Take a gander at the Trailer for Martin Scorsese's kid flick Hugo!
The guys behind Solitary Man will next be adapting The Game?
After tackling the story of an aging man’s sexual appetite with the acclaimed Michael Douglas drama Solitary Man, Brian Koppelman and David Levien are taking on the subject again, this time from a different point of view.
Koppelman and Levien will rewrite and direct The Game, MGM’s adaptation of the best-sellingNeil Strauss book about picking up women. Part memoir, part how-to guide, The Gamedetails Strauss's effort to learn the tricks to becoming a successful pick-up artist, even moving into a Sunset Strip mansion filled with other competing players to find love.
The project was originally set up at Columbia with Chris Weitz attached to direct, then it shacked up with Spyglass with D.B. Weiss writing. Later, Lionsgate made a pass at an incarnation with Rawson Marshall Thurber attached to helm. Fox Searchlight also flirted with the project, but Game has now made its way to MGM, recently taken over by former Spyglass toppers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum. Chris and Paul Weitz are attached to produce.
Daniel Craig is impressed with David Fincher...
Daniel Craig hasn’t been seen in theaters since 2008′s Defiance but he’ll have four films coming to us this year. In a few weeks we’ll see him in Cowboys & Aliens, he’s got the horror flick Dream House in September, he did motion capture for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and he wraps up the year with David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He can expect plenty of questions about Bond 23 and we can expect that he’ll answer almost none of them. However, he is willing to talk Dragon Tattoo in an awkwardly written quasi-interview with Esquire.
Hit the jump to read what Craig had to say about the adult-nature of the film and how Fincher is handling the violence in the story. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21st.
Here’s what Craig had to say about how The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the increasingly rare drama for adults:
“It’s as adult as you can possibly make it. This is adult drama. I grew up, as we fucking all did, watching The Godfather and that, movies that were made for adults. And this is a $100 million R-rated movie. Nobody makes those anymore. And Fincher, he’s not holding back. They’ve given him free rein. He showed me some scenes recently, and my hand was over my mouth, going, ‘Are you fucking serious?’”
And why did Craig find those scenes so shocking?
“[It's] not that he simply showed me footage that was horribly graphic. It was stuff that was happening, or had happened. And somehow you don’t see it… There’s more than one way to sense violence. Much more powerful ways than seeing it step-by-step.”
In the Swedish adaptation, director Niels Arden Oplev didn’t shy away from the brutality, but it almost felt fetishistic. [Spoiler Alert] The overall mystery storyline of solving a decades-old disappearance was overshadowed by the rape of Lisbeth Salander by her parole officer and her violent retribution. That exchange happens in the first act of the story and it makes the mystery storyline feel small. I have faith that Fincher can reestablish the balance, but the greater problem may lie in the flaws of Steig Larsson’s original novel.
-Joey's Two Cents: As long as the screenplay is an improvement over the original's, we could be looking at a potentially excellent film...thoughts?David Schwimmer wants to make Upton Sinclar's The Jungle as his next film!
Aside from Jennifer Aniston, of all the “Friends” alumni, David Schwimmer seems to have best utilized the career boost he received thanks to the long-running hit sitcom. He has used the opportunity of opened doors to take a chance behind the camera, and while the results have been mixed at best—“Run Fatboy Run” managed to make Simon Pegg unfunny while internet scare drama “Trust” has its defenders; he’s also been behind six episodes of “Little Britain USA”—his ambition certainly isn’t lacking and his next project may be his grandest yet.
As Paul Thomas Anderson nerds already know, the director used Sinclair’s “Oil!” as a jumping off point for his masterful “There Will Be Blood” and “The Jungle” is just as savage. Published in 1906, writer/journalist Sinclair intended the novel to be about the plight of the workers in Chicago’s infamous meatpacking district, but instead, it drew attention for nauseating depiction of the horrid conditions in which food was handled, which prompted a government investigation that eventually led to the founding of the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.
Despite the hysterical tone of Sinclair’s novel, it undoubtedly touched a nerve and if adapted smartly—we suggest he goes PTA’s route and uses it as a launchpad rather than be too faithful to the source—it could definitely be a fine piece of material. Whether or not Schwimmer is up to the task for bringing it to the big screen, we’ll have to wait and see, but it’s always encouraging to see someone who could live on syndication checks for the rest of his life taking risks and using his resources to get some risky material going. It all seems early days at this point but it will be interesting to see how this all develops.
-Joey's Two Cents: I'm a big fan of Schwimmer as a director, so I'm excited by this news...thoughts?A sequel to Atlas Shrugged is still in the works...
