Cue up the “Axel F”: Tropic Thunder actor Brandon T. Jackson has landed the lead in CBS’s Beverly Hills Cop reboot , which producers plan to bring back as a series for TV under the guidance of original star Eddie Murphy and The Shield ‘s Shawn Ryan. Murphy, who will executive produce and act in the series pilot, will reprise his role as the wisecracking, transplanted cop Axel Foley while Jackson will play Foley’s police officer son. Per Deadline : The series centers on Axel Foley’s blue-collar police officer son, Aaron (Jackson), who helps take down the criminal elements of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills while trying to escape the shadow of his larger-than-life father. Murphy will reprise his role as Axel in the pilot and may recur if the pilot goes to series. And look — Jackson’s already a part of the Beverly Hills Cop family! (Pictured below: Judge Reinhold and Jackson at Spike TV’s “Eddie Murphy: One Night Only” event earlier this month.) If this Beverly Hills Cop reboot business is happening, I’m glad it’s someone like Jackson, one of the more consistently hilarious actors of his class, getting the big shot. Because if there’s some other young up-and-comer fit to step into Murphy’s shoes, it’s probably Jackson. Also: Alpha Chino Forever. [via Deadline ]
Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die won the Gand Jury Award, at AFI Fest Thursday afternoon, while A Royal Affair by Nikolaj Arcel won the Audience Award in the World Cinema section. Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm won the Audience Award among the fest’s list of New Auteurs and Only the Young by Jason Tippet received the audience prize among its “Young Americans.” David Tosh Gitonga took the Audience nod for “Breakthrough” for Nairobi Half Life . “It has been an incredible year in film and we’re grateful for having had the opportunity to showcase so many wonderful films,” said Jacqueline Lyanga, Director of AFI Fest in a statement. “Our desire is to have these films reach an even wider audience after these eight festival days, and that our jury and audience awards contribute to building an audience for these films.” AFI Fest closes out Thursday night with the World Premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln . AFI Fest 2012 Winners Jury Awards, New Auteurs (with descriptions provided by AFI Fest): Grand Jury Award: Eat Sleep Die by Gabriela Pichler Description: A Montenegrin-born young woman living in rural Sweden, Raša is laid off from her job at a food-packing plant. Her ensuing job search pulls us through the maze of limited prospects and frustrating bureaucracy facing the country’s working immigrant population. Affable, resilient, street smart and soft-hearted, Raša’s natural magnetism draws us in completely. We feel every ounce of her disappointment, fear and elation as she soldiers on, looking for work. An Audience Award winner at the Venice Film Festival, Eat Sleep Die ‘s assured naturalism and political conviction single out Pichler as a bold, exciting new cinematic voice. Special Mention for Performance: Simon Killer ‘s (DIR Antonio Campos) Mati Diop for “her contribution to Simon Killer as both an actress and screenwriter.” Description: follows recent graduate Simon as he travels to Paris to escape the fallout from a former relationship. No matter how hard he tries, Simon can’t seem to shake the past and feelings of lost love. Instead, he fills his days traveling the streets and taking in the sites, while composing letters to his ex-girlfriend, engaging in chat room sex and hitting on girls in the streets. When he meets a beautiful prostitute and falls in love, everything begins to unravel and we discover that Simon is harboring some dark secrets. Special Mention: Here and There by Antonio Mendez Esparza Description: After many years in New York, Pedro returns home to Guerrero, Mexico, to an overwhelmed wife and daughters he barely knows. Pedro struggles to secure a job in town and establish his place as the head of the household. Just as the family begins to regain their balance, Pedro and his wife Teresa are thrown into turmoil, facing a