Sin City 2 Moves Away from Weinsteins

If my "Encyclopedia of Nerd Knowledge" is correct, we were supposed to have seen a sequel to Sin City by Summer 2006 originally. As I recall, the rumors were that Robert Rodriguez specifically wanted Angelina Jolie to be a part of the production and was willing to wait for her availability - she was preggers around that time.

Then there were rumblings that Rodriquez and Frank Miller were going to go ahead and film two sequels con-currently. And then I remember...to be honest I pretty much stopped paying attention to Sin City 2 news by that point.

Sure, you'd always hear someone remark, "Yeah, Frank's writing it!" But I didn't give it much thought. Despite the fact that it was quiet a big hit, I assumed any sequels would never see the light of day - even with the recent stories that Miller had completed the script.

Interestingly however, the good folks over at IESB have received word that the Weinstein Company have now lost the rights to any Sin City sequels and that a private equity group will pony up the money with Rodriquez's Trouble Maker Studios producing yet again(!)

One wonders if Mickey Rourke will now return as Marv - easily the best performance from the original film. During his press-tour for The Wrestler, he'd indicted that he wasn't willing to come back. I suppose it was "beneath him" or something.

Verbinski Says "Adios!" to Pirates

I could have sworn there'd already been news awhile back of Gore Verbinski opting out of directing Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Maybe I was just mixed up and thinking of the news of Keira Knightley moving on to greener pastures instead of another Pirates go-around.

Nonetheless, Verbinski has notified Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer that he's had his fair share of Captain Jack Sparrow & Co. and already linked to a number of projects - the biggest one so far being the adaptation of the video-game series Bioshock set up over at Universal.

As for Pirates 4, it's in development but little definitive news besides that. Well, other than Johnny Depp already having signed on to return (for God knows how much booty) and series-writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio set to type away at the script for a Summer 2012 release.

Nonetheless, there shouldn't be too much of a problem getting another director on-board. I don't doubt there was some truth to those rumors of Tim Burton from last year.

Kumar Goes to The White House

No, this isn't a sequel to the "Harold and Kumar" movies. In fact, the future of that series is in serious jeopardy as actor Kal Penn (who plays Kumar) has left acting for a position on President Barack Obama's staff.

The actor, who also recently starred on the TV show "House," will be part of the White House Office of Public Liaison, where he will deal primarily with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and the arts community.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Penn said he hasn't officially retired from acting altogether.
"Not necessarily," he said. "Who's to say where any path leads? I still have a passion for it. But for the time being, I won't be acting."

The April 2 episode of "House" was the last for Penn (who also had featured roles in "Superman Returns" and the "Van Wilder" movies).

Following his departure from the show, Fox set up a web site to honor his character. If you haven't seen the last episode of "House" yet, you don't want to go there.

'Butter' to melt in Jennifer Garner's mouth

According to The Hollywood Reporter Mandate has optioned Jason Micallef's political satire 'Butter' with Jennifer Garner set to star and possibly prodcue with Michael De Luca. Craig Gillespie and Gary Ross are two directors said to be eyeing the project.

"Butter" follows a young black orphan who, after being adopted by a Midwestern family, discovers she has an uncanny talent for butter-carving. She eventually finds herself up against the ambitious wife of the retired reigning champion in a town's annual butter-sculpting contest.

"I wanted to do a political satire," Micallef said, "and I was looking for some venue that people take very seriously but is also ridiculous -- like politics -- but at the same time is really visual."

So the writer, who hails from Gloucester County, Va., flashed back to a fuzzy post-college road trip through a scorching August that resulted in a five-hour detour to the refrigerated building of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, which housed competitors' prized butter sculptures.

I like Jen Garner a lot but at first glance this seemed a dull choice from her after her latest  rom com, however reading more into it and hearing that it was #3 on the 2008 Black List (a listing of the best unproduced screenplays of that year), My interest is peaked and since Garner will be playing the ambitious wife of the former champion, she will in essence be the films anatagonist, which will be an interesting change of pace for the Hollywood sweetheart.

First set pics from Sly's 'The Expendables'

SpoilerTV has the first set pics pics from Sly Stallone's new action extravangaza 'The Expendables'. These pics are from the Rio De Janiro set and as Sly tells Twitter “I had to chase a seaplane along a pier and jump inside which was like running headlong into hurricane Katrina.”

