Brad Pitt May Go '20,000 Leagues Under' With David Fincher

If this happens, I'm in.

David Fincher - long attached to direct Disney's planned remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - is reportedly courting frequent collaborator Brad Pitt to star in the film.  Tylder Durden himself would play sailor Ned Land while an older A-list actor would vie for the anti-hero role of Captain Nemo.

Fincher has been keeping himself busy lately, directing the first couple episodes of the Kevin Spacey Netflix series House of Cards, but has been taking his time in choosing his next feature-film project.  The exceptional filmmaker is said to be waiting on a draft for the follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,  The Girl Who Played with Fire, but screenwriter Steve Zaillian is preferably taking his time.

Disney has yet to greenlight the project but has put Fincher on a three-month hold to see if they can finally get the big-budget tentpole off the ground.

Pitt has been keeping himself busy as well, finishing up re-shoots on next summer's World War Z and filming a small role in Ridley Scott's The Counselor.  Obviously, with Pitt's soon to be open schedule and his previous collaborations with Fincher in Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; there's a good chance he'll agree to star in the project.

Not to mention, Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker was said to be doing re-writes for Fincher on the film as well.

More on this project as it becomes available.

Source: Variety

Domestic Poster for 'Jack Reacher' is a Bit...Amatuer-ish

Really Paramount?  That is the best you could come up with for your winter tentpole starring Tom Cruise?

I'm not even going to get into the fact that Ethan Hunt himself (I mean common, Cruise doesn't stray much in terms of 'looks' for his movies) is nothing like what is described in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, but that's your domestic one-sheet?!?

For one thing, Cruise's head looks like it's been poorly photoshoped onto his body, not to mention the fact that he's - for whatever reason - looking down and upset like he just realized Scientology destroyed his marriage...wait.

I think some studio exec took a look at the thing and realized they had to add a gun to ensure people realize Cruise is a badass so they threw that in there too (and by the way, since when is it OK to make a guy who's 50 look no more than 35 years-old?  The character in the books is in his 50s for crying out loud!)

Alright, enough of my rant.  Let's see if the new trailer will be any better which I'm willing to bet will play in front of Skyfall.

By the way, anyone else pick up on the fact that it's billed as 'A Tom Cruise Production'?

When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: “Get Jack Reacher!” So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.

Ridley Scott Offers Another Update on 'Blade Runner' Sequel

Well, it's Saturday night and there's not much going on in the film-related news world so this is the best, most interesting I could come up with.

On the Prometheus Blu-ray (which I have no intention of buying), director Ridley Scott offers this brief update on the currently in-development Blade Runner sequel:

"I'm going through Blade Runner now...You start off with a blank sheet and you start to evolve. Sometimes you walk into this wilderness of mirrors that don't make any sense at all. Then, suddenly, two and two do make four and you think, 'Oh, that's good,' and you put that up there. It's a series of paving stones."

Funny, before Prometheus came out I was under the impression R Scott would come up with something great for another Blade Runner flick as his Alien semi-prequel looked fantastic from the trailers.  Then I saw the film and my high hopes for a return to his 1982 sci-fi classic took a sizable hit.

However, maybe the fact that this is a sequel and not a somewhat 'distant prequel' will help Scott come up with a more linear, sensible story rather than one filled with lame ideas and plot holes.

Here's hoping.

Source: ComingSoon.net

Ridley Scott Talks 'Prometheus' & 'Blade Runner' Sequels

Legendary director Ridley Scott recently talked up his planned follow-ups for this past summer's Prometheus, and the long-rumored sequel to his sci-fi classic, Blade Runner.

Regarding this past summer's extremely polarizing - Alien esque - film (you either loved or hated it), Scott had this to say:

"Prometheus evolved into a whole other universe. You’ve got a person [Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw] with a head in a bag [ Michael Fassbender’s David] that functions and has an IQ of 350. It can explain to her how to put the head back on the body and she’s gonna think about that long and hard because, once the head is back on his body, he’s dangerous.  They’re going off to paradise but it could be the most savage, horrible place. Who are the Engineers?"

In discussing his return to the world of Blade Runner (a much more beloved, respected film) Scott states:

"It’s not a rumour – it’s happening. With Harrison Ford? I don’t know yet. Is he too old? Well, he was a Nexus-6 so we don’t know how long he can live [laughs]. And that’s all I’m going to say at this stage."

