Happy Birthday to
Jennifer Lawrence
21 today
Bursting onto the scene at last years Sundance with her superb performance in Winter's Bone (right) later earning an Oscar nomination. She's doing well off it to, straight into a supporting X-Men role and next up the Hunger Games. Saying that I'm most looking forward to seeing her in David O. Russell's Silver linings Playbook.
To be perfectly honest it's not been a great week for news, only a handful of stories none of which guarantee my support when the film is finally made - in fact none of them are even close to making it into pre-production let alone a movie getting into cinemas. I guess only time will tell.
Untitled Howard Hughes biopic
Over several days this week we heard a slow feed of stories about Warren Beatty's next project - on Monday we learnt he was due to star and helm a movie, on Tuesday it became a comedy and so on. It seems the Dick Tracy 2 comments he made a couple of weeks ago were a cover for a biopic of the barking billionaire whose well-documented germ-phobia kept him isolated and paranoid for most of his later years.
This film will oddly take on that part of his life, especially an unlikely romantic relationship with a younger woman, and certainly won't be a thematic sequel to Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. 
Howard Hughes in saner times.
Talks have already begun with a broad collection of Beatty's Hollywood mates including Annette Bening, Rooney Mara, Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson and Andrew Garfield which certainly sounds like a cracking cast. Although you can assume there haven't been talks with Christopher Nolan who publicly expressed a desire to make another Hughes movie last year.
Read on for Israeli spies, Formula 1 heroes, competing agents and big "C" conservatism, as well as the latest casting calls and an update on forthcoming UK releases.
Gabriel Allon
If Bond and Bourne have too much inconvenient imperialist baggage then maybe this latest spy franchise will have the ambiguity you need to keep an interest. Allom is the brainchild of Daniel Silva and has so far appeared in 10 books so the possibilities for sequels are pretty extensive. He's in his 40's, therefore older than you'd expect from the genre, and splits his time between fine art restoration and catching terrorists. The stories, including the first book The Kill Artist (right), are commended for their balanced view of the Isreal-Palestine situation as well as kick-ass action scenarios.
Rush
I've made no secret of my Formula 1 fandom so it's always a pleasure to see a motor racing themed movie in the works, even if the results really succeed in encapsulating the excitement of the real thing. This Peter Morgan scripted effort will chart the 1976 championship battle between Niki Lauda and James Hunt, a titanic battle which saw the lead seesaw between the two of them as well as some shocking crashes that led to Lauda losing an ear! Literally on the edge of my seat about this.
Spy vs. Spy
I'm guessing the spy vs. spy comic strip (above) is much more popular in the States than it is over here - I personally had never heard about it - but the tit for tat competition between the two central agents as they try to prove who's the premier in their field could well make a fun children's comedy in the vein of Johnny English. What do you think?
Untitled Todd Haynes project
After the brief sojourn in television with the Kate Winslet starring "Mildred Peirce" Tadd Haynes is looking to return to mainstream cinema (or as mainstream as he ever gets) working from a script by Meek's Cutoff script writer Jon Raymond. The details available are extremely sketchy at the moment, all we know - from an interview with Time Out - is that it will look at the contemporary conservative politics in America, whether that means an expose on the Tea party remains to be seen.
Casting News
The forthcoming cinematic outing for The Lone Ranger has picked up a villain in the guise of Railroad baron Tom Wilkinson. There's also been some movement on Silver Lining's Playbook, with Robert De Niro proving he's still interested in working with director David O. Russell, the same cannot be said for Anjelina Jolie who appears to disappeared from the project with a long-list of stars queuing up to play Mark Wahlberg unforgiving ex, including Jennifer Lawrence - although I suspect that's for completely different role.
Release Schedules
I've changed the website I get my release schedules from, finally getting tired of the patchy work at Pearl and Dean and have moved onto www.filmdates.co.uk, it's slightly less user friendly but it's exhaustive in terms of content. As a result there are loads of new release dates to announce, although surprisingly no dates have changed over the last month.
Restless - Gus van Sant's latest comes across as a return to the elegiac masterpieces that pepper his career although reviews from Cannes suggest it's nowhere near the quality of his best hits. Fall for a suicidal teen on 21 October 2011.
Ides of March - We heard this week that George Clooney's political potboiler will be opening the Venice festival, just in time to make it's UK debut. Secure support at the primaries on 28 October 2011.
Happy Feet 2 - It's perfectly possible that I'll be seeing two animated releases this year, given how surprised I was at the quality of Rango and being a supporter of the original penguin cartoon this could be my second. Tap dance across the Antarctic on 02 December 2011.
Dangerous Method - The first trailer for David Cronenberg's psychoanalysis biopic promises plenty of inappropriate desire if little historical accuracy. Succumb to your desires on 20 February 2012.
Jack the Giant Killer - Next summer is beginning to fill up with some very interesting projects, including this fairytale adventure from the director of X-Men. Although the final tone of the project will be very tricky to balance. Find a goose with golden eggs on 15 June 2012.
