Yesterday a load of info emerged from the press conference for Bond 23, which was revealed to be called Skyfall. If you fancy watching the cast and crew at the press conference, revealing the info about the film and what’s going on in it, you can take a look at this excellent compilation of footage. The film will be in UK cinemas next October.
JJ Abrams Hires Boilerplate Writers
Alternate histories seem to be big in Hollywood at the moment, whether it’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or undead meets Austen of Price & Prejudice & Zombies. JJ Abrams snapped up the rights to another one just over a year ago, Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett steampunky graphic novel, Boilerplate.
Now things are finally moving forwards as Deadline reports that Abrams has hired writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay to come up with a script for the film version. The graphic novel centres on a fictional version of the world’s first humanoid-robot, which was built in the early 19th Century to replace men on the battlefield. The robot is shown fighting alongside Teddy Roosevelt and it even circled the planet with the US Navy, trekked to the South Pole, made silent movies, and hobnobbed with the likes of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. The book originally came about when Guinan started writing about the robot on a website and people began to believe it was real.
JD Payne and Patrick McKay are also currently writing Deadliest Warrior, a movie adaptation of the popular Spike TV series of the same name, and penned Goliath, based on the biblical tale.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Tate Taylor In Talks For Tammy
In Hollywood, the development of movies either seems to creep along at a snail’s pace or go at lightning speed. It seems Tammy is one of the latter. Only a few days ago we reported that New Line had purchased Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy’s script, Tammy.
Now Variety reports that they’re already looking for a director and are in talks with Tate Taylor, who had a big hit with his recent debut, The Help. Tammy is about a woman who loses her job at a fast food restaurant and then finds out her husband is cheating on her. She goes on a road trip with her foul-mouthed, hard-drinking grandmother to escape the problems in her life.
It’d be a slight change from the period world of The Help, but could be a good fit for Taylor. It isn’t known when Tammy will shoot, but presuming McCarthy will star (which isn’t guaranteed), it’ll be next summer, once she comepleted the latest season of her sitcom Mike & Molly.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Simon Kinberg Writing X-Men: First Class Sequel
X-Men: First Class might not have made quite as much money as some of the earlier X-Men movies, but it did well enough that Fox is now putting a sequel together, and they’ve hired Simon Kinberg, who wrote the First Class, to pen the script, according to Superherohype.
Kinberg has been involved with a wide range of action films, scripting XXX: State of the Union, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Sherlock Holmes. He also has credits on upcoming high profile pictures This Means War and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
The X-Men: First Class Sequel is still in early development, but Matthew Vaughn is expected to direct the project and the original cast of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones and Jennifer Lawrence are all expected to return.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Emma Stone Says He’s F***ing Perfect
While Hollywood loves to give young actresses a brief time to shine before they seemingly become toxic to casting agents and are never seen again, one of the few to come along in recent years who looks like she could have a long top-flight career is Emma Stone.
She’s been excellent in everything from Easy A and Zombieland to The Help, and next year will be going blockbuster as Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-man. Now Deadline reports that she’s in talks He’s Fucking Perfect, based on a spec script by Lauryn Kahn that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (Kahn has worked for years as McKay’s assistant) are producing.
The role sounds perfect for Stone, who’ll play a pessimistic-about-love girl who uses her knack for technology to check up on all the guys her girlfriends start dating. She digs up all the closet-skeletons and tosses them out just to prove that her cynicism is well founded. All that lasts until she checks out the latest guy in the parade…and can’t find anything wrong with him. He’s perfect. So perfect that she decides to use her researching skills to turn herself into his theoretically ideal mate.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
J-Lo Asks Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Jennifer Lopez could do with a hit if she wants to remain a movie star. Motherhood took her away from the film biz for several years and her return with The Back-Up Plan was roundly panned and ignored by audience. She has kept herseolf in the spotlight judging American Idol, but now it appears she wants to get back on screen with a film version of he video game and TV series Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
She’s teaming up with Walden Media (the Narnia movies) for the film, and while she’s currently only attached to produce, it’s believed the project is being put together for her to star in. In the movie, when the ACME agency’s greatest detective, Carmen Sandiego, becomes the world’s greatest thief, it’s up to her former partner to follow her clues and track her down. Their cat and mouse game leads the partner to confront a greater mystery: is Carmen really a thief or a hero? Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? started off as an educational video game before it spawned an animated TV series.
