News Retrospective, Part Two

Here's some May and June newsy goodness for you, soon to be followed by some July stuff and the latest news, which will hopefully include some positive buzz from the HBO press tour day about the Deadwood movies. Fingers crossed.

May

- Hugh Laurie and Chris Evans join Keanu Reeves and the soon-to-be all-surveying Forest Whitaker in David Ayer’s second film, The Night Watchman, a fairly generic sounding police drama that likely has a dazzling script in order to attract such actors. Plus it’s based on an original James Ellroy story, which no doubt got it through a lot of agents’ doors.

- Peter Jackson shops the script for the long-mooted The Lovely Bones, based on Alice Sebold’s novel, which he wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, to all the studios except New Line, due to their current legal imbroglio. Dreamworks soon bites, allegedly at Steven Spielberg’s behest, bestowing Jackson with a $65 million budget - pretty generous for an intimate family drama with a supernatural bent.

- Joe Carnahan claims that Robert Rodriguez has shown him a trailer for Sin City 2, and it blew his mind. Er, but how did it even exist?

- A new Chuck Palahniuk adaptation is finally coming to the screen: Choke, written and directed by first-timer and TV actor Clark Gregg with Sam Rockwell in the lead. Love Rockwell, and Gregg has Palahniuk’s blessing. Let’s see…

- Warner Bros. option Frank Miller’s first solo graphic novel Ronin for the big screen, with Sylvain White attached to direct. Everybody loves Frank.

- An LA Times article reveals why Chopper director Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, is taking so damn long to reach cinemas: internal disputes. The studio expected a more crowd-pleasing Western ala Tombstone, but instead got something akin to the work of Terrence Malick. The article is a little unclear on who Pitt was supporting since it mentions him working on another cut, but a subsequent London Times article suggests that Pitt was behind Dominik, and that the multiple cuts were merely a frantic endeavour to produce several options they could stand before the studio halted funding. Unable to win (in a nice change of pace), the studio has opted for a limited, arthouse release on September 21, perhaps reassured by the prospect that as an investor in the project, Pitt himself stands to lose millions. I hope it pays off, as any Malickian film deserves to be seen as a potential cinematic masterwork.

- John Malkovich is announced as the lead in the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading.

- Confirming the difficult-to-believe prospect of a few months ago, ABC announces that they have set an end-date for Lost, with three more 16-episode seasons to air without repeats each year until 2010. I’ve outlined before how unprecedented and awesome this is, and thank goodness that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse pushed for it (and that their contract re-negotiations came up at just the right time to give them some leverage). It’ll be interesting to see how this affects Lost’s reception in the public eye now that the writers’ have a point to work towards instead of having to dance around the big questions, and most importantly, whether people will come back to the show as a result. The only downside is an excruciating 9-month wait until the next episode after that astonishing, mind-bending cliffhanger.

- George Lucas has the audacity to criticise Spider-Man 3:
“"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"
"People thought 'Star Wars' was silly, too," he added, with a wink. "But it wasn't."
Yes, Spider-Man 3 was a crippling disappointment (more on that soon), but George bloody Lucas has no right calling a movie out for its poor storyline. Nor does the inventor of Jar-Jar Binks and midichlorians get to call another film silly. And this is the man who had veto power over the Indiana Jones 4 script? I shudder to think what that could mean…

- Nicholas Cage will play Al Capone in a prequel to The Untouchables, subtitled Capone Rising. Amazingly, Brian de Palma is returning. Jesus, will sequelitis ever end? As revered as The Untouchables is by film buffs, does it have enough public recognition today to make a wide release profitable? Just bizarre! Later that month Cage will leave due to scheduling conflicts, but not before Gerard Butler signs yet another contract, this time to play the younger version of Sean Connery’s character in the original.

- Robert Rodriguez signs up to direct the remake of Barbarella. Sure, he’s got to curry some commercial favour after Grindhouse, but Barbarella?! Jesus Christ….

- Rachel Weisz does the most sensible and least surprising thing she could by dropping out of The Mummy 3, replaced by Maria Bello. Brendan Fraser’s coming back though. Why do I get the feeling that after Gods and Monsters, that guy not only missed the boat, he didn’t even know it was there – what the hell happened with him?!

- Guy Ritchie tries to atone for Swept Away by returning to safe waters, Kevin Smith-style, with an ensemble caper comedy, although this time it’s for Joel Silver’s Dark Castle division, previously devoted to horror remakes. Odd.

- Point Break 2 is in development. When will it end?!

- Lionsgate takes on Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s pioneering comic strip The Spirit. He mentions wanting Samuel L. Jackson for the villain.