difficult pregnancy and the prospect of a new child. Audience Awards (with descriptions provided by the festival) World Cinema: A Royal Affair . DIR Nikolaj Arcel. Denmark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany. Description: In the age of enlightenment, a young woman becomes Queen of Denmark via an arranged marriage, but shortly after the ceremony it becomes clear that the young king suffers from mental illness. German physician and philosopher Johan Struensee is called to attend the unstable King and an epic romance results between the doctor and the queen, giving Johan the power to make transformational social changes within the Danish kingdom. Based on a true story, A Royal Affair is Denmark’s official submission for Academy Award consideration. New Auteurs: A Hijacking . DIR Tobias Lindholm. Denmark. Description: One mistake can mean life or death to the crew on board a Danish ship taken hostage by Somali pirates. In Denmark, the shipping company’s CEO boldly ignores advice from a hostage negotiator and speaks on the phone directly with the pirate’s translator, Omar. Conditions worsen on the claustrophobic ship as the psychological pressure intensifies and months pass while negotiations continue. Shifting from the chaotic conditions onboard to the offices of the Danish shipping company, A Hijacking skillfully examines the art of bargaining in this fraught, high-pressure drama. Young Americans: Only The Young . DIR Jason Tippet, Elizabeth Mims. USA. Description: North of Los Angeles stands the city of Santa Clarita, where once-affluent neighborhoods now buckle under the strain of economic recession. Inside one of the town’s vacant houses, teenagers Garrison Saenz and Kevin Conway build a skateboard ramp in an empty room. The two best friends — punkish and no strangers to rowdy behavior — are as devoted to preaching the Gospel as they are to the half-pipe. Add to the mix Garrison’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Skye, a whip-smart, devout Christian facing a devastating foreclosure on her home; and Kristen, Garrison’s liberal-thinking, hip-hop dancing possible new paramour and you’ve got enough teen love, happiness and heartache to fill a deeply affecting screenplay. Breakthrough: Nairobi Half Life . DIR David Tosh Gitonga. Kenya/Germany. Description: Despite his parents’ wishes, Mwas leaves his small village and embarks on a journey to Kenya’s capital in order to pursue a career in acting. Naïve and filled with hope, he quickly learns why the city is nicknamed “Nairobbery.” A few innocent mistakes land him in jail, which eventually leads Mwas to connect with a gang. Although he learns how to survive in the dangerous and sprawling urban center, Mwas is torn between his new lifestyle of theft and violence and his dream of becoming an actor. Grand Jury Awards, Live Action and Animated Short – AFI Fest Grand Jury Award winners in the Live Action and Animated Shorts categories as qualifiers for the annual Academy Awards Short Film category. Grand Jury Award, Live Action Short: Introducing Bobby by Roger Hayn “for crafting an honest vision of America by making an insightful portrayal of a single man.” Grand Jury Award, Animated Short: Oh Willy… by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels “for melding a dynamic narrative with innovative animation style that leads the viewer to pure wonderment.” Special Jury Award for Animation: Belly by Julia Pott “for its personal touch to technique and playful storytelling that is a welcome addition to the pantheon of animation.” Special Jury Award for Documentary Filmmaking: Whateverest by Kristoffer Borgli “for constructing a film that contextualizes the digital generation and reflects on what happens when we turn the camera onto ourselves.” Honorable Mention for Performance: Narcocorrido (DIR Ryan Prows) for Raul Castillo’s “penetrating lead performance that conveys a sense of loss that leaves a lasting mark on the audience.” Honorable Mention for Promising Vision: Dogs Are Said to See Things by Guto Parente “for pulling together social criticism with a pool party and actually making something fresh and smart.”
