The Random - No Nolan on Batman 3? 9, Star Trek 2, Jurassic Park 4, Neverending Story, Bourne 4, Red Dawn, Sean Penn

Batman-On-Film have the news that Christopher Nolan still has yet to commit to a third Batman film, and at this point he still isn’t interested in making another installment in the Batman series. Who would be a good director to take his place?

Focus Features has launched a viral site at 9experiment.com for Shane Acker's 9.

SciFi Wire talked with the writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci recently about how they're planning to tackle the sequel to J J Abrams Star Trek. "I think the major lesson we learned is that fans were willing to accept differences and surprises, provided that they were somehow echoes or inspired by canon," Orci said in an exclusive interview earlier this month. He added: "We still have to be true to Star Trek the next time around, but we've also been blessed with being able to be unpredictable. And that doesn't mean we can just be shocking for no good reason and just throw everything away… It still has to echo everything that Star Trek has been."

Producer Frank Marshall talked with Coming Soon about the future of various projects and franchises he's involved in.

Bourne 4 "We'd like to shoot next year. It's trying to get everybody's schedules in the right place and getting the script right. We've done pretty well with these scripts that are pretty loosely put together, but I'd like the script to be really solid this time before we go forward. We're spending a lot of time on this story" says Marshall.

The Neverending Story - It sounds like the remake will be more faithful to the original book - "We love the book and we've always thought there was an opportunity (because) there were a lot of elements in the book that weren't in the movie. It's another one where we're still working on the rights and it's a huge thing to get it. Once we get it, we'll bring on a writer, but that's kind of off in the distance. But it's a great story."

Jurassic Park IV - It's still quite a long way away - "We just have to see if they can come up with a story. We don't have a story."

Marshall also is looking into an adaption of the New Yorker article The Last of the Metrozoids about art historian Kirk Vanedoe and his decision to coach a football team before he died of cancer shortly afterwards, and a film adaptation of Warren St. John's book "Outcasts United" about immigrants on a soccer team in Georgia.

Josh Peck (The Wackness, Special) and Adrianne Palicki have joined the cast of the remake of Red Dawn for MGM/UA says The Hollywood Reporter. The story follows a group of teenagers who form an impromptu insurgency when their town is invaded by Chinese and Russian soldiers. Peck will play Matt Eckert, the hotheaded younger brother of Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth - Star Trek, Thor) and star quarterback of their Spokane high school football team. Palicki will play Tonim a tough fighter the brothers encounter who develops romantic feelings for Jed, a Marine home on leave and the group's unofficial leader. John Milius directed the original 1984 Cold War-era actioneer, the new one will be handled by "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Quantum of Solace" second-unit director Dan Bradley. Filming kicks off in September.

Sean Penn has dropped out of Universal's action movie Cartel as well as MGM's Three Stooges, according to several sources in Hollywood, including Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood. Word is that he's had private conversations where he's said that he doesn't want to work "right away" and wants to "regroup" and "just needs personal time."

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Angelina Jolie to be Patricia Cornwell's Dr Kay Scarpetta

Fox 2000 is acquiring screen rights to Patricia Cornwell's bestselling book series on medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, to develop as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie.

There are 16 Scarpetta novels, meaning a franchise is hoped for, but this film won't be tied to a specific Cornwell mystery title. Much the way that Jason Bourne morphed into an action hero in plots not rigidly locked into the Robert Ludlum book series, the opera-loving coroner Scarpetta will be the lead in a suspense thriller in the vein of "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven."

According to Variety the deal is a mega-marriage, with Jolie one of the most bankable female movie stars, and Cornwell one of the biggest selling female authors in the world. Cornwell, whose latest installment "Scarpetta" was published last December by Putnam, last year made a deal with Lifetime Television to adapt two non-Scarpetta novels, "At Risk" and "The Front."

Once Jolie sparked to the series, months of negotiations followed between ICM and Fox 2000's Elizabeth Gabler and Carla Hacken, because Cornwell was so protective of her literary property. The deal finally came together after Jolie and Kosinski met with the author and found common ground on the creative direction of the feature adaptation.

Jolie is starring in the Phillip Noyce-directed "Salt" for Columbia Pictures. She will reprise the voice for her Tigress character in "Kung Fu Panda" sequel and she awaits a script for a "Wanted" sequel that would potentially re-team her with director Timur Bekmambetov and James McAvoy at Universal. It will be interesting to see how they bring back her character in that sequel.

I've never read any Patricia Cornwell. If you have would they make a good film? Could it work as a new franchise?

