Anthony Hopkins For Supernatural Drama Solace
Anthony Hopkins’ latest project, the supernatural drama Solace, now has Afonso Poyart in talks to direct.
It’s a script that’s been knocking around for years, although it’s gone through so many revisions that it’s almost unrecognisable from its origins. It started as a script by Ocean’s Eleven‘s Ted Griffin and Sean Bailey (who’s now the President Of Production as Disney) and was at one point considered as a sequel to Seven, with Morgan Freeman attached.
Hopkins will play a psychic doctor working for the FBI and tracking a serial killer but the number of rewrites means that it’s no longer associated with the David Fincher film. Its most recent incarnation is written by veteran writer Peter Morgan (he of Frost/Nixon, Tinker Tailor fame) but quite when this will arrive is still pretty open. It’ll mark the American debut for Brazilian director Poyart who is currently remaking his action flick 2 Cohelhos (Two Rabbits) for Sony.
Aaron Sorkin To Write Steve Jobs Biopic
It was inevitable really but it’s good news nonetheless. Aaron Sorkin has finally agreed to write the biopic of Apple founder and head honcho Steve Jobs. He was approached way back in November but it’s taken him this long to make up his mind. Granted he has been rather busy working on new HBO drama The Newsroom but the sheer scale of the task probably also gave him some pause for thought.
However, if there’s a man that can bring the life of one of the gods of modern technology to the big screen, it’s Sorkin, having penned critics’ favourite The Social Network in 2010.
Sony paid a reported $1 million for Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs which is based on interviews with him and others and covers the majority of his life.
That must be alarming news to Josh Michael Stern whose own project Jobs already has Ashton Kutcher in the lead role. And though his project is significantly along in the production stakes, there’s got to be a worry when you see the shadow of a screenwriting giant like Sorkin heading your way.
In a statement picked up by The Hollywood Reporter Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal said,
“Steve Jobs’ story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time. There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining and polarizing.”
No director on board just yet and no actor in line to play Jobbo. What’s Fincher up to these days…?
Idris Elba On For Thor 2
Idris Elba will be back in Asgard as guardian of the gates Heimdall in Thor 2. He confirmed his presence in an interview with Collider,
“I’m going to do Thor after I play Mandela [inLong Walk To Freedom],” – brilliant – make sure you don’t get those two role mixed up…
“I’d just like to get to know him a bit more. Who is Heimdall? He guards the gate. Is there anything else? I don’t know what’s in the script because I haven’t read it yet, but the audience has responded to Asgard and wants to know more about who lives there and what it’s about. I’m sure, if they do that, Heimdall will be featured more.”
Well, it’s great to see Elba’s formidable acting talents being put to good use. Prometheus will hopefully bring him out of the slump as previously he’d only had roles in a string of ropey movies including the bloody awful Ghost Rider 2, one man show Legacy: Black Ops, sub-par heist flick Takers and A-Team-knock-off-that-happened-to-be-better-than-the-actually-A-Team-but-still-a-bit-cack The Losers.
Anyway, Elba’s rather busy – he’s got Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and kidnap thriller No Good Deed to come this year with Thor 2 planning to shoot in August.
Scott Z Burns Writing Planet Of The Apes Sequel
Whenever something’s successful, it’s almost guaranteed a sequel. With Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes being one of the surprise hits of the year and with an open-ended ending, a follow-up was almost guaranteed. Now we can report that Contagion writer Scott Z Burns is hard at work writing Apes 2.
There’s very little known about the plot but it’ll continue where the first one left off – with intelligent apes on their way to becoming earth’s dominant species and with a virulent plague slowly killing humanity. Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa penned the first draft which Burns will now polish, which makes sense given his experience with all things contagious. There’s a good chance that Silver and Jaffa will remain on board, as they were replaced several times when filming the first script only to end in charge of the draft that eventually made it to the big screen.
There are no more details about from the return of mo-cap king Andy Serkis but it’s likely that Rupert Wyatt will be on board to direct once the script’s finished.
Downey Jr. And Cruise Wanted For Meet The Parents Director’s El Presidente
Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise are both wanted for the new project by Jay Roach (Meet The Parents and the excellent TV movie about Sarah Palin Game Change) entitled El Presidente, a comedy written by Parks & Recreation scribe and ex-Daily Show producer Dan Goor.
The word is that the plot will follow an overzealous Secret Service agent who is given the unenviable task of guarding America’s worst former president, an incompetent sleaze bag. But when a threat is made on the ex-president’s life, they must go on the run.
