World War Z may be looking for a new director

First there were delays then there was the news that J Michael Straczynski's script was being rewritten by script hot shot Matthew Michael Carnahan.

Now a rumour that came from the San Diego Comic Con that Paramount Pictures is currently looking for a new director.

Currently attached is Marc Forster who directed Quantum of Solace. To me Quantum was a huge disappointment after the excellent Casino Royale. The action scenes in Quantum just didn't work. Therefore, the news that Forster may not be doing World War Z is actually pretty cool to me. I just really want to see Max Brooks excellent book on the big screen - The Battle of Yonkers, lobos, the astronauts on the space station watching the swarms of the undead, underwater zombies and more.

This is a rumour at the moment, but who would be a good director for this adaption? Zack Snyder, Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Lloyd Kaufman? Who could it be?

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Harrison Ford to be Indiana Jones once more

Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford may well be donning the hat once more.

According to The Insider, Harrison, who turns 67 later on this month, will play the role of Indy in the fifth film in the series and it is claimed it will be his last performance as the adventurer.

It is claimed filming will not start until next year, and it will not be released before 2011, when the star will be 69.

A source said: “Harrison has kept himself in good shape and could still do a lot of the stunts in the last film.”

The source added: “But it’s obviously not going to get any easier the older he gets. He certainly would never have imagined playing Indiana Jones when he was nearing 70!”

Nothing like an unsubstantiated source! However, this does tie into Shia Labeouf's claim that Steven Spielberg had got a story sorted for the fifth Indy film.

Do you want to see another Indy film? What would you want to see in it?
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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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Shia talks Indiana Jones 5

While chatting to the BBC about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Shia LaBeouf mentioned news about a certain archaeologist.

"Steven [Spielberg] just said that he cracked a story on it before I left and I think they're gearing that up."

That is pretty much all he says apart from that fact that there are "definitely no special effects in that movie."

I think the last part is in reference to the fact that the Transformers film is chock full of CGI (rather like the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

This is what you call early days, but it does look as if they are kicking around the idea of a 5th Indiana Jones film. It is sad that this news doesn't thrill me as much as it should do. The most recent film was such a disappointment.

If they do make another I hope the story is great, they cut out silly CGI and actually let Indy solve the mystery instead of some gibbering idiot.

How do you feel about the possibility of a new Indy film? What do you want in it and what don't you want in it?

Discuss Indy in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Simon Pegg talks about Tintin

· Simon talks about what he did on the film with Nick Frost

· He talks about the process of making the film

· Simon tells some good stories about working for Steven Spielberg

· Says his characters will be in the trilogy and he explains who his character is

· Simon explains how Spielberg and Peter Jackson worked together

· He tells a great story about Spielberg talking to them about Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

· Says what he filmed was just for the first film and he hopes to be in New Zealand later this year for part 2


Source: ColliderLeave a comment on this post below.

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Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster are together again

The Metro posted this excellent photo. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster recreate a scene from The Silence Of The Lambs as part of a 20th anniversary issue of Empire magazine guest edited by Steven Spielberg.

Thanks to Alan S for pointing it out to me.

Leave a comment on this post below.

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Tintin News - Simon Pegg is off to LA to film and John Williams is scoring it

t5m.com have this interview with Simon Pegg. In it he mentions how he will be heading off to LA with Nick Frost to film or capture their motion and voices for Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. He also goes onto mention that they'll hopefully be getting back together with Edgar Wright near the end of this year to start work on the third part of the trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).

More videos like this on www.t5m.com

Upcoming Film Scores have this news about John Williams.

Veteran composer John Williams is doing the score for The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, Steven Spielberg's and Peter Jackson's first film based on the classic Hergé comic books. The assignment has been confirmed by Williams' agent, the Gorfaine-Schwartz Agency, and will have fans expecting another classic film theme from the composer of such orchestral hits as the Indiana Jones theme, Star Wars, Superman, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter.

All in all some good news for the Tintin film.

Discuss in the Forum

Tintin news - Daniel Craig is the big bad and Jamie Bell is Tintin

Collider have some news on the Tintin movie.

It's going to be called The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, King Kong) will be playing Tintin after Thomas Sangster dropped out.

Daniel Craig will be playing the nefarious "Red Rackham". Craig previously worked with producer and director of the first Tintin film Steven Spielberg on Munich.

The film will co-star Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook. All will be doing the motion capture dance.

Finally the script is being writtern by Edgar Wright (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Steven Moffat (Dr Who, Press Gang) and Joe Cornish (Adam & Joe).

