Shawn Levy already has quite a few films on his plate as both a director and producer, but he’s adding one more as Variety report he’s is in final talks to direct the Warner Bros. comedy This Is Where I Leave You, replacing the previously attached Adam Shankman.
Back in May, Jason Bateman, Malin Akerman, Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Jason Sudeikis, and Goldie Hawn joined the cast. Jason Bateman has since left the project, and it’s unclear if the other actors will still be available. The project has been in development at the studio since 2009.
The movie is based on Jonathan Tropper’s novel,which centre on a father who makes a final request before his death. He wants his dysfunctional, estranged family to spend seven days with one another after the patriarch’s funeral. Inevitably this causes a lot of problems.
It is believed that Shawn Levy wants to make this his next project, with production tentatively scheduled to begin next summer.
The British Independent Film Awards have become an increasingly important part of the UK film calendar, celebrating the work of those fighting to make films outside the studio system. The nominations for the 15th annual Moët BIFAs have been announced today, at St Martins Lane, London by actor and BIFA Patron, Adrian Lester.
Sky Arts 1 certainly got a impressive cast for its four-part mini-series A Young Doctor’s Notebook, with Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe both signed up to play older and younger versions of the same character (we won’t bother wondering how 5ft 5in Radcliffe grew into 6ft Hamm over the years). Now some images from the series have shown up online, including one showing the two stars taking a bath together!
A couple of months ago it was revealed that Jason Bateman is planning to make his directorial debut with the film Bad Words. Now 
Wreck-It Ralph certainly got a good start this weekend, with the highest opening ever for a non-Pixar Disney animated movie. The film took $49.1 million, just ahead of Tangled’s $48.8 million debut. It’s a great start, helped by the fact it appealed to both boys and girls, and with little to challenge it in the family demographic over the next few weeks, it should have strong legs.
Here’s a bit of a wake up call for those who thought sharing porn online would have no repercussions, as Kywan Fisher of Virginia and Cormelian Brown of Delaware have each been fined $1.5 million for using their paid memberships of gay porn sites to download videos that they then illegally shared on GayTorrents.net.
The makers of The Hobbit seem to feel like they have a bit of a challenge before the first of the movies is released, which is that there’s an awful lot of new characters, mainly the dwarves, that need to be introduced. They’ve done a good job of making each one completely different from the others so they’ll be easily recognisable, but in marketing the movie they’re keen we get to know them before the film is released.