It isn’t known when the film might go into production.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Gary Oldman Sought For Arthur & Lancelot
As we mentioned in an storyearlier today, Warner Bros. is keen to get Gary Oldman onboard its live-action version of Akira, but that’s not the only thing they’d like him in, as Deadline reports that they’re also offering him a role in their new take on Arthurian legend, Arthur & Lancelot.
Oldman is wanted for the role of Merlin in the movie, opposite the recently cast Joel Kinnaman as Lancelot. David Dobkin is directing Arthur & Lancelot from his own screenplay, which is a reimagined version of the King Arthur and Sir Lancelot tales (although it’s not known exactly how things have been reimagined).
As yet it isn’t known if Oldman will accept the role.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Garrett Hedlund In Final Talks For Akira
Last month we reported that after years of trying to get it sorted a live action version of Akira had finally gotten the greenlight from Warner Bros. At the time it was reported that frontrunner for the main role of Kaneda was Garrett Hedlund. Now the TRON: Legacy star has accepted the part and THR says he’s in final negotiations for it.
It was also said last month that Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter were offered the roles of Colonel and Lady Miyako, and while offers are still out to them, so far neither has signed on. Apparently Keira Knightley has also been apporached, although it isn’t certain how interested she is. If they all come onbaord, it’ll certainly be a big British contingent!
The film follows Kaneda, the leader of a motorcycle gang in futuristic New Manhattan. Kaneda tries to rescue his best friend, Tetsuo, from a government experiment. Jaume Collet-Serra is set to direct early in the new year, on a $90 million budget.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Project X Trailer
Teenagers waiting until their parents are away to stage a huge party is a bit of a classic both in the movies and in real life. Project X wants to tap into a bit of that with the story of three high school seniors who throw a birthday party to make a name for themselves. As the night progresses, things spiral out of control as word of the party spreads. The film should be in cinemas next spring.
Underworld: Awakening Trailer
Having missed out on the third Underworld movie, Kate Beckinsale is back in vampire mode as warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. It’s certainly a bit of a change for the franchise, so take a look at what’s going on in the trailer. It’s due out January 20th, 2012.
Bond 23 Will Officially Be Called Skyfall
A few weeks ago rumours emerged that the next James Bond movie would be called Skyfall, as Sony Picture has purchased a bunch of 007-related website addresses with that name featured in them. Today a huge press conference was held for the film, where it was announced the movie would indeed be called Skyfall.
However, if you were hoping for lots of plot details to be announced at the same time, you’ll be disappointed, as those are still pretty much being kept under wraps. A short syopsis was released though, which just tells us, “Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.” Sounds like Judi Dench will be getting a bigger role this time around then!
The cast has also been confirmed, with Daniel Craig and Judi Dench joined by Bérénice Marlohe, Naomie Harris, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Wishaw and Albert Finney. While it’s been speculated that Harris would play Miss Moneypenny (who’s been missing from Craig’s 007 adventures), she’ll actually be a field agent called Eve. Marlohe meanwhile will be a glamorous, enigmatic character called Severin.
No character names were revealed for Bardem, Fiennes, Whishaw and Finney, with director Sam Mendes suggesting that the reason for that with at least some of their characters is that we’d recognise the names and it would give things away. We know Bardem will be the main villain, and there’s speculation Fiennes will be a Blofeld-type character, although whether he’ll actually be the SPECTRE baddie isn’t known.
Mendes also says he wants the film to have a similar tone to Casino Royale, partly because he wasn’t a fan of Quantum Of Solace. Shooting begins today in Whitehall, with filming also taking place at Pinewood Studios as well as Shanghai, Istanbul and Scotland.
It’s less than a year now until it hits cinemas, with the UK release due on 26th October, 2012
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
21 Jump Street Red Band Trailer
The 80s TV show 21 Jump Street shot Johnny Depp to fame, and now Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are bringing their take on the premise with a new movie version. The comedy sees Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) and join the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, where they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. However, they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind. It’s due in UK cinemas March 16th.