New Films in Production

[toiletduck!]

but I don't mind his acting when he dials it down to about a 5 and avoids idiotic choices (I Am Sam comes to mind).

Hmm. I would have said I Am Sam was a retarded choice. Nice restraint, Andre.

-Toilet Dcuk

[Andre Jurieu]

but I don't mind his acting when he dials it down to about a 5 and avoids idiotic choices (I Am Sam comes to mind).

Hmm. I would have said I Am Sam was a retarded choice. Nice restraint, Andre.

Well played, Dcuk. Well played.

[Jeff]

Tony Gilroy's follow-up to Michael Clayton has been set up. Filming doesn't start until March. Here is Variety's announcement:

[quote]Roberts, Owen reteam for 'Duplicity'
Duo set to star in Universal drama
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Julia Roberts
Roberts

Clive Owen
Owen
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are set to star in “Duplicity,â€

[Jeff]

Screendaily:

Cronenberg takes The Talking Cure with Jeremy Thomas
Wendy Mitchell in Santa Monica
02 Nov 2007 05:00

David Cronenberg's next film will be an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure, re-teaming him with Crash producer Jeremy Thomas.

Cronenberg will shoot the project in Germany in mid-2008, after he finishes work on his opera version of The Fly.

The Talking Cure follows the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and their complicated relationships with a brilliant and beautiful patient, Sabina Spielrein.

No cast is confirmed yet for the UK/Canada co-production.

Thomas will produce for his Recorded Picture Company, with sister company HanWay Films handling sales.

HanWay CEO Tim Haslam said there was strong buyer interest in pre-sales here at the AFM. "It's a brilliant screenplay, a brilliant writer and a brilliant director," he said. "It's extraordinary Cronenberg material and that's what we're selling it on."

Hampton, who is tipped as an Oscar nominee for his adaptation of Atonement, first presented the play in London in 2003. Ralph Fiennes, who starred in Cronenberg's Spider, played Jung on the London stage.

[toiletduck!]

Opera version of The Fly!

-Toilet Dcuk

[colinr0380]

Not that I'm the biggest Kenneth Branagh fan, but I was interested to come across this review for his film version of The Magic Flute that he made in between As You Like It and Sleuth.

I wonder if the poor showing of As You Like It might affect whether it gets a US cinema release, especially since AYLI is already out on DVD and Sleuth has already come (and gone?) from cinemas in the US.

I did hear that As You Like It was recently in British cinemas, so maybe Magic Flute will be released here before Sleuth is?

EDIT: In a bizarre coincidence the latest Sight & Sound turned up today advertising its release in the UK at the end of November!

[flyonthewall2983]

I was just wondering, should there be a new thread here or elsewhere talking about the writers strike?

...since you know, it's vaguely important

[Matt]

I was just wondering, should there be a new thread here or elsewhere talking about the writers strike?

...since you know, it's vaguely important

What would we talk about, all the films that are not in production?

[flyonthewall2983]

Well not here of course, but a separate thread discussing it.

[Hai2u]

Third Chinatown Film:

[quote]EXCLUSIVE: Jack Nicholson Reveals Plans For A Third ‘Chinatown' Film
0 Comments | Published by Josh Horowitz on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 5:24 pm.

His partner may have implored him, “Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown,â€

[dadaistnun]

From Variety:

Roman Polanski will direct political thriller "The Ghost" as his next feature.

Robert Harris will team with Polanski to adapt Harris' novel of the same name, published last month by Simon & Schuster, for the bigscreen.

Story centers on a ghostwriter who is hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister. He uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.

Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde will produce the film, slated to begin shooting in Europe next fall.

Polanski had been working on the $100 million epic "Pompeii" for 18 months with frequent collaborators Benmussa and Sarde, but he jettisoned that project in September.

Summit Intl., which has a long-standing relationship with Polanski and the producers, will represent worldwide rights to "The Ghost."

"I have been looking for a political thriller to direct for some time, and 'The Ghost' could not be more perfect," Polanski said. "Robert has constructed a novel with such suspense, it is hard to put it down."

Harris noted that most of the story takes place in an oceanfront house during the middle of winter, which he dubbed "classic Polanski territory."

The director also partnered with producers Benmussa and Sarde on "The Pianist" and "Oliver Twist."

This sounds much, much more appealing to me than Pompeii.

[colinr0380]

Trailer for Marc Caro's new film, Dante 01, with Lambert Wilson, Linh Dan Pham (Indochine, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) and Dominique Pinon.

[miless]

Trailer for Marc Caro's new film, Dante 01, with Lambert Wilson, Linh Dan Pham (Indochine, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) and Dominique Pinon.

It looks as if they tried to make Alien using the sets from Babylon 5.

