Willis and Weaver join "The Cold Light of Day"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver will join Henry Cavill "The Tudor" in Summit Entertainment-Intrepid Pictures' thriller "The Cold Light of Day".

French director/screenwriter Mabrouk El Mechri "JCVD" will direct.

Story is about a young American (Cavill) who must find his family members after they were kidnapped while on vacation in Spain. Soon he uncovers a government conspiracy, and connection between the kidnapping and his father's (Willis) secrets.

Weaver is still in talks to play the kidnapper with connection in the government conspiracy.

Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans of Intrepid will produce the thriller with Spanish producer Galavis Film. Steven Zaillian and Garrett Basch, Kevin Mann, Matthew Perniciaro, Scott Wiper and Galavis' Jesus Martinez will executive produce.

Summit will distribute domestically and license the rights internationally.

Shooting set to begin on 6th of September in Spain.

Len Wiseman in final talks to direct "Total Recall"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Is Hollywood running out of ideas? One would think so, as another movie remake is set to roll!

Columbia Pictures' remake of the 1990 sci-fi actioner "Total Recall" has found a director for the job. "Underworld" director Len Wiseman is in final talks to direct the remake.

An announcement by Columbia's co-presidents, Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, described the remake as "contemporized adaptation of Total Recall, which was based on the story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick".

Tolmach was also quoted as saying,"Len has an incredible love of the genre and a great gift for action," said Col prexy Matt Tolmach, who will oversee the project with Sam Dickerman. "He'll bring a contemporary feel to the film while taking care with everything we love about (the) original story."

Kurt Wimmer "Salt" is writing the screenplay. Neal Moritz will produce through his Original Film banner.

Rihanna's on board Universal's "Battleship"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Singer-songwriter Rihanna is set to make her big screen debut starring in director Peter Berg's live-actioner "Battleship."

Universal announced yesterday that Rihanna will play the female lead, and starring alongside Alexander Skarsgard "True Blood" and Taylor Kitsch "Friday Night Lights". Kitsch will play a naval officer, and Skarsgard plays the brother of the naval officer. Rihanna's role in the movie is yet unknown.

Berg, who directed movie such as "Friday Night Lights", "The Kingdom", "Hancock", will direct from the script written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, based on Hasbro's naval combat board game.

Berg will produce "Battleship" with his Film 44 partner Sarah Aubrey, and alongside Hasbro's Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir, Stuber Pictures' Scott Stuber.

Movie is set to be released by Universal on the 25th of May, 2012.

Tim Burton to develop and direct "Monsterpocalypse"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

DreamWorks comfirmed that Tim Burton is on board to develop and direct the feature adaptation of Monsterpocalypse board game, which the studio acquired the filming rights in May 2010.

Burton's frequent screenwriting collaborator, John August, is also on board to write the adaptation script which centers on giant robots developed by humans to fight against the invading alien monsters.

Dick Zanuck and Roy Lee are producing "Monsterpocalypse". Matt Wilson, the creator of the board game is also co-producing, while Tarik Heitmann, Gerald Moon and Doug Davison are exec producing.

"Monsterpocalypse" will most probably be released in 3D, though there is no confirmation from DreamWorks as yet.

Movie is set for release at year end of 2012, which DreamWorks will be distributing.

Caleb Jones, Nicholas Hoult join "X-Men: First Class"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Caleb Landry Jones ("The Last Exorcism," "The Social Network") and Nicholas Hoult ("About a Boy," "A Single Man") have joined 20th Century Fox's "X-Men: First Class".

Jones will play Irish mutant Sean Cassidy aka Banshee, who possesses a sonic scream, capable of harming enemies’ auditory systems and causing physical vibrations, and also has the abilty to to fly and hover at the speed of sound.

Hoult will play the young Hank McCoy aka Beast, who possesses superhuman physical strength and agility. Throughout his history, he undergoes progressive transformations to his physiognomy, permanently gaining increasingly animalistic physical characteristics.

Matthew Vaughn ("Stardust," "Kick-Ass") will direct from the script by Jane Goldman based on the original story by Bryan Singer.

The story centers on two young men, Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, discovering their superhuman powers. They were close friends before they took the names Professor X and Magneto. They worked together with other Mutants to stop a threat to the world, but in the process, a rift opened between them, which leads to the war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.

James MacAvoy stars as Xavier, and Michael Fassbender stars as Lensherr. Alice Eve plays Emma Frost.

Singer will produce the feature alongside Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg.

Shooting is scheduled to begin next month and will be released on June 3, 2011.

