Movie Muser

For a few years now Jack Huston has emerged as one of the most dependable younger actors for supporting roles in the likes of Twilight: Escape, Kill Your Darlings, American Hustle and in several seasons of Boardwalk Empire.

However he’s rarely been given the lead role, and certainly not in a huge studio tentpole. That’s changing though as MGM Studios and Paramount are betting big on him by casting him in the title role in their planned remake of Ben-Hur, according to Deadline.

Just a few weeks ago it was rumoured Tom Hiddleston was the first choice for the role, although at the time it was clear the actor was busy choosing between offers. Now it appears Hiddleston has gone for Skull Island instead, leaving Huston to take on Ben-Hur.

Keith R. Clarke wrote the spec script for the film, which is said to be more faithful to Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel than the multi-Oscar winning 1959 movie, which starred Charlton Heston. The 1950s version focussed on the section of the story that was about the feud between the Jewish Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and his Roman former friend Messalla (Stephen Boyd). The new film is said to further explore these characters’ formative years, when they grew up together before the Roman Empire conquered Jerusalem.

This film will also include the story of Jesus Christ, whose story is told in parallel to Ben-Hur’s. Although this was touched on in the Charlton Heston film, it’s said to be more central to the remake.

The search is now on for an actor to play Messala. Morgan Freeman recently signed up to play the man who mentors Ben-Hur in the art of chariot racing.

Timur Bekmambetov is set to direct, with a February 26th, 2016 release date set.

A few weeks ago we got the first trailer for Disney’s taken on Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical Into The Woods. Now a new poster for the movie has emerged, giving us a fresh look at Meryl Streep as the movie’s evil witch.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone), and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy)—all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife (James Corden & Emily Blunt), their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch (Meryl Streep) who has put a curse on them.

‘Rob Marshall, the talented filmmaker behind the Academy Award®-winning musical “Chicago” and Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” helms the film, which is based on the Tony®-winning original musical by James Lapine, who also penned the screenplay, and legendary composer Stephen Sondheim, who provides the music and lyrics. Produced by Marshall, John DeLuca, “Wicked” producer Marc Platt and Callum McDougall, “Into the Woods” hits UK cinemas Jan, 9 2015.’

Take a look at the new poster above.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt may be newlyweds, but it doesn’t look like their honeymoon period will be reflected in the new movie they’re making together, By The Sea. That’s if these first pics are anything to go by.

EW doesn’t just have the pics either, as they’re also offering the first story details for the movie. They says the film is, ‘Set in France during the mid-1970s, Jolie plays Vanessa, a former dancer, and Pitt is her husband Roland, an American writer. As they travel the country together, they seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café (War Horse and War Horse’s Niels Arestrup) and hotel owner (Richard Bohringer, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover).’

Jolie isn’t just starring in the movie, as she’s also directing and wrote the script. She comments, “I chose to set By the Sea in the 1970s, not only because it is a colorful and alluring era, but because it removes many of the distractions of contemporary life and allows the focus to remain squarely on the emotions that the characters experience in their journey.”

The movie continues to shoot until November, with a 2015 release expected.

The marketing for Interstellar seems to be based on the idea that every new titbit takes us further and further away from earth. The first teaser and poster were pretty much earth-bound, the last trailer took us through take-off and into space, and now a new poster shows us Matthew McConaughey in full spaceman mode on another planet (well, presumably he’s meant to be on another planet and didn’t just decide to wear a spacesuit up a mountain).

Here’s the official synopsis: ‘Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), the production will travel the globe and utilize a mixture of 35mm anamorphic and IMAX film photography to bring to the screen a script based on the combination of an original idea by Nolan and an existing script by Jonathan Nolan, originally developed for Paramount Pictures and producer Lynda Obst. The new script chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.’

As it’s a Nolan movie, that synopsis doesn’t tell us much, but other info released has let us know that it’s set on a world that’s dying and running out of natural resources, with the wormhole offering humanity renewed hope. Explorers are sent through the hole to see whether they can find some new solutions.

Along with McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, Casey Affleck, Bill Irwin, David Gyasi, David Oyelowo, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine, and John Lithgow star. It’s due out in November.

 

Before we got The Bourne Legacy there was a lot of back and forth about whether Matt Damon would make another Bourne movie. While he never completely ruled it out, he did say he wouldn’t come back without director Paul Greengrass – and at the time the helmer wasn’t interested.

It seems things have changed though, as Deadline reports that Universal Pictures is finalizing deals with Damon and Greengrass for a new Bourne flick. It was Matt himself who seems to have opened the door, saying back in May that he was open to playing Bourne again, and also hinted that Greengrass wasn’t completely averse to the idea if they could find a story that interested them both.

It’s bad news for Jeremy Renner though, as he’s due to star in a follow-up to Bourne Legacy, which Justin Lin is set to direct and currently has a July 2016 release date set. However if it all comes together for Jason Bourne’s return, the Renner movie is likely to get bumped with the Damon film taking over that release date.

It’s not known what the plot might be or who will write the script.

It’s not often a movie gets trailer before the film has a director or a cast, but Skull Island did when Legendary unveiled a promo for the movie at Comic Con a few months ago (although sadly only those in San Diego got to see it).

Now Universal and Legendary are filling in the blanks, with the announcement that Tom Hiddleston will play the main human role, while King Of Summer helmer Jordan Vogt-Roberts will direct.

There are still no details of the plot of Max Borenstein’s script, although it is known that the movie will be entirely set on Skull Island, the mysterious place full of dinosaurs and monsters, along with giant apes. Taking place before the events of King Kong, the speculation is that it will be about how Kong became the last of the giant gorillas.

The film’s due out November 2016.