Fox Will Reboot Fantastic Four

I find it funny that 20th Century Fox waited until the day when Disney revealed that they would be acquiring Marvel to announce the next step in the Fantastic Four film franchise. Or perhaps the information somehow leaked out when everyone was trying to gather all the details of what properties Disney would have and not have feature film rights to. Either way, tonight it was revealed that Akiva Goldsman has been hired to produce a new Fantastic Four film, a complete reboot.

Variety reports that a screenwriter has been hired to reboot the franchise: Michael Green, a producer/writer for Smallville, Everwood and Heroes (ugh…) who co-wrote the upcoming big screen adaptation of The Green Lantern. No other details are known at this time, as Fox has not commented about its plans. But one would assume that the creative talent (and I use that term loosely) from the original 2005 film and the 2007 sequel, will not be a part of this new attempt. And that includes director Tim Story and stars Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis.

One can only hope that Fox takes a cue from the recent superhero films (The Dark Knight on one extreme, and Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk on the other) and allows a less corny take on the series. I'd likely be happier with a film even if they took a slightly more adult (yet still comic) tone of a film like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2. What would you guys like to see?

Goldsman got his start in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and at one point wrote the bad Batman movies (Forever and Batman & Robin). More recently he has made the transition into producer of such films as I Am Legend, Hancock, and the upcoming comic book films Jonah Hex and The Losers.

• Star Trek Cameos Revealed
• Do You Care About a Fantastic Four Reboot?
• Martin Campbell in Talks to Direct The Green Lantern
• I Am Legend Prequel
• Cool Stuff: Star Wars Clone Wars and Marvel Comics Mighty Muggs
• Batman vs. Superman

read more ..

Brown's Attorney: 'Chris Has Learned His Lesson'

Chris Brown's attorney Mark Geragos is confident the disgraced singer will never assault another woman again after enduring the ordeal surrounding his highly-publicized attack

Read more!

read more ..

Macaulay Culkin Brands Jackson Child Report 'Preposterous'

Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin has shot down a sensational U.K. newspaper report suggesting he is the biological father of Michael Jackson's youngest son Prince Michael II.

Read more!

read more ..

Jon Gosselin's Sexy Party, Run-DMC JMJ Way, Connery's Bad Accent, Disney Buys Marvel & More

What happened in the wide, wonderful world of celebrity news & gossip today? Here's a quick recap of the top stories in Starpulse News for Monday, August 31, 2009:

Read more!

read more ..

Cast & Crew Of 'Fringe' & 'Glee' To Twitter During Episodes

Fox will air encore presentations of Fringe and Glee this week accompanied by messages from cast and producers via twitter, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Read more!

read more ..

Demi Moore Lands Role On 'The Beautiful Life'

Ashton Kutcher has recruited his number one beauty for his TV series The Beautiful Life - his wife Demi Moore.

Read more!

read more ..

Full Winners List of 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards

'The Bold and the Beautiful' finally gets its first Outstanding Drama Series title in years, the victory that unfortunately went off air from The CW.

read more ..

Celebrity Birthdays, August 31

Happy Birthday to:

Prolific actor Richard Gere (1949)

Read more!

read more ..

Bad Boys 3 In Development

Remember the scene in Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where Sam is drawing symbols all over the walls of his dorm room? Yeah, we've tried to forget about it too. What you might not have noticed is that Sam writes the number 3 on a poster for the other Michael Bay sequel, Bad Boys II. And now we've learned that the studio is moving forward with development on a third film, but will the original crew return for one more adventure?

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.

All of usual suspects have expressed an interest in coming back for a third movie, but only if they can get the story right. That's where Craig comes in. For those of you who don't recognize his name, you probably shouldn't as he has no completed screenwriting credits on his Hollywood resume.

