Soderbergh to make 3-D 'Cleopatra'
Live-action musical may star Zeta-Jones
By MICHAEL FLEMING, ELSA KESLASSY (www.variety.com)
For his next directing effort, Steven Soderbergh is plotting a 3-D live-action rock ’n’ roll musical about Cleopatra.
He is courting Catherine Zeta-Jones to play the Egyptian queen and Hugh Jackman to play her lover, Marc Antony.

The $30 million "Cleo" will be shopped for financing and distribution within the next two weeks. Greg Jacobs is producing with Casey Silver.

The music has been written by the indie rock band Guided by Voices, and the script is by James Greer, a former bass player for the band and an author.

While Soderbergh has recently done a spate of wildly different projects, this one will be his first full-blown musical.

Soderbergh, who’s about to release the Benicio Del Toro starrer "Che" and wrapped Matt Damon starrer "The Informant," is also prepping a Richard LaGravanese-scripted Liberace film at Warner Bros., with Michael Douglas attached to play the entertainer and Damon to play his companion, who sued him for palimony.

Before "Cleo," Soderbergh’s directing "The Girlfriend Experience," setting porn star Sasha Grey to play a $10,000-a-night call girl in a film that will be simultaneously distributed in theaters, on DVD and on the HDNet movie channel by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner’s HDNet label.

Calls to Soderbergh’s reps went unreturned.

Chris Columbus in talks for 'Ripley's'
Paramount wants director for long-delayed film
By MICHAEL FLEMING, TATIANA SIEGEL (www.variety.com)

Paramount is negotiating with Chris Columbus to direct its long-gestating "Ripley’s Believe It or Not!"
Jim Carrey is still set to star as newspaper columnist-explorer Robert Ripley.

After being unplugged months before a 2007 production start in China with Tim Burton at the helm, "Ripley’s Believe It or Not!" is getting a complete overhaul, based on a concept that Columbus pitched. Both Paramount and Carrey sparked to it, and the China-based storyline will be scrapped.

Once Columbus’ deal is closed, the studio will hire a writer to draft the project, which remains a Par priority: The studio is aiming for a 2011 release and is hoping the pic spawns a franchise.

EA's 'Army of Two' joins Universal
Peter Berg may direct videogame adaptation
By MICHAEL FLEMING, BEN FRITZ (www.variety.com)

Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to the Electronic Arts videogame "Army of Two." The studio is looking to fast-track the project to begin production in 2009 and has set "The Bourne Ultimatum" co-writer Scott Z. Burns to write the script.
Scott Stuber will produce with EA, marking the first time the vidgame giant has taken a film production role.

The "Army of Two" vidgame has sold more than 1 million units since it launched in March. A sequel is believed to be in the works. Game is a two-player action contest in which a pair of private military contractors fight their way through a web of intrigue.

"Because people experience the game in pairs, playing two guys who go against the world, Scott and I agreed this format presented an opportunity to make a great buddy film," Burns said. "The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics. I told EA right off the bat I wasn’t a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn’t want to simply replicate the game."

It’s the third EA project to go the film route recently. "The Sims" is being developed at 20th Century Fox with producer John Davis, while sci-fi game "Mass Effect" has been optioned by Avi Arad Prods. It’s another big game title for Universal, which acquired "BioShock" for a film that Gore Verbinski will direct.

WAIT! There's going to be a Bioshock movie? Not sure how I feel about that.

Brett Ratner Wants to Make a Guitar Hero Movie

In an interview with MTV News about his Best Director nomination (for Miley Cyrus's "7 Things"!), Brett Ratner revealed that he'd "love to do a Guitar Hero movie, if Activision would ever let [him]." Don't worry, it's not like he wants to tell some lame story about "a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the Guitar Hero competition." (We're pretty sure those bases have been covered, both in real life and cartoons.) Either way, could somebody please put this on Ratner's IMDb memorable quotes page: "I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie."

The only people who have ever made bad movies on purpose are John Waters, Tarantino/Rodriguez (Grindhouse), and The Troma Team.

