NEWS

David Goyer Now Writing Batman 3?

Monday February 8, 2010

Is that why he left Flashforward?

It was announced yesterday that David S. Goyer, who's been working at the showrunner on the TV series, Flashforward, had left the show. While he was one of the co-creators, he only took over direct control of the show a few months ago, but has now decided to move on.

Goyer's official statement on the move was that, "As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions. I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands." As Goyer wrote the Blade films, and co-wrote Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as working on the upcoming Ghost Rider sequel, you can see why he might be in demand and that running a TV show at the same time would be tough.

However it's a bit of additional info on the story provided by Deadline Hollywood that's got people all atwitter. They say, Goyer is "now writing the third Batman installment with Chris Nolan's brother Jonah." Although it hasn't been confirmed whether any work has started at all on a third Batman reboot movie, it certainly wouldn't be surprising if Goyer is involved and helping to put the script together. Christopher Nolan is still finishing off Inception at the moment, and while there's been no official announcement that Batman 3 will be his next movie, it's widely expected that it will be.

At the moment file this under rumour, but there's a very good chance work has now begun on the follow up to The Dark Knight. However, ehere that leaves Flashforward is another matter, as it's been haemorhaging viewers in the US since it began and there's still five episodes of the first season left to shoot - and now it's lost its second showrunner in less than a year.

Bill Murray Says He's On For Ghostbusters 3

Monday February 8, 2010

But he may not be alive at the time

While Bill Murray is much loved, he's also rather crotchety and so his exact involvement in the planned Ghostbuster 3 has always been up in the air. After all, it was difficult enough to get him to come back for part 2 (and he's never been particularly complmentary about that movie).

While Sigourney Weaver recently suggested that he'd be a ghost in GB3, all we definitely knew was that for the film to be made, Murray had to approve the script (as did the other main actors, director Ivan Reitman and Sony), and even if he was a ghost, that didn't mean he'd look like the actor - he could have come back as slimer for all we knew.

However, now Murray has been speaking to the Mail On Sunday and told them, "I said to them, 'I'll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.' So now they are going to have me as a ghost in the film." Unfortunately he didn't go on to reveal much more, but it does sound like he'll be making a cameo in a few scenes at least.

The latest rumours are that the film, which will see the old ghostbusters hand over the reins to a bunch of younger guys, will feature Peter Venkman's son from Ghostbusters 2, Oscar, now all grown up and taking on his dad's mantle. With Murray being a ghost, it sounds as if there'll be a few father-son issues to take care of.

At the moment there's still no guarantee the movie will be made, but Sony seems keen to resurrect the franchise. It won't be the same if the main focus is on a new gang of Ghostbusters, but at least the old guys will still be around, even if one of them is in spectral form.

Warner Buys Into Heist Society

Monday February 8, 2010

Studio options Ally Carter's 'Thomas Crown Affair with teens'

Heist Society is certainly a great title, and now Warner has decided its good enough that they've optioned the rights to Ally Carter's novel of that name (due to be published in the US this month), with Whip It! screenwriter Shauna Cross hired to handle the script.

The book is about a teen, Katrina, who has to balance her school life with the fact her family are all criminals. After a mobster is robbed of his priceless art collection, Katrina's father becomes the main suspect, and so she assembles a crew to steal the paintings back. THR reports that the studio wants to up the age of the main character to her early 20s, presumably feeling it'll work better aimed at a slightly older market, rather than seeming like a teen flick.

There's no directing of acting talent attached as yet, although Denise Di Novi and Alison Greenspan will produce. I'm just wondering how long it'll be until Anne Hathaway is rumoured to be connected to the film, as her name is bound to come up at some point.

The book, which is described as a teen version of The Thomas Crown Affair, was the subject of an intense bidding war, with Warner eventually winning out against Disney, Paramount and Summit.

Casting News: Winstead For The Thing Prequel

Monday February 8, 2010

Plus, Sam Worthington confirmed for Texas Killing Fields, Lucy Punch joins Bad Teacher and more...

Here's some of the latest developments on the casting front in Hollywood...