All in all good news for the Tintin film.

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Pegg and Frost to play Thompson Twins in Spielberg's Tintin - Old news isn't it?

Bit of a strange one thisAin't It Cool News has reported that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) will portray Thomson and Thompson in director Steven Spielberg's Tintin.

The strange thing is that I posted the news on this way back in September of last year when Simon Pegg told The Times that Spielberg had asked them to play the twins. Oh well, may as well repost it again along with the following info.

Produced by Peter Jackson, the movie will be animated with motion-capture technology and star Andy Serkis as Tintin's friend Captain Haddock. Thomas Sangster was previously set to play Tintin but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts. A new Tintin has not been announced.

DreamWorks' first Tintin feature, targeted for a 2010 release, will be based on two of the books, "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure," written by Tintin creator Herge between 1942 and 1944.

The second film Tintin 2 will be directed by Jackson.

Above image from the excellent Tubby Paws.

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Andy Warhol, Steven Spielberg, Bianca Jagger on a hotel bed...

More info on this short lived TV series here.

"I love television," Warhol once said. "It is the medium I'd most like to shine in. I'm really jealous of everybody who's got their own show on television. I want a show of my own." In 1979, the year he blew $40,000 on a broadcast-quality camera and employed the services of a TV professional, Don Munroe, he got one.

Called simply "Fashion," Warhol's first foray into broadcast television was a 10-part series focusing exclusively on the hollow-cheeked, high-gloss world of fashion. It was screened to a limited audience on Manhattan Cable, a New York-based public access channel that showed local sports matches and agreed to sell 30-minute slots to Warhol for around $75 a pop. According to Vincent Fremont � the show's producer and later vice president of Andy Warhol Enterprises � it was the kind of channel "where they would sometimes miss the first 10 minutes of your show if the local hockey match overran."

In one episode, Bianca Jagger interviews the 34-year-old Steven Spielberg on a hotel bed while Warhol perches on the end. Ms. Jagger coaxes some nice anecdotes out of the hotshot director "I can remember the day my father brought home a transistor and said, 'Son, this is the future.' So I put it in my mouth and swallowed it" and asks Freudian questions about his boyhood. Warhol takes a typically lighter approach. "The people in your movies are all so real," he enthuses, before spiking his praise with a rare dash of irony, "but they're good-looking, too, which is nice."

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Will Smith and Spielberg to remake Oldboy

Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in talks to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-Park’s Oldboy. Spielberg has been looking for an opportunity to work with Smith for a few years now, and this just might be the project. DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and Spielberg is on the search for a screenwriter to develop the project. The project was originally set up with Fast and Furious director Justin Lin.

In the 2003 South Korean film, a man named Dae-Su is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing why or who is holding him captive. He is suddenly released, given money, clothes and a cellphone and is sent on journey for revenge. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and was highly praised by Jury President Quentin Tarantino. Roger Ebert called Oldboy a “powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare” … “We are so accustomed to ‘thrillers’ that exist only as machines for creating diversion that it’s a shock to find a movie in which the action, however violent, makes a statement and has a purpose.”

I posted the cool corridor fight scene in one of the Best Fight Scene ever posts. As for this remake it is quite a dark movie for the Fresh Prince and Spielberg to do. What do you think of the news? Do you think they'll change the story to make it a bit more palatable to western audiences?

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5 More Friends - A whole lot of movie stars talking about voting

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, along with Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal, are featured in a second of a series of public service announcements to encourage American youth to vote in partnership with Google, YouTube, Declare Yourself, and MySpace. The non-partisan PSAs, produced by DiCaprios Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to vote and participate in the upcoming election.

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The Goonies are dead.

Richard Donner has given confirmation that the Goonies sequel is dead again. Apparantly most of the original cast were up for it and the latest script had the original members kids going off on an adventure. In my opinion that fact makes the sequel not happening a good thing.

Donner tells Variety that the most recent attempt “simply didn’t work out.

“We tried really hard, and Steven (Spielberg) said, ‘Let’s do it.’ We had a lot of young writers submit work, but it just didn’t seem to call for it,” Donner explained, “I’m in the process of trying to get it done as a musical on Broadway. Wouldn’t that be great?”

In answer to Donner's last question I would have to say "No!"

What do you think of the news? What about a Goonies musical?

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Steven Spielberg has quit Paramount Pictures

Director Steven Spielberg has formally quit Paramount Pictures and will now launch a brand new film venture.

The legendary moviemaker will reportedly produce 35 movies in the next five years as part of the forthcoming multi-billion deal with India's Reliance Ada Group.