Jeremy Irons stars as chief executive in "Margin Call"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Jeremy Irons, whose last big screen starring role was in the 2006 fantasy-adventure "Eragon", has signed on to star alongside Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore and Zachary Quinto in J.C. Chandor's Wall Street thriller "Margin Call."

Chandor is making his directorial debut with this thriller, directing from his own script.

In the movie which centers on eight people at a prominent investment bank in a tumultuous 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, Irons will star as the chief executive of the bank.

Paul Bettany, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci and Mary McDonnell are also co-starring in the movie.

The movie is now in it's third week of shooting in Gotham.

Quinto, Neal Dodson, Corey Moosa are producing through their Before the Door Pictures banner with Michael Benaroya and Robert Ogden Barnum of Benaroya Pictures, and Joe Jenckes. Kirk D'Amico's Myriad Pictures handling international sales.

Matt Damon in talks to star in "We Bought a Zoo"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Matt Damon is in early negotiations to star in Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo" for 20th Century Fox.

Crowe is now rewriting the original script written by Aline Brosh McKenna.

Movie is based on Benjamin Mee's memoir, which is about a widowed man who buys a dilapidated zoo in hopes of making a fresh start after his wife died from a fatal illness. He and his children, along with a small but loyal staff, work to get the zoo reopened.

No words still on which character Damon will play, but high chances that he will star as Benjamin Mee, if talks are successful.

Julie Yorn ("Bride Wars," "Alice") is producing the feature, which is scheduled to be released in December 23, 2011.

Monaghan, Carroll, Baker, Savane join "Machine Gun Preacher"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Michelle Monaghan, Madeline Carroll, Kathy Baker and Souleymane Sy Savane have joined Liongate's action drama "Machine Gun Preacher", and will star alongside Michael Shannon and Gerard Butler.

Butler will star in the leading role as Sam Childers "Machine Gun Preacher", while Shannon will play his friend in the movie that is based on the true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing biker who spend time in the most dangerous parts of Sudan and Uganda rescuing hundreds of Sudanese children who've been forced to become soldiers and sex slaves.

Monaghan will star as Childers' wife, Baker plays his mother, and Carroll plays his daughter, Savane plays his most trusted assistant.

Marc Forster will direct from the script he co-wrote with Jason Keller, based on Childer's memoir.

Forster will also co-produce through his Apparatus Production banner alongside Robbie Brenner; Kaushi Entertainment's Gary Safady and Craig Chapman; and GG Filmz's Deborah Giarratana. Merlina Entertainment's Myles Nestel, Apparatus' Brad Simpson, Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel and Louise Rosner will executive produce.

Shooting is scheduled to begin on July 5 in Detroit and South Africa, and will be released in fall 2011.

Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman to star in "Trespass"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Nicolas Cage, who will be seen next in Jerry Bruckheimer's produced fantasy movie "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", and Nicole Kidman, who will star as Einar Wegener, the world's first post-op transsexual in an upcoming film adaptation of "The Danish Girl", have signed on to Nu Image/Millennium Films' action/thriller "Trespass".

Joel Schumacher ("St. Elmo's Fire," "The Lost Boys," "Batman Forever") will direct the movie from script written by Karl Gajdusek and Eli Richbourg.

Movie is about a husband and wife who are taken hostage by four perpetrators whose objective is money, but betrayal and deception soon surface unexpectedly, causing complication in the process.

Producers are Irwin Winkler, Avi Lerner and Danny Dimbort. Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, John Thompson and Rene Besson are executive producers.

Shooting of the movie will begin in August in Louisiana.

Nick Nolte, Jennifer Garner is talks to join remake of "Arthur"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Nick Nolte, who will star opposite Dustin Hoffman in the new HBO series "Luck", and will be seen next in an action drama "Warrior", and Jennifer Garner, who recently starred in "Valentine's Day" and will also be starring in and producing comedy feature "Butter", are in negotiations with Warner Bros. to join Russell Brand, Helen Mirren and Greta Gerwig in the remake of 1981 romantic comedy "Arthur".

Garner will star as a wealthy heiress who is about to marry Arthur (Brand) in an arranged marriage. Nolte will play the father of Linda Marolla (Gervig), who has romantic relationship with Arthur.

Story is about a boozing playboy who falls in love with a working class woman while he was supposed to marry a girl his family expected in order to inherit a vast family fortune.

Jason Winer "Modern Family -ABC TV series" will direct Warner Bros.' big-screen remake of romantic comedy "Arthur" from Peter Baynham's ("Borat," "Bruno") script.

