Posted Aug 20th 2008 11:32AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Deals, Scripts, Newsstand
My heart goes pitter-pat with a mix of both anticipation and dread whenever a classic sci-fi book is optioned. Even when I haven't read the book in question (and believe me, I
know I need to read more Robert A. Heinlein), I know the bookshelves of the world are lined with great movie material. But I also know how devastating it is when the studio mangles a beloved book.
And here's one that could go either way.
The Hollywood Reporter says that
Alex Proyas and Phoenix Pictures have optioned Heinlein's
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag. It's the story of a man who, when asked what he does for a living one evening, realizes he has no memory of any of his daytime activities. He hires a private detective agency, run by a husband and wife team, and their investigation becomes a rather terrifying one. (Having not read this book, I'm trying to skim through descriptions without spoiling it -- but it
sounds scary.)
The novella has been one of Proyas' favorites since childhood. "I read this story as a kid, and it really stayed with me. It's part of my creative DNA." (It had to have inspired
Dark City.) From what I've gleaned of the story, it's right up his alley -- and he's penning the script, so there will be no wild departures like we saw with
I, Robot. And it's about time Heinlein had his name on the big screen again. I know there has to be some
Jonathan Hoag fans out there, so chime in with your thoughts.
Posted Aug 20th 2008 8:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Independent, Thrillers, Deals, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
That's no typo -- in Antony Johnson's graphic novel
Julius, the classic William Shakespeare play gets rewritten into modern, Guy Ritchie London where Julius is shot down by Brett, Cassidy, Dennis, Steve, Lee, and Kostas. And according to
The Hollywood Reporter, it's just been optioned by Mandalay Pictures.
Julius is the story of a London crime king named Julius, who is worshipped by the public as if he's royalty. His closest fellow gangsters conspire against him and eventually shoot him up. Oops, too late to add a spoiler alert. I imagine that instead of Roman civil war, Julius' death leads to open gang war.
The movie already has its director in
F. Gary Gray, and Oni Press, who is becoming ever more omnipotent, will be executive producing via their entertainment shingle, Closed on Mondays.
Oni Press has a five-page preview of the book up for your enjoyment. Reviews praise the dialogue as a mix of Shakespeare and modern British slang, but I can't say that a lot of this shows up in the preview. A "guv'nor" here and there just doesn't sell that to me, and Mark Antony still sounds more like a Shakespearean actor than a London criminal. Perhaps it gets better on page six, but I think I would rather see the real
Julius Caesar remade, Master Will's lines intact, by Guy Ritchie or Martin McDonagh. What about you?
Posted Aug 19th 2008 9:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Deals, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Peter Jackson, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
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Today will be partly cloudy with a chance of kick ass!
The Hobbit: Not long ago
Guillermo Del Toro told fans that his next move was to begin work on
The Hobbit script very soon. Well guess what? To our complete shock and surprise, the dude actually followed through on all this "writing script nonsense" and -- wait for it -- started
working on the script (along with
LOTR partners Frank Walsh and Philippa Boyens). YES! And this is, like, the BIGGEST news online today. "NEWSFLASH: Del Toro is on page 12 and he's already introduced 750 new creatures!" I give up ... call me in 12 years when the film is finally complete and ready to hit theaters.
The Dark Knight: You've watched the movie countless times, followed hundreds of viral sites, read thousands of stories on Heath Ledger and why he deserves to square off against Jesus up in heaven for a chance to be God's new (and much more well-liked) son -- so, what's left? Well, if you still haven't overdosed on The Dark Knight and/or are in desperate need of another Batman fix, feel free to feast your eyes on the film's script. Yes,
JoBlo managed to snag a copy of the entire thing (
read it here) for you to save, print out and do whatever it is you freaks do with stuff like that. Personally, I enjoyed reading it to see where they trimmed and cut and called Wonder Woman a whore. Kidding! Just wanna make sure you're paying attention.
Poltergeist remake: Because in this one she's watching a reality show, gets pulled into the television and subsequently bores herself to death. [Writes down notes for
Poltergeist 2 pitch ...] Anyway,
THR tells us that
Boogeyman writers Juliet Snowden and Stiles "I wonder how many
Teen Wolf jokes he got growing up" White will pen the script for the remake of this classic spooky flick. "Too soon!" yelled a nobody movie blogger, but alas it was too late.
