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…
It’s being reported that Paramount has signed up writers for its sequel to G.I. Joe. Although many have said last year’s film was a flop, The Rise Of Cobra made over $300 million around the world, which isn’t too bad for the first instalment in a planned franchise, and so now the studio is moving ahead with plans for a follow-up, where we’ll get to discover what happened after Cobra rose. While Collider, which broke the story, doesn’t name the writers attached, IESB says its Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. If true they’re gonna be very busy, as they also just signed up to write Deadpool. (Source: Collider)
Anyone and anything connected to The Hangover has now become a big deal in Hollywood, and that now seems to have been extended to Todd Phillips next movie, Due Date. Even though that film, starring Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galianakis, hasn’t hit cinemas yet (it’ll arrive in the autumn), the writers of the movie, Alan Cohen and Alan Freedland, have already sold a new pitch to Universal and Imagine Entertainment. Their currently untitled idea is about a guy who was unpopular as a kid but who gets mistaken for a much loved classmate when he returns home for a high school reunion. He then gets to experiece the glory he missed as a youtg, but inevitably I’d imagine it’ll all get a bit more complicated than that. Incidentally, as I’ve mentioned The Hangover, in the US the film has just become the biggest selling comedy DVD ever, shifting 8.5 million units since it was released. (Source: Variety)
Screenwriter Javier Rodriguez has been hired to adapt the 1994 Jonathan Lethem novel, Gun With Ocassional Music. As we reported a couple of months ago, Bad Lieutenant: Port Of New Orleans producers, Gabe and Alan Polsky, have optioned the book, which has been at various stages of development with numerous people owning the rights for over a decade. The sci-fi noir hybrid follows an archetypal private eye through Oakland and San Francisco as he delves into the murder of a prominent urologist in a futuristic world that includes supersmart children, erotic nerve-swapping and a menacing kangaroo that works for the mob. It’s a very strange plot, but hopefully Rodriguez will get it to work (Source: THR)
Indie outfit Furst films has picked up the rights to R.L. Stine’s book, The Sitter, about a young woman who becomes the nanny of a four-year-old that hasn’t spoken for months, and is seemingly haunted by something terrible. Stine is best known for writing the best-selling Goosebumps series, but The Sitter is slightly more adult in tone. At the moment things are at a very early stage, with Furst yet to assign writers to the adaptation. (Source: Variety)
It seems Joe Whitesell can’t get enough of Martin Lawrence dressed as a fat old lady, as after directiong Big Momma’s House 2, it appears he’ll also be helming the next movie in the franchise, imaginatively titled, Big Momma’s House 3. Not much is know about the plot (as the first two barely had one, don’t expect this to buck the trend), although Randi Mayem Singer is handling the screenplay and shooting is due to begin in mid-April. (Source: Production Weekly)