[Dylan]

From The Hollywood Reporter:

ROME -- Work will start early next year on "Viaggio a Tulum" (Voyage to Tulum), a Mexico-based story written by iconic Italian director Federico Fellini but not started during the director's lifetime.

The news is the first to emerge from the Business Street market at the second RomaCinemaFest, which got under way Thursday.

The project will officially launch at a briefing to be held at the Hotel Flora -- which housed Fellini's offices in Rome -- which are now hosting part of the Business Street.

The film, which will center on Fellini's trip to Mexico to meet the famous mystic Carlos Castaneda, will be filmed in Mexico and at Rome's Cinecitta Studios, with a budget of at least AC;3.5 million ($5 million).

Filming is expected to start Jan. 20, 2008, which would have been the 88th birthday for Fellini, who died in 1993.

The film's backers say they have secured about half of the funding they need already, most of it from Mexican investors and the Mexican government.

Fellini wrote "Viaggio a Tulum" in 1985, and it was published in book form by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera a year later. But it was never made into a film.

The project will be directed by documentary maker Marco Bartoccioni. Fellini and Tullio Pinelli -- who adapted Fellini's original work -- will share screenwriting credits.

Most of the cast members have yet to be named, but the film's backers said leads will be named at next month's Cancun Film Festival in Mexico.

[Solaris]

Remake of Metropolis

[Cde.]

This will shortly drop into development hell, from which it will never return. It's a bad, bad idea, to the extent that I can believe even Hollywood will agree.

[DrewReiber]

This will shortly drop into development hell, from which it will never return. It's a bad, bad idea, to the extent that I can believe even Hollywood will agree.

These are European producers with a European remake. They don't need Hollywood's approval to make this film happen, which is why the film's potential to get made is far higher than you think. Anyway, I'm surprised you would defend the people who just gave Clash of the Titans to the director who drove Sean Connery into retirement and put Christian Bale in McG's Terminator 4.

[Kirkinson]

Thomas Schühly is the producer whose career took a nosedive after The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and said that Alexander was going to be his big comeback. I have my doubts (hopes!) that he won't be able to pull together a project of such large scale as a Metropolis remake would require, but we'll see. I suspect they want to get a "top director" involved early on precisely so that they can use his or her name to get investors lined up.

[DrewReiber]

Thomas Schühly is the producer whose career took a nosedive after The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and said that Alexander was going to be his big comeback. I have my doubts (hopes!) that he won't be able to pull together a project of such large scale as a Metropolis remake would require, but we'll see. I suspect they want to get a "top director" involved early on precisely so that they can use his or her name to get investors lined up.

I'm familiar with Schuly. All I'm saying is that it's quite possible the movie will get made. There's no doubt in my mind that it will be a terrible waste of celluloid (or video) if/when it does.

[Kirkinson]

I'm familiar with Schuly. All I'm saying is that it's quite possible the movie will get made. There's no doubt in my mind that it will be a terrible waste of celluloid (or video) if/when it does.

I understand. I'm just trying to reassure myself that it's not going to happen.

[DrewReiber]

I understand. I'm just trying to reassure myself that it's not going to happen.

Fair enough, but you should also remind yourself that nothing they'll do with CG will ever rival the fact that Metropolis looks the way it does and is from 1926. That film will always remain a miraculous achievement in projecting forward through time, while whatever this remake is will be forever mired in whatever moronic production conventions they have to rely upon to market it today. And that's before we even get into STORY.

[flyonthewall2983]

Peter Jackson and New Line come to an agreement, Jackson to produce The Hobbit

Jackson, who directed the "Rings" trilogy, will serve as executive producer for "The Hobbit." A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.

Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after "Rings," despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting "The Hobbit" 50/50, spokemen for both studios said Tuesday.

"I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson said in a statement. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."

Two "Hobbit" films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three "Lord of the Rings" films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.

[Antoine Doinel]

Is the Hobbit really that long that it needs to split into two films? Wouldn't one three hour film suffice? I haven't even bothered to watch the end of LOTR yet because of the length (and the repetitive nature of the films).

[Barmy]

If King Kong can be 3 hrs, The Hobbit can be 6.

[DrewReiber]

Is the Hobbit really that long that it needs to split into two films? Wouldn't one three hour film suffice? I haven't even bothered to watch the end of LOTR yet because of the length (and the repetitive nature of the films).

I think they announced a while ago that the second film would be a bridge to LOTR that utilized lots of the ancillary material that Tolkien produced.

Raimi 'Hell' bent on thriller

"Sam calls it a 'spook-a-blast,' a wild ride with all the chills and spills that 'Evil Dead' delivered, without relying on the excessive violence of that film," Tapert said.

That's like implying there's something wrong with a comedy when it's "too funny". If Raimi really buys into that thinking and Drag Me To Hell is attempt to direct his own Boogyman, then I believe it's high time to mourn the loss of an interesting director and move on. I will hope for the best and expect the worst.