IESB is reporting that Mike Vogel (Poseidon) is the front runner to play James T. Kirk in the 11th Star Trek film. Mike Vogel will be seen in, coincidentally, in the JJ Abrams produced Untitled Monster Project AKA Cloverfield/1-18-08.
Casting for the 11th Star Trek film includes Zachary Quinto as young Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy reprising the role that he made famous as the older Mr. Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura originally played by Nichelle Nichols and Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov originally played by Walter Koenig.
And more recently, Stargate Atlantis regular Paul McGillion has auditioned for the role of Scotty, made famous by James Doohan.
Entertainment Weekly has learned that Jessica Biel has decided to pass on playing Wonder Woman in Warner Brothers’ live-action Justice League. She had been in early talks to play the Amazonian princess. George Miller will direct the big screen adaptation. Kieran and Michele Mulroney wrote the script.
IGN Movies has been informed by a reliable source that Sony Pictures is developing a remake of The Karate Kid that will be produced by Will Smith’s Overbook Entertainment and Jerry Weintraub. Smith’s 9-year-old son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith is apparently attached to star in the remake. This new Karate Kid is currently out to writers. Weintraub also produced the 1984 film, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, and its three sequels.
I just don’t think this remake is a good idea. I think a sequel/reboot of sorts might be ok, bringing back Macchio as an older Daniel Larusso mentoring a teenager the way Mr. Miyagi mentored him. That could set the tone for a new generation of the Karate Kid without taking away from the original trilogy.
Paramount and DreamWorks are holding the date of June 26, 2009, for Transformers 2, with Michael Bay expected to return to direct the sequel, Variety reported. The first Transformers, starring Shia LaBeouf and based on the toy robot line, has grossed nearly $700 million worldwide, giving DreamWorks its first live-action franchise, the trade paper reported. Steven Spielberg, who took an executive-producer credit on Transformers, was closely involved with the film, including bringing Bay aboard to direct and LaBeouf to star. He’s expected to be involved in the sequel. Bay has not yet signed a deal to helm the follow-up but is in the final stages of negotiation. With Bay’s involvement, LaBeouf is expected to return as well. LaBeouf stars alongside Harrison Ford in Spielberg’s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which opens May 22, 2008. DreamWorks and Par are hoping to at least begin production on the Transformers sequel before a possible strike, even if they have to finish after it.
Well it looks like Paramount and DreamWorks executives do surf the web. Apparently they read that Bay wanted to get a movie in before the strike and was going to postpone Transformers 2 until after the strike so he could fit another movie in . . . instead of waiting on Paramount and DreamWorks to get moving on the Transformers sequel. This is good news.
TrekMovie.com is reporting that former Stargate Atlantis regular Paul McGillion has auditioned for the role of Scotty in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek movie. The Scottish-born Canadian actor is best known to SciFi fans as Dr. Carson Beckett on Atlantis; the character appeared to die in season three, but will return for a few episodes in the upcoming fourth season. Chris Doohan, son of the late James Doohan, who first played Scotty, has endorsed McGillion for the role, the site reported. Star Trek, a rebooting of the franchise, is currently in preproduction.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles producer James Middleton, who is overseeing the development of Terminator 4, has given an update on the fourth film, which is intended to be the first of three new movies. Middleton told IGN that “T4″ is happening at The Halcyon Company and will be written by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato, the duo that wrote Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. No director is set yet. Halcyon would like to be in pre-production in October for a 2009 release. The fourth film, which will be titled “Terminator” with a subtitle much like “Rise of the Machines,” will follow the events of “T3″ and be post-apocalyptic.
While it’s not known whether Nick Stahl and Claire Danes will return, John Connor and Kate Brewster are indeed in the script. The movie will feature a new hero. Middleton said the new hero would be like how “Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ, but it was his story. Much in that way, this character will be influenced by John Connor.”
Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Robin Wright Penn will join Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Jason Bateman in State of Play, the Universal Pictures/Working Title adaptation of the British miniseries. Kevin Macdonald is directing; Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote the script. McAdams will play a reporter in the middle of a career-making story, as her newspaper investigates the death of the mistress of a fast-rising congressman. Mirren will play the newspaper’s steely editor, a role undertaken by Bill Nighy in the original.
Wright Penn will play the congressman’s estranged wife. She becomes romantically involved with his former campaign manager (Pitt), who leads the newspaper’s investigative team. Norton plays the congressman and Bateman plays the other lead reporter. Andrew Hauptman is producing with Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
AnnaSophia Robb will star opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson according director Andy Fickman in his adaptation of Witch Mountain at Disney. According to Fickman, the biggest difference may be one of tone. “The original book is a very cool dark thriller. We’re pulling elements from that,” he revealed. “It’s a much darker movie than in the 70s when they did Escape to Witch Mountain.”
Kevin James will write, produce and star in the comedy Mall Cop for Columbia Pictures. The story centers on a mild-mannered security guard thrust into action when highly organized thieves take over his mall. James will write the screenplay with Nick Bakay. Sony-based Happy Madison is producing alongside James, Jeff Sussman and Todd Garner.
Dominic West and Wayne Knight have joined Lionsgate and Marvel Studios’ Punisher: War Zone, the action-thriller based on the Marvel Comics character being directed by Lexi Alexander. Ray Stevenson already is on board to portray the Marvel vigilante. Previously cast were Dash Mihok as Detective Martin Soap, Colin Salmon as Agent Paul Budiansky and Doug Hutchinson as Loony Bin Jim.
West is in talks to play the Punisher’s archenemy known as Jigsaw, a mob assassin whose face was torn to shreds and stitched back together like a jigsaw puzzle. Knight is in negotiations to play Microchip, the Punisher’s armorer and confident — the man who supplies him with his stockpile of weapons and one of the few people who knows the Punisher’s true identity. Gale Anne Hurd and Marvel’s Kevin Feige are producing, and Avi Arad is executive producing. Shooting is scheduled to begin in October in Montreal.