his motivations. It seems he was itching to do a rock 'n' roll musical like
Tommy, but didn't like the options coming his way so he started researching. Musicals led him to female-driven plots, which led him to female protagonists and figures, and then Cleopatra. Jackpot!
It all sounds wonderful to me, although part of me sort of wishes that he'd hook up with Julie Taymor for this (can you imagine the visuals if he did?!). Best of all -- we shouldn't have to wait an eternity since Soderbergh plans to begin shooting
Cleo this April. Are you ready to see Catherine, Hugh, and Ray don retro-wear and sing in 3D?
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 4:03PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Thrillers, Casting
He's had the honor of being the on-screen offspring of names like Harrison Ford and Carrie-Anne Moss. He's faced a few different types of robots. And now, well, he's following the likes of Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Matthew McConaughey, and Matt Damon.
Variety reports that
Shia LaBeouf is going to star in the next John Grisham flick cooking up at Paramount,
The Associate. If it doesn't sound familiar -- that's because it's an upcoming novel slated for release in January. The film will focus on a student (LaBeouf), heading towards graduation at Yale Law School, who somehow gets manipulated into taking a job with a prestigious law firm. This gig gives him "privileged information about a multibillion-dollar lawsuit." After that, I guess thrilling twists ensue.
It looks like the Shia train has no signs of stopping quite yet. Could the fiery world of law do it? I don't know... I liked him more when he was a wee tyke, and I can't picture him as a Yale smartie. Can you?
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 1:45PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Remakes and Sequels
I really loved the first
Speed movie. You had Keanu before he became
Keanu, and Bullock before she became
Sandra Bullock -- it was simply a nice, refreshing on-screen duo featuring two actors we didn't quite know yet and a villain played by one we already loved.
Speed 2: Electric Cruise Ship Boogaloo? Not so much. And even though the sequel wasn't nearly as successful as the first (partly because the story was absurd, and partly because Keanu was replaced by Jason Patric), folks still talked about a third installment in the series -- so much so that
The Guardian even announced last year that
Dennis Hopper had a role in it. Weird, I know, considering the ending of the first flick, but who knows what these Hollywood types have up their sleeves.
Which brings us to today and yet another
Speed 3 rumor. This time,
AICN has received a message from one of their sources that says a scriptment for the sequel is floating around and it reintroduces the Jack Traven character, played by
Keanu Reeves. And yes, the studio would like to talk Reeves back into starring. No word on whether Bullock would play leading lady (what else does she have to do?), but something tells me folks would rather Keanu if they had a choice between the two, hence
Speed 2: Keanu-less Water Park Nightmare.
What say you?
Speed 3 with Keanu? You down for it? And did the film
Crank already give us the best possible
Speed 3 premise?
Posted Dec 1st 2008 11:25AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Casting, Remakes and Sequels
Back
in October, we heard about the large cast of unknowns that were assembling for the remake of
Fame. Now we've got word of the instructors, and I'm happy to say --
Debbie Allen leads the pack!
Variety reports that Allen,
Charles S. Dutton,
Kelsey Grammer,
Megan Mullally, and
Bebe Neuwirth have signed on for "the roles of instructors and supervisors" in the upcoming remake. Don't worry -- Frasier won't be in tights, but sadly, Allen isn't either. Instead of teaching the kids to dance, Allen will be the school's principal (which makes sense), while Dutton plays an acting teacher, Grammer plays an orchestra maestro, Mullally plays a voice instructor, and Neuwirth plays a dance instructor.
Damn, these kids are lucky -- you can't much better than that for your intructors. But perhaps more importantly -- this means a reunion for Lilith and Frasier! Bebe played Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane in
Cheers, and popped up as the ex in a handful of
Frasier episodes. Will the dance instructor canoodle the maestro once again?
Posted Nov 28th 2008 5:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Casting
We know him as the man who made the radios go wild with "Achey Breaky" hearts, and he who holds the loins that made Miley, but could
Billy Ray Cyrus soon become that tough action spy?
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Cyrus,
George Lopez,
Amber Valletta, and
Katherine Boecher have joined
Jackie Chan's upcoming comedy
The Spy Next Door. Chan plays a man who helps out his neighbors by babysitting their children. In a twist of bad luck for the guy, one accidentally downloads a code and he must protect the tykes from secret agents. They're lucky Kenneth from
30 Rock wasn't the babysitter... Lopez is "a CIA agent who might not be all the he appears," Cyrus is an agent as well, Valletta is mom, and since we're in spy-land, there are Russian shoes that will be filled by Boecher.
I think it's safe to presume how this will turn out. But what about the family of Cyruses? Will this lead to co-starring father-daughter gigs? Will anyone believe Cyrus is in the CIA? Sound off below!