Atlas Shrugged: The Trilogy is still alive. The producers of the Ayn Rand adaptation will bring the first part of their planned series to home-entertainment platforms this fall, courtesy of a deal with 20th Century Fox, and expect to begin production on "Atlas Shrugged: Part 2" in September. They hope to bring the new film to theaters during the 2012 election season.
"Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," the low-budget adaptation of the first third of Rand's dystopian novel, grossed $4.6 million during its five-week theatrical run this spring. After the film drew scathing reviews, producer John Aglialoro said he was reconsidering whether to move forward with two sequels.
Now Aglialoro has resumed those efforts, according to producer Harmon Kaslow, and will devote all revenue from the release of "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1" to financing "Atlas Shrugged: Part 2."
"John has a much clearer perspective," Kaslow told 24 Frames. "He’s always wanted to have a studio level support for the film and I think feels that his effort in producing Part 1 has been validated by having the largest home video distributor in America aboard."
The producers are retaining the home entertainment rights, but are paying a distribution fee to Fox to release the film on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download and video on demand, according to Kaslow. He said the deal was born of strategy, not necessity.
"What we discovered with the film is that it really doesn’t fit squarely into a lot of business models," said Kaslow. "We got incredible grass roots and community level support for the movie, but what we didn’t have was the polished marketing edge that the studios have perfected. Now we get to use their marketing, their fulfillment capacity. We think that makes more sense for us than mortgaging those rights off for a number."
Deals for TV and pay-TV airings are being negotiated, Kaslow said, and the producers have retained a foreign sales agent to secure international theatrical releases.
Aglialoro, the CEO of exercise-equipment company Cybex, spent $20 million to produce, distribute and market the movie, which was directed by first-timer Paul Johansson and stars Taylor Schilling (as railroad executive Dagny Taggart) and Grant Bowler (as steel magnate Hank Rearden).
Rand's novel, a touchstone work among many conservatives, takes place at an unspecified future time in which the U.S. is stuck in a depression and a mysterious phenomenon is causing the nation's leading industrialists to disappear.
Kaslow said the release of "Atlast Shrugged: Part 2" next year in theaters will be timed to capitalize on the national mood during the presidential election. "There will be a debate going on about the direction of the country, and a lot of the groups who have embraced Ayn Rand’s philosophies will be engaged," he said.
The filmmakers, who self-distributed and marketed "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1" as "the movie liberal Hollywood doesn't want you to see" may partner with a studio distributor this time around, Kaslow said.
"John appreciates the autonomy that came with spending his own money and doing his own theatrical release," Kaslow said. "But he realizes that the motion picture business is especially challenging and there are a number of things studios do better than anybody else."
-Joey's Two Cents: I've only heard phenomenally dreadful things about the first installment, so one assumes that the next one can't be as bad, but who knows...thoughts?Martin Scorsese's upcoming film gets another title change?
It seems the prevailing sentiment in Hollywood right now is that shorter is better. “John Carter of Mars” recently became just “John Carter” and now Martin Scorsese‘s “Hugo Cabret” is simply “Hugo.” Variety’s Jeff Sneider has confirmed the title adjustment which frankly leaves us scratching our head a bit.
You would think that the people behind the film would want to make sure audiences knew the connection between the movie and Brian Selznick‘s best-selling children’s historical fiction book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” that it is based on. Now it just sounds like that dude from “Lost” got his own movie. But there will be enough star power to get asses in the seats. Led by Asa Butterfield and Chloë Moretz, with a cast including Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emily Mortimer, Ray Winstone, Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths, the 1931-set film follows the story of the eponymous orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. When Hugo encounters a broken machine, an eccentric girl, and the cold, reserved man who runs the toy shop, he is caught up in a magical, mysterious adventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy.
A trailer for the film has recently been submitted for classification and it won’t be a chintzy teaser—it runs over two minutes long—and we’d wager we’ll be seeing it in the very immediate future. “Hugo” marks Scorsese’s first venture into 3D filmmaking as well as directing a film aimed squarely at families so we’re excited to see where the part-time cinema historian draws his influences from for this one. “Hugo” hits theaters on November 23rd.
-Joey's Two Cents: I think "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" had a nice ring to it, but that's just me...thoughts?Take a gander at the Teaser Trailer for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy!
-Joey's Two Cents: We officially have another Oscar contender on our hands...thoughts?
Jeff Bridges wants to star in an adaptation of The Giver?
Jeff Bridges and producer Nikki Silver are taking another stab at a big screen version of Lois Lowry's young adult novel "The Giver."