Posted Aug 19th 2008 10:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting, Deals, Warner Brothers, Newsstand, Tom Cruise, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Tom Cruise has decided it's his turn to get in on the comic book action -- and he's teaming up with
Sam Raimi to do it. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, the duo is setting up the DC/Wildstorm comic series
Sleeper at Warner Bros. At this point, Raimi is only producing, but Cruise is hoping to star.
Penned by Ed Brubaker,
Sleeper was a 12-issue series set in the Wildstorm universe, which means it steers clear of all those heroic crossovers. (It actually involves a villain created by Alan Moore, though, which should be a terrific selling point.) It centers on Holden Carver, a man who was fused with an alien artifact that makes him impervious to pain, and allows him to pass that torment onto whoever he touches. Being a sensitive sort, Carver wants to get rid of his powers -- but tough luck, he's working undercover in the Tao criminal organization. There's a
Departed-like twist that leaves Carver stranded within the organization -- but he falls in love with one member, Miss Misery, while befriending another, the cuddly Genocide Jones. All the while he's torn between the work he's doing, his powers, and his relationships with unsavory people.
Sleeper has been embroiled in complicated rights issues, having been set up at several different studios over the years. Warner Bros,
post-Watchmen lawsuit, is being extra careful to make everything black and white this time -- and Cruise's interest has already spurred the detangling process. (Which is kind of funny, if you remember the rumors that he was in the running to play Oxymandias -- and Adrian's fascination with how Alexander the Great undid a complicated knot. Wheels within wheels!)
I know there's some
Sleeper fans out there -- it's one of those quiet, but well received books that never get enough attention. How do you feel about Cruise playing the lead?
Posted Aug 19th 2008 9:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
As our Erik Davis reported over the weekend,
Warner Bros and DC Comics are in the midst of rehashing their strategy, opting for the slow and steady route. But there's one franchise that has his "reinvention" movie, as it were: Superman. Word is, Warner Bros is utterly torn as to what to do with him.
Variety's Anne Thompson reports that the studio is really taking their time in deciding what to do, and how
Bryan Singer will play into it. At this point, despite all the rumors and
excited quotes from Singer, no one is working on a
Superman script.
Surprisingly, they're with the majority of fans on this one, and feel that the movie didn't revive the character the way they wanted, or the way they
know it can be done. (You really have changed things, Christopher Nolan.) Thompson was told that the studio is making the Man of Steel a top priority -- and if Singer is willing "to go in the right direction," they'll keep him, if not, he's off the property. One executive freely admitted that "it might be better to start from scratch."
Remember, Mark Millar and a
"big name action director" who had connections at Warner Bros were readying themselves to make a
Superman pitch. Millar claimed the world would know by December. Given that such sharks
are circling, I won't be surprised if Warners
does start from scratch. I'm as perplexed as anyone as to where Singer can go from
Superman Returns. For a healthy franchise, they're going to have to reboot, and leave
Returns in that misty category of a Donner long delayed sequel.
What do you think? Reboot or continue Singer's storyline?
Posted Aug 18th 2008 8:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Mystery & Suspense, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Politics, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Things rarely go smoothly for costumed adventurers -- and the courtroom, it seems, is no exception. Nikke Finke
reports that a federal judge has denied to dismiss 20th Century Fox's legal claim on
Watchmen. You may remember that they filed a lawsuit back in February claiming that their rights to the DC property still held. They seek an injunction to prevent Warner Bros' adaptation of
Watchmen from being released at all.
And at this point, that federal judge agrees with them.
Warner Bros, obviously, cries foul. They point out that several studios have tried to develop the property for years, with Fox saying nary a word, and passed up the chance to properly reacquire the rights some time back. Their view of the lawsuit is that it's just an opportunistic grab on a movie that has been gaining more and more buzz. You can read the whole legal chronology over on
Deadline Hollywood (Finke's done a top-notch job of documenting the ins and outs) and see which side you come down on. It's exhausting -- isn't this what studios have lawyers for? To avoid this kind of last-minute litigation lunacy?
It's unlikely that the movie will really be delayed -- but it is possible that Warner Bros. will have to hand Fox a substantial chunk of change in order to release the film, as they had to do for
Dukes of Hazzard some years back. As one of Finke's readers noted, suddenly the
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince schedule shift makes a lot more sense. The studio's 2009 budget could be pretty tight.
