What about leap years? (Film News - 10/09/11)

My mind is not on the news today. I'm pretty much too nervous for tomorrows race to think straight. Looking at what I've written so far pretty much confirms that. Sentence structure is all over the place, I wander aimlessly through paragraphs and don't have anything insightful to say about any of these unusual upcoming projects (although some would say, quite rightly, that's typical of my news posts). I suppose it doesn't help that none of this weeks stories really inspire me, the project either sounds daft, or extremely vague or I've mentioned it before. Take a look at whats coming up and tell me whether you think the same.


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Isn't everyone fed up of superheroes now? This summer proved that too many saturate the market with The Green Lantern in particular crashing and burning, and non-marquee superheroes or the stories of normal people who want amazing powers seems to fare even worse, just look at the box office figures for Scott Pilgrim or Kick Ass. Yet Hollywood still thinks there's cash in the old cow leading to Universal acquiring this dismal sounding action comedy spec from David Guggenheim.

The title refers to the majority of days in the year where our hero imagines, plans and contemplates the heroic deeds he will do on the one day of the year he has superpowers. Which to me sounds like it could be an awfully long boozy chat about what powers we'd choose to have - let's face it we've all been there proudly admitting invisibility would be cool even if it led to Hollow Man levels of perversity.



Plus I wonder what happens if your one day turns out to be a slow news day. You may want to stop a evil scientist from destroying New York or go beserk on an invading SWAT team, but aren't you more likely to be required to put out a chip pan fire or find a stolen car? Worthy no doubt but hardly worth having super powers for.

Guggenheim is currently riding high so it's no surprise to see all his ideas jumped on. Last year he quit as editor of US Weekly when his Safe House script was picked up (look out for Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds in that next year) and has just seen success with it's follow ups Santiago (sold to Fox) and Puzzle Palace (Summit Entertainment) so there must be something good about what he writes - or something immensely easy to sell.

Read on for twisted oaters, an intriguing clue, two strong female leads and the latest in casting titbits.



Untitled Gothic Western

I think John Carpenter must be a little confused. He seems to believe it's still the early 80's. At the Fright night festival 2011 he talked about the possibility of making a gothic Western, something he's currently working on. Admittedly in the clip online he does confess that making Westerns is tough at this time and commercially difficult to justify to the studios, however the ambition to make a genre straddling Western still seems a little brave. I also read in follow comments that he is hoping to get Amy Adams on board, which considering she's about to star in Man of Steel seems unlikely. Although it is reminiscent of casting Karen Allen in Starman only a couple of years after Raiders of the Lost Ark so he has form, but like I said before that was at his peak. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, only time will tell.

David Lynch

For far too long we appeared to have lost the surrealist master (right) to animated shorts, dance music and subversive clubs but after the five year feature hiatus since INLAND EMPIRE the man who puts Lynch in Lynchian could soon be back to cinemas near you. That's essentially a lot of preamble to nothing because all I have as a story is David saying in a recent interview with Rolling Stone " I’m working on another new film, but it’s not there yet." No details; no plot, title or cast, no real sign that's he's serious. But I really do hope he is. I need more backward speaking dwarfs in my cinemagoing experiences.

Juliet/The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

I've had the strangest feeling of deja vu this week (I knew you'd say that) as two projects we first reported on here years ago have resurfaced. First up it's the adaptation of Anne Fortier's 2010 novel which is sort of sequel to Shakespeare's doomed romance - a direct descendent of Juliet (um, how did that happen?) finds out that's Mercutio's "plague on both your houses" was a real and long-lasting curse - which we first heard about on 10 January 2009. Or going back even further to 28 July 2008 there's the young adult novel about Miss Doyle, the scion of British aristocracy, who finds herself a lone passenger on a trans-atlantic liner with a tale of intrigue to unfold. Back then Saoirse Ronan was attached as the title character but delays have meant she's too old and the task of casting has just begun. Oh, and if you don't believe me about the age of these stories, feel free to click on the labels below.

Casting News

We've heard the first couple of names bandied around with Lars von Trier explicit sex movie Nymphomaniac and frankly they couldn't be more disturbing. Among the sexual conquests of our heroine will be previous von Trier collaborators Stellan Skarsgaard and Willem Dafoe. Shouldn't he be concentrating on finding the girl before surrounding her by middle aged men? Les Miserables continues to build it's cast with the news that Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter are circling thes role of greedy innkeeper Thenardier and his wife, erm Madame Thenardier, not much of a surprise given their previous in musicals (in Bran Nue Dae and Sweeney Todd respectively) and the recent work with director Tom Hooper on The King's Speech.