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Ninja - That's all you need to know.

Scott Adkins is the actor / stuntman / martial artist who is portraying Deadpool / Weapon XI (along with Ryan Reynolds of course) in the forthcoming film X-Men Origins: Wolverine - I mentioned that a while back. He has starred in The Bourne Ultimatum, Unleashed (Danny the Dog), The Medallion, The Pink Panther, Hollyoaks and Holby City. He gets around. That's him below.
Now his time has come to play the lead in a film.

• Will it be a romantic comedy?
• Maybe a film looking into the depths of one man's soul?
• Or could it be a film where he plays a kick-ass Ninja?

Pick one of those three and see if you are right.
You guessed it. Option 3. He will be starring in Isaac Florentine's upcoming martial arts extravaganza, Ninja. What's not to love about that title.
A westerner named Casey (Adkins), studying Ninjutsu in Japan, is asked by the Sensei to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja.
Great synopsis as well. Tells you everything you need to know. Quiet Earth dug up the photos on this post (they have a few more so check them out as well) and they show that it will look lovely as well as having kick-ass Ninja action.

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Matt Damon in sci-fi film, The Adjustment Bureau. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in cop comedy, B Team

Variety reports that studios that are trying to fill 2010 release slates are weighing spec packages that would give them either an Adam McKay-directed action comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, or a drama that will reunite Matt Damon with his The Bourne Ultimatum scribe George Nolfi.

Damon is at the center of The Adjustment Bureau, a contemporary science fiction love story that was shopped to studios by Media Rights Capital.

Nolfi wrote a script that is loosely based on a Philip K. Dick short story, and he will make his directing debut on the film, which will begin production by late summer.

Nolfi scripted the Damon-starrer Ocean's Twelve, but they developed a closer relationship when he scripted The Bourne Ultimatum. He is also writing the fourth installment of the Bourne franchise for Universal.

Separately, several studios were bidding Tuesday on B Team, a McKay-directed action comedy that casts Ferrell and Wahlberg as cops, with Chris Henchy writing the script.

Henchy co-wrote the upcoming Ferrell-starrer Land of the Lost, and he is co-executive producer of Entourage, the HBO show on which Wahlberg is executive producer.

Even though B Team and The Adjustment Bureau come with pricey packages -- buyers essentially commit to make the movies -- both pictures are expected to have studio homes before the week is over.

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XIII - News on the Val Kilmer, Stephen Dorff mini-series

The controversial Belgian comic book “XIII” by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance is coming to American television in February, courtesy of Prodigy Pictures and Cipango. The four-hour television miniseries starring Stephen Dorff as the amnesiac assassin code named XIII will be broadcast on NBC February 8 and 15. Val Kilmer also appears as the Mongoose, an agent of a secret organization staging a coup from within the American government. CBR News spoke with producer Jay Firestone of Prodigy Pictures about bringing the renowned comic book to TV.

"It's a bit ‘Bourne Identity,’ it's a bit ‘Manchurian Candidate,’" Firestone told CBR. The television miniseries begins with the assassination of Sally Sheridan, the first female president of the United States. A man tattooed with the roman numeral XIII appears to have pulled the trigger, but he has no memory of this event or anything else about his life. On the run from both the U.S. government and those behind the conspiracy of which he may or may not be a part, XIII must uncover the truth about his own identity to save America from a much greater threat.

The television version of "XIII" is co-produced by Firestone's Prodigy Pictures, which is based in Canada, and Cipango, a French company. The series premiered in France late last year. "The French love American stories," Firestone said. "There's actually a trend more and more toward American stories being more successful in Europe. There were a few years there where countries wanted domestic programming, and were doing very domestic shows, but were not getting the audiences that top American shows did. In this case, we had a combination of the two: we had a well-known Belgian story but with an American storyline.

"We brought in some writers and producers who had worked on a lot of American shows, ‘CSI,’ and ‘24,’ and sort of knew the genre, and they all got inspired by it, as well. We spent a couple years developing a great script, and once we had that we had everybody excited."
As with any adaptation from one medium to another, Firestone and his team found themselves changing some aspects of the original comic book story to fit the four-hour miniseries format. One notable change, though, was casting the American president, whose assassination kicks off the story. In the comics, the President was a man. In the “XIII” TV miniseries, the President is a woman. With the recent inauguration of America's first African-American president, it may be easy to forget that very recently it would have seemed more likely that the country would instead be marking the election of its first female commander-in-chief. But Firestone said that while many aspects of "XIII" do reflect the current political culture, the inclusion of a female president was merely a matter of "updating the concept.” "We just thought it was a fun idea," the producer said.