Watchmen opens (hopefully) March 6th, 2009.
Posted Aug 18th 2008 6:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
I am starting to see a new pattern emerging in the latest graphic novel grabs -- monsters and the teams who hunt or protect them. That's a trend I can get behind (as opposed to the superhero deconstruction -- leave that to the masters). The latest according to
Variety is Jerry Carr and Allan Gross' graphic novels
Cryptozoo Crew, which has been purchased by Alcon Entertainment. No director has been named yet, but
Joe Gazzam has already penned the script.
The Cryptozoo Crew is a secret organization devoted to protecting the identity of strange and rare creatures called the Cryptids. They aren't as strange as you might think, because they're often things like the Loch Ness Monster, Yetis, and El Chupacabra. (Maybe the Montauk Monster can pop up at some point -- have they figured out what that thing is yet?)
The series centers around married crew members Tork and Tara Darwyn -- funnily, press releases are focusing on how beautiful Tara is, whereas I find Tork to be equally pleasing to the eye. They bicker about their relationship while pursing mythical creatures, thus making it the most realistic monster series yet. You can check out previews of the first two graphic novels on
the official Cryptozoo website. The series seems like it is a lot of fun, with a good dose of humor. It could be a nice summer flick. Frankly, I can't wait who see who they cast as the muscle bound Tork.
Posted Aug 18th 2008 1:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers, Deals, Mystery & Suspense, Scripts, Newsstand
If you were a young whippersnapper in 1992, chances are the
Goosebumps books were a lurid staple on your bedside table. My sister was an enormous fan, whereas I preferred, shockingly,
Star Wars novelizations and sword-and-sorcery. I was just a little too old for their goofy twist endings -- although the single one I read gave me nightmares, I think because a dog was killed or something. (Let's ascribe it to a fragment of underdone potato, shall we?) In retrospect, you really are what you read as a kid -- my sister went on to a lifelong love of Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe, whereas I memorized
Beowulf.
Well, now they will get to terrorize and influence even more children, because Goosebumps is coming to the big screen. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, Columbia bought the rights to R.L. Stine's endless series in May, and has now hired
Larry Karaszewski and
Scott Alexander to pen a script. Columbia is hoping to turn it into a franchise -- and since there are 62(!) books currently lining bookshelves round the world, they will have plenty of material to choose from. It's not clear which book they will adapt first, or if the film will be a hodgepodge of several. At this time, no director is attached, though producer Neal Moritz already has an eye for casting. He wants unknown children, and well-known adult actors in supporting roles.
Many of the books are homages to classic horror films, like
Night of the Living Dead and
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If the books inspired a love of horror literature in my sister, perhaps the films will create a whole new generation of
Scott Weinbergs. I know there's probably a number of
Goosebumps readers out there so share your fond memories, nightmares and I-hope-they-film-this-one thoughts below ....
Posted Aug 17th 2008 4:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand
Well, we have some good news and some bad news to report during this glorious summer weekend. Which do you want first? Since I always pick the bad news first, we'll go with that: Apparently, Quentin Tarantino is having some trouble getting some of his potential
Inglorious Bastards cast members to sign on the dotted line. Not only has David Krumholtz dropped out (and replaced by
Samm Levine from
Freaks and Geeks, so says
AICN), but unfortunately the same has happened with
Simon Pegg.
Over on his
MySpace page, Pegg has told fans that he will no longer be co-starring in the Tarantino WWII flick, but will instead (and here's the good news) reunite with Nick Frost for a film called
Paul (first reported wayyy back
in September of 2007). This time, however, Edgar Wright will not be behind the camera, as Pegg said
Superbad's Greg Mottola has taken over directing duties.
Paul will follow two comic book geeks (Pegg and Frost) on some sort of road trip across America. No word yet on who'll be replacing Pegg in
Bastards, though I can name more than a few Brits who'd do a bang-up job.
Posted Aug 16th 2008 12:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
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What's really going on over at Warner Bros. regarding their superhero properties? Is
Justice League still moving forward? Has
Christopher Nolan already signed on to direct a third
Batman film? Will they attempt a move similar to what Marvel is doing and plot out solid solo flicks before combining worlds? Well,
Variety recently spoke with Warners Chief Alan Horn, production prexy Jeff Robinov and Gregory Noveck, senior VP of creative affairs for DC Comics, and they brought back a few answers regarding all this fun stuff.