I guess Scott definitely confirmed there that Deckard was indeed a Replicant?

Anyway, looking forward to both films when they do finally come together as anything the talented director does is worth seeing.

Source: Metro

'Taken 3' Is Coming...To Take Your Money

Every time I actually think the movie-going public is going to finally flip the bird to Hollywood when a bad sequel to a good film comes out, my hopes are smashed quicker than Lindsay Lohan getting behind the wheel of a car (I dunno).

No, I did not see Taken 2.  All I had to do was look at Rotten Tomatoes and see the film is currently sitting at 20%...20 friggin %.  I think Terminator Salvation did better than that.

And no, don't say, "Well the movie made $50 million this weekend so it must be good."  No.  The movie made $50 million this weekend because no one likes to listen to critics, even when they're telling you to stop walking towards the edge of the cliff.  I will all but guarantee Taken 2 will drop big time next weekend, 60% plus.  Why you say?  Because word will get out that 'it's not very good.'

That's not stopping 20th Century Fox from making plans to steal your hard earned money though.

Taken 2 writer Robert Mark Kamen has all but confirmed that a Taken 3 is now in the works:

"We didn't start talking about [Taken 3] until we saw the numbers, but then we said, 'Oh, okay. I think we should do a third one.' And Fox wants us to do a third one.  We've taken everyone we can take — it's going to go in another direction. Should be interesting."

Translation: if people actually bought that crap, we can do even worse on the next and probably still make money.

Why Liam, why? 

Oh wait, money.

Source: Hollywood.com

Critic States Comic-Book Movies Paint Bleak Future for Film Industry

Let me state this upfront: Hollywood today sucks.

Studios no longer wish aspire to make quality films with quality talent.  Sure, you have both critically and commercially successful tentpoles like The Dark Knight, The Avengers, and Avatar, however; these are more of an aberration than a common occurrence.  You would be hard pressed to name at least ten more films in the past decade that fit that criteria with universal acceptance.  Again, that's universal acceptance - as in everyone would agree - no questions asked.

Which leads to what David Denby - a film critic for The New Yorker stated in his new book, 'Do Movies Have a Future?'.

Denby goes on the offensive, stating studios today have 'lost their soul' and have become nothing more than 'profit obsessed.'  He also - controversially - rips both Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy as well as this past summer's The Avengers.

Speaking of Nolan - who he states is a fan of his earlier work with Memento - and his recent Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, Denby writes, “I can’t tell if he’s against terrorism or is a terrorist, I felt terrorized myself. The plot didn’t make sense in time or space and wasn’t sequential. Acts didn’t have consequences ... I don’t know what comment he’s making in ‘Inception,’ it seems to be mainly about his own working style.”

As for the studio system and it's current obsession with dishing out comic-book movies, Denby has this to say:

“I’m not sure they’re creating an adult audience with Batman and 'The Avengers' parts seven, eight, nine and 10," he told TheWrap. "After five sequels, I’m not sure there will be any interest in seeing a man and woman talking at a table, which may be the most exciting kind of drama, but you have to cultivate a taste for that kind of complexity.”

Finally, while speaking in terms of the overall change in the culture of Hollywood that started in the 1980s when conglomerates started buying out studios, Denby writes:

“The big studios have broken their unspoken, unwritten contract with America, to offer some version of the country’s soul,” Denby said. “Instead there is more and more fantasy and more and more pixilated fighting in the dead air of digital space.”

While there is more of Denby's certainly controversial opinion of today's film world (which you can read more at the link below), I certainly see where he is coming from - yet at the same time - I don't.

I agree 100% that in terms of the crap Hollywood dishes out on a yearly basis, there is about a 1 in 10 ratio that the films are both culturally and critically accepted as quality filmmaking.

However, to state films should be made solely to tap into our current society's culture is in itself ridiculous.

People go to the movies to escape from real-world everyday problems, not be reminded of them.  Yes, there are the ones that do try to address problems currently facing our world, but these our made with the intention of being that.  Going to the movies is a form of entertainment and escapism in the purest sense.  What any individual takes out of what they watch is their own interpretation, not what a filmmaker or studio tries to make.

What are your thoughts?

Source: The Wrap

Production Begins on 'The Two Faces of January'

London, 2012 – STUDIOCANAL and Working Title are delighted to announce the start of principal photography on feature film The Two Faces of January. Picture will shoot on location in Crete, Athens, Istanbul and Ealing Studios London. Working Title will produce and STUDIOCANAL finance, distributing in the U.K., Germany, France & Australia, selling the rest of the world.

