Fantastic Mr Fox - Trailer

The stop-motion film, marking Anderson's first foray into animation, is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story, centering on a clever fox who must outwit three mean, dimwitted farmers who try their hardest to hurt Mr. Fox and his family. George Clooney will voice Mr. Fox, while Cate Blanchett voices his wife.

Out on 13th November.

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Paul W S Anderson takes on The Warded Man

Paul W. S. Anderson and longtime producing partner Jeremy Bolt have acquired film rights to Peter V. Brett's debut fantasy novel The Warded Man, according to MovieWeb.

Anderson is attached to direct and will produce with Bolt. Stephanie Johnson, who brought the title to the pair, will executive produce.

The book is set in an undetermined future where mankind is beset by nightly attacks from demonkind and has been thrown back into a feudal state. Three young people emerge with the potential power to turn the tide, including the title character, a man who has wards (spells) tattooed on his body.

"It was an occasion where it paid to be British," Anderson said. "It launched in the U.K. six months earlier than in the U.S., and we got wind of it when it was in galley form before the U.K. release. We think it has the potential to be a new 'Lord of the Rings'-style epic, and the book has all this great imagery."

Novelist Brett was an ad man with a two-hour commute to Manhattan; he wrote the book on his BlackBerry.

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The Secret of NIMH gets another go

Paramount is developing a feature version of the award-winning children's tale Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Neil Burger (The Illusionist) is in talks to write the screenplay, and former Walden exec Cary Granat is on board to produce.

This film would be the second theatrical go-round for the book, which MGM brought to the screen in 1982 as the animated The Secret of NIMH, directed by Don Bluth.

Robert C. O'Brien's "Rats of NIMH" won the Newbery Medal in 1972 and has been a staple in children's bookstores and libraries since. The story centers on a mouse -- the titular Mrs. Frisby, re-named Mrs. Brisby in the MGM movie -- faced with a crisis when her son falls ill and she must move her family to escape a farmer's plow.

Mrs. Frisby enlists a group of former lab rats, whom she soon discovers run a highly evolved society, who possess advanced technologies and divide labor in the manner of a human community.

It's likely the new "NIMH" would combine live-action and animation in the manner of Alvin and the Chipmunks and other kiddie hybrids, but should hopefully be a little better!

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King Kong Prequel in the works

Spirit Pictures is looking to breathe new life into King Kong and a project initially developed by effects legend Ray Harryhausen according to Variety.

Producers at the shingle have picked up the rights to the book "Kong: King of Skull Island," a prequel to the well-known tale of the big ape.

Penned by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland, book focuses on the backstory of Skull Island and how the giant gorilla became king there. It introduces other giant gorillas and dinosaurs only hinted at in the previous films.

The book was published at the same time Peter Jackson was producing his remake of "King Kong."

Rights to make the movie were brokered with the Merian C. Cooper family, who own the Kong property. Cooper co-directed the original "Kong," released in 1933.

"We're very concerned with honoring Merian C. Cooper's legacy in Hollywood. We want to make sure that whatever we deliver will honor his memory," said Spirit's Steve Iles, who worked on videogames for the "Star Wars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchises through his Pocket Studios game company.

The plan is to produce the film using motion-capture technology such as Robert Zemeckis used to make "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and the upcoming "A Christmas Carol." Spirit's own facility would produce the CG work.

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Where the Wild Things Are - Trailer and featuretter on writer Maurice Sendak

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Dorian Gray - International Trailer

Based on the classic novel by Oscar Wilde, Dorian Gray tells the story of a strikingly beautiful young man named Dorian (Ben Barnes). He arrives in Victorian London and is swept into a social whirlwind by the charismatic Henry Wotton (Colin Firth), who introduces Dorian to the hedonistic pleasures of the city. When a portrait of Dorian is unveiled, such is it's beauty that he makes a pledge: he would give anything to stay as he is in the picture - even his soul.

Dorian Gray examines the destructive power of beauty, the blind pursuit of pleasure and the darkness that can result.

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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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Under the Mountain - International Trailer - Will they find the fire-raiser?

Teenage twins Rachel and Theo travel to Auckland to stay with relatives following the sudden death of their mother. Where there was once a psychic bond between them, now there is a rift as Theo, particularly, refuses to confront his grief. Rachel reaches out to him, but is rebuffed.

Staying with their Aunt Kay and Uncle Cliff on Lake Pupuke, the twins are fascinated by the volcanic lake and the smell that seems to come from creepy old Wilberforce house around the shore. They visit Mt Eden, where Theo sees Mr Jones, a strange old man from whose hands fire seems to glow. When it seems the twins are being watched – and that the Wilberforces can smell them – Theo resolves to investigate the Wilberforce house. Inside, he and Rachel find what can only be an alien environment.

They overhear Mr Wilberforce talking about something stirring beneath the ground. He says he will kill the twins if they find “the fire-raiser”. Rachel is alarmed and reaches out to Theo but, terrified of getting close to anyone since his mother’s death, pushes her away and sets out alone to find the fireraiser – the man he saw on the mountain top...

