Brian Grazer has come on board as producer of Stretch Armstrong, Universal and Hasbro’s big-screen take on the toy action figure. Steve Oedekerk (Bruce Almighty) is writing the screenplay in which a blond man can stretch his arms and legs up to four feet. So a blonde Mr. Fantastic then? “(Stretch is) an unconventional kind of superhero with a power that no one would want,” Grazer said. “It’s a story about a guy stretching, if you will, the limits of what is possible to become all that he can be.”
Um. Wow. Really? Because that’s not what I got from the toy at all. In fact, I spent most of my time wondering how to get whatever made him stretch out of the doll.
Stretch Armstrong is tentatively set to be released April 15, 2011, making it the first movie to be given the green light under the studio and toy company’s six-year strategic partnership which also has the likes of Candyland, Monopoly, and Battleship currently in production.
I never get tired of listening to James Cameron talk about this movie.
Here’s a James Cameron interview from E3 which is pretty much just more of the same from his E3 presentation, but near the end his enthusiasm level jumps a bit as he starts talking about an Avatar sequel and co-generating ideas with lead game designers, Ubisoft. Last week, Guillermo del Toro stated in an interview that the future of storytelling would be told across many multimedia platforms. Looks like Cameron will be at the forefront of that as well.
Empire premiered an exclusive picture of Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation, Avatar) as Perseus in Louis Letterier’s remake of Clash Of The Titans. A few set pics showed up in previous weeks, but this is the first official shot of Worthington in character.
In the film, Perseus, mortal son of Zeus, must lead a band of warriors on a quest to prevent Hades god of the underworld, from seizing power from Zeus. The filmalso stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemying, and Danny Huston. Clash Of The Titans comes to theaters in 2010.
Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium, Ultraviolet) is currently set to pen an updated version of 1992’s Arnold Schwarzenegger science fiction starrer Total Recall for Columbia Pictures.Wimmer also wrote the story for Law Abiding Citizen with Brian Helgeland and Edwin A. Salt, which simply became Salt when Tom Cruise dropped out and Angelina Jolie picked up the title role.
The film will be a contemporized adaptation of the science fiction saga based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” Producer Neal Moritz jump-started the remake earlier this year for his Original Films banner (oh, the irony). Columbia secured the remake rights from Miramax who have agreed to co-finance the film once it’s ready to go before cameras.
This could be incredibly bad, but I’m a little more optimistic about Wimmer’s involvement. He’s definitely a good writer, even if his own films come up lacking a bit visually. Both Equilibrium and Ultraviolet were far better than they should’ve been. Could go either way, but it all hinges on who directs this.
James Cameron was personally on hand to talk about his partnership with UBISoft in creating the videogame adaptation of his upcoming Avatar. The game studio and Cameron worked closely in creating a videogame that not only translated the film’s visuals, but also the overall experience of the standing on the strange, alien moon Pandora.
Concept art on everything from weapons to the environment was passed between the two, with Cameron choosing things from the game for inclusion in the film or Cameron signing off on things created specifically for the game. It doesn’t adhere strictly to the film’s plotline and you can choose to be either Na’vi or a human character. From the sound of it, the game exists in the film’s universe but may not necessarily include the film’s characters or story.
IGN released a few game stills in high quality and so I’ve included them below.
As an added bonus, I’ve included James Cameron speaking at E3. Enjoy!
The LA Times is reporting that a film based on critically acclaimed videogame Bioshock might not be coming to the screen as soon as we all hoped. Gore Verbinkski, who is currently in production on animated feature Rango with Johnny Depp, talked with the paper recently about making the transition from films to videogames and his hopes to start developing videogames. Bioshock is already on hold pending budgetary concerns, but even if the film did find funding which would most likely come from overseas, Verbinski doesn’t think he’d want to spend the year plus in production shooting in another country.
This upsets for a number of reasons:
1) Bioshock is ripe for big screen adaptation. The immersive experience of playing the game will never be matched, but it would be a sight to behold. An absolutely gorgeous, dark underwater tale about a nightmare induced by ambition.
