Screen Rant » sleeper

Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi Aren’t ‘Sleeping’ On The Job

Niall Browne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:37:33 +0000

Back in August we let you know that Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi were interested in making a film version of the Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips comic book, Sleeper. Then in October it was announced that Brad Ingelsby had been hired to pen the script. However, news on the project died down as Cruise attached himself to multiple projects and Raimi became involved in pre-production on Spider-Man 4.

Co-creator Ed Brubaker spoke to MTV recently and told them that Ingelsby was no longer the writer of the film but that Cruise and Raimi are still involved in the project.

Brubaker said:

“I talked to one of the producers a couple of weeks ago, and they have a new screenwriter that they hired. I don’t think they could all get on the same page. You know Hollywood, though, they usually go through a million screenwriters on one project.”

The plot of the film is as follows:

” An operative whose fusion with an alien artifact makes him impervious to pain and allows him to pass it on to others through skin contact. He is placed undercover in a villainous organization by an intelligence agency and falls for a member of the group, named Miss Misery.”

Brubaker also believes that the success of the latest Star Trek film also had an impact on the film’s new approach:

“If you remember in Sleeper, there’s a ’suitcase black hole’ in the story. That was going to be part of the master plan of the bad guy in the Sleeper movie, and then Star Trek came out and it had this miniature black hole, and they’re like, ‘Now we can’t use a suitcase black hole,’ and it went back for a rewrite. I don’t understand why movies are like that. That’s like saying you can’t use World War II because Saving Private Ryan did it already.”

With no script, plot troubles and the fact that Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi are seemingly going to be busy for the next few years, I can’t imagine that Sleeper will be seeing the inside of a cinema soon.

Even Brubaker is shocked at the attention the project is receiving from Hollywood, because the original comic book didn’t sell that well:

“It was one of my lowest-selling books, so you’d think that every copy that sold had ended up in Hollywood somewhere.”

Well, at least one ended up in Tom Cruise’s hand.

More on Sleeper when and if it ever happens.

Source: MTV

Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – Oct. 16, 2008

Niall Browne — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:56:13 +0000

I swear that one day I’ll get this out on a Wednesday.

This week:

Dick Donner talks The Goonies 2; the film version of The Road may be delayed until 2009; Ron Shelton and Tim Robbins talk Bull Durham 2; Sam Raimi’s Sleeper gets a writer and Kight Rider and The Sarah Connor Chronicles get more scripts.

1. I seem to be spending a lot of time writing about Richard Donner lately. That’s not a complaint, he’s a great director and the man should get more praise. He should also be allowed to make more movies, be them Lethal Weapons or not.

Donner has announced that a sequel to his 80’s classic The Goonies has been scrapped. Donner told Variety:

“We tried really hard, and Steven (Spielberg) said, ‘Let’s do it.’ We had a lot of young writers submit work, but it just didn’t seem to call for it”

However, if you love The Goonies there might be a musical. Donner says:

“I’m in the process of trying to get it done as a musical on Broadway. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Dick, I really don’t know. Music by Cyndi Lauper?

Source: Variety

2. Fans of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road may have a longer wait for the film adaptation of the novel. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the film won’t be making its scheduled release date of November 16.

The Viggo Mortensen starrer may be pushed to 2009, as director John Hillcoat is still in the editing phase. That’s gotta hurt as the film is seen as prime Oscar material. I know some people who have read the book, and it has brought a grown man to tears. He wasn’t a particularly tough man, but he cried all the same.

There could be a long road ahead.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. There’s more news on the sequel to Bull Durham, Kevin Costner’s iconic baseball flick. Director Ron Shelton and co-star Tim Robbins have been talking up the film at the original movie’s 20th anniversary commemoration at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Shelton said:

“For 20 years I have said no to a sequel. For the last year we’ve been talking about it. I used to say ‘You can’t do a sequel 20 years later.’ Then the fact that it’s 20 years later started to intrigue me.”

Robbins says:

“I actually told Ron this idea a couple of months ago. (Nuke) hurt his arm. I want the sequel to open with him at one of those trade shows signing autographs.”

The pair went on to give a detailed plot for the film:

You pan from Pete Rose and all these guys getting $350 and $500 an autograph, and there’s Nuke and he’s getting 15 bucks. And he’s really steamed about it because (he was supposed) to get 25.

My view of his major-league career is he went up there and in his second year in the majors he was 18-4. In his third year he was 4-18,It was a sort of an unrealized career in which we saw glimpses of his greatness. (Crash Davis – Costner)is now managing Durham in Triple A, back with a (major-league) dream alive again. I think he’s kept this wonderful hot relationship with Annie (Susan Sarandon), who probably has the Faulkner Chair in Oxford, Miss. Crash and Annie find him in the middle of a drunken stupor in the middle of his hotel room or something and bring him back to the majors by teaching him how to throw a knuckleball …”

It sounds like it could work – but will Costner play ball?

Source: Times Union

4. Brad Ingelsby will write the adaptation of Sleeper for Warner Bros. The Comic book film will be produced by Sam Raimi and Josh Donen. Wrap Up favorite Tom Cruise is interested in starring.

Source: Dark Horizons

5. Although ratings are dropping on both series, Fox and NBC has ordered more scripts for The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Knight Rider.

Might The Sarah Connor Chronicles be terminated? Could it be the end of the road for Knight Rider?

Maybe, but if things improve then you’ll have a few more episodes to watch, and lets face it – at least they aren’t canceled!

Source: SyFy Portal

That’s it for another week. See you at the movies.

Tom Cruise And Sam Raimi Get Sleepy

Niall Browne — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:02:43 +0000

I never have to worry about writer’s block. Whenever I’m stuck on a story to write abou,t good old Tom Cruise attaches himself to another project.

Now, it’s not like Tom (I write about him so often he feels like a friend) has no intention of making these films – he wouldn’t be so mean. It’s just that in Hollywood things take time and different projects have different gestation periods.

The latest possible film to catch Tom’s eye is Sleeper which is based on a comic book by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

If you can’t tell from the headline – Sam Raimi will produce and possibly direct.

According to the Hollywood Reporter the plot of the comic book follows:

“ An operative whose fusion with an alien artifact makes him impervious to pain and allows him to pass it on to others through skin contact. He is placed undercover in a villainous organization by an intelligence agency and falls for a member of the group, named Miss Misery.”

The film is being set up at Warner Bros. who hope that the film will become, yep you guessed it – a franchise!

Now be warned, Tom may not star in this. It now looks like his next film will indeed be The Tourist (though that could change) but Raimi apparently loves the comic book, so there’s a good chance that this will see the light of day. Or should that be the darkness of the cinema? Who knows.

There are a few legal issues over the rights of the film/comic book, but that shouldn’t bother Warner Bros. who I’m sure will just plough away with the film regardless. Just kidding, the Warner legal team are going over this sucker with a fine tooth comb. I mean the last thing you’d want is to spend $100 million on a film and then find out you don’t have the rights to release the bloody thing! Right?