More than six years passed between the releases of I Heart Huckabees and The Fighter , and it appears that David O. Russell is planning to make up for that lost time… with extreme prejudice. Since last October, the Oscar-nominated director has seen his name attached to no less than five projects, and the likelihood of them all happening with Russell in the director’s chair seems remote. However! Which has the best chance of going through as planned? Movieline investigates after the jump.
If you left Super 8 craving more train wrecks, more Spielberg-esque nostalgia and more Elle Fanning…I can’t help you. You’re going to have to wait to to see the J.J. Abrams sci-fi film on DVD. If you left the theater wanting more Joel Courtney and Riley Griffiths interaction, preferably set in your favorite chain convenience store, Paramount has just released the perfect 81 seconds of bonus footage for you.
Hollywood multi-hyphenate Ben Affleck has cast himself as the lead in Argo , the upcoming political period drama that he is directing. Variety reports that the Oscar winner will play Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who created a phony Hollywood production in order to rescue six Americans who were being held hostage in Iran in the ’70s. He will likely join Alan Arkin and John Goodman , who are both in final negotiations to co-star. Affleck last directed himself in The Town . [
Steven Soderbergh’s retirement from filmmaking really won’t sink in for a few years. After all, between Contagion (out this fall), Haywire , and the still-to-shoot Magic Mike , The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Liberace , the Oscar-winning director could have movies in theaters through 2014. Still, Soderbergh is going out — Oprah-style , if he had his way: “A year-long daily celebration of my fabulousness would be nice. Or maybe just a smallish parade” — and he’s got some ideas about what’s next.
This is one where it’s probably just to do a quick intro and get out of the way: To commemorate the 20th anniversary of their post-feminist partners-in-crime road trip Thelma and Louise , co-stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis dropped by Toronto’s shimmering Bell Lightbox for a special screening and discussion with Toronto International Film Festival honcho Noah Cowan. The fest’s YouTube page put just about 100 seconds of the Oscar winners’ chat online; here’s hoping for there is more where that came from. Check it out:
While Ryan Gosling promotes his stuntman action film Drive in Cannes this week, news has just broken that the Oscar-nominated actor will make his directorial debut with…a remake of the PG-rated musical drama The Idolmaker . That’s what you were expecting, right?
‘I saw the official trailer hours ago. [I’m] over the moon,’ ‘Friday Night Lights’ actor says. By Kara Warner Taylor Kitsch Photo: MTV News Although the release date for the highly anticipated “John Carter of Mars” is still a ways away (March 9, 2012, to be exact), we might be close to seeing an official trailer very soon. When MTV News caught up with star Taylor Kitsch yesterday during the press day for his upcoming drama “The Bang Bang Club,” we were pleasantly surprised to learn he had just seen the trailer. “We’re doing some fun little pickups right now,” Kitsch said. “I saw the official trailer hours ago. [I’m] over the moon,” he revealed. “We are just … it’s a special film. It’s going to be a good ride. I’m pumped!” Although he couldn’t go into specifics, Kitsch teased that when fans do see the trailer, they might have a hard time figuring out exactly what they’re seeing. “Man, I would love to get going and tell you everything about it,” he said. “All I’ll say is, good luck piecing it together. You’re going to be like, ‘How the f— does this all fit together?’ ” “And there’s a lot of heart in it too, to say the least,” he added. “Yeah, I’m excited about it.” The “Friday Night Lights” actor’s comments about the unique look of the film mirrored those of director Andrew Stanton , who told us that his take on the story, which is based on a series of Edgar Rice Burroughs novels about a Civil War veteran who becomes a great hero on Mars, will not look like anything we’ve seen before. “I didn’t try to make it look like anything else,” the Oscar winner told us back in January. “I really tried to make it its own thing. I tried to make a very historically accurate Martian film, if that makes sense,” he said. “So I’ll let you decipher that.” Check out everything we’ve got on “John Carter of Mars.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
In 2011, M. Night Shymalan has swept the Razzie Awards (with five wins for The Last Airbender including Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay) and announced that he will be directing Will and Jaden Smith in an untitled sci-fi film for Sony ( if that ever happens ). It’s hard to gauge which career development could be more demoralizing for the Oscar-nominated writer/director, but his fans are certain of one thing: it’s time for an M. Night intervention.
Earlier today, Steven Spielberg announced that Sally Field will star opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln , the DreamWorks biopic of the 16th president of the United States. This is exciting news for everyone including Spielberg, who remarked, “[Field] has always been my first choice to portray all the fragility and complexity that was Mary Todd Lincoln.” Lest anyone doubt that Spielberg’s “Team Field” sentiment is authentic, let’s rewind the clock to four years ago, when the director was first championing the Oscar winner for the juicy role.
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ( 28 Weeks Later ) has been announced as the helmer of Relativity Media’s planned reboot of The Crow , the 1994 cult film starring Brandon Lee that spawned three subsequent sequels. Fresnadillo, who directed the Oscar-nominated short film Esposados and the 2001 thriller Intacto , will co-script once a writer is signed to the project and aims to begin filming this fall. You know what that means, Crow fans — time to get your casting caps on!