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Reading, Writing and Swapping Vegetables (Film News - 06/08/11)

The most bizarre thing about this weeks news is that most of the stories I'm going with I wasn't planning on using. Honestly I read several things on the net this week and thought well I'll use that if it's quiet, and it has been a little slow but we've obviously had worse weeks, however I'm sticking with all those optional stories, mainly because I can't really decide which ones to throw out. So please enjoy this slightly extended post and don't forget to scroll ahead for the monthly production updates.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

That fascinating title is enough to make me want to know more about Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer's bestselling novel based on the Channel Islands. Framed much like 84 Charing Cross Road the book is a series of letters between Juliet, a single 30-something author in post-war London and the extra-ordinary members of the titular club who write to her, recounting their experiences and personal struggles during the German occupation of the island.

It's a fascinating concept that will need an awful lot of work to make it visually interesting, although I expect once a flashback structure is created the letter writing element will be virtually lost, and charged with adapting the novel is Don Happy Endings Roos which certainly gives an idea of the ensemble style and nature of the piece.

The final piece in the jigsaw is director Kenneth Branagh who's currently shopping around for his next project now he's turned down Thor 2. More of a Peter's Friends than Henry V this does sound like it might be out of his comfort zone, but we were all surprised by what he brought to Thor so I have high hopes for how this literary package will turn out.



Shame the book cover (above) is so blatantly chick-lit I can't actually buy it and read it on the commute to work!

Read on for shark revenge fantasies, a candlestick in the library, money shots and boom boxes. As well as news from the Academy, some casting titbits and a run down of the latest stories featured here which might actually get made!



Bait

Bret Easton Ellis, of American Psycho fame, has been trying to get this odd revenge movie off the ground for some time, but with the news that Paul Schrader has signed on to direct we may see it sooner than we think. It's an ugly sounding piece, no surprise there, which concerns a waiter beaten by his rich spoilt clients who enacts his vengeance by forcing them to swim in shark infested waters. Sounds like a prototype Bond villain and I'm not completely sure plans like that would actually work but with Ellis' penchant for underlining the banality of evil this could become a cult hit.

Clue

It's hard to believe but the bubble may have burst on the game-to-movie adaptations after only the trailer for Battleship following the news this week that Universal have dropped plans to remake the classic murder mystery game. The good news is that Hasbro have rescued the Gore Verbinski helmed pic (possibly to be his next after The Lone Ranger next year) so it's still on the cards. This seems like a strange decision as it's probably the easiest and cheapest of the proposed mini-genre to make, even has the proven track record with the 80's comedy (which I love, btw). I can totally see Verbinski's best mate Johnny Depp in a Wadsworth type role too - played by Tim Curry in the original on the left.

Nymphomaniac

Lars von Trier is at it again, not content with the on-going Cannes related Melancholia controversy, and in a brave attempt to deflect from his connection to the Utoeya massacre, he's announced that two versions of his next film, a woman's sexual history told over a number of varied encounters, will have two versions. A soft and hard core version. Oh, Lars, if you just want to make porn, just go ahead and make porn. No need to dress it up as art.

Say Anything... 2

Now the headline that accompanied the story on Empireonline was "Cameron Crowe Talks Say Anything Sequel", which for the sake of Journalistic integrity is technically true, however when you look at it in context, it is certainly misleading. During a 45 minutes Television critics association interview about his Pearl Jam documentary Crowe was specifically asked, without provocation, if he had considered a sequel to his 1989 cult hit which led to the answer "Say Anything... is the only thing that I've written that I would consider doing that with. And I've thought about it from time to time, and talked about it with John Cusack once. This is the only story that I've thought there might be another chapter to that at some point." Which is like someone asking me if I'd like to play Iago at the RSC and then reporting that I'm considering playing Iago for the RSC. Nonsense!



Cusack really wants you to hear our song, in an image that everyone remembers.

