Posts Tagged ‘Sony’
I can’t stop chuckling about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. That’s the Broadway musical version of the character that has gone way over budget ($50m+) and features music from Bono and The Edge. Granted, I have a great love for the show’s director, Julie Taymor, and perhaps she can pull this one out of the fire, but the whole enterprise seems like a fatally flawed attempt to shoehorn a character into the wrong environment.
Now, just as the musical is set to begin a preview period that has been delayed multiple times, it has lost a lead actress. Evan Rachel Wood is gone, leaving Turn Off the Dark in need of a new Mary Jane.
According to Variety, producers of the show acknowledged that Wood had left, due to a ’scheduling conflict’. That leaves leads Reeve Carney as Peter Parker and Alan Cumming as the Green Goblin. (The latter being a genuinely cool bit of casting.) The show will likely go on. If a lack of funds didn’t derail it in 2009, a little recasting problem isn’t likely to throw it off, either. There has been too much invested to let a good career move by Evan Rachel Wood kill the project now.
Meanwhile, there’s an interesting little tidbit about the Spider-Man film reboot in an LA Times article about what the various Oscar winners from this past weekend’s ceremony will be getting up to next. The LAT says that Kathryn Bigelow passed on directing Spider-Man before the offer went out to Marc Webb.
That’s not a huge deal, and Bigelow was likely one of many people approached. But given the recent intersection of her career and that of ex-husband James Cameron, who once planned to make his own Spider-Man movie, it is a neat little detail. In all likelihood, she passed so as not to be in thrall to Sony for the next several years, and who can blame her? She’s apparently still got Triple Frontier on deck, as well as the HBO pilot The Miraculous Year.
Hey, remember Moneyball? How could you not? The film meant to be directed by Steven Soderbergh, which was famously shut down at the eleventh hour by Sony chief Amy Pascal, is still going forward. Bennett Miller is directing from a new script by Aaron Sorkin. Original star Brad Pitt remains part of the equation (which seems miraculous) but his co-star has changed. No longer will Demetri Martin play the young statistician that helps Oakland A’s manager make baseball history. Now it will be Jonah Hill.
ESPN has the news about Hill. Columnist Rob Neyer says he talked to Michael Lewis, author of the source book Moneyball: The Art to Winning an Unfair Game, who gave up the info that Martin was out and Hill is in. Rumors of the trade have been circulating for a week or so, but this is the first printed confirmation I’ve seen. That it comes from Lewis, rather than one of the film’s producers, is interesting, but I don’t think that makes it any less legit.
Jonah Hill will play Paul DePodesta, a Harvard grad who skipped over Wall St. jobs and instead went to work for A’s manager Billy Beane. The duo put DePodesta’s ‘Earned Run Value’ statistical system to work and built a winning team for peanuts.
The change from Martin to Hill certainly puts a different spin on the film; I hadn’t thought much about Hill ever being the number two guy in a Brad Pitt movie prior to this. But what happened to Martin? He was signed to the film almost a year ago. Was it just time to move on? Or did Taking Woodstock do some damage to his career? Moneyball is reportedly shooting in June, but I can’t say if it was scheduling or something else that forced this swap.
Check out a video of Paul DePodesta giving a talk, below. Ironically he opens with “we tend to focus on physical appearances…the problem is, that doesn’t always translate into success.” Huh. Demetri Martin looks a hell of a lot more like DePodesta, but watching him talk I can see Hill capturing his character.
James Cameron’s Avatar and Pixar’s Up took home almost all the awards at the Visual Effects Society honors. Avatar took home six, while Up took home three. The only nominated category Avatar didn’t win was Compositing in a Feature Film — sadly, that was the only category that Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 won. Full award results after the jump.
Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture
- 2012
- Avatar
- District 9
- Star Trek
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
- Angels & Demons
- The Box
- Invictus
- The Road
- Sherlock Holmes
Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
- 9
- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
- Coraline
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
- Up
Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
- 2012 (Escape From L.A.)
