Posts Tagged ‘battle ship movie’

The Hobbit Still Waiting for the Greenlight

I feel like every few weeks we write another story about The Hobbit being either delayed, or still on track for 2011, or something like that. It’s always either ready to go sometime this year or suddenly delayed, but apparently none of this is true, at all. Peter Jackson spoke recently with Moviefone in what has become the story of this weekend because he gives them the definitive update on The Hobbit and its current status. Basically, they still haven’t been given the greenlight because they’re still waiting for MGM and finishing budgeting. Who knows how long that will take, so although they’ve turned in a script, they’re still waiting.

Here’s where Jackson says that pretty much everything we’ve heard about delays is pretty much BS so far.

“Well, it’s not really been delayed, because we’ve never announced the date. I mean it’s sort of interesting because the studio [MGM] has never greenlit The Hobbit, so therefore The Hobbit has never been officially announced as a ‘go’ project, nor have we ever announced a date. But there’s so much interest that people — newspapers and magazines, of their own account, say, ah, it’s likely to film in May, it’s likely to film in June, it’s likely to film in September. People make this stuff up. And then if it’s not filming in June, you get a story saying, ‘The Hobbit’s been delayed.’ But it’s never actually been announced.”

So there’s not much he can tell us about the production, but what can he actually confirm? Well, the script is done. “We’ve just delivered the script. Literally last week, we delivered the second of the two screenplays — the first draft. So the studio’s got both scripts now, which is a milestone; and if anything was holding it up, it was us doing the screenplays, because we’d just been writing as fast as we can, but it took us this long to get them finished.” They’re currently trying to work on budgeting and if they agree to the budget, they’ll get a greenlight and announce shooting dates and so on. But here’s the good news: “I’d be pretty optimistic that we’ll be shooting before the end of the year. I would imagine October, November, we’d be shooting by.”

Of course, that’s not official, but if everything goes as planned, they’ll be shooting by the end of the year. The question is, if they’re supposed to shoot for more than a year, how will they finish the first movie by the end of 2011? Just doesn’t seem possible, but you never know, they could pull off that kind of schedule. Anyway, head over to Moviefone to read a few more of Jackson’s answers about casting, mainly that no actors have been “confirmed,” although we just know Sir Ian McKellen will be back as Gandalf. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on everything we hear about The Hobbit. I just hope there won’t be more fake rumors that pop up.

Discover More: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

Tom Arnold Also Lands a Role in Peter Berg’s Battleship Movie

In what might one of the most spot on casting announcements recently (who doesn’t think of Tom Arnold when casting a crazy Naval officer), Movieline has learned that Tom Arnold has indeed joined the cast of Peter Berg’s Battleship movie. Earlier today it was announced that Taylor Kitsch (of Wolverine and John Carter of Mars) will be playing one of the leads, but it was Arnold himself who leaked the news about being on-board this project. Apparently he left a comment on another article saying, “Doing Pete Berg’s Battleship in Australia in August, got my kids camp and indies for Sundance plus the standup and comedy special.”

This does seem a little bit sketchy, but I trust that Movieline wouldn’t report this as news unless they really confirmed that Tom Arnold wrote that, plus who would randomly say something like that? Oddly enough, Battleship isn’t actually shooting in Australia anymore, as production has been moved to Louisiana instead (just like Green Lantern). We also know that the plot involves a US naval fleet that battles aliens called The Regents who are trying to build a power source in the water. And although it may start shooting in August, Battleship won’t hit theaters until May 25th, 2012, so we’ve got a while until we see Arnold in the Navy.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve got McHale’s Navy on my mind, the comedy where Tom Arnold plays Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale, that makes me feel like this casting is just pitch perfect. Now I’m wondering who else Peter Berg has cast in this to go along with Taylor Kitsch and Tom Arnold. I can’t wait to find out. Any ideas?

Discover More: Casting News, Movie News, Opinions

Clive Owen and Daniel Bruhl Cast in Fresnadillo’s ‘Intruders’

What happened to BioShock? Heat Vision is reporting that Clive Owen and German actor Daniel Bruhl, who played Fredrick Zoller in Inglourious Basterds, have been cast in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s new thriller Intruders. Shooting is supposed to start in June in London and Madrid. So it looks like BioShock really has been delayed again, since that was possibly going to be Fresnadillo’s next movie after Gore Verbinski left the project. Oh right, it’s Universal, they’re canceling everything that could be good. So what is Intruders about? Well, all we know is that the story centers on an 11-year old girl who’s forced to confront childhood demons.

Clive Owen will play the girl’s father, but no word on who Bruhl will play. Casting is still underway, but they have a few months to go before shooting starts, so I’m sure we’ll hear more about this. Heat Vision does say that Fresnadillo is “still attached to direct Bioshock” but this will indeed be his next English-language movie since 28 Weeks Later. Universal Pictures International is financing the project with Spanish media company Antena 3, but Universal is not necessarily distributing in the US. I’m curious to hear more about the plot, as this could be an interesting little project. Maybe this means that Clive Owen could end up in BioShock, too?

Discover More: Casting News, Movie News