The makers of Beverly Hills Chihuahua would like to disagree.

And I have to believe Snakes on a Plane was intentionally bad.

The Happening was something of a joke that I can't help but hope Shamayalanan was in on as well

fixed.

Jonas Bros. whiff Fox's 'Farting Dog'
Disney rockers to make feature starring debut
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Another hot Disney Channel act is poised to make a bigscreen splash — at 20th Century Fox.
Fox has locked the Jonas Brothers to make their feature starring debut in "Walter the Farting Dog." Based on a bestselling series of books by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, the film is being adapted by Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen into a family film that will revolve around Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas, as well as their younger brother Frankie.

Pic shoots next spring and is a potential directing project for Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who’ll produce with Bradley Thomas through the trio’s Conundrum banner.

The Jonas Brothers have become wildly popular through the boy band’s appearances playing music and acting in such Disney Channel programming as the telepic "Camp Rock." Frankie — known as the bonus Jonas — has also gained a profile appearing with his brothers. [I guess he's like Zeppo Marx...]

The title character in the "Walter" books is a fat dog with severe flatulence. The brothers play musicians whose parents are asked to care for the dog by an aunt just before she passes away.

"By the time they’ve driven the dog home, everybody’s head is out the window of the family station wagon but Frankie, and only because he has a serious sinus problem and doesn’t notice the stench coming from Walter," said Peter Farrelly.

While his brothers play music, Frankie and the gaseous hound get involved in a plot that involves liberating a koi fish and thwarting jewel thieves.
The studio sees a potential franchise in "Walter," and the scribes have been involved in hatching the franchises "Toy Story" and "Garfield." They were also co-writers of the remake "Cheaper by the Dozen."

Reelfx’s Tom Kartsotis and Steve O’Brien will be exec producers.


EDIT: f'ing hilarious sig, DarkHeat.

This never, ever fails to make me laugh. The youngest, non-band participating brother being called the "Bonus Jonas." So awesome.

'Beer For My Horses' Premieres On CMT This Sunday

Out On DVD 11/11
SHOW DOG/NASHVILLE star TOBY KEITH's movie "Beer For My Horses" will premiere on CMT this SUNDAY night (11/2) at 7p (ET). RODNEY CARRINGTON, CLAIRE FORLANI, TED NUGENT, WILLIE NELSON, BARRY CORBIN and TOM SKERRITT co-star with TOBY in his first major theatrical film release.

The story follows two best friends who are small-town sheriff's deputies embarking on an "outrageous road trip to save one of their girlfriends from drug lord kidnappers."

"Beer For My Horses" will be available on DVD on NOVEMBER 11th. For more info visit www.beerformyhorsesthemovie.com.

(Tom Skerritt and Barry Corbin are my fave go-to actors as rednecks )

I'm sure it was fun for Claire Forliani to be on set with that crew.

Farrellys to direct 'Three Stooges' (www.variety.com)
MGM to release comedy Nov. 20, 2009
By MICHAEL FLEMING, PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
MGM has revived the long-gestating Peter and Bobby Farrelly Three Stooges project.
The siblings will renew their quest to channel the comic mayhem of the Three Stooges into a contemporary comedy for the studio.

Project marks an MGM homecoming for the Stooges as well as the Farrellys, who spent five years trying to make the Stooges movie at Warner Bros. The Farrellys will polish the script they wrote with Michael Cerrone and will direct the picture.

The studio has staked out a Nov. 20, 2009, release date for the film.

That puts the Stooges up against the Robert Downey Jr. starrer "Sherlock Holmes" and the animated "Planet 51." Disney has scheduled the male-skewing comedy "Old Dogs," with John Travolta, for Nov. 25.

The Farrellys will produce with Conundrum partner Bradley Thomas and Charlie Wessler. C3 Entertainment’s Earl and Robert Benjamin will be exec producers.