Due out on 10th December 2010.

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Uma Thurman to play a Nun in Girl Soldier

Uma Thurman has signed on to star in the indie drama Girl Soldier for Caspian Pictures, playing the part of a cleric who helped rescue 140 schoolgirls abducted in Uganda, according to Variety.

Girl Soldier will be produced by Diane Nabatoff (NARC), Allan Mindel (My Own Private Idaho) and Will Raee, with Raee to direct from a script by Stephanie Pinola and Karen Croner.

The story is based on Kathy Cook's book "Stolen Angels," which follows the 1996 raid at a boarding school, where a band of armed rebels abducted young girls to turn them into soldiers and sex slaves.

A teacher at the school, Sister Caroline, tracked the rebels back to their camp to demand the girls' release; 110 were returned to the nun, who then began a crusade over the next few years as she rallied parents, the government, the United Nations and the pope to aid in rescuing not only her own girls but other children in rebel captivity.

"This is a film that had to get made," Thurman said. "It's beyond me that in this day and age the exploitation of child soldiers goes virtually unnoticed and unchecked by Western media."

Source: MovieWeb

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Sean Bean plays A Game of Thrones

George R R Martin fans time to get excited.

Sean Bean has signed up to star in A Game of Thrones for HBO, the first in the Song of Ice And Fire series of novels by George RR Martin, which the channel is adapting for the screen. He's set to play the lead, Eddard Stark, with Mark Addy said to be on the verge of signing on as King Robert Baratheon of Westeros.

The tricksy-turny series starts as the King and his family come to visit the Starks' home. Eddard is pressurised by his old friend Robert to return South with him and act as the King's adviser - something that Robert's in-laws, the Lannister family, are unlikely to take kindly to.

Add in a spot of conspiracy, incest, child murder, corruption, conspiracy and conspiracy - not to mention a rival claimant to the throne across the sea, the still-festering legacy of a civil war 20 years before, a growing threat in the North from...something and the prospect of a winter lasting several years on its way, and you've got a fantasy with little or no magic but a heck of a lot of intrigue. Think Deadwood with broadswords and maybe - maybe - less swearing.

Kit Harrington (from WarHorse, on the London stage) will play Jon Snow, Stark's bastard son*; Jack Gleeson (the fear-afflicted little boy in Batman Begins) will play Robert's cowardly son, Prince Joffrey; and Harry Lloyd (Will Scarlett in TV's Robin Hood) will play Viserys, the dethroned crown prince now in exile and manoeuvering his child sister into a marriage that could restore his fortunes. Peter Dinklage is already aboard as Tyrion Lannister, the sinister and deformed brother-in-law of the King.

Tom McCarthy is directing from a script by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Source: Empire

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The Dawn Treader is getting ready for its voyage

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the next installment in The Chronicles of Narnia. Prince Caspian was not so good, but out of the books Dawn Treader was my favourite. Lots of strange creatures and derring do on the high seas.

As you can see in the photo above the ship is under construction. It is being built at Cleveland Point, Australia.

Glad to see they are going ahead with the film as out of all of them I feel this could be the best one.

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Russell Crowe would like to be Master and Commander once more

According to the Associated Press, Crowe has entered into early negotiations to star in sequel to Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World.

Crowe revealed that there is a script already written, largely based off of the 11th novel in the 20-book series, The Reverse of the Medal, but it's too early to tell if the deal will come together or not.

"There's still a long way to go," the New Zealand-born actor told AP at a cricket match between England and Australia in London. He said talks had been taking place with the owner of the rights to the novels.

The Reverse of the Medal sees Crowe's Captain Jack Aubrey sailing into the Carribbean with his HMS Surprise ship, where he discovers his illegitimate son, Samuel Panda, now a Catholic priest.

The first Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World film took material from several of the books, written by Patrick O'Brian, so it isn't clear if this is the storyline the film will be centered on.

I thought the first film was a cracker. Crowe was brilliant and you really felt you where on the cramped ship with them. Well worth watching the extras on the DVD just to see how much work went into making it.

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World War Z gets a new scriptwriter

On FANGORIA RADIO last week, guest Max Brooks told them about a new writer taking on the film version of his best-selling undead-epic novel World War Z. The movie is being developed by Paramount and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Production, and J. Michael Straczynski had already written the script.

Now taking on the adaptation reins is Matthew Michael Carnahan, a specialist in political thrillers such as State of Play and The Kingdom.

“He’s one of Hollywood’s hot A-list writers, so if they went after him and paid him a mountain of gold, it definitely shows their confidence in this project,” Brooks said on the show. “They say it’s a positive move because they’re very excited, but the truth is, it’s also positive because they just paid him a buttload of money, and [with] the money they paid him, the money they paid Straczynski and they money they’ve paid me, they’ve really dug themselves a deep hole, so they better make this thing!”