- Avatar (Quarich’s Escape)
- Avatar (Neytiri Drinking)
- Knowing (Plane Crash)
- Terminator Salvation (VLA Escape)
Animated Character in a Live-Action Feature Motion Picture
- Avatar (Neytiri)
- District 9 (Christopher Johnson)
- G-Force (Bucky)
- Watchmen (Doctor Manhattan)
Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
- Coraline (Coraline)
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Buck)
- Monsters vs. Aliens (B.O.B.)
- Up (Carl, No Dad Scene)
Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
- Coraline
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Up
Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture
- Avatar (Pandora)
- Franklyn (Meanwhile City Scapes)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Star Trek
Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
- Avatar (Samson / Home Tree / Floating Mountains / Ampsuit)
- Coraline
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (National Air and Space Museum Escape)
- Terminator Salvation
Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture
- 2012 (Los Angeles Destruction)
- Avatar (Floating Mountains)
- Avatar (Jungle / Biolume)
- Avatar (Willow Glade)
Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
- Avatar
- Avatar (End Battle)
- District 9
- Sherlock Holmes (Wharf Explosion Sequence)
source: incontention
Before Where the Wild Things Are, and even before Being John Malkovich, Spike Jonze was developing a big screen adaptation of the acclaimed 1955 children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon. Harold and the Purple Crayon tells the story of a curious four-year-old boy who draws his reality and lives in the imaginary world he creates. The film famously fell apart a mere two weeks before principal photography (more information about that after the jump) but it now appears that development is alive again at Sony Pictures Animation.
According to Pajiba, Date Night and Shrek the Third scribe Josh Klausner has been working on a a script, which is being compared in tone to A Neverending Story, and the animated feature will be produced by Maurice Sendak, set up at Will Smith’s Overbook Entertainment. No director is attached , and while I doubt Spike Jonze will come aboard this latest attempt, I would love to imagine the movie he might have made.
Jonze first met with Sendak, not for Wild Things, but about developing a film adaptation of Harold. For those of you who don’t know, the author of the Harold, Crockett Johnson, is one of Sendak’s mentors. Jonze spent over a year developing Harold into a feature film which would combine live action and animation in a way that had never been attempted before. Producer John B. Carls recalled to the New York Times a scene in the third act, where there was “a live-action boy riding an animated rocket out into real space where he battled live-action characters to rescue a real space mission.” Two months before principal photography was scheduled to begin, a regime change happened at TriStar, and the new bosses didn’t get Spike’s vision and pulled the plug.
The original story was adapted into a seven minute short film in 1959, directed by David Piel and narrated by Norman Rose. HBO also aired a 13 episode television series which adapted some of Harold’s stories in 2002. If you’re curious about the appeal of Harold and the Purple Crayon, listen to this three and a half minute report from NPR’s All Things Considered.
Sony has hired Shane Black to bring pulp hero Doc Savage back to the big screen.
I’ve been waiting for Black to step back into the director’s chair for five years now. His feature directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is one of my favorite films of the past decade, mostly due to Black’s incredible script and partly due to Robert Downey Jr’s awesome pre-Iron Man comedic performance. Black is considered one of the pioneer screenwriters of the action genre, and was the highest paid screenwriter in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. He broke onto the scene with Lethal Weapon, followed by The Monster Squad, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero (re-write), and The Long Kiss Goodnight.
While I’m excited to see Black behind the camera, I am skeptical of him helming a film which he didn’t personally write. The screenplay was written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. Neal Moritz (Fast and Furious) is producing the project, which likely means that one of the cast members will be played by a rap artist (I’m only half joking).
Previously:
- Since his first appearances in ’30s pulp magazines, the Savage character has appeared, a la The Shadow, in myriad mediums, including radio, women’s poolside fantasies, television and a maligned 1975 film. Black has plenty to work with, as the dude can do it all and sometimes blindfolded: “physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, a musician.” And…”martial arts master.” In canon, Savage was raised from birth to fight evil and resides in a skyscraper not unlike the Empire State Building and keeps a plush hideout in the Arctic. He’s the complete opposite of the so-called Goblin class that will likely be exposed to his bare, bronze chest. [Hunter]
- Late last year, it was reported that Black was writing a new adaptation of Savage for the tentpole production duo Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers and Star Trek franchises). It is unclear if that version was dumped completely or transfered over to Sony with new screenwriters (and if that is the case, it doesn’t make much sense).