Larry Brezner, Chris Bender and Kevin McCormick will produce, while Brand, Scott Kroopf, J.C. Spink and Nick Linnen will executive produce.

F. Gary Gray in talks to direct "Kane and Lynch: Dead Men"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

The feature adaptation of the Eidos videogame "Kane and Lynch: Dead Men" has found a new director in F. Gary Gray ("The Italian Job," "Law Abiding Citizen") even though it was earlier mentioned that Simon Crane, a British stuntman, stunt co-ordinator, second unit director, will directing. Guess he changed his mind, or perhaps Lionsgate is looking for a more experienced director?

Gray is still in early negotiations with Lionsgate and Nu Image/Millennium Films to direct the feature version, starring Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx.

Bruce Willis who signed on in 2008 to play mercenary Adam "Kane" Marcus, and Jamie Foxx signed on earlier this year to play the rage-prone killer James Lynch.

Adapted by Kyle Ward ("3 Rounds," "Fiasco Heights") the live-action feature revolves around Kane and Lynch, who are forced to pair up and have 72 hours to travel the world and recover a doomsday device before Kane's kidnapped wife and daughter are killed by the criminals who broke them out of prison.

Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter will produce alongside David Willis (Bruce Willis' brother), Stephen Eads and Millennium.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in August.

Stanley Tucci is Dr. Abraham Erskine in "Captain America"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Marvel has found the scientist that created Captain America!

Stanley Tucci ("Julie & Julia," "The Lovely Bones") has joined Marvel's new feature "Captain America: The First Avenger," starring as Dr. Abraham Erskine, and co-starring alongside Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Hugo Weaving and Hayley Atwell.

Dr. Abraham Erskine's first appearance was in issue #1 of Captain America, published in 1941, as the German scientist who first developed the Super-Soldier Serum that transformed Steve Rogers into Captain America.

Movie will center on Steve Rogers, a sickly young man who was enhanced to a perfect human weapon after being injected with an experimental serum, to aid the United States war effort against the Nazis.

Evans stars as Steve Rogers aka Captain America, Stan plays the captain's sidekick, Bucky Barnes, Weaving will star as Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the Red Skull, Atwell plays Captain America's love interest, Peggy Carter - who happens to be an American spy.

Joe Johnston "The Wolfman" will direct from the script written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard will co-produce the feature. David Maisel, Stratton Leopold, Louis D'Esposito and Stan Lee executive produce.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this summer in England, and will be released by Paramount in the United States on July 22, 2011.

Sigourney Weaver stars as a psychiatrist in "Abduction"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Sigourney Weaver who recently starred in James Cameron's Avatar as Dr. Grace Augustine, leader of the Avatar program, will be playing a different kind of doctor this time in Lionsgate's thriller feature "Abduction," where she will star alongside Taylor Lautner "Twilight film series" and Lily Collins ("The Blind Side," "Priest").

Weaver will star as a psychiatrist to Lautner's character, a young man who finds a baby picture of himself on a missing persons website, and starting to realize that his parents are not his biological parents.

John Singleton ("Boyz N the Hood," "Four Brothers") will direct from script written by Shawn Christensen.

Gotham Group, Vertigo Entertainment and Lautner's Tailor Made are co-producing the thriller with Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman of Gotham Group, Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo, and Tailor Made's Dan Lautner. Vertigo's Gabriel Mason executive producing.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in July in Pittsburgh.

Stephen Graham is Sparrow's sidekick in "Pirates 4"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

English actor Stephen Graham, who starred alongside Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in "Public Enemies", has signed on to "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides".

Graham will star alongside Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow), Penelope Cruz (Blackbeard's Daughter) and Ian McShane (Blackbeard) in the fourth installment of the franchise by Disney, and will play a Machiavellian pirate named Scram, who became the sidekick of Depp's Jack Sparrow, in search of the fountain of youth.

Director Rob Marshall ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Nine") will direct from the script co-written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, who wrote the previous "Pirates" franchise. Jerry Bruckheimer will produce.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this month in Hawaii, and will be released in May 20, 2011.

Adam Beach joins Favreau's "Cowboys and Aliens"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Adam Beach "Flags of Our Fathers" has joined Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano in DreamWorks' and Universal's "Cowboys and Aliens".

Jon Favreau will direct from the script co-written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, which is based on the 2006 graphic novel series created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.

Movie is about the Apache Indians and Western settlers who lay their differences aside and teamed up against an alien species that lands in their city with bad intentions.

