It all comes back to me now (Film News - 09/10/10)

It's all virtually back to normal now. I've been able to look up the news for three weeks in a row and the total stories for this week are manageable - even if it's still been on the busy side. There's been some interesting revelations this week although it's been mainly casting news on projects I've already mentioned. If you don't mind I will continue to use the format of a casting news section after the new projects underway.

The Bourne Legacy

The most celebrated story of the week was the news that the most interesting and successful action series in many years, the one that effectively reinvigorated Bond and rewrote the book on spy thrillers, is not finished. Yes Bourne is back with The Legacy currently being prepped for a 2012 release.

In the past the star Matt Damon has very clearly stated that he wouldn't go back to the franchise unless Paul Greengrass (director of Supremacy and Ultimatum) was on board. Obviously that would be a major loss to the series. It's hard to imagine anyone else playing Bourne and Greengrass has made a unique stamp on his films with the handheld cinematography and closeness to the brutal action. That said the man behind the camera will be Bourne writer Tony Gilroy and Damon is beginning to falter on the issue.

What say you? I love Gilroy's output as a director and would be delighted to see him taking on this project, but that said - in spite of the ambiguity of the title - I see little point on carrying on without Damon (below - see what I did two pics of Matt in one week).


I've just read that Gilroy's firmly stated Damon won't be returning as Bourne. Very upset. Please feel free to comment.

Read on for murders in the Holy land and loads of casting news...



Dimiter

So William Peter Blatty's latest novel (left), about a extraordinary US agent who stumbles across a mystery whilst escaping through Jerusalem, is currently undergoing a big screen rewrite. No surprise there Blatty's work, which touches on the supernatural, touches both the horror and action thriller genres with a touch of cop procedural thrown in too. What is exciting is that William Friedkin is in talks to direct. That's the same combination behind The Exorcist, and if this comes even close to hitting the zeitgeist in the way that collaboration did look out for a box office winner with some shockingly good performances.

Casting News

And here we go with the latest rumours for the actors.

Retirement dramedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has started filming and among the geriatric cast are Oscar winners Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and nominee Tom Wilkinson.

Thomas Haden Church, who's having a great week, has signed up for Killer Joe and We Bought a Zoo both in unnamed parts. In that second project he's also joining the recently announced Matt Damon and Amy Adams.

Brad Pitt and Anjelina Jolie are rumoured to be co-starring again in Darren Aronofsky's The Tiger, of course that's dependent on whether Aronofsky will take any of the other myriad offers being presented to him right now.

And finally the latest names to be attached to Katheryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker follow-up Triple Frontier are Johnny Depp and Tom Hanks, it's not clear if these are additions or replacements to the earlier rumours of Will Smith, Javier Bardem and Sean Penn but just imagine the five of those sharing screen time...

She'll have her hands full that's for sure.