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- Sony Will Be Rebooting Spider-Man All Over Again in 2012! (135 Comments)
- 2010 Golden Globe Awards Winners - Avatar Wins Best Drama (97 Comments)
- Avatar Finally Passes Titanic as Highest Grossing Movie Ever (96 Comments)
- 82nd Academy Awards Nominees Are Officially Announced (96 Comments)
- Update: Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever a Reboot Can (89 Comments)
- Watch This: First Official Trailer for Jon Foo's Tekken Movie (79 Comments)
RSS - Rumor: Penélope Cruz Cast in Lars von Trier's Melancholia? (Feb 9, 2010)
- Rock Band Phoenix Scoring Sofia Coppola's Film Somewhere (Feb 9, 2010)
- Lionsgate's Saw Series Finally Ending at Saw VII This Year? (Feb 9, 2010)
- Casting Tidbits: Rachel Weisz, Cate Blanchett, Amber Tamblyn (Feb 9, 2010)
- The Cove's Mark Monroe to Make Formula One Documentary (Feb 9, 2010)
- Peter Bogdanovich Will Be Around for the 'Turn of the Century' (Feb 9, 2010)
Rumor: Penélope Cruz Cast in Lars von Trier's Melancholia?
It looks like the lovely Penélope Cruz wants a bit of time in the controversial von Trier spotlight after seeing Charlotte Gainsbourg steal her thunder in Cannes last year (Gainsbourg won the Best Actress award, Cruz did not). I just received a news tip from a Swiss reader who runs the site Cineman.ch. He was informing me that, somewhere in Germany, it was just announced that German director Lars von Trier cast Penélope Cruz is his next upcoming film called Melancholia. On their website, though, I can't find any sourcing details at all. While I do trust them, I need confirmation before I can call this anything other than a rumor.
Rock Band Phoenix Scoring Sofia Coppola's Film Somewhere
I'm actually starting to like this new Hollywood trend to have rock bands or music groups score big movies. Sure, it's not new, but it's really starting to pick up again and there are some great collaborations coming up (like Daft Punk scoring Tron Legacy or Mastodon scoring Jonah Hex). In the same vein, SlashFilm found a story on Prefix Mag yesterday reporting that French rock band Phoenix (famous for the song "1901") will be writing and recording the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's new film Somewhere starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning. Sounds like another awesome collaboration between great musicians and filmmakers.
Lionsgate's Saw Series Finally Ending at Saw VII This Year?
Now this is an interesting update, mainly because the quotes are a bit old, but it's big news we missed. I'm a fan of the Saw series and still attend the midnight of every new one every year, but I admit that its run out of steam, and at this point I'm pretty much done with it. But as always, Lionsgate presses on, and Saw VII is in the works as we speak. When will it ever end? Latino Review published a transcript from an interview conducted on 107.5 Demon FM in the UK (listen here) with Saw VII writer Patrick Melton. It's a couple months old, but he says some interesting stuff about where this series is headed and how soon it may end.
Casting Tidbits: Rachel Weisz, Cate Blanchett, Amber Tamblyn
That's a Casting Tidbits bingo! First, Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Cate Blanchett will join the recently cast Eric Bana in Hanna, the Saoirse Ronan driven film from Joe Wright which tells the story of a 14-year-old Eastern European girl saved from a CIA breeding camp and raised to be a cold-blooded killing machine. After finding peace with a French family, the girl is dragged back to her father's world, and she must fight her way to a free life. No word on exactly what character Blanchett will be playing, but I imagine she will be the mother of the French family Hanna makes her life with after escaping. More casting ahead!
The Cove's Mark Monroe to Make Formula One Documentary
One of the most daring and revealing documentaries of last year is also one of the most talked about. The Cove is an eye-opening look into the dolphin slaughtering in a secret cove off the coast of Japan which has gone from its Audience Award winning premiere at Sundance last year to an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. Now Variety says the film's writer, Mark Monroe is teaming up with Paul Crowder (who has edited docs like Riding Giants, and co-directed Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who) to make a documentary on the world's fast paced and most expensive sport Formula One auto racing. Read on!
Peter Bogdanovich Will Be Around for the 'Turn of the Century'
Sometimes the prospect of using our past, present and potential future just isn't good enough for a story's setting and an alternate timeline with familiar elements but vast differences really sets the stage. The most recent example is Watchmen, where Richard Nixon was elected to a third-term and Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian fought in Vietnam. THR reports another bizarro world will be seen as Peter Bogdanovich (above) will direct an adaptation of the Kurt Andersen novel Turn of the Century which takes place in the year 2000 where BarbieWorld opens in Vegas and Charles Manson's parole hearing is live on TV. Crazy.
Fox Finally Developing Feature Film Version of TV Series '24'
For years there have been rumblings of a big screen adaptation of Fox's popular real-time action-thriller series 24 starring the gruff-voiced Kiefer Sutherland as unstoppable counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer. Now it seems to be official as Variety is reporting tonight that Fox's film and television divisions are finally coming together to make it happen with writer Billy Ray (State of Play, Breach) set to write the script that will take Jack Bauer to Europe. However official this deal is though, the fate of the television show (which is currently airing its eighth season now) will determine how soon the film will actually go into production.
