Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Movie Minesweeper - The Trying To Keep From Going Under Edition

Here's an incredibly rapid rush through Movie Minesweeper territory. Much good stuff to follow. Almost too much.

- The Darjeeling Limited is to be the closing night film at the London Film Festival this year. Incidentally... anybody out there holding the right strings, because I could really do with press access to the fest.

- Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Black Panther? Surely he has better things to do?

- How did Al Pacino get typecast as Al Pacino? Jessica Winter has some ideas.

- Kinowelt have
purchased the catalogue of Cine-International Filmvertrieb. There's Herzog gold in them thar hills.

- Jason Bateman may be Zack as in ...and Miri Make a Porno. Or not.

- Fernando Meirelles has set up two films to produce at Universal: Cao Hamburger's Xingu and Nando Olival's Round Trip.

- Millennium Films have shelled out seven figures in order to secure the rights to make a new series of Conan the Barbarian movies. Don't expect Warners to relinquesh their previously penned, dearly bought scripts by Robert Rodriguez and the Wachowski Bros.

- Truly Indie are to distribute Alan White's junkie drama Broken across the US. The film stars Heather Graham, Jermey Sisto, Linda Hamilton and Jake Busey. And is truly indie.

- John Moore is writing and will direct the aircraft carrier thriller Airborne.

- George Tillman Jr. is the director for the Notorious B.I.G movie.

- Binky will star Janeane Garofalo as a rock critic on a road trip with a dog. I assume the dog will be named Binky, though it does kind of suit Janeane.

- Jurassic Park 4 is casting now and it seems that some of John Sayles' dino-trooper concepts have survived. This film needs a great, meaty, slightly dirty director, I think - it could easily trump the previous three efforts, so I don't see why it isn't worth going all out for it.

- Ben Ramsey is to direct Blood and Bone, from Michael Andrews' script about street-fighting and the mob. It has a lead character called Bone, would you believe?

- It looks like Emma Roberts will be home at the Hotel for Dogs. No secondary meanings intended. Her dad's mean looking. And her aunt is on the side of good. I wouldn't want to offened any of them.

- Chris Pontius is to star in an as-yet untitled comedy as a young man persuaded to become a male stripper by his father-in-law. But why?

- Senator Patrick Leahy is to appear in The Dark Knight. The Senator sure likes that Batman chap - he was in one of the Schumacher films and he's going to play himself on an upcoming episode of the cartoon show.

- GI Joe is likely to team up with Action Man, who will be played - eagle eyes and all - by Jason Statham. Maybe.

- The BBC and Pathe are teaming up and raiding their piggy banks to the tune of fifty million dollars. They are planning a new version of The Jungle Book, directed by natural-history man John Downer, and infused with his Life on Earth styling. The animals will talk, thanks to CG effects, but I think we can expect this to be more Jean Jacques Annaud than Stephen Sommers.

- Warner Independent Pictures have put down the dollar for Scott Rothman's spec script Fratboy. Even more worrying than the blank discouragement of the title, note that Mike Karz - the producer of Malibu's Most Wanted. First Daughter and Good Luck Chuck - has been given the control stick.

- The Palm Springs Festival of Short Films is to feature efforts from Jennifer Aniston and Bryce Dallas Howard. And dozens of other, very possibly better, lower-profile films.

- Bernie Mac is to take a role in Old Dogs. The role of Johnny Lunchbox. Sadly, he's not a real Lunchbox.

- Picture this: a film about a wedding at a museum all staged as a front for a heist. Was only a matter of time, wasn't it? For Richer or Poorer was a pitch from Michael Coulton and John Aboud, Warners were the winning bidders.

- Ice Cube is lining up an adaptation of the comic book 10, and he will also most likely star.

- Chris Parnell and Rachel Dratch have joined the cast of Harold.

I wish I could go on, but physical collapse awaits. More in the morning, Greenwich Mean Time.

7 comments:

Mark Kardwell said...

Chiwetel Ejiofor would be a lot cleverer choice for Black Panther than Wesley bleedin' Snipes. Though I've had my eye on him as a possible new Doctor Who, too.

Steve the Sad Elephant said...

Potential Jurrasic Park IV director: Walter Hill? (I think he's still alive...)

Brendon said...

Walter Hill? I quite like that idea. ha ha! Not was I was expecting, but a great thought.

And as for Chiwetel on Dr. Who... just as I said, there are better things to do than a John Singleton film.

Anonymous said...

Chiwetel Ejiofor would be brilliant as Black Panther. He just oozes intelligence and strength. As his role in Serenity clearly shows he can be menacing while still being the embodiment of civility and refinement. Very good casting.

And why should Ejiofor play Black Panther? Um, because Black Panther is also one of the few black superheroes/fictional characters who has a genius level intellects as his defining attribute and not his "hardass badassness" as most other fictional black characters. Black Panther isn’t a thug, he’s a scientist, strategist and an inventor. I’d pay the price of admission just to see that.

Brendon said...

You;ve just made a very compelling argument for why there should be a Blank Panther film in the first place but, I'm sorry, I don't trust John Singleton at all.

When he's off the project, then I'll be more interested.

Anonymous said...

have to tell you man, this site is just getting better and better. aicn is loosing ground.

Mark Kardwell said...

In my perfect world, I'd love a Spike Lee/Chiwetel Ejiofor BLACK PANTHER film, with a script that made T'Challa as Machiavellian as he is currently portrayed in the comics, post-Christopher Priest. In fact, the soundtrack is playing in my head right now. Mmm, afrocentric.