According to wikipedia, he's a published author known for his "darkly comic novels of imploding father-child relationships." His novels include The Martini Shot, Hot Plastic, and Blood Father. As for Hollywood, he has been developing a few projects, mainly co-writing Ben Affleck's The Town which begins shooting next month, and has been working on a live-action adaptation of the popular anime Cowboy Bebop for 20th Century Fox and Keanu Reeves. Oh, and he's also the son of actress Sally Field.

Many of you know that I'm often a defender of Michael Bay. That said, I didn't speak up after the release of Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen for obvious reasons. And before that, my least favorite films he's made are the Bad Boys series. That's not to say they're bad, I just don't like Martin Lawrence. The first Bad Boys film is interesting to watch just because you can tell Bay is on a leash, restrained by producers and budget, on his first feature film. His next two films, The Rock and Armageddon, are probably his most coherent, probably because it was a time when he still had structure.

Back to the Bad Boys films, I will say this — the car chase sequence in Bad Bays 2 is very under-appreciated, and is probably (wait for it.. hyperbolic statement coming up… in 3…2…1..) one of the best car chase action sequences of the last decade (seen below).

And hey, best case scenario, as GetStuck suggests, this and the Point Break sequel might lead to a Hot Fuzz 2… Just a thought.

• Sequel Talk: Pineapple Express, Hulk 3, Sex and the City 2, Bad Boys 3
• Michael Bay Makes The Big Bucks
• Hunter Stephenson's Script Review: Cocaine Cowboys Pilot for HBO
• Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay Adapting Cocaine Cowboys Into HBO Series?
• Smallville Writers Assigned to Michael Bay's I Am Number 4
• Earth vs. Moon Details Revealed

read more ..

The Green Hornet Release Pushed Back Five Months

The Green Hornet, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and directed by Michel Gondry, was set to open in July of next year, but now won't wear the mask until December 17, 2010. It's an interesting move, since in a summer slot the film might get lost admist hefty competition like the third Twilight film, Predators, Inception and Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, all of which are slotted for early to mid-July. Read what Seth Rogen says about the move after the break.

The news of the move broke on a few sites today, but Drew at HitFix got in touch with Rogen for comment. He says:

It gives more time for post, which would have been immensely rushed if we were to come out in the summer. It also affords us more time to promote the film, (now we can go to Comic-Con with more than a car!) and ultimately is a great vote of confidence from the studio.

The post-production and promotion issues are both huge. Since the picture has taken a long time to come into shape for pre-production, with the search for a director (Stephen Chow dropped out, opening the door for Gondry) and an actor to play Kato (now set to be Jay Chou) taking up a lot of time. The Comic Con angle might be big, too; since no one really knows what to expect from the movie, if all involved can wow audiences in San Diego the film will get a big boost.(Of course, Predators hasn't started shooting, either, and will presumably make the July 2010 date.)

More than anything else, I'm intrigued by the December date. Rogen notes that they're getting the I Am Legend / Avatar slot, and using that metric implies that the film might not just be a broad, goofy comedy. If Columbia thinks it can successfully sell the movie in that slot, I'm ready to see what the crew is cooking up. (Who am I kidding? I've been curious about this one forever.)

The cast detail recap: Seth Rogen will star as the Green Hornet. Jay Chou is his sidekick, Kato, Cameron Diaz is the love interest, Nic Cage is the villain and Edward James Olmos has a small role.

• Jay Chou Cast as Kato in The Green Hornet
• Nicolas Cage in Talks For Green Hornet Villain
• Seth Rogen Updates on Michel Gondry's Style for The Green Hornet
• Kato Casting Call Kicks Chow To The Curb?
• Cameron Diaz In Talks For Green Hornet; Gary 'Seabiscuit' Ross Rewrites Spider-Man 4
• Green Hornet Moves To July, Jennifer's Body Gets Rated Bloody R

read more ..

