ASSASSIN'S CREED Might Hook SAFE HOUSE Director

 

While there's an impressive line-up of video-game movies coming out soon, with Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, WARCRAFT, and AGENT 47 in development; it's been a tad quiet on Ubisoft's front after attaching hot commodity Michael Fassbender as the lead role in their upcoming Assassin's Creed film with 20th Fox.

Well now, it appears Twitch has reported Safe House director Daniel Espinosa is in talks to bring the time-line spanning film to life.

 Though nothing has firmed up just yet there is persistent talk that the film's producers and backer 20th Century Fox have zeroed in on Swedish director Daniel Espinosa to take the helm. 

Espinosa originally burst on to the Hollywood radar with his 2010 Swedish action thriller Snabba Cash (Easy Money), a massive international hit which led to Espinosa taking the helm of Ryan Reynolds / Denzel Washington hit Safe House while also launching its Swedish star Joel Kinnaman - now known for the US version of The Killing and soon to be on screens as the lead in RoboCop - to Hollywood stardom.

Espinosa made big money with 2012's Safe House, an original film which was made on a budget of $85 million and went on to take over $200 million by the end of it's run; which makes me wonder what he can do to an established and commercially successful property like Assassin's Creed. 

Still no confirmed word on Assassin's Creed's plot or characters, as the franchise currently has several entries with most of them taking place with a new antagonist in a new period of history, while the "main character" in the present relives these memories of his Assassin ancestors through a device called The Animus, waging a shadow-war between The Assassin's and the Knight's Templar. 

Given Ubisoft's latest outing, the pirate adventure Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag being the franchise's most critically successful and well thought out entry, I'd say that would be a smart bet for the film; but who knows.

The film is set to release August 7, 2015.  

Listen to Tegan & Sara's EVERYTHING IS AWESOME for THE LEGO MOVIE

With the hotly-anticipated The LEGO Movie opening in just a few weeks, WB has dropped a version of the ear-buggingly catchy tune from the trailer, with this version done by indie-rock duo Tegan and Sara featuring comedy group The Lonely Island, "Everything Is Awesome", exclusively on JustJared.

The song is cute and catchy, and it's funny to hear The Lonely Island doing something that isn't chock full of prolific swearing and hilariously suggestive themes.

“The moment we heard ‘Everything Is Awesome’ we were on board to be part of The Lego Movie,” Tegan shared in a statement. “Getting to sing such a fun song and work with Mark Mothersbaugh and his team was a treat. The addition of The Lonely Island only made things even more awesome, and we can’t wait to see the movie!”

The track will be availabele for purchase on iTunes tomorrow.

First Clip From ROBOCOP: "Field Test"

The first clip for February's highly anticipated soon-to-be cinematic masterpiece, ROBOCOP has surfaced online thanks to IGN.

Looks pretty impressive, promising the film will contain it's fair-share of crisp and well directed action-scenes, hopefully not exclusively involving only robots.

OmniCorp puts the newly cybernetic Alex Murphy through his trial by fire.

ROBOCOP stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, and Jay Baruchel and will release February 12, 2014.

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years – and it’s meant billions for OmniCorp’s bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.

You Might See A GUNDAM Film; More Anime Stuff in Your Theaters

When you hear "GUNDAM" and you didn't grow up watching the series' on Toonami you're probably thinking "what the fuck is that?" well, whatever the fuck it is might be heading to a theater near you, as well as many more anime and manga properties.

KDrama reported from Sankaku Complex:

"Gundam" creator Yoshiyuki Tomino will hold a press conference on January 21 to announce his partnership with Legacy Effects to "bring Hollywood movies based on Japanese anime and manga titles to a global audience".
One of these titles is said to be "Gundam" though it is not sure what part of the huge "Gundam" series Legacy Effects and Yoshiyuki Tomino will make a Hollywood adaptation off.