The first cast members for the upcoming prequel to The Thing have been announced. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton are set to star, with Winstead playing a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When a trapped organism is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage. It's Winstead's first starring studio vehicle, following success in the likes Final Destination 3, Death Proof and Die Hard 4.0. Matthijs Van Heijningen will direct this new take on The Thing, with shooting schedules to start on March 15th in Toronto. (Source: THR)

We reported a while ago on rumours that Sam Worthington was attached to a film called Texas Killing Fields. It's now been confirmed that he will indeed star in the movie. However there's a little confusion over the title, as Variety refers to it as Texas Killing Fields, while THR plumps for simply The Fields. Whatever it ends up being called, Worthington will play a Texas homicide detective who joins with a New York detective to investigate unsolved murders in the Texas bayous. It's based on the true story of the Killing Field murders, where four bodies were found near the same stretch of road. Previous rumours suggested Bradley Cooper would play the other cop, although this hasn't been confirmed. The movie will mark the feature directorial debut of Ami Canaan Mann, who is Michael Mann's daughter. Shooting should begin in early April.

Lucy Punch, who seems to have become Hollywood's favourite new Brit actress, has signed on to star in Bad Teacher, opposite Cameron Diaz. The film is about a foul-mouthed, conniving seventh-grade teacher (Diaz) who pursues a colleague after being dumped by her sugar daddy. The new romantic interest brings her into conflict with Amy Squirrel (Punch), the school's model teacher. Punch can add the role to her upcoming appearances in Young Americans, Dinner For Schmucks, Earthbound and Woody Alle'ns You Will Mee A Tall Dark Stranger. She's certainly popular at the moment, as it seems Hollywood feels it's found one of its most craved after talents - a truly funny actress. (Source: THR)

Little known actress Shailene Woodley has been cast opposite George Clooney in The Descendants. The Alexander Payne directed film is the story of a wealthy landowner whose wife is in a coma and about to have her life support swtiched off, and so he takes his two daughters on a search for his wife's lover in the hopes of keeping his family together and giving the other man a chance to say goodbye. (Source: Variety)

New Line Prepares Valentine's Day Sequel

Monday February 8, 2010

New Year's Eve is lined up before the first film opens

New Line must confident it has a hit on its hands with Valentine's Day, the romantic ensemble comedy that's opening this Friday, as it's already moving forward on a sequel, called New Year's Eve. It's incredibly unusual for this type of movie to have a follow-up lined up before it's known whether the first is a hit, but with the movies tied into significant dates in the calendar and therefore needing to be released at specific times, it seems the studio thinks surging forward is a good idea.

Variety describes it as a spin-off rather than a sequel, featuring some of the characters from Valentine's Day. The reason for this is that as Garry Marshall's film has a massive list of top flight names in it, getting them all to agree to return (for less than astonomical sums of money), would likely prove impossible. After all, Valentine's Day features Jessica Alba, Katy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Queen Latifah, Taylor Luatner, Julia Roberts and Shirley MacLaine, to name but a few.

Whilst that movie looks at the fate of intertwining couples and singles in LA facing the pressure and expectations of Valentine's Day, the sequel is expected to move the action to New York on New Year's Eve. Director Garry Marshall is expected to return, as if screenwriter Katherine Fugate. Filming is planned for later this year, with the movie being released at the end of 2011. However, if Valentine's Day turns out to be a flop, don't be surprised if we never hear of this spin-off again.

Five New Clash Of The Titans Posters

Monday February 8, 2010

Mythological beasties want to get you

With the recent news that the Clash Of The Titans remake was being put back a week to April 2nd and that it was going 3D, Warner only has a short time to get the word out and so they've released five new posters (via UGO) that certainly make the CG-filled story of Perseus (Sam Worthingtom) slaying mythlogical beasties look pretty spectacular. The posters show off everything from the Kraken to Pegasus, as well as the Greek gods themselves, played by the likes of Liam Neeson. Take a look at the new posters below, or head over to UGO for larger versions.

Captain America To Face Red Skull

Monday February 8, 2010

Joe Johnston confirms the villain

It must be annoying when you're trying to promote your latest movie and the only thing anyone cares about is what you're doing next. That's the situation Joe Johnston is currently facing, as he's trying to get the word out about this week's opening of The Wolfman, but everyone just keeps asking about Captain America.