He also had this to say to select members of the Brazillian press before shooting began:

“It’s a 1980s movie with today’s technology,” Stallone told Collider.  “But in those days, the female leading character was a helpless girl, waiting to be rescued by the hero. Now we have a very strong female character that evolved to this form while I was writing the script. But except for this, yes, it’s a 1980s movie.”

I am a huge fan of Stallone as I'm an 80's kid and action movie afficianado. This sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun and a throwback to the oldschool. The movie also stars Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and Jet Li,.

'The Expendables' opens April 23, 2010 and you can check out a load more set pics at SpoilerTV.

Tentpole Sequel Speculation

It's less than a month away before the Summer film season kicks off with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And not-surprisingly, studios are already in the early stages for sequels to some of these forthcoming 2009 tentpoles.

So I thought I'd go into detail on a couple of these tentpoles with my own 100% Grade-A personally approved speculation on what might ultimately go down with said early-in-the-planning-stages sequels:

Star Trek 2.2 - J.J. Abrams' "requel" has its world-premiere in Sydney, Australia on April 7. Press screenings are said to also begin next week. The fact that Paramount is having these screenings a solid month before the May 8 release date basically says, "Yeah, they're really confident they have a mega money-maker on their hands!"

And of course just a few days ago, the studio officially hired Trek screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (this time along with producer Damon Lindelof) to pen the sequel with a target Summer 2011 release date. Now granted, that decision isn't a shock. In fact, Orci said last year that Paramount was already trying to get them to commit to a follow-up.

Nor is it a surprise to learn that director Abrams has yet to commit to returning to the director's chair. It is however confirmed that he will at the very least have a "Produced by" credit. With that said, my prediction is that Abrams will not helm Trek 2.2 or whatever the Hell they end up calling the sequel.If I'm wrong, then so be it. I'm on record with this prediction either way. Paramount could have simply waited to announce the news of K&O returning for writing-duties. My guess is they didn't because they already know that Abrams is ready to move on to other projects as a director. Again, maybe I'm wrong - wouldn't be the first time nor will it be the last!

Call me crazy, but I think Abrams' next directorial project will be the adaptation from the Wired magazine article, "The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist"that was announced a few weeks back instead. And Hell, if Trek is the box-office monster that many (including myself) think it will be, there won't be a problem getting the studio to making said "Diamond Heist" film and simply getting another filmmaker to take over directing duties on the sequel. Something tells me Paramount already has a "short-list" of potential replacement directors just waiting in the side-lines when and/or if Abrams officially announces his decision to move on.

Terminator 5 - Near the end of last year, Terminator: Salvation producers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek revealed they were moving forward with plans on a fifth installment (the second in this new trilogy) along with its infamous director McG returning in the director's chair for a Summer 2011 release.

But then something interesting happened, Disney was able to nab McG down for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo. At first, it sounded like it would be a project that (if it even happened) would be a few years down the line - think again.The Mouse wants it out ASAP. In fact,the project is moving so fast-forward that plans are under-way to have production begin later this fall in Australia for a Christmas 2010 release.

So...what's this mean for Terminator 5? Well McG has said he remains 100% committed to the franchise and plans to direct the next installment. He even went as far to say he and screenwriter Jonathan Nolan (whose one of several writers thrown into the production of Salvation) were already working out story outlines for two more sequels.

But given the fact that McG is already up to his eyeballs on 20,000 Leagues, I just don't see how he'd be able to direct any Terminator sequels - especially if the Summer 2011 release date sticks, and judging by the prospects of Salvation's big box-office, it most certainly will.

And, like Paramount with Star Trek, I can almost guarantee you that Warner Brothers already has an idea of who they'd like to helm any further Terminator installments in cast McG is in fact forced to step down.

Transformers 3 - Not a doubt in my mind on this one, folks. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be the top-grossing film of Summer 2009. Hell, there's a solid chance it will be 2009's biggest money-maker overall. And most important, Paramount and DreamWorks knows this too. Hence why they went ahead and officially announced a third installment of the "giant robots that beat the shit out of their each other" franchise for a July 1, 2011 release.

This despite the fact that series-director Michael Bay had previously said he planned on taking a year off once Revenge of the Fallen was finished before he began directing another film. In fact, literally 24 hours after the announcement was made, Bay went on his blog and said the decision was a "mistake" on the studio's part and that they'd already agreed to a 2012 release.

