Favreau On Iron Man 3

With the Iron clad sequel raking up the worldwide revenue, Jon Faverau has spoke about his desire to return and continue his Iron Man solo outings. But, any future installments will have to wait for Avengers in 2O12 to wrap first.

So what did Favreau say exactly? “You’ve got to The Mandarin”, says the director, “the problem is, the way he’s depicted in the comic books…you don’t want to see that”. With The Mandarin as the prime candidate to square up to Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark in the next outing, one question is who is he? And what is that Favreau suggests we don’t want to see?

The way he is depicted is as a Chinese descendent, a scientific genius and master of martial arts. Brought up embittered against the world around him. He garners power from ten magical rings. Wait a minute,  here it is, in a super tech charged Iron Man Favreau concedes that this could be the problem, introducing the ‘supernatural’. But with the Avenger’s will bring Thor, and thus Favreau states ‘maybe introducing magic wont seem out of place’.

However, one thing is for sure, magic or no magic. Iron Man 3 will have to wait, a long wait, before movement begins in its production. 

MATT RICHARDSON

Judge Dredd The Second Attempt.

Talk about the new vision of Judge Dredd had gone very quiet over the last few months, staying under radar under the control of Andrew McDonald’s DNA Films, with scribe Alex Garland penning the latest incarnation. Now it has moved one step closer to production with Vantage Point/ Omagh director Pete Travis on board to direct.

Deadline has reported that this years Cannes festival is destined to be the auction hall for the project, that is being priced with a miniscule sub $5O million budget. Have they taken a look at what the recent Marvel mandate is attempting by chance? Less money equals more balls, or words to that effect.

Currently DNA Films has joined with Reliance Big Entertainment to source initial funding, they are now on the scour for studio backing to bring the latest vision to topple Sylvester Stallone’s 1995 effort.

MATT RICHARDSON

Anthony Hopkins joins Arabian Nights.

Anthony Hopkins is keeping himself busy on the back of Thor, according to Heat Vision Blog he is in the final reels of negotiations to sign on to Chuck Russell’s Arabian Nights.

The film is a period epic [is this the new 3D fad] written by Russell and Barry P. Ambrose, it centres on the already cast Liam Hemsworth, a young commander who joins forces with Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Genie in the lamp in a bid to rescue their queen, Scheherazade, after the king is murdered in a coup.

Hopkins will return to his villainous roots as Pharotu, an evil sorcerer who killed Sinbad’s love of the path to amass more magic.

Cameras are set to roll at the end of the summer.

MATT RICHARDSON

After what seems a prolonged absence from our screens with Jumper being his last major vehicle; it now appears that he will hit the screens again in the upcoming novel adaptation The Genesis Code, headed by director David R. Ellis.

Written by John Case: The Genesis Code follows Joe Lassiter, an ex FBI investigator on the trail of revenge following the murder of his sister and young nephew. With the killer hospitalised, he is driven to answer the question why? Despite police warning, Lassiter strides further into murky inter connected deaths and a religious fundamentalist group named The Shadow Of The Cross. For those who have noticed, yes it does sound very much like the story will step on the toes of Dan Brown’s style of novella, and of course Ron Howards incarnations; see The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons. 

So what do we know from the off? Well, Hayden Christensen casting does not naturally fit the bill for the lead character, firstly he is much younger than the character Lassiter and secondly as Jumper indicated, he is not a leading hero role actor, not yet at any rate.

David R. Ellis’s recent previous efforts include: Snakes on a Plane and The Final Destination, so what do we think he is capable of at the helm of this project? Don’t hold your breath, is our first reaction, but as ever we are not willing to write off any project until we start seeing some raw footage.

MATT RICHARDSON.

The Nightmare Continues

Well after an opening weekend that garnered 3O million in the bank, Warner Brothers have started to make the necessary steps to brink dream horror A Nightmare On Elm Street back for a sequel; in 3D no less.

“We don’t have a story yet, but this is the largest horror opening in the April may corridor, and it just proves there’s a lot left in the franchise” Warner distribution president Dan Fellman tells The Wrap.

So despite luke warm critical reviews; was it ever going to receive anything else? Its seems that there is enough profitability in the old tank yet for Krueger and chums.

Producer Andrew Form told Dread Central.  “It would be amazing to work with Jackie and the cast again. Unfortunately, as far as we know right now, Sam wouldn’t be back to direct the follow-up, but we’d love to come back to Elm Street because Freddy always has a story to tell. We definitely left ourselves open for a sequel so it would be a great privilege to get to do another Nightmare film."

