Zemeckis to direct BEOWULF
Oscar-winning director attached to new project
Director Robert Zemeckis (THE POLAR EXPRESS, BACK TO THE FUTURE) will helm a new remake of the epic tale of BEOWULF from a script by Neil Gaiman (PRINCESS MONONOKE) and Roger Avary (PULP FICTION). Zemeckis will produce the motion picture alongside Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, with Gaiman, Avary and Martin Shafer receiving executive producer credits. Shangri-La Entertainment is financing the movie and Sony Pictures is in discussions to distribute the picture.
The original BEOWULF poem was written at least a thousand years old and tells of a famed 6th century Scandinavian warrior that goes to battle a fearsome monster called Grendel.
EDITOR'S NOTE: DIDN'T ODDBOB GO TO SCHOOL WITH GRENDEL?
Gaiman and Avary are getting paid more than $2 million for their screenplay.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I HAVE CHOSEN SO POORLY IN MY CAREER....SIGH......
Amelie helps crack DA VINCI CODE
Audrey Tatou 's career gets another big break
French actress Audrey Tautou (AMELIE) has been selected to play the coveted role of Sophie Neveu in THE DA VINCI CODE movie. The film is being directed by Ron Howard (A BEAUTIFUL MIND) and Tatou will star opposite Tom Hanks in the mystery/thriller.
Neveu is a vital character in Dan Brown's book. It is the murder of her grandfather in the Louvre that begins the story, uniting the French cryptologist with American symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks). Together the two uncover clues that hint at secrets held in the shadows of history for two thousand years.
This would be Tautou's highest profile movie role to date. She was propelled to international stardom by playing the title character in AMELIE and can currently be seen on the screen in A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT.
French actor Jean Reno has also been cast as Detective Bezu Fache. Filming is slated to commence around summer 2005 for a May 19, 2006 release.
Actor a Blackheart for GHOST RIDER
Wes Bentley to play villain
AMERICAN BEAUTY star Wes Bentley will play the villain Blackheart in the GHOST RIDER film, scheduled to start filming in February. Bentley will play opposite Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, the film's tormented hero who makes a pact with the forces of darkness and becomes the bike riding Spirit of Vengeance.
EDITOR'S NOTE: MAKE A PACT WITH THE FORCES OF LIGHTNESS AND YOU GET A NICE HYBRID TOYOTA.
According to Variety, Bentley got the job after buddy Colin Farrell hooked Wes up with GHOST RIDER director Mark Steven Johnson. Johnson directed Farrell in DAREDEVIL.
Cuaron examines HISTORY OF LOVE
PRISONER OF AZKABAN helmer moves to his next project
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN director Alfonso Cuaron will make his next move helming an adaptation of THE HISTORY OF LOVE, based on a forthcoming May 2005 novel by Nicole Krauss. The tale is a bittersweet drama about a once-lost old book that mysteriously surfaces and that connects an old man searching for his son with a girl trying to find a way to dispell her mother's loneliness.
Cuaron's producer on the third HARRY POTTER film, David Heyman, will serve the same duty on the new production. Warner Bros. will release the movie.
ANCIENT DARKNESS falls at Fox 2000
Prehistoric Harry Potter
The film rights to Michelle Paver's children's fantasy book series CHRONCLES OF ANCIENT DARKNESS have been optioned by Fox 2000, with Scott Free Productions in charge of developing the new movie property. Director Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR
Paver has written six books in the CHRONCLES OF ANCIENT DARKNESS series which is set 6,000 years ago in Earth's past. The series follows a 12-year-old boy named Torak and his wolf companion battle against evil forces for the fate of the planet.
EDITOR'S NOTE: WHICH SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE HARRY POTTER. UMM...EXCEPT FOR THE 6000-YEARS-AGO THING. AND THE WOLF.The series is published by HarperCollins in North America.
While development work is only taking place on turning the first volume, WOLF BROTHER, into a film, if the film is a hit undoubtedly more will follow. Paver gets paid a quarter of a million dollars for selling the film rights to WOLF BROTHER and she'll top it off at one million if the movie is ever given a greenlight. Variety states that the author could stand to make almost $4 million dollars if all six films are produced.
