Murray The Mayor

It seems as though Bill Murray has been cast as the wicked Mayor in Gil Kenan's adaptation of City of Ember. Variety also report that Toby Jones is in the cast, as well as Saoirse Ronan, who plays the younger version of Romola Garai's character in Atonement. Ronan is bound to be Lina Mayfleet, one of the two child leads, while Jones is likely to be Looper, a 'mysterious' thief.

The film is set to be shot in Belfast, which is an interesting choice. As the story takes place in an underground world with no natural light, I was imagining just about everything will be shot on sound stages and then I realised how big these sound stages would have to be, and I wasn't quite sure anymore. If they do shoot on location, everything will have to be shot after dark, of course.

Maybe Belfast is smoggy enough that starlight and the moon add only low levels of ambient interference? I doubt it, somehow.

Kenan did a very good job with Monster House and I'm very keen to see how he handles a totally different toolkit on his second feature. Hopefully he'll build on his promise - handled correctly (and so far, it seems it has been) a feature film of City of Ember could be a genuine family classic.

Bill Murray Being Antisocial Again?

Dan Aykroyd has been promising a 3rd Ghostbusters film since... well, since before Ghostbusters 2. According to the man himself, interviewed by Mike Maguire on CISNFM, he's soon to get his way.

But how? Surely Bill Murray would never spend all of that time hanging out with all of those people all over again? He won't have to. The film is now being planned as a CG cartoon, with Murray already having agreed to record Venkman's voice. That way, he can do his work in a little booth, collect a cheque and leave the rest of them to get on with it. Sigh.

The plot is just the same as we heard it would be in countless previous Aykroyd interviews: the Ghostbusters invent a reality-phase-shifter and slip into a parallel universe version of New York - but not just any parallel universe, mind. The one we think of as Hell.

If you visit the radio station's site, part 2 of the interview is the piece regarding this news. Nothing on Ben Stiller, Will Farrell, Vince Vaughn or any of the rumoured new-additions.

Garfield Gets A New Voice

Mark Evanier - the creator of Scrappy Doo, don't you know, but let's not hold that against him - has confirmed that he'll be writing and voice-directing a new Garfield animated TV series. Garfield has a new voice (as yet unnamed but certainly not Bill Murray) but he will still look much as he did in the strips or on TV previously despite being a CG animation. I think it's safe to say that Odie will revert to his cartoon appearance too, after the mind-boggling detour taken in the two movies.

According to the press release, Evanier will be working with "French nationalist writers". Nationalist? What's gonna happen? Is Garfield going to open his own Pork Soup Restaurant?