- The first picture of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight appears at a fake campaign site – www.ibelieveinharveydent.com. Shortly thereafter, another website appears –
www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com - wherein Eckhart’s face has been vandalised and the visitor is invited to enter their email address. They are then sent a code to input on the site via a link in the email, which removes a pixel from the website. The fanboys had a field day that weekend, as the pixels were removed to reveal the first picture of Heath Ledger as the Joker!
Although very close-up, the image is still quite creepy. It was a very clever unveiling, and subsequently confirmed by the studio as legit. Two days later the website disappeared save for an error message. However, when Select All was pressed, pages and pages of black writing was revealed – a long string of ‘ha ha ha!’ in various sizes. Random letters were found strewn throughout, which fans cobbled together as hinting towards more information in December. Solid fanboy marketing there.

- Out of nowhere comes the news that DeNiro and Pacino will be starring in a movie together for the first time since 1995’s Heat and only the second time ever. However, whereas that film featured only one scene between the two (arguably far more powerful as a result), Righteous Kill will pair them up for the whole movie. However, it’s an independently financed generic-sounding cop thriller helmed by the unremarkable Jon Avnet. Save for De Niro acting in Stardust and directing The Good Shepherd and Pacino in Angels in America, I’ve had little faith in their choices in the last several years, so can’t help but assume this will be a misstep. Please prove me wrong though.

- William Gibson’s foundational cyberpunk novel Neuromancer again goes into development as a film, even though a film adaptation's moment has arguably long passed. And Joseph Kahn, director of Ice Cube motorcycle movie Torque, would direct. Oh, please…

- Ain’t It Cool breaks the news that offers have been made to actors for Watchmen. Jude Law has been approached to play Ozymandias (makes sense, pretty happy with it), Patrick Wilson (Little Children, Hard Candy) for Nite-Owl (hmm, quite young), and Keanu Reeves for Dr. Manhattan – say WHAT?!! It’s a fascinating choice, and could work in demeanour if Reeves’s voice weren’t so damn distinctive and riddled with connotations. Hearing that voice come from that serene blue head with those empty white eyes would just be too distracting.

- In news that synchs up with the Dreamworks/Lovely Bones deal, from out of nowhere Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson announce that they are teaming up on three Tintin movies! Spielberg has been looking into this for decades, but with the advances made by WETA and others in realistic performance-oriented CG, he’s shot for an alliance for Jackson to bring Herge’s comics to life with a heightened animated realism – they will allegedly use motion-capture to recreate Herge’s character designs but with detailed, realistic textures. Most impressively, this isn’t just a project that the two men will produce – they will each direct one! This hearkens back to twin titans Spielberg and Lucas uniting for Raiders of the Lost Ark back in 1981. No word on who will go first or which stories will be adapted, but they’re aiming for the first film to come out in 2009, the same year as James Cameron’s similarly endowed Avatar, which WETA will also be creating effects for. Perhaps it will be a banner year for the future of motion pictures, whether we like it or not...

- Matt Damon says that he won’t be making any more Bourne movies. At least someone knows when to quit.

- No Country for Old Men bucks expectations and fails to win any big prizes at Cannes.

- Christopher Nolan will be shooting some Dark Knight sequences with an IMAX camera, the first time a major motion picture has done this due to the costs involved. With more regular movies being exhibited in IMAX cinemas, such a decision is becoming more justifiable.

- Johnny Depp and Michael Mann’s competing biopics about poisoned Russian secret serviceman Alexander Litvenenko may be conflated into one. If that means Depp in a Mann film, then that’s a good result.

- In other Mann news, he is shopping a detective noir written by John Logan with Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to star. Interestingly, it would be set on the MGM backlot while Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were being shot. It sounds delightfully offbeat and evocative, but Mann wants $120 million for production, which is especially doubtful after the failure of Miami Vice. Not much has been mentioned since…

- Friday Night Lights gets renewed for a 22-episode second season. Viva la critical acclaim!

- Paul Newman retires from acting, even nixing A Walk in the Woods, his supposed farewell film with Robert Redford. Alas. Farewell, sir.

June

- Weeks after Lost announces its conclusion, so does Battlestar Galactica. Faced with the very dicey odds of a fifth season due to the middling Sci-Fi Channel ratings, Ron Moore and David Eick have opted to wrap up the story in the 22-episode final season they’d already been given (which includes a 2-hour telemovie set during various eras of the Pegasus). I’m perfectly fine with this decision, although it’ll be such a shame to see Galactica go – it feels like the show only just started. But 22 episodes is a lot, and perhaps Moore can eliminate the stand-alone episodes that he’s never been comfortable with and just tell 22 balls-to-the-wall hours of pure story since the network no longer needs to be appeased. The fact that the two seminal genre shows of our time are getting to go out on their own terms is nothing short of miraculous.

