Eddie Murphy will return as detective Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop IV, working with Paramount in collaring Lorenzo di Bonaventura as producer, reports Variety. The new regime at Paramount is keen on reviving the classic action-comedy franchise. Murphy will work closely with the studio and di Bonaventura in reinvigorating and updating the once-lucrative property.
The project is out to writers. Murphy, who will next be in theaters with Dreamgirls, has always been attached to star in the fourth installment. The first two pictures in the franchise, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and his former partner Don Simpson, did enormous box office. Beverly Hills Cop collected $315.7 million worldwide, while the sequel earned $299.6 million worldwide. The franchise ran into trouble with the release of Beverly Hills Cop III in 1994. The movie grossed only $44 million domestically.
Will Ferrell’s production company has bought the film rights to punk musician Frank Portman’s debut novel, King Dork. The project has generated a lot of interest since its debut in April. It centers on 14-year-old Tom Henderson, a typical high school slacker whose life changes when he finds his late father’s copy of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Ferrell will produce with Adam McKay, his partner in Gary Sanchez Prods., as part of their overall first-look deal with Paramount Vantage, the art-house arm of Paramount Pictures.
Frank Miller, who wrote and co-directed Sin City based on his graphic novels of the same name, told SCI FI Wire that he plans to co-direct the upcoming sequel, Sin City 2, with Robert Rodriguez, despite rumors to the contrary. “Yes and yes,” he said in an interview following a preview screening of footage of 300, another upcoming film based on his work. “We have all kinds of technical things we want to do, but there’s a major story called A Dame to Kill for [which was, fittingly, the second Sin City story and is a prequel of sorts to The Hard Goodbye] that we’re going to adapt,” Miller said. “That’ll include a new femme fatale and other characters.” Rodriguez has reportedly spoken with Angelina Jolie about playing Ava, ex-lover of Clive Owen’s Dwight.
“There are a number of short stories that will be interlaced between them and a brand new story that I’m just developing right now featuring Nancy Callahan [Jessica Alba] and her reaction to the death of John Hartigan [played in the first film by Bruce Willis, who likely won’t appear in the sequel],” Miller added. Sin City 2 is tentatively slated for production and release in 2007.
Dominic Purcell and Jesse Metcalfe are heading to Town Creek, a vampire horror movie that Joel Schumacher is directing for Gold Circle. The Hollywood Reporter says the two will star as brothers on a mission of revenge who become trapped in a harrowing occult experiment that dates back to the Third Reich. Gold Circle topper Paul Brooks is producing along with Tom Lassally and Robyn Meisinger. Norm Waitt and Scott Niemeyer are executive producing. Zak Kadison is co-producing and overseeing for Gold Circle. Lionsgate is distributing, while Mandate is handling foreign sales. A March 1 start date is being eyed.
Night at the Museum star Ben Stiller told ComingSoon.net that he is beginning the voice recordings for the highly-anticipated animated sequel Madagascar 2. “We’re starting to record it very soon,” Stiller said. Stiller also revealed the plot for the DreamWorks Animation follow-up. “I think all the animals head back to New York on that plane that you know was up in the trees and then they crash in Africa and Alex gets reacquainted with his real family and it goes from there,” he added. Madagascar 2 is scheduled for a November 7, 2008 release.
UK’s The Daily Mail caught up with Keira Knightley on the set of Atonement and she indicated that Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End would be her last turn as Elizabeth Swann: “I’ve been playing this girl since I was 17,” Keira said on the set of Atonement. “I’m 21 now and I’m onto very different things, but it’s fun to try to invest Elizabeth with some rebellious spirit. But what I’m doing in Atonement is very different. I mean, she is a grown-up woman!” The third Pirates of the Caribbean movie hits theaters on May 25, 2007.
Marvel Studios and Universal Pictures announced a June 27, 2008, release date for The Incredible Hulk, sequel to 2003’s Hulk. The announcement was made Nov. 6 by Michael Helfant, president and chief operating officer of Marvel Studios, and Kevin Feige, Marvel’s president of production. Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2, Unleashed) will direct The Incredible Hulk, which will return to the roots of the long-running comic series. Zak Penn, who previously collaborated with Marvel on X2 and this summer’s X-Men: The Last Stand, is writing the script. The project is being produced by Avi Arad, Feige and Gale Anne Hurd and will be executive-produced by Michael Helfant, David Womark and Arad. Marvel Studios is currently casting the project. The Incredible Hulk is being independently produced by Marvel Studios through its $525 million, non-recourse film finance facility and will be distributed domestically and in several international territories by Universal Pictures.
Ali Larter told SCI FI Wire that she enters major butt-kicking mode in the upcoming SF horror-action film Resident Evil: Extinction. Larter joins Resident Evil veteran Milla Jovovich in the third film based on the Capcom video-game franchise. “Alice [Jovovich] comes back, and I play Claire Redfield, who’s the head of this convoy that’s traveling through the Nevada desert, pretty much after an apocalypse,” Jovovich said in an interview. “We’re just trying to survive [the latest encounter with mutant zombies]. It’s survival of the fittest at this point, and it ends up being about who’s actually going to be able to make it during this very difficult time on Earth. It gets pretty bloody.”
Extinction is the third film in the series, in which a top-secret government virus has escaped and transformed humans into flesh-eating zombies. To shoot the movie, “we went down to Mexicali, which is maybe the hottest place on Earth,” Larter said. “I have pictures of me holding a thermometer, and it says 125 degrees. It was brutally hot. But it’s fun to play these kinds of characters. I was able to run away, shoot some guns and have a great time with the other actors. It’s also really fun to be in movies that people love to see. You can’t take yourself that seriously all the time.” Resident Evil: Extinction will be released in September 2007. Larter can be seen in Heroes on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Latino Review reports that The Dark Knight production has begun in London. Here’s a clip: Pre-production has started in London on the much anticipated Batman sequel The Dark Knight! We can confirm that most of the Batman Begins crew is back, including director of photography Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, costume designer Lindy Hemming and art directors Simon Lamont and Kevin Kavanaugh.
Spike Lee and Brian Grazer are developing a sequel to Inside Man for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, reports Variety. Lee is still in negotiations on a helming deal for the project, but he’s already working with the original’s writer, Russell Gewirtz, on a script. For now, the pair are keeping their sequel concept under wraps, including whether it would involve the return of the original’s main characters, played by Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. The bank heist thriller became the biggest-grossing film in Lee’s helming career, earning $184 million at the worldwide box office earlier this year.