MGM Roars To Life With Joss Whedon And More

The lion is hungry and it seems to be roaring again as projects like The Cabin in the Woods and a Red Dawn remake are on Mary Parent’s clip board.

Mary Parent is getting right on track in MGM these days since she was named the chair of their Worldwide Motion Picture Group back in March.

One item that she’s given the green light to on her clipboard is the project called The Cabin in the Woods.

The Cabin in the Woods is brought to us by none other than Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. In the past these two, as a team, have brought us such successes as the ill-fated Serenity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Buffy spinoff Angel. Drew Goddard has some other credits to his name as writer and co-producer of Alias and wrote some other little known flick by some guy, called Cloverfield and co-produces ABC’s Lost.

But “Cabin” will be Goddard’s directorial debut. I am short on storyline details and not because I’m lazy, but for some reason they’re being tight lipped about it. Suffice it to say that Mary Parent has been quoted to saying, “It’s a visceral thrill ride and I’ll leave it at that.” No. I won’t leave it at that. I will hover and hound until I have details, and THEN I will leave it at that!

With Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods set to go, Parent is also looking to push MGM in the direction of other remakes and sequels. One such remake is Red Dawn!

They’ve hired screenwriter Carl Ellsworth, with Dan Bradley directing.

Ellsworth’s writing credits inlcude Disturbia & Red Eye while Bradley’s recent experience was 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator for The Bourne Ultimatum, Spider-Man 3 and the upcoming Quantum of Solace. I guess Ellsworth is an action kind of guy.

In the event you aren’t as ancient as I am, Red Dawn was a 1980’s movie where Soviet forces invade the U.S. and a mid-western pack of teenagers pull it together to first defend their town, then go on to lead the defense of their country with the battle cry of “Go Wolverines!” (School team name) It starred Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Darren Dalton and Jennifer Grey. I remember liking the movie a lot back then and the few times I’ve seen it on TV since.

With the above projects gaining momentum, I would be remiss if I did not mention or remind of you MGM’s other projects: Fame, The Thomas Crown Affair 2, The Zookeeper and RoboCop. Mary Parent just didn’t take over, she lit the fire under someone’s *** and is launching their company into the front lines of movie making and headlines!

An Interesting Side Note About Parent and Whedon:

No, not “that” kind of side note! MGM might be backing Joss Whedon a little bit more than it used to.

Before coming to MGM, Mary Parent was pretty successful for Universal. She has also been called a “Whedon Stalker”. She was the executive force behind Serenity and she convinced Universal to purchase Whedon’s project called Goners. For those who have been hovering about following the development of Goners, the hope for the show may actually be, well, gone with Parent leaving Universal.

Whedon never really let on what Goners was about, but it was rumored to be like Buffy, but more horrific. Oh well. That would have been cool.

Source: Hollywood Reporter, whedon.info,
Image background source: mgmlicensing.com

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