They had been developing a feature version of the popular book for nearly a decade before it wound up at Warner Bros., which ponied up nearly $1 million to set up the tome with Red Wagon's Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher in 2007.
When the rights became available again, Bridges and Silver stepped up to reacquire them and produce through family film and TV shingle On Screen Entertainment.
Vadim Perelman ("The House of Sand and Fog") is still attached to pen the script. Film financier John Heyman will produce.
Bridges will co-produce with Silver and Neil Koenigsberg, the thesp's longtime manager. Silver and Koenigsberg produced documentary "The Dude Abides," which kicked off the 25th anniversary PBS "American Masters" series in January celebrating Bridges' 40-year plus acting career.
"The Giver" follows a 12-year-old who lives in a futuristic utopian society where all memory of human history has been erased. His life is thrown into turmoil when he is designated to inherit the role of the Giver and bear his community's vast range of human emotions, which causes him to realize that living a pain-free life comes at a high cost.
Bridges was introduced to the book, which has sold more than 10 million copies, by his daughter, who was reading it in high school.
"I originally thought of the role of the Giver as a vehicle for my father, the late Lloyd Bridges; however, at 61 years old, I feel the time is right for me to do it," he said.
"The Giver" was first published in 1994, when it was optioned by TV syndicator Lancit Media and then family program producer RCN Entertainment (behind PBS kidlit series "Reading Rainbow"). Silver was an exec at both Lancit and RCN.
Bridges and Silver came close to getting the film made in 2006, when Fox and Walden Media were interested in giving the project a greenlight, with Perelman at the helm.
-Joey's Two Cents: I never cared much for the book, but I could see it being an interesting project for Bridges...thoughts?Behold the Trailer for Steven Spielberg's Oscar hopeful War Horse!
Emma Stone could be the lead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!
Emma Stone may be heading back to the world of zombies.
The actress, who memorably appeared as Jesse Eisenberg’s love interest in Zombieland, has been offered the lead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
The Lionsgate movie, being directed by Craig Gillespie, takes the classic Jane Austen tale featuring Elizabeth Bennet's quest for love and independence and throws in an outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the dead into zombies.
The project has flirted with actresses such as Mia Wasikowska and Anne Hathaway but nothing has stuck so far.
Natalie Portman is producing along with Annette Savitch, Richard Kelly, Sean McKittrick and Tedd Hamm.
Stone, repped by WME and Anonymous Content, just wrapped The Amazing Spider-Man in which she plays Gwen Stacy.
-Joey's Two Cents: This could be great casting...thoughts?
James Wan sets up his next horror project after Insidious and all of its success...
James Wan's haunted house isn't broken, so why fix it?
The 34-year-old Malaysian helmer, who steered "Insidious," budgeted at $1.5 million, to more than $75 million worldwide for FilmDistrict, is in final negotiations to direct "The Conjuring" for New Line.
The pitch is inspired by the true-life story of the Perron family, who claimed they "lived among the dead" in the 1970s as spirits both friendly and sinister inhabited their Rhode Island farmhouse. "Insidious," which came out in April, focused on a family coping with evil spirits who threatened their young boy.
Peter Safran and Tony DeRosa-Grund will produce "Conjuring" through the Safran Co., which is currently in post on "ATM" and is in pre-production on "Vehicle 19," starring Paul Walker.
New Line had no comment on Wan's attachment, and no production start date has been set yet.
Summit had originally eyed the project, but after talks fell through to purchase the pitch, New Line stepped in and optioned it.
Wan is repped by Paradigm and Stacey Testro Intl.
-Joey's Two Cents: I like Wan's work for the most part, so I'm interested to see this follow-up...thoughts?
The director of 'The American' has his next project lined up!
Rock photographer turned director Anton Corbijn will next helm the adaptation of John le Carré's political thriller A Most Wanted Man.
Corbijn, whose last film was George Clooney-starrer The American, will shoot the bulk of A Most Wanted Man in Hamburg. Australian screenwriter Andrew Bovell (Edge of Darkness) will adapt Le Carre's novel for the screen. Principle photography is expected to being this winter.
The book, published in 2008, tells the story of the Chechian Muslim Issa who illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught up in the international war on terror. The tale is loosely based on the real-life story of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen and legal German resident who was seized by American authorities, with knowledge of the German government and taken to Guantanamo Bay. He was kept there for several years before being released, without charge, in 2006.
Simon Channing-Williams, the producer of Le Carré' adaptation The Constant Gardener, produced a short trailer about the book to accompany its publication.
Malte Grunert's Berlin-based shingle Amusement Park Films is producing A Most Wanted Man. The film has received $1.3 million (€900,000) in production subsidies from Hamburg's regional film board the FFHSH.