Peter Farrelly said the Stooges feature was revived because of the enthusiasm of MGM Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman Mary Parent, who has acquired the rights to scripts owned by WB and made a deal with Stooges rights holders at C3. With Parent, the Farrellys have worked out a blueprint for a $45 million budget comedy that will be either PG or PG-13 and feature the slap-happy low-tech comedy prevalent in the Stooges shorts.

"It’s not a biopic. It takes place in present day, and they look, dress and sound exactly like the Stooges," Peter Farrelly told Daily Variety. "When the economy started turning, we felt like the world could use a Stooges slapfest. Bobby and I haven’t done a real physical comedy in a while, and it’s the most exciting thing we could think of now, to have people go to the movie, see some great slapstick fun family humor."

Farrelly said that an "American Idol"-like search will be conducted to find Curly, the most physically gifted member of the trio. Auditions will be held in three or four cities and a finalist will be chosen in Los Angeles. The film will be structured similarly to the shorts, as a feature storyline plays out over three installments that run between 25 and 30 minutes each. A second contest will be held to find several comedy shorts that will precede the film. The goal is to create the feeling that audiences got when they watched the original Stooges shorts as part of a diversified film program.

"We know this is extremely difficult to pull off; we realize some Stooges fans will be upset no matter what we do," Farrelly said. "We love the Stooges and honor their memory, and we don’t want them to disappear. We hope that next Thanksgiving, dads will introduce their kids to the Stooges and create a new generation of knuckleheads."

As the Farrellys move toward the Stooges, they won’t cork "Walter the Farting Dog." That project will continue to move toward the starting gate for Fox as a star vehicle for teenage heartthrobs the Jonas Brothers.

Steve Carell could make 'Beaver' speak
Actor attached to project recently nabbed by Anonymous
By Steven Zeitchik

Nov 7, 2008, 12:00 AM ET


NEW YORK -- One of the hottest scripts in development circles at the moment centers on ... a beaver puppet?

Anonymous Content recently picked up "The Beaver," a script from first-time writer Kyle Killen about a man who walks around with a beaver puppet on his hand, treating it as something close to a human creature with human feelings. It's a whimsical and winning script, according to those who have seen it.

But the real selling point is the talent attached: Steve Carell, who could play the lead.

The fable, which occupies the fantastical territory somewhere between "Being John Malkovich" and "Lars and the Real Girl," has a lot of studios interested. No one's able to buy it yet because Anonymous is seeking a director first. (At one point, there was word that Jay Roach might come on board, though that seems unlikely.) But expect it to move quickly.

Killen is one of those spec-writer rags-to-riches stories -- a 30ish USC grad whose writing career until now has consisted of writing for small literary magazines. He follows a tradition that this year alone includes such previous unknowns as Michael Martin and Brad Ingelsby.

Carell, meanwhile, has a number of projects to choose from in his springtime hiatus from NBC's "The Office." The star is weighing such projects as "Get Smart 2" and the Napoleonic comedy "Brigadier Gerard" for this year.

(www.hollywoodreporter.com)

I've got a lot of faith in a project that is being weighed against Get Smart 2.

I immediately thought of 'Lars & The Real Girl' and didn't like the concept purely for that reason.

I hate when people compare projects to Charlie Kaufman scripts simply because of the concept, as if the concepts are what make Kaufman's films interesting and not the fact that they're exceedingly well-written.

Nicole Kidman to star in 'Danish'
Story based on world's first post-op transsexual
By Gregg Goldstein (hollywoodreporter.com)

Nov 8, 2008, 12:05 AM ET


Nicole Kidman as the world's first post-op transsexual, married to Charlize Theron? You betcha.

Kidman will star in and produce "The Danish Girl," based on the true story of Danish artists Einar and Greta Wegener. Their marriage took a sharp left turn after Einar (Kidman) stood in for an female model that Greta (Theron) was set to paint.

When their portraits become wildly popular in 1920s Copenhagen, Greta encouraged her husband to adopt the female guise. What began as a harmless game led Einar to a metamorphosis and landmark 1931 operation that shocked the world and threatened their love.

