New Films in Production

[flyonthewall2983]

The creative team and original stars from cult movie LA Confidential are in talks to re-team for a sequel to the movie, going head-to-head with another sequel starring George Clooney. Director Joe Carnahan is also directing a follow-up to the film based on author James Ellroy's book White Jazz. According to entertainment website Tmz.com, another sequel is being planned by the film's original director Curtis Hanson. Hanson's version wouldn't rely on the plot of White Jazz and would instead pick-up where LA Confidential ended. The sequel would reunite original stars Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kim Basinger, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in LA Confidential.

I'm not following that at all. Is Curtis Hanson directing Crowe, Pearce and Basinger? Or is he directing Clooney?

No, Joe Carnahan would be directing the Clooney project.

[DrewReiber]

No, Joe Carnahan would be directing the Clooney project.

I just hope WIP and/or Clooney figure out what a bad idea that is before it's too late. Perhaps the colossal mistake that is the Bunny Lake is Missing remake will help matters.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From Time Out:

Ferrara returns to 'Bad Lieutenant'
Abel Ferrara will apparently 'revisit' the cult classic through new film 'Pericle il Nero'.
Chris Tilly | Mar 2 2007

Some days, a news story comes in that I just don't understand. More often than not, I'll bin it in favour of something more simple, but today I'm going to post because it's just too interesting to ignore.

Controversial director Abel Ferrara has announced plans to adapt Italian author Giuseppe Farrandino's bestselling novel 'Pericle il Nero' ('Pericles the Black Man') for the big screen. What's so interesting about that I hear you cry? Well, Ferrara's producer claims that the film will 'revisit' the director's notorious 1992 cop flick 'The Bad Lieutenant'.

What this means is anyone's guess – will Ferrara use the same characters? Or cast the same actors? Or even stage some of the same scenes (Harvey Keitel's brief bout of trouser tennis immediately springs to mind)? At the moment that's not clear, but as soon as we find out more, we'll post the info here.

'Pericle il Nero' is set to shoot in Naples later this year using a mixture of American and Italian actors and with a budget of $4 million.

[kinjitsu]

Apparently, Ferrara has signed on as director, replacing Francesco Patierno. And yes, it is based on Giuseppe Ferrandino's book about the camorra (Neapolitan Mafia), but what the book has in common with Bad Lieutenant (other than it being a crime story) is beyond me. Shooting is scheduled for September in and around Naples, with (as far as I can tell), mostly Italian actors, although it's undecided whether it will be in Italian of English.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

3 lined up for 'Tokyo' tales

French directors Michel Gondry and Leos Carax and South Korean helmer Bong Joon-ho are turning Japanese. Each filmmaker is in negotiations to write and direct a segment of the tentatively titled "Tokyo," a triptych feature telling three separate tales of the city.

The project will be produced by Paris-based Comme des Cinemas, company founder Anne Sawada said Wednesday.

"It will be just like 'New York Stories' but set in Tokyo," said Bong, who just finished the script for his segment on a 26-hour plane ride from Australia to New York to promote his new Magnolia Pictures monster movie "The Host." As with the other story lines, Bong's plot is under wraps but involves the relationship between a Japanese man and woman.

Bong is tentatively set to begin filming his segment in July or August, with the other shoots expected to happen at about the same time. According to a source close to the project, the filmmakers will be given liberal access to city locations in return for the Tokyo-centric subject matter.

A bit anticlimactic that Carax should re-emerge with a short film, but at least he's in good company.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From LatinoReview:

Eastwood Changeling Jolie
Date: March 9, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Variety

According to Variety, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment are fast-tracking "The Changeling," with Clint Eastwood looking to direct and Angelina Jolie in talks to star.

Scripted by J. Michael Straczynski, the film will become a co-production of Imagine and Eastwood's Malpaso. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will produce with Malpaso's Rob Lorenz.

Plan is to start production later this year.

Jolie would play a woman whose son is abducted but retrieved; she suspects, however, that the returned child is not her kid. The woman must then confront corruption in the LAPD. Story is based on true events in 1920s Los Angeles.