- John from Cincinnati, David Milch’s follow-up to the cancelled Deadwood, premieres and utterly polarises audiences. Critics either hate it or sorta like it, and ratings are disappointing. Deadwood fans are livid that their show was replaced with such a meandering, superficially purposeless exercise. However, the Deadwood situation was far more complicated than that and John was never intended by Milch as a replacement, merely an addition to his HBO line-up. I’ve seen the first five now and while it baffles, I was expecting no less. As a viewing experience, it’s satisfactory, but lacks the inspired, vivid coherency that even the early episodes of Deadwood had to some degree. For now I’ll let Milch do his thing and give him some time, but I’m not as bowled over as I was expecting to be by a mixture of ingredients that sounded so delicious.

- Judd Apatow and Harold Ramis team-up for a Jack Black vehicle, which Apatow will produce and Ramis direct. Hopefully Apatow’s current Midas touch will rehabilitate Ramis’s directorial career.

- Getting on the fantasy bandwagon several years too late, Warner Bros. options Terry Brooks’ Shannara series. Yawn.

- Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) and D.J. Caruso (Disturbia) are apparent contenders to helm the Wolverine film. Wiseman… my god…

- Tired of the endless speculation, Sean Connery releases a statement saying that he will not appear in Indiana Jones 4 because he’s enjoying retirement too much. John Hurt and Ray Winstone will be in the picture though.

- Gasp?! Terry Gilliam has a new movie in development already?! And it has a big star attached (Heath Ledger) that means it might actually get made? Exclamation! Tom Waits is also involved, possibly as the lead. It’ll be called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (love it!) and comes from a script that Gilliam recently completed with Brazil co-writer Charles McKeown.

- Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon are reuniting for Imperial Life in the Emerald City, based on The Washington Post’s Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekharan’s account of the monumental stuff-ups in postwar Iraq. Greengrass is one of the most eagerly political filmmakers out there, and this looks set to be incendiary.

- Neil Gaiman intimates that the Death movie – his directorial debut – may finally start filming later this year. Guillermo del Toro is on board as executive producer, and Gaiman will soon spend time on the Hellboy 2 set learning the tricks of the trade from Del Toro. He hints that the main two roles are virtually cast, but no word on when we’ll know (Shia LeBeouf has apparently made a pact with Gaiman to play Sexton, and has been making the rounds with studios to pitch with him). I do so wish that this gets made – seeing Gaiman’s vision unfiltered on celluloid will be an absolute joy, and Death: The High Cost of Living is such a quietly macabre but sweet story. I must have!

- Steve Martin is making The Pink Panther 2. Oh sweet lord, when will this man learn?!

- Peter Jackson signs Rachel Weisz as the spirit girl's mother in The Lovely Bones. I originally thought this would be lower-key, but the $65 million budget suggests otherwise, so signing Weisz isn’t as surprising. Good for Jackson.

- J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) is announced as writer of the Silver Surfer spin-off movie. Although given FF2’s lukewarm box-office, will this even get made?

- Now this sounds awesome: Clive Barker and Guillermo del Toro produce a horror flick about a claymation artist whose creations wreak havoc. Generic horror fluff, yes? But this one stars Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. Curiouser and curioser…

- The modified Batsuit for The Dark Knight is revealed.

- The first image of Harrison Ford in full Indiana Jones 4 regalia is released, taken by Spielberg himself. While in principle a massively uninteresting photo, this first glimpse of Ford fit, ready, and in costume on the set says a lot, and I must say that I felt my scepticism starting to ease. He looks a lot closer to the classic Indy than I had any right to expect, and if that side is taken care of, and there’s a great cast, and Spielberg’s back, and there’s going to be no CGI, then... then… holy shit, this thing could be amazing! Permission to backflip if necessary?

- Hellboy 2: The Golden Army begins production. I can hardly believe it… Blade 2’s Luke Goss plays the villain, and John Hurt is back in a cameo. Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones are all back in a story about a fairy tale-type kingdom intruding on the real world.

- On his website, Paddy Considine announces that a role he was gunning for – Rorschach in Watchmen – has gone to Little Children’s comeback king and Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley. This hasn’t been confirmed since, but if it’s true, it’s a good choice. I haven’t seen Little Children yet, but Haley certainly looks the part. Also, John Cusack says he’d be up for the part of Nite-Owl if Zack Snyder asked him. Cusack’s been a fan-favourite for a while, and while he’s hardly perfect, he’s a better fit than Wilson, age-wise at least.

