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'Screen Daily' reports that Hitman, the popular Danish computer game, is
likely to be adapted into a movie. Software company EIDOS, who also make
the Tomb Raider series, are currently negotiating with unnamed Hollywood
studios for the property.
Hitman and its sequel Hitman 2 have already sold over 2 million copies
with a $43 million-budget third installment on the way early next year.
Click on the picture for a review of the game.
DVDfever Dom adds: Given his current status, I'd predict that
Vin Diesel would appear as the hitman, Codename 47.
THE EXORCIST - THE BEGINNING
'Morgan Creek' representative Greg Mielcarz has talked about the prequel
to The Exorcist, currently being filmed. He confirmed that: "Most of the
action is set in 1947 in the Turkana region of Kenya. There's also a
significant flashback to an even earlier period: 1944 in Holland..."
"Since this is a prequel that takes place in 1947, the characters that
appeared in the other Exorcist films would not have been alive. Also,
don't expect any cameo appearances from Linda Blair or Ellen Burstyn,
Lee J Cobb, Jason Miller or any other actors who appeared in any of the
previous Exorcist movies".
The demon apparently "has lost the name 'Pazuzu' in our script. Just the
Devil Himself... We do know who will be doing the voice but, no - it
will not sound the same. This demon will have its own unique voice".
The new movie will contain some CGI elements, but the horror is mostly
psychological. A composer has yet to be chosen and the film is likely to
attain an R certificate in the States (18 in the UK).
FLICKER
'Variety' reports that Arnon Milchan's '20th Century Fox'-based 'Regency
Enterprises' has signed a 3-year, first-look deal with Darren
Aronofsky's 'Protozoa Pictures'.
The arrangement covers the writing, producing and directing services of
Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream), and partner Eric Watson, for films at
all budget levels.
The first project under development will be the Dr Theodore Roszak novel
Flicker, with screenwriter Jim Uhls (Fight Club) now in negotiations to
adapt. The book is about a Las Angeles film student who becomes obsessed
with the work of a hack filmmaker and becomes convinced that B-movies
are actually part of a plot to destroy life on Earth...
Interestingly, Aronofsky is still attached to write and direct Batman:
Year One for 'Warner Brothers', according to 'Variety' anyway.
THE HULK
The 'New York Times' printed an article about why 'Universal' decided to
reveal so much of the CGI design for the Hulk in the Super Bowl trailer.
Adam Fogelson, president of marketing for 'Universal' said that "We had
always set the Super Bowl as an event opportunity to reward people for
their patience and give them a sense of the character that Ang [Lee] is
developing. And we have asked the hard-core fans to be patient while Ang
Lee is going through the process of creating this film."
"Until you give people some sense of what the character is and how the
character functions, it's impossible to see the rest of the film. That
giant question will always be lingering. And it was time to take that
question off the table. There's so much more to this movie than just how
the character looks."
Indeed, the Hulk will be an entirely CGI creation, following the
incredible success of WETA's Gollum design for The Two Towers last
Christmas.
"The Hulk really performs in the film. [He] really has attitude and
emotion. I can only tell you that [the director] Ang [Lee] and everyone
else at 'Industrial Light & Magic' are spending 24-hours a day refining
and perfecting everything. To simply reduce it only to 'What is he going
to look like?' is doing a disservice to the scale and scope and the
aspirations of the film."
We shall see if ILM can out-pixel WETA this summer...
JURASSIC PARK 4
Some plot details have emerged about Jurassic Park 4. Apparently the
movie will begin 12-years after the original movie, with John Hammond's
dinosaurs apparently now an urban legend. Believing the whole thing to
have been a great hoax, the public no longer believe they ever existed.
In the new film scientists discover a previously unidentified
lizard-like animal on mainland Costa Rica. To determine what the animal
is, a team of experts lead an expedition to one of the off-shore
islands.
Dinosaurs are seen to be thriving on said island and breeding at an
uncontrollable rate, so much so that they pose a threat of the
inhabitants of the nearby continent. So the scientists must find a way
to restrict the spread of the dinosaurs or face an ecological disaster.
A sub-lot will involve a top-secret aspect Steven Spielberg is
"delighted" with it. In Michael Crichton's novel The Lost World it was
discovered that the dinosaurs have been accidentally infected by a
disease - code-named DX by InGen. This concept to be carried used in
Jurassic Park 4.