Anand Tucker ("Shopgirl") is attached to direct the feature, adapted by writer Lucinda Coxon ("Wild Target") from David Ebershoff's 2000 Viking bestseller. His debut novel of the same name is a fictionalized account of the Wegeners' true story.

The producers, no strangers to daring indie fare, are Gail Mutrux ("Kinsey"), Anne Harrison ("Two Family House"), Linda Reisman ("Affliction"), Kidman and the head of her Fox-based Blossom Films shingle, Per Saari. Blossom has several projects in development, including a biopic of bisexual singer Dusty Springfield set to star Kidman.

Kathy Morgan International is repping AFM presales on "Girl," a period piece that's taken on a very modern resonance with this week's votes to ban gay marriage in California, Florida and Arizona. Both the CAA-repped Kidman and the One Entertainment-repped Theron earned their best actress Oscars playing lesbian characters, in "The Hours" and "Monster," respectively.

Pre-production has begun on the indie film, but no details on a principal photography start date have been disclosed.

(If today was April Fool's Day, I'd be more suspicious of this...)

Meta movie: 'Not Another' spoofs the genre
Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds lined up for comedy
By Gregg Goldstein (hollywoodreporter.com)

Nov 9, 2008, 12:00 AM ET

Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds, Vinnie Jones, Michael Madsen and "Stuttering" John Melendez are spoofing the nonstop flood of spoof films in the upcoming indie comedy "Not Another Not Another Movie."

Chase plays a studio head who quits his floundering company, leaving his ex-con sibling (Madsen) in charge. Soon their equally inept gangster friend (Jones) takes over and assigns a production assistant (David Leo Schultz) to direct a spoof of spoof movies. Reynolds plays an actor playing the director of the chaotic film within the film.

Writer-director David Murphy's "Movie" features cameos from actors playing themselves spoofing their memorable roles, including Richard Tyson (the villian in "Kindergarten Cop") and Wolfgang Bodison (the young African-American Marine on trial in "A Few Good Men"). Ellie Gerber, Tim Piper, Jennifer Sciole and James Duval also star.

The True Fiction Filmz feature is produced by Ron Loudoun, Murphy, Nick Cole, Schultz, Piper and Electra Avalan. Darren VanCleave, Ronald Derrickson, Zach Cole and Sciole are exec producing.

Production is nearing completion on the film. True Fiction and Daval Releasing are repping AFM presales.

Jesus fuck, Will Smith wants to remake The Karate Kid as a star vehicle for his son....

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/eo/2008111...2642340000.html

Will Smith is a pox on film.

i take it that you're not looking forward to oldboy america.

Horrible. Just horrible. The only way that could be even remotely interesting is if Will Smith plays the bad guy.

Speaking of Oldboy remakes, anyone see this thing?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinda_(film)

The director, Sanjay Gupta, says, "Critics have always accused me of being ahead of the times. About 'Zinda' one trade expert told me I have made a film that is 10 years ahead. But if making a film of today means making a 'No Entry', I'd rather not be with the times." Hilariously, the film isn't even an official remake. No credit was ever given to the original filmmakers. Here's Zinda's version of the hallway fight scene. Did they seriously think they'd get away with such obvious plagiarism?

"Monopoly" marks the latest Hasbro property to look to pass go and head to the big screen. Board games and branded properties have become more attractive as studios look to mitigate risk by finding built-in audiences.

Universal is working with Hasbro on several projects as part of a long-term development deal. Platinum Dunes is producing its feature adaptation of "Ouija Board," while the maritime classic "Battleship" is also in development. Elsewhere at Hasbro, Paramount this summer is set to release Stephen Sommers' feature based on its "G.I. Joe" character. And "Trivial Pursuit: America Plays" is now airing as a syndicated television program.



I should probably just let this speak for itself and not mention the violent urge I felt when the person who brought this to my attention said he thought it sounded like a good idea.