And on the film being potentially in 3d fellow producer Brad Fuller commented. "We think that 3D movies have to be designed and written as such. If Eric Heisserer and Wesley Strick came to us with a Nightmare script that is for a 3D movie, we’d be fools not to make it.”

Nothing is set in stone, but the future looks just rosy for our dream state serial killer.

MATT RICHARDSON

Pirates Cutting Corners

When Rob Marshall shepherds his cast on the latest pirates of the Caribbean installment; he will do so with a budget cut by a third in comparison to the Gore Verbinski had for the last installment, due to the scaling down that Disney chairman Rich Ross is putting in place.

The LA Times blames the an increase the cost of making movies and its ‘stunning’ effects over the money that a movie can generate at the box office and dvd sales.. [Cynically we await the announcement that Stranger Tides will under take the cheaper post production 3D convert that will see ticket prices hiked]  

However, this may just be a blessing in disguise for the project. After all, the sequels to the enjoyable original have felt over bloated with countless plot lines and special effects. So if the scale down means that screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have to sharpen up there script in terms of characterization over spectacle we may find ourselves with a better Pirates films than we otherwise envisaged.  

MATT RICHARDSON

GR3MLINS:

Why break a trend if you can help it? The 8Os classic Gremlins is set to join the ranks of films that should be left alone… but aren’t by soon to be created voodoo torture doll studio execs. The original director Joe Dante speaks about the possibility of the next green menace outbreak.

“It’s been heavily booted around on the internet that there is a Gremlins 3 and then somebody said ‘Gremlins 3? Gremlins 3-D! I bet it’s a sequel in 3-D and I bet they’re gonna ask Joe to do it!” Well the answer is no, no and no.”

Yet, Dante does belief that it will happen, as a natural occurrence that is taking over Hollywood.

“I’m sure it’ll happen. It’s too valuable a title to not get the remake treatment. I think it will be a remake rather than a sequel. I think they’ll start over and do a remake or a sequel.”

Well, it is not really the big “No!” announcement that they are doing it, but it is the murmurings of disquiet that it is only a matter of time. 


MATT RICHARDSON

Fox Exec's Go Commando

Somewhere...Somehow...Someone's Going to Pay! Our thought's exactly. Short of using every conceivable explosive against the Fox network, without out a scratch to ourselves, what can one say to this news? Let of some steam? So I shall. Have you run out of ideas Hollywood? Is it a mandate for studio’s to trample on every god given classic you can get your hands on? What on earth would possess twentieth century Fox to remake 8O’s gun toting action fest Commando.

Don’t get us wrong; this is not like retreading a classic in the sense of Halloween like Rob Zombie; still Commando is a film that is so ridiculous its  finds itself in the niche ‘guilty pleasure’ market. But honestly, a remake, reboot, re-imaging… however each way you put it…it is just plain wrong.

David Ayer notable for his writing credit for Training Day; and behind the lens with Street Kings has been recruited to bring this nightmare to the screens. No confirmed details surrounding the plot have been released; in honesty was there one in the original?

As the news comes will keep you posted. Still, surely studio’s can do better than this

MATT RICHARDSON

Ghostbusters Update:

Well it seems all the talk of Ghostbusters 3 will not cease, the will they wont they has to some point been landed at the door step of star Bill Murray, however  after speaking with Coming Soon it seems that this is not the case.

According to Murray it seems that the recent trouble with getting the production off the ground is the under performance of last year’s steamer Year One. Of course it just so happened that the film was directed by Ghostbusters Harold Ramis, and was written by the crack team that was charged with the task of creating the Ghostbusters 3 screenplay. So despite good reactions to said screenplay, it appears that the studio executives have got a bit twitchy.

Murray says “These guys that were supposedly the writers that were going to do it, they wrote a film that came out and people saw the film and went, ‘We’re not going to do it after all, are we?’.

But Murray recently on David letterman revealed that he enjoyed working on the recent Ghostbusters video game and then backed that up while speaking with Coming Soon adding ‘Maybe it’d be fun to do… the guys are funny and I miss Rick Moranis and Annie Potts and Danny Aykroyd. That’s really a big part of it.”

So there you have it, if you think it is Bill Murray holding back, think again, there is certainly interest in the ‘irritating’ ghostbusters 3 saga. Whether or not the trust is their with the studio, or indeed the writers who shall remain nameless, it does look like it still a long way down the road.

MATT RICHARDSON