Movie Muser

For quite a while there have been two films called Chef in the works, but now Jon Favreau’s movie by that name is out, the one set to star Bradley Cooper looks like it’s searching for a new name (the title Adam Jones has been suggested, but it seems they’ve decided against it).

A great cast has already been lined up and now they’ve been joined by Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, best known for Brothers & Sisters and The Americans.

Uma Thurman, Sienna Miller, Daniel Bruhl, Riccardo Scamarcio, Emma Thompson, Lily James, Omar Sy, Jamie Dornan, Sam Keeley, Sarah Greene and Alicia Vikander are also set to star.

Cooper will play Adam Jones, a Parisian chef who throws his career away because of his hard-partying lifestyle. After the talented chef sobers up, he assembles a crew to put together the best restaurant in the world, in the hope of gaining the rare and highly-coveted three-star Michelin rating.

Rhys is set to play a rival chef who stands in the way.

John Wells is set to direct from a screenplay by Steven Knight.

Precious and The Butler tale is busy lining up new projects, and one he’s now got in the works, according to Variety, currently has the rather uninspired title, The Brian Banks Story.

The film will tell the true story of an Banks, an ‘All-American high school football player who, in 2002, had committed to USC’s football program before being accused of rape. Banks maintained his innocence, but a hasty plea bargain resulted in Brian serving over five years in prison, five years on parole and registering as a sex offender.

‘Through the California Innocence Project, Banks’ conviction was overturned in 2012. He played in four pre-season games for the Atlanta Falcons and is now a motivational speaker and an activist and spokesperson for the California Innocence Project.’

It’s certainly a potentially emotive and difficult subject, however Banks comments, “All I ever wanted was to prove my innocence. Telling my story in the form of a feature film is beyond my wildest dreams.”

Producer Amy Baer says, “Lee is a filmmaker who looks at challenging circumstances with honesty, compassion, and hope. He has an emotional connection to Brian’s story that I’m certain will result in a powerful and redemptive film.”

Disney’s sea-set true-life tale The Finest Hours is coming together, with Deadline reporting that Casey Affleck is in talk to star alongside Chris Pine in the movie.

Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (The Fighter) are writing the script, which is adapted from a book by Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias. The tells the true story of two oil tankers that got caught in the middle of a vicious storm off the coast of New England in 1952.

Things got so bad that the ships were split in two, with the crew members getting thrown into the sea. It was up to the Coast Guard to rescue them, even though conditions were horrifically dangerous.

While Robert Schwentke (Red, R.I.P.D.) was set to direct when Pine signed on, he’s since been replaced by Craig Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm). It’s not clear when the movie will shoot.

Yesterday marked the 40th Anniversary of Phillipe Petit’s August 7th, 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center, which made it a good time for TriStar to announce that Robert Zemeckis’ film about the event – The Walk – has wrapped principal photography, and to release the first two pics (via USA Today).

The film, based on Petit’s book To Reach the Clouds, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young dreamer who dared the impossible: an illegal wire walk between the World Trade Center towers.

Here’s the synopsis from the official press release: ‘Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan. Robert Zemeckis, the director of such marvels as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Back to the Future, Polar Express and Flight, again uses cutting edge technology in the service of an emotional, character-driven story. With innovative photorealistic techniques and IMAX 3D wizardry, The Walk is true big-screen cinema, a chance for moviegoers to viscerally experience the feeling of reaching the clouds. The film is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, but most of all, to the Towers of the World Trade Center.’

Also starring in the film are James Badge Dale, Ben Schwartz, Charlotte Le Bon, Clément Sibony and César Domboy.

The film will be released on October 2, 2015.

In the world of The Hunger Games, the 12 districts had always been told the District 13 was completely obliterated after they tried to stand up to the Capitol. However as we discover in Mockingjay, that’s not true, as that’s where Katniss and others end up and where war against the ruling elite is brewing.

Now District 13 has a logo and six character posters, which you can see above, and as you can tell, it’s not exactly a happy, jolly Elysium – indeed it appears they have a major thing for grey.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is due out November 21st, 2014, with the final film (until an inevitable further sequel or spin-off is announced), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, out the same time the following year.