Gary Oldman Spouts Noise

In "I'm not believing this until I hear it from a legit source" news, Gary Oldman said that filming on Batman 3 will start in 2010. Keep in mind we haven't heard anything about a script being completed yet, let alone Chris Nolan signing on as the director.

Oldman's exact quote: "The next Batman is next year, so I think it's two years away." While this may seem confusing at first, I'm sure when he said Batman "is next year" he meant the filming, and the final product is "two years away."

As I said - I'm not buying into this yet. Michael Caine spouted off about how Phillip Seymour Hoffman was playing the Penguin and Johnny Depp was the Mad Hatter, and he obviously had not idea what the hell he was talking about. He admitted later that he "read it somewhere," meaning he was perusing the web like the rest of us and stumbled across the rumor, and later reported it as fact. The same could be said for Oldman - he may have heard an online rumor about the production start date and is reporting that as truth.

Then again, maybe Chris Nolan told him what's up and he just gave us all a big exclusive. Who knows? I'll keep you posted.

Downey and Galifianakis Together At Last

In a pairing I'm sure you've all been waiting for (that was sarcasm, for those of you who can't intuitively sense my tone of voice through reading words on a screen), Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis will join forces for The Hangover director Todd Philipps' newest movie.

The flick is called Due Date, and centers around a workaholic (Downey) who has to travel cross-country with a mismatched partner (Galifianakis) to see the birth of his firstborn kid. Sounds wacky. Why doesn't he just catch a plane? I guess that makes too much sense.

As Cinematical points out, there is some pretty heavy stuff riding on the line for this one: Downey's last comedy performance (Tropic Thunder) earned him an Oscar nomination, and ZG and Todd Philipps' The Hangover recently became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Does any of that mean that Due Date will be any good? As long as we never see the kid, then I'm sure it'll be all right. Although The Hangover succeeded at the delicate task of featuring a baby and not becoming violently annoying in the process, so that's a good sign. "Not at the table, Carlos!"

DC Films Update

Warner Bros. recently revealed that they secretly hired Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman, and Grant Morrison (all three of which are prolific comic writers) last fall and have been using the three gurus (guri?) as their own personal team to pitch and develop new ideas for DC comics-based movies.

Badass. This sounds like the first step towards making some real progress against Marvel, and I'm glad that Warner Bros. hired these guys so long ago (even if they haven't told us until now). So which projects are they working on? Johns has a new treatment for a Flash movie (which he would produce and Dan Mazeau would write), but we don't know specifically what Wolfman and Morrison have been working on. I'm still hoping for Ryan Reynolds as The Flash (Wally West only), by the way.

DC has also thrown down the gauntlet and has issued an open call for treatments of an Adam Strange movie and an Aquaman feature. Leo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions is apparently attached to make the Aquaman flick, but that means that particular project is just one of approximately thirty the company has in development. Aquaman was featured heavily in an early season of HBO's "Entourage," where the fictional film broke the box office record for most money in a day. [Some news stations reported this as fact. Jackasses.]

Less famously, a television pilot for the CW was created under the working title of "Mercy Reef," featuring Justin Hartley as Aquaman with a "Smallville"-esque vibe. Coincidentally, Hartley went on to play the Green Arrow in "Smallville" and has been one of the high points of the show over the past few years. The pilot of the show was released on iTunes and actually became the number one most downloaded show at the time, but it wasn't picked up because the UPN and WB were in the process of forming The CW at the time and didn't want to take a chance on it with the fledgling network. I've embedded the trailer below (thanks to Slashfilm for the reminder).

Hong Kong Phooey: The Movie

Boo. Yah.

Joining the ranks of live action/CG hybrid cartoon adaptations is a show from the 70's - Hong Kong Phooey. I'm sure many of you have never seen or even heard of this show before, but I actually watched it quite a bit in my younger days. It was one of those Hanna-Barbera shows along the lines of Quickdraw McGraw and Snagglepuss, but this one featured a janitor dog who moonlights as a kung-fu-fighting crime fighter.

Yes, this movie has the potential to be terrible. But give Hollywood some credit this time - at least they're going for obscure-as-hell cartoons from the 70's instead of giving us a live action/CG hybrid of some of the garbage that passes for kids' television now. At least this gives me something ridiculous to write about...