Firestone did note, though, that "XIII" fits very well with the current international attention on the American political stage, and with a lot of perceptions about the country's standing in the world. "It's incredibly timely. A lot of people actually believe that things that are significant elements of our story are actually going on. We're not speculating on whether they're true or not," he laughed. "But a lot of people believe it."

CBR have lots more on this along with many photos.

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XIII coming to the small screen - Will it be Bourne-lite?

MTV have the news: NBC has announced this morning that they will be adapting the classic Belgian political thriller, “XIII” for a two-part television mini-series, scheduled to air February 8 and 15. The television event will pack a powerhouse of geek-credible actors, including former Batman Val Kilmer, Stephen Dorff from “Blade,” Stephen McHattie from “Watchmen” and Jessalyn Gilsig from “Heroes.”

“XIII” follows the adventures of an amnesiac assassin, who is being hunted down for questioning in the murder of the first female President of the United States. There have been several attempts by American publishers to adapt the comic stateside — most recently by the Dabel Bros. and Marvel — but none have been as successful as the popular video game adaptation

XIII was created by Van Hamme, but I only know it through the game which was pretty cool and had great cell shaded graphics. The basic plot has always reminded me of the Bourne scenario (guy wakes up on a beach with no memory, realises he can beat the crap out of pretty much anyone and he has a XIII tattoo) so this could well end up with a Bourne kind of vibe to it. This is no bad thing for a TV show in my opinion. Will we get fat Kilmer or thin Kilmer for the show? Which one of the actors mentioned will play the assassin? Also will it be set in the 60s like the comic or have a modern day setting?

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The Random

Following the trend for trilogies set by Douglas Adams Bourne 4 is in the works and is aiming to be out in 2010. Matt Damon will still be Bourne. The next movie could be set in South America.

More Star Trek photos are out and First Showing also have lots of info on the movie.

Prince Adam does not have the power. Latino Review have the news that Warner Bros have killed the He-Man movie.

Kevin Smith is developing a $45-$50 million futuristic outer space comedy. “The moment someone steps out of the spaceship, it’s going to cost a little more,” Smith told The Hollywood Reporter. The story will revolve around a father-son relationship, and will reference other science fiction films.

More Zack and Miri Make a Porno ads have been banned as they contain the word Porno.

Further details are online about the recently announced Bull Durham sequel.

Guillermo del Toro says he would love to get illustrator Bernie Wrightson to design the creature for his upcoming Frankenstein feature. You can find some of Bernie's illustrations of scenes from Mary Shelley's original novel here.

The second half of the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica is scheduled to start airing January 16th.

Larry Charles says that he would love to recut the hundreds of hours of footage he shot for the Bill Maher religion-skewering doco Religulous into half-hour shows to air as a series on HBO or the like and has already talked to Lionsgate about doing such an idea... (full details)

The new Seth Rogen comedy Observe & Report is said to be excellent, but early test audience response may end up cutting out the best gags... (full details)

Pretty much everyone who was involved in the previous four Saw films will return in cameos, flashbacks and the like in the upcoming fifth film... (full details)

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Jack Black in Bourne spoof

Now don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of Jack Black's comedy gig. I find him funny and a pretty good actor. I also dig Tenacious D and have seen the D in concert where they rocked my socks of as it were. However, this just leaves me feeling a bit cold inside at the sheer naffness of it all.

Jack Black and "Kung Fu Panda" writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger are re-teaming for an untitled live-action action comedy at Universal Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

Described as a comedic take on "The Bourne Identity", the story sees Black as an American who finds himself washed up the shores of Cuba with no idea of who he is and how he got there. He comes to the conclusion that he must be a superspy, though in reality he is far from one.

You can see the hilarious consequences this will bring. It all seems a little forced and unoriginal in my opinion. It has shades of the pretty good Bill Murray movie, The Man Who Knew Too Little, and a whole sprinkling of Code Name: The Cleaner which IMDB describes as, "Cedric the Entertainer plays Jake, a seemingly regular guy who has no idea who he is after being hit over the head by mysterious assailants; when he finds himself entangled in a government conspiracy, Jake and his pursuers become convinced that he is an undercover agent."

Does that sound like a certain Jack Black news story that you've only just read? What do you think of the Jack Black Bourne movie idea? Can you see it hitting the screens? How do you think the plot will develop?


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