Yet more from Production Weekly's Twitter and also their latest print edition, with two new projects that Kristen Stewart is eyeing as potential gigs once "Breaking Dawn" wraps up.
First up is a thriller called, "Someone In The Dark" in which Stewart is "mentioned" for a role. No word yet on plot details but it's already eyeing a March 2011 date to get in front of cameras.
Also crossing Stewart's desk is a project called "Little America." The Imagine Entertainment project being produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer is still listed as being in development by Production Weekly and has a script by Peter Craig ("The Town"). Described as a cross between "Speed" and the 1998 Patrick Swayze film "Black Dog," here's the logline:
About a 16-year-old prostitute who inadvertently kills a gang member, and then must go on the run. She hitches a ride with a truck driver who is hauling a lethal toxin. The truck driver and the prostitute bond during the chase.
Stewart is said to be "interested" in the role of the prostitute, with Brolin "interested" as the truck driver. Sounds like a lean, mean action pic and definitely something a little different for Stewart than what we've seen from the actress so far.
But as always, here are the caveats. Being "mentioned" means her name is sitting on a list somewhere at a studio and details may not have even reached her agents yet, and it takes a lot of steps for "interest" in a project to turn into a starring role. At any rate, after watching the awesome/terrible "Black Dog" trailer below, we're adding it our Netflix queue.
We'll admit, this sort of thing is not in our usual wheelhouse, but sometimes a flashy, escapist action pic can fit the bill if done right. So excuse us if this latest trailer for the alien invasion flick "Skyline" was a pleasant surprise, especially in a genre we're pretty much done with.
The film doesn't really boast any real names unless you count Hey It's That Guy! dudes from "Scrubs" and "Dexter." The plot seems more or less straightforward: aliens invade, shit happens. But we have to admit, the effects here look pretty top notch. Even if the story ends up being lame, this will be some serious eye candy. And we're not the only ones who noticed as at the end of the summer, Sony began exploring legal options against the Universal film because directorsGreg and Colin Strause ("Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem") own the VFX house Hydraulx, who are one of the vendors on the effects work for "Battle: Los Angeles," which boasts a similar plotline. But we presume with a release date of November 12th for "Skyline," it will head into theaters without opposition.
The trailer is below or you can head over to Apple to watch it in HD.
The teaser trailer for D.J. Caruso's sci-fi teen novel adaptation "I Am Number Four" has arrived and frankly, it looks what you'd expect from the director of "Eagle Eye" and "Disturbia" (hey that's mean, but well, they're two pretty forgettable B-movies in our estimation though still considered mild entertainment for some). And frankly, it looks a lot like Doug Liman's sci-fi teleportation film, "Jumper" (a film we pretend that Liman didn't actually direct), though some think it looks like "Twilight."
And while it doesn't look horrendous, it just doesn't particularly look interesting to us either (scores of nerd sites will likely disagree). The film stars relative unknown Alex Pettyfer ("Tormented," "Beastly") plus Teresa Palmer, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Durand and Dianna Agron ("Glee," "Heroes") among others (then again Shia LaBeouf was a relative unknown around the time of "Disturbia" too).
Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks hired Caruso to helm at the beginning of this year (withSharlto Copley once attached, but he dropped out) and it's essentially about nine young alien teenagers who fled their home planet and come to Earth to escape an enemy species. The film has a February 18, 2011 release date, and we might just have to chalk it up to something that just doesn't interest us. You can watch the teaser over at Empire. Update: Yahoo has the trailer and the embed is below. Maybe it's not all bad, the script was written by writing duo Alfred Gough ("Spider-Man 2")and Miles Millar ("Lethal Weapon 4 ") plus Marti Noxon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer").
Since it's now pretty much legal to take an Alfred Hitchcock movie, cast it with teens, make it dumber and call it original, it looks like more people are going to follow D.J. Caruso's lead with "Disturbia." So it can't be too much of a surprise that "Strangers On A Train" is going to get a makeover.
The British production by Slingshot Productions and BBC Films (they should be ashamed) will utilize a script by Joshua St. Johnston (the creator of the BBC fashion drama series "Material Girl") that uses the starting point of the Hitchcock film, two strangers meeting on a train, and turns it into a "boy meets girl, girl turns out to be raving psychopath..." story which makes us wonder why they're bothering dragging Hitchcock's name through the mud in the first place. And if that wasn't weird enough, Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" is also being cited as an influence for what we can only presume will be a narrative device that has the entire film taking place over a single night.