Bonus note: I love Wikipedia's matter-of-fact statements veiled as complaints. "Although [he] appears to be the only anthropomorphic dog in the entire city where the series is set, no one ever connects his two identities."

Green Lantern Update!

Looks like that rumor of Justin Timberlake trying on the Green Lantern suit had some truth behind it.

The Hollywood Reporter now says that Timberlake, Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), and Ryan Reynolds are the big three in contention for the role. The trifecta had a deal worked out that expired this past Monday, so now they are free to accept offers for other projects. Various producers had different favorites, so they couldn't make a final decision, but expect the casting announcement soon.

Man, I wasn't even aware that Ryan Reynolds was in serious talks for the part. I love the guy, but I think his wise-ass sensibilities are much better suited for a role like Wally West (aka The Flash) than Hal Jordan. Cooper or Timberlake, for the win.

UPDATE: I was totally wrong. Ryan Reynolds has indeed won the role of Green Lantern. My feelings on the matter still stand.

Superman Returns Again?...and More!

I'm not going to bore you with the legal jargon, but the essence of the story is this - Warner Bros. and DC were in a courtroom battle (not a literal one, but that would have been awesome) with the heirs of Jerome Siegel (co-creator of Superman, durh) over the rights to the character, and the movie studios have been awarded the rights until 2013, at which time the entire Superman copyright will return to the heirs of Siegel and Shuster.

What does that mean? It means if Warner Bros. and DC want to make another Superman movie without paying a shizload of money to the heirs, they better get their asses in gear and put The Man of Steel up on screen by 2012. It also means there is a slight chance that there could be no more DC Comics involving Superman or Superman movies ever again after 2012, or (brace yourselves) that the heirs could sign a deal with Marvel and Superman would switch to the Marvel Universe! I'll give you a minute to let that sink in.

Also coming along the wire is news that Clark Kent may have a cameo in the yet-to-be-cast Green Lantern film, directed by Martin Campbell. But perhaps the studio has found their Hal Jordan and just haven't announced it yet - Justin Timberlake is the newest actor rumored to don the ring. But then again, Nathan Fillion and Rainn Wilson met with DC Comics today for an unidentified meeting, so perhaps the awesome fan-trailer posted a few months back could come true and Fillion could be the guy for the job.

My two cents? I'd prefer the once-rumored Chris Pine as Green Lantern instead of Timberlake, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he snagged the part. Most of you probably haven't seen him actually act (ahem, Black Snake Moan), but he's good when he wants to be. Superhero-good? We'll see. Fillion really would be great, but I honestly hope he turns it down to be Nathan Drake in Uncharted: The Movie. Again - there have been no real talks of him actually being in consideration for that role, it's just wishful thinking on my part.

Spidey 4 Getting Another Rewrite

"They're making a FOURTH one?!"

Looks like James Vanderbilt's plans for back-to-back Spidey flicks aren't going as smoothly as he anticipated.

Going into its second round of rewrites, Gary Ross is taking a crack at the script for Spider-Man 4. Production starts early next year, and the movie will be released on May 6th, 2011. Both Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (blargh) are returning to reprise their roles, and Sam "Drag Me To Hell" Raimi is directing.

Is this news? Not in the truest since of the word, but I've talked about the movie here before and figure I'd give you a little update on what's going on with the flick. I also find it interesting that they brought "A-list writer" Vanderbilt onto the project, he comes up with this master plan for a huge story spanning (at least) two movies, and now the studios don't really dig what he's cooked up for them. I have no idea what he had planned, but I can almost guarantee that it'll be better than Spider-Man 3.

Tony Jaa vs. Live Alligator

Uncharted: The Movie!

This is one of those days where I'm happy to be a movie geek. One of my favorite video games of all time is being turned into a movie - I'm speaking, of course, about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

The game is so awesome - I can't recommend it highly enough. Nathan Drake, descendant of Sir Francis Drake and treasure hunter extraordinaire, goes on a quest for El Dorado along with a stubborn hottie (obvs) filming a documentary. When rival treasure hunters get involved, it turns into an all-out dash for the treasure.

