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Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – Feb. 19, 2009

Niall Browne — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:24:04 +0000

This week:

Get ready to meet the Little Fockers; Don Johnson burns Nash Bridges; Monahan helps Shia LaBeouf become an Associate; Warner Bros. lighten the Darkness for Mel Gibson; Jolie’s Salt adds a pinch of Schreiber; Elton John wants Pride and Predators and Leonardo Di Caprio plays War Games.

1. It looks like the third Meet The Parents film is on the way!

John Hamburg will rewrite Larry Stuckey’s original script of Little Fockers. Jay Roache who helmed Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers will not return to direct the film because of prior commitments. Universal and Tribeca Productions hope that the film will start shooting in the Summer or the Fall.

Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand are all expected back in some capacity.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

2. Don Johnson is angry – the Miami Vice and Nash Bridges star is suing 2929 Entertainment , Rysher Entertainment and Qualia Capital for profits from Nash Bridges – the San Francisco based cop show that ran from 1996-2001.

Johnson states that the 122 episode run of the show has so far earned $300 million and he wants his half of the profits! Johnson said :

“Nash Bridges is a very successful series and I am entitled to half of the profits, which I have not received.”

Johnson produced, starred and co-conceived the show and his company – Don Johnson Productions owns a 50% stake in the show.

I’m guessing that this is going to delay the long awaited DVD release of the show.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

3. William Monahan, the writer of The Departed will adapt John Grisham’s The Associate for the screen. The film is being developed as a Shia LaBeouf starrer. According to Variety:

“LaBeouf will play a Yale Law School student with a sordid secret that leaves him vulnerable to blackmail. He’s manipulated into taking a job at a law firm and working on a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.”

Monahan is currently preparing to make his directorial debut with London Boulevard which is due to star Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley.

Monahan’s next script to hit the big screen will be Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness.

Source: Variety

4. Speaking of Edge of Darkness – Warner Bros. have bought the domestic rights to the Martin Campbell directed thriller.

According to Variety:

“The film, based on the BBC miniseries of the same name, is centered on a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Dept. whose only child is murdered on the steps of his home.”

Campbell directed the original series for British TV back in the 80’s.

Source: Variety

5. Liev Schreiber is in talks to star in Angelina Jolie’s Salt. Schreiber will play Jolie’s boss on the film. According to Variety:

“The story centers on Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy. She eludes capture by superiors who are convinced she is out to assassinate the president. While trying to reunite with her family, she struggles to prove someone else is the traitor.”

The film was originally conceived as a Tom Cruise starrer before the role was tailored for Jolie.

The film starts shooting next month under the direction of Phillip Noyce.

Source: Variety

6. Elton John’s Rocket Pictures hope to produce a Jane Austen adaptation with a difference.

According to Variety:

“Will Clark is set to direct Pride and Predator, which veers from the traditional period costume drama when an alien crash lands and begins to butcher the mannered protags, who suddenly have more than marriage and inheritance to worry about.”

You couldn’t make that news story up if you were to try!

John’s producing partner and er… partner-partner said:

“It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect”

I can’t imagine this one getting past 20th Century Fox’s lawyers without a fight!

Source: Variety

7. Leonardo DiCaprio will produce a remake of War Games for MGM.

The original starred Matthew Broderick as a teenager who hacks into the Department Of Defense computers and starts WW III by believing he is playing a game.

There’s no news on cast or director, but I can imagine that MGM are praying that DiCaprio will star in the reboot.

Source: Production Weekly

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

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: December 07, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:39:47 +0000

It’s hard to believe that we are now into December. It seems like only yesterday I was talking about the big summer releases – and now we are looking forward to next years big movies.

This weeks Weekend Movie News Wrap Up features the obligatory box office wrap up as well as:

La Beouf is The Associate; Stiller talks Zoolander 2; who is Angelina Jolie? Zombie returns to Halloween and Brownlow Vs Captain Blood.

Box Office

America just loves Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. How do I know this? Simple: Four Christmases grossed another $18 million over the weekend, keeping it the top movie at the box office despite terrible reviews. That’s only a 41% drop from opening weekend, usually an indication of a movie being very popular.

Twilight should bag another $14 million keeping it in the No. 2 position. Man, it must suck being a Studio Executive who turned this vampire flick down.

Bolt should manage another $10 million, keeping Disney quite happy with its gross. $100 million is well on target.

Bond, James Bond should collect another $8 million or so giving Quantum of Solace a little over $150 million.

Australia should manage another $6 million giving the Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman film a weak $30 million gross. Not good. After Deception flopped earlier in the year and now this – Jackman must be praying that Wolverine does well.

Punisher: War Zone flopped HUGE on its opening, grossing just $4 (four!) million – about half of what Thomas Jane’s The Punisher grossed in 2004. It looks like the movie-going public just don’t dig Frank Castle. This is the third attempt to bring The Punisher to the screen and it will probably be the last. It looks like the Lexi Alexander directed film didn’t benefit from all of the pre-release rumor that was floating about over the summer. It should make a killing on DVD, so maybe a series of straight to DVD Punisher films is what is needed. Just a thought.

Movie News

1. Shia La Beouf goes where Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Matthew McConaughey have gone before. Get your mind out of the gutter – it has nothing to do with Penelope Cruz. He will be top-lining a John Grisham adaptation. La Beouf will star in The Associate, a legal thriller based on an as yet unpublished novel by Grisham.

According to Variety:

“LaBeouf will play a student who’s about to graduate from Yale Law School when he’s manipulated into accepting a job at a prestige law firm and given privileged information about a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.”

Sounds like pure Grisham. Should be another $100 million hit under Shia’s belt.

La Beouf’s Transformer producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing.

Source: Variety

2. Ben Stiller must be in the sequel mood as he’s developing a follow-up to 2001’s cult favorite Zoolander.

Stiller currently in the UK promoting Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa told The Sun:

“I’ve been trying to get Zoolander 2 together and we’ve had a few scripts. I feel that is the sequel I really would like to do some day because I like the original and I would make sure it was something new and worthy of it first.”

He also reportedly threatened another Meet The Parents.

Take these rumors with a pinch of salt a British tabloids have a habit of being creative with the truth.

Source: The Sun

3. Speaking of Salt, there appears to be some confusion of Angelina Jolie’s forthcoming action-thriller Salt.

Salt is a thriller that Jolie inherited from Tom Cruise – originally titled Edwin A.Salt. Some believe that the film may be Erika Salt, while others are of the opinion that the film will be simply called Salt – with the character called Evelyn..

Apparently in the sequel she teams up with a soldier from the US Army called Sgt. Pepper. This follow-up will be called Salt and Pepper.

Sorry – I just made up the last bit.

Source: Joblo

4. It looks like shock-rocker Rob Zombie will helm the sequel to his re-imagining/remake/rehash of John Carpenter’s Halloween.

Originally Zombie had stated that he would not return, but I’m guessing that Dimension made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were originally signed to make the film, but they left due to “creative differences.”

Apparently shooting is due to star in March, however there is no confirmation of a script being in place.

That’s never stopped a movie though!

Source: Shock Till You Drop

5. John Brownlow will write the script for Phillip Noyce’s remake of the legendary Captain Blood.

The original starred Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone. The remake won’t have anyone half as cool.

Source: Dark Horizons

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