Rambo 5 Gets The Greenlight

After the successful release of Rambo 4 (which was released under the simple title Rambo), there has been a lot of talk about making a possible fifth film. Stallone had hinted that he hopes to take the character into a "slightly different genre," leaving many fans to speculate sci-fi or a more comic bookish approach. He later was quoted as saying that "this is the last Rambo just as Rocky Balboa is the last Rocky." Yeah right…

Nu Image/Millennium Films have officially announced a greenlight for Rambo's fifth mission, with Sylvester Stallone signed on to return to star and also direct. No word on if Stallone will also write this latest adventure, but I would say it's a strong possibility considering that he wrote the screenplays for the previous films.

So what is the new movie going to be about? According to Variety, Rambo will fight his way "through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border." Doesn't sound like the big departure that Sly had previously promised (but then again, he also said that there would never be a fifth Rambo film).

Earlier this year, the not-so-reliable British tabloid paper The Sun reported that Mickey Rourke had agreed to play the villain in a fifth Rambo. There has also been rumors that Stallone was looking to film the sequel in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, which would
actually serve as Rambo's hometown "somewhere in Arizona." I'm not sure if those were totally bunk, but it sounds like it.

Stallone is currently doing post production on The Expendables, but production on Rambo 5 will start in the spring.

• Rambo 5: Bulgaria Serving as America?
• Rambo 5 to Film in Bulgaria?
• The News Vacuum: Miscellanious Deals, Rumors, Casting News, Film Flotsam…and Rambo V
• No Cash For Tango: Kurt Russell Turns Down Role in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables
• FYI: First Blood Returns to Theaters on May 15th. Rambo Dies. :(
• Hunter Stephenson's Movie Review: RAMBO

read more ..

Frightfest Days 2 & 3: The Horseman, Landis, Trick 'R Treat, Giallo, Hierro and More

The third day of the Film 4 Frightfest has come to a blood-soaked close and I've made it back safely to camp. From where I'm sitting now (slouched, in fact, and really quite exhausted from all of this sitting in the dark) this year's Frightfest is already one of the two or three best yet, and Frightfest itself has bloomed into the single most exciting genre fest in the UK. Come along next August and join in, I could use some folks to lunch with.

I want to run through all of the feature films screened in days two and three very quickly. We'll do it in chronological order, and I'll do my best to not let any one picture outstay it's welcome. If you want more basic plot or cast and crew details, the Film 4 Frightfest website is probably the best place to begin.

The Horseman - dir. Stephen Kastissios

A rather traditional and suitably grimy revenge thriller from Australia. The plot actually has two movements, two sub-lists of revenge victims. There's a feeling that we're coming to a close at the end of 'episode one' for us to then suddenly realise there's a way to go and you might be a bit miffed by this, or indeed rather relieved. Myself, it was a little of both.

Much of the film feels real and immediate in such a way that the sudden drops into the generic or overly conventional disappoint hugely. The film always recovers from these troughs, however, and fans of Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Straw Dogs or maybe even The Limey will see similar ground covered with something approaching the same level of relevance and, occasionally, prowess.

Shadow - dir. Federico Zampaglione

Even more episodic than The Horseman, this film seemed to come in three distinct movements. The first is a game of cat-and-mouse in the woods, the second implies supernatural elements and the third is rooted in the current vogue for onscreen torture and torment. Our lead characters are an Iraq vet who likes to ride his bike in the woods, his love interest, two snarly, hammy hunters and what appears to be Doug Jones doing an impersonation of Richard O'Brien but is, in fact, the quite remarkable Nuot Arquint.

Heavily debated was the film's twist climax with the majority of folk seemingly hating it and a handful swinging along. Without giving anything away, I'd compare it to the surprise resolution of Switchblade Romance in that you might consider it cliche, it definitely doesn't quite add up but it does inject a whole new level into what we have seen. Without this ending, the film would have seemed far less worthwhile, I'm convinced - but those closing scenes still played like the last fart of a dead duck. A real shame.

The Horde - dir. Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher

As this was a screening ahead of the film's official world premiere at Venice - that label must be preserved for the Venice programme booklet at all cost! - this film is under embargo and can't be reviewed. Fair enough - I don't want to waste my time writing about it anyway.