It's almost as if it were made to be adapted; the game was so cinematic that if they transcribed the script and added a few scenes here and there it would be perfect. If Nathan Fillion (Serenity, "Firefly") becomes attached to star, this could go down as my most anticipated film since The Expendables. PLEASE - somebody out there with some Hollywood casting power - make this happen. This has a legit shot at becoming the first great video game movie adaptation.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves drops for PS3 in November of 2009.

Ryan Reynolds is Buried

Nice beard, bro. Russell Crowe would be ashamed.

Now this sounds like an awesome project. Sarcastic man's man (and newlywed husband of Scarlett Johansson) Ryan Reynolds has signed on for a film called Buried for Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes.

Reynolds' character is a civilian contractor who is captured in Iraq and wakes up buried in a coffin in the middle of the desert. As if that isn't enough, the only items he has on him are a candle, a knife, and a cell phone. The movie will be shot entirely in Spain.

Michael Bay Leaves Transformers?

Hot on the heels of the ridic technical stats from T2: Revenge of the Fallen, Michael Bay is making headlines again. In semi-shocking news, Bay told wenn.com (via IMDB) that Transformers 2 will be his last directorial entry into the series.

Speculation arose a while back about Bay's future film intentions, but I don't know if anyone actually saw this coming. True, I suppose the exiting of writers Kurtzman and Orci from the franchise (they said they won't be writing the third film, if there is one) could have been a sign of things to come from the boom-happy director, but I honestly thought he'd stick around for one more and top off the trilogy. But he was pretty clear about his stance:

"After three and a half years of making these movies, I feel like I've had enough of the Transformers world. I need to do something totally divergent, something without any explosions."

I'm not sure how reliable this source is, but I would imagine that they wouldn't just conjure up a quote out of thin air, so I guess we can take this as truth until proven otherwise. Slashfilm suggested that Bay's small project with no explosions would be Pain & Gain, based on a couple of Miami bodybuilders who get involved in a drug deal gone bad.

I guess it would be wrong of us as an audience to demand that Bay make the same type of film over and over again, refusing to allow him to stretch his creative wings. But at the same time, that type of movie is what he's great at doing and is a proven way to make some money for the studios. It'll be interesting to see who will greenlight a Bay film that doesn't fit the profile. In my mind, this next project will be like a concept album for a singer - if it works, it'll establish some indie cred, and if it tanks, he'll go right back to the bread and butter.

UPDATE 6/19/09 - Well, it's a good thing I put a question mark in this title. Apparently the source DID conjure this quote out of thin air. Michael Bay responded today by saying he never said that and merely talked about taking a vacation. It's good to know that he appreciates his place in pop culture and isn't completely separating himself from the type of projects he's simultaneously loved and hated for.

Machete Actually Happening?

Robert Rodriguez has been getting some bad habits from his buddy Tarantino over the past few years, announcing projects and kind of bailing on them after a while. Granted, not much of that was his fault per se, but the fact remains that Sin City 2 is nowhere near being made and his remake of Barbarella has died a horrible death.

Good news, then, that Danny Trejo told Gordon and The Whale (via Slashfilm) that Rodriguez and Co. are starting production on Machete within five weeks. Machete, if you'll recall, is the ultra-awesome explotation trailer featured in 2007's Grindhouse. I'm glad we're definitely going to see this, whether it comes to theaters (not likely) or direct-to-DVD (much more likely). Trejo is fantastic in these roles, and it seems like a project where Rodriguez can have some good old fashioned fun directing it (or, to be more specific, co-directing it with his editor).

You can refresh your memory with the trailer here, although I can't verify that this link will work. I'll fix it later on tonight if it doesn't work.

DiCaprio Joins Poker Stars?

The guys who wrote Rounders, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, have sold an untitled pitch to Paramount about online casinos, and Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way Productions have signed on to star and produce. Those dudes beat the "poker craze" by a good five years with Rounders, so maybe they'll be able to recapture that feeling with this new flick. They've worked on other projects since then (Walking Tall, Ocean's 13, The Girlfriend Experience, etc), so it'll be interesting to see if they just wanted to go back to the basics here.

In related news, the whole package (DiCaprio, Appian Way, Koppelman, and Levien) have teamed up for Beat the Reaper, which I mentioned back in January. To jog your memory: that one's about a former-mafia-hitman-turned-doctor who goes into witness protection, but is recognized years later by a patient who is still in the mafia. Sounds pretty clutch to me. And since we're on the DiCaprio train right now, check out the trailer for Scorsese's newest, Shutter Island (which comes out in October of this year), over at Ben's Movie Reviews.