Spielberg will stay at the helm of the Transformers franchise for Paramount, and will collaborate on three other movies for the Hollywood giant, including the science-fiction remake of When Worlds Collide - slated for a 2010 release.

Both parties say the split is amicable.

Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey says, "We have had a great run with the DreamWorks team both creatively and financially.
"In particular, it has been a true honour working closely with a storyteller of Steven's talent and stature."

Spielberg says he had "enjoyed a productive creative and business collaboration" with Paramount and spoke of "extending the relationship for many years to come."

Source: IMDb

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The Random

"'Fight Club' author Chuck Palahniuk is running a competition in that if you get the most people to see the film adaptation of his novel "Choke" then he will name a character after you in his next book..." (full details)

"Shia LaBeouf was injured by a prop on the set of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" He apparently received a cut above his right eyebrow that required stitched, but he returned to work shortly thereafter..." (full details)"

The Steven Spielberg-produced, Diablo Cody-scripted Showtime series "United States of Tara" will premiere at 10pm on January 18th 2009 after the final season premiere of "The L Word". Toni Collette plays a mother with multiple personality disorder..." (full details)

"WALL-E" producer Jim Morris confirms that Toy Story and Toy Story's 2 3D re-release are not being changed - "Not a thing. We're not changing a thing in the movies. We're not changing the timing, story, pacing, the shots, anything... There's no new shots. There's no new nothing. It's exactly the same movie you saw before..." (full details)

Ang Lee is filming a comedy called Taking Woodstock, based on a book by a man who allowed the famous music festival to take place in 1969. [reuters]

The number of new DVD titles released this year so far is 14% down from the same period last year. [THR]

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UPDATED: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thomson and Thompson in Tintin movie

News here of a rumour that Pegg and Frost could be playing identical twins in Spielberg's Tintin movie. The only twins in the books that I can think of are the crap detectives Thomson and Thompson. Now the rumour mentions that Spielberg will overlook the pairs physical differences. As it is going to be a CGI motion capture thing I can't really see the look of the actors being a factor.

As for Tintin, nothing has been formally announced. But the very latest solid rumor is that Frost and frequent collaborator Pegg have been cast as identical twins in a planned trilogy of Tintin films, the first to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Which makes a lot more sense than casting him as Tintin.

"Spielberg thinks they make such an amusing pair that people will be happy to overlook their obvious physical differences," a source close to the production told the London Sunday Telegraph.

UPDATE: Simon Pegg revealed in The Sunday Times that Steven Spielberg suggested/asked that him and Nick Frost play the Thompson Twins in Tintin. Spielberg requested that Pegg meet him on the mocap set:

“Steven’s smoking a stogy, cap on head, like he’s always been since I was a baby,” Pegg says, shaking his head in wonder. “I shook his hand and chatted about films. He gave me the mo-cap [motion-capture] camera, and I had a play around with it. Then he said, ‘Hey, maybe you and Nick Frost could play the Thompson Twins.’ In Tintin. A Spielberg movie. To work with him is beyond .. . ” He trails off, lost for words.

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Disturbia / Rear Window What's the difference? Hence, Spielberg being sued

The good folks over at Filmstalker have this tale and it is a very obvious likeness between the two movies (our review of Rear Window is here):

Steven Spielberg is one of a few people being sued over Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf. It stems from the films likeness to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.

According to the law suit, the film makers failed to get the appropriate rights to the book on which both appear to be based.

Disturbia was made by among others, Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks, Viacom Inc, and Universal Pictures. All three are named in the lawsuit, and are accused of copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Rear Window was originally based on the short story Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint, when Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart made Rear Window they obtained the rights to the short story. The lawsuit claims that the makers of Disturbia did not.

What the defendants have been unwilling to do openly, legitimately and legally, (they) have done surreptitiously, by their back-door use of the 'Rear Window' story without paying compensation.

Reuters through Yahoo! News, say the lawsuit claims both films are essentially the same. And that there are similarities between the two films, and the short story. Both in characters involved and the plot.

In the Disturbia film the defendants purposefully employed immaterial variations or transparent rephrasing to produce essentially the same story as the Rear Window story

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Lucas Speak about Indy

George Lucas has been interviewed in the Times Online. There he talks about Indy and the difficulty in getting the fourth one made. It is an interesting read. One paragraph stood out and explains a lot (I wonder what we would have got if Spielberg could have been allowed to stick with the past?):

Really, with the last one, Steven wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future; Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that.

Discuss in the forum.