Is the comic book adaptation dead? Poor returns for Thor and X-Men: First Class and with poor tracking for the innumerable other upcoming fixtures is a clear indication that the bubble has burst for graphic novels. Naturally the studios need to find a new cash cow to milk, and the news this week is strewn with unnecessary sequels and potential jumping off points for major franchises.
American Assassin
Primarily there's the news of the first of a major series of novels from a well worn genre that could see significant returns. Based on the books by Vince Flynn this is the second novel to be optioned following Consent to Kill two years ago, however given this is a prequel novel explaining the back story of the central character Mitch Rapp.
For those of you interested it's essentially a revenge mystery with the young Rapp losing his fiance in a terrorist attack and vowing vengeance. It doesn't take long for the CIA to identify the potential in the virtually unstable personality and unleash him onto the un-American hordes. It sounds like an odd mix between Die Hard and the Jack Ryan series which is probably why there's been no hesitation in getting the wheels in motion - the book was only published (cover below) in October last year.
Ed Zwick has been approached to direct and it'll be good for him to get back to the kind of action adventure that he used to do so well in the early 90's.
Read on for colourful criminals, retired actors, archaeologists and boxers, and the usual round-up of casting rumours.
Dick Tracy 2
Warren Beatty (right) has finally won his protracted 21 year battle with Tribune over the rights to Dick Tracy and he's been celebrating at the LA Times Hero Complex Film Festival by hinting to plans for a sequel. I love the original film, Madonna and all, but whether Beatty who's now 74 could convince either as the star or in the directors chair again remains to be seen.
The Humbling
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I believe Al Pacino has at least one more great performance left in him, and it could just be for this bizarre hybrid of sexual humiliation and character study. He's signed up to play the suicidal aging actor Simon Axler who following his divorce shacks up with the daughter of friends 20 years his junior, a relationship which leads to him to trying a variety of unexpected things in the bedroom and learning a great deal about the impact of his age, former success and the sexual credit partners hold over each other.
Indiana Jones 5
Shia LaBeouf has been making subversive comments during the press tours of Transformers: Dark side of the Moon whilst genuinely appearing positive about the quality he seems to be ruling himself out of any future sequels, not the really the sign of someone who really believes in the quality of the product. He's also been confident about the resurrection of another blockbuster serial, Indiana Jones, stating that George Lucas is confident but is currently seeking a MacGuffin to kick start the plot. Someone should mention to Shia that the public are probably not interested in seeing his 'Mutt' (right) return to that franchise, with or without gibbons at his side.
Southpaw
I've been torn about Eminem's next movie, the story, partly based on Mathers' own life but with rapping swapped for welterweight boxing, but I actually respect him as an actor (based on his solid performance in 8 Mile) and now it has a reasonable director (Training Day helmer Antoine Fuqua) on the case I'm beginning to warm to it. Will have to wait and see if it manages to find some of the audience of The Fighter.
Casting News
The casting front has been more rumour and innuendo rather than any hard facts this week with some very big names jumping around some very interesting projects. First up was the rather bizarre connection of Anjelina Jolie with David O. Russell's Silver Lining's Playbook, which you can just imagine the stand up rows on. Whilst Leonardo DiCaprio has been confirmed for Django Unchained there is a delay with Will Smith signing on the bottom line, so much so that an alternatives list has been drawn out which includes Chris Rock (wtf?) and Jamie Foxx. Finally, and on much more solid ground, Alan Arkin has joined CIA masquerading as filmmakers true story Argo.
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Finding a new Franchise (Film News - 11/06/11)
Saturday, 20 June 2009
Film News (20/06/09)
Actually quite an interesting week for news, with a couple of really big projects getting a mention, and a couple of smaller ones thought to have disappeared being resurrected.
Indiana Jones 5
You have to wonder whether I've crapped on enough of my youth by going to see 3 Star Wars prequels and the 4th Indiana Jones movie, but apparently I'm still gagging for more. So hearing Shia LaBeouf chatting away at pre-Transformers interviews about the next Indy script in the works I have been a little excited. I'm not an apologist for the last film, it was a dreadful misstep. But then again so was The Temple of Doom, and it wasn't the CGI gophers and Shia loving monkeys that made me dislike it. It was more the bizarre UFO, 5th dimension, Lucas/Spielberg mindfuck that I objected to.
In the next film I'd like to see a return to Nazi and Judeo-Christian mythology. Maybe Joseph Mengele and a group of exiled Nazis mount an expedition to find the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge. It might be a rip off (say The Boys from Brazil meets The Fountain) but that won't stop it being entertaining.
Black Swan
Talking about The Fountain Darren Aronofsky is returning to one of his side-lined projects following the runaway success of The Wrestler. Black Swan tells of the rivalry between two prima ballerinas, one of whom is Natalie Portman, the other is either imaginery or from beyond the grave!!! It'll be good to see Portman strecting herself again, as well.
City of Angels
I've always thought the 1989 Tony award winning Musical has always seemed like it was destined for film. Well apparently Mssrs. Shaye and Lynne of Unique films have thought the same. In a press annoucement this week covering over 10 projects in the works there's a mention of turning the part Hollywood satire, part hard-boiled detective thriller into a movie.
Love and Other Drugs
I don't know how I missed this a couple of weeks ago but Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are teaming up for this adaptation of Jamie Reidy comic tome about life inside the pharmaceutical sales environment. It will be nice to see them play a couple who actually in to each other, unlike their Brokeback Mountain collaboration. And the serio-comic style of the book might be right up their street.
Sam Mendes (Butcher's Crossing and Middlemarch
Focus Features have made a first look deal with Sam Mendes and his producing partners, according to Variety.com. Now, I'm not completely sure I fully understand this story. I expect a first look deal, means that Focu Features get to choose whether they distribute a film first - should have chosen not to distribute Away We Go, from what I hear. They've also bought out 2 productions that are currently being prepped, either one of whcih could be done by Mendes. These are George Eliot novel Middlemarch, which has been rumoured for some time (and is a great novel); and the adaptation of John Williams' revisionist western Butcher's Crossing, about a harvard graduate who goes buffalo hunting (I'm sure it's more complex than that). Curiously the article makes no mention of Preacher, which I though was Mendes' next challenge. Looks like that particular graphic novel may have even longer to wait.
Mixed Blood
Anyone want any Samuel L. Jackson action? After all he was only been in 7 films in 2008 and a mere 16 projects at some point of the development and production process. At least he's signed on to star in Mixed Blood based on the Roger Smith novel. From the precis it sounds like a version of The Fugitive where Richard Kimble beats up kidnappers rather than saving boys with heart defects with Jackson in the Tommy Lee Jones role.
Unbreakable 2
In related Samuel L. Jackson news, M. Night Shyamalan has been talking up the idea of returning to the Unbreakable story he kicked off in 2000. Personally I quite like this idea, Shyamalan movies has got steadily worse since then and the central conceit of a master criminal who needs a hero to feel a purpose and a hero who doesn't think of himself as a hero is quite fascinating in a low-key way. Of course whether Bruce and Samuel will sign back on may be a tricky one, but if M. Night pulls it off it may just be the trigger for getting the public back on his side.