Tim Robbins Joins Green Lantern as Dr. Hammond's Father
The good news just keeps on coming for Martin Campbell's adaptation of DC Comics' Green Lantern. Already infused with the talent of Ryan Reynolds, Peter Sarsgaard and Blake Lively, THR's Heat Vision reports that Tim Robbins is also joining the cast. Robbins will play Senator Hammond, the disapproving father to Sarsgaard's villainous, psychic powered Dr. Hector Hammond. Robbins has been fairly low key since his appearance in Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, and this marks his first venture into comic books. Always choosing interesting and varying roles, Robbins should some good humanity to the superhero genre.
Hugh Laurie in Discussions to Star in Dark Comedy 'Oranges'
Many fans have been waiting to see "House" actor Hugh Laurie make the jump to the big screen in a lead role, not counting voice roles (like in Monsters vs Aliens) or supporting roles (like in Street Kings or Stuart Little). Potentially some good news for Laurie fans, as the LA Times' 24 Frames blog is reporting that Laurie is "in discussions" to play the lead role in a new project called Oranges (or The Oranges written by Jay Reiss and Ian Helfer). You may remember seeing it on the 2008 Black List. It's a dark comedy about a man who has a romantic relationship with the daughter of a family friend, which turns their lives upside down.
Soderbergh Catches 'Contagion' with Damon, Winslet & More
Despite the fact that Steven Soderbergh is currently hard at work on the action thriller Knockout, he's already lining up quite the cast for his next project. Last we heard his next was supposed to be the biopic about pianist Liberace with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Now Deadline Hollywood (& The Playlist) are reporting that he's keeping Damon around, adding Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law, and trading in the biopic for the action thriller Contagion, focused on the worst-case scenario involving a deadly virus. Shooting will start later this year for a 2011 debut, though they don't have a distributor yet.
Pseudo Mr. & Mrs. Smith Prequel On the Way Without Pitt/Jolie
And we're back again with our (at least) daily announcement of a reboot, sequel, prequel; this time word comes from NY Mag's Vulture that Fox's Regency Enterprises is moving forward with Mr. & Mrs. Jones, a pseudo-prequel to the 2005 action comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith which spawned the paparazzi's even more intense obsession with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. However, the flash to the past will not feature Pitt and Jolie, but rather is sort of an origin story of a similar but differently named couple, showing how a pair of twenty-something spies are set up as a fake married couple when they graduate agency training. How fun.
David Goyer & Jonathan Nolan Working on Batman 3 Script?
It's another one of "these" stories. Yes, the sequel to The Dark Knight is coming, it's just taking some time. And yes, they're probably working on a script right now, even though Chris Nolan is still finishing Inception. Just this past weekend, David S. Goyer announced that he was leaving the ABC show FlashForward to work on "feature projects." Although he directed The Unborn and was FlashForward's showrunner, Goyer also put together the story for The Dark Knight and co-wrote Batman Begins, too. However, it shouldn't be an immediate assumption that the "feature project" he's working on instead is indeed Batman 3. Read on!
Joel Edgerton & Mary Elizabeth Winstead Cast in The Thing
Last month we got word that the new take on The Thing (previously remade in 1982 by John Carpenter and Howard Hawks) would begin shooting sometime in March. Now we've got word from Heat Vision that Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof, Live Free or Die Hard) and Joel Edgerton (Smokin' Aces, Animal Kingdom) have joined the cast of the sci-fi thriller. Last we heard, the story was supposed to show the story of the Norwegian camps in the Antarctic that were ravaged by "The Thing" before the Americans (in the original) discovered the decimated camps, but Heat Vision doesn't allude to this being a prequel.
The Invaders Will Appear in Joe Johnston's Captain America
As expected, there's a lot of big Captain America news hitting the web this weekend because director Joe Johnston is finally out talking to press. In addition to all the details we learned about the movie yesterday, over at CHUD they've confirmed with Johnston himself that The Invaders, a WWII superteam that Cap and Bucky are a part of, will be in the movie, too. In fact, "they'll be in the entire second half," Johnston told them. It was first rumored last year that The Invaders might make an appearance but now we know they're officially involved. So does that mean we might see up to "nine costumed characters" in this movie total?
Pseudo 'Valentine's Day' Sequel 'New Year's Eve' in Works
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, that cheesy Hallmark holiday movie that shoves no less than 15 huge Hollywood starts into one feature already has a pseudo sequel in the works. Despite the fact that every actor in the Valentine's Day will probably have less than 10 minutes of screen-time, this ensemble cast formula (which is surprisingly cheap for the number of in-demand talents involved) is proving to be pretty hot. So hot that producers Toby Emmerich and Richard Brener are already looking at a new script from Valentine's Day writer Katherine Fugate that takes the ensemble romantic comedy and sets it on New Years Eve.