August, 2009
Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion
POSTED IN Read August 31, 2009
The Walt Disney Company announced via press release that it is set to acquire Marvel Entertainment. The Associated Press reports that Disney is spending $4 billion in cash and stock for Marvel and full rights to its 5,000 characters, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, and many more.
Nicolas Cage To Star In 3D Action Revenge Movie Drive Angry
POSTED IN Movie News, Read August 31, 2009
The actor has signed to star in “Drive Angry,” a revenge action movie that Patrick Lussier will direct for Nu Image/Millenium Films. Michael De Luca is producing.
Written by Lussier and Todd Farmer, the story centers on a man (Cage) driven by rage who is chasing the people who killed his daughter and kidnapped her baby. The vendetta/rescue spins out of control as the chase gets bloodier by the mile, leaving bodies strewn along the highway.
Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Avi Lerner and Boaz Davidson are executive producing for Nu Image/Millennium, which is planning to begin production in April in Louisiana; the company has a new $10 million studio in Shreveport, La.
“Angry” will be the first foray into 3D for Nu Image/Millenium and marks a return to the format for Lussier. The director, who got his feature start editing horror movies for Wes Craven, last directed “My Bloody Valentine 3D,” which grossed $51 million domestically this year.
For the CAA-repped Cage, “Angry” is the third collaboration with Nu Image/Millenium. The latest, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” hits the festival circuit beginning with Telluride before going on to Venice and Toronto.
Bruckheimer rolls with Haas’ ‘Shake’
POSTED IN Movie News, Read August 31, 2009
Jerry Bruckheimer has just bought the rights to a short story Haas wrote called “Shake” and hired the writer to expand it into a feature screenplay. The deal was for more than seven figures.
The origin of Haas’ story was a new site called Popcornfiction.com that he recently created for TV and film writers to showcase their pulpy short fiction. Among the contributors are Craig Mazin (“Superhero Movie”), Scott Frank (“The Lookout”), Jeff Lowell (“Over Her Dead Body”) and Nichelle D. Tramble (“Women’s Murder Club”).
“I wanted to create a place where new popular short fiction could flourish and Hollywood could have a new resource for cultivating great ideas,” Haas says on the site.
Bruckheimer apparently visited the site, loved Haas’ story of an FBI agent chasing a killer while he begins to lose control of his own body and bought the idea for a potential Disney film.
Haas, repped by WME and Industry Entertainment, is a published novelist (“The Silver Bear”) and the screenwriting partner of Michael Brandt, with whom he has co-written the scripts for “Wanted” and “3:10 to Yuma.” The pair also has scripts in development for “Beverly Hills Cop IV” at Paramount, “All Creatures Great and Small” at Columbia and “The Matarese Circle” at MGM.
Bad Boys 3 In Development
POSTED IN Movie News, Read August 31, 2009
THR reports that Columbia Pictures has hired Peter Craig to write a screenplay for Bad Boys 3. But the project is only in the early stages and none of the participants have yet agreed to return.
The hope is to get both Martin Lawrence and Will Smith to return, alongside director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer said in an interview that “When we had about two weeks of shooting left to go on Bad Boys II, Will and Martin were having such a good time, they phoned (Columbia studio boss) Amy Pascal and said, ‘We want to sign up for another one.’ So hopefully we’ll get them all back together again.”
At the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, Will Smith told Hollyscoop that he had an idea for Bad Boys 3, but added that “Michael (Bay) is too expensive now. He’s way too expensive.” And that is the big hurdle — getting the cash to bring back Will Smith, who has since exploded into a megastar, Bruckheimer, who never comes cheap, and Bay, who is now use to collecting percentages of toy merchandise Lucas-style.
New deal for president of WB Pictures Group
POSTED IN Movie News, Read August 31, 2009
Jeff Robinov has been reupped as president of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group on the heels of the studio’s socko summer.
Warner Bros. had no confirmation of Robinov’s deal closing Sunday, but the official announcement is expected to come soon.
The move to reup Robinov isn’t a surprise given last year’s stunning success with “The Dark Knight” plus the blockbuster box office racked up by Warner’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (with $904 million in combined domestic and foreign gross) and “The Hangover” with a surprising $430 million worldwide.
Warner Bros. set a domestic box office record last year with $1.78 billion and drew international grosses of $1.81 billion. The studio currently leads the pack for 2009 domestic grosses, topping $1.45 billion. Its latest title, “The Final Destination,” won the weekend with $28.3 million, another solid performance from a New Line entry.
Robinov’s new deal comes nearly two years after Warners promoted him from president of production to head the newly formed Warner Bros. Pictures Group. That move brought together motion picture production, marketing and distribution operations — the presidents of domestic and international marketing and distribution report directly to Robinov.
Final Destination’ tops weekend box office
POSTED IN Movie News, Read August 31, 2009
The Final Destination scared up $28.3 million for an easy No. 1 berth, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office. That’s almost $10 million better than the opening frame for the last film in the creatively-dispatching-model-perfect-unknown-actors franchise (which, for those keeping track, was Final Destination 3). There’s really only one reason why: Although just over half its 3,121 theaters were screening the flick in 3-D, fully 70 percent of its box office take came from 3-D theaters. And theaters typically charge an extra few bucks per ticket for the privilege of watching the film with those comfy stereoscopic glasses. Rest assured, despite its title (and its abysmal “C” CinemaScore grade), this is by no means the final Final Destination movie.
Trailer For Alejandro Amenabar’s Agora, 2009
POSTED IN Movie Trailers,Clips, Video August 28, 2009
A Full Length Trailer for Spanish-Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar’s(Open Your Eyes, The Others, The Sea Inside) Agora, starring Rachel Weisz. The screenplay was co-written by Amenabar and his writing partner Mateo Gil of Open Your Eyes, Vanilla Sky, and The Sea Inside previously. Amenabar wants audiences “to see, feel and smell a remote civilization as if it were as real as today,” that civilization being the Egyptians of 4th Century AD.
Agora premiered at the Cannes Film Festival of this year and will be showing up in Toronto Film Festival next month.
The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2009 – Trailer
POSTED IN Movie Trailers,Clips, Video August 28, 2009
Overture Films has debuted the official trailer for George Clooney’s The Men Who Stare at Goats today, directed by Grant Heslov.
A dark comedy inspired by a real life story you will hardly believe is actually true, astonishing revelations about a top-secret wing of the U.S. military come to light when a reporter encounters an enigmatic Special Forces operator on a mind-boggling mission. Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (Academy Award®winner George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program’s founder, Bill Django (Oscar® nominee Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady’s mission is to find him. Intrigued by his new acquaintance’s far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (two-time Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django’s New Earth Army and Hooper’s personal militia of super soldiers. In order to survive this wild adventure, Bob will have to outwit an enemy he never thought possible.
The screenplay was written by Peter Straughan, of Sixty Six and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People previously. This is based on Jon Ronson’s book of the same name. The film was produced independently and will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Overture Films will be bringing “The Men Who Stare at Goats” to limited theaters starting on November 6th later this year.
Three new posters for 2012
POSTED IN Uncategorized August 28, 2009
Dollhouse Season 2 Poster
POSTED IN Uncategorized | TAGS : Dollhouse August 28, 2009
