Ever since The Hurt Locker, Anthony Mackie seems to have been poised on the edge of becoming a big name without quite making it. Now he has a new project he’ll hope will further his climb up the star tree, as Variety reports he’s joined the cast of Runner, Runner.
The thriller already has Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake onboard, and is set in the world of illegal online gambling. Timberlake will play a Princeton student who is cheated out of his tuition money playing online poker. Hoping to reclaim his money, he flies to Costa Rica to get his cash back from the site’s owner (Ben Affleck), but ends up becoming the corrupt CEO’s right hand man. Mackie will be an FBI agent who has spent years trying to take the site owner down as comes to see Timberlake’s character as the key to the investigation.
The script is from Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who have a bit of a speciality in writing about the gambling world, as they wrote the screenplay for Rounders, and created the short-lived TV series Tilt.
Dark City and I Robot Alex Proyas has been having trouble getting movies made, with his big budget Paradise Lost getting shut down shortly before production was due to begin. However he recently signed up for the Robert Heinlein adaptation, The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag, and has now entered negotiations to make Gods Of Egypt for Summit.
For a while now, a new movie set in the world of Blade Runner has been in the works, and it’s even got Ridley Scott on board to direct. However exactly what the film would be has been a bit nebulous, as we haven’t known if it would be a prequel or sequel, or if it would feature any of the characters from the first film.
Liam Neeson has signed up for quite a few films in the past few weeks, and now he’s added one more, A Walk Among The Tombstones. The movie will be the first in a new financing deal between Exclusive Media and Cross Creek Pictures, who have entered into a three year 50-50 co-financing, co-producing, co-development deal for a minimum of two feature films per year with budgets up to $65m.
We haven’t had a film from Eli Roth since Hostel: Part II in 2007 (unless you count Inglourious Basterds’ film with a film, Nation’s Pride), but now he’s ready to get back behind the camera with the horror movie The Green Inferno.
After quite a long time in development, Disney’s Maleficent will shoot this summer. Now 
The first teaser poster for Skyfall has landed, which is a classic 007 image, suggesting that this isn’t a movie that’s going to completely ignore the history of the series. Here’s the blurb: ‘SKYFALL, from Albert R Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, is directed by Academy Award® winner Sam Mendes and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his third film as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. Joining Daniel Craig, the cast includes Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Berenice Marlohe, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw with Albert Finney and Judi Dench as M. The screenplay is written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan. SKYFALL will begin its worldwide roll-out later this year in the UK and Ireland on October 26th and in North America on November 9th.’
With Magic Mike hitting the US on June 29th and the UK on July 13th, many a gay man and straight woman is already in paroxysms of excitement over the likes of Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Matthew McConaughey and Joe Manganiello getting their stripper on!
Yesterday
LA’s Outfest is one of the biggest and best LGBT film festivals in the world. This year it celebrates its 30th Anniversary with 143 films from 24 different countries along with exciting panels and parties. It’s now been announced the film will get its opening night gala, Vito, while John Waters will receive Outfest’s Achievement Award at the event.