The thing is Bay is a savvy guy and knows how to play "the game" in Hollywood. He was basically putting it out there that, "If they really want me to make the next one, it'll be for 2012 Otherwise, I'm out." Just this past week at ShoWest, Bay gave an update on the situation saying said issues had been resolved. Hmmm.

What makes this even more interesting is the fact that screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman announced they wouldn't be returning for Transformers 3 before this release-date situation between Bay and the studio reared its ugly head. So even if Bay calls the shots again,he'll have to work with a new set of writers. Is it possible K&O were already aware of what was going down and had to choose which sequel they'd rather pen for Summer 2011? Certainly, that sounds logical. Yeah, I know I just did a Spock joke - eat me!

But maybe I'm wrong about all of this. In a new feature here at Think McFly Think we'd like to refer to as the "Audio Article" to accompany certain posts, a couple of us nerds further elaborate on the subject matter of said article.

For the first installment of this li'l experiment of ours, I'm joined by Co-Owner/Operator here at Think McFly Think (and just my all-around good-friend) Peter Georgiou.

Audio Article - Tentpole Sequel Speculation

Lucas' Red Tails Finally Moving Forward

Even though it was always the status of the Star Wars prequel trilogy or a fourth Indiana Jones installment that always grabbed the headlines for the last 10+ years, George Lucas has always been trying to get Red Tails, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilots who served in the United States military during WWII, off the ground.

Granted, this is George Lucas we're talking about. The man has enough money to personally finance any film if he damn-well chooses to and certainly has in the past - bankrolled the Star Wars prequels to great success.

So whatever's been keeping Lucas from making Red Tails is clearly a creative decision. But with the prequels complete and Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull having graced the silver screens this time last year, Lucas finally began to move forward on his passion project when he and producing-partner Rick McCallum hired Anthony Hemingway (whose television-directing credits include The Wire and E.R.) to direct and John Ridley (whose screenwriting duties include....Undercover Brother) to write last year.

And things are now further along as filming is set to commence soon in Europe and the likes of Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston (who everyone loves now from TVs Breaking Bad) and human punching-bag Cuba Gooding Jr. have now joined the cast.

It's great that Lucas is actually moving forward on this after talking about it over the years. And I'm even more encouraged that he isn't actually writing the script. Not to mention, he actually hired someone who was involved with The Wire to helm the film.

Movie Moan - Summer Box-Office Prediction Edition

We've talked about it for what seems like forever, folks, and now it's here. Phil and Jamie give their box-office predictions for Summer 2009 on this week's Movie Moan.

Joining our heroes on this week's special edition is TMT co-owner/operator Peter Georgiou to add his own special insight regarding the matter - aka tell us just how wrong (or in Jamie's case) right said predictions are.

Sadly, audio issues prevented Phil from staying for the entire podcast. So Jamie and Peter moved on ahead (as per Phil's blessings!) But fear not, like James Bond, Phil Gee will return.

Click on here for Part I and here for Part II of the Summer Box-Office Prediction Edition of Movie Moan!

Red-Band 'Brüno' Trailer Now Available

While the question remains of which rating "Brüno" will be released with -- NC-17 or R -- the red-band trailer has made its way onto the Internet (it's not safe for work):

I can confidently say that if you liked "Borat" this should be right up your alley and if you hated "Borat" this isn't for you.

When I watched "Da Ali G" show, I generally found the "Brüno" segments to be the weakest of the lot, but I still have somewhat high hopes for the movie.

I don't expect it to be as as popular as "Borat" was in 2006, but certainly it should be better than "Ali G Indahouse," which was an ill-conceived attempt to bring that character to the screen.

"Brüno" will arrive in theaters July 10.

MovieMoan: The Original Series - Supermoan

Hey folks, as an early Easter present from myself and Jamie Williams I proudly present another dose of 'MovieMoan' with visual YouTube enhancement.

This time, we take a look at my personal favourite set of movies; the Superman films (it's certainly the set of films I know more about than any other).  Unlike other movies series such as POTC where we can only bitch about bad writing and over-spending, Superman provides a huge kaleidoscope of topics to discuss and we pretty much cover it all in this set of videos.  I really hope you enjoy them as I'm pretty proud of these ones:-

Part 1: Adoration of Superman The Movie and bitching about Superman II.

Part 2: Come back Superman II, we ain't finished with you yet, and drag Superman III over here as well.

Part 3: Superman IV is better than Superman III says Phil.

Part 4: Superman Returns is actually based on the true story of Jamie's love life.