The Pacific - Sort of a sequel to Band of Brothers

Executively produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the team behind the Emmy-winning 2001 HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” this epic ten-hour miniseries tracks the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda) – across the vast canvas of the Pacific. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day. Produced by HBO Miniseries in association with Playtone and DreamWorks Television, and scheduled to debut on HBO in early 2010.

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The Game of Thrones begins

Tom McCarthy has come aboard to direct HBO's fantasy pilot Game of Thrones, on which the star of his first feature, The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage, has been tapped for a key role according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire novels, "Thrones" is described as an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom. Dinklage will play Tyrion, the Queen's brother who is treated as an outsider because of his size.

"Thrones" is to begin filming this autumn in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in what the country's First Minister Peter Robinson hails as "the first TV production of such vast size and scale that has been filmed in Northern Ireland."

"Thrones" marks the first TV directorial gig for McCarthy, an actor who wrote and directed two features, 2003's "Station Agent" and 2007's "The Visitor," both of which landed him Indie Spirit Awards. On the acting side, McCarthy next appears in 2012.

McCarthy is a bit of an odd choice to direct this piece of fantasy as his previous work has revolved about quirky stories set in the here and now. Mind you, both his features have been excellent little movies and he may bring a different style to the proceedings that will hopefully make this something a bit special.

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Amanda Seyfried can no longer star in Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch

Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia) has been forced to drop out of the leading role in Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch due to her commitment to HBO's Big Love series reports Entertainment Weekly.

In the 1960's-set, R-rated action fantasy, Seyfried was set to play a young woman who has been committed to an insane asylum and fantasizes about escaping with the help of her fellow inmates.

Due to scheduling, Sucker Punch will be shooting this Fall - around the same time Big Love is midway through filming its fourth season and HBO won't release her from her commitment.

Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone remain set to co-star in the Warner Bros. action-thriller due for release next October.

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HBO / BBC series Rome to be back on the big screen

Bruno Heller wants to create theatrical closure to his critically beloved and prematurely canceled HBO drama Rome, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"There is talk of doing a movie version," he said. "It's moving along. It's not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off."

The lavish period drama ran for two seasons on HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC. With the final season of The Sopranos as its lead-in, the first season was solidly rated, but high production costs presented the network with a tough call on the pickup. HBO opted for a second season to help get more value from its initial investment but not a third, effectively canceling the show in summer 2006 before the second season debuted the following January. The Rome sets were destroyed, and the actors were released from their contracts, making the decision all but irreversible.

Season 2 of Rome was a surprise. Although slightly lower rated than the first, the show did remarkably well without a Sopranos lead-in. The first season received four Emmy Awards, and another seven Emmys were heaped upon the final season.

Suddenly Rome was a Greek tragedy: a hit show with no future. The broadcast nets quickly snatched up the show's leads for top fall pilots.

HBO executives have since admitted that axing the show probably was a mistake.

One seeming drawback to revisiting the show after its wrap was the demise of a key lead character, Lucius (Kevin McKidd). Yet Heller reveals that the character's off-camera fate was far from fatal.

"It was very deliberate that we saw him drifting away but didn't see him atop a funeral pyre," Heller said.

Heller would not discuss plot ideas, but the original series outline for Rome next called for the hedonistic Roman leaders to deal with the rise of a certain problematic rabbi -- a story line that would have put a whole new spin on the Greatest Story Ever Told and potentially bring Rome a larger audience.

No production date has been set.

Source: Movieweb

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