Paramount Pictures has bought Chad St. John’s spec script The Further Adventures of Doc Holliday. While the story is still under wraps, the description goes “a history-based action adventure tale in the vein of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’”
Warner Bros has bought an untitled spec script by Dan Fogelman that has Steve Carell already attached. “The script has a tone comparable to “Love Actually” and Carell will play a father whose life unravels while he deals with a marital crisis and tries to manage his relationship with his children.”
After getting an untitled script by Eric Champnella and Grant Thompson, Summit Entertainment and Temple Hill are developing a vehicle for Taylor Lautner that is being described as “a teen-aged ‘Taken’ meets ‘Die Hard.’” “After an injury sidelines a teen’s plans to be an elite soldier, he tries to get on with his life by heading to college. There, he meets a girl who convinces him to join her friends on a spring break trip to Cancun. When his traveling partners are kidnapped and ransomed for the freedom of a drug cartel leader about to be extradited, the college student uses his warrior skills to rescue them.”
Director Peter Segal will direct Fox’s scifi comedy Neighborhood Watch. “The film centers on a man who moves to a small town and joins the neighborhood watch committee, only to discover that the town is experiencing bizarre paranormal activity.”
Prequels; Sequels & Remakes
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Magnet Releasing has US distribution for George Romero’s Survival of the Dead. “[Taking] place in a desperate, nightmarish world where the dead walk the earth, relentlessly attacking the living. It is the story of Plum Island – a beautiful refuge whose isolation allows two powerful families to maintain a semblance of order in the wake of the zombie holocaust. But as the inhabitants slowly die off, the two clans become sharply divided: the O’Flynns believe that the undead must be destroyed without exception, while the Muldoons insist that afflicted loved ones be kept “alive” until a cure is found. The result is an escalating showdown with echoes of a classic Western stand-off that erupts in brutality and violence.” Magnet will release the film as part of its Ultra VOD program this spring, a month before its theatrical release.
Paramount Pictures has officially announced the third Jackass movie will film in January and release October 15, 2010, and will be 3-D. Says Johnny Knoxville, “We’re going to take the same 3D technology James Cameron used in AVATAR and stick it up Steve O’s butt. We’re taking stupid to a whole new dimension.”
Sam Worthington on Clash of the Titans:
“We’re going to be shooting more scenes in January, so we’re going to be right up against it — the movie comes out in March.”… “There were some creaky parts but they are the parts that we knew were creaky and that we knew were going to be creaky going into it. The studio is also letting us add some gods and scenes. And they’re talking about making the movie a 3D film.”
Adaptations
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According to Fangoria, director Joe Johnston is readying The First Avenger: Captain America for a June start.
Studio 407 have announced that Gil Adler and Shane McCarthy will be producing an adaptation of the Night and Fog comics. “Tied to an unsolved mystery from World War 2, Night and Fog, tells the story of a “Frankenstein” like infectious mist unleashed on a military base that transforms its victims into preternatural creatures of the night. But when the survivors try to kill them, they adapt and change into something even more horrific and unstoppable. Caught in between, is a security officer on the base who must escape this gauntlet of horror to save his children before the creatures kill them or the fog infects them.”
Warner Brothers has released the official synopsis for Yogi Bear:
“Everyone’s favorite pic-a-nic basket-stealing bear comes to the big screen in “Yogi Bear.” Jellystone Park has been losing business, so greedy Mayor Brown decides to shut it down and sell the land. That means families will no longer be able to experience the natural beauty of the outdoors — and, even worse, Yogi and Boo Boo will be tossed out of the only home they’ve ever known. Faced with his biggest challenge ever, Yogi must prove that he really is “smarter than the average bear” as he and Boo Boo join forces with their old nemesis Ranger Smith to find a way to save Jellystone Park from closing forever.”
Warner Bros. and producer Alcon Entertainment have hired on director Alex Zamm and writers Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgove for their movie for Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian. The story for the live-action/CG mix goes like this: “Marvin comes to Earth to try to destroy Christmas, but his plans are foiled when he gets trapped inside a gift box.”
Releases
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Fame (2009) – January 12
Like Stars on Earth – January 12
In the Loop – January 12
Kingdom Of The Spiders [Special Edition] – January 19
Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball – January 19
Give ‘Em Hell Malone – January 26
Fame (1980) [Blu-ray] – January 26
The Toolbox Murders (1978) [Blu-ray] – January 26
House of the Devil – February 2
The Godfather (Coppola Restoration) [Blu-ray] – February 2
The Godfather Part II (Coppola Restoration) [Blu-ray] – February 2
Universal Soldier: Regeneration – February 2
Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic – February 9
Wrath of the Titans – March 2
Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks (Story 152) – March 2
That Dante’s Inferno has popped up in my Netflix Recommendations and the premise has me a trifle leery. BTW did you know that the original Divine Comedy has flatulence humor. No really! At one point when Dante and Virgil are in the Eighth Circle of Hell, a demon summons reinforcements by breaking wind. Really!