Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Movie Minesweeper - The Plant A Flag In Hollywoodland Edition

- JoBlo appear to have the first image of an 'alien' from James Cameron's Avatar.

- James McTeigue is attached to direct an adaptation of John Burdett's novel Bangkok 8. The
synopsis at Variety makes it sound like a cross between Taxi Driver and The General's Daughter gone Thai. Maybe. The piece also states that McTeigue was an uncredited director on The Invasion - as well as or instead of the Wachowski Bros. I wonder?

- William Wisher is to script the World War II drama Escape of the Pacific Clipper. I see a formation of Second World War aerial actioners coming over the horizon. Will they bomb? (Pun intended).

- Spike Lee is directing Stalag 17 on Broadway.

- More WWII shenanigans with The Lost Squad. The big screen adaptation of the Chris Kirby comic book is to be written and directed by Saint and Mather - or, to give them their full names, Stephen St. Leger and James Mather. You can download a trailer for their short film Prey Alone or check out storyboards and more at the Saint and Mather site. Personally, I'm not impressed. At all.

- David Ondaatje's remake of Hitchcock's The Lodger is set up to go at Sony. Apparently using the same source material as Hitch - Marie Belloc Lownde's novel - this version will, all the same, be updated to a present day LA setting. If you know the passwords (sorry - can't help you, but help me if you can) you can watch some of Ondaatje's shorts online, including the documentary Undressing Hitchcock and Hitch pastiche Waiting for Dr. Maguffin.

- Nostradamus nonsense ahoy in the comic book adaptation The Foundation. Paramount have snapped up the rights and assigned two of the publisher production duties on the film.

- The Fantasia Fest line-up has been unveiled.

- Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have renewed their pact, with a fresh 1 billion dollar cash injection. Some of this seems set to be wasted on a World of Warcraft movie.

- Djimon Honsou has signed to star in Jeff Wadlow's Get Some. I dare say he won't be taking the lead role of a 'rebellious teen' who joins an underground fight club.

- Rialto Pictures are the leading lights in US theatrical reissues. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is to celebrate the distributor's tenth anniversary by screening a retrospective of their releases. Seventeen films are on the program - I don't know which seventeen, but the full catalogue is online. Some of the greatest films I've ever seen are in that line-up (plus a few heaps of Godard).

- Envoys of the Weinstein company are phoning up members of the public and telling them to go and see Sicko.

- John Turturro has based his performance in Transformers on Michael Bay.

- Charles Hyer is directing the first Eloise film in a proposed series adapted from the beloved kids' books. This one will come from Eloise in Paris with Eloise Goes to Hollywood lined up as the first sequel.

- I'm sure I already told you that Laurence Fishburne is writing and will direct a movie of The Alchemist.

- Paul Giamatti and Emily Mortimer are set to star in Pretty Bird.

- Download the script for No Country For Old Men and marvel.

- Capone at AintItCool has interviewed Steve Zahn. I love Steve Zahn.

- IGN have penned an update on the progress of the JLA film. Personally, I think we'll see a Superman Returns sequel first - easier to cast, for one thing - but, well, nobody knows for certain.

- Paramount are sneaking in some screenings of Transformers next Monday, screenings that are seemingly entwined with an alleged attempt to cook the books.

- Disney are launching a Ratatouille wine.

- According to Jeffrey Wells, Russell Crowe is to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Ridley Scott's Penetration.

- The DVD specs for Eaten Alive are out.

- Nintendo are expected to unveil WiiWare today - a shopping channel for original, downloadable games. Indie developers will be welcome.

- There are 11 Harry Potter 5 clips online now.

- Warners are to make a series of tween-centric direct-to-DVD films from the Clique books.

- For one day only: Palm Pictures will be streaming The Method online on June 29th. That's tomorrow, as I write. The film is, apparently, really rather good indeed.

- Richard LaGravanese and Hanif Kureishi have tied for the feature film award at the Humanitas awards this year.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Transformers sneaked these shows in? I work at a theatre, we have been aware of the monday opening, and much of the internet community has been as well. I'm not sure why people are surprised by these 8 oclock shows, or why they are considered to "cook the books" Its not like the money will go on its opening day record. If anything, these are silly ideas because they have to split the gross and not get any records. I think people are trying to find conspiracy that just isn't there.

Brendon said...

I think the fear is that these numbers will be added to the first day figures. It wouldn't be the first time.

Jason said...

You can view the list of films screening as part of MoMA's Rialto exhibition here.

Anonymous said...

The Pirates numbers were not added, neither were the Shrek numbers, I'm not even sure the Independence Day numbers (which had an almost identical release down to day and date) were added. Boxofficemojo won't allow those numbers to go on a whole day, and they are becoming a major authority in B.O. numbers. Not arguing, just stating what I think. Keep up the good work though.

Brendon said...

I'm not arguing either, hence my use of the word 'allegedly' - really I was just linking to Nikki Finke. It wouldn't be the first time she got something VERY wrong. And I bet it won't be the last.

Thanks for the kind words.