The Two Faces of January is a stylish international thriller starring some of the finest global acting talent working today; Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen (The Road, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence), Golden Globe nominee and Cannes Best Actress prize winner Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia, Marie Antoinette, Spider-Man 2 & 3) and Oscar Isaac (Drive, The Bourne Legacy and the Coens’ forthcoming Inside Llewyn Davis). The Two Faces of January is based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith adapted for the screen by Academy Award nominee Hossein Amini (Drive, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Wings of the Dove) Faces is the Directorial debut for Amini Produced by Tom Sternberg (The Talented Mr. Ripley) Working Title’s Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner and Robyn Slovo (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

1962. A glamorous American couple, the charismatic CHESTER MACFARLAND (Mortensen) and his alluring younger wife COLETTE (Dunst), arrive in Athens by boat via the Corinthian Canal. While sightseeing at the Acropolis they encounter RYDAL (Isaac), a young, Greek-speaking American who is working as a tour guide, scamming tourists on the side. Drawn to Colette’s beauty and impressed by Chester’s wealth and sophistication, Rydal gladly accepts their invitation to dinner.

However, all is not as it seems with the MacFarlands and Chester’s affable exterior hides darker secrets. When Rydal visits the couple at their exclusive hotel, Chester presses him to help move the body of a seemingly unconscious man who he claims attacked him. In the moment, Rydal agrees but as events take a more sinister turn he finds himself compromised and unable to pull himself free. His increasing infatuation with the vulnerable and responsive Colette gives rise to Chester’s jealousy and paranoia, leading to a tense and dangerous battle of wits between the two men. Their journey takes them from Greece to Turkey, and to a dramatic finale played out in the back alleys of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.

Following on “Tinker Tailor,” helmed by Swede Tomas Alfredson and Dan Mazer’s “I Give It a Year,” now in post, “The Two Faces” continues STUDIOCANAL’s new film-by-film relationship with Working Title.

Kevin Costner, McG Team for Secret Service Thriller

Looks like Kevin Costner is back.

Fresh off his Emmy win for Best Actor (Hatfields & McCoys), Costner is set to star in a yet untitled action thriller with McG (Terminator Salvation) directing and the duo of Luc Besson (Taken) and Adi Hasak (From Paris with Love) writing the script.

Costner would play a dying Secret Service agent who decides to retire to spend whatever time he has left with his estranged family.  When the Secret Service offers him an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment, his character must balance his re-connected family with his final mission and the drug's dangerous side effects.

Relativity Media and EuropaCorp are producing the pic - formerly titled Three Days to Kill - which looks to start filming next year.

While the project sounds exciting, there seems to be both the good and bad of it.  For Field of Dreams (Costner), there's Charlie's Angels (McG).  For Taken (Besson) there's From Paris with Love (Hasak)

Maybe they'll all find the right balance.

Source: Variety

Matt Reeves No Longer Directing 'The Twilight Zone'

Director/Writer Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) is no longer attached to helm the feature-film adaptation of The Twilight Zone.

Last year, it was reported that Reeves had signed on to direct the project for Warner Bros. as his follow-up to his second directorial effort, Let Me In.  However, due to scheduling conflicts, Reeves will not longer be behind the camera for - what is sure to be - a big-budget sci-fi epic.

There's no specifics on what exactly prevented Reeves from proceeding with the project - he recently signed a big television development deal with 20th Century Fox - though something tells me a certain "big fish" Warner Bros. director who was originally thought of as a choice for The Twilight Zone (and who probably recently returned from a long, refreshing vacation) expressed some interest...

Let's just say he's put the Bat behind him.

Source: Justin Kroll of Variety  

First Trailer, Poster, & Synopsis for Jackie Robinson Biopic: '42'

I usually comment, but I think the trailer speaks for itself:

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures are teaming up with director Brian Helgeland for “42,” the powerful story of Jackie Robinson, the legendary baseball player who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he joined the roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. “42″ will star Academy Award(R) nominee Harrison Ford (“Witness”) as the innovative Dodger’s general manager Branch Rickey, the MLB executive who first signed Robinson to the minors and then helped to bring him up to the show, and Chadwick Boseman (“The Express”) as Robinson, the heroic African American who was the first man to break the color line in the big leagues.