From Dark Horizons:

What Happened With "The Invasion"
Posted: Thursday March 8th 2007 5:38am
Source: Assorted Sources
Author: Garth Franklin

Films always take time to make, but on average a general studio major release takes about a year to go from the first day of filming to the U.S. theatrical release - assuming no major problems crop up during or after production. The exceptions are horror and low-budget films which usually can be done in a slightly shorter time, or big FX action spectacles which usually take a little longer.

However, 2007 has seen quite a few films that were shot back in 2005 finally gracing our screens with little explanation. Some like "D.O.A.: Dead or Alive", "Fierce People", "The Last Legion" and "Virgin Territory" have been expected due to international deals and distribution difficulties.

Others, "Ghost Rider" for example, weren't so well explained. Shot early 2005 and test screened late that year, it took well over an additional year to finally get a release with the excuse of rendering CG fire taking up the additional time.

The most high profile one of late though has been "The Invasion", a $50 million modern remake of the classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" paranoia sci-fi thriller story. The Nicole Kidman & Daniel Craig led project began shooting back in September 2005 and filmed around the East Coast all throughout the end of that year. To give you an idea of timing, Craig was announced as James Bond during the shoot and filmed "Casino Royale" immediately afterwards.

Originally the film had been planned for a late Summer 2006 release - quite fast considering. It then got pushed back to Fall, not unexpected. Then to early 2007, then to late 2007, and now it sits on an August 17th 2007 date. Many thought it was simply sitting on a shelf and the studio was just waiting to find a slot for it.

That changed earlier this year when actress Nicole Kidman made headlines due to a minor car crash filming scenes for the film - a film that wrapped shooting a year ago. What was going on, reshoots? pick-up filming? Everyone involved was surprisingly coy about the affair.

Now in an article in The Los Angeles Times, details of what went on have been uncovered. It seems that acclaimed German director Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Downfall") turned in a cut of the film at the end of 2005 that the studio was very unhappy with - especially its lack of action.

More surprising is that as a result, "The Matrix" creators Andy and Larry Wachowski were brought in to do rewrites and then hired James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") to do nearly $10 million in re-shoots. A rep for Hirschbiegel claimed the lack of action was due to budget constraints he was under, whilst Warners top man Alan Horn said Hirschbiegel simply wasn't available for the reshoots so McTeigue was brought in.

The film remains on track for its August release but this begs the question - will the Hirschbiegel cut ever see the light of day? Several years ago another famous Warner Bros. genre movie, "Exorcist: The Beginning", underwent extensive reshoots with a different director after the studio was disappointed with a lack of action. Granted this is not anywhere near as extensive a change, but it would be interesting to see the two different takes on the classic story nonetheless.

[Cinesimilitude]

Looks like Hell Ride might actually come to fruition, and it sounds like Tarantino won't even be acting in it as originally planned. Bishop and Madsen were extremely entertaining in Kill Bill 2, so I'm excited as Hell.

Biker-movie veteran Larry Bishop, is set to begin filming this spring on Hell Ride, a blood and sex-soaked tale of motorcycle revenge and retribution under the "Quentin Tarantino Presents" banner.

According to Production Weekly, the "chopper opera" has Bishop, starring, writing, directing and producing along with Tarantino.

Bishop will play bad-ass biker Pistolero, (named after the original title for Robert Rodriguez's Desperado) who along with his brother The Gent and Comanche, hit the road to avenge the death of Pistolero's old lady Cherokee Kisum, by the 666ers, a rival motorcycle gang.

Production is scheduled to start late April in Los Angeles.

[Antoine Doinel]

Javier Bardem has joined Penelope Cruz in the cast of Woody Allen's upcoming, untitled summer shoot in Barcelona.

Details of the pic remain sketchy... it will shoot mainly in Barcelona and contains English and some Spanish dialogue. Also, its plot features foreigners in the Spanish city and turns on a love entanglement, Allen has declared.

