Pixar Reportedly Removes Director From The Good Dinosaur

John Lasseter has admitted for every Pixar production, at some point during its development, there is a time when the whole project is a disaster. One can imagine how unruly things got. Everything goes into panic mode with the staff thinking their careers are over. Then heads cool, sleeves get rolled up and they do whatever needs to be done to turn it around. And for the most part, they have.

That is all fine and dandy as long as their troubles don't go public before said project is released. They have in the past. As the cases of Newt getting cancelled or the drastic turn-arounds put on Ratatouille and Brave have shown us.

Blue Sky Disney, unfortunately, has another example of production woes. The blog reports Lasseter has shown director Bob Peterson the door from The Good Dinosaur. No reason for the firing was given nor has a new director been filled in his slot. If they plan to make their May 30, 2014 release (They do), someone will have to be hired yesterday.

Trailer For Dallas Buyers Club

It's one thing to read all the reports of how much weight Matthew McConaughey lost for Dallas Buyers Club. It's another thing to actually see his physical state on set (My best friend met him during the shoot and was stunned how gaunt he was, and yet he was still the Matthew McConaughey we know). Strangely none of that prepares you to see him as AIDS victim Ron Woodroof in the trailer for the forthcoming drama.

Mitch Hurwitz Single-Handedly Beating Arrested Development Movie Drum

The greatly-anticipated fourth season of Arrested Development came and went. Besides "Oh yeah we're still totally interested in more!" comments from Netflix, everything has cooled off on seeing yet another return to the Bluth family chronicles. Maybe the revival season was just that much of a disappointment to critics and fans or maybe the viewership/ratings/whatever-they-use-to-rate-success didn’t meet expectations. After all the series never broke out past cult status, despite critical accolades.

All I know is, no matter your thoughts, creator/showrunner Mitch Hurwitz was a fool ending the season (and possibly series) on a cliffhanger with nary a contractual commitment from the network or cast. I have to wonder if he knows that too. And now we're right back to where we started. Hurwitz is talking up an Arrested Development movie again, this time to Rolling Stone. Something he was doing in the seven years between the series' cancellation and the miraculous return to airwaves (which he has now royally screwed up):

"I'm working on the movie right now. I can't get into much more detail because I don't want to scare anybody off. I don't want to be presumptuous about it. I don't own the property outright – it's a 20th Century Fox property. But everybody seems really into it and really eager to make a movie."

The rest is more of the same. Blah, blah, I wanna do the movie and then season five, blah, blah, blah. Though at one point, he compares Arrested Development season four to The Godfather Part II and how people weren't crazy about it at first. Sure, Mitch.

Matt Damon & Paul Greengrass In Talks to Return for The Bourne Teet

All that talk of keeping Jeremy Renner for a Bourne Legacy sequel was, thankfully, just talk.

Reports Twitch, Universal is in dual negotiations to get Matt Damon and helmer Paul Greengrass back on the Bourne saddle. The money must be astronomical (It was the only logical conclusion after Legacy shit its box-office britches last August) but Damon's MO has not changed since Bourne 4 morphed into the Jason Bourne-absent entry after talks fell through.

If Greengrass doesn't come back, Damon doesn't.

Mad RESPECT (in all caps) to a man putting his money where his mouth is and remaining loyal. Then again he and Greengrass also said The Bourne Ultimatum was the end, until they reneged after one whiff of the cash cow's milk. And this may be the failure of Elysium talking too, if we're being completely honest.

Divergent: The Teaser Trailer About Nothing

The kids say Divergent is a big deal, and Lionsgate/Summit pay attention to what they say. They had a nice, long bath in Twilight money for the last four years. They're just beginning to get soaked over The Hunger Games profits. So any young-adult fiction that takes off should immediately be taken into serious consideration as the next big thing.

I'd just like to know how Divergent is supposed to be this big thing and, more importantly, what the Hell it's supposed to be about. The much-hyped teaser trailer for the Neil Burger-directed adaptation debuted on the MTV Video Music Awards tonight in between everyone cooing over that 'N Sync reunion.

Obviously I'm not a teenage girl here, i.e. the key demo. But I get why Twilight (One of the few movie-news writers who has treated the property, its fans and its creator with respect FYI) and The Hunger Games took off. Failing to see the appeal of this, but then again, it's only the teaser.

