News: Now Filming

John Hlavin To Pen Underworld 4

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:03:00 GMT

The Shield writer John Hlavin has been hired by Screen Gems and Lakeshore to write the script for Underworld 4.

The Underworld saga dates back to 2003 when Kate Beckinsale first took on the role of vampire warrior Selene and got involved in the war between the vampire and werewolf races.

Len Wiseman, who directed the first two films and was producer on the thrid will return to prosucing duties for the fourth installment. No director has yet been attached to the project, and neither Beckinsale nor other franchise regular Rhona Mitra have signed to return.

Hlavin said the plot is under wraps, "but I can tell you it's not a prequel." He added, "It will satisfy old fans and excite new audiences, meaning that we don't want to redo the first three movies, so steps are being taken to honor what fans have loved but at the same time introduce fresh elements."

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 20 November 2009

Sam Worthington Is Going Back To The Future

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:49:00 GMT

Looks like Sam Worthington isn't going to be getting a day off anytime soon. According to those fine folks over at Variety, the star of Terminator Salvation, Avatar and Clash Of The Titans has signed up for yet another big-budget flick, this time based on a comic-book called The Last Days Of American Crime.

Set in the not-too-distant future, the story involves the US government's plans to secretly broadcast a signal that makes it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts. It's based on Rick Remender's comic series of the same name and will start shooting just as soon as Worthington has wrapped on John Madden-directed thriller The Debt.

Interested? Leave your comments below...

Glen Ferris

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 20 November 2009

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura To Produce Adaptation Of The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:34:00 GMT

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the producer of G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra and Transformers, has agreed a deal to produce a big screen adaptation of Michael Scott's six-part fantasy book series The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

The series tells the story of fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman as they adventure across several continents with the immortal Nicholas Flamel. Flamel is a real life figure who lived in France in the 14th century and developed a posthumous reputation as an alchemist due to his reputed work on the philosopher's stone. You may also recognise the name from the first Harry Potter book, which adds weight to di Bonaventura's claim to Variety that "Michael's fantastic series is a natural evolution from Harry Potter".

The first book in Scott's series is called The Alchemyst, and you can read the full synopsis below:

He holds the secret that can end the world. The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty. The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects�the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it. Sometimes legends are true. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.

The second two books in the series - The Magician and The Sorceress - are available to buy now, and the fourth book - The Necromancer - is due out on May 25, 2010. The last two books will be titled The Warlock and The Enchantress.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 19 November 2009

Jennifer Hudson To Star As Winnie

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:23:00 GMT

When we spotted the headline in today's Variety that Oscar winning actress Jennifer Hudson was set to play 'Winnie' our first thoughts turned towards that charming ENGLISH (never, ever Disney) bear Winnie-the-Pooh, but that seemed unlikely so we thought again... could she be playing Samuel Beckett's buried Winnie from the Nobel prize winner's 1962 play Happy Days? Again it seemed unlikely.

In fact, the actress is set to play Winnie Mandela in a cinematic answer to Clint Eastwood's upcoming film about her husband Nelson, Invictus.

The film will be directed by Darrell J. Roodt and will be a nuanced biopic of the complex, extraordinary and often villified woman who was disgraced following her separation from a husband she stood by and campaigned for over many decades.

SL

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Wednesday 18 November 2009

Anna Faris Is Doubly Funny

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:51:00 GMT

Anna Faris is dominating film stories today with the news that she is to star in two new comedies, one alongside Ryan Reynolds and the other with Robin Williams.

The House Bunny star will work with Reynolds in TMI, a comedy script that has been acquired by Universal. Scripted by Kirsten Smith and Marc Klein, the film's premise is fairly vague but is said to centre around the concept that while honesty is the best policy for a relationship, "too much information" might not be the best thing. Andrew Panay (Old Dogs) will produce with Jonathon Komack Martin, and Reynolds is acting as executive producer on the project.

Faris' other project is a romantic comedy for Touchstone called Wedding Banned. She will star alongside Williams, but before you start worrying that the mis-matched actors will be entwined in a lovers' tryst, we should mention that Faris is in line to play Williams' daughter (phew!). The film centres on a long-divorced couple who kidnap their daughter (Faris) on her wedding day to prevent her from making the same mistakes they did. The parents rekindle their relationship as they elude cops and the angry groom.