EDITOR'S NOTE: AND ONCE AGAIN, I HAVE TO LOOK AT THE HARSH REALITY OF MY POOR CAREER CHOICES.
Fry will be your GUIDE
Brit actor Stephen Fry will play the voice of the Book
The BBC website
has confirmed that the voice for THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY has been found, and it's Stephen Fry. A self-professed fan of the Douglas Adams novels, Fry told the Beeb, "Being asked to do the voice of The Guide is like having your birthday on Christmas Day, discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking and having chocolate poured all over you." At least we know he's enthusiastic about his new job!
EDITOR'S NOTE: AND POSSIBLY IN NEED OF MED ADJUSTMENT.
Fry has numerous credits throughout his three decade long career including a recurring role in BLACKADDER as well as roles in GOSFORD PARK, COLD COMFORT FARM, SPICE WORLD and the upcoming fantasy film MIRRORMASK.
Wahlberg could become DEPARTED
Actor in talks to join Scorsese's next film
PLANET OF THE APES remake star Mark Wahlberg is in negotiations to join the cast of Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED. If a contract can be reached Wahlberg will join Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie, which is an American remake of the Hong Kong police thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS.
EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL ISN'T THAT GOING TO BE A POTFUL OF PULCHRITUDE OF A MOVIE?! (AND TWO OF THEM CAN EVEN ACT!)
Wahlberg would play a cop in the department of a Boston precinct that's friends with DiCaprio's character, an undercover officer knee-deep in with gangsters. Damon's character is one of the gangsters who has also gone "undercover" himself, getting inside the police department to try and find out who the mole in his criminal organization is.
Walker treks across ANTARCTICA
Blonde-haired actor cast in new Disney adventure film
He's going from racing street cars to digging out chunks of hundred-thousand year-old ice. THE FAST AND FURIOUS star Paul Walker has landed the leading role in ANTARCTICA for Walt Disney Pictures.
The film's story follows two arctic explorers who set out to locate and retrieve a meteorite from a remote part of the icy wasteland. Midway through their journey the pair have to give up their quest and head back, faced with no choice but to leave their sled dogs behind. Walker's character is a National Geographic reporter that, with the help of a rescue party, leads the way back to recover the pooches.
EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL I SHOULD HOPE SO! POOR COLD DOGGIES......
The film is based on a true story. Frank Marshall is directing from a script by David DiGilio and Mike Rich.
Director sniffing around BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE
Katja Von Garnier is in talks to helm BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE, the MGM werewolf movie based on Annette Curtis Klause's young adult novel of the same title. When we first reported on this project, just about a year ago, director Sanji Senaka, but somewhere between then and when screenwriter Ehren Kruger (SCREAM 3) adapted the book Senaka fell away from the project.
Von Garnier is a German director best known domestically for her work directing the HBO movie IRON JAWED ANGELS.
Klause's book is a romance story between a 16-year-old werewolf girl named Vivian Gandillon who struggles to maintain her secret from a human boy that she is starting to fall in love with.
EDITOR'S NOTE: TEEN ANGST AND FUR. GREAT.
Brad shoots for JESSE JAMES
Actor will star as the gunslinger
Brad Pitt will play the legendary bad boy of the old west, gunslinger Jesse James, in a movie based on the life and death of the outlaw. CHOPPER director Andrew Dominik will direct the movie and the screenplay will be adapted from the Ron Hansen novel THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD.
The book was optioned last year by Plan B Films, the production company owned by Pitt, Brad Grey and Jennifer Aniston, and by Scott Free brothers Ridley and Tony Scott. According to Variety, just Plan B will now make the film.
Hansen's tale will focus on the events of Jesse James leading up to his death by shooting by Robert Ford. In the years following Ford's murder of James, the gang member (who once idolized James) was wracked with guilt about killing the western icon.
EDITOR'S NOTE: GUESS HE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE HE SHOT HIM, HMMM?!
