Mila Kunis Lands Role In Max Payne March 11, 2008
Posted by movies in : Casting News , add a comment
-Actress Mila Kunis is to star alongside Mark Wahlberg in a big screen version of videogame Max Payne.
It is believed that Kunis, who starred in That 70s Show, will play an assassin who works with Payne (Wahlberg) to avenge the death of her sister.
The story will revolve around Payne, who is a cop who is haunted by the death of his family, uncovers a conspiracy when trying to solve a series of murders.
Max Payne is just the most recent in a long line of videogames including Hitman, Tomb Raider, Doom and resident Evil, to get a movie adaptation.
-Die hard 4 star Justin Long has signed on to co-star in Sam Raimi’s new movie Drag Me to Hell.
The film is Raimi’s long awaited return to the movie genre of horror.
But the project has already experienced castin problems as Ellen Page dropped out of the project due to a scheduling conflict.
She was replace by Alison Lohman who will play Long’s girlfriend in a morality tale about a character who becomes the victim of a supernatural curse.
-Funnyman Jim Carrey has signed up to star in Oscar nominated director Jason Reitman’s Pierre Pierre.
Pierre Pierre is the follow up to Reitman’s critical and commercial success Juno and centres on a self indulgent French nihilist who transports a stolen painting from paris to London.
- Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan and Leslie Mann will all star in director and producer of the moment Judd Apatow’s new comedy.
The film, which is expected to begin filming later this summer, is a co-production between Sony Pictures and Universal.
Although the plot is being kept under wraps Apatow is expected to write the script, direct and produce the movie.
Both Rogan and Mann worked together and with Apatow on last summer’s hit Knocked Up and Adam Sandler co-wrote the soon to be released Don’t Mess With the Zohan.
-Troubled star, and multiple Rassie winner, Lindsay Lohan has finally landed some work alongside her heroine Ann- Margret in a new Jack Black comedy.
Is the Franchise Damaging the Box Office? March 10, 2008
Posted by movies in : Uncategorized , add a comment
With the rumours this week that Disney are planning a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, to add to the already successful franchise, surely it is time to look at the industry and ask the question has the business of the sequel gone too far?
Other projects that are rumoured to be on the cards, for Disney alone, include a third outing for National Treasure and a second Cars, which was arguably the weakest of the Pixar/Disney collaborations.
Plus movies like Batman, Hulk, Indiana Jones and The Mummy, which will all be fighting it out to be top of the box office this summer, are all, at least, on their second picture except The Mummy which is on it’s third and a fourth for Indy.
It follows the same pattern as last summer where Transformers, which will no doubt go on to be a franchise of its own, was the only original blockbuster as Pirates, Spidey, Shrek and Bourne all wrapped up their respective trilogies.
So I suppose my question is this is the big business for sequels damaging and clogging up the movie industry?
A second or third movie to a successful debut is, without a doubt, a great way for studios to make the big bucks exploiting the general public to buy into a franchise two or three times over, and yes I have done it myself.
Takes Pirates of the Caribbean for example Curse of the Black Pearl was a top of the range action adventure movie that created one of the biggest cinema icons, in Captain Jack Sparrow, of the last decade.
It succeeded where so many other pirate movies had failed that Disney pressed forward to produce two more films: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End.
While both movies are in the top five biggest grossing films of all time, Dead Man’s Chest took just over $1billion at the global box office at three and At World’s End at five grossing just over $958 million, they failed to match Curse of the Black Pearl’s critical response.
There’s a famous saying that the first is always the best. But why is this why can’t the quality of the first movie be replicated in those to follow?
Did Disney’s haste to cash in on this unexpected success have a detrimental effect on the quality if these two movies?
And Pirates is not alone George Lucas’ second Star Wars trilogy, Shrek the Third, Spiderman 3 and Harry Potter and have all suffered from critical negativity despite most of them appearing in the top twenty biggest grossing films of all time.
Compare this to the recent Academy Awards Best Picture category which contained: There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Juno and Michael Clayton . Together they had one of the lowest box office grosses for this awards category in twenty years.
Despite this they are all high quality, original one off movies that achieved critical acclaim
.
However the low gross of these movies did lead to some saying that the Oscars has become distanced from what has been successful at the box office and that nominations should follow, to a certain degree, public popularity.
But did we really want to see Spiderman 3 or Shrek the Third win a Best Picture Oscar? I don’t think so!
It is fair to say that the blockbusters are there as a form of entertainment, and while the Oscar nominees may have the backing of the critics they were all a bit dark and depressing.
And while I don’t actually have a problem with the idea of sequels it’s some of the second rate filmmaking that is being released in order to make money and exploit cinema goers that I have a major problem with.
I do genuinely hope that a fourth Pirates movie is on the cards as Sparrow is a great film character and Curse of the Black Pearl was such a fabulous movie.
It is rumoured that the film, if made, would be looking at a 2011 release so that gives Disney plenty of time to get together a great script and make up for mistakes made in the past with this franchise.
