George Lucas said Friday that filming of the long-awaited “Indiana Jones” movie will begin next year. Harrison Ford, who appeared in the three earlier flicks, the last one coming in 1989, is set to star again. Lucas said he and Steven Spielberg recently finalized the script for the film. “It’s going to be fantastic. It’s going to be the best one yet,” the 62-year-old filmmaker said during a break from preparing for his duties as grand marshal of Monday’s Rose Parade.
Exact film locations have not been decided yet, but Lucas said part of the movie will be shot in Los Angeles. The fourth chapter of the “Indiana Jones” saga, which will hit theaters in May 2008, has been in development for over a decade with several screenwriters taking a crack at the script, but it only recently gained momentum. Lucas kept mum about the plot, but said that the latest action flick will be a “character piece” that will include “very interesting mysteries.” “I think it’s going to be really cool,” Lucas said.
Continue reading George Lucas Says Indiana Jones 4 Filming In 2007
After revealing that Malcolm McDowell is going to play the new Dr. Loomis in Halloween, writer/director Rob Zombie has also announced on his official Blog that Tyler Mane will star as the adult Michael Myers. “I’m sure you all remember Tyler as Rufus from ‘The Devil’s Rejects,’ Sabretooth in the ‘X-Men’ and the unstoppable Ajax in ‘Troy,’” said Zombie. “Tyler is mean, lean and ready to bring you the most psychotic Michael Myers yet.” The new take on the classic horror movie is scheduled for an August 31 release.
Halloween writer/director Rob Zombie has announced on his official MySpace blog that he has cast Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis in his new take on the classic horror movie. Donald Pleasence played Dr. Loomis in John Carpenter’s 1978 original and its sequels. McDowell will join the previously-cast Daeg Faerch, who plays a young Michael Myers, Sheri Moon and Heather Bowen. Dimension Films has scheduled an August 31 release for the film.
Warner Brothers Pictures and producer Jerry Weintraub are developing a new take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs-created Tarzan. Variety says the studio is negotiating with Guillermo del Toro to direct. John Collee, who wrote Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and most recently scripted the WB animated hit Happy Feet, is in talks to write the screenplay. Del Toro, who grew up reading Spanish-language translations of those books, feels that the classic themes are still compelling, and that there is new ground to cover in the Tarzan mythology by turning back to the original Burroughs prose.
“I’d love to create a new version that is still a family movie, but as edgy as I can make it,” Del Toro said. “There are strong themes of survival of a defenseless child left behind in the most hostile environment. John will be writing it alone, as I’ll be in production on ‘Hellboy 2′ and pursuing writing projects of my own,” he added. “He’s got a great sense of adventure and the wilderness.”
Punisher star Thomas Jane told UGO.com that he has signed on to star in Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella The Mist. Jane revealed the casting while a UGO.com correspondent was talking with him this week: “Well, I have an e-mail from Frank right here,” Jane told the site. “Why don’t we open it and see what’s going on with The Mist? [reads] He says that he just heard my deal closed today, and he’s happy and looking forward to working with me.”
Darabont (who directed the film adaptation of King’s The Shawshank Redemption) will helm The Mist for Dimension Films, based on his own script. A spring production start is envisioned. Published in 1985 as part of King’s short-story collection Skeleton Crew, “The Mist” takes place in a small town where a thick mist engulfs the area, killing those caught in its darkness.
The Mist marks Jane’s second involvement in a King-spawned project: He also starred in Dreamcatcher. “I think it’s destined to be some kind of cult classic in a weird B-movie way, only in that no one has ever spent $80 million on a movie where weasels come out of your ass,” Jane said.
Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment are teaming with director Spike Lee on L.A. Riots, a drama framed around the racially charged April 1992 riots, says Variety. John Ridley will write the script. Brian Grazer will produce. Lee, who’s also developing an Inside Man sequel for the studio and Grazer, said the goal is to have a script in front of president Donna Langley before business closes for the holidays. The project could well be his next feature and shoot next year.
The riots, which followed the acquittal by a white jury of four police officers who were videotaped beating black motorist Rodney King, caused the death of 55 people, thousands of injuries and close to $1 billion in damage. “This isn’t about some cavalcade of stars, but rather a truthful and realistic examination of what happened, what the ramifications were and where we are now, in hopes that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Lee said. Grazer said the subject matter was “the best way to use Spike’s power as a filmmaker, to tell an even-handed story that gets beyond the iconic pictures that we all remember.”
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said earlier this week that Lost and Alias creator, and Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams is set to helm Star Trek XI, reports Variety. Dauman noted that Paramount is targeting a 2008 or 2009 release date for the anticipated film. “We’re revitalizing it in a new and interesting way,” he said. Abrams is teaming up with Lost creators-writers-producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk on the 11th installment. Burk, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will executive produce.
Alan Rickman will play Judge Turpin in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, reports Screen Daily. He joins Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. co-production, based on the award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical thriller. The story of Sweeney Todd is of a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. The plot is foreshadowed in the first lines of the opening number: “Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd./His skin was pale and his eye was odd./He shaved the faces of gentlemen/Who never thereafter were heard of again.” Production is planned to begin early in 2007 for release late that year. Paramount will distribute for DreamWorks domestically and Warner Bros. internationally.