Jack Amiel and Michael Begler wrote the script, and so far there is no director attached to the project.

Meanwhile, the busy Faris has also recently signed up to star with Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake in Yogi Bear for Warner Bros.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Tuesday 17 November 2009

Death Race 2: Casting Now

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:26:00 GMT

Spoiler TV have got their hands on casting call details for the sequel to Paul W.S. Anderson's 2008 actioner Death Race which, lest you've forgot, starred Jason Statham as 'Frankenstein' - a prisoner on Terminal Island who is coerced to enter Death Race, a gladiator-like televised fight-to-the-death.

Anderson is set to producer the sequel, entitled Death Race: Franksenstein Lives and is searching for a handful of stars to take roles including Carl 'Luke' Lucas, an assertive, strong and charismatic convict, September Jones, a model turned 'insatiably ambitious and eye-poppingly gorgeous' journalist with the soul of an ice-pick, Elizabeth Jame Case, the sexy card girl for the fights and later a navigator in the driving stages who's teamed with Lucas...

A number of lesser roles require martial-arts skills so it looks like we can expect very much the same of the sequel as we had in the first, which was itself a remake of the 1970s film Death Race 2000 which starred David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone.

Check out the full list over at Spoiler TV

SL

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 16 November 2009

Roland Emmerich Claims Independence Day Sequel Will Be Two Movies

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:46:00 GMT

Roland Emmerich has revealed that his plans for a sequel to Independence Day include making two back-to-back movies.

In an interview with MTV, the director said that the reason he wants to extend the sequel into two movies is that he wants "to do a bigger [story] arc" which will "continue the story" and begin "twelve, thirteen, fourteen years" after the first one ended. Emmerich has also thrown out a slightly bizarre title for the new films: "ID4-Ever" followed by "Part I" and "Part II".

The original film was a star vehicle for Will Smith, and although there is no mention yet of whether he would return for the sequel (or sequels) it wouldn't seem like much of a sequel without him.

We will have to wait and see whether Fox decide to fund such an ambitious project, and it may well depend on the way Emmerich's current big money film 2012, which is released today, performs at the box office.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 13 November 2009

David Koepp Is In A Premium Rush

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:12:00 GMT

Having most recently worked on the Ricky Gervais-starrer Ghost Town, David Koepp has lined up his next directing project, helming Premium Rush for Sony's Columbia Pictures.

Known for being one of Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriters, with creditsd on Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and Spider-Man, Koepp also penned the script for the upcoming film with his frequent collaborator John Kamps.

The story centers on a twentysomething New York City bike messenger who picks up an envelope at Columbia U. A dirty cop is desperate to get his hands on the envelope and chases the bike messenger throughout the city.

Gavin Polone (Zombieland) is producing the pic, marking the fifth project on which he has worked with Koepp, and no cast has been found as yet.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 12 November 2009

'Se7en' Writer And Director Reteaming

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:29:00 GMT

David Fincher may have already had Alien 3 on his resum� when he directed the runaway hit Se7en but there is no doubt that the Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman starring thriller put him on the map, and so it will come as good news to those who have watched his career patchily develop that he is currently attached to direct an Andrew Kevin Walker adaptation of the 1975 Max Ehrlich novel (and film) The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud.

The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog has it that the adaptation will contemporize the supernatural-thriller about a college professor who starts to have visions and nightmares of a past life.

Fincher, who is just about to start shooting the Aaron Sorkin scripted The Social Network, will produce the remake alongside Se7en producer Michael De Luca reforming a powerful trinity that put together one of the best and most haunting films of the 90s.

SL

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 9 November 2009

Eminem Is Telling Shady Talez

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:00:00 GMT

It's been seven years since Eminem debuted on the big screen in the well received film 8 Mile, and we were really starting to wonder if he'd lost the acting bug for good... that is until the news broke that he is set to star in the 3D horror film Shady Talez.