Mark Wahlberg : The new Shia LaBeouf ? Michael Bay and Paramount announced Thursday that Wahlberg, who stars in Bay’s real life crime pic Pain & Gain , will lead the franchise sequel Transformers 4 . “An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers ’ legacy,” said Bay in a statement. LaBeouf’s run as the squirrelly-scrappy lead of the Transformers franchise ended with Transformers: Dark of The Moon (he’s moving onward to more artsy fare, anyway — Von Trier ahoy !), but casting someone like Wahlberg changes the game considerably. He’s got the star power of Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel in one. He was nominated twice for the Oscar. He is Mark Wahlberg . I imagine this deal going down one day on the Pain & Gain set over beers, Wahlberg in his Pain & Gain tracksuit ( or maybe this short shorts outfit ) and Bay in a smoking jacket, because for some reason I always picture Michael Bay in a smoking jacket. Feel the vibration! Full press release follows; weigh in on the casting move below. Does it change your feelings on Bay’s mega-blockbuster robot franchise at all? Can we now conceivably picture Transformers and Pain & Gain as connected worlds in the Michael Bay multiverse? HOLLYWOOD, CA (November 8, 2012) – After an exceptionally successful collaboration on the upcoming “Pain and Gain,” Michael Bay has cast Academy Award®-nominee Mark Wahlberg in the highly anticipated “TRANSFORMERS 4.” The film will hit theaters June 27th, 2014. “Mark is awesome. We had a blast working on “Pain and Gain” and I’m so fired up to be back working with him. An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy,” said Bay. Bay will direct the next installment in the “TRANSFORMERS” series, which begins shooting next spring. From Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., in association with Hasbro, the film will be produced by Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. Bay’s first “TRANSFORMERS” film was a box office sensation in 2007, opening at #1 and earning more than $700 million worldwide. His second installment “TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN” in 2009 grossed more than $830 million worldwide. In 2011, “TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON” was an even bigger hit worldwide, grossing more than a billion dollars to become the 5th highest grossing film of all time. To date, the franchise has earned more than $2.6 billion worldwide. From acclaimed director Michael Bay comes “Pain and Gain,” a new action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie. Based on the unbelievable true story of three personal trainers in 1990s Miami who, in pursuit of the American Dream, get caught up in a criminal enterprise that goes horribly wrong. Ed Harris, Tony Shalhoub, Rob Corddry, Rebel Wilson, and Bar Paly also star. The film is based on magazine articles by Pete Collins, with a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and produced by Donald DeLine, Michael Bay and Ian Bryce. “PAIN AND GAIN” opens in theaters everywhere April 26th, 2013.
No matter how hard they try, it’s highly unlikely any actress/singer/starlet will ever come close to portraying famed Depression-era outlaw Bonnie Parker like Faye Dunaway did in Arthur Penn’s game-changing Bonnie and Clyde . But no matter! That won’t stop Miley Cyrus from being the latest to give the fantastically stylish bank robber a try , as she’s slated to do in the four-hour History Channel/Lifetime miniseries Bonnie & Clyde . Parker and her paramour Clyde Barrow have been depicted about a dozen times in TV and film dating back to 1958’s The Bonnie Parker Story , starring WB player Dorothy Provine. ( Her story, see what I did there?) Once Penn’s classic burst onto the cinescape and tommy gunned its way into film history — helped along in no small part by Dunaway, who was Oscar-nominated for her turn as Parker — no film or television property has successfully made a mark retelling the Parker-Barrow lore. But the reckless romanticism of their tale is too rich to ignore; hence, the many musical iterations of the Bonnie & Clyde mythos. Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot channeled the duo for their 1968 collaboration album Bonnie and Clyde , headlined by the titular track featuring Bardot’s sensual cooing; in Parker’s signature beret, Bardot is the vision of Bonnie Parker’s sensual French reincarnate. Many others have paid homage to this homage in turn, including actress Scarlett Johansson, who whisper-crooned her way through a 2011 cover with Gainsbourg’s son Lulu. My favorite post-Gainsbourg musical riff on the duo? Jay-Z and Beyonce’s “’03 Bonnie and Clyde,” which itself uses a sample of Tupac’s 1996 track “Me and My Girlfriend,” a song inspired by Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde film. More recently, former tween idol Hilary Duff was set to play Parker until she was dropped due to pregnancy (infamously collecting $100,000 in her pay or play deal for doing next to nothing). I think we can all agree we dodged a bullet there, although the project was recast with True Blood ‘s Lindsay Pulsipher and apparently is still happening. So now comes Miley Cyrus to breathe good girl-gone-bad life into four hours of Bonnie and Clyde . I’m sure she, like all who’ve come before, feels a deep and soulful connection to the spirit of Bonnie Parker. The question is, how much peroxide and cigars will it take for her to be able to disappear into the role? (And is a Cyrus cover of that Gainsbourg classic inevitable/unavoidable?) [via Deadline ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Producer Avi Lerner dropped a handful of big names when asked which action heavyweights are being courted for the inevitable Expendables 3 ; I’m willing to bet at least one of them (*cough* Snipes *cough*) takes him up on the offer. “We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we’ve got a character in mind for him,” Lerner told Total Film. “We’re talking to Harrison Ford . [And we want] Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name, we’ve got Nicolas Cage to play [one of the characters]… And we’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy.” Which begs the question: When has Mickey Rourke not been “too crazy?” Is he still Mickey Rourke if he isn’t acting just a little insane? [ Total Film ]