2) Gore Verbinski is a great director. The Ring is still one of the scariest films ever made and his return to horror would be championed.
3) Verbinski’s talent has been squandered and wasted on the useless pile of camp that is the Pirates Of The Carribean trilogy.
I guess we’ll see, but it’s all looking very grim right now. I honestly can’t think of anyone better to direct of Bioshock, except of course Guillermo del Toro but he’s booked until the end of the century.
Anthony Stewart Head who played librarian/watcher Rupert Giles for eight years under Joss Whedon all but bashed the recently announced remake. Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz who directed the feature film which bombed, are currently in development on this remake/reboot. Funny thing is they’re not using Joss Whedon. They’re not even using his characters or mythology, which revived and pretty much reduced the horrible memory of the first film to little more than a joke. Here’s Anthony Stewart Head’s take on the upcoming film:
“I wouldn’t want to see it, no,” Head admits. “The Kuzuis didn’t do a great job on the movie the first time around. It was Joss’ script at the age of 19, but they changed a lot of it. They said, ‘Look, we know best and we know how to make this movie,’ and it became quite schlocky and high camp. The bottom line is if a movie was ever to be made, it should be made with Joss Whedon, whether it’s a retrospective or not. But it would be madness to do it without him. [The Kuzuis] have the rights to because they have the rights to the original movie, but it should be interesting to see. It may be a bit like watching a car wreck.”
I’m gonna have to say I agree. I wonder how many Buffy fans are going to boycott this movie?
SciFi Wire has premiered a clip from Duncan Jones acclaimed debut film Moon, which was written specifically as a vehicle for Sam Rockwell. The film was written by Duncan Jones and Nathan Parker, and was picked up at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classic. It will be released this June in limited release.
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Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is an employee contracted by the company Lunar to mine on the Moon the natural gas Helium 3, which could reverse Earth’s energy crisis. Sam is stationed at the lunar base Sarang with only a robot named Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), but two weeks before completing his three-year assignment, he begins feeling out of place. An extraction goes wrong, and Sam suspects Lunar of trying to replace him as he realises someone else is on the Moon.
Oh boy. I was really excited about this project, but then hopes for a Robert Rodriguez-directed, Rose McGowan-starring Barbarella remake vanished into thin air. With a budget swelling past $80 million, Rodriguez searched for alternate funding.
“It came to the point where [a company from] Germany offered us a $70 million budget, but I had to shoot it in Germany and post it in Germany. Nothing against Germany, but I have five kids and I was like, ‘God, I don’t know if we can do that. I don’t know if I can be away that long.’ Rodriguez reluctantly said no and moved on to other projects.
Lately however, Robert Luketic (Monster-In-Law, Legally Blonde) has been working with Dino De Laurentiis’ company to develop the picture at a different studio with an eye on making it “a big intergalactic adventure with a sexy twist.” Beyond that details are scarce. Bleh. I really don’t want to see Reese Witherspoon in Jane Fonda’s role. Or god, Jennifer Lopez. Though her body would look amazing in the space clothes. Hmm.
I love Pixar. I mean, I really really love Pixar. They’re the best studio in Hollywood. They don’t just make good movies; they’re making the new Disney classics. The Lion Kings, the Aladdins, the Little Mermaids. Their films have more character and heart than most live movies and they’ve gotten effortlessly adept at not only inviting but involving you in the worlds of their stories. Their latest feature Up is no different.
A testament to both creativity and ambition, Up quite literally left me breathless. Seeing the film in 3-D doesn’t just take you along with Carl Fredrickson and Russell for the adventure of a lifetime, it makes you feel like you’re there. You believe that a house with 10,927 balloons is carrying you somewhere magical powered only by imagination. Hollywood could definitely use a little more f that.
Pixar loves to hide easter eggs in their films and Up is no less. SlashFilm has compiled an awesome list of a ton of easter eggs found in the film. So click the pink bear to find out who one of the main antagonists in Toy Story 3 might be!
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Cinemafique 