Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, who played a married couple in Brokeback Mountain, are in negotiations to reunite for Love And Other Drugs, an adaptation of Jamie Reidy’s nonfiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution Of A Viagra Salesman. Formerly titled Pharma, the film is being directed by Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) from a script by Charles Randolph (The Interpreter)
Reidy was a drug rep for Pfizer in the late 1990s who eventually wrote a memoir that shined a light on the practices of the pharmaceutical industry. Gyllenhaal will play the salesman, who begins a relationship with a woman who has Parkinson’s (Hathaway) while on one of his sales calls. Hathaway was in talks to star with Tobey Maguire in the film Tokyo Suckerpunch, but couldn’t make the scheduling work.
I swear, Neil Patrick Harris may have made the best comeback from childhood fame I’ve ever seen. From his hilarious roles in the Harold & Kumar films, to his dayjob on How I Met Your Mother, to his geek star turn in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible, Mr. Harris has been consistently hilarious. It was announced today that he had signed on for two new films.
The first, Beastly, which co-stars Vanessa Hudgens and Mary-Kate Olsen. Harris is playing a blind tutor who helps and bonds with a teen (Alex Pettyfer) who is shellshocked from being turned into a hideous young man. In the second film, The Best And The Brightest, Harris plays one half of a couple from Delaware who move to New York’s Upper East Side and enter the world of the city’s private kindergartens. Bonnie Somerville (NYPD Blue, Kitchen Confidential) is also cast as the class-aware wife in the film, which co-stars Amy Sedaris (SNL, Strangers With Candy).
Here’s an update from Michael Bay on his upcoming release IMAX release of Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen. His entire message is included below:
Hey everyone,
In Japan today. After a month and half seven days a week most days going till midnight me and my crew have just about finished Transformers. I have never seen such a level of dedication from every crew member in a movie before. Even today after the press in Japan and right before the premiere tonight, I have to sneak out to a digital house to approve the last few effect shots.
It has been a long hard road, but really fun one to travel. What you will notice that is strikingly different than Transformers 1, is the level of animation detail. The robot characters (42 in all), you really can feel empathy for them. What is also very different is the sheer scale of the movie. We have been very tight holding back much of the best imagery in commercials and trailers.
The way to see this movie is on IMAX. Never before has there been 4k rendered character animation shot on full IMAX 70 mm film. This is a first and the results are stunning. You will see Optimus Prime in a few shots where he is actually perfectly to scale on the IMAX 50 foot tall screens. For IMAX, I created a slightly longer cut with more robot fighting. Four scenes were shot on IMAX cameras so the screen will fill the full IMAX screen for these scenes.
Haters beware.
42 ROBOTS?! Even if this sucks, it will be the most amazing ILM-gasm ever created. Once again, make sure you see the film in true IMAX as opposed to those imposter theaters that have been popping up. Remember, an IMAX theater would never fit in your local theater.
Oh wow. Pixar was at this year’s Licensing International Expo to talk about their upcoming projects, and buyers have let slip to Jim Hill exclusively that Pixar has another sequel in the works. Which sequel you ask? I’ll give it to you straight from Jim:
“Though the buyers who attended these particular preview sessions were first sworn to secrecy by Disney officials, several immediately reached out to me afterwards to say how thrilled they were to learn that Pete Docter will be following up Up with a sequel to Monsters, Inc.”
That’s right. Monsters Inc 2! Pixar can pretty do much whatever they want at this point, and I’d go see it. I simply can’t talk about the studio without gushing over them. They’ve announced their upcoming slate through 2012, so if Pete Docter started working right now the film would be on for 2013 at the earliest. From start to finish, it takes Pixar four years to make a feature. I’m excited at how amazing it would be after, because Docter’s grown so much as a director in the nine years since the first film was released. And what about seeing that room of doors again?! It will have been twelve years since the original, so maybe we’ll see an older Boo aswell.
Bradley Cooper, who had been the subject of rumors has now been confirmed for a role in The A-Team. Fresh (quite literally) off the success of this weekend’s #1 comedy, The Hangover, Cooper will play the dashing Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck, a role originated by Dirk Benedict. Casting is on now to the find the rest of Templeton’s framed, on-the-run war vets who get into adventures while evading the military. The film version of the 1980s NBC series is being directed by Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces) from a screenplay by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (Wanted). The A-Team hits theaters June 11, 2010.