Spielberg is apparently keen to reunite Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum for
the fourth (and likely final) Jurassic Park movie. There is no word on
the likelihood of Richard Attenborough reprising his role as John
Hammond.
KING CONAN
'TheArnoldFans' website has received word that The Matrix creators Andy
and Larry Wachowski are back on board to produce King Conan: Crown of
Iron.
Apparently The Wachowskis had a long talk with writer-director John
Milius and the Wachowskis acknowledged a petition to get the film made
by 'TheArnoldFans.com' websute.
John Milius is currently scouting Turkey and Rome for locations to film
major battle sequences! It is also said that the Wachowskis are big
admirers of Peter Jackson's work in The Lord Of The Rings movies, but
envisage even more epic battle sequences for King Conan.
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
'Wizbang' talked with actor Shane West (Tom Sawyer) about the changes
between the graphic novel mini-series and the movie adaptation.
West said: "The script is really very different, but it's great. The
characters are the same, and the graphic novel gives you a good point of
reference. [It's] a shame we could not shoot the film as written [in the
comics]. But if we did, I don't think we would make any money at all.
But it would be a cool movie."
"Part of me would like to see the comic book as a movie - a literal
version of it. I'm sure many people would, and yet in this climate and
time, you have to find some middle ground."
He also revealed how his character of Tom Sawyer will fit into the
action: "Mina Harker [Peta Wilson], Dorian Gray [Stuart Townsend] and I
have this romantic triangle going on. You don't know which guy is going
to end up with her or if anyone's going to in the end. Or even should...
I think [Steven Norrington's] intending to do an untraditional vampire."
"[Mina's disease] kind of takes her over when she actually goes into the
vampire [state]. It's furious. Really animal. I mean, it's PG-13, but
it's really furious. So Steve's doing many different things to create
that. There are all kinds of visual effects. I also have this amazing
costume, which has all these wires coming out of it, with these long
tendrils of black silk. When the Cirque du Soleil performer or I move in
it, there's this flurry effect. It looks like a bat."
LORD OF THE RINGS - THE RETURN OF THE KING
An employee of WETA, who handle the special-effects for Peter Jackson's
epic trilogy, spoke about the behind-the-scenes wranglings over Gollum
and Shelob (a giant spider in the upcoming Return Of The King).
"This time around [my colleague] worked on Gollum. He explained all of
the difficulty and the basic problems that they had to work around. To
make a long story short, I asked him if he was to continue working on
Gollum or if he would get to work on Shelob."
"He told me that he didn't know and that they had not even started to
work on Shelob at all. The rumour that the upcoming trailer would have
images of Shelob are most likely incorrect from what I have been told.
Although the principal shooting had been done, the special effects won't
be finished until the release."
THE MATRIX RELOADED
'Studio' talked with beautiful Euro-actress Monica Bellucci about her
role as Persephone in The Matrix sequels. She said: "I'm among the new
characters who appear in the second movie and I have a very small role
in the third one. I've got no action scene, well only one in fact, but
one very special..."
"I've known him [Keanu Reeves] on Dracula when I started my career. I
had only a small role in a sublime erotic scene... almost ten years
later I have to make something very big with him - which I can't spoil,
but it's not bad either! I'm sure there's plenty of fans out there who'd
like to make something of Keanu big too."
OCEAN'S TWELVE
Director Steven Soderbergh has said that the returning cast for his
sequel to Ocean's Eleven will have to take big pay-cuts.
"When we were coming back from doing press in December 2001, I asked
everybody if the idea of a sequel appealed and they were cool. But they
had to make a promise: that is, we're gonna be the first sequel in
history that costs exactly the same as the first one."
"And since the scale of the sequel's gonna be even bigger, they're all
gonna have to take an even bigger pay cut than last time. I think
somebody needs to do this - stop the idea that the second one has to be
more expensive."
STUCK ON YOU
'The Hollywood Reporter' has revealed that singing legend Cher will star
opposite Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) and Matt Damon (The Bourne
Identity) in Stuck On You - the new badtaste comedy by The Farrelly
Brothers about conjoined twins.
Damon and Kinnear are to play the conjoined twins, one of whom aspires
to become a famous actor. Upon their arrival in Hollywood, they are cast
on a TV show starring Cher, whose recently movie was a hit, and is not
too keen to be working on television. But the show becomes a massive
hit, catapulting the twins to superstardom.