The project has been described as The Twilight Zone meets Creepshow, and will see the rap artist play three different roles. He will also be co-producing alongside Dallas Jackson and I, Robot producer John Davis, while the Underworld writer/star Kevin Grevioux will co-write the script with Jackson.

Shady Talez is also being turned into a four-issue comic book series due out in 2010 under the Marvel Icons imprint that Jackson and Grevioux are writing together.

So what do you think? Are you looking forward to this new stage of Eminem's big comeback?

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 9 November 2009

Foxx And Lawrence Are Developing Sheneneh

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 10:45:00 GMT

Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence have finally found a project to work together on, as Screen Gems has acquired Sheneneh And Wanda, a comic caper film which is a vehicle for both actors.

They will play female characters they developed during their stand up comedy days. The project originated as a parody of a movie trailer for a film called Skank Robbers, which the duo made for the BET Awards. An appreciative reaction to the film meant that Foxx and Lawrence decided to turn the idea into a feature. Foxx will write the script and he and Lawrence will produce together through Foxx's Foxxhole and Lawrence's Runteldat production banners.

Sheneneh And Wanda tells the story of two modern day independent women trying to make it on their own, one bank robbery at a time.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 9 November 2009

Cassel, Ryder And Hershey Join Black Swan

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 10:18:00 GMT

According to a Slash Film story published this morning Darren Aronofsky's fifth feature film Black Swan - set to start shooting later this year in New York City - has picked up a few new cast members in the form of Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey.

The film is already set to star Natalie Portman as a veteran dancer at the New York Ballet who finds herself in violent competition with a younger dancer (Mila Kunis) in the run-up to a big performance.

Ryder will feature as a friend of Portman's character, and a fellow ballerina who has been playing the much sort-after lead roles for many years but is now reaching the end of her career. Hershey will play Portman's mother (a role she has taken over from Meryl Streep who had been previously tipped for the role), while Cassel will take on the task of the ballet director Yevna with perhaps a reprise of his hammy Russian accent in Eastern Promises.

Aronofsky definitely has the ambition to make a great ballet film (a genre of one with The Red Shoes representing an insurmounable summit) and now he's put together a talented cast to match his own aspiration - but what do you think: do our cinemas really need a supernatural ballet drama?

SL

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 9 November 2009

Universal Picks Up Desperados

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:07:00 GMT

Universal Pictures has acquired Desperados, a comedy script written by Ellen Rapoport that will potentially act as a starring vehicle for Isla Fisher.

Mark Gordon (2012) and Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity) are producing the project, which tells the story of a woman who sends an indignant e-mail to her new boyfriend, who's gone silent after they have sex, but then discovers that he's lying in a Mexican hospital in a coma, and so races south of the border with her friends to intercept the e-mail before he recovers. The project has been described as a female-oriented Hangover, but also seems to have familiar elements from Road Trip as well.

If Fisher takes on the role it will be the next in a line of projects the actress has completed with Universal. She last starred in Confessions Of A Shopaholic and is now developing and producing the comedy The Cookie Queen at the studio, and is also attached to the Gary Sanchez-produced Life Coach.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 6 November 2009

Zach Galifianakis To Lend His Voice To Shrek Spin-off

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:46:00 GMT

Zach Galifianakis is in talks to voice the part of Humpty Dumpty in the Shrek spin-off, Puss In Boots.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Galifianakis, who had his big break with The Hangover this summer, will help tell the story of the events leading up to the feline assassin's first meeting with Shrek and friends, which took place in Shrek 2. Antonio Banderas, who voiced Puss In Boots in Shrek 2 and Shrek The Third, will reprise the role in the new film, and will be joined by his Desperado co-star Salma Hayek. Tom Wheeler is writing the screenplay for the prequel after Chris Miller, who co-directed and co-wrote Shrek The Third, wrote an earlier draft. Miller will now be directing the DreamWorks Animation movie.

The film is scheduled for a November 4, 2011 release.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 5 November 2009

Reilly and Parker are Seeing Red

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:28:00 GMT

On Tuesday we brought you the news that Helen Mirren had signed up to star alongside Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in Red, Robert Schwentke's big screen adaptation of the DC Comics book series. Now there are two more names coming out of the woodwork - John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) and Mary-Louise Parker (The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford) are apparently in talks to join the cast.