Not sure whether this news is good or bad. Carnahan may have just been brought in to polish the political aspect of the script or maybe he's rewriting huge chunks of it.

Marc Forster is directing it and it was supposed to start filming this year. Obviously that is not the case, so who knows what problems there are with the script.

I just want to see this film! (below is a fan made teaser trailer using a whole host of other films).

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Willem Dafoe to be green in John Carter of Mars - No dodgy Goblin suit please

Willem Dafoe will star alongside Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins in John Carter of Mars, the Walt Disney Pictures fantasy epic to be directed by "Wall-E" helmer Andrew Stanton.

Dafoe will play the role of Tars Tarkas, a fierce green Martian warrior, who's unusual among his savage race for his ability to love. Tars develops an alliance with John Carter in the first film, which is based on "A Princess of Mars."

He fights battles alongside Carter through the entire series of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, so he will be hanging around for sequels.

Kitsch, who's coming off "The Bang Bang Club" and the TV series "Friday Night Lights," was set in June to play the title character, a damaged Civil War vet who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars. Collins, who acted alongside Kitsch in "Wolverine," will play the Princess of Mars.

Will he be all green or a CGI motion capture type of character mixed in with the live action people?

Source: Variety

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Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau

Emily Blunt will star opposite Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, a sci-fi love story George Nolfi is directing Universal and Media Rights Capital.

The story, which Nolfi adapted from a Philip K. Dick short story, follows a congressman (Damon), on the rise in politics, who meets a beautiful ballet dancer only to discover strange circumstances keep them apart.

Blunt is playing the dancer.

The original story "Adjustment Team," first published in 1954 is about Ed Fletcher, a real estates salesman who finds out that our world is really one big soundstage controlled by strange and mysterious guardians. So the film version sounds a little different.

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Remo is coming back. He's still Unarmed and Dangerous.

Producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight)and Steve Chasman (Transporter) are teaming up to produce The Destroyer. This is the hopefully the first of a franchise that brings back ’80s action hero Remo Williams.

Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir wrote the initial batch of “Destroyer” adventure tomes, which centered on Williams, a New Jersey cop convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Williams is sentenced to the electric chair, but his death is faked so he can be reborn as the vigilante character the Destroyer, joining a top-secret assassin squad set up by the government to operate outside the bounds of the law.

With the help of an Asian assassin named Chiun, Williams also then wreaks havoc on the criminal underworld as well as on those who framed him.

Like me, you probably know of the character through the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins that came out from Orion in 1985. It starred Fred Ward as Remo Williams and I loved it. Lots of martial arts training, fights, and it was funny.

Murphy and Sapir wrote scores of Destroyer paperbacks in the 1970s and ’80s, with other writers eventually taking over scribe duties. New installments of the series — more than 100 have been written all told — continue through this decade.

So many books and I haven't read any of them. Think I'll have to get hold of some.

Source: RiskyBusinessBlog

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Captain Nemo's adventures face another rewrite

The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake is heading through stormy waters at the moment. After the middling response to Terminator Salvation this new McG may not go as smoothly as planned. It has already had a rewrite - Justin Marks (Masters of the Universe, Super Max) was hired in February to rewrite Bill Marsilli’s (Deja Vu) but looks like another one is in the works. The original script sounded terrible.

“A fugitive whaler teams up with a naturalist, a mysterious woman and a captain of a futuristic submarine, to search for a lost underwater civilization that holds libraries of vast knowledge and a weapon with the power to destroy mankind.”

Randall Wallace (Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers, and The Rookie) has been hired to rewrite Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo.

This is meant to be an origin story for the mysterious Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus. McG wants Will Smith as Nemo.

Nothing I have heard about this project fills me with any hope for what should be an amazing adaption of a wonderful piece of work.

Source: /film

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Clive Barker's Book of Blood - Red Band Trailer

Paranormal researcher Mary Florescu’s (Sophie Ward) investigations lead her to Simon McNeal (Jonas Armstrong), a college student who appears to be channeling messages from the dead. As their erotic relationship develops, the line between the worlds of the living and the dead become blurred and finally collapse in a stunning and astonishing climax.

Due out on 22nd September 2009.

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Shane Meadows will Beware the Devil

Filmmaker Shane Meadows (Dead Man's Shoes, This is England) is going supernatural for his next film Beware the Devil.

He tells Empire Magazine, "It's based on a book of the same name, based on the life of a guy who, by getting involved with Ouija boards and the occult by trying to disprove it, trying to take the piss out of it, got possessed, had to be exorcised, and later became an exorcist himself. The guy it happened to has died, but his son's a novelist, and he helped him turn it into a book before he passed away, and now I'm working with him to turn it into a film."

Beware the Devil: A True Story of Deliverance was written by Robert Lee and published in 1983. Meadows currently has Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee on the film festival circuit.

It will be interesting to see what Meadows does with something of a supernatural bent.

Source: STYD
Photo: Jennifer Gregori

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - TV Spot - Extremely Dangerous

TV spot for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince shows small segments of never before seen footage.

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