Ridley Scott is supposedly directing Monopoly...

not being a big fan of oldboy, i'm a little ambivalent about a remake. on the one hand there's little chance they'll be able to improve on it,, they'll likely have to change the ending and it'll star will smith. on the other hand, it's been a few years since the nic cage wicker man and we are about due for an absolutely wrong-headed remake.

i'd rather spielberg produce, give the reins to dj caruso, have will smith be the villain and let shia be daesu. i mean, sure he's not nearly old enough, but i mean, that's a pretty minor detail, right?

I think I would actually prefer Will Smith to Shia.

Meryl Streep to star in 'Library Cat'
Actress purrs for New Line's 'Dewey'
By MICHAEL FLEMING (www.variety.com)

Meryl Streep is purring over "Dewey," a fact-based film about a stray cat's impact on the town of Spencer, Iowa. The project has landed at New Line Cinema.
Streep is attached to star in the adaptation of the Vicki Myron book "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World." Pamela Gray will pen the script.

Streep intends to play the author, who works at the library and observed the impact that a kitten had on the townsfolk once it became the library mascot after wandering in through the after-hours book return slot on a cold night.Temple Hill Entertainment partners Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are setting the film at New Line, where the duo have a first-look deal. Several other studios were bidding.

Bowen and Godfrey will produce, and IPG's Jerry Kalajian and Temple Hill's Pete Harris will be involved in producing capacities.

That brand has lost almost all its equity.

JFC...I expect this from Tony, but Ridley?

You've seen the painting...



... now see the movie, starring Peter O'Toole and Marcia Gay-Harden!!



w/ Vanity Fair article, Thomas Kinkade's 16 Guidelines for Making Stuff Suck.

Tim Burton is currently filming the live action and cgi-animation version of Alice in Wonderland. I think this has potential to be a masterpiece (I guess most of his stuff has terrific potential). Let's hope it doesn't crash and burn.

I know Al Pacino is working on a biopic for Salvador Dali. I think that will be amazing. Finally a chance for Pacino to get back in the limelight.

How about this one?

This sounds a bit like Kubrick's original idea for AI.

This could be out of control. I really wonder how they plan on going about this. Vin Diesel should play all of the railroads.

I can't wait for Checkers.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/artic...0sequel_1087830

Actor STEVE GUTTENBERG will reunite with TOM SELLECK and TED DANSON for a new sequel to 1987 hit movie THREE MEN AND A BABY.
The acting trio scored huge box office success with their comedic turn as bachelors forced to look after a girlfriend's kids after they are left holding the baby.
They made a sequel in 1990, titled Three Men and a Little Lady, and now, 18 years later, Guttenberg, Selleck and Danson are set to reprise their roles for a new installment.
Guttenberg, 50, says, "Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and I are looking to make another Three Men And A Baby movie. It's called Three Men and A Bride. The script is pretty much written and we are really keen to get that made. We're very hopeful."
Guttenberg is also in the process of reviving the Police Academy franchise, which shot him to fame in the early 1980s.

http://showhype.com/video/steve_guttenberg...ars_jogs_naked/

Guttenberg had to be on some seriously heavy drugs. Wearing a hat and a shirt, he ran through Central Park with his balls bouncin' and cheeks flappin'. Either it's a publicity stunt or he took some bad shrooms.

Vivendi Entertainment has nabbed all rights to Chris Stokes' hip-hop dance film "Boogie Town," currently lensing with Marques Houston in the lead. Vivendi will release theatrically in the summer.
Stokes and Houston worked together on the hip-hop themed "You Got Served," a sleeper hit released by Screen Gems in 2004.

Set in a near-future New York where dancing is outlawed, "Boogie Town" follows the rise of illegal "battle dancing" in the underground world of the title.
Thesps Brenda Song and Vanessa Simmons join Houston. Choreographer Shane Sparks ("So You Think You Can Dance") sets the dance numbers. (variety.com)

Rutger Hauer will star in “Oogverblindend” (Dazzle), his first film in his native Holland in 29 years.
The experimental romance is directed by Dutch maverick Cyrus Frisch.

Helmer turned heads last year with his “Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan,” which became the first feature shot on a cell phone to premiere at a major film fest when it played at Rotterdam. It also unspooled at the Tribeca and San Francisco fests.

