I’m so excited about this. Columbia Pictures is in advanced talks with David Fincher to direct The Social Network, scripted by genius Aaron Sorkin. The film will focus on the evolution of Facebook from its 2004 creation on the Harvard campus by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to a juggernaut with more than 200 million members.Scott Rudin and Michael De Luca are producing with Trigger Street’s Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti. The aim is to begin production later this year.
So why am I so amped? Well, for one, David Fincher is my favorite director. Say what you will about his movies, but the man has only gotten better and better as a director. Zodiac and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button are absorbing, dialogue-heavy throwbacks. It’s absolutely the same man that made Fight Club, but he’s even more mature. Aaron Sorkin is the most rhythmic writer in Hollywood. I can listen to the West Wing without any visual and be completely fine. So the pairing of these two actually makes me really excited for this film.
Katherine Heigl is set to star in Life As We Know It, for Everwood creator Greg Berlanti. The story centers on two single people who suddenly become caregivers to an orphaned girl after the parents, their mutual best friends, are killed in an accident. The project, written by Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson, was originally set up by Josephson at Revolution in 2001 then moved to Fox 2000. Gold Circle picked it up, began packaging it, eventually catching Warner Bros. eye. No start date is set, but “Life” is expected to be fast-tracked. Heigl is exec producing with her mother, manager Nancy Heigl, though not through the duo’s Abishag outfit.
UPDATE: I want to point you all in the direction of a first hand impression of the James Cameron footage that was screened. What he’s describing is what it felt like to read the decade old scriptment. This is ten years on with WETA Digital at James Cameron’s disposal, so we’re well beyond ‘excitement’ at this point.
The audience afterwards was stunned. Everyone just gasped, wondered and just couldnt believe what they saw. [Cameron] is so proud of this movie and still handles it with great suave like he just folded a paper plane. I am just mindbaffled how a genius like that can contain himself with something like this.
This movie will change the industry. It can now enable me to play a character in a studio, then to be transferred into something different on screen so an audience will believe I am that different character. This is not the Polar Express style ‘change of character’. This will enable actors to act without them being cast on looks, but on bodylanguage from now on. [Source]
Comic-Con! Comic-Con! Comic-Con! PLEASE JAMES CAMERON BRING YOUR FOOTAGE TO COMIC-CON SO IT CAN BE BOOTLEGGED AND PUT ONLINE IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS!
Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, James Cameron along with cast-members Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang debuted 24 MINUTES OF FOOTAGE (!) from Avatar. While the general consensus has been “Holy shit, my eyes!” and sustained applause, people are using phrases like “stunning, literally jawdropping. Amazing visuals unlike any before seen, with incredible detail.” The footage was premiered at CineExpo in Amsterdam and while practically everyone was sworn to secrecy, a couple of shots of Avatar concept art from the after-party have shown up online.
We’ve seen concept art before but this, to my knowledge, is the latest to give us an honest-to-god look at what James Cameron is trying to create. The last time I was seriously blown away by special effects, and I’m talking jaw on the floor, was Termintator 2: Judgement Day when the T-1000 walked out of those flames, and morphed back into Robert Patrick. From that moment forward, I needed to know how every special effect was done. I don’t know if it’ll be at all the same, but: This. Looks. Friggin. Gorgeous. Decemember can’t get here soon enough.
Blood Simple Zhang Yimou has started shooting a remake of the Coen brothers’ debut, Blood Simple.San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi (“The Stunning Case Of The Three Gun Shots“) recently began production. Details on the remake are being kept under wraps, but the thriller-comedy stars Chinese actor Sun Honglei, comedian Xiao Shenyang and actress Yan Ni. Blood Simple was about a Texas bar owner who hires a private detective to kill his wife and her lover. The 1984 movie starring Frances McDormand won the Grand Jury Prize for best film at the United States Film Festival — the predecessor to the Sundance Film Festival — helping establish Joel and Ethan Coen’s reputations. [Source: THR]
Burlesque Cher is set to return to the screen for the first time in more than a decade in a contemporary musical for Screen Gems. Christina Aguilera will play an ambitious small-town Iowa girl with a big voice who comes of age in a neo-burlesque club on Sunset Boulevard that’s run by Tess (Cher), a former dancer who struggles to keep the club open and gives the young girl a chance to shine. “She brings a soulfulness and gravitas to this character that will ground the story,” Chris Culpepper, president of Screen Gems said. “The only person who was more excited than I am is Christina.” Steven Antin will direct from a script he wrote that was revised by Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich, The Soloist). [Source: Variety]
Frank
Kevin Lima (Enchanted) has been tapped to direct romantic comedy Frank, a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein story. The film centers on a teenage prodigy who’s on the cutting edge of cell research in medical school and is encouraged by her guidance counselor to take a break from the lab and make some friends. After several unsuccessful attempts at socializing with her peers, she decides to use her scientific prowess and piece together a friend out of the med school’s instructional cadavers. The project is currently out to writers. Lima is also working on a remake of The Incredible Mr. Limpet. [Source: Variety]
