Amnesia again (Film News - 06/11/10)

It's not been the busiest week for news, only a couple of new projects kicking off, but there has been an avalanche of casting rumours and with our monthly scour of IMDb there are a load more potential movies that have begun the production process.

Trap for Cinderella

Loss of memory has been a plot standby of thrillers since cinema began, no matter how unlikely it actually is it's amazingly how many characters wake up next to a corpse with no idea of how they got there. So whilst this latest take on the subgenre may lack originality it's good to see it's going to be taken seriously.

Iain Softley is directing and producing this production which sees it's main character (Micky) wake up terribly burned after a house fire in which her childhood friend (Do) has been killed. But is Micky really Do and is she really involved in the attempted murder of herself. Or something like that.

Sure this sounds like first class tosh, but we're a little short on new films this week so bare with me.


I'm not completely sure how Cinderella is involved with this story. I suspect there's a major subplot I've not picked up on yet...

Read on for recurring nightmares and literally half a dozen casting moves.



Darkchylde

John Carpenter may have spent the last eight years or so hiding in a box (I know that isn't true but he may as well have been) but it seems he's returned with a new vigour. The Ward, his latest horror, is set to hit cinemas early in the new year and he's also signed up for this comic book adaptation. It concerns the recurring nightmares of Ariel Chylde (pictured right, I don't think this is a comic for kids), nightmares about strange demonic beasts, and nightmares that reach a whole new level when she begins to transform into the beasts during the day times.

I don't know whether this is part of a planned franchise or a stand alone movie but expect Ariel to be investigating the background of the creatures whilst fighting for control of her own psyche.

Casting News

I said it was mainly casting didn't I? So the latest dogged rumours are as follows: both Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are interested in reuniting with Jesse James director Andrew Dominik for his next crime thriller, now entitled Cogan's Child, the hunt for the next batman female lead goes on with Charlize Theron and Vera Farmiga both in talks with Christopher Nolan, the long list for Daisy in Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby with Keira Knightley, Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams all in contention, the follow up to Valentine's Day (New Years Eve) does have a growing cast list including Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin and Reese Witherspoon - but why does that seem such a boring trio of actresses, Judi Dench is apparently due to snog Johnny Depp in a Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides cameo and Francis Ford Coppola's horror project, Twixt now and sunrise, is picking up more names with Alden Ehrenreich and David Paymer both linked.


Depp wonders which way to tip his head when kissing Dame Judi.

Production News

And if all those castings weren't enough here's a long line of new films that have kicked into production (most of which we already knew about). Francis Ford Coppola gets his second mention of the post as Twixt now and Sunrise is not only in production but already filming. Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo and Garry Marhall's New Year's Eve have finally shifted from in development to pre production (even though they both already had release dates). World War 2 Native American story Bless Me, Ultima has started filming, Bryan Singer is moving on with Jack the Giant Killer, The Hobbit (parts 1 and 2) look like they will be happening soon, filming has begun on The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Spielberg has decided that his next project will be Robopocalypse and James Cameron is putting all of his efforts into Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.

The following two movies were surprises though when I looked them up:

Ghost of Munich

Milos Forman (One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) has been mulling over adapting Georges-Marc Benamou's novel about a postwar journalist's investigation into the 1939 Munich conference (famously attended by Hitler and Neville Chamberlain) for several years so it's a pleasant surprise to see it's back on his things to do list.

Too Big to Fail

I originally thought this look at the collapse of the banking system was going to be made for TV, hence I ignored the earlier news stories, but looking at the details it looks like a cinematic release may be on the cards. With Curtis Hanson directing a cast that includes James Woods, Michael O'Keefe, Paul Giamatti and William Hurt that has to be a good thing.



Wall Street financial markets - collapse not included.