Legacy Effects has done work on such specia-effects driven films as Pacific Rim, Real Steel, AVATAR, Iron Man, and this summer's X-Men: Days of Future Past so obviously they've had their fair share of experience with nerds and robots.

While nothing is confirmed, we will find out on Jan 21 what exactly they're cooking up in The Land of the Rising Sun.

Previous attempts to bring Japanese anime and manga to American screens have either been developed and never happened, such as WB's AKIRA, a live-action VOLTRON, and WETA's work on Neon Genesis Evangelion; are currently in some sort of planning such as Leo DiCaprio's rumored involvement with ROBOTECH, Guillermo Del Toro's adaption of MONSTER for HBO, and Shane Black's adaption of Death Note; or have been actually made and poorly received such as DragonBall: EVOLUTION, Fist of the North Star, OLDBOY and SPEED RACER (which was actually good).

The article notes:

For those who don't know the "Gundam" series is one of the biggest-if not the biggest-mecha manga/anime series in Japan. The "Gundam" franchise earned over 5 billion yen in revenue based on the sales of the toys, manga, tv shows and movies.

Since Gundam has spawned so many different series, it's difficult to peg what, if any, will be adapted; but I'd lean towards WING as it's the most...."realistic".

Two New Character Posters for THE LEGO MOVIE, Oh Man!

Elizabeth Banks and Morgan Freeman are the stars in the latest set of character posters from February's The LEGO Movie, featuring Wyldstyle and The Vitruvius. 

From the Official Facebook of The Lego Movie:

 

She's just looking for that "Special" one.#TheLEGOMovie

He's powerful. He's wise. He's Vitruvius.#TheLEGOMovie

The LEGO Movie assembles Feb 7, 2014.

The film stars Chris Pratt as a lowly LEGO builder, Emmett, who after a case of mistaken identity is believed to be "The Special", and must team up with other Lego Figures such as Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Wonder Woman (Colbie Smulders), Vitruvious (Morgan Freeman), and mystic warrior Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) against the evil President Business (Will Ferrell) and his henchman, including Good Cop/Bad Cop, played Liam Neeson. 

James Marsden Might Replace Paul Walker in Some Nicholas Sparks Movie

 

Earlier today it was reported the late Paul Walker was to be replaced in the Agent 47 film, now comes word that James Marsden (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, X2: X-Men United) might replace the deceased Fast & Furious star in The Best of Me, the latest in a long line of films that girls with post quotes to on their Facebook/Twitter for years to come.

Deadline reports:

Marsden’s deal needs to be negotiated, but the offer was just made for him to star alongside Michelle Monaghan. Relativity had been quietly looking to recast since the tragedy that took Walker’s lifelate last year. This had boiled down to a short of Marsden and Magic Mike’s Joe Manganiello. 

As for the plot, well, it sounds like a Nicholas Sparks thing:

Book is about two former high school sweethearts reunited after 20 years apart, when they return to their small town for the funeral of the beloved friend. Their bittersweet reunion reignites the sparks, but the forces that drove them apart back then still get in the way. 

Will Fetters (The Lucky One, Remember Me), J. Mills Goodloe, and director Michael Hoffman (A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Last Station) are writing the script, based on Spark's novel.

Gerard Butler Will Put On Another Great American Voice for POINT BREAK

 

In a time of remakes, prequels, preboots, requels, semakes, and super-hero films, one thing will always guide us through the difficult future ahead:
There will ALWAYS be a Late 80s-Early 90s film that needs to be redone for whatever reason.

The latest comes from Variety, who reports that Gerard Butler (Olympus Has Fallen, Law Abiding Citizen) is in talks to take the role of Bodhi, the character played by the late Patrick Swayze in the 1991 Kathyrn Bigelow classic.

Ericson Core has been attached to direct Kurt Wimmer’s screenplay, set in the world of extreme sports. The remake will retain the original story of an FBI agent infiltrating a ring of criminals.