A Fourth Pirates Film On The Horizon March 6, 2008
Posted by movies in : In production , add a comment
-While everyone may have thought that the success, and highly unexpected, Pirates of the Caribbean franchise had sailed into the sunset at the end of At World’s End it has been reported that Disney are planning a fourth movie.
The film is supposedly scheduled to be released in 2011 however no plot, cast members or director was hinted at in this report.
However many will assume that Johnny Depp
will be tied to this project as Captain Jack Sparrow, the character that made these movies such a success.
During promotion for the third instalment the popular actor did admit that he would be open to returning to this character in the future.
-The Weinstein Company has acquired the rights to Rita Marley’s account of living with reggae star Bob Marley, No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley.
It is believed that the film would follow Rita and Bob Marley rocky relationship which includes the birth of their children, his affairs and an assassination attempt.
No cast has yet been named.
This would not be the first time a Marley production has tried to tell the singer’s story as Warner Bros tried to get together a project based on Timothy White’s book Catch a Fire.
-Warner Bros, now the writer’s strike is over, are now moving forward to get The Justice League project off the ground.
Amendments are being made to the script and casting is going ahead in the hope that the film will be in cinemas by 2009.
The Justice League, based on the popular DC Comic, brings together some of the most beloved superheroes including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
Rumoured to have already been cast is the O.C’s Adam Brody as the Flash, rapper Common as the Green Lantern, and Megan Gale as Wonder Woman.
What roles Superman and Batman will have in the new project is yet to be determined with both characters having stand alone projects. Batman actor Christian Bale claimed that he would not take part in the Justice League movies.
-Another comic book project being eyed up by Marvel is a CGI animated version of Avengers after seeing the success of Beowulf.
The Avengers, like the Justice League, are a superhero team that Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk.
-Terminator looks set to return to the big screen by 2009 Warner Bros have announced that Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will be in cinemas in just over twelve months on May 22.
The film, which stars Christian Bale, is expected to begin shooting on May 5, after the actor wraps on Michael Mann’s Public Enemies with Johnny Depp.
The plot of the latest movie in the Terminator franchise is being kept a closely guarded secret but is rumoured to part of a three picture arc.
-Director David Gordon Green has announced that he will be remaking Dario Argento’s cult horror film Suspiria.
The original film which centres on a ballet academy where a young student realises that the teacher are witches is a dramatic change for the director who brought us Snow Angels and George Washington.
Ellen Page pulls Out Of Drag Me To Hell March 5, 2008
Posted by movies in : Casting News , add a comment           
           - Juno star and Oscar nominated actress Ellen Page has pulled out of new horror movie Drag Me To Hell, directed by Sam Raimi.
The twenty year old star was to play the lead role in the film, which had been expected to start filming on March 17, but has had to withdraw due to conflicting schedules.
A delay on the start of shooting has led to a clash with forthcoming role in psychological thriller Peacock as well as Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut.
Beowulf actress Alison Lohman has reportedly taken up the role and they will begin shooting on the new date of March 31.
- Irish actor Ciaran Hinds has been cast as the villain in Race to Witch Mount
ain which stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
The film centres around two young children, brother and sister, who have paranormal abilities. With the help from taxi driver (Johnson) the pair go on the run to escape an evil group, led by Hinds, who want to exploit their powers.
The film is a remake of the 1975 adventure movie Escape to Witch Mountain and is expected to begin shooting in LA next month with The Game Plan’s
Andy Fickman directing.
- Su
nshine and Troy actress Rose Byrne has been cast alongside Nicholas Cage in his new film sci-fi thriller Knowing.
Bryne will play the daughter of a woman who buried 1962 time capsule bearing the dates of the assassinations of historical figures, the hotel fire death of the wife of a professor (Cage) and an imminent world apocalypse.
I, Robot’s Alex Proyas will direct from Ryan Douglas Pearson’s script production begins in Melbourne, Australia on March 25.
- British actor Jason Isaacs has joined the as yet untitled Iraq war thriller directed
by fellow Brit Paul Greengrass.
The film, which is based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, unites Greengrass with his Bourne leading man Matt Damon, who is already on board.
Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan are also on board the film which is expected, like the book, to blundered attempt by the U.S. government to re-build Iraq after the toppling of the Saddam Hussain regime.
Jason Issacs most recently starred in State of Play, a BBC drama.
Filming is currently underway in Spain.
- Rya
n Reynolds and British actor, and former Lord of the Rings/Lost star, Dominic Monaghan have joined the cast of X-Men spin off Wolverine.
Yes Wolverine aka Hugh Jackman is going it alone in a picture expected to released next summer. It’s been hinted that the film is a prequel, after a fashion, that allows us to look back at the origins of Wolverine and the shadowy Mutant X program.
Reynolds has landed the role of Deadpool and Monaghan as Beak, who has many bird like qualities.