LaBeouf Says No To Y: The Last Man

I know it's been a hot minute since I've updated this page, but this post completely defines the type of stuff that I do on this site. I post things that I find interesting and I don't bother with every insignificant update that floods the internet on a daily basis. For all of those updates, you can check out my man Head Hero's blog here. (I'm not saying that he deals ONLY with insignificant things, because he covers the good stuff, too. But the amount of coverage he provides just isn't my bag. I could care less about half of that stuff, and I know you guys don't give a crap either.)

Shia LaBeouf has turned down the role of Yorick Brown in DJ Caruso's long-in-development adaptation of Y: The Last Man. Such a shame, but Shia's got a point on this one: he says the character is too similar to Sam Witwicky from the Transformers movies.

"You take Sam and you put a monkey on his shoulder. I don't know if that's a big differential. It seems like he's the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again. I'm not willing to make that movie currently, and may be too old to play the role by the time it does come around."

As much as I would have loved to see Shia in this role, I guess he's right. If he has any chance of breaking out of his stereotype and not coming down with a bad case of Michael Cera syndrome, he needs to start taking some parts that are a little off the beaten path for him. Here's hoping he finds a good one soon.

Aliens Vs. The Pearsons??????

My friend Jared sent me a version the poster for this film that said "The Aliens Vs. The Pearsons" on it. I was just as confused as he was as to what the hell this movie was all about, so I checked out the trailer and this is what I found. It's a shame that the Pearson name is sullied like this.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Roundup 5/19

There's been an Information SuperStorm(TM) sighted in your path, so get ready for the whirlwind of destruction and movie mayhem that's about to blow you right out of your computer chair.

• In a shocking series of events, Hollywood has actually decided to greenlight some original material. [It IS based on a book, but at least it's not another mindless remake, sequel, etc.] The project is called The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break, and centers around the actual minotaur from Greek mythology. Apparently, he has survived Thesus's attempt on his life, and is now living in modern times working as a short order cook in a diner. He lives in a trailer park and falls for an epileptic waitress named Kelly. John Stevenson, co-director of Kung Fu Panda, will direct this as a live action movie.


• Contradicting previous reports that Stallone will appear in a Cliffhanger sequel, now the word comes that Cliffhanger is getting the reboot treatment. The producer made a comment about how "they just rebooted Star Trek, we're going to do the same to Cliffhanger." What the F is this guy smoking? There were ten Star Trek films, let alone hundreds (if not hundreds of thousands) of episodes of television devoted to the franchise; Cliffhanger has one movie. I hardly think the two can be compared. That said, I really enjoy the Stallone version for it's cinematography and intense swearing by John Lithgow, so rewatch that if you haven't seen it in a while.


• Martin Scorsese is planning a film about Frank Sinatra, approved by the heirs to Old Blue Eyes' estate. Frank's daughter Tina "trusts Scorsese implicitly" to present the truth about her dad. The guy who wrote Field of Dreams and Sneakers (also directing the latter) is writing the screenplay, (keeping in the tradition of one-word titles) called Sinatra. Johnny Depp is reportedly being considered for the role, but that claim hasn't been corroborated yet. I'm guessing it'll be a little while before we hear anything else about this project - Scorsese's a busy guy post-Oscar - but if they fast track this thing, we should be hearing some more confirmation regarding casting in the next couple months. And to those Sinatra enthusiasts out there, fear not - apparently the role won't require any singing.


• A while back, Disney had a bevy of announcements regarding their upcoming film projects. Updates included Johnny Depp as Tonto in the Lone Ranger, confirmation of National Treasure 3 and Pirates 4, and more. One of those updates now gets a little more light shed on it - the Mouse House will make a live action film based on the Tomorrowland ride, trying to capitalize on the success of the first Pirates of the Carribbean. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been pegged to star, playing a test pilot named Rip who gets thrown 350 years into the future while testing a concept plane. It's being written by the same guys who wrote The Hangover, the upcoming flick that could end up being my favorite comedy of the summer, so I have a little faith in this. It's gotta be better than Race to Witch Mountain, right?


