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Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – April 30, 2009

Niall Browne — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:07:17 +0000

Another week means another wrap up.

This week:
We Tell No One about a new remake; Hollywood decides to tell us about The Day They Stole The Mona Lisa; Wolverine’s Danny Huston is beyond the Poseidon adventure; Maria Bello and Craig T. Nelson are Company Men and Amanda Peet Travels with Jack Black.

1. Miramax will produce a remake of hit French thriller Tell No One.

The original film saw a French doctor discover that his dead wife may be alive – don’t get funny – I know that would mean she’s not really dead but get over it.

The film sounds like a 1990’s Hollywood thriller starring Michael Douglas or Harrison Ford (that’s not a bad thing). Jurassic Park producer and Spielberg protégé Kathleen Kennedy will produce the film.

The original film was based on a novel by Haralan Coben.

Source: Variety

2. Roger Donaldson the man behind such first rate thrillers as No Way Out and Thirteen Days will direct The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa. It’s not a sequel to The Day The Earth Stood Still – or Mona Lisa Smile for that matter.

According to Variety:

“The book centers on the theft of the world’s most famous painting from the Louvre in 1911. It was missing for more than two years before an Italian carpenter named Vincent Perugia showed up with the painting in Florence. The film will center on the conman who masterminded the theft.”

Even if the film doesn’t turn out to be good at least Donaldson will get a holiday out of it.

Source: Variety

3. Danny Houstin is taking the Poseidon. Sorry that was just a little bit of phonic toilet humor.

The X-Men Origins: Wolverine actor will play Poseidon in Clash of The Titans.
Son of the legendary John Huston.

The remake of the great Clash of The Titans will also star Terminator Salvation and Avatar star Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Gemma Arterton.

Source: UGO

4. Maria Bello and Craig T. Nelson have joined the line-up of Company Men. The John Wells written and directed film will also star Oscar winners Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper.

The credit crunch drama is currently shooting in Boston.

Source: Variety

5. Amanda Peet will star alongside Jack Black in 20th Century Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The modern retelling follows travel writer Lemuel Gulliver, who heads to an assignment in the Bermuda Triangle only to end up on the secret island of Lilliput, home to a population of industrious tiny people. Peet will play Black’s editor and potential romantic interest.”

The original story was written by Jonathan Swift – the author behind the darkly comedic “A Modest Proposal”.

Peet is a serial co-star of Black’s High Fidelity chum John Cusack – appearing in three films with the actor – their next being 2012.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

Movie News Wrap Up: April 6, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:10:00 +0000

This week:

The box office is Furious; Jack Bauer leaves 24 for Joel Schumacher’s Twelve; Paul Weitz looks at Little Fockers; Rosemarie DeWitt and Chris Cooper are Company Men; Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman stare into the Rabbit Hole; we make a date for Sex and The City 2 and Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg are Prisoners.

Box office
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker raced into the number one position with Fast and Furious. The action sequel banked a massive $72 million over the weekend – showing that there is plenty of gas left in the Fast and Furious franchise. Maybe Vin Diesel will get those Riddick movies made after all.

Monster vs. Aliens dropped to second place but it still managed to gross $33 million giving the animated film a gross of over $100 million.

The Haunting in Connecticut took another $9.6 million bringing the total gross to a pretty decent $37 million.

Nicolas Cage’s hair banked another $8 million, giving Knowing a total gross of $58 million.

I Love You, Man brought its total up to $49 million while fellow comedy film Adventureland had a disappointing opening of $6 million.

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen saw Duplicity bank an additional $4 million giving the star driven thriller a $32 million total.

Movie News

1. Joel Schumacher will direct an adaptation of Nick McDonell’S novel Twelve. According to Variety:

“Story follows a high school dropout-turned-drug dealer. His lucrative life sours when the dealer’s cousin is brutally murdered on an East Harlem playground and his best friend is arrested for the crime.”

The cast of the film includes Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Curtis Jackson (or 50 Cent), Ellen Barkin and Kiefer Sutherland.

Sutherland and Schumacher have made numerous films together over the years – A Time To Kill, Lost Boys, Phone Booth and Flatliners. Schumacher also directed Emma Roberts’ aunt Julia in Flatliners and Dying Young.

Did I mention that Schumacher also directed a little film called Batman and Robin?

Source: Variety

2. Paul Weitz is in talks to direct Universal Pictures Little Fockers, the second sequel to Meet The Parents.

The director has previously helmed the first American Pie film, About A Boy and In Good Company.

The Focker flick is expected to start shooting in July.

Source: Variety

3. Rosemarie DeWitt has joined the cast of Company Men and Chris Cooper is in negotiations to sign on to the film. The corporate downsizing drama will star Kevin Costner, Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones.

How many Oscar winners can you fit into one film?

Rosemarie DeWitt will play Affleck’s wife while Cooper would play a white collar worker losing his job.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Aaron Eckhart will join Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole.

“[The film is a] story of a happily married couple whose lives are disrupted after their 4-year-old son is killed in a traffic accident and the redemptive journey they must undertake to regain happiness.”

Sounds like a bundle of laughs. It’ll be interesting to see if Kidman can emote.

Source: Variety

5. Warner Bros. have set a date for Sex and the City 2. Be prepared to be carried away (again) on May 28, 2010.

The first film made a mind boggling $412.6 million worldwide.

That’s an awful lot of shoes for Sarah Jessica Parker.

Source: Variety

6. Batman and Terminator Salvation star Christian Bale may join Mark Wahlberg in Prisoners.

The plot is as follows:

“After his 6-year-old daughter and her friend are kidnapped, a small-town carpenter butts heads with a young, brash detective in charge of the investigation. The father is a Bible-reading, deer-hunting survivalist. The cop, meanwhile, can’t wait to get to the city. Feeling failed by the law, the father captures the man he believes responsible and begins to torture him in a desperate attempt to find out what he did with the girls, whom he’s convinced are still alive.”

Bryan Singer is pondering directing the film.

Nothing is set in stone yet but if Bale, Wahlberg and Singer io sign then expect a studio to snap the project up.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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

Niall Browne — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:13:54 +0000

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.