Firstly, a deal is officially on the table for Chris Nolan to (we assume) co-write and direct a third
Batman film, however he hasn't made a decision yet. Horn said, "We have no idea where Chris is going with this. We haven't had any conversations with him about it." Hopefully an announcement on that front will arrive soon. With
Justice League, Warners does eventually want to make it, but it definitely seems the early bad buzz from within the fanboy community is what put the breaks on this one.
Originally, it looked as if Warners was going to use
JLA to launch solo efforts for a bunch of DC properties. Now, however, we're hearing a different tune. Horn notes they want to turn "the properties into viable movie product in an intelligent way so that we introduce them like planes on a runway. They have to be set up the right way and lined up the right way and all take off one at a time and fly safe and fly straight." So then what does this mean for the future of
Justice League ... ?
Continue reading Warner Bros. Talks DC Comics, 'Justice League' and The Next Batman Movie
Posted Aug 16th 2008 10:32AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Lionsgate Films, Newsstand, Games and Game Movies
It has not been a good week on the "Movies Elisabeth Wants To See" front. First there was that wretched news that Warner Bros isn't particularly interested in
RocknRolla, then
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was
delayed a whole year. And now, producer Gary Lucchesi told
SciFi Wire that
Game has been pushed back to the increasingly crowded summer of 2009.
Game is a futuristic thriller directed by the insane duo of
Mark Neveldine and
Brian Taylor, and stars the ever-so-lovely
Gerard Butler. While he's reason enough to see it, it's also the kind of frantic, maniacal movie making we've come to expect from Neveldine and Taylor. We were treated to some footage at ComicCon, and it was a hell of a lot of fun. Later in that same day, Butler described it (and his directors) as being not only in tune with Internet, science, and pop culture, but having a nightmarish sensibility. "You're literally walking around the set at night and there are people hanging with hooks coming out of their skin and that's your day filming. There's blood dripping. I had blood on me. These people did it for fun." Come on! Who doesn't want to see that
right now?
Well, if wishes were horses, and all that. Lucchesi said we should get a teaser by Christmas, and a solid date will be set very soon. But that doesn't satisfy me -- and so I'm just going to abandon my posting duties to build a time machine, and travel to the Summer of 2009. I'll wait around for
The Road and
Australia, of course, but I fully intend to skip ahead a year to see
Harry Potter,
Wolverine, and
Game. I'd come back bearing
Star Trek news, but frankly, I would rather not return to a bleak Colorado winter. Especially when the movie selection is getting thinner and thinner.
Posted Aug 15th 2008 9:00PM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Distribution, Family Films, Newsstand, Harry Potter
For all you Harry Potter fans who are also devoted to a certain series of teen-vampire romance novels, here's something that should help you deal with Thursday's devastating news about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being pushed back to next summer. Summit Entertainment announced today that with Harry having vacated the November 21 spot, they're going to fill it with Twilight, bumping it up a full three weeks from its original date of December 12.
While some fans wondered, irrationally, if the Harry Potter move was to get away from Twilight, Summit's CEO says Twilight never had any delusions of being more powerful than the boy wizard at the box office. "With a giant franchise like Harry Potter in the market, we had to stay clear of it," Rob Friedman told Variety -- hence the original date well away from Half-Blood Prince. "Their move created an opportunity to bring the movie to fans three weeks earlier."
Once November 21 opened up, the move was really a no-brainer. As a press release from Summit points out, movie theaters get very crowded around the holidays, and Twilight will be able to open on far more screens on November 21 than it could have on December 12. Now it'll be opening the Friday before Thanksgiving, too, which is nearly always a plus. Its only competition will be Disney's animated Bolt. The only loser here is Entertainment Weekly, whose Fall Movie Preview is now wrong again, before most readers have even seen it. (Or, from another point of view, now that issue is even more of a collector's item.)
What do you say? Are you excited about getting Twilight sooner? To those of you who have been sending Warner Bros. wrathful messages about the Harry Potter move, does this quell your anger somewhat? Will you at least be able to live and function and carry on?
Posted Aug 15th 2008 2:32PM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Family Films, Newsstand, Harry Potter
This is the cover of the new
Entertainment Weekly, which hit newsstands today, approximately 24 hours after its top story became outdated. As you've
heard by now,
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is no longer the most-anticipated movie of the fall; it's now the most-anticipated movie of July 17, 2009. Whoops.