Butler will play Bodhi, the thrill-seeking surfer portrayed by Patrick Swayze in the original. Butler also surfed in the 2012 drama “Chasing Mavericks” as Frosty Hesson.

No word yet on who might play Quarter-back punk Johnny Utah, played by a young Keanu Reeves; but I'd say you might want to see if Johnny Manziel is interested in a film career. 

Rupert Friend Will Replace Paul Walker as Fox's AGENT 47

Months and months ago, late star Paul Walker was cast as the nameless Agent 47 in the upcoming sequel/reboot to 2007's (wow) HITMAN film which starred Timothy Olyphant as the lead.
Since Walker's unfortunate, Variety reports that Homeland star Rupert Friend will take over the role.

Though 20th Century Fox is handling distribution, Fox International and Square Enix were the driving forces in getting the film up and running. Walker’s commitment was a major part of the film getting a greenlight, and after the actor died it looked as if this film would not be able to move forward,  since the production start date was set for February and there was no major star involved.

The film, AGENT 47, is being directed by Aleksander Back off of a script by Skip Woods (A Good Day to Die Hard, Swordfish) and Michael Finch (Predators) and based off of the best-selling Square Enix video-game franchise which follows a nameless clone who works for "The Agency", recognizable only by a bar code on the back of his head.
The games rely on disguise and theatricality as the player navigates through open maps to complete an assassination.

Friend certainly looks the part, a lot more than Walker did, and I loved Walker; but always felt him as Agent 47 was strange. Friend is a diabolical badass on Showtime's Homeland and could definitely bring the menacing cold of Agent 47 to screen perfectly.

The first film, HITMAN, made $92 million world-wide. 

Matt Reeves Will Helm PLANET OF THE APES 3; Damn That Was Fast

 

Matt Reeves (Let Me In, CLOVERFIELD) will apparently be directing the follow up to his own film, this summer's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Deadline has reported.

This news comes after (apparently REALLY positive) early screenings of the film, and 20th Fox was apparently REALLY seeing dollar signs, as it's expected Reeves will begin production immediately, although this time Reeves will go on with Mark Bomback, not bringing Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa (Jurassic World, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) along with them.

Bomback also co-wrote Dawn, as well as this summer's 50 Shades of Grey, The Wolverine, and Total Recall.
The deal is apparently locked, and no release date or title has been dropped; but hell, I'd wager $50 that Battle of the Rise of the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes will probably drop with a Summer '16 release.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 11, coming off of 2011's surprising pre-boot of the franchise, which went on to gross $482 Millon, and stars Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis as Caesar in a story that follows the remaining humans in and uneasy truce with Caesar's followers after the Simian Flu has wiped out more than half of Earth's population. 

New Character Poster for THE LEGO MOVIE; SPOILERS: It's Cute

 

The LEGO Movie recently dropped posters for Lego Batman (Will Arnett) and Lego Superman (Channing Tatum), as well as a brand new TV Spot, well now we have a character poster for Benny, or as he was named in the trailer, '1980s-Something Space Guy' played by Charlie Day (Horrible Bosses, Pacific Rim).

Courtesy of the Official Facebook Page of The LEGO Movie:

Helloooo! #TheLEGOMovie

What's stunning is the attention to detail we've seen in these minifugures so far, especially with Benny here, having bite-marks, a broken helmet, and the chipped painting of the eyes and mouth.

One thing is certain above all else, The LEGO Movie will bring home an animation award from almost any ceremony it's nominated at. 

The film stars Chris Pratt as a lowly LEGO builder, Emmett, who after a case of mistaken identity is believed to be "The Special", and must team up with other Lego Figures such as Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Wonder Woman (Colbie Smulders), Vitruvious (Morgan Freeman), and mystic warrior Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) against the evil President Business (Will Ferrell) and his henchman, including Good Cop/Bad Cop, played Liam Neeson. 

The LEGO Movie assembles February 7, 2014.