SHREK 2
Antonio Banderas (Spy Kids 2), Ruper Everett (Inspector Gadget) and
Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) have joined the CGI sequel as
voice-artists.
SUPERMAN
Director Brett Ratner talked with 'Variety' and debunked many of the
Superman rumours filling the Internet right now.
He said: "This [his being replaced by Michael Bay] is the most
ridiculous rumour I've ever heard... they would not jeopardize pissing
me off by negotiating behind my back. I'd know."
Michael Bay himself stated that: "This [Superman rumour] is 100% false.
I haven't spoken to anybody at Warner Brothers about Superman."
Ratner also said that the quoted $200+ million budget talk "is a lie, we
won't have a budget for three weeks", and that so far "the whole hiccup
here has been our search for Superman... no star wants to sign [such a
long-term pact], but as much as I've told Jude [Law] and Josh [Hartnett]
my vision for the movie, I've warned them of the consequences of being
Superman."
"They'll live this character for 10-years because I'm telling one story
over three movies and plan to direct all three if the first is as
successful as everyone suspects." Ratner also spoke to 'E! Online' and
told them that Ashton Kutcher's screen test for the role of Superman was
"very, very good."
'TV Guide' talked to writer J.J. Abrams about the movie. Abrams joked
that his new film is "very much like the fourth [Christopher Reeve
movie]. It's sort of a slightly different telling of a familiar story.
It's very much an origin story, and there are some great surprises in
it. I'm such a huge fan of the character, the comics of it. I think it's
something that if you love the character, you'll love the story. [But] I
think you will not have to have seen [the previous films] to invest in
it."
Abrams' own view on the difficult casting was simple: "I'm just
convinced that there is someone out there who was born to do it, and
whether his name is familiar or not remains to be seen."
STAR TREK 11
Executive Producer Rick Berman talked about the future of the Star Trek
film franchise's to 'Sci-Fi Wire' after the disappointing box-office of
Star Trek Nemesis.
Berman said: "There's no way of telling what happened. I'm convinced
that we made a very good movie, and I'm also convinced that the movie
was promoted properly... I think that the competition of other films may
have played some part in it, but I can't be certain of that, either."
"It's very, very hard to tell. There's a theory that there was too much
time [between Insurrection and Nemesis]. There's another theory that
there wasn't too much time. I, along with the people at Paramount, need
a few months of perspective and thinking about it to then decide what's
the best thing to do next. I don't think this is like falling off a
horse, and you want to jump right back on it. But we'll see."
STAR WARS EPISODE III
'MTV' spoke to Samuel L. Jackson about his roles in Star Wars Episode
III and xXx2.
Jackson said: "I did get an e-mail from the stunt coordinator, who said
he'd like for me to show up a little early because he has some things we
want to work out. So I guess that sounds like I'm gonna go out in a
blaze of glory. I'm looking forward to it."
He's currently filming S.W.A.T - based on a 70's cop show - with Colin
Farrell (Minority Report). Jackson could also return as Agent Gibbons in
the xXx sequel, currently in development. "I would like to think that
they are going to flesh out the story of Mr Gibbons in some way. So
you'll find out why I had that scar on my face."
SWAMP THING
'Film Jerk' reports that producer Joel Silver (The Matrix) has hired Len
Wein to write an updated version of the famous comic-book - previously
adapted as a Wes Craven vehicle of sub-50's cheesiness in the 80's.
THUNDERBIRDS
According to 'The Hollywood Reporter', Bill Paxton is in talks to star
in the live-action film version of Thunderbirds.
The film is now known to be about a 12-year-old boy who must rescue his
father (Paxton) and four brothers from imminent death and save the world
from the hands of the evil Aristotle Spode... with a little help from
Lady Penelope (Sophia Myles).
Paxton's character is a billionaire former astronaut who is the
patriarch of the family and leads the Thunderbirds during their missions
to save the world.
Ben Kingsley has also signed to star in the movie as villain The Hood.
Other casting decisions are as follows: Philip Winchester (The Patriot)
as Scott Tracy, Lex Shrapnel (K-19: The Widowmaker) as John Tracy,
Dominic Colenso (The Lost Prince) as Virgil Tracy and Ben Torgenson as
Gordon Tracy.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