- Moriarty at AICN follows up on this story, after breaking the last set of Watchmen casting announcements (even though they have yet to be confirmed), and offers more. Thankfully AICN is far more discerning in the rumours it publishes nowadays. Gone are the days when every other day, Ain’t It Cool would proffer a spectacular rumour, many of which were inevitably and understandably proven false. So when they do come out with an exclusive, it should be treated as fairly reliable at the time, even if it doesn’t ultimately come to pass, since these days Moriarty and Harry have a lot of connections in the biz.

- So Mori tells us that Keanu Reeves has priced himself out of the Dr. Manhattan role, and Snyder is now looking at Jason Patric, after considering Billy Crudup. Considering Patric replaced Reeves in Speed 2, history could be repeating itself (that embarrassing stigma could even scare him away from taking the role). Patric doesn’t have Reeves’s baggage, so could easily work. Plus, he hasn’t really had a role that showed his true potential, save for the little-seen Narc. Moriarty also reveals that Ron Perlman and Nathan Fillion (?!) were considered for the Comedian role, but implies that the first choice is now Thomas Jane. Once again, too young.

- Michael Moore’s Sicko gets pirated thanks to an inside job. And he doesn’t mind too much. I guess you can’t if you’re trying to actually influence opinion. More viewers = good.

- Frank Miller is announced as the director of the Clive Owen Philip Marlowe flick Trouble is My Business. Great choice, can’t complain. Love the Miller love in Hollywood.

- Ben Stiller makes a bid for some creative integrity by teaming up with Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) for an upcoming comedy, In Deep. Come on Ben, get it together now.

- Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Monster’s Ball) will direct the next James Bond film with Daniel Craig.

- Tim Burton may have dropped out of the Jim Carrey Ripley’s Believe It or Not movie. Jim can’t catch a break lately.

- Ain’t It Cool reports that Samuel L. Jackson has filmed a cameo in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man movie as Nick Fury, in preparation for a Nick Fury solo film and the beginning of Marvel’s bid to create a shared on-screen universe, since Iron Man is the first of the film that they’ve financed themselves and will be distributing through the major studios. The casting of Jackson comes about because superb Avengers reboot comic The Ultimates recasts Nick Fury as a bald black man blatantly modelled on the actor, and Jackson has expressed interest in playing Fury on screen. We’ll see if it pans out, but don’t be surprised if this stays a secret until release, if a well-kept one.

- Cillian Murphy is spotted on The Dark Knight set, confirming that the Scarecrow will be back in some capacity.

- Laurence Fishburne will write, direct, and star in a film version of Paulo Coelho’s fable novel The Alchemist.

- More Russell/Ridley fun – he’ll join Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies, based on the David Ignatius novel about a CIA agent sent into Jordan. Let me cast the first bet that Crowe will play Judge Holden in Blood Meridian… whether he’s right for the role or not.

- Ryan Gosling will play Rachel Weisz’s husband in The Lovely Bones. This is a great choice by Jackson, and gives the project a nice edge.

- Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla will star Gerard Butler (him again, and more power to him), The Wire’s Idris Elba, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, and Ludacris.

- Richard Kelly’s adaptation of the Richard Matheson SF short story, The Box, gets rolling with Cameron Diaz in the lead. It’d be hilarious if this came out before Southland Tales.

- "New Line Cinema acquires rights to Conan movie, throws development hell party."

- Curb Your Enthusiasm director Robert B. Weide is adapting Toby Young’s memoir How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, about an English guy working at Vanity Fair, for the big one, to star Kirsten Dunst, Gillian Anderson, Jeff Bridges, Danny Huston, Megan Fox, and (drum roll, please)…. Simon Pegg in the lead!!! Pegg and Seth Rogen are the two comedy stars I want to see go far in movies… of those who actually have a chance.

- Major British film blog Film Ick alleges that they’ve received a cast list for Watchmen, but insists that this could well be an amalgam of rumours and fan wish fulfilment. But it puts some interesting other names into the ring, including Kate Winslet as Silk Spectre (good choice), Jeremy Irons as Moloch (woah! Works well though), Virginia Madsen as Sally Jupiter (too young again! But a great snag), William Fichtner as Detective Fine (ideal visual match, ie reeks of fanboy casting), and Noah Emmerich as Captain Metropolis (ditto, but would fanboys know him well enough?). Signs point to July’s San Diego Comicon for the final announcements.

- Jim Broadbent is in Indy 4, possibly in a Denholm Elliot-type role.

Will to live…dwindling…