It looks like Scarlett Johansson will be working for Woody again. She has just been added to the cast for this pic:

From JoBlo:

Woody misses Scarlett Mar. 8, 2007

Source: Empire Online by: Omar Aviles

In the middle of working on a film he's shooting in Barcelona, Woody Allen realized he couldn't possibly go on without casting the smoking hot chesty blond with a sassy attitude and smoky voice role, otherwise known as The Scarlett Johansson role. That's right, according to Empire Online, Penelope Cruz isn't fulfilling the muse role adequately enough and Allen's starting to get a Woody for his former muse. It's safe to say he'll get her to come back for a third go-round because what Woody wants, Woody gets, especially when it comes to his busty blond muse. No word on what role she'll play in the film but it doesn't so much matter because whatever her role, she'll be buxom and she'll be sassy. Allen's next film, CASSANDRA'S DREAM, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell will be released October 7th.

Neil LaBute's next. From JoBlo:

Sam beats Ashton! Mar. 12, 2007

Source: Variety by: Mike Sampson

This movie doesn't have snakes or planes but it does have Samuel L. Jackson kicking Ashton Kutcher's ass and that sounds like my kinda movie. Kutcher has signed on to co-star with Jackson in the upcoming thriller LAKEVIEW TERRAGE where Jackson will play a cop terrorizing an interracial couple (Kutcher and Kerry Washington). Neil LaBute, whose last thriller was the laughable WICKER MAN remake, will direct the film for Screen Gems with Will Smith producing through his Overbrook production company. So while I love the idea of seeing Sam Jackson get to bitch slap Ashton Kutcher, I'm assuming that Kutcher's character will win in the end and that depresses me. I say let Jackson pin some crime on Kutcher, have the white boy locked up and then let Sam move in on his territory. I mean we'll all be rooting for Sam the Man anyway? Give us what we want!

[flyonthewall2983]

The premise sounds good for a thriller.

[exte]

Is Allan Ball's new film covered? He's directing this time.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Oh dear...

Butler Escapes From New York
Date: March 13, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Variety

Variety reports that "300" star Gerard Butler is at the center of a package that CAA began shopping Monday for a remake of John Carpenter's 1981 actioner "Escape From New York."
Neal Moritz is attached to produce, with "Black Hawk Down" scribe Ken Nolan penning the screenplay.

Several studios are battling for the pic, mostly because the $70 million launch of "300" signaled the arrival of an emerging action star in Butler. A deal is expected to be made this week.

Butler would play Snake Plissken, the one-eyed convict who's charged with heading into the inescapable maximum security prison formerly known as Manhattan to liberate the U.S. president.

Kurt Russell originated the role and reprised it in the 1996 sequel "Escape to L.A."

[Dylan]

After that embarrasing blurb from JoBlo, I'm happy to say that a far more coherent report on Woody Allen's Barcelona project has surfaced:

From Variety:

Woody Allen has set Scarlett Johansson to star in the untitled film he'll shoot this summer in Spain. That is her third starring role in his past four films, making Johansson the actress Allen has used most frequently since his early runs with Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton.
Johansson and Rebecca Hall ("The Prestige") join Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz in the film, which will shoot for six weeks in Barcelona and one week in Asturias. Allen will trek to Spain in June for pre-production and then will return to begin production after the July 4 holiday.

Spain-based producer Mediapro is financing half of the film, and Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum and Gareth Wiley are producing.

It is the first film that Allen has shot in Spain, but this will be the fourth consecutive production outside the U.S. for a director once identified as the quintessential New York filmmaker. Allen made his previous three films in London, and he began going there partly to preserve the auteur manner in which he has always made his films.

For almost his entire career, Allen has been accustomed to presenting a studio with a budget. The studio financed his film without reading a script, and Allen held complete creative control. When grosses dwindled in the U.S., that arrangement was harder to come by at Hollywoodstudios, which rarely give those conditions to any directors.

Allen replicated those provisions in England, where he filmed "Match Point," "Scoop" and the upcoming "Cassandra's Dream." He has come to enjoy framing his movies there, and is expected to return there to make his next project, which he'll likely shoot in 2008.

