Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 20, 2008

So The Dark Knight has finally been released and it’s kicking all sort of Box Office butt. It’s great news, the bad news (for me at least) is that I don’t get to see it until Friday!!

However, don’t worry – we’ll always have the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up!

This week:

We have more news on the new RoboCop movie, we take our Tom Cruise news with a pinch of Salt, Christian Bale does some Terminating, we look at another X-Files poster, and Rob Cohen remakes The Monster Squad.

1. Last week I brought you news that Darren Aronofsky was helming the RoboCop remake. Well it looks like the film isn’t a remake after all. The film appears to be more of a sequel to the original films. Bloody Disgusting report that the logline of the film (a logline is the plot – in a line or so) says:

Present day Los Angeles, 20 years after the termination of the RoboCop program, the city decides to reinstate the program.

It’s an interesting concept that appears to be more along the lines of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, where they acknowledge the previous films in the franchise (or they acknowledge the original and forget the crap sequels).

It’s interesting news, but I’m not sure if it’s good news. As ever I’ll keep you posted.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

2. It’s Sunday, and that can only mean one thing – I’m going to write about Tom Cruise!

News circulated at the start of the week that The Cruiser was off the spy thriller Edwin A. Salt. The reason – he was too old and not worth his $20 million asking price!

His replacement?

No, it’s not Christian Bale. However, it is rumored to be Will Smith.

“What ?” I hear you scream. “They can’t do that to little Tom!”

Well, I don’t think that they are.

Fox News “jackass” Roger Friedman wrote:

“Cruise is out, and I’m told it’s because of money. Apparently, Tom is unaware of the change in his status in the Hollywood community. Where once he was the top-paid star, Cruise now is in a position where a $20 million salary is not possible. I’m told an internal memo went around among the film’s producers and top creators in which the Cruise situation was discussed and names were gathered for a replacement.

The reasons for Cruise’s departure are not just his diminished popularity, negative public opinion and Scientology — although those would be good enough. It’s also just generational. Cruise is 45. His heyday as a box office star — if he ever had one — is over.”

The “writer” also went on to say :

“Like past huge leading action stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cruise must face the brutal facts of aging. Ironically, he’s been replaced by Will Smith, whom Cruise has courted for Scientology. Talk about rubbing “Salt” in a wound!

Of course, it doesn’t help that his last big feature, Mission: Impossible 3, was eons ago, in Hollywood terms — 2006. On top of that, even a film shot now and released next summer would have to erase in the audience’s mind Cruise’s upcoming release, Valkyrie, aka The Nazi movie, due next February.”

However, this all sounds a bit too much like kicking somebody when they are down.

The much more reliable folks over at Moviehole however have some insider information that sounds sooooo much more reliable that Friedman’s tabloid musings.

Moviehole state:

“A representative of the film tells us that Cruise is the only person that has been approached about the film – but he isn’t yet on board. ”Tom is not set for the film. Cruise has never been officially attached to the project, but will decide on his involvement once the new script is finished. He was previously concerned that the part was too close to his Mission Impossible character.”

Phillip Noyce is still attached as director.

If there’s anymore Tom Cruise news, you can be sure to find it here. Stay tuned!

Sources: Fox and Moviehole

3. The first official picture of Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation has been released and it shows Bale kicking some Terminator butt.

It would appear that the Terminator in the picture won’t be back!

Maybe Bale hadn’t heard the grosses for The Dark Knight yet!

Source: Aintitcool

4. A new UK poster for The X-Files: I Want to Believe has been released and it looks… very plain.

There’s a very low key marketing campaign on this film and nobody really knows what it’s about yet. Man – I hope that this movie makes some dough, I’d love to see the franchise continued.

It kind of looks like an X-Files poster photographed by Janusz Kaminski (War of The Worlds, Minority Report).

The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25th in the US and August 1st in the UK

Source: Empire

5. Rob Cohen director of the forthcoming Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is set to produce a remake of cult kiddie-horror flick The Monster Squad.

The 1987 film directed by Fred Dekkar as co-written by Shane Black and features a group of you teenagers battling the Dracula, The Wolfman and The Mummy and the rest of the Universal horror gang.

Cohen said to Bloody Disgusting:

“I am talking withParamount about the ownership rights, we just found out that because of all the different companies being bought and sold, (it was so hard to do) but we believe all the rights are back at Paramount. I have been waiting to finish this (third Mummy) film, to really start the talks about remaking it. Maybe I would direct, maybe someone else withme producing. I really think highly of that that film…I mean, how great is it with The Mummy, the Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein they all were in it! It would be a prime remake!”

I haven’t seen the film in years (although I did catch a few minutes on TV a year or two ago) but it was a fun flick, sort of like The Goonies Meet Dracula.

Something to watch out for. Maybe

Source: Bloody Disgusting

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