Posted Nov 28th 2008 12:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Poor Hulk! Batman, Iron Man, even Wolverine get more sequel press than he does. But late last week,
Tim Blake Nelson revealed to
MTV that he had signed for Hulk sequels, with every intention of taking the villainous center stage as The Leader. But like the rest of us, he has no idea whether or not they'll come to be, or whether or not
Edward Norton will return. "It's all good, and I really do hope [the sequel] happens, for all sorts of reasons. But yeah, we did, we had a great time on
Hulk together. I'm eager to do
Hulk 2 if they make it ... I'm signed on to do
Hulk 2 and 3 whether Edward's there or not, so it's not even up to me ... I certainly hope Edward is on the sequel - but that's up to Marvel and Edward."
Meanwhile, over in Avengers land, Robert Downey Jr.
mentioned again that Hulk is going to show up in that crown jewel of superhero flicks. It's a strange place for the green giant to be in, because he's going forward, yet lost in a land of sequel rumor and leading man drama.
It's a question
we've thrown out to
Cinematical readers before, but with all this additional info, where do you want Hulk to go from here? Do you think that he should get his planned trilogy, then land with a thunderclap in
The Avengers? Should they just leave well enough alone with
The Incredible Hulk? And how do you feel about yet another Hulk recast?
My personal take is that if Marvel can't make up with Norton, they should just give up franchising Hulk, and just leave him off the big screen until
The Avengers. Theoretically, you
could have an all-CGI Hulk in that, thereby sidestepping the need to replace Norton. It would be clunky, though, and might "really really suck." Sigh. Why does there have to be so much drama in the world of Marvel? Earth's mightiest heroes should have a much easier time uniting than this.
Posted Nov 27th 2008 4:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Thrillers, Casting, Deals, Scripts
While the Material Girl gets back to single life, her brother is getting ready for the big screen.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Madonna's brother
Christopher Ciccone will make his feature directorial debut with a new teen thriller called
Twist. The script was written by
Jay and Karyn Milner, and while no plot details are being released, you can get a taste of the stories they write by clicking on their names -- it's the usual fish-out-of-water stories with strange and dangerous twists. Considering the name of this project, I think it's safe to say that this will be no different.
THR also reports that
Maurice Kanbar (
Hoodwinked producer) is gearing up for an indie with
Daphne Zuniga called
The Scene. Aside from
reliving her days as Princess Vespa, Zuniga is producing and starring in the black comedy, which is adapted from
Theresa Rebeck's (
Gossip) play about the "Manhattan party circuit and entertainment industry."
While I wish this meant something of the Whit Stilman oeuvre, this is more modern. Zuniga will play a cynical talk show producer who meets a chameleon social-climber played by Heather Gordon. What happens after that, we'll have to wait and see.
Amy Glazer is directing, and this should be a bit of an intimate affair since
THR says that sets have been built IN Kanbar's home. Talk about cutting costs!
Posted Nov 26th 2008 1:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Casting, Sundance, RumorMonger
One of the big questions that has plagued cutie funny guy
Michael Cera is whether he'll be able to find a career outside of his bumbling, awkward, mild-mannered roles. While that question is currently left unanswered, we
will get to see if the guy on the screen is the same guy backstage.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's part of a "semi-secret" project called
Paper Hearts. Why semi-secret? This sucker, which is being described as part-documentary and part-scripted comedy, has already been made and will debut soon at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It seems this new film will follow his real-life relationship with
Charlyne Yi (the stoner girl from
Knocked Up, who you can see above), and like his recent
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, be greatly influenced by music.
I can't imagine how they'll meld the real and the fictional, but it should make for an interesting experiment. Will this secrecy pay off and help
Paper Hearts explode during its debut in Park City? Or will it succumb to the woes of other struggling indie films? Stay tuned!
Posted Nov 25th 2008 3:25PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Casting, Deals, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand
.jpg)
It's always fun when some tasty bit of news gets tossed out online, especially when there's only a few tiny little pieces -- like a director, an actor and a title. That seems to be the case with this piece of news, via
Production Weekly, who tell us that Sony has picked up the rights for a film called
Chef, which will be directed by
David Fincher and star
Keanu Reeves. That's it. That's all we have to go by. No genre, no premise, no additional cast -- nada.
As far as Fincher and Reeves go, each appears to be available as the former is finished with
Benjamin Button and is attached to only direct an animated segment of
Heavy Metal, and Reeves just finished
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. The only flick that comes to my mind is the remake of
Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe, but the titles are different and it doesn't seem like the kind of project Fincher would direct. So who is this chef? Where does he come from? Tell us more about this movie! If anyone out there has more info on it, definitely let us know.