The director found he was just as welcome in Spain. Mediapro, the Barcelona-based production and sports rights company, committed last December to fund Allen's film. Execs didn't need to see a script. They only wanted assurances that Allen would shoot the film in Spain.

Allen and his films are held in high regard there, as evidenced by the grosses on "Match Point," which tallied E7.6 million ($10 million). Sources said Spanish broadcaster Antena 3 TV is also taking an equity stake in the film, and it is expected that Allen will benefit from various government subsidies.

Mediapro also gets distribution rights to Spain.

[DrewReiber]

Oh dear...

Butler Escapes From New York

Our only hope is that the joint ownership of Snake Plissken's actual character (between Carpenter, Debra Hill, and Russell) will keep him out of this garbage.

[dadaistnun]

From Variety:

Don Cheadle has solidified five feature film projects that he'll produce and star in. Among them is a biopic of jazz legend Miles Davis, on which he plans to make his feature directing debut.

Cheadle, who is being honored today as ShoWest male star of the year, has set up the projects through Crescendo Prods., the shingle in which he partners with longtime managers Kay Liberman and Lenore Zerman.

"Nixon" scribes Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson are penning the Davis film, and Liberman and Zerman said they have secured music and life rights to the jazz legend, with whom Cheadle has long been intrigued.

"Miles pushed the envelope and was never satisfied and kept evolving," Liberman said.

Crescendo's producing with Cary Brokaw and Vince Wilburn Jr. and Darryl Porter of Miles Davis Properties. They have waited to complete the package before bringing it to financiers, with Cheadle aboard to direct.

More on Blindness

Daniel Craig looks set to join Julianne Moore on the set of Blindness, an adaptation of the novel by Portuguese author Jose Saramago. The Focus Features production will be shot by Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian film-maker behind City of God and The Constant Gardener.

The novel is so fucking great that there's virtually no way I'll be completely satisified with the finished film. Prove me wrong, Meirelles.

[Antoine Doinel]

More on Blindness

The novel is so fucking great that there's virtually no way I'll be completely satisified with the finished film. Prove me wrong, Meirelles.

I pretty much feel the same way, but that said, I've loved everything Meirelles has done so far and I think he is one of the very few directors who can possibly handle this material in an intriguing way.

[Forrest Taft]

From De Palma a la Mod:

DE PALMA TO ADAPT BOYD NOVEL
BLUE AFTERNOON IN CASTING STAGE, SAYS AUTHOR

William Boyd, who has been promoting his new novel Restless for the past two or three months, has been mentioning here and there that he and Brian De Palma are currently collaborating on an adaptation of Boyd's 1993 novel, The Blue Afternoon. The novel, a romantic thriller, begins in Hollywood in 1936, and is told in flashback, the meat of which involves a surgeon in Manila during the American occupation of the Philippines in 1902. At the beginning of the novel, this surgeon (now an elderly man) approaches the book's narrator (a woman architect) and tells her that he is her father. He convinces her to accompany him to Lisbon to look for the woman he now realizes was the great love of his life. As they journey, he tells her of his adventures in Manila. David Christie of The Sunday Herald describes it as "a tale of grisly murders and illicit passion." One of the main subplots involves the surgeon aiding the U.S. army in an investigation of a series of murders. Another subplot involves an attempt to build a flying machine.

BOYD: DE PALMA'S BEEN OBSESSED WITH NOVEL FOR YEARS
Boyd, who has written several screenplays, including some from his own novels and stories, has adapted the screenplay for The Blue Afternoon himself. According to The Sunday Herald, Boyd told an audience at the Glasgow Aye Write! book festival on Friday that he was somewhat surprised by De Palma's approach to the project. "It turns out he has been obsessed with The Blue Afternoon for years," Boyd told the crowd. "It was wonderful to discover a movie enthusiast such as he was a fan." Boyd said that De Palma has teamed up with an independent British producer for the film. "It is in the process of being cast just now," Boyd said. "If all goes well, and these things in my experience tend not to, it should be complete by the end of this year, beginning of next."

