Think about how many new movies hit the big screen a weekend. Must be a lot of films in the works at once, right? Most certainly and this edition of the Movie News Cheat Sheet is a testament to that.
We’ve got a handful of casting updates including the possibility of Joseph Gordon-Levitt joining Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained as well as news that Steven Soderbergh might have finally found his Man from U.N.C.L.E., Bradley Cooper. Word also arrived that MGM might pick up Eminem’s Southpaw after the production was dropped by DreamWorks while Universal moves forward with its Battlestar Galactica feature by hiring a writer.
But, of course, we’ve also got quite a bit of news to report in the world of finished features including a box office triumph, a preview of Angelina Jolie’s directing chops and the latest short film from Spike Jonze.
We’ve got all this and much more. Check it out in your weekly Movie News Cheat Sheet.
1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt May Board Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino already has Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kurt Russell and Don Johnson lined up, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for one more in Django Unchained. As reported by Variety, roughly a month after grabbing a bite with Tarantino, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in talks to join the roster. With Hesher, Elektra Luxx, Inception and 50/50 on his resume for the past two years alone, it should come as no surprise that Gordon-Levitt has some scheduling issues to work out before signing on the dotted line, but Variety’s “insiders” claim the actor “intends to do the movie.” No word on who Gordon-Levitt will play, but according to The Playlist, who’s seen the script, he could come in as Scott Harmony, a young guy who gets a present from his father – the slave Broomhilda, Jackson’s character’s wife. However, the outlet points out that not only is this character described as being overweight, but also that there was talk of Tarantino rewriting the script before filming, perhaps altering that role or inserting another fit for Gordon-Levitt.
2. Bradley Cooper Might Be The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: It didn’t work out with George Clooney, Matt Damon or Johnny Depp, but Steven Soderbergh finally might have found his star for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Bradley Cooper. As reported by Variety, Soderbergh offered the role of Napoleon Solo to Cooper and, odds are, he will accept. The film is based on the 1960s TV show that focuses on two men employed by U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement), Napoleon Solo and his Russian partner, Illya Kuryakin, on a mission to take down an enemy organization called THRUSH. Warner Bros. has the film heading toward a spring 2012 start, just after Cooper wraps Paradise Lost and before Soderbergh gets to work on his HBO Liberace biopic.
3. A New Short Arrives from Spike Jonze: Spike Jonze may be well known for his features – Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Where the Wild Things Are – but the writer-director also churns out an incredible amount of music videos and shorts. The latest addition to his collection? “Mourir Auprès de Toi,” or “To Die By Your Side.” Inspired by Olympia Le-Tan’s clutch bags, the stop-motion animated piece focuses on a skeleton and the object of his affection who springs to life from book covers in a Parisian bookstore after lights out. Le-Tan made the necessary 3,000 felt characters herself, and Jonze teamed with co-director, Simon Cahn, to bring them to life. Catch the rather sweet tragedy over at Nowness.com.
4. Battlestar Galactica Gets a Writer: According to Deadline, Universal Pictures is finally moving forward with their Battlestar Galactica feature. Bryan Singer has been attached to the project for quite awhile, but the guy hasn’t had much time to get to work on it. Well, with news of the end of his Excalibur movie, Singer’s schedule suddenly freed up and, sure enough, Universal makes a move in favor of Battlestar. The studio is just about to close a deal with John Orloff to write the script based on the 1978 TV series about space travelers who survive an attack and attempt to head back to Earth in their fleet’s sole remaining warship. Okay, so this doesn’t necessarily mean Battlestar will hit the big screen, let alone go into production anytime soon, but it is as close as ever to becoming a reality.
5. MGM/Sony Take Eminem’s Southpaw: This summer DreamWorks opted out of Eminem and Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw, but that doesn’t mean the project is long gone. In fact, Deadline reports that it seems as though MGM, with Sony Pictures distributing, might snatch the boxing film up. Should the deal go through, Eminem will star as a welterweight boxer making a swift rise to the top of the rankings. After hitting a brick wall and watching his career come crashing down, he must rise to the occasion and work to reclaim his glory both for himself and his daughter. Just last year, buyers went nuts over the Kurt Sutter-written script, but apparently there was a bump in the road because DreamWork’s Stacey Snider opted to let the project go. Deadline notes, “Several outlets were impressed by the script and how it was a custom fit for the tribulations overcome by Eminem after he became a big hip hop star.” It’s no surprise this project is back on the map and, even if MGM doesn’t bite, another studio likely will.