Governor's Special Academy Awards


Congratulations to the latest recipients of the Academy Awards special awards, James Earl Jones, Dick Smith and (for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award) Oprah Winfrey. The quality work the three of them have done is undeniable. Earl Jones is probably best remembered for his voice work, including Darth Vadar (left) and Mustafa in The Lion King (which I will certainly be watching again to celebrate) but he's also an incredible stage actor - his triumph in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London last year was legendary - and has been Oscar nominated for boxing drama The Great White Hope. Smith's make-up effects have been a staple for horror fans and Dramatic movies throughout the 70's and 80's, responsible for work as varied as The Exorcist, The Godfather, Amadeus and Death Becomes Her. Oprah may be the most famous woman on the planet and her not-inconsiderable charitable work has included setting up a girl's school in South Africa and giving $10m in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. All three thoroughly deserve this recognition from the Academy.

Casting News

Surprisingly little going on in casting rumours, Nick Nolte is set to join Jason Statham's latest punchfest Parker, further proof of his strange ability to mix junk with high-brow fare (see his recent link with Robert Redford). We've also heard that Leonardo DiCaprio has obviously been bitten by the Western Genre bug as he may be following up Tarantino's Django Unchained with Creed of Violence for Todd Field, based in 1910, from the Boston Teran novel it follows to unlikely partners trying to infiltrate a arms smuggling ring.

Production News

I've been peeking at IMDb again, and the latest collection of new films entering into the pre-production phase is a delightful mish mash of genres and styles. They include Russian period epic Anna Karenina, Mormom murder expose Under the Banner of Heaven, GP biopic Rush (can't wait for that one), Katherine Bigelow's currently untitled Bin Laden/Seal 6 picture, Comedy remake The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Spike Lee joint Red Hook Summer (already filming would you believe), biopic of Scandinavian boxer Bosse Hogberg with Noomi Rapace as the singer he falls for and curious sci-fi Under the Skin which I've just finished reading and it's going to be fascinating to see how Jonathan Glazer adapts it. And those are just the ones I've already mentioned on previous news blogs. The following two films also appeared with no forewarning:

Foolproof

It's been a long time since Uma Thurman starred in a bona fide hit so it comes as no surprise to see her sign on to this eighties throwback of a project. She'll play a defence lawyer who's lover (a DNA specialist who may have just discovered a cure for her daughter's genetic disease) is a chief suspect in a murder. If that doesn't sound like a twist on Jagged Edge than I don't know what does, should be fun though.

Truckers

In spite of selling over 65 million books it's surprising how few of Terry Prachett's novels have been adapted for the screen, sure there's been a steady selection of TV mini-series but nothing for the cinemas. Until 2013 when we will see an animated version of the first part of his Bromeliad trilogy, focusing on a tribe of Nomes (an extra-terrestrial tiny people living amongst humans, illustrated in the cover art below). It's not a Discworld novel which will at least make it more accessible to non Pranchett devotees but may limit the possibility of franchise material. Have to keep our eyes out for more news on this.

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Shadows of a giant (Film News - 26/03/11)

Whatever you were doing this week, whatever our connection to the entertainment business it probably didn't take long to hear about the long-expected but nevertheless shocking news that Elizabeth Taylor passed away. Whilst she isn't the last remaining icon of her time (Lauren Bacall and Olivia de Havilland immediately spring to mind) it's fair to say Liz, her talent, her marriages and her penchant for jewellery shone brighter than most. She'll be terribly missed, so it's only appropriate that the story I'm leading with this week relates to her:

Cleopatra

Anjelina Jolie's attempts to take the role of Egypt's most famous queen look to be back on track with David Fincher becoming the next big name director attached to the project (remember James Cameron was listed at one point). It's a performance that will inevitable provide a centrepiece of Anjelina's career and will lead to comparisons with Liz Taylor and the 1963 extravaganza that may make or break her going forward. One hopes it won't sink anyone around the production - making desert Kingdoms has destroyed studios on a number of occasions.


The toughest act to follow.

Of course this latest rumour is dependent on what Fincher's decides his next project will be. He's already prepping 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and it's possible he'll want to follow up the forthcoming Steig Larsson adaptation The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with The Girl who Kicked it's Hornet's Nest it's literary sequel.

Read on for little known history, frightening sex and the return of Arnie? As well as the latest casting stories and this months round up of release schedule changes.



Hyde Park on Hudson

The King's Speech has opened the floodgates to early 20th Century British Royalty related movies with this chronicle of the first state visit to the United States and the complex marital stresses Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) was having at the time - including his affair with cousin Daisy. Doubtless this mix of scandal and crowns will bring in the crowd, but I expect Film4 (who are funding the picture) will be mightily disappointed if it doesn't pick up any gold baldies. Roger Michell is currently attached to direct, which probably means his potential involvement with George Orwell adaptation Burmese Days is no longer happening.