We’ve all heard the story of the film that’s made and then it’s shelved indefinitely. Those who’ve seen it consider it genius, but for some reason the studio never puts it out. Nevermind that they have no problem dumping the same crap on us every weekend. Mike Dougherty’s (X-Men 2, Superman Returns) Halloween opus Trick ‘r Treat has suffered such a fate. Or maybe not! Dougherty and actor Dylan Baker were at Fangoria’s annual Weekend Of Horrors and let fly a few tidbits abut the film.
First off, the film will see release on DVD/Blu-Ray this October. The date is still being finalized, but the film will be in stores this Halloween. Second, the Trick ‘r Treat soundtrack will be released this September. Third, a previously announced four-issue comic from DC/Wildstorm will be released as a single graphic novel in October as well. And last but not least, Trick ‘r Treat will be coming to select theaters from July-October as part of a roadshow to promote the film. Cities are still be added for the tour so check back and I’ll try to keep this updated as they add them.
He worked for ILM, then he warmed viewers hearts as Hiro Nakamura on Heroes; and now, Masi Oka is coming to the feature length film world. The Defenders, a family adventure project conceived by Oka is set to be produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, writers of Star Trek and Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen. Oka, a huge World Of Warcraft and general MMORPG fan, thought an idea that would combine his love of film and video games.
Oka met Orci and Kurtzman at parties, and had taken a couple of meetings with them hoping to be cast in one of their films. Orci and Kurtzman mentioned that they were looking for “the kinds of movies that Amblin used to do, that combined innocence with adventure,” Orci said. Oka was also a fan of those films and pitched an idea to the writer/producers for their Kurtzman/Orci Productions which is housed at Dreamworks. D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye) is currently in negotiations to direct from a script by Gary Whitta who wrote the upcoming Book Of Eli. Finally, someone in Hollywood with the right idea. Let’s not remake all the films we love. Let’s take the spirit of what we loved about those films and make them into something new.
The Defenders centers on a group of mostly teenagers from around the world who are involved in a multiplayer video game, each unaware of who they really are behind the cover of their consoles and avatars. They are forced to come together for a real adventure, becoming inadvertent heroes in the process. “You can be whoever you want to be. The question came to me: What if you had to live up to the person you created in the virtual world?” Oka has spent the past year honing the concept alongside the duo as they worked on Transformers 2. Dreamworks will develop a videogame alongside the film.
Javier Bardem is in current negotiations to star along Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love. The adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir casts Bardem as Felipe, the man Gilbert (Roberts) meets and falls in love with on the final leg of a journey of self-discovery that began with the end of her marriage. The film is being adapted and written by Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee) and also stars Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under, The Visitor) as a Texan Roberts befriends at an Indian ashram.
Katee Sackhoff AKA the coolest girl on television, and an actress so awesome she trumped the main character on their own show (Bionic Woman), has been cast alongside Jack Bauer in the newest season of 24. Sackhoff is slated to play Dana Walsh, a highly respected down to earth data analyst at the new and improved CTU in New York whis means only one thing: Starbuck is gonna put a gun in Chloe’s face! Sackhoff’s character is in a relationship with recently cast Freddie Prinze Jr. and “apparently has a skeleton in her closet she’s trying desperately to keep hidden.”
Twenty-four hours with Katee Sackhoff? SOLD! The eighth season of 24 premieres Jan. 17, 2010 and revolves around an assassination attempt against a visiting foreign leader (Slumdog Millionaire‘s Anil Kapoor). Also recently cast this season are Mykelti Williamson, Doug Hutchinson, Jennifer Westfeldt, and Chris Diamantopoulos.
The first clip is a commercial for Strawberry Peanut Butter M&Ms, which just sounds all kinds of gross. However, I couldn’t resist putting this up. I just think it’s so funny. The second is a TV spot you may or may not have already seen. I hadn’t so I thought I’d throw it up here. I really dig the urgency and actual sense of story in this one as opposed to a trailer full of money shots. Not that Bay’s shots aren’t the money!
Bay, blowing it up June 24th, 2009. See it IMAX for an even more intense experience!
Source: THR
Cinemafique 