Posts Tagged ‘firstshowing’

Logan Lerman Frontrunner for Spider-Man!

Back in February, we passed on reporting rumors about Logan Lerman meeting with Sony to potentially be cast as your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler in the Spider-Man reboot. Shortly after the news swept the web, it was squashed by THR just as quickly. At the time, the news had hit a bit too soon since the studio hadn’t even closed a deal with director Marc Webb yet, but now the exact same casting rumor is back with a vengeance as HitFix has learned exclusively from their source that is apparently close to the production that Lerman is “almost 100% locked” to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in at least three forthcoming movies.

If this is true, Lerman will have beat out other mentioned big actors like Anton Yelchin, Jesse Eisenberg, Patrick Fugit and Johnny Simmons. And if the film (written by James Vanderbilt) will be taking cues from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics as it has been reported previously, then Lerman, who is the right age and has already led a big budget film (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) seems like the best choice (at least from the top list) to take on the arcs of Spider-Man that not only deal with his action-packed clashes with super-villains, but his teen angst as an average high school kid endowed with superpowers. This will differ from the struggles of Sam Raimi’s development of Peter Parker who only seemed to remain in high school for plot progression’s sake before he was off to college in Spider-Man 2, and swing dancing school in Spider-Man 3.

And honestly, as far as talent goes, Lerman seemed like he was holding back in Percy Jackson. For most of the problems in that film, I blame Chris Columbus for making what could have been darker, grittier material into such a blatant attempt at family fare that scaled down the impact of a lot of different character building plot points (mainly Percy’s angst with his mother’s decision to stay with hismdrunken step-father). But with Marc Webb at the helm to turn this twisted mess of an angst-ridden teen into a superhero, rather than try to make a superhero have the woes of an everyday teen, we’re in for a different Spidey as a more grounded superhero, which in the case of a huge reboot, seems like the right decision. So what do you guys think?

Discover More: Casting News, Movie News, Rumors

First Look: Early Creature Concept Art for Next Riddick Film

Back in early February it was officially announced that another Chronicles of Riddick sequel titled simply Riddick was on the way, in pre-production at Universal, with shooting starting later this year (I believe). Franchise creator David Twohy will be back directing a script he wrote and word is that this will be “closer in tone to the cult hit Pitch Black and will focus on the character of Riddick as opposed to the universe he inhabits.” Perfect. Riddick himself, Vin Diesel, just posted a photo on his Facebook (via Ain’t It Cool News) earlier today giving us our first look at some early concept art from Riddick, which you can check out below.

Diesel also writes: “Early Riddick concept art… first frame of a 2D Motion Choreography Study. Grrrr… The Furian… left for dead…” Not sure what all of that means, especially the “2D motion choreography study” part, but it looks pretty damn cool. I have a feeling that might be a “mud demon” we’re looking at above, as we learned back in February that the plot involves Riddick getting dumped on a “barren alien planet” where he has to fight mud demons and “trisons.” They don’t look as creepy as the monsters from the original Pitch Black, but as a big Riddick fan, I’m pretty excited based on that bit of concept art above. Is anyone else?

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Barry Sonnenfeld Helping Develop ‘Pig Scrolls’ at DreamWorks

DreamWorks Animation seems to be putting a lot of different adaptations into development. Add another one to their slate, this time an adaptation of Paul Shipton’s novel Pig Scrolls about a talking pig who was transformed into the beast by the goddess Circe on her island. The story follows Gryllus and his endeavors to save the world (in Ancient Greece), plus it includes all the ancient Greek gods. Basically, Hollywood is a bit obsessed with Greek history at the moment (Percy Jackson, Clash of the Titans, War of the Gods) and now DreamWorks wants their Greek gods movie, too. So that’s where Barry Sonnenfeld comes into play.

Sonnenfeld, who has directed live-action movies like The Addams Family, Men in Black (I and II), and RV (bleh) but hasn’t directed a feature film since then. Pajiba says that DreamWorks has recruited Sonnenfeld to develop a Pig Scrolls adaptation “as a potential directing project.” So he’s not necessarily going to direct, but he is going to help give the project some direction early on. But considering Sonnenfeld has a lot of other options, including Men in Black III, a Scandal Makers remake, Edward Stratemeyer’s Swift, Lisa Lutz’ The Spellman Files, so who knows what he’ll eventually end up taking on as a his next full-time feature project.

Normally, I’m not too excited by ideas at DreamWorks, however after How to Train Your Dragon, I’ll give some of their movies a chance. Although I don’t know if I really want to watch a talking pig fight Greek gods for two hours anytime soon, do you? Has anyone out there read these books? Does they have any potential?

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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?

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Fincher Definitely Directing Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Next

David Fincher fans – we’ve got news for you. The Playlist has confirmed that Fincher’s next film following The Social Network will be the US remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (watch the trailer). The Swedish flick, which is only the first in a trilogy, has been getting quite a bit of buzz for just being another fantastic Swedish film and for the kind of names (like Fincher) that it has attracted here in Hollywood. On the other hand, apparently Fincher is not going to direct that Tobey Maguire chess movie Pawn Sacrifice, even though he did take a meeting but that’s about it. So it’ll definitely be Dragon Tattoo for Fincher next.

The remake is currently on the fast-track at Columbia / Sony with Scott Rudin producing and Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Hannibal, Gangs of New York, American Gangster) writing the script. Shooting is set to begin in September or October of this year, as long as everything goes according to plan. Carey Mulligan has been rumored for the lead role of hacker chic Lisbeth Salander, however Anne Thompson at indieWIRE thinks that Kristen Stewart has a good chance, especially because she already worked with Fincher for Panic Room. I’d personally much rather prefer Mulligan, but I think Stewart would actually be a good fit.

Fincher’s decision to take on this remake for his next film is very interesting, for a few reasons. First, we learned a few weeks ago that Fincher is the first (and only) director to have final cut on his films at Sony (which is why he’s probably staying there). Second, this is the first remake he’s ever done, which is quite an interesting tidbit itself. I hate to say it, since I haven’t seen the original anyway, but this has the potential to turn out better than the original. Fincher has a nearly flawless track record in my book and I can’t wait to see how he tackles a dark, hacker, female-lead mystery like this. Stay tuned for casting and more updates!

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