Nymphomaniac/Dirt in Bedsores

Lars von Trier likes to make jokes, you could say his entire film-making career has been one practical joke after another, so take this with a pinch of salt, but the Danish Director has revealed he's torn between those two titles (two separate projects) as his next movie but it's likely to be The Nymphomaniac, a tale of a woman's erotic awakening. Given that von Trier's previously stated he'd like to make a full-on pornographic movie expect it to be pretty difficult to watch and not one to take our mother to.

True Lies 2

Arnold Schwarzeneggar is clearly at a loss of what to do now he's an ex-Governator, so naturally the prospect of returning to cinema is appealing to the 63 year old Austrian Oak. Recently he's been tweeting about a potentially follow up to his 1994 spy romp and been gallivanting round Brazil with old chum James Cameron so it's perfectly logical for the Internet to connect the dots between these events and start salivating over the possibility of a renewed team-up between these cinematic titans. I doubt any of it's true, but it's nice to dream, isn't it?



Who wouldn't want to see these two reunited?

Casting News

There have been some unsurprising rumblings from casting directors over the last week with some high profile movies getting some fascinating additions. The Coen-penned Gambit has gained Alan Rickman and Tom Courtenay in major supporting roles which is definitely a bonus, whilst limousine based Cosmopolis has picked up Samantha Morton - I have no idea how the whole cast will fit in the one car. With the news that Jennifer Lawrence is playing the Hunger Games the race is on to replace her in The Savages: Olivia Wilde is the bookies favourite but we do now know that she'll be joining Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as the pot smoking leads and Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek as the cartel bosses out to kill them (probably because they're the only Latin American Actors famous enough to draw a not Latino crowd).

Release Dates

We have been overwhelmed with new and revised release dates this month, with a big surprise as well as a couple of the most anticipated movies of the year getting their dates.

The Messenger - Shockingly delayed release for Oscar nominated drama (from over a year ago) following Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson as members of the Casualty Notification Team. Prepare for bad news on 20 May 2011.

Win Win - High School Wrestling features in this low key drama that wowed at Sundance and followed with a solid limited US release, now competing against the above. Take down your opponent on 20 May 2011.

Princesse de Montpensier - French historic drama (you see, I am trying to see more foreign language movies) following an affair that split across religious boundaries in 16th Century France. Rip a bodice on 08 July 2011.

One Day - Moving into a mid-summer slot might seem like odd programming for this potential awards bait romance, but given the current lack of quality releases for the month this should give it room to shine. Fall for your best friend on 26 August 2011.

Warrior - Constantly moving - much like it's cage fighting central character - this Tom Hardy vehicle has shifted forward a bit this time, probably moving in for the killer shot. Get pummelled on 23 September 2011.

The Debt - There's more movement for the Mossad agents in this English language remake as Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson are still getting to grips with mistakes they made in the past. Catch former Nazis on 30 September 2011.

Big Year - OK, so advanced buzz about David Frankel bird spotting comedy may not be setting the world on fire but I'm still looking forward to seeing Steve Martin and Jack Black going head to head. Get the binoculars out on 11 November 2011.

Hugo Cabret - Slight shift for Martin Scorsese's first foray into both children's films and 3D filmmaking, and it's going to be fascinating to see the man behind Taxi Driver and Goodfellas handle both those challenges. Get friendly with an impoverished film director on 02 December 2011.

Machine Gun Preacher - Next years Oscar season is just around the corner - at least it's around the corner in terms of staking the January release dates such as this biker turned saviour to child soldiers biopic. Find God on 06 January 2012.

Prometheus - Finally next years summer schedule is also beginning to show some promise with Ridley Scott's return to the Alien franchise that made him staking out a prominent June release. Don't bother screaming, it won't be heard, on 01 June 2012.

It's not all good news on the release date front though. This last month Rob Reiner's coming of age drama Flipped slipped quietly out on DVD never to see the inside of UK cinemas. Not terribly surprising given it's mediocre US box office take of $1.7m - barely 12% of it's production budget.

Oh, and I'm ending with a quote that I loved this week:

"You can't cry on a diamond's shoulder, and diamonds won't keep you warm at night, but they're sure fun when the sun shines." Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011

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