-Joey's Two Cents: After The American, I'll follow Corbijn almost anywhere...thoughts?Here's the official Trailer for Moneyball
-Joey's Two Cents: It seems like the most cinematical version of the story possible...thoughts?
Kate Winselt will star in Jason Reitman's next film!
Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin have committed to star as a lost, lonesome mother and an escaped convicted murderer who takes refuge with her and her young son in Jason Reitman’s adaptation of Labor Day, EW has learned.
The drama, which is part love story, part coming-of-age tale, and part thriller, has been adapted from the 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard by Reitman. The movie will shoot in 2012 in New England.
Both actors are repped by CAA, and Indian Paintbrush is producing.
This is the first time the trio is working together. Set in the early ’80s over the late summer holiday weekend, Labor Day opens with divorced, depressed single mom Adele clothes shopping with her 13-year-old son, Henry. They encounter a large, fearsome man — who also happens to be bleeding badly. He asks for a ride, and against all judgment, they give him one.
Are they hostages, accomplices… or just deluded? As police search town for the escaped convict, the mother and son gradually learn his true story and their options become more and more limited.
-Joey's Two Cents: So far, Reitman hasn't let me down yet, and seems to be improving with every outing, so I'm looking forward to this...thoughts?Curious what the 'Moneyball' movie is going to be like?
-Joey's Two Cents: It remains to be seen if it manages to be an Oscar contender, but it looks interesting and fits in with the script that I read...thoughts?
Ben Affleck might have his 4th directorial endeavor coming together...
Harlan Coben, one of the biggest selling mystery writers in America, is finally in line to have one of his books made into a major Hollywood film. And all he had to do was make a detour through France.
Warner Bros and Universal Pictures have optioned rights to turn Coben’s thriller Tell No One. Ben Affleck is attached to direct and the script will be written by Chris Terrio. Terrio scripted Argo, the film Affleck is preparing to direct next for Warner Bros. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will be the producers. The studios will co-develop the picture, with Warner Bros releasing domestically and Universal Pictures International launching it overseas. The deal involves Luc Besson’s Europacorp and that’s where the French connection comes in. The new project is basically a remake of the French film adaptation of Coben’s book, which was directed by Guillaume Canet.
Coben originally set up his book at Sony Pictures in 2002. The studio hired Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, no less. Coben has a page-turning writing style, but his mysteries aren't seamless screen transitions. It never quite came together and Sony let it go. Canet then got involved, figured out how to make the premise work onscreen, set it up at Europacorp and turned it into French film. The plot involves a pediatrician who is out one night frolicking by a lake with his wife when she suddenly vanishes and he is severely beaten when he tries to find her. When she turns up murdered, he is prime suspect. That’s until she’s declared a victim of a caught serial killer. Years later, bodies turn up in the same spot and the nightmare is repeated as the pediatrician is again under suspicion. Right around that time, he’s given evidence that his wife wasn’t dead at all. Canet managed to make all that work, anchored by the fact the protagonist never got over the death of his wife. Sara Schechter and Greg Silverman are running the project for Warner Bros and Adam Yoelin is steering it for Kennedy/Marshall.
Maybe this gives hope to Coben's other books. That includes the series revolving around hoops star-turned sports agent and sleuth Myron Bolitar. John Calley bought those rights at Sony Pictures years ago but could never get a script he could make. Do they have sports agent/sleuths in France?
-Joey's Two Cents: At this point, anything Affleck directs I'm interested in...thoughts
Aaron Sorkin's project about John Edwards may be evolving...
Two decades after Aaron Sorkin's famous lawyer drama "A Few Good Men" scored at the box office, it looks the writer might have to return to the courtroom with his forthcoming John Edwards' drama.
The two-time presidential candidate was indicted by by a grand jury in North Carolina on Friday. He faces charges that he violated campaign finance law during his 2008 presidential campaign and used that money to hide an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter.
Entitled "The Politician," the film is an adaptation of campaign aide Andrew Young's memoir of his time spent at Edwards' side.
It now looks like Sorkin may have found the setting for another "You can't handle the truth" moment. Edwards makes his first appearance in federal court in Winston-Salem, N.C., this afternoon.
The man who drew deep support from within the movie industry faces six counts — four centering on illegal payments, one involving conspiracy and one regarding false statements.
Sorkin attended a 2003 fundraiser for Edwards at the home of Dennis Hopper, according to the Hollywood Reporter. His entertainment industry supporters included Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Jackson Browne.
Could Martin Scorsese be looking to make a movie about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor?
