Oscar winner Alan Arkin is reuniting with his Little Miss Sunshine co-star Steve Carell in the big-screen version of Get Smart, which Peter Segal is directing for Warner Bros. Pictures. Arkin will play the chief of CONTROL, the organization that fights the evil forces of KAOS. Edward Platt played the character in the 1965 TV series. Carell is on board as secret agent Maxwell Smart, with Anne Hathaway as Agent 99. Dwayne Johnson and Terrence Stamp also have been cast. Andrew Lazar, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing the comedy. Mosaic, Mad Chance and Callahan Films are the production entities involved.
Robert Downey Jr. and Jay Baruchel will star in the Ben Stiller-directed comedy Tropic Thunder for DreamWorks Pictures and Red Hour Films, says The Hollywood Reporter. In the film, everything goes wrong during the making of a big-budget war movie, and the actors end up becoming the commandos they are playing. Downey will play Kirk Lazarus, the greatest actor of his generation and a four-time Oscar winner. Baruchel will play Kevin Sandusky, an unknown actor on the set. Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen penned the screenplay. Shooting is set to start in July. Red Hour’s Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld are producing alongside Eric McLeod.
Dimension Films has closed a deal to remake David Cronenberg’s 1981 horror pic Scanners, reports Variety. The film will be directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II & III) and David Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade series) will write the script. The story revolves around a scientist who infiltrates an underground movement of “scanners,” whose telepathic abilities make them lethal weapons. The original was best remembered for an exploding head finale.
Dimension co-chairman Bob Weinstein has earmarked an early 2008 production start; the aim is to release the film later that year. Producing the film will be Rene Malo, Pierre David, Clark Peterson, Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, Mark Burg and Oren Koules. The latter two produce and finance the Saw series through their Twisted Pictures.
Continue reading Saw Director Remaking Scanners For Dimension
Michelle Monaghan has signed on to star opposite Patrick Dempsey in Columbia Pictures’ romantic comedy Made of Honor, says The Hollywood Reporter. Paul Weiland will direct from a screenplay by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont based on an original script by Adam Sztykiel.
The story chronicles the relationship between Tom (Dempsey) and Claire (Monaghan), who have been platonic friends for 10 years. He’s a serial dater, while she wants marriage but hasn’t found Mr. Right. Just as Tom is starting to think that he’s relationship material after all, Claire gets engaged. When she asks Tom to be her “maid” of honor, he reluctantly agrees — only so he can attempt to stop the wedding and woo her before it’s too late. Shooting is scheduled to start in April.
Variety says Paramount Pictures and producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura have optioned the novel Kringle by Tony Abbott, and attached Mark Dindal (Chicken Little) to direct the family adventure film. Dindal will co-write the script with Jason Richman (Bad Company). The live-action epic will feature warriors, battles and fairies as it explores the origin of the Kris Kringle myth and how Christmas came to be. Paramount-based Di Bonaventura will produce through his eponymous production company.
Paramount is expected to announce formally that J.J. Abrams will direct Star Trek XI, aiming for a Christmas 2008 release date, with a script by Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, a source close to the production told SCI FI Wire. A draft script has been completed and submitted to the studio. Contrary to reports on the Internet, no decisions have been made on the film’s budget, casting or production start date; all are subject to a final script being approved by the studio, said the source.
The news confirms a report over the weekend that appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. There has been no official news about the sequel, though rumors have persisted about its story - focusing on the early years of Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy - and who may be under consideration for the coveted roles. On February 26, IGN.com reported a rumor that Matt Damon was under consideration for the role of Kirk, Oscar winner Adrien Brody was being eyed to play Spock and Gary Sinise was being mulled to play Dr. Leonard McCoy. Sources discounted that report, saying that no decisions have been made.
Screen Gems has set Ice Cube to star in First Sunday, an urban-themed comedy that marks the feature directing debut of playwright David E. Talbert, says Variety. Matt Alvarez, Ice Cube, David McIlvain, Julie Yorn and Talbert are the producers of the co-production between Cube Vision and the Firm. Ronald G. Muhammed, Tim Story and Stacy Cramer executive produce.
Talbert’s script casts Cube as one of two men who bungle an attempt to heist money from a church. They wind up taking its parishioners hostage, and those churchgoers slowly convert the robbers to see the error of their ways. Filming will begin May 14 in Los Angeles and Baltimore, with the movie to be released to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
Oscar winner William Monahan is reteaming with The Departed players Leonardo DiCaprio and Vertigo Entertainment for another Hong Kong remake, a thriller titled Confessions of Pain for Warner Brothers Pictures, which acquired the rights to the film. The Hollywood Reporter says Pain follows two close friends, one a police detective and the other a private detective, who team to investigate the murder of the cop’s father-in-law. As the investigation proceeds, they uncover evidence that shows that nothing is as it appears. The original, released last year, was created by Alan Mak, Andrew Lau and Felix Chong, the team behind Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film on which Oscar winner Departed was based.
Continue reading Monahan And DiCaprio Reteaming On Confessions Of Pain
The Associated Press reports that Marvel Studios has chosen Toronto as a principal photography location for The Incredible Hulk, to be directed by Louis Leterrier. The film’s executive producer Jim Van Wyck, shot in the city two years ago on the action flick 16 Blocks and said he found the Toronto film community to be “exceptional,” lauding the co-operation from the city and the province. The Incredible Hulk is expected to begin shooting this summer for about four months. The cast has yet to be announced. Universal Pictures will distribute the picture on June 13, 2008.
Bloody-disgusting.com has scored the first photo of Rob Zombie’s new Michael Myers in full costume and a photo of Michael as a child. The adult Michael Myers looks very much the same as the original. In this film, Meyers is played by Tyler Mane, who was Sabretooth in the first X-Men film. Zombie has gone on record as saying that his Halloween is not a shot-for-shot remake but “a bit of a prequel and a remake combined.” Zombie intends on spending more time on Meyers youth changing what little backstory we got in the first movie.
In other Halloween news, Zombie announced the addition of actor Richard Fancy to the cast. Fancy, who will play a character called Dean Carpenter. The major cast is already complete, with 18-year old actress Scout Taylor-Compton taking on the iconic role of Laurie Strode, originally made famous by Jamie Lee Curtis.