Things have been a tad quiet on the Planet of the Apes front of late, but Deadline reports that the sequel to Rupert Wyatt’s hit reboot — saddled with the unwieldy title Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , which instantly makes me think zombies are going to join in with our primate frenemies on the assault on mankind — has landed a new director in Matt Reeves ( Cloverfield , Let Me In ). Wyatt did well with his franchise re-starting Rise of the Planet of the Apes (only his second film, following the festival hit The Escapist ) so it was a bit surprising when he left the Fox sequel last month. The film only earned one Oscar nod, for Best Visual Effects, but notably sparked debate over the performance-capture as art thanks to Andy Serkis’s work as ape Caesar. Reeves demonstrated an innovative sensibility with Cloverfield and earned critical support with his most recent effort Let Me In , the Americanized remake of the kid vampire flick Let The Right One In . (Cue groan-worthy Hollywood puns: Did Fox let the right director in? ) Given the effects work and close collaboration with WETA that the first Apes film involved, however, he’s got a big job ahead of him in order to meet the Apes sequel’s May 23, 2014 release date. [via Deadline ]
This is for real! Get excited , per THR : ” Beached centers on a chubby 4-year-old child who falls overboard during a family outing, is raised by whales and goes on to become an Olympic swimmer.” Jon Turteltaub has just signed on to direct; Betty Thomas was previously attached, according to the trade report, though I can see one clear advantage to having Turteltaub behind the camera off the bat. Two words: Three Ninjas . Yeah sure, and National Treasure or whatever. The guy knows kids and extra-curricular athletic activities. Do I smell a franchise or what? [ THR ]
Also in this morning’s edition of Biz Break: Sony Classics reunites with an Oscar-winner, Music Box takes a risk with a Hemingway, John Woo gets in on a remake, and more… Samuel Goldwyn Takes Gyllenhaal’s Grassroots The distributor has announced from Cannes its acquisition of Stephen Gyllenhaal’s activist dramedy featuring Joel David Moore as an idealist running for office — against Cedric the Entertainer — in Seattle in 2001. Jason Biggs, Lauren Ambrose, Cobie Smulders and Tom Arnold co-star. Susanne Bier’s Latest Lands at Sony Classics A year after releasing Bier’s Oscar-winning foreign-language feature In a Better World , the venerable art-house distributor has struck a deal to release her follow-up Love is All You Need . Pierce Brosnan leads the romantic comedy, which is set in Sorrento, Italy, and tells the story of “a group of people all seeking love, about passion and happiness, about jealousy and loneliness. First and foremost, it’s a story about having the courage to change your life – even when you think it’s too late.” And around the ‘net… Aaron Sorkin Makes Steve Jobs Deal with Sony It’s official: Sorkin will adapt Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography for the screen. “There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin,” said Sony chief Amy Pascal in a statement. “In his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing.” Deadline reports . Morgan Freeman’s Political Comments Irk WB Shareholder The actor’s claims during the Dolphin Tale press tour that the Tea Party movement and Republican politics are “racist and wants to screw the country” drew fire from a shareholder on Tuesday’s Time Warner conference call. TW CEO Jeff Bewkes, meanwhile, declined to intervene in Freeman’s upcoming publicity duties for The Dark Knight Rises , THR reports . Music Box Nabs Starlet Director Sean Baker’s controversial, sexually explicit SXSW sensation Starlet has a buyer in Music Box Films, which announced its acquisition of the Dree Hemingway-starrer today at Cannes. Variety reports . John Woo to Grapple with Beast Also from Cannes comes word of Day of the Beast , John Woo’s planned remake of Seijun Suzuki’s 1963 Yakuza classic Youth of the Beast . “This remake is my salute to the great films and filmmakers produced by Nikkatsu’s 100 years in cinema history,” Woo said in a statement. “It is exciting for me as well as an honor.” Deadline reports .