Ghostbusters 3 Sigourney Weaver confirms that she will not be in Ghostbusters 3. “No, I don’t expect to have anything to do with it, although I wish them well. I just did a benefit with Bill and we love working together, but I think they’re trying to create something new completely with the Ghostbusters. “I hope my little son Oscar [from Ghostbusters II] is a Ghostbuster!” [Source: Digital Spy]
Smallville
British actor Callum Blue (Dead Like Me, Rome) has joined the cast of Smallville, portraying General Zod in a role previously made famous by Terrence Stamp. Supervillain General Zod from the DC Comics books was introduced in 1980 feature “Superman II.” [Source: THR]
The Special Relationship Peter Morgan has pulled out as director of the HBO Films/BBC Films movie The Special Relationship. Richard Loncraine has come on board to direct the project, written by Morgan, who will remain “integrally involved in every aspect of the production” in his role as a writer/executive producer. The cast, crew and filming schedule for “Special Relationship,” which has been greenlighted for production, remain intact. Dennis Quaid is on board to play President Clinton, Michael Sheen as Prime Minister Blair, Julianne Moore as Hillary Clinton and Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair. [Source: THR]
The Testament
After a decade of saying no, John Grisham has made a movie deal for his 1999 bestselling novel about a billionaire defies his greedy relatives and leaves his $11 billion fortune to a mysterious illegitimate daughter doing charity work in the Brazilian wetlands. A down-and-out lawyer helps her battle her relatives over the fortune. [Source: Variety]
Untitled Zac Efron Thriller
Zac Efron has signed to star in an untitled thriller for Mandate Pictures, which is being written by Leslie Dixon. The plot is being kept under wraps but it is described as “a sexy thriller.” Efron will act as executive producer with Mandate’s Nathan Kahane. [Source: THR]
Universal Pictures has aquired the screen rights for Larry Doyle (I Love You, Beth Cooper)’s upcoming novel, Go Mutants!, and set the scribe to adapt. He will work on the project alongside finishing the book this summer. Go Mutants! is a teen comedy/adventure set in a high school where all of the tropes from classic 1950s alien invasion movies came true. Years later, the children of those mutant creatures have assimilated among the other kids. Doyle said the book and movie invites cameos from ’50s fright fixtures like Gort from “The Day the Earth Stood Still” — and the Creature from the black lagoon. Universal bought the book on the basis of an outline. It will be published by HarperCollins next summer.
Kathryn Hahn (Step Brothers, Anchorman) recently landed in a role in the upcoming James L. Brooks comedy, which was last seen adding Jack Nicholson to it’s roster. In the Brooks comedy, she’ll play the assistant to Paul Rudd’s lead role. She’s also developing a half hour pilot with husband, Ethan Sandler at Sony Pictures Television as a potential starring vehicle for Hahn.
Moveline has confirmed rumors that Benicio Del Toro was tipped for an unspecified role in Sophia Coppola’s third film, Somewhere. Pop band Rooney, of which Coppola’s cousin is lead singer, recently blogged that some of its members would be appearing in the film along with Del Toro.
Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, and Jackass stuntman Chris Pontius star in the film which follows Dorff as a bad-boy actor holed up in the famous Chateau Marmont who gets a reality check when he’s unexpectedly visited by his daughter (Fanning). Del Toro’s role involves a brief run-in with Dorff’s actor at the historic hotel, but that role is exactly that — brief, nothing more than a cameo. He is currently awaiting the release of his delayed passion project The Wolf Man later this year.
Here’s the teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I personally think this looks great, but Shyamalan’s problem has never been directing; it’s his storytelling. Hopefully working from a source where he isn’t creating everything is what he needs to get reinvigorated. The film stars newcomer Noah Ringer, Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Nicola Peltz, and Jackson Rathbone (Twilight).
Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Within each nation exists an order called “Benders” who have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation.
Apple has debuted the trailer for the American release of PONYO, a story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid. Already a box-office success in Japan, the story concerns a young and overeager baby goldfish named Ponyo (voiced by Noah Cyrus) who, in pursuing her goal to become a human girl, befriends a five-year-old human boy.
Written and directed by Academy Award®-winning director and world-renowned Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle). features an outstanding roster of voice talent, including Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Frankie Jonas, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White.
Strangely, the one character banner missing from yesterday’s Alice In Wonderland update was Alice herself, but that’s all been rectified. Yahoo just debuted the banner for the lead character, played by Mia Wasikowska (In Treatment).
I think the only other banner I’m anticipating at this point is the Chesire Cat.
Source: Variety
Source: 
Source: 
Blood Simple
Source: 
Source: 
Source: 
Here’s the teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I personally think this looks great, but Shyamalan’s problem has never been directing; it’s his storytelling. Hopefully working from a source where he isn’t creating everything is what he needs to get reinvigorated. The film stars newcomer Noah Ringer, Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Nicola Peltz, and Jackson Rathbone (Twilight).
Source: 
Cinemafique 