- Black let it be known to AICN that he was looking to the definitive works of late author Lester Dent, who penned nearly 200 adventure novels using the character, and that his version would be a period piece. It was also revealed that Savage was to be joined in the film by the so-called Fabulous Five.
source: Variety
Carla Gugino (Watchmen, Sin City) has joined the cast of Faster, the George Tillman Jr.-directed revenge thriller starring Dwayne Johnson. It seems logical that Gugino is the replacement for Salma Hayek, who at the last minute (January 31st) dropped out of the project due to supposed “scheduling issues”. If so, that is definitely a step-up in terms of acting talent, but a step down in terms of star value and marketability.
The film, which is currently in production, is about “an ex-con pursued by cops and killers as he sets out to avenge his brother’s death.” Gugino will play the detective in charge of the investigation, “hot on his trail and hell-bent on connecting the killings with a decade-old case.” Also in the cast is Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation) as Johnson’s girlfriend; Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who will be one of the killers on the Rock’s trail, and Maggie Grace (Taken) in an unspecified role.. Scripted by Joe and Tony Gayton.
source: Variety
Now that Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor has gained the rights to the Terminator Franchise, everyone is wondering what the future of the franchise might hold. William Wisher, the uncredited co-writer of Terminator and credited co-writer of Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (shared with James Cameron) has written a detailed 24-page treatment for Terminator 5, and a 4-page concept outline for Terminator 6. Mike Fleming, a self-confessed Terminator fanboy, has read both treatments and calls it a “a satisfying conclusion” to the six-film storyline.
Apparently the scripts follow the storylines set-up in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation but turns the focus back to the core characters (Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and the T-800) and time travel storyline of the first two installments. Here is an excerpt from Deadline:
“Wisher’s 2-picture construct takes place in a post-apocalyptic battleground, and factors in an element of time travel that allows for Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese to interact beyond their single fateful meeting when he traveled back in time to protect her in the original film. Wisher has created a role for Arnold Schwarzenegger that is as surprising as his shift from villain in the first film, to John Connor’s bodyguard in the second. Schwarzenegger wouldn’t be needed until the final film. … There are several new villains, and plenty of firepower. For instance, a swarm of “Night Crawlers,” 4 1/2-foot tall border sentries that are set like mines to spring up out of the ground and ambush rebel fighters with 10 MM pistols built into their wrists, and fingers and feet that are razor sharp. Also fresh off the Skynet assembly line are new shape-shifting cyborgs that can morph together in Transformers-like mode, and are more lethal than anything we’ve seen in previous Terminator installments.”
Sounds pretty cool eh? Sony and Lionsgate are both interested in producing the next film. And while everything appears to be done on spec thus far, it appears that Wisher has painted himself in the position of having a viable and interesting pitch which could quickly be crafted into the next film. James Cameron has seemed uninterested in the last couple films, but it would be interesting if Sony or Lionsgate could convince the filmmaker to come on board to produce. Cameron might be enticed with the possibility of concluding the series he created, especially considering that they will probably be filmed in 3D.
The Terminator rights sale saga just keeps on going. At the beginning of this week, Sony and Lionsgate were jointly bidding for the rights to the Terminator franchise. They lost out to Pacificor, the hedge fund that had loaned money to Halcyon to buy the Terminator rights in the first place, before calling in the debt which caused the rights to go up for sale.
If you think about that for a second, it looks kinda fishy. Sony and Lionsgate think so. Lawyers for Sony say that their bid was the best one, but that Halcyon and Pacificor had struck a deal last Friday, essentially rigging the sale in favor of the hedge fund. But now there’s a new wrinkle. After some negotiation, Sony and Lionsgate have been given an option to negotiate to produce and distribute the next Terminator film.