I assume he will be making this film after REDACTED. Don't know hoe it will affect CAPONE RISING, but it probably means he has given up on TOYER, which I was looking forward to.

[Cinesimilitude]

From Variety:

New Line has won feature rights to Microsoft and Epic Games' hugely popular vidgame "Gears of War," with Stuart Beattie penning the adaptation and Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey producing via their Temple Hill banner.
CAA conducted the auction, which featured a 21-page treatment by Beattie, who wrote "Collateral" and the upcoming "3:10 to Yuma" and "30 Days of Night."

Studio's deal is with Epic, the game's developer, which held onto all ancillary rights to the property when Microsoft signed on to publish the game. Though not announced yet, a sequel vidgame is assured. If development of both projects goes smoothly, New Line and Epic would surely love to see the film and a game sequel come out around the same time.

"Gears" has sold more than 3 million units and is the most popular game on Microsoft's Xbox Live service, which allows players to compete against each other online. Though released in November and available only for the Xbox 360 console, it quickly became the fourth-bestselling game of 2006 in the U.S. It won game of the year kudos at the Game Developers Choice Awards and the Interactive Achievement Awards.

Story, which is only modestly developed in the game, concerns a world reeling from an invasion by aliens known as the Locust. A small group of elite soldiers, including main character Marcus Fennix, who is rescued from prison at the beginning of the game, fight to retake the planet Sera for its surviving humans.

Epic developed an extensive backstory in hopes of utilizing it for a film as well as potential novels.

"We wanted to make an entertainment property that's not just for games but for other media," said Epic VP and co-founder Mark Rein.

"I'm not a gamer, but what blew me away about 'Gears' was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are," Godfrey told Daily Variety.

Once Beattie's completed the script, Bowen and Godfrey will start looking for a director. They're aiming at a summer 2009 release.

"Gears" lead designer Cliff Bleszinski (known in gamer circles as CliffyB) will exec produce the film and consult on its development for Epic.

Game is Microsoft's most successful since "Halo," which had an ill-fated life in Hollywood. After developing a script itself, the software giant sold the project to Universal and Fox in 2005. Peter Jackson signed on to exec produce, and Neill Blomkamp to direct, but the project fell apart last fall after the studios balked at the final budget.

Numerous other hit game franchises are in development for feature adaptations, including "World of Warcraft" at Legendary, "Metal Gear Solid" at Sony and "Hitman," on which Fox is starting production March 29.

Many movies based on big game franchises, such as "Doom" and "Super Mario Bros.," have fared poorly with critics and auds. Rein said he and the Epic team considered that history carefully when mulling a movie deal.

"Our first and foremost philosophy is to do no harm, so we debated heavily the idea of doing a movie at all," he said. "But we feel we stacked the deck in our favor by working with the best players."

CliffyB has also stated more than once that he wants Clive Owen to play the lead role of Marcus Fenix.

Clive Owen + greatest third person video game of all time = excitement.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

This isn't the video game thread so I'll restrain myself from responding in any detail to that, ahem, generous evaulation. But since when the hell does Clive Owen or based on a great video game equate to "great movie"?

[Antoine Doinel]

Not to be a nitpicker, but maybe this topic should be moved to the "In Production" thread at least since as the article notes these things have a tendency to fall apart once actual budgets come into play (see Halo). It's a long way from a treatment to an actual script to budget approvals and production.

As for the merits of video game based movies, I agree, they don't have a great track record. That said, the stories that are being developed for video games now -- and video games in general -- are far more cinematic in feel than they ever have been. But that is perhaps a discussion best left for the video game thread.

[Jeff]

From Variety (via Coming Soon):

Nolan Writing Spielberg's Interstellar
Source: Variety
March 23, 2007

Paramount Pictures has set Jonah Nolan to write Interstellar, a space adventure that has Steven Spielberg attached to direct, reports Variety. The drama revolves around explorers who travel through a worm hole and into another dimension.

The plot was informed by a scientific theory by Kip S. Thorne, a Caltech physicist and expert on relativity. His theory that wormholes exist and can be used for time travel intrigued Spielberg, who attended a Caltech workshop on the subject with Thorne and other scientists.