Ben Affleck Contracts Captain Trips - Exits The Stand

As much as I dig the revelation of Ben Affleck as the new Batman, this means there will be casualties. His directing career (the driving force behind his comeback that led to the Oscar-winning Argo and his being Christian Bale's successor in talking in a growling voice) gets put to the side-burner, like Live By Night intended as his Argo follow-up. It will still happen. It just won't shoot early next year as originally planned.

Such a move also forces his hand in exiting other projects penciled on his To Do list, in this case The Stand. Affleck has reportedly parted ways from the Stephen King novel, which he has been involved with for the last year or so. Unfortunate because he seemed like the right guy to properly adapt the post-apocalyptic virus thriller-turned-battle over good and evil to the silver screen.

In his place, Warner Brothers has assigned the job to Scott Cooper, writer-director behind Crazy Heart, a film primarily known for Jeff Bridges' Overdue/Career Win Oscar victory, and the forthcoming Out of the Furnace, a revenge incidentally starring Christian Bale and Casey Affleck.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Episode VII Will Look Like a Movie

One can't say in a wise-ass tone, "Who else did you expect?" Everyone and their mother thought Michael Giacchino would score Star Wars: Episode VII since he's been J.J. Abrams' composer of choice since Mission: Impossible III and John Williams, with all due respect, is getting on up there in years. They went with Williams anyway.

That change of pace won't continue for cinematography. The Boba Fett Fan Club reports Dan Mindel, who's been the go-to DP for Abrams, will lens Episode VII. Here's the kicker. They're shooting on 35MM film. You know, like a real movie.

It is a sad state that reporting the usage of film is news-worthy. But we live in a time when using video is quick and cheap (Though Kodack has been offering competitive rates to lure studios back) and not all filmmakers have the clout of Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino to demand film only. And it's a nice return to form for Star Wars after George Lucas opted for digital starting on Attack of the Clones.

Batman, You Were the Bomb in Phantoms, Yo!

Well, you can add three Academy Award winners to wear the cape-and-cowl and the first guy to play a superhero for a rival studio and comic-book company (If you don't count Ryan Reynolds, which I don't - Deadpool wasn't a superhero). And yeah technically he played Superman too.

In an absolute stunner, Warner Brothers has announced Ben Affleck will play Bruce Wayne and his night-prone alter ego (or the other way around, depending on how you see it) for the untitled Superman/Batman team-up film directed by Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill returning as the Last Son of Krypton. They're still calling it the Man of Steel sequel. Though we're hearing from studio peeps that is not the case here. This is viewed more as a side project (The Avengers to Iron Man, if you will) with a true sequel to this year's Superman do-over to come after this.

But back to the Batman at hand. To call this a surprise is putting it lightly. Hell I'm not sure there are any words to express this move. Affleck has had one of the true career comebacks in recent years. His Oscar victory for the historical-drama Argo (my favorite film of last year) was the accumulation of that. He's been WB's boy for awhile, yes (He was offered both Justice League: Mortal and Man of Steel) but I always thought he tired of those blockbuster Armageddon/Sum of All Fears days. But I'll admit it's a good surprise.

Source: The Wrap

Pirates of the Caribbean 5 Has a (Shitty-Sounding) New Title

Straight outta the mouths of helmers Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (via This is Infamous) is the title for the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise nobody, save for Disney and Johnny Depp's accountant, cares about but will still crack $1 billion, fuck you very much overseas markets.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Besides its general terribleness, it sounds like their way of reclaiming their glory days, i.e. the first sequel Dead Man's Chest that, for its time, claimed all sorts of box-office records and was an unwatchable piece of blockbuster fecal matter that many have come around to admitting the truth seven years on.

Bradley Cooper to Voice Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy

First scooped by Latino Review last night and confirmed by The Wrap. Bradley Cooper is in talks to voice Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Arguably the biggest risk Marvel has taken since the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man (You laugh but few would insure him for years even after he got his life together), a property as out-there and geek heavy as Guardians with its talking raccoons and giant tree aliens who only say "I AM GROOT!" this is going to need as many big-names as possible to gage interest from the general masses.

And it's odd that the highest profile name involved is the guy voicing Rocket Raccoon. Does Cooper even have that distinguished a voice? It takes balls to go this bold a strategy. For that, I tip my fedora in respect of its director James Gunn and the House of Ideas.