Posted Nov 24th 2008 8:15PM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Comedy, Casting, From Page to Screen
In interviews, Michael Cera has been ambivalent about his newfound fame. He's even expressed gentle skepticism regarding the
Arrested Development movie everyone's buzzing about. I'm sure he has legitimate personal reasons to be concerned about his celebrity – it can't be easy for someone who doesn't have a huge personality, and who isn't a natural attention hog. But we fans and viewers also have reasons to worry. Foremost among them is the concern that
Cera's popularity could drive him to roles where his talents are wasted. Indeed, as this fall's
Nick & Norah's Inifinite Playlist demonstrated, it's already begun to happen. For the first time in the comic's career, his presence hurt the project instead of helping it.
In my first go-round with
Nick & Norah, after reading the book and before seeing the film, I was optimistic that the role of Nick was just the opportunity for Cera to expand his range – play a character who is a little more confident, a little less tentative and hesitant. Sadly, that's not what happened. Instead, some subtle differences aside, Cera transplanted his (very funny) stock character from
Arrested Development,
Superbad and
Juno into a story where that character wasn't needed, or welcome. In the process, he turned what could have been a sweet, moving romance into a tepid, if still amusing, teen comedy.
Continue reading From Page to Screen: 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist', Part 2
Posted Nov 24th 2008 11:15AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Casting
If there's an actress that we should keep our eye on, it's
Vera Farmiga. Over the last few years she's gone from
The Manchurian Candidate, to
Breaking and Entering, to
The Departed, to
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. And now she gets to romance one of Hollywood's favorite leading men.
Variety reports that Farmiga has signed on for Jason Reitman's
Up in the Air -- the film that
Twilight actress
Anna Kendrick just signed onto.
Clooney will star in the feature, playing an HR guy whose single joy is nabbing his millionth frequent-flyer mile. While his life falls apart in his frequent-flying absence, Farmiga's businesswoman will keep meeting him in airports and hotels and develop a romance with him.
I'm hoping for big, funky, and unique things from this project, which all comes from the mind of Walter Kirn -- the pen behind the strangely cute Lou Taylor Pucci indie
Thumbsucker. There's good subject matter, Farmiga should be a good match to Mr. Clooney, and we have all seen how great he can be in slightly-less-than-normal cinematic endeavors (
Burn After Reading, etc
). Agree?
Posted Nov 24th 2008 9:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Seeing as it's a slow news day, let's check in with
Justin Theroux, who's hard at work penning
Iron Man 2. The cool people of
UGO did a nice interview with him, where he talks all about
Tropic Thunder,
Iron Man 2, and even a little bit about
The Avengers.
Theroux says the script is around "the first draft" and is chugging right along with input and notes from Robert Downey Jr. The writer was quick to dismiss rumors that he was involved in the Terrence Howard/Don Cheadle change-up, that his script will reflect it in any way, or that the role of War Machine will be scaled down. "No, that's all nonsense. Whatever their reason is, I'll leave that up to Marvel. We're writing the thing, virtually the same for Rhodey that we would for any actor. We're really taking what's going to be the most interesting story for the fans, and what are they going to enjoy watching. And who ever's in that part is going to have to play that part and make it work ... I haven't met Don, and I think I'm going to in a little bit and I think once I get a better sense of his voice and also hear what he has to say about what he likes about the character and just pick his brain a little bit, then we'll obviously start to tailor it to him."
Theroux is also unsure what Gwyneth Paltrow's status in the sequel is -- he's "planning like she is there" but has no confirmation as to whether she will return. Will we end up with a
new Pepper Potts? Will Tony Stark look around and see strangers replacing those he knew and loved in the first film? Because that would send any man to the bottle!
Posted Nov 21st 2008 7:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Deals, Newsstand
.jpg)
What does last year's most talked-about teen flick have in common with this year's most talked-about pre-teen flick? Here's a hint: A director and an actress. Yes,
Juno director
Jason Reitman has finally chosen the female lead for his follow-up flick
Up in the Air -- based on Walter Kim's (
Thumbsucker) 2001 novel -- and he's chosen none other than
Anna Kendrick. Who? Oh wait, I forgot to put this next to her name:
Twilight actress Anna Kendrick.
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Kendrick, who played one of Bella's friends in the poetic vamp tale, beat out other actresses like Emily Blunt and Juno herself, Ellen Page. Go figure! In the film, Kendrick will play "a young woman who finds herself pulled into the orbit of a "career transition counselor" (i.e. professional firer) careening through the airless world of business travel." Oh, and that "career transition counselor" will be played by
George Clooney. I haven't seen
Twilight, but Kendrick was excellent in the small indie
Rocket Science, and from what I remember she's got a sort of Emma Stone thing going on. Ya know, cute, girl-next-door-but-intelligent kinda personality. I dig her. Paramount will shovel it into theaters, but there's currently no word on a release date.
Next Page >