Deadline reports that Al Pacino has been tapped to play famed Penn State fixture Joe Paterno, the legendary football coach who enjoyed the winningest reign in history before the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal marred his legacy. A little side-by-side photo comparison shows that Pacino bears a resemblance to the late coach, if you squint a bit; after a spotty run in film and TV of late (veering from the TV movie You Don’t Know Jack , which earned him an Emmy and Golden Globe, to the Adam Sandler comedy Jack & Jill — let’s not even talk about Dunkaccino ), JoePa’s rise and fall might offer some meaty material for the Oscar-winner. Though the project is still in development — ICM is shopping it around, according to Deadline — Pacino is attached, and a script will be adapted from Joe Posnanski’s New York Times bestselling biography Paterno . [ Deadline ]
If you’re already jonesing for more gritty Batman heroics, you won’t have to wait for the eventual home video release of The Dark Knight Rises to get your fix: The folks at Warner Premiere have announced the September release of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns , an animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s celebrated 1986 graphic novel charting the return of the retired Caped Crusader to a Gotham City in need. Bonus cool points: Peter Weller as Batman! Miller’s Dark Knight Returns story, which earned critical acclaim and has been heralded as one of the best graphic novels of all time, joins a slew of animated features from the studio behind previous direct-to-DVD animations Superman: Doomsday and Batman: Year One and will hit DVD/Blu-ray on September 25. This version of Bat-lore follows a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne as he comes out of retirement to battle old foe Harvey Dent/Two Face, also tangling with The Joker, local cops, and the U.S. government. Sidekick Robin pops up — in the form of a 13-year-old girl named Carrie — as does fellow DC superhero Superman, with whom Batman battles. (Christopher Nolan’s TDKR borrowed elements from Miller’s Dark Knight Returns , Batman’s retirement, beef with authorities, and arguably his fate included.) Bonus features on the Dark Knight Returns release: • Standard and high definition versions of the feature film • UltraViolet™* • Sneak Peak at Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 , the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie • Featurette – “Her Name is Carrie … Her Role is Robin” – An all-new featurette. Experience the role of Robin, through the eyes of a female warrior. • Featurette – “Batman and Me: The Bob Kane Story” – A documentary comprehensively chronicling the remarkable life of the creator of Batman. • Two bonus episodes from Batman: The Animated Series handpicked by producer Alan Burnett: Two-Face, Parts 1 and 2 . • Digital Comic – “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” (digital comic with cover art and three full comic pages) [via THR ]
Finally, some news about Kristen Stewart that doesn’t involve her love life . Vulture reports that the actress has landed the lead role of Peyton Loftis in Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper’s adaptation of William Styron’s 1951 novel, Lie Down in Darkness . The project — and the role — sure sound like the level of work that will propel Stewart toward that Oscar that I’m counting on her to win. The film is set in 1950s Virginia, and according to the site, Stewart’s character’s “intense physical beauty makes her the object of her frigid mother’s jealous hatred and the target of her father’s incestuous, alcoholic lust.” Yikes! [ Vulture ]
Playwright Theresa Rebeck says she’s ‘positively tingling with delight’ over the casting announcement. By Meg Malone Katie Holmes Photo: Donna Ward/ Getty Images
Francis Lawrence’s Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire has nabbed yet another notable name for film fans in Amanda Plummer, the stage/TV/film veteran perhaps best known as the diner-robbing “Honey Bunny” in Pulp Fiction as well as for her roles in The Fisher King and So I Married an Axe Murderer . Plummer will take the role of a Tribute and former Games winner whose eccentricity belies an uncanny intelligence as she competes with Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss & Co. in the arena. Plummer will play Wiress, an older Tribute called to compete in the Quarter Quell, the all-star death match of sorts that propels the second installment of the series. She joins fellow cast newcomers Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee and Jena Malone as fellow Tribute Johanna Mason in the sequel, slated for release on November 13, 2013. [ THR ]
