This Week:

Will The Blair Witch return? Sam Raimi travels abroad for horror and feels some Anguish at The Dorm; Two Face and Johnny Depp drink Rum; Cruise and Washington in The Matarese Circle.

1. Might we be seeing The Blair Witch a decade after it was first unleashed?

There appears to be a possibility. Creators of the franchise Dan Myrick and Ed Sanchez want to make another sequel to their little film that put the word profit in profitability.

Myrick told Digital Spy:

”Myself and the producer, Gregg Hale, have been talking and revisiting the idea behind a prequel that explores the original story and mythology of Blair Witch folklore’. Ultimately the decision is up to Lionsgate, which owns the rights to the project and whether or not they want to take the leap with us. But we’re developing some ideas and exploring some storylines that we like, and checking out some locations. We’d like to do one. It would be great.”

Considering the financial trouble that Lionsgate is currently having, a cheap “brand name” film might help to balance the books. The first Blair Witch film cost a little over $20 thousand to make and grossed almost $250 million worldwide.

Source: Moviehole

2. Sam Raimi is a busy man. Not happy after cornering the market on webbed superheroes, but the man seems to love remaking foreign horror films. Following on from The Grudge films Raimi’s Ghost House production company will produce Anguish and The Dorm.

According to Variety :

“Anguish follows two girls who, while watching a scary movie, find themselves in a horror film of their own when their life starts to mirror the pic’s plot.”

The film is based on a 1987 Spanish film.

The Dorm “centers on a college freshman who moves into a dorm only to find that her room is haunted by sinister forces.”

The Dorm is based on the Danish film Room 205.

Source: Variety

3. Johnny Depp will be joined by Aaron Eckhart and Richard Jenkins in The Rum Diary.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Eckhart is part of a love triangle that sees him vying with Depp for Heard’s affection. “Diary” is the tale of a washed-up, hard-drinking journalist named Paul Kemp (Depp) in 1950s Puerto Rico. Eckhart would play Sanderson, a wealthy landowner who believes everything has a price and introduces Kemp to a different standard of living. Jenkins is playing Lotterman, the man who oversees the rundown newspaper where Kemp works.”

You know – I think I read the Hunter S. Thompson book in the past and enjoyed it, but in all honesty I have no recollection of what happens in it. Is that wrong?

The Rum Diaries starts shooting next month.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Wrap Ups have been light on Tom Cruise lately – but all that is about to change. The Cruiser is in talks to star opposite Denzel Washington in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s The Matarese Circle.

According to Variety:

“Cruise will go mano a mano with Washington as two bitter enemy spies who, after spending two decades trying to kill each other, grudgingly team up against the Matarese, a powerful group at the root of a conspiracy.”

“Mano a mano” that makes it sound so…manly.

With this talent onboard The Matarese Circle has become a major film for MGM and a possible franchise due to the follow-up book The Matarese Countdown. The last time MGM got this excited must have been when they snagged Steve Martin for The Pink Panther franchise. Whoops.

Source: Variety

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

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• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 11, 2009

As we all know Johnny Depp is one hell of a popular and in-demand actor. Upcoming he’s got the Michael Mann crime film Public Enemies, then he’s got his step-in appearance for the late Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and following that he’s got yet another Tim Burton collaboration as he portrays The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.

And now a casting call has come out that suggests that Depp’s next role will be in the adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel The Rum Diary, which is set to start production in March this year. If Depp is cast he will play Paul Kemp, described as “a divorced, alcoholic, and struggling novelist”.

Here’s the story of the novel:

A journalist named Paul Kemp, who moves from New York to work for a small newspaper, The Daily News, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Set in the late 1950s, the novel encompasses a tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust among the American expatriates who staff the newspaper.

The adaptation has been in development hell for the last 10 years or so – production was scheduled way back in 2000 and again in 2003, switching production companies, directors and financial backers along the way. Before his death Thompson spoke of his strong desire to see it be made.

Depp isn’t the only actor to be attached to the project – others including Josh Hartnett, Benicio Del Toro (Depp’s co-star in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and Nick Nolte, amongst others, but none of these are attached anymore.

When I first read the story outline (given above) I immediately thought of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, even before I found out the two projects were linked by the same writer. To me it sounds a bit too similar although perhaps it’s supposed to be that way, functioning as a sort of companion piece.

However I am intrigued that Depp might play this role – he was absolutely fantastic in Fear and Loathing, and I would welcome seeing him portray a similar type of character again.

Generally it’s surprising he’s choosing to work as much as he is, it wasn’t that long ago that all he seemed to play was Captain Jack Sparrow. But I, for one, am glad he’s broken out of that mould and has started to play a diversity of roles again.

Have any of you read the source novel of The Rum Diary and if so do you think Depp will fit the role well?

Sources: The Bad and Ugly, Contact Music and Moono

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