Sounds quite a lot like Midnight Run to us but that’s no bad thing. Cruise sounds like he’d be the perfect fit for an uptight agent and no one (bar Jack Nicholson who was rumoured for the role two years ago) can do ladies man schmooze like Downey Jr. It’s certainly something that Warners seem keen on, wanting to keep Downey Jr. warm while Sherlock Holmes reloads and Tom Cruise sweet after a reportedly tip top performance in the forthcoming 80s musical Rock Of Ages. Watch this space…
Channing Tatum For White House Down
Channing Tatum – the man who punches at least one person per film – has been doing rather well of late. After showing that he’s got some comedy chops in 21 Jump Street and that making people blub into their popcorn is as profitable as its ever been in The Vow, he’s going back to hitting people – with G.I. Retaliation out soon and now news that he’s entered negotiations to star in Roland Emmerich’s new destruct ‘em up White House Down.
Emmerich is helming the project which will see a group of paramilitary terrorists taking over the White House with a Secret Service Agent (Tatum) with the simple task of saving the President and killing the bad guys. Die Hard in a White House?
James Vanderbilt, the co-writer of The Amazing Spider-Man has written the script, which probably indicates that it might be a little more sensible than its premise and director might have you believe. And…urgh, apparently Tatum’s character is going to be a single dad, so…yeah, they’re probably going to be working the “sensitive” angle.
Tatum will be flashing his abs next in Steven Soderbergh’s stripper movie Magic Mike (out in July) followed by things that go boom in G.I. Joe Retaliation which is out in August.
Alan Rickman To Star In CBGB Founder Biopic
Randall Miller is about to make a biopic about legendary CBGB club owner Hilly Kristal and he’s got Alan Rickman lined up for the lead.
Miller was working on another biopic – that of Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson with Aaron Eckhart in the lead entitled simply The Drummer, but because production of that has been pushed back till autumn, he’s decided to go ahead with this movie first.
Rickman, who previously worked with the director on Bottle Shock, is set to play Kristal, the man who launched CBGB in New York in the late 1970s, intending it as a venue for country, bluegrass and blues music. But it soon became apparent that those acts were quite tough to find and so he opened it to local talent – a move which helped the emerging punk scene and launched the careers of The Ramones and Patti Smith.
Shooting should begin in June. Meanwhile Rickman will next be seen in the remake of Gambit alongside Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz.
Julianne Moore Confirmed For Carrie
Julianne Moore has now confirmed her role in the Kimberly Peirce directed remake of classic Stephen King horror tale Carrie. She’ll be playing Carrie’s mother – a domineering religious fanatic who has done her best to shelter her daughter from the evils of the world. But when Carrie gets her first period, she sees it as a manifestation of sin, and locks her in a cupboard while she begs for forgiveness.
Gabriella Wilde has also signed on for the role of Sue Snell, the leader of Carrie’s teenage tormentors. She’s in for a nasty surprise when Carrie reveals that they probably should have picked on a different girl.
Shooting begins in June with Chloe Moretz (last seen in Dark Shadows) in the title role. Moore meanwhile has two films in post-production – What Maisie Knew and The English Teacher and has just finished filming fantasy drama The Seventh Son. Wilde was last seen in *hawk spit* The Three Musketeers and is about to start work on Squatters.
Catherine Zeta-Jones Joins Red 2
The sequel to Red, the action comedy which saw a group of retired agents kick a surprising amount of arse, has been bubbling away for quite some time now. Now Catherine Zeta-Jones and G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s Byung-Hun Lee are getting in on the action.
The original cast are back in force with Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker have all signed up for the follow up.
Dean Parisot is replacing Robert Schwentke behind the camera but the sequel retains the original movie’s writers Jon and Erich Hoeber who have handed in a script that see the unlikely group taking on enemies across Europe.
There are no details so far on the characters that Zeta-Jones and Lee will be playing but aren’t they on the rather young side to be part of the old crew? Anyway, it’ll all start filming later this year with August 2, 2013 release date.
In the mean time Zeta-Jones will be getting her groove on in Rock Of Ages which is out next month and also has Lay The Favourite (also with Willis), Playing The Field and Broken City. She’s currently filming The Bitter Pill, a reunion with Traffic director Steven Soderbergh. Lee is reprising his role as Storm Shadow in the G.I. Joe sequel, which will arrive all guns blazing in August and which of course also features Mr. Bruce Willis. 2012 – Year Of The Willis.
Friedberg & Seltzer Return With The Starving Games
A sure sign that the Mayan Apocalypse might actually happen after all, notorious directing team and utter tools Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are gearing up to spoof The Hunger Games with The Starving Games. Christ, I think I just cracked a rib laughing about that one.
Though every single film they ever released has been a dire spoof of whatever movie franchise is popular at the time (their last was Vampires Suck, their take on Twilight) apparently people actually go to see their movies, and with fairly low budgets, they actually make quite a bit of money. Sadly, this means they’ll be conjuring another laugh-free cringe fest soon.
The Starving Games, the rights to which will be on sale at Cannes, will spoof the Suzanne Collins book and use it as a frame for parodies of The Avengers, Sherlock Holmes, the final Harry Potter and whatever passing fad them can glom on to during the shoot.
They’re are currently at work on The Biggest Movie Of All Time 3D, which is “the first parody film to be shot in 3D.” Somebody stop them.