Nolan, who hatched the short story that became his brother Chris Nolan's breakthrough film Memento, most recently scripted The Prestige and The Dark Knight. The writer will start scripting Interstellar as soon as he delivers The Chicago Fire for Warner Bros.

Spielberg is prepping the fourth installment of "Indiana Jones" for a June start with Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett, and he is expected to follow with a film about Abraham Lincoln (Liam Neeson) and the Civil War, based on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book.

From Variety (via Coming Soon):

Tom Cruise Set for Singer's WWII Thriller
Source: Variety
March 21, 2007

United Artists has set Tom Cruise to star for director Bryan Singer in the untitled WWII thriller that will begin production in the summer.

Chris McQuarrie wrote the script with Nathan Alexander. Singer and McQuarrie will produce, and Alexander will be co-producer.

UA partners Cruise and Wagner made a deal last week for the film, which is the first original project teaming Singer and McQuarrie since The Usual Suspects.

Cruise and Wagner quickly agreed to set the film as UA's second production commitment. The first is Lions for Lambs, the Robert Redford-directed drama that stars Redford, Cruise and Meryl Streep. That film, written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, will be released Nov. 9 by MGM.

Singer, who is in the early stages of mounting a sequel to Superman Returns, was able to fit it in before the Man of Steel is ready to take off again for Warner Bros. and Legendary.

The thriller is based on actual events, as German generals hatch a scheme to assassinate Adolph Hitler at the height of WWII.

[DrewReiber]

PHANTASM DIRECTOR DON COSCARELLI SAYS REMAKE UNLIKELY ALTHOUGH PHANTASM 5 ON THE TABLE

Not only does this article confirm that the Phatasm remake is dead (THANK GOD!), but we may eventually see both an ending to the series and an adaptation of Roger Avary's legendary epic script Phantasm's End (aka Phantasm 1999) in at least some form. If any of you are surprised by Anchor Bay's interest in picking up the franchise, you may also be interested to know they were the first company linked to financing George Romero's Land of the Dead back when it was called Dead Reckoning and its budget was closer to just $6-$8 million.

I just hope Coscarelli is able to make this happen before Angus Scrimm is no longer physically able to participate, as Bubba Nosferatu will undoubtedly take up the next year or two.

[Antoine Doinel]

This is a very intriguing development:

Aronofsky in "Fighter" shape for boxing drama
Tue Mar 27, 2:20 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Darren Aronofsky is in final talks to direct "The Fighter," a boxing drama reteaming "The Departed" stars Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon.

Based on the life of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer brother Dick Eklund (Damon), the Paramount Pictures saga chronicles their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship in London.

Wahlberg and Damon both hail from Boston, while Aronofsky and Damon attended nearby Harvard University.

The film, with its conventional narrative, would mark a departure for Aronofsky, whose 1998 breakthrough "Pi," acclaimed 2000 followup "Requiem for a Dream" and recent box office bomb "The Fountain" offered hallucinatory explorations of existential issues. Sources said Aronofsky is awaiting a script rewrite before signing on.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Darren Aronofsky is in final talks to direct "The Fighter," a boxing drama reteaming "The Departed" stars Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon.

Based on the life of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer brother Dick Eklund (Damon), the Paramount Pictures saga chronicles their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship in London.

The film, with its conventional narrative, would mark a departure for Aronofsky, whose 1998 breakthrough "Pi," acclaimed 2000 followup "Requiem for a Dream" and recent box office bomb "The Fountain" offered hallucinatory explorations of existential issues. Sources said Aronofsky is awaiting a script rewrite before signing on.

Me thinks Aronofsky's feeling the pressure from the box office failure and critical lashing he took on The Fountain and is going to crank out a more commercial product so that he can keep making his artsy films.

[Cinesimilitude]

Oscar Bait, 2009.

[exte]

Oscar Bait, 2009.

The film is going to do huge business. People have been waiting for these two to reunite on screen for a long time...