An update to an LA Times article on the ongoing process provides the key info.The paper says,
Despite the rancor in court, Sony and Lions Gate have been given an exclusive window by Pacificor to negotiate to produce and distribute the next “Terminator” movie, according to a person familiar with the talks.
Which means, basically, that Pacificor has really done a nice job here. They own the rights and pull the strings, and have left the hard work — actually making and releasing another movie — to other companies. Good work, hedge fund! Will Pacificor play ball with Sony and Lionsgate? You’d expect so. While the auction got heavy at the last minute, there weren’t too many rights bidders who were really competitive. These companies obviously wanted to do something with the property, so why would Pacificor go to great lengths to find someone else to produce and distribute?
And what about McG, who has said more than once that he wants to make two more Terminator films? His representative argued in court yesterday that McG had a right of first refusal deal with Halcyon to direct any future sequels, and that Pacificor and any producing partners need to honor it. The judge disagreed, and said that if McG isn’t given the chance to direct the next film, he could file a claim against Halcyon in bankruptcy court.
What are the chances of McG actually suing, should a sequel come to pass without him, and of that claim generating anything tangible? More than likely, you’d expect Sony and LionsGate to throw him an executive producer credit on a future film and leave it at that.
The Terminator movie rights went up for auction today, and Sony Pictures and Lionsgate were bidding frantically back and fourth from 3:00pm to 8:00pm tonight. But as the dust cleared, neither movie studio came out the winner. Halcyon accepted a $29.5 million bid from a Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor, the debtholder which pushed the company into bankruptcy.Of course, this is subject to the approval by the bankruptcy court.
According to Finke’s source, “Sony and Lionsgate dropped out at just under $29.5 million when it became clear that Pacificor was willing to pay almost any amount of money for Terminator.” As part of the deal, Halcyon will keep the revenue streams from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation, and will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie produced in the future.
What this all means for the future of the Terminator franchise is unclear. The last Terminator film earned $372 million worldwide theatrically. And while Arnold might soon be available for big screen offers, I’m not sure they could afford him. I’m not a money guy, but it seems to me that the smartest thing they could do is make the fifth Termiantor film for about half the estimated budget of Salvation, aiming in the $100-$120 million range.
It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, excluding The Tooth Fairy starring The Rock, that offer proof. /Film’s Weekend Weirdness examines such flicks, whether in the form of a new trailer for a provocative indie, a mini review, or an interview.
It’s rare when the marketing campaign for an indie movie has a celebratory feel, clearly organized by a team as psyched on the feature as they hope the recipient will be. Soon after learning of Black Dynamite last year, several packages arrived at my home/office in correlation with its theatrical release. They contained quality tees—one read “Fight Smack In The Orphanage” in bold-ass white-on-black CAPS—along with a high concept soundtrack and a media kit ribboned and accented with a syringe pen. For months thereafter, director and co-writer Scott Sanders seemed to personally and tirelessly push Dynamite to every white sucka on Internet Geek Street. It was admirable, considering that his second feature film was indeed a pretty fun, meticulously designed hat tip to the Afro-Fu era of Dolemite.
The film is also a stable showcase for Sanders’s pal Michael Jai White (Spawn, The Dark Knight) to launch a renewed case for chiseled action stardom, and a welcome invite for underseen talents like Tommy Davidson and Arsenio Hall to get retarded. Oh, and if you ever wondered about the true origin of chicken and waffles? That’s in there too. During an absurd week that saw oversensitive Twitterers erupt over the existence of soul food, what better film and DVD to welcome Black History Month? Slashfilm’s Weekend Weirdness asked Sanders a few questions about Dynamite’s future as a CIA agent-cum-VietNam veteran-cum-inner city exterminator of “jive ass” dummies. (Note: NSFW movie stills after the jump.)
Hunter Stephenson: Hi Scott. Black Dynamite had a relatively high profile online before its release, but a lot of our readers were unable to see it. What are your thoughts on its theatrical distribution and what are the hopes with the DVD?