This bit of unfortunate timing is particularly cruel given that
Entertainment Weekly and Harry Potter distributor Warner Bros. are both owned by Time Warner Inc. As EW's Jeff Giles writes in a
must-read entry on the magazine's blog, "
EW and Warner Bros. share a parent company, but they clearly do not share, you know,
important friggin' information." (For the record,
Cinematical is owned by Weblogs Inc., which is owned by AOL, which is also owned by Time Warner. But if
Entertainment Weekly isn't in the loop on major corporate decisions, you can imagine how out of it we are. We're like the distant hillbilly cousins who show up at the family reunion, have no idea who anyone is, and gorge ourselves on pie.)
Considering EW is Time Warner's flagship entertainment magazine, you'd think someone at corporate would have given them a heads-up before their Fall Movie Preview went to press. While the announcement about the date change wasn't made until Thursday, surely the execs at Warners didn't just wake up that morning and say, "Hey, let's move Harry Potter today!" Surely the decision was at least a few days in the making.
On the other hand, it did seem to happen pretty suddenly. Giles points out that
Half-Blood Prince's teaser trailer (complete with the November release date) is attached to
Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in theaters today. If Warners had made the decision in time, they'd have nipped that in the bud, too. So either the decision really wasn't made until yesterday, or else some family members are too good at keeping secrets from one another.
Posted Aug 15th 2008 2:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
In the absence of anything official from the land of
J.J. Abrams'
Star Trek, we must report on the tiniest tidbit we can. The latest "scoop" comes from
E! Online and the mouth of
Clifton Collins Jr., who plays Ayel the Romulan.
"Me and
Eric [Bana] are the new Romulans," Collins said. "They had a linguist come in and invent Romulan!" Does that mean that Bana's Nero
is a Romulan? There was much Trekkie buzz over Nero's funky ears on the
first character posters, as well as writer
Alex Kurtzman's explanation of them to
UGO: "Nero isn't necessarily a Romulan ... It's all part of the plot." Perhaps "new" Romulans fall into that "not necessarily" category?
You will ponder more than that, thanks to Collins' description of what these new Romulans look like -- they may actually be inspired by
Pirates of the Caribbean. "We're space pirates," Collins explained. "Think of Johnny Depp as a Romulan." That means eyeliner, doesn't it? Gobs and gobs of black eyeliner, the key accessory of all swashbucklers. No, in all fairness, E! is probably just stretching the quote a bit -- but it does explain the wicked tattoo Nero is sporting.
There will also be some surprise cameos in
Trek, Collins wouldn't say who, but he dropped a hint. "There are certain things that as kids growing up, whether it's
Star Trek or other shows at the time, all you got to do is really just hear their voice and your heart warms." Will the heart-warming voices belong to characters or actors from the original series? "Maybe." And that's all the news from the land of
Trek, readers. Now it's time to amuse yourselves by trying to guess who the thrilling cameos could be! By the time we narrow it down, we may have an actual still or (gasp!) a trailer to discuss. Hey, a girl can hope.
Star Trek opens May 8th, 2009. Many, many, tiny stories from now.
Posted Aug 15th 2008 11:32AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Independent, Thrillers, Casting, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Matthew Vaughn is set to direct an adaptation of Mark Millar's comic
Kick-Ass -- and part of the cast he was
hinting at back in June has been announced:
Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin, as predicted in the comments two months ago) and
Chloe Moretz are joining the production.
Kick-Ass is the ultra-violent (surprise, it's
Millar) story of a high school dork, Dave Lizewski, who reinvents himself as a superhero named Kick-Ass. Unfortunately, he's pretty bad at it, until he's forced to face real bad guys, who pack real weapons.
Surprisingly, Mintz-Plasse will not be playing the lead -- he's playing the Red Mist, the angry teenage spawn of a mob family, who tries to uncover the Kick-Ass' real life identity. Moretz will be playing a vicious, foul-mouthed 11-year-old who chops down criminals with a katana. (In other words, she's playing my future daughter. What can I say, I'm going to raise her right.) The lead has yet to be cast, and Vaughn is courting several big names to play parents and mobsters.
Continue reading From McLovin to McBadass
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