Lionsgate and Marvel Studios have both reached an interim agreement with the Writers Guild of America enabling striking Hollywood writers to work on their projects, the Reuters news service reported. Marvel Studios is financing film versions of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Upcoming Lionsgate films include The Eye, while its television series include Mad Men and a new show, Fear Itself. Writers and producers resumed talks this week aimed at ending a nearly three-month strike that has stopped most prime-time television production, and some hope smaller deals put pressure on the big studios.
Coming Soon.net is reporting that Lionsgate has set a September 12, 2008 release date for the Lexi Alexander-directed Punisher: War Zone, starring Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchinson, Colin Salmon, Wayne Knight, Dash Mihok and Julie Benz. In the action-thriller, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle sets his sights on overeager mob boss Billy Russoti. After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias: Jigsaw. With the “Punisher Task Force” hot on his trail and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand up to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of his evil deeds go unpunished.
Lionsgate will release Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo on January 25, 2008. Written by, directed by, produced by, and starring Stallone, the action-thriller co-stars Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Rey Gallegos, Jake La Botz, Tim Kang and Paul Schulze. In Thailand, a group of Christian aid workers recruit John Rambo to guide them up the Salween River to deliver medical supplies to the Karen tribe of neighboring Burma (aka Myanmar). When the missionaries fail to return, Rambo is persuaded to take a group of mercenaries back into the war-torn border region to find them. What follows is a descent into hell on earth.
ShockTillYouDrop.com reports that Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) has joined Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill in Lionsgate’s futuristic vampire film Daybreakers. Australian horror veterans Peter and Michael Spierig (Undead) wrote the script and will direct, with Weta Workshop creating the creature effects.
Leading man Ethan Hawke broke the news at Star Pulse News about Dafoe’s addition to the cast. “I’m going to make a vampire picture and I’m going to chew on some necks. Willem Dafoe and I are duelling vampires. It’s a vampire movie set way in the future where everyone is a vampire and we’re all eating our own resources, so we’re trying to get off on foreign humans. We’re trying to get off of trying to create blood substitutes. It’s a big analogy about what’s going on now. It’s really dark and weird and everybody’s sucking each other’s blood.”
Ethan Hawke has signed on to topline Lionsgate’s futuristic vampire film Daybreakers, says The Hollywood Reporter. Australian horror veterans Peter and Michael Spierig (Undead) wrote and will direct the high-concept project, which begins shooting in July in Australia, with Weta Workshop creating the creature effects. Hawke will play a researcher in the year 2017, when a plague has transformed most of the world’s population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a discovery that has the power to save the human race. Lionsgate will release the film in the U.S. and the U.K. and is handling international sales at the upcoming Festival de Cannes.