Scott Sanders: If we had to do it over again, I think we would have opened in fewer theaters, and started off with a campaign similar to Paranormal Activity, with midnight shows in selected cities. Ironically, the movie is kind of ending that way all over the country, with sold out midnight shows in Washington D.C., Columbia, South Carolina and Detroit. We are all encouraged about its release on DVD on February 16th. It’s got a lot of extras, there’s a Blu-Ray and a lot of interest so I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Black Dynamite entered pop culture—with characteristic ease—at an interesting time. Black Dynamite nunchuks Dick Nixon inside the White House—obviously a scene that now resonates in the context of Obama’s presidency. Your family is also involved in politics, no? On another level, I feel the film filled an odd void in movie culture—it was closer to what many expected from Grindhouse. Michael envisioned the character in ‘06, but how was the timing right in retrospect?
Scott Sanders: In 2006, we really didn’t know about Grindhouse, and Obama hadn’t started running for president yet. Sometimes, I guess you are just handed external circumstances that makes your movie more interesting. My family is involved in politics in North Carolina, and I grew up in Washington D.C., so that’s always something that has interested me. I wish there was more of a master plan, but really the movie was always about doing a blaxploitation movie set in the 1970s, and kind of exaggerating the things that made us laugh about them—while preserving all the things that made them kind of bad ass.
Many critics have described the film’s plot involving a government-distributed malt liquor that negatively affects black virility as “ludicrous.” But the roots of the movie’s conspiracy originate in the plots of ’70s genre films starring black actors…which were inspired by true life governmental conspiracies involving alcohol and later crack distribution in impoverished communities. These “silly plots” often mirrored scarier truths, no?
Scott Sanders: Some of the conspiracies are real and some of them are ridiculous. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was a real conspiracy. The rumor that Church’s Fried Chicken is owned by the KKK and has chicken that makes black men sterile is a fake conspiracy. The fake ones and the real ones generally have the same theme, which is emasculating black men. We thought we’d take it to the next level with shrinkage…but to be honest it’s not too far off from that Church’s-KKK rumor.
Where did you find a “tiny black dick” prop like the one featured in BD in nauseating close-ups?
Scott Sanders: Our assistant makeup artist came up with it. It’s a “pacifier” from an erotic store painted brown. I only saw it that one time; I didn’t really track its goings-and-comings…excuse the pun.
You’ve mentioned that what exactly blaxploitation heroes do for money or a day job is rarely explained. Does the murkiness make blaxploitation characters more symbolic or powerful?
Scott Sanders: Black Dynamite does have a day job: it’s being a BAD-ASS! But yeah, even though the murkiness is kind of goofy…he’s whoever you want him to be; it’s still kind of powerful.
Whose idea was it to cast Charlotte Stokely as one of Black Dynamite’s bedmates? Last year also saw [Steven] Soderbergh cast another contemporary porn star in a feature film. What do you make of this potential trend in Hollywood, on a cultural level?
Scott Sanders: Charlotte Stokely (above, far right) is one of five porn stars in the movie. Casting them was my idea. They were all a lot of fun—plus doing nudity wasn’t a big deal for them, obviously. I would cast porn stars again. Charlotte has a really cool retro look. She could be a compelling actress if given the chance. There really is no downside to casting a porn star. And I think it will happen more often.
What are the chances of a sequel to the film? And can you give /Film a hint to where it might go? Would you venture into another country?
Scott Sanders: If the DVD sells well there will be a sequel. I think it’s time for Black Dynamite to go international, like Fred Williamson used to do.
Even when Black Dynamite is at its funniest, a refreshing gravity is present in the martial arts and action scenes. Have any recent action films worked for you?
Scott Sanders: Does District 9 count? Loved that movie. Liked Avatar. Really liked Inglourious Basterds. So…maybe I should do a Nazi Alien movie in 3D?
Hunter Stephenson can be reached on Twitter. If you’d like to send him a screener, or an NYC screening invitation, email him at h.attila/gmail. For previous installments of Weekend Weirdness, here.
