Clint Eastwood will direct a Peter Morgan-scripted supernatural thriller titled Hereafter, which has been likened to The Sixth Sense. But with Steven Spielberg producing, wouldn’t it be better to make comparisons to Poltergeist, Always or even Casper (in which Eastwood appears)? Or is the plot more concerned with a lame twist than it is with ghosts?
Meanwhile Spielberg’s directorial replacement on The Trial of the Chicago 7 might be Ben Stiller?
Anticipating huge numbers for Twilight, Summit has gone ahead and assigned adaptations of the second and third books (New Moon and Eclipse) to Melissa Rosenberg, who also wrote the first installment.
According to Variety, four new films are competing for the attention of adult moviegoers this weekend, with The Women attracting the +25 ladies and Righteous Kill, Burn After Reading and Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys attracting the men, I guess. The prediction is that Perry’s film will win the box office, because it will attract the black audience while Righteous and Burn are expected to split their (white?) demo. And, well, women don’t actually go to the movies. Right?
Universal and Focus have made a deal to invest in and co-produce the latest from Oldboy director Chan-wook Park. The new film, a risque vampire pic titled Thirst, is apparently the first Korean production financed and picked up for distribution by a U.S. studio prior to its being completed and released locally.
In case you want to know more about the Gore Verbinski-Johnny Depp motion capture film, Rango, Variety has a short follow-up, which spotlights the involvement of ILM. Though it doesn’t really add much to the original news, I’m a little more intrigued now about the future of animated features and whether or not mo-cap companies like ILM, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Animal Logic (none of which, it’s noted, develop their own projects) could soon give Pixar and DreamWorks a run for their money.
Sony’s making a sequel to The Pink Panther. Yeah, the Steve Martin one. The one that was delayed for a year and only barely made back its production costs at the domestic box office. Judging by the cast they’ve put together (which includes Aishwarya Rai, Jean Reno and John Cleese), the studio seems to be banking on international appeal to put the franchise in the black.
Brian Lowry reviewsNY77, a documentary about the emergence of punk, hip-hop and “a sexually-permissive club scene” in New York in the late 70s. The film, which was produced by Nanette Burstein and premieres on VH1 this weekend, “methodically recreates the period’s vibe — with Geraldo Rivera recalling how at Studio 54, it was ‘absolutely appropriate’ to have sex in the bathroom stalls. (Today, sadly, he can only approximate that experience via his appearances on Fox News.)”
Motion capture effects house Mova demonstrated a new 3-D technology at SIGGRAPH this week, aimed at creating life-like models of actors’ faces. According to Mova founder Steve Perlman, the future of 3-D won’t involve plastic glasses, but will be “more like theater in the round, where you can either walk around the scene or move into the scene itself.”
Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos are among the complaintants in a lawsuit filed against financing company Gold Circle Films. Hanks and crew claim Gold Circle “cheated” them out of profits on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Variety’s Janet Shprintz notes that while Wedding is “one of the most successful indie films of all time”, it’s also “spawned an extraordinary amount of litigation” — this is the third lawsuit involving Vardalos alone.
Dito Montiel has cast his A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints star Channing Tatum in his new film, a still untitled drama about underground street fighting. Tatum has a fervent teen girl fan base, who will surely delight at the prospect of seeing their guy shirtless and bloodied. I say the following in all sincerity: if they can land a PG-13 rating, this sounds like box office gold.
The Hollywood Reporter thinks The Bourne Ultimatum should easily clear $60 mil this weekend. Variety agrees that the third installment of the Matt Damon-starring franchise should come in at the top of the pack, but they’re not quite as gung-ho about it. Pamela McClintock points out that in this hyper-crowded blockbuster year, holdover business has been unexpectedly strong. So while a film like The Simpsons could easily continue to do “boffo” business based solely on consumer interest, it’s forced to give up screen space to new films. All this really means is that Hollywood is having a very, very good summer. “Title wave also points out that dire predictions made last year by such news orgs as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times that box office was dead simply never materialized.”
Anchor Bay has acquired some kind of distribution rights (home video? theatrical? The Variety story is vague) to Sex and Death 101. The film marks the long-awaited re-teaming of Heathers director Daniel Waters with the star of that 1989 film, Winona Ryder.
With footage from Beowulf blowing Comic-con crowds away, the effects firm behind that film’s motion-capture technology has landed deals to develop effects for three additional projects, including an animated film about cavemen to be developed by Jon Favreau.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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