• In "Why God, Why?" news, Peter Berg (The Kingdom, Hancock) is directing a Battleship movie, based on the classic board game. Robert "Twilight" Pattinson is rumored to be a part of the project. Humanity collectively weeps.


• In Marvel film news, Kenneth Branagh's Thor is finally getting some casting under way. Chris Helmsworth (George Kirk from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek) will play the hammer-wielding hero, and British actor Tom Hiddleston will play his conniving brother Loki. The movie is scheduled for release in 2011. What happened to Josh Hartnett as Loki? Who the hell is Tom Hiddleston? And is Natalie Portman still being considered for the love interest? All this and more in future episodes here at Ben's Daily Movie News!


• Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes has a trailer. I'm sure action adventure fans will be pleased, as it features many slow-mo punches, explosions, jumping through windows, etc. I don't know about how quality it will be overall, but it looks kinda fun. We'll find out on Christmas Day.

Keanu Reeves in...Jekyll

This sounds fake. Like it could be one of those "Funny or Die" parody videos. But bake me a cake and call me grandma, it's real.

Keanu Reeves has been signed to play the dueling personas of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a modern retelling of the tale from Universal.

Look, Universal - I'm not trying to tell you how to do your jobs, but you might want to hire someone with actual acting ability to play such a classic character. If you're going to make ANOTHER Jekyll and Hyde adaptation (how many times has that been done?), then just make a movie out of the outstanding BBC TV series that came out a few years ago. To the readers, I'd highly suggest checking that out any way you can get your hands on it.

Hey Mikey - This One's For You

Yeah, these shirts are on sale at this website and you can get them for around 18 bucks. Thanks to Cinematical for tracking these down. (There's one that looks like John McClane's shirt from the original Die Hard, and a Bruce Lee one as well.)

DC Drops The Ball Again, ETC

Big surprise, DC has done it again. By delaying Green Lantern until the summer of 2011 (are you kidding me?), they have proven that they honestly have no plans to even try to catch up with Marvel Studios' recent dominance.* Mind boggling. By the time GL hits theaters, Iron Man 2 and Thor will already have been released, and The First Avenger: Captain America will finish out the summer on a high note building anticipation for The Avengers, which will come out that next summer (2012, assuming the world doesn't end). Effectively, this leaves Green Lantern stuck in the ver forgettable territory of mid-summer heatwaves.

Speaking of Green Lantern, forgettable actor Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers) is rumored to be at the top of the pile of candidates for donning the green spandex and ring. I don't take this to mean anything as of yet, since both Anton Yelchin and Chris Pine (both of Star Trek fame) have been talked about for this slot as well - and both quickly debunked. I'll be sure to let you know about the official announcement whenever it occurs.

In unrelated news, Warner Brothers has pushed Zack Snyder's live action follow up to Watchmen, called Sucker Punch, back from 2010 to 2011 as well. Weak-freaking-sauce. I hate it when films that I'm excited for get delayed. Synopsis has been compared to "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns."

One thing that IS coming out in 2K10 is the third entry into the Harold and Kumar series, appropriately titled A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. Expect massive blasphemy, nudity, and copious amounts of drug use - all possibly on or near a nativity scene. And you better believe NPH is getting down on that action.

*OK, OK - The Dark Knight is a pretty freaking huge exception, but it's been a few months now and we haven't actually heard any commitment from Nolan and his crew on a sequel. I know Warner Brothers is being nice to the guy who made them some serious bank, but you've got to put your foot down at some point if you ever want to lock anything down.

20,000 Leagues Adds A "Rock" Star

*UPDATE* - Apparently the "facts" presented in this article have already been disproven. McG said yesterday that he has never spoken to The Rock about this role. I guess that's what I get for trusting a .pdf picture. Thanks a lot, Production Weekly.
*END OF UPDATE*

Sorry - I just threw up at my own article title.

According to Production Weekly, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has joined McG's adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. McG has recently said he wanted Will Smith to star in the movie, but no announcement to that effect has arrived yet. Filming should begin in Australia later this year.

Even if Will Smith doesn't join this (which he still might), I'm fine with this because Dwayne Johnson is the man. If the two are in the same movie, that would be extra awesome. Here's hoping Terminator Salvation is as good as we all think and McG can start making some solid movies instead of more Charlie's Angels sequels.