Macabre - dir. The MO Brothers

Shot in a curiously steady fashion, skewing towards so-called middlebrow realism, this was a completely outrageous work in many other respects. Two strings of victims suffer at the hands of cannibals, essentially and while the official Frightfest word is that this is the bloodiest film they've ever shown it is most definitely not the goriest - I'd like to see their distinction between blood and gore that allows them to get away with that claim.

And that ends Day 2. Be aware that I skipped mentioning Beware the Moon and An American Werewolf in London seeing as I featured them in my last post and will have a video interview with John Landis going live on the site in the coming days.

Smash Cut - dir. Lee Demabre

This was a tribute to Hershell Gordon Lewis that actually managed to meet many of his standards. And yes, I did mean that as a front-handed insult.

David Hess, here in starring as a film director who turns to real life murder, pretty much carried this film single handedly. I will credit the movie as having a good handful of great gags stirred in with the haystacks of cruddy ones, and Michael Berryman's wig finally dethrones Joe Pesci's rug from JFK as the best hairpiece in the movies, but overall, this was about watching Hess give a bizarrely seductive performance. It wasn't anything like 'good acting', as if that really means anything, but it was certainly a star turn.

Hierro - dir. Gabe Ibanez

Despite a desperately familiar set-up and any number of off-the-peg dramatic devices this was, at the time of screening, the best film of the line-up

read more ..

Spike TV's 'Surviving Disaster' Premieres Sept. 1

Picking up a few last minute items at the mall when violent gunmen storm the store…what to do? What if, on the daily subway commute, a bio weapon is released? Or a fire is blazing

=> Read more!

read more ..

First Look: Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers

Earlier this month, we noted in surprise, as did a number of peers on the web, the sudden announcement of a new film from Harmony Korine, the semi-reclusive director of Mister Lonely. Aforementioned surprise arose because the project, entitled Trash Humpers, was already completed, said to be a 78-min feature, and set to premiere at next month's Toronto International Film Festival. The TIFF has released further details alongside the first photos from Humpers. As seen below, the set pics are John Waters-esque and moderately NSFW. And personally, I find they recall ancient nightmares of Zeke the Plumber on Salute Your Shorts.

So, what exactly are we looking at here? The previous TIFF description said the film was about a "loser-gang cult-freak collective who do anti-social things." Did Korine actually make a film about TalkBackers? Nope. Totally unrelated. After viewing the pics, my main thought is: how will Korine be able to execute a feature length film out of party store grade make-up? We already know that the movie eschews traditional narrative, even more so than Gummo, and includes playful musical numbers. TIFF now adds that Korine shot "in a low-end surveillance-video look with frequent in-camera lighting distortions and a cinema-vérité authenticity." An unexpected return to his experimental oddity roots after the accessible Lonely. (Note: We find Korine's soporific ode to highly dedicated celebrity impersonators to be recommended viewing).

A word salad of other details were released per plot: "creepy masks, low-grade torture, frequent public urination, senseless vandalism and the title, acted out on defenseless garbage cans, all have a confrontational panache about them to be sure. But the film is also full of poetry, dance, song and moments of aching poignancy." There we have it, 2009's first heartwarming release to feature frequent urination, and it has a beat and you can dance to it.

A few readers have inquired about the involvement of Werner Herzog, who played an air-friendly priest in Lonely, and was influential in Korine's recovery from addiction and getting him back onto the creative path. In the new synopsis, TIFF notes their relationship. But so far it seems that Herzog is not directly involved with the film.

H/T The Playlist

• Harmony Korine's Next Feature Film, Trash Humpers, Already Finished
• Cool Stuff: Family Portraits for The Lost Boys, There Will Be Blood, The Jerk, and Mr. Kill Screen
• Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant Added To Toronto Fest Lineup
• Bad Lieutenant Movie Trailer
• Werner Herzog and David Lynch ask My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
• Geezer Warz: Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara Fight Over Bad Lieutenant

read more ..