However, he doesn't seem afraid to talk about the upcoming superhero movie, confirming to several sites (via /Film) things that have already been hinted at, such as that he wants a relative unknown for the lead role and that they're looking at actors in the range between their early 20s and early 30s. It'll be shot in the UK and is an origin story mainly set in the Second World War, except for bookends that tie it in to the upcoming Avengers movie. At the moment it's planned as a 2D release (although don't be shocked if that changes).

However the big news comes via Shock Til You Drop, to whom Johnston confirmed that the villain of the movie will be Red Skull. Although there have been different incarnations of the villain, the most logical version of Red Skull for the film is the former Nazi general officer and confidant of Hitler, Johann Schmidt. In the comics the Fuhrer trained Schmidt personally and eventually gave him a grotesque red skull mask, with his job to be embodiment of Nazi intimidation. It was the propaganda effect of Red Skull that encouraged the US to create Captain America in the first place.

It sounds as if they're trying to keep the film fairly close to its roots and not play with the mythology too much, and Red Skull should certainly make a good bad guy.

Avatar Becomes The UK's Biggest Film Ever

Monday February 8, 2010

It overtakes Mamma Mia to nab the box office record

It was bound to happen. After Avatar became the highest grossing film ever globally and set new box office records in countries as diverse as the US and China, it was inevitable that at some point the UK was going to join the throng and see James Cameron's movie become the biggest moneymaker ever at UK cinemas.

Well, according to Screen Daily, it's happened. They report that with an estimated UK take of £3.3 million in its eighth weekend, that boosted its tally to over £70 million in Britain and past the previous biggest ever tally of £69.2 million, set by Mamma Mia in 2008. Many will breath a sigh of relief that the ABBA musical is no longer the film we're suggesting to the world we liked the most, but it does make us rather pedestrian that our biggest movie is now pretty much the same as everyone else's. With Avatar likely to add quite a few more millions of pounds by the end of its run, it'll set a record that's going to be tough to beat.

And just to give another little hint at what a big film Avatar has become around the globe, last year only 55 film grossed more than $100 million around the world, while Avatar has now broken that barrier in seven separate countries (the US, China, France, Germany Russia, Japan and the UK).

Final figures for the box office weekend in the UK will be available tomorrow, which should definitively confirm Avatar as Britain's new highest grossing film ever.

Daredevil Reboot Gets A Writer

Monday February 8, 2010

Fox isn't ready to give up on the blind superhero

It might only be seven years ago that Fox tried and failed to launch Daredevil as a movie franchise, but it looks like the studio isn't prepared to simply write the character off. Deadline Hollywood reports that they've set screenwriter David Scarpa, who handled the script of The Last Castle and The Day The Earth Stood Still, to come up with a new take on the blind superhero.

There's no details on what direction they're going, or any other talent attached, although it is known that Peter Chernin is producing. I think it's safe to say that Ben Affleck won't be returning though. There is a fairly simple reason why Fox is moving forward with a reboot so soon. If they don't put another Daredevil movie into production in the next few years, they'll lose the rights to the character and they'll revert back to Marvel, which of course is now owned by the rival Disney.

Setting a screenwriter doesn't mean they;ll actually make the movie, but before they let the character go back to Marvel, it's likely they'll try to find whatever way they can to hang on to Daredevil. That said, whether the man who screwed up The Day The Earth Stood Still is the person for the job, is questionable.

Dear John Beats Avatar To Top The Box Office

Sunday February 7, 2010

Romance tops sci-fi after Cameron's record breaking run

It's a miracle! After Avatar's seemingly never-ending, record-breaking run at the top of the US box office, this weekend a movie has come along that's finally been able to unseat it from the number 1 spot. Not that Avatar will be crying, as taking $23 million in its eighth week is still remarkable.

However this weekend's top honours went to Dear John, the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks romantic novel about a soldier and the girl waiting for him back home, starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum. The film took $32 million in its first three day, which is very good for a film of this nature. It also goes to show that Superbowl weekend is a good time to release films aimed at women.

The only other new release in the top 10 was From Paris With Love, the OTT action movie starring John Travolta. The film took a slightly tepid $8 million for a third place finish, which certainly won't be helped by the big game on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Crazy Heart made its first showing in the top 10 at number eight after eight weeks of release. The film more than tripled its theatre count over the weekend and was no doubt helped by Jeff Bridges' Oscar nomination last Tuesday.

Take a look below for the full US top 10 for the weekend of February 5th-7th.