Startling news from the set of Joss Whedon’s big-budget Avengers movie: Stuntman Jeremy Fitzgerald was injured last Friday while performing a death-defying stunt that featured a 30 foot fall from a building. Details on the grisly superhero set accident below.
Upstart distributor Open Road has set a date for Andrew Niccol ‘s big screen adaptation of The Host , Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling sci-fi tale of a young woman ( Saoirse Ronan ) and the body-snatching alien “soul” who takes over her human form. The pic will open on March 29, 2013 — Easter weekend — and begins shooting next February. [ Deadline ]
If you found the first trailer for Horrible Bosses — starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day — seriously lacking in the Jennifer Aniston talking-dirty department, you’re in luck. Warner Bros. has released a new red band trailer for the summer comedy featuring the Friends actress soliciting sex from an employee, and showing off photos of herself in compromising positions. Worst boss ever?
If you saw Cars 2 this weekend — and judging from its box office-crushing premiere , you did — then you saw the first teaser trailer for Brave , Pixar’s next box office smash. Like the poster and stills already released, the trailer cloaks much of the story in a fog of mystery. Also, regular fog. Click through to watch.
Two upcoming Sony releases scored their first honors Sunday at the 2011 L.A. Film Fest , where Michael Rapaport’s Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (Sony Classics) and Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block (Screen Gems) won audience awards. Also in the winners’ circle: Stephane Lafleur’s Canadian comedy Familiar Ground and Wish Me Away , a documentary about country singer Chely Wright’s decision to come out of the closet.
About three years ago, in the same year he landed the gig directing the second film in the Twilight film franchise, Chris Weitz fell in love with a script about a poor illegal immigrant and single father chasing the American dream in East Los Angeles. Entitled The Gardener , the project would feature no stars, shoot on location in gang-affiliated L.A., and would never in a million years enjoy a hundred million dollar opening weekend. Weitz had to do it.
Michael Bay is notoriously tough on actors — just ask Megan Fox — but it appears he gave new Transformers: Dark of the Moon star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley some preparedness training before he even cast her in the new robot-killing film. Warning: this story involves the desert, high heels, and underwear.
The calm before the Transformers storm is expected to continue this weekend, with a pair of new wide releases opening to less-than-scorching receptions. That doesn’t portend flops, though, or even disappointments. Let’s check the Forecast!
Seth Gordon — who debuted with the arcade fanatic documentary The King of Kong and most recently directed Horrible Bosses — is now slated to remake WarGames , the 1983 Matthew Broderick film about a video gamer who hacks into a military supercomputer and comes close to starting World War III. You can expect the gaming element of the original to feel far more sophisticated this time around, says Deadline . Ooh! I’m building an Ally Sheedy “Mii” as we speak. [ Deadline ]