Beach will star as Nat Colorado, a half-Apache who works for Woodrow Dollarhyde (Ford).

Imagine Entertainment's co- founder Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are co-producing alongside Steven Spielberg, Rosenberg through his Platinum Studios banner, Orci and Kurtzman.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this summer, and will be released in June 24, 2011.

Hope Davis joins the cast of "Real Steel"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Hope Davis, who is starring as Hillary Rodham Clinton in the recently released HBO feature "The Special Relationship," has joined Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand and Anthony Mackie in DreamWork's sci-fi action feature "Real Steel". James Rebhorn ("Independence Day," "Scent of a Woman") and Olga Fonda "Love Hurts" also joined the cast.

Shawn Levy ("Night at the Museum - 1 and 2," "Date Night") will direct the actioner from the script written by John Gatins.

Set in the near future, story is about the popular sport of robot boxing, and revolves around a former boxer (Jackman) who gets one last shot at a comeback when he teams with his long-lost son (Goyo)to train a discarded robot boxer into a perfect contender for the high-tech sport.

Levy is co-producing the feature alongside Don Murphy, Susan Montford. Shooting is scheduled to begin later this month.

Guillermo del Toro bids goodbye to "The Horbit"

By Siewaun
Reference: theonering.net

Yes, to all Horbit fans out there, this is for real! Guillermo del Toro has announced that he is leaving his "The Horbit" two movies director's position due to production delays.

Guillermo yesterday wrote an official announcement on The Lord of the Rings fansite TheOneRing.net, "In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming "The Hobbit," I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed.

"The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wlsh the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director", says Guillermo.

But who can blame him, I mean, he has a long list of other projects such as HP Lovecraft’s "At the Mountains of Madness", "Frankenstein", "Drood", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Slaughterhouse-Five", and he has spend two years in New Zealand waiting for production to start when he could actually film one or two other movies during the time. And with production date is still uncertain, how long does he needs to wait...one or two more years? What would you do if you were in his shoes?

Though, Guillermo said that he will continue co-writing the script with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillippa Boyens.

Peter Jackson said, "We understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control – has compromised his commitment to other long term projects. The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years."

James McAvoy is Charles Xavier in "X-Men: First Class"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

James McAvoy, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in Atonement, and starred opposite Angelina Jolie in "Wanted," has signed on to play the young Professor Charles Xavier in "X-Men: First Class."

The story centers on two young men, Charles Xavier (McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (yet unnown), discovering their superhuman powers. They were close friends before they took the names Professor X and Magneto. They worked together with other Mutants to stop a threat to the world, but in the process, a rift opened between them, which leads to the war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.

Bryan Singer, who directed the original "X-Men" and its sequel "X-Men 2," came up with the story, but will not direct this time, instead handed over the directing job to director Matthew Vaughn ("Stardust," "Kick-Ass").

Singer will produce the feature alongside Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this summer and will be released on June 3, 2011.

Alison Pill joins Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris"

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Canadian actress Alison Pill "Milk," "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" has signed on to Woody Allen's upcoming "Midnight in Paris" feature.

Pill will co-star alongside Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Michael Sheen, Nina Arianda, Tom Hiddleston, Corey Stoll, Mimi Kennedy and Kurt Fuller.

Movie is a romantic comedy about a family traveling to the city for business, including a young engaged couple that has their lives transformed throughout the journey.

Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum and Jaume Roures are producing the movie, which is one of the three features from the three-pic financing deal Allen's Gravier Productions made with Spanish media conglom Mediapro.

Spain's Imagina International Sales will handle most of international sales.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this summer in Paris.

Legendary acquires "Mass Effect" movie rights

By Siewaun
Reference: Variety

Legendary Pictures, under it's co-production and co-financing agreement with Warner Bros., will develop Electronic Arts' action role-playing game series "Mass Effect" into a feature film after picking up the feature rights.

BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, developed "Mass Effect" for the Xbox 360, and the story takes place in the year 2183, with the player, assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard of starship SSV Normandy, who leads a team on a mission to defeat an ancient alien race that invades the galaxy every 50,000 years and wipes out all organic life.

Mark Protosevich "I Am Legend" is in negotiations to write the script for the sci-fi feature.

"Mass Effect" executive producer Casey Hudson was quoted as saying, "At BioWare, we've always thought of 'Mass Effect' as having the depth, emotion and plot twists perfectly suited for an adaptation to a motion picture."

Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the film with Avi and Ari Arad, while BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will executive producing alongside Hudson.

Warner Bros. will distribute the film worldwide.