Bond 23 - Some of the forthcoming movies on filmdates are still in pre-production (or even earlier in the process) which does make the release date seem less likely to be achieved. This is notable for Daniel Craig's next outing as James Bond which has already seen plenty of delays due to financing issues within MGM. Take your martini shaken, not stirred, on 26 October 2012.
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II - the final installment in the massively popular teenage vampire series is set to come out late next year, don't expect any studio to be brave enough to open anything big against it. Find your true love on 16 November 2012.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Photos of Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen as Bilbo and Gandalf has found themselves onto the web this week and we can probably look forward to seeing a steady drip drip of publicity for the Lord of the Rings prequel for the next 18 months. Go there, but not yet back again, on 14 December 2012.
The Life of Pi - Competing against Jackson's epic will the altogether smaller option of a small boy in a boat with a tiger, a hyena, an orang-utan and a zebra, balancing survivalist and existential themes Yann Martel's novel has received exceptional praise which will hopefully translate to the movie. Find yourself lost at sea on 14 December 2012.
Oz: The Great and Powerful - A prequel (not that we can really invoke the comparison) to the magical Judy Garland starer which aims to be the biggest of the latest round of L. Frank Baum releases in which we'll see James Franco's Wizard and his arrival in Oz. Take charge in an alternate universe on 08 March 2013.
The Dark Tower - We've heard a lot this week about whether Ron Howard's adaptation of Stephen King's magnum opus will ever get made, he's positive it will but budget reductions are meaning massive script revisions. Even so I remain skeptical that this release date (690 days away) will be achieved. Discover the beam on 17 May 2013.
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.
Happy Birthday to
Mark Wahlberg
40 today
Judging by the photo I don't think the former rapper and underwear model is totally happy with what I'm about to say here, but I confess that whilst The Fighter underwhelmed me I adored Mark's measured performance as boxer Micky Ward. Right now I'm most looking forward to the next collaboration planned with David O. Russell, The Silver Lining's Playbook.
It's Cannes this week. Admittedly it's unlikely you've had missed it. An odd thing happens during the world's most prestigious film festival - Hollywood effectively shuts up. All news over these ten days must come through the Croisette. This means there's loads of talk but little actual stuff going on. Very few stories getting any traction. That said there are a couple here that may excite.
Human Nature
So Darren Aronofsky won't be directing The Wolverine, although with no movement on that for some time I'm beginning to wonder if the whole venture is looking like it's been given up on, but what will he turn to instead. This point last year he had half a dozen projects all in contention but it appears he's gone leftfield and chosen a 15 year old script that's been sitting in development hell for most of that time.
With George Clooney as a possible star Jeff Welch's spec focuses on a man cryogenically frozen who wakes to find that mankind is longer the dominant species and now exist as pets. This will no doubt raise some fascinating ethical points about the morality of owning animals and what it means to be a human as well as hopefully including some kick-ass action set pieces.
Of all of Aronofsky's options I will confess this one excites me the most. We all wanted him to try something bigger in scope after Black Swan and this a more mind bending sci-fi premise than anything else discussed. Plus I wouldn't mind having George Clooney as a pet!
I doubt if any scenes like this will make the final cut, but I am rather hoping they might...
Read on for thuggish criminals, cinematic experiments and the latest casting rumours from Cannes and elsewhere.
Borderline
My main question with this run of the mill looking thriller, from Justin Marks the writer of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, will be how the family taken by hostages where the FATHER WITH EVERYTHING ON THE LINE must confront the CRIMINAL WITH NOTHING TO LOSE somehow connects to the title. Will it start and end by a National border or will the soundtrack be filled with early Madonna tracks. Keep tuned to find out first.
Five Obstructions, take 2
Intriguing but highly unlikely as it is the rumour that Martin Scorsese and Lars von Trier will be working together on a new project is coming out of Cannes again. Apparently Marty will take a look back at his early works and remake a short five times using certain rules as stipulated by the mad Dane, similar to The Five Obstructions documentary in 2003. Frankly I still doubt it will happen however if it does the combination of a director as willing to experiment as much as Scorsese with the punishing von Trier at his back is irresistible.
A screencap from the 2003 documentary directed by Jørgen Leth, with advice from Lars von Trier.
Casting News
Standby for handbags at dawn over Rachel Weisz as she adds The Bourne Legacy and possibly the now confirmed Johnny Depp starring remake of The Thin Man to her potential slate of forthcoming movies, unfortunately it may clash with Oz, the Great and Powerful so someone's going to miss out. I still think Al Pacino has a couple of great performances in him (even though some others from his heyday are utterly spent) so it's good to see him sign up as an older Mob advisor in Barry Levinson's Gotti: Three Generations, oh I am aware that he may just coast on his form in the genre but I'm still hoping for something special. David O. Russell is convinced he wants to work with his muse Mark Wahlberg again, whatever the project ends up being as he's signed him onto the cast list of The Silver Lining's Playbook although whether that will actually be the next film he makes is still in the air.