“Dazzle” centers on a passionate phone call between a man (Hauer) and woman (Georgina Verbaan) who may or may not have previously met in Cuba. In true Frisch experimental style, the first 40 minutes of the feature are in almost total darkness.

Pic, which is budgeted at Euros 280,000 ($355,000), received half its funding from the Dutch Film Fund with the other half coming from private financiers.

(variety.com)

Cheech and Chong get animated
Big Vision producing film based on duo's library
By Jay A. Fernandez (www.hollywoodreporter.com)

Dec 16, 2008, 12:00 AM ET

Cheech and Chong (Getty Images photo)

Cheech and Chong are smokin'. Well, obviously.

As their reunion stand-up tour Cheech & Chong Light Up America fires out nationwide, Big Vision Entertainment said it will produce an animated film featuring the stoned duo with Chambers Bros. Entertainment.

The two companies have acquired animated film rights to the classic Cheech and Chong library held by music producer and Ode Records owner Lou Adler and will use those famous comedy bits to inspire "Cheech and Chong's Smokin' Animated Movie."

Big Vision founder and CEO Houston Curtis will produce along with Keith, Branden and Eric Chambers, who devised the concept. Adler, who discovered the duo in the early 1970s, will executive produce. Eric and Branden Chambers will direct the animation.

The ICM-repped Big Vision, which focuses on direct-to-DVD special-interest material, will finance the project.

In the '70s and '80s, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong released several top-selling comedy albums and starred in six films, including "Up in Smoke" and "Still Smokin'."

"It's great to be doing a movie where Cheech and I never have to get out of bed or be on camera," Chong said.

"It's about time that we got animated because we've been doing animation without the animation for years," Marin said. "Whether you watch it smokin' a fattie or stone-cold sober, it's just plain funny."

Chow no longer to direct 'Hornet'
Actor will still play Kato in Columbia film
By MICHAEL FLEMING

There's been another change in the "Hornet" nest: Stephen Chow has dropped out as director of "The Green Hornet" but will still play Kato in Columbia Pictures' latest bid to get the crimefighter to the bigscreen.The studio and producer Neal Moritz are in the process of setting a new director to keep the picture on track to begin production by spring.

The character began on radio in the 1930s and is best known from the '60s TV version. But a bigscreen translation is having a long gestation, going through many incarnations, including as a proposed George Clooney vehicle.

Chow, who directed and starred in "Kung Fu Hustle" and "Shaolin Soccer," signed in September to direct the film and play the role originated in the TV series by Bruce Lee. He stepped out as director over creative differences.
The film was scripted by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and Rogen is starring as the masked crime fighter. The script will likely be polished, and a director could be in place by year's end.


[Train wreck in progress?]

'ISLAND' ON BIG SCREEN (www.nypost.com)
Posted: 2:41 am
December 29, 2008

THE creator of "Gilli gan's Island" has signed to make movie version of the classic TV series.

And he says he wants Michael Cera, one of the stars of "Arrested Development," to play Gilligan.

Sherwood Schwartz says a movie is in the works - and that the series will likely be re-imagined for the big screen like so many other vintage shows have been.

Schwartz also said he'd like to see Beyoncé Knowles in the role of Ginger, according to a report in TV Guide.

Cera, who seems to specialize in nebbish roles, is reportedly the lone hold-out in plans to make a movie version of "Arrested Development" sometime next year.

Dear. God.

OK, let's just cast this puppy right now:

Skipper - John Goodman (could be a Thurston Howell, too)
Ginger - Scarlet Johanssen
Mary Ann - Katie Holmes
Professor - Hugh Laurie or Philip Seymour Hoffman (not that he'd stoop so low)
Thurston Howell - Will Farrell or Ben Stiller
Lovey Howell - Tina Louise (the original Ginger), or Jane Seymour
Gilligan - not sure, but have a bad feeling someone like Chris Kattan will end up with it

Thurston = Sean Connery

No way in HELL does this happen.