Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – March 26, 2009

In this week’s A-list packed Wrap Up:

Kevin Costner, Ben Affleck and Tommy  Lee Jones are Company Men; Costner is The One; Silver rewrites Battle: Los Angeles for Aaron Eckhart; Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are in love; Magnum Pi hangs out with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in Five Killers; Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore are Bill and Hilary Clinton in The Special Relationship and Moore is less for The Thing.

1. Kevin Costner, Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones will star in the independent drama Company Men. According to Variety:

“Affleck plays a corporate hotshot whose Porsche and six-figure salary vanish after he gets laid off. Costner plays his brother-in-law, a salt-of-the-earth drywall installer who gives him a construction job. Jones plays a senior partner in the firm, a principled man who struggles with the greedy actions of his partners.”

I sounds like it couldn’t be more suited to the current economic climate.

Affleck has been on the comeback trail lately and Costner is one of the best leading men around. As for Jones – he was never better than he was in No Country For Old Men.

The John Wells (ER) penned film starts shooting next month.

Source: Variety

2. Variety also has the scoop that Costner will be directing and starring in The One.
The film was written by Michael Blake the man behind Costner’s finest hour Dances With Wolves.

“Costner will star as a free-spirited man who inherits $3 billion, leading him on an adventure and an eventual collision with pirates in the Cayman Islands.”

I can’t wait.

Source: Variety

3. Scott Silver has been brought onboard to rewrite Battle: Los Angeles.
The film sees an alien invasion of Los Angeles and the battle to reclaim the city by a platoon of marines.

Chris Bertolini wrote the original script and Jonathan Liebesman is set to direct.

The Dark Knight’s Aaron Eckhart is attached to star.

Source: Variety

4. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are mulling over reuniting on the big screen for a romantic comedy. The untitled film that has previously gone by the name of Wichita and Trouble Man.

According to Variety:

“Story revolves around a woman who has terrible luck with men but finds her path intertwined with that of a mysterious handsome man she meets on a blind date.”

The film was originally being tooled as a vehicle for Chris Tucker and Eva Mendes.

James Mangold the director behind Walk the Line and 3.10 To Yuma will call the shoots if the Vanilla Sky duo decide on starring.

It is one of many films that Cruise is pondering at this moment in time.

Source: Variety

5. Tom Selleck, Catherine O’Hara and Martin Mull will join Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in Five Killers.

“The story follows a hitman (Kutcher) at the top of his game who falls for a computer tech (Heigl) and decides to hang up his guns. Years later, their suburban bliss is ruptured when he finds out there’s a hit out on him, forcing him and his spooked wife to go on the run.”

Magnum star Selleck and O’Hara will play Heigl’s parents.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

6. Dennis Quaid will play Bill Clinton in HBO’S The Special Relationship. The film charts the political relationship of Clinton and Britain’s Tony Blair. Michael Sheen seen recently as David Frost in Frost/ Nixon will star as Blair for the third time following The Queen and The Deal.

Julianne Moore will co-star as Hilary Clinton. Julianne Moore? Maybe they’ll cast Keira Knightly as Monica Lewinski…

Quaid will next be seen in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Source: Variety

7. It looks like Ronald D. Moore’s script for The Thing didn’t give Universal what they wanted because they’ve brought Eric Heisserer in to do a rewrite.

Heisserer has recently reworked the A Nightmare on Elm Street script by  Wesley Strick.

What this means is unknown.

Are they now going for a straight up remake and ditching the idea that this remake/ prequel will be a companion piece to John Carpenter’s original?

Maybe Heisserer is doing nothing more than a polish on the dialogue. Time will tell.

But wouldn’t it be cool if the reason Kurt Russell didn’t do The Expendables was his commitment to this?

Just hoping.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.