Paramount Pictures is finalizing a deal to develop a feature about the romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as a directing vehicle for Martin Scorsese. The film will be produced by Julie Yorn, Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff of Krasnoff Foster Productions, and Scorsese through his Paramount-based Sikelia banner. They are assembling the resources to tell Hollywood's most famous star-crossed love story.
They've optioned Furious Love, the book by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger that was published by HarperCollins last year. At the same time, the producers have a rights agreement with Burton's estate, and a pledge of cooperation from his widow, Sally Hay Burton, to make his library available as a resource. The filmmakers have also reached out to the estate of Taylor with the same hopes. A screenwriter will be hired shortly.
I'm told that Paramount made the book deal as other parties pursued the book, with other suitors including Oscar-winning Black Swan star Natalie Portman and The King's Speech Oscar-winning scribe David Seidler. All this for a book that got 100 passes when initially shopped for a movie deal by the author's reps, Justin Manask and David Kuhn. Film interest in the book--for which Taylor made available many of the love letters Burton wrote to her over the years--grew when Taylor passed away in March and reports focused on the relationship between Taylor and Burton.
The movie isn't a Hollywood biopic. It focuses on a torrid and tempestuous romance that is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Taylor and Burton fell hard for each other on the set of Cleopatra, not long after Burton replaced Stephen Boyd as Marc Antony. Just as Cleopatra and Antony were a combustible match, onscreen chemistry between Taylor and Burton soon became something more. Taylor was 29 and had already shocked the world when she got together with her fourth husband, singer Eddie Fisher, who left his wife Debbie Reynolds to be with Taylor. The 36-year old Burton was married to Sybil Burton when he got to Italy to shoot the film. While movie star couples are now used to being haunted by paparazzi, it was a new phenomenon when the romance between Taylor and Burton became a worldwide scandal that had reporters and photographers haunting their every step. The Vatican condemned their affair because each was married. Taylor and Burton divorced their respective spouses, married in 1964, and divorced in 1974. They remarried the following year, only to divorce the second time in 1976. Though both moved on, they never got over each other, doomed, perhaps, by so much passion that it became too volatile to be together.
Scorsese has long been interested in Hollywood lore. He spent years developing a feature about Dean Martin and is currently working on a movie about Frank Sinatra that he will direct at Universal. Scorsese most recently directed Hugo Cabret, his first 3D film. He's repped by WME and Rick Yorn. The project was brought into Julie Yorn by exec Patrick Walmsley.
-Joey's Two Cents: I wouldn't normally be too interested in this project, but if Scorsese sees it as worthy, I'll go with it...thoughts?
Could David Fincher be fully embracing his dark side again?
With The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher seems to be emerging from his Oscar-bait phase and re-indulging in his love of dark thrillers. And now Vulture hears that Fincher has just optioned Jason Starr’s 2009 macabre crime novel Panic Attack, about a New York shrink who shoots and kills a home intruder, then faces a media frenzy and the victim's vengeful accomplice. We're also told that Fincher has set Ocean’s Eleven and Tower Heist screenwriter Ted Griffin to adapt the book.
We hear Panic Attack will be part of Fincher’s recently formed company, Panic Pictures. (Boy, factor in Panic Room and this guy really has a thing about that word.) His company is set up at Media Rights Capital, the production and financing entity that allows filmmakers to retain ownership of their films while getting major Hollywood studios to bid on distributing the movies for a fee.
Starr is a prolific crime novelist. His tenth book, The Pack (about werewolf stay-at-home dads run amok on the Upper West Side, naturally), hits bookstores next week, but four of his previous novels are already in development in Hollywood in one form or another. Most notably, his 2008 thriller, The Follower, is set up at Starz, with Bret Easton Ellis adapting.
Reached by Vulture, Starr had few details on the project’s timeline, but did offer up his thoughts to budding crime novelists on what makes for a good thriller: He insists it's the villain, and not your hero, who makes a thriller thrilling. “And the thing about Panic Attack is that there’s a really compelling antihero in this guy Johnny Long [the revenge-minded cohort stalking the psychiatrist and his family]," says Starr. "He’s a very clever, Ripley-esque psychopath.”
No word on whether the equally prolific Fincher (who is producing the Kevin Spacey series House of Cards for Netflix) intends to direct himself or farm it out in the same fashion M. Night Shyamalan did at MRC with Devil, but we’ll keep you informed.
-Joey's Two Cents: I'm actually about to read the book (go figure), but it seems like a solid, if less than original, premise for Fincher to work with...thoughts?Speaking of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...here's the International Poster!
-Thoughts?