Ahead of opening the 65th Cannes Film Festival with tonight’s red-carpet premiere, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom kicked off the frenzy this morning with a screening and press conference. Starring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban, the film really belongs to newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, two kids on the cusp of their teens who fall in love on an island off New England in 1965. The pair make a secret pact to run away together and head to the wilderness, but the authorities are on their trail. Meanwhile, a violent storm brews offshore threatening the enclave. The couple are astonishingly level-headed characters, being chased down by some offbeat adults. “It’s been awesome, it’s been amazing, my life has really taken a turn,” Gilman said before a packed news conference after the official photo shoot Wednesday morning. Anderson said he picked his two young stars after 10 months of searching, but found both in what the two-time Oscar nominee described as a magical moment. “There are many people who come along the way,” he explained, “but you always hope there’s this one moment and you say, ‘It’s this.’ I was very charmed by Jared [Gilman] immediately. He made me laugh. As for Kara [Hayward], I had seen so many people do the dialogue over and over and it was like she had just made the dialogue up herself.” Suzy (Hayward) is surrounded by a large family, including her parents (played by McDormand and Murray). Sam, meanwhile, has no family and is not among the popular kids in his Boy Scout troop. But their union throws the whole island into a frenzy. “I used the memory of what I wanted to have happen as a young person,” said Anderson, who wrote the script with Roman Coppola. “I remember the emotion of falling in love as a kid, and I hope it’s a memory that people share. Part of the reason for making this film is about their [sexual] discovery. They’re finding something that is beyond them, and that’s where the script came from.” While the script was an idealized adolescence story for Anderson, he did note there are at least some moments in the film that may have been usurped from his own upbringing. “There’s a moment in the movie where Suzy [Hayward] sees a pamphlet on the refrigerator that says, ‘Coping with a very troubled child,'” he said. “That is perhaps one part that is autobiographical.” Read more of Movieline’s coverage of Cannes 2012 here .
That’s right, Mantivities . Star Trek ‘s Chris Pine , along with five of his buddies, wrote the comedy script; he’ll produce and star under director Michael Patrick Jann ( The State , Reno 911! ). Writes Deadline : “The comedy focuses on a group of friends in their early 30s, all in various stages of permanent adolescence. They get together with the aim of helping one of them grow up… ‘I couldn’t be happier to begin the adventure of making Mantivities knowing how much fun we all had writing it,’ Pine said. ‘Somehow I get to laugh with my friends and call it work.’” [ Deadline ]
The 2012 Cannes Film Festival remains a week away, but the wheeling and dealing is already underway — and probably not coincidentally, for competition films starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Last week it was Pattinson’s edgy David Cronenberg collaboration Cosmopolis going to E One , and tonight it’s Stewart’s long-awaited Jack Kerouac adaptation On the Road — just announced as the proud acquisition of IFC Films and Sundance Selects. Read on for the full details, and stay tuned to Movieline for more fest news as Cannes 2012 approaches. =========== New York, NY (May 8, 2012) – AMC Networks announced today the acquisition of all US rights to acclaimed filmmaker Walter Salles’ ON THE ROAD to be released jointly by the company’s film distribution labels IFC Films and Sundance Selects. Based on the iconic novel by Jack Kerouac, the film stars Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst and features performances by Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Braga, Elisabeth Moss and Viggo Mortensen. The screenplay is by Jose Rivera (Academy Award® nominee for THE MOTORCYLE DIARIES). The MK2 Production was produced by Nathanael Karmitz, Charles Gillibert, Rebecca Yeldham and Roman Coppola for American Zoetrope. Executive producer Francis Ford Coppola has been developing the project since 1978. The World Premiere for ON THE ROAD is set for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in the Competition Section. A major theatrical release is planned for late Fall. Josh Sapan, CEO and President of AMC Networks said of the film, “Walter Salles has made an ambitious and accomplished film out of Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel. It’s a classic road movie with career-making performances from Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley, and a terrific showcase for Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst. This exceptional piece of filmmaking is the cinematic equivalent to the ground-breaking original content that our company produces for its networks.” Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films said: “This is a major step forward for us, and we plan to work across AMC Networks in putting all our resources together to make this theatrical release into a significant cultural event. We will show the same passion in releasing this film as the team took behind producing it. We’re honored to be working with our friends Nathanael Karmitz and Charles Gillibert at MK2, Walter Salles, Rebecca Yeldham, Roman Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola.” Nathanael Karmitz (President-MK2) and Charles Gillibert (Producer-MK2) said: “ON THE ROAD changed the lives of many people, it changed the life of MK2 and it will also have that effect on AMC Networks and its labels’ IFC Films and Sundance Selects. We had a lot of interest from US distributors but thecombination of AMC Networks great promotional appeal with IFC Films and Sundance Selects’ experience in distribution is an innovative and ambitious way to bring ON THE ROAD great success in the US. We were also very touched by the passionate approach of Josh Sapan and Jonathan Sehring and by the enthusiasm of their team.” This marks the fourth time that the two companies have collaborated following Olivier Assayas’ SUMMER HOURS, Abbas Kiarostami’s CERTIFIED COPY, Gus Van Sant’s PARANOID PARK and Assayas’ upcoming SOMETHING IN THE AIR. ON THE ROAD tells the provocative story of Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), a young writer whose life is shaken and ultimately redefined by the arrival of Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), a free-spirited, fearless, fast talking Westerner, and his girl, Marylou (Kristen Stewart). Together, Sal and Dean travel cross-country in a quest for freedom from the conformity and conservatism engulfing them, in search of the unknown, themselves, and the pursuit of “it” — the pure essence of experience. Seeking unchartered terrain and the last American frontier, the duo encounter an eclectic mix of men and women — Bull (Viggo Mortensen), Camille (Kirsten Dunst), Carlo (Tom Sturridge), Jane (Amy Adams), Terry (Alice Braga), and Galatéa (Elisabeth Moss) – each adding meaning to their desire for a new way of life. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Walter Salles is credited with helping Brazilian cinema return to international prominence in the late 1990s. His credits include THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES about the life of young Enresto Guevara who later became known as Che. The acclaimed film was a success at the box office and received Academy Award® nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jose Rivera and Best Song. Most recently he directed with Daniela Thomas the film LINHA DE PASSE, which won Sandra Corveloni the Best Actress at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. ###
Universal’s going back to the well, this time bringing Star Trek / Transformers / Cowboys & Aliens writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci along to re-envision two horror properties of the not-so-distant past: “Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products will develop and produce a modern reimagining of Universal library titles including The Mummy , alongside producer Sean Daniel and writer Jon Spaihts. The pair will also develop and produce Universal’s reimagined Van Helsing , with Tom Cruise attached to star in and produce the film.” Oh, I’m sure it’ll all work out just fine. Right, Ron ? [ Deadline ]
Universal’s going back to the well, this time bringing Star Trek / Transformers / Cowboys & Aliens writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci along to re-envision two horror properties of the not-so-distant past: “Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products will develop and produce a modern reimagining of Universal library titles including The Mummy , alongside producer Sean Daniel and writer Jon Spaihts. The pair will also develop and produce Universal’s reimagined Van Helsing , with Tom Cruise attached to star in and produce the film.” Oh, I’m sure it’ll all work out just fine. Right, Ron ? [ Deadline ]
The latest installment in the God of War franchise, God of War: Ascension was announced yesterday. In addition, the God of War Ascension pre-order went live on Amazon today as well! Check it out: Amazon – God of War: Ascension God of War Ascension trailer: Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : GAMER Deals Discovery Date : 19/04/2012 15:00 Number of articles : 2
This is pure speculation, but it’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend! Let’s connect the dots: Lionsgate and WWE Studios are teaming up on a reboot of the 1993 pic Leprechaun , the creature comedy-horror which infamously featured a young Jennifer Aniston and kicked off a series of terrible films centered on a murderous Irish fairy hell-bent on recovering his precious gold. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), meanwhile, has a diminutive wrestler named Hornswoggle under contract, whose ring persona is that of a mischievous leprechaun. Pure coincidence, or will Leprechaun mark the next screen debut for a WWE star? Granted, it’s a bit of a longshot given that Hornswoggle (real name: Dylan Postl) isn’t one of the major stars in the wrestling world. And beyond its slate of tailor-made wrestling champ vehicles ( The Scorpion King , The Marine , The Condemned ) WWE Studios have been branching out, picking up titles for distribution that don’t feature any of their wrestlers-turned-thespians. But it’s kind of too perfect an opportunity for cross-branding to pass up, don’t you think? No stars have yet been announced for the Leprechaun reboot, so marinate on the possibilities over a mug of green beer this weekend. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Warwick Davis’s shoes filled by an actor who has a finishing move called the Tadpole Splash? [ Variety , @lytrules ]
