So we can cover as many films as possible, we thought we’d give you these quick updates on some of today’s smaller film announcements…
The National Board of Review in the US has named its 2009 award winners, with Jason Reitman’s movie, Up In The Air, starring George Clooney, taking the Best Film gong. Clooney also took Best Actor, although he tied with Morgan Freeman for Invictus. Best Actress went to Carey Mulligan for An Education. While the NBR awards aren’t generally an accurate indicator of what will eventually win at the Oscars, their list of the 10 best films of the year serves as a decent guide to what movies might get nominated for Best Picture (especially with the Academy going from five to 10 nomineses this year). This year NBR picked An Education, (500) Days Of Summer, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, The Messenger, A Serious Man, Star Trek and Where The Wild Things Are as their top films overall. (Source: NBR – click through to see the other award winners)
Imprint Entertainment, one of the production companies being the Twilight movies, has announced its intention to remake the 2002 Korean horror movie, The Phone. The original is about people who have a particular mobile phone number dying in mysterious circumstances. And there was me thinking Hollywood had run out of crappy Asian horror movies about curses to remake. (Source: Variety)
Fox 2000 has hired Rob Lieber to adapt the children’s book, Jeremy Cabbage and the Living Museum of Human Oddballs and Quadruped Delights, for the big screen. The book, written by David Elliott, is about a young orphan stuck at Harpwitch’s Home for Mean Dogs, Ugly Cats, and Stray Children, where the canines are treated better than the kids. Jeremy’s only chance is a good adoption, and when that fails, he finds himself on an outrageous adventure out on the city streets. (Source: Variety)
Actor turned producer Matt Battaglia (Brothers) is lining up several projects, including an adaptation of Mark Ruff’s novel, Bad Monkeys, which is described as a sci-fi Catcher In The Rye, about a woman who struggles with her alter ego and, after being arrested for murder, claims to belong to a secret society that fights evil. He’s also planning, Or I’ll Dress You In The Mourning, based on the book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, about Manuel Benitez, who rose from poverty to become Spain’s most popular bullfighter. The script for that one is being handled by Tron: Legacy’s Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. Battaglia also wants to make The Marlboro Marine, about a soldier whose image became iconic when a photo of him appeared in hundreds of newspapers. However the relunctant star later suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and became disabled upon returning to his Kentucky hometown. (Source: THR)
Jonathan Lethem’s novel, Gun, With Occasional Music, is up for a film version. The 1994 sci-fi noir follows an archetypal private eye through Oakland and San Francisco as he delves into the murder of a prominent urologist. However while that sounds fairly straightforward, Lethem creates a world full of super-smart kids called ‘Baby heads’ and evolved animals, incluing a kangaroo that works for the mob. While a few other people have tried and failed to bring the book to the screen, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans producers Gabe and Allan Polsky have optioned the rights and are hoping to have better luck. (Source: THR)