So we can cover as many films as possible, we thought we’d give you these quick updates of some of the smaller film announcements…
Universal has landed the screen rights to Wicked Lovely, the first book in Melissa Marr’s fantasy series. Hoping to tap into the Twilight audience, the plot is about a 17-year-old girl who can see fairies, and has to fend off the advances of a fairy king who is detemined to marry her in order to help him save his kingdom from his vengeful mother. There are three books in the series so far, with a fourth due to be published soon. Edward Scissorhands scribe Caroline Thompson has tapped to write the script. (Source: Variety)
Actress Mariel Hemingway, who also happens to be Ernest hemingway’s garddaughter, has secured the rights to the great author’s memoir, A Moveable Feast, with plans to bring it to the big screen. The book covers Hemingway’s life as a young man in Paris in the 1920s. It also includes vivid details about his marriage to his first wife, who happens to be Mariel’s mother. She and her producing partner, John Goldstone, will know start shopping the project around the studios to see if they can get the money to make it. (Source: Variety)
Shondra Rhimes, the woman behind TV hit Grey’s Anatomy, has signed up to produce a screen adaptation of journalist Helena Andrew’s upcoming memoir, Bitch Is The New Black, for Miramax. The book is about Andrew’s life as a young, successful black woman in Washington D.C., trying to get ahead in the journo business. (Source: Variety)
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have signed on to rework New Line’s script, Horrible Bosses, which is described as an absurdist comedy about three friends who decide to whack their abusive superiors in a desperate bid for happiness. Daley is probably best know to TV viewers for playing Dr. Sweets in Bones, although he and Goldstein have several scripts in the works at various studios. (Source: THR)
David Henrie, star of the Disney Channel’s Wizards Of Waverley Place, has been tapped to play the lead in the Platinum Dunes comic book movie, The Weapon, The comic follows martial arts enthusiast and inventor Tommy Zhou, who has developed a ground-breaking portable innovation that an evil order will stop at nothing to steal. It’s no surprise Platinum Dunes, which is better known for horror remakes, is working on the adaptation, as The Weapon was co-created by the production company’s chairman. (Source: THR)
Sony has set May 6th, 2011 as the date that they’re planning to unleash Spider-man 4 on the world. While at the moment that’s officially just the date for the US release, we’d expect it to roll out worldwide on the same day. It’s taking over the early summer weekend that was recently vacated by The First Avenger: Captain America, when it moved from May to July 22nd, 2011 (just a few weeks after Thor is unleashed on June 17th). As expected, the fourth Spidey will follow in the footsteps of parts 2 and 3, and get an IMAX release. (Source: Variety)