6. Kim Kardashian Coming to the Big Screen: Kim Kardashian has been in feature films before, but, come on; does Disaster Movie really count? Okay, maybe it does, but her upcoming big screen effort will certainly mark her most substantial and legitimate movie venture yet. As reported by Deadline, Kardashian is set to co-star in Tyler Perry’s next film, The Marriage Counselor. The piece is based on Perry’s stage play and focuses on Judith, “an Ivy League-educated relationship expert” who can’t get her own love life together. Judith gets so bored with her own marriage she breaks one of the most important rules in the book and cheats on her husband with a client. Jurnee Smollett is set to play Judith while Kardashian will step in as Ava, a co-worker who lends a hand by beautifying Judith to boost her confidence in the midst of all these personal problems. So she isn’t the film’s main player, but still, Kim Kardashian acting in a serious film? A-list actors like George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep are the ones that are able to shed their star status and completely lose themselves in roles. As for Kardashian, it just seems highly unlikely we’ll be able to look at her any other way.
7. Captain America 2 to be Set in Modern Day: I wasn’t the biggest fan of Captain America: The First Avenger, but apparently I’m in the minority as not only did the film snag over $350 million worldwide, but there’s a sequel in the works. However, one thing I did take to was the set and costume design and the overall atmosphere of the piece courtesy of the story’s time period. Unfortunately, for me at least, it looks as though the sequel will lose that asset as writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed to The HD Room that the next installment is “primarily set in the modern day.” On the bright side, the concept the time shift grounds itself in sounds rather compelling. The duo explained, “It was a movie where it was a more pure time, where there were clearly black-and-white, right-and-wrong, good-and-evil scenarios.” They added, “How does he react to a much more uncertain time? So you’re given this huge new palate to work with, but you can keep him the same.” Oddly enough, my biggest frustration with the first film is that everything felt too simplistic and that Captain America was seemingly able to do anything, killing any need for concern. Perhaps this shift to more complex times could fix that.
8. Ben Affleck Might Direct The Stand: After a rough acting slump, Ben Affleck is making quite the comeback via directing. Of his features, both were particularly well received and now he’s got Argo, which is getting a ton of attention courtesy of a compelling plot and all-star cast. While Affleck is hard at work on that, Warner Bros is out to make sure nobody else snatches up the actor-director when he’s done and they’ve got quite the offer. The studio wants Affleck to bring Stephen King’s The Stand to the big screen. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which chronicles the effects of a manmade biological weapon called “Captain Trips” on the public. The government attempts to keep the contamination contained, but a facility guard escapes and we wind up with a pandemic. No word on whether the screenplay will handle just one section or the entire piece, but, based on the presentation of Contagion, multiple films through which every element of the book can be given its due time seems most appropriate. (via Deadline)
9. Trailers: In The Land of Blood and Honey, Piranha 3DD, When Harry Left Hogwarts: We’ve known Angelina Jolie was giving feature writing and directing a go for quite some time, but now we can finally get a taste of what she’s capable of in the new trailer for In The Land of Blood and Honey. Due out in December, the piece focuses on a romance in the midst of the Bosnian War. It’s tough to assess a film based on the trailer, but from the material we’ve got so far, Jolie looks to have done the material justice, bringing it together in a compelling and visually stimulating manner. An appropriate segue for this is seemingly impossible, so, for lack of better terms, how about that Piranha 3DD teaser? The bit debuted at the Scream Awards and it most certainly looks like more of the same, but can you blame filmmakers? Piranha 3D made a splash with $83.2 million worldwide on a $24 million budget, and it’s a pretty safe bet that if 3DD goes the same route, fans will come back for more. Switching gears quite drastically yet again, the trailer for the documentary When Harry Left Hogwarts has arrived and it’ll undeniably sway franchise fans with its behind-the-scenes footage and inside look at what it takes to make a Harry Potter movie a reality and then what it feels like to leave those ventures behind.
10. Box Office: It’s been ten weeks since we’ve had a new movie cross the $50 million mark and, oddly enough, that streak has been broken with one that cost just $5 million to make, Paranormal Activity 3. After receiving widely positive reviews, the franchise’s third installment’s got $54 million to show for it via an incredibly impressive $16,266 per theater average. Coming in at #2 is Real Steel, which barely edged out Footloose with $11.3 million. In week two, Footloose dropped 30.3%, leaving it with $10.9 million – not bad considering the film cost $24 million to make and that additional $10.9 million puts it over the $30 million mark domestically. The Three Musketeers, on the other hand, likely won’t make much of a profit. With a budget of about $75 million, Summit Entertainment was likely hoping for much more than a mere $8.8 million start. On the brighter side, The Ides of March continues to hold strong, losing just 31.1% in week three and adding another $4.9 million to its pot. (via Box Office Mojo)
