MOVIE NEWS
WOLVERINE
Screenwriter David Benioff (Troy) has been asked to write Wolverine, a
spin-off movie from the X-Men franchise that will hopefully star Hugh
Jackman (right).
HE-MAN
'Variety' reports that John Woo (Face/Off) is being lined up to direct a
live-action version of He-Man. Of course, he's also been linked to a new
Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, so take this news with a large pinch of
salt. Mind you, it is being reported by the Hollywood trades...
MEG
Jan De Bont (Speed) is set to direct the big screen adaptation of Steve
Alten shark thriller MEG, about the prehistoric ancestor of the great white
shark.
'Variety' says Hellboy collaborators Guillermo del Toro, Larry Gordon, and
Lloyd Levin, will produce along with 'Chud.com' creator Nick Nunziata and
Ken Atchity.
The movie concerns a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest
canyon, where scientist Jonas Taylor finds himself face-to-face with the
largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom.
The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he's sure he saw
but still can't prove exists - Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of
the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons
and could tear apart a T-Rex in seconds.
Written off as a crackpot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,
Taylor refuses to forget the depths that nearly cost him his life. With a
Ph.D. in palaeontology under his belt, Taylor spends years theorizing,
lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the
deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to
return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back
into a high-tech miniature sub.
Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he's
never imagined, and what he finds could turn the tides bloody red until the
end of time. MEG is about to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is
going to be safe, and Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.
JURASSIC PARK 4
Mark Norell, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City,
claims to have gotten a peek at Jurassic Park 4, and commented: "...the
discovery of feathered dinosaurs at Liaoning is trickling down into popular
culture. The first Jurassic Park film featured mainly scaly reptiles, but
from what I've seen of the first shots of Jurassic Park IV, all the
dinosaurs now have feathers."
SURVIVOR
Author Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) is about to see another of his novels
adapted for the big screen.
Survivor concerns Tender Branson - last surviving member of the so-called
"Creedish Death Cult" - who dictates his incredible life story into the
flight recorder of Flight 2039, cruising on autopilot at 39,000 feet
somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
He is all alone in the plane, which will shortly reach terminal velocity and
crash into the vast Australian outback. Before it does, he will unfold the
tale of his journey from an obedient Creedish child and humble domestic
servant to an ultra-buffed, steroid-and collagen-packed media messiah,
author of a best-selling autobiography, Saved from Salvation, and the even
better selling Book of Very Common Prayer (The Prayer To Delay Orgasm, The
Prayer To Prevent Hair Loss, The Prayer To Silence Car Alarms).
He'll even share his insight that "the only difference between suicide and
martyrdom is press coverage," and deny responsibility for the Tender Branson
Sensitive Materials Landfill - a 20,000-acre repository for the nation's
outdated pornography. Among other matters both bizarre and trenchant.
In related news, 'HBO' is interested in making a mini-series out of
Palahniuk's book Haunting - about a motley collection of desperate writers
looking to improve their craft by attending a three month workshop in the
country, run by an old man named Mr. Whittier. But could their host have
ulterior motives for bringing them there?
** IN THE PIPELINE **