The film is about a retired CIA agent (Willis) who has to contend with younger, more high-tech assassins who show up to kill him because of the classified information he knows. According to Heat Vision, Reilly would play another retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him, while Parker would play a federal pension worker and Wilis' love interest.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 5 November 2009

Johnny Depp Joining Angelina Jolie In The Tourist?

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:15:00 GMT

Johnny Depp is in talks to star alongside Angelina Jolie in The Tourist, which would mark the first time these two mega stars have worked together.

The story, which was originally written by Julian Fellowes and has had rewrites by Christopher McQuarrie and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, would see Depp play an American tourist drawn into a web of intrigue by a female Interpol agent (Jolie) who is attempting to locate a criminal who was once her lover.

The role Depp is looking to fill was originally cast to Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), but he dropped out recently over creative differences. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck also dropped out of the project, and now Alfonso Cuar�n (Children Of Men) is in early talks to take over the director's chair. The film has gone through quite a few changes, as at one time Bharat Nalluri was attached to direct with Tom Cruise in the lead role. Charlize Theron was also attached to the project for a long time, but was replaced by Jolie recently.

Production is scheduled to begin in February 2010.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 5 November 2009

Patrick Dempsey Scores Bank Heist

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:01:00 GMT

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy) is to play the lead role in an untitled bank-heist comedy written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the team behind the very successful summer blockbuster, The Hangover.

Dempsey will also co-produce the film, while Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) will be in the director's chair.

Dempsey wil play a man caught in the middle of two different robberies at the same bank who tries to protect a bank teller with whom he's secretly in love.

Production will begin in April.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Wednesday 4 November 2009

Clooney To Topline 'The Descendants'

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 11:03:00 GMT

George Clooney is not a man to stay still for long. Not content with having three films come out within a couple of months of one-another (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Up in the Air) and shooting Anton Corbijn's The American it looks very much like Clooney's going to star in Alexander Payne's The Descendants (Sideways and About Schmidt).

According to Variety the Oscar winning actor is in talks to star in the dramatic comedy by as a father who takes his two daughters on the road to track down his wife's lover.

We here at Screenrush have long been amazed it George's remarkable ability - given the fact that he's one of the most handsome, charming and intelligent men on the planet! - to express pathos (think Michael Clayton and Up in the Air, the upcoming comedy from Juno director Jason Reitman) and so we've decided that he might just be perfect as a love-crossed husband... what do you think? Comments, as ever, below.

SL

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Tuesday 3 November 2009

Helen Mirren Joins Cast Of Red

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:52:00 GMT

Helen Mirren has signed on to star in Robert Schwentke's big screen adaptation of the DC Comics book, Red.

According to ScreenDaily.com, who have been discussing some of the American films looking for distribution and financing at the American Film Market's AFI Fest this week, the adaptation of the Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner comic book is to begin shooting on January 11, 2010, and the Oscar-winning actress has joined the already announced cast of Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman.

Willis will be playing retired CIA agent Paul Moses who must fight a hit team sent by the new leader of the CIA (Freeman) who wants to clean up loose ends i.e. former agents such as Moses who know too much. More than likely, Mirren will be playing Freeman's predecessor, Moses' handler who he has kept in touch with over the phone while living in seclusion after retiring. It is not clear yet whether Mirren's character will actually be on screen at all, or just at the end of a phone line.

Stay tuned to Screenrush for more updates.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Tuesday 3 November 2009

Katie Holmes Becomes A Romantic

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 11:06:00 GMT

Katie Holmes has replaced Liv Tyler in the independently financed comedy The Romantics.

The actress will topline as well as act as executive producer for the film, which also stars Anna Paquin, Josh Duhamel, Malin Akerman, Elijah Wood, Adam Brody and Jeremy Strong.

The screenplay has been adapted by Galt Niederhoffer from her own novel, and she will also direct the picture. The story revolves around eight college friends who reunite for a wedding. Holmes will play Laura, the maid of honor to Anna Paquin's Lila, the bride. Laura and Lila are best friends who both have a history with the groom (Duhamel).

The project begins shooting this week in New York.

Georgine Waller

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 2 November 2009