No word yet on when this abomination will go into production, but we can only presume that Shia LaBeouf is at the top of the list of casting choices. It's about time he gave an accent a whirl.Or maybe James McAvoy and Emile Hirsch; they already seem to wear the suits well. [Deadline]
Earlier this month we noted the soundtrack details to Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's mental-illness dramedy, "It's Kind Of A Funny Story" (read our TIFF review here).
The album features two new Broken Social Scene songs, plus cuts from the The Damned, Method Man and Redman, Pink Mountaintops and The Middle East.
Arriving on September 28 via Rhino Records, while the disc only contains one iTunes bonus instrumental cut ("Sweet Number One") -- BSS composed the film's entire score as well -- eight songs from the soundtrack are currently streaming at Spinner.
The previously unreleased Broken Social song, "Not At My Best," is very '8os, seemingly a mix of R.E.M. meets the Mekons or The Hoodoo Gurus, but it's pretty rad if simply for being so different from what the band normally does. It's also right at home with the film's tone which is said to be highly influenced by John Hughes.
"It's Kind Of A Funny Story" hits theaters October 8. If you're at all a fan of the bands involved, you should check out the Spinner stream.
Legendary film director Arthur Penn has passed away at the age of 88.
The director's career spanned over five decades, allowing him to work with some of the most iconic film actors of our time. After honing his skills in television, Penn made his debut feature, the western "The Left Handed Gun" starring a young Paul Newman. However, it was his sophomore effort, "The Miracle Worker," that brought him early attention. The biopic of Helen Keller earned five Oscar nominations with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.
However, it was a few years later when Penn would make his biggest imprint on cinematic history. His bloody and uncompromising 1967 classic "Bonnie & Clyde" ushered in a new era of screen violence. At the time, Warner Bros. were so certain the film would bomb they allowed Warren Beatty, who earned his first production credit on the film, to take 40 percent of the gross. The film went on to earn $70 million worldwide by 1973 and even more since then. Oops. The film was a lightning rod for controversy at the time, but went on to earn 10 Oscar nods and has since been rightly regarded as a milestone.
Penn first met Beatty on the set of 1965 crime click "Mickey One," which is still not available on DVD (hey Columbia, get on that please, thanks) and was one of the reasons why Penn took on "Bonnie & Clyde." But before he would get to that film, he would direct Marlon Brando and Robert Redford in the prison break film "The Chase," making for a trifecta of films and talent most directors could only dream of.
Moving into the 1970s, Penn would continue to work with on-the-rise actors like Dustin Hoffman in "Little Big Man" and Gene Hackman in the underrated gem "Night Moves." As he moved in the 1980s, his films became further and further apart, though 1989's "Penn & Teller Get Killed" is a wickedly weird offering that is definitely worth seeking out.
The number of directors whose careers were paved by the work of Arthur Penn is too numerous to mention, but he will be missed. [NY Times]
In June of 2009, "Fanboys" director Kyle Newman said he was preparing to direct a biopic of the French model/actress/ singer Brigitte Bardot, and had conveniently picked his wife Jaime King to star as the iconic Gallic superstar.
However, when recently asked on French radio about the planned biopic, Bardot — known to be rather outspoken in her old age to put it mildly — went off. "A film about my life? But I am not dead,” she said furiously.
The irony of it all is that, according to the Daily Beast, Newman and King are no longer attached to the project, but that didn't prevent the publication from egging her on and asking about it. “I am astonished and surprised that someone could consider making a film about me without talking to me about it," she wrote in a letter that also rambled on about the atrocities committed to animals in this day and age (Bardot is a huge animal rights activist). Apparently, film historian Ken Kramer has purchased the film rights to a different Bardot book and has been trying to reach her to no avail (i.e. not gonna happen, don't expect the film to come out anytime soon).
King's resume isn't exactly stacked with Academy Award favorites — "My Bloody Valentine," "Fanboys," "Pearl Harbor ," "The Spirit" and 2005's "Sin City" are the bigger ones that come to mind — so we can't say we're unhappy. And Newman's work — we'll just say, "Fanboys," despite the incessant film-geek love, was buried by The Weinstein Company for a good reason.
Up next for Newman is likely an adaptation of Stephen Edmond's comic book "Emo Boy." It's evidently a satirical comic followed the travails of the most self-dramatizing young man in the history of the world, whose emotions were so intense he even had ' emo powers.' " Gross.
Yet more from Production Weekly's Twitter and also their latest print edition, with two new projects that Kristen Stewart is eyeing as potential gigs once "Breaking Dawn" wraps up.
