We haven’t heard anything on World War Z for a few months, and the last thing we did hear was from director Marc Forster who said the film’s script still needed a lot of development and is “still far from realization”. Now we have an update from author Max Brooks who commented on the scripting process and expects a new draft in a few weeks time:
From MTV:
The initial script, the first draft from Straczynski, left the book’s author very impressed. “I read Straczynski’s first draft, and it was f—ing brilliant. As the book writer i know that’s sacrilege to say, but it really was good,” Brooks said. “I turned to my wife and said ‘Honey, this is as good as the book. This is gonna be an amazing movie.’”
First drafts being what they are, you can expect that the script has changed some since Brooks first read it. “You know… the studio comes in and gives their notes and Forster came in and gave his notes,” he explained. “Carnahan was brought in for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe he’s doing a polish, maybe he’s doing a top-down rewrite. I know that his draft is supposed to come in in the next few weeks.”
World War Z takes place ten years after the human victory over a world wide Zombie epidemic, and above you can see some concept art for the film.
It was only a few months ago that we were hearing Alexander Skarsgard’s name being thrown around as a possible contender to play Thor, but the role eventually went to Chris Hemsworth. However, there will still be a Skarsgard in Thor. Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander’s father, recently revealed that he had joined the cast to Swedish site Ystads Allehanda:
Stellan Skarsgård is ready for a role in action movie “Thor.”
Everything is still secret about the project and Skarsgård can not reveal what role he will play.
“They wanted me to sign without reading the script. That I refused to do. Then they sent one to me that was so coded that I could only print one copy,” said Stellan Skarsgård to TT spectra.
Stellan is probably best known for playing Bootstrap Bill in two Pirates of the Caribbean films. He also had a role in Angels and Demons earlier this year. No word on who he will be playing in Thor, although we do know he will be joining Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson and filming is expected to begin early next year.
When Warner Bros. decided to undertake the Harry Potter adventure one of the most important requirements was to put together a strong cast. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have come into their own now, but back during the first few movies they were basically learning on the job, and more experienced actors were needed to help carry the films. Thankfully Warner Bros did just that by bringing on-board legendary British actors such as Alan Rickman, Richard Harris, and two time Oscar winner Maggie Smith to play supporting roles, and over the years it has been these actors that have made the movies special, for me anyway.
Nothing like the Harry Potter franchise had been undertaken before and it would require everyone involved, especially the actors, to keep spaces in their diary’s free for the next decade. Things were running smoothly cast-wise until Richard Harris unfortunately died in 2002, and the role of Dumbledore was then taken on by Michael Gambon in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
For the past 5 years the same actors have been appearing on our screens again and again, although fans of the franchise may have noticed something was different about one particular actress in the latest outing Half-Blood Prince. Maggie Smith who plays Minerva McGonagall wasn’t as ‘active’ on-screen as we had seen her in past instalments. I knew from previous reports that Smith had breast cancer and was undergoing treatment, although I didn’t know how bad it was for her during filming. Smith recently spoke to The Times about her cancer battle, and on filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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Anyone who is/was surprised that Zombieland took this weekend’s box office in the US hasn’t seen the movie, because this flick is a fun, episodic romp through the inevitable zombie apocalypse that is more likely to thrill than offend. The nice thing about a zombie horror/comedy/road-trip film that clocks in under 90 minutes is that the enjoyable moments never stop coming and – on the off chance this film doesn’t do it for you – the pacing stays consistent.
The flick is the directorial debut from Ruben Fleischer who has directed a few episodes of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show and from Paul Wenick and Rhett Reese, two writers that cut their teeth in television.
The plot follows Jesse Eisenberg (reappearing in a “land” movie after this year’s Adventureland) as Columbus, a geeky shut-in WoW player who finds himself one of the last human survivors of the zombie apocalypse based on his social anxieties and list of rules to survive Zombieland. Along the way, he meets Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson (unironically doing his best Woody Harrelson persona), a snake-skin jacketed redneck who has a penchant for zombie killing.
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X-Men Origins: Magneto has been in development hell ever since the writers strike in 2007/2008 and it’s been a frustrating two years. They were scouting for locations and budgeting before the WGA put down their pens, but then David Goyer started working on The Unborn (12% on Rotten Tomatoes) and then he moved onto the his TV show FlashForward.
Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox were waiting to see how X-Men Origins: Wolverine fared ($371 million worldwide), and have since been developing a Wolverine 2, Deadpool and X-Men: First Class. Magneto, however, looks like it will be in development hell for a while.
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Shutter Island would have been released yesterday if Paramount didn’t push it back till next February, however in honour of the former release date they have provided the internet with a new trailer.
In the film Leonardo DiCaprio plays one of two U.S marshals who are investigating the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on an island in Massachusetts. Trouble arises when they are deceived by the hospital’s chief administrator. Then there is a hurricane which traps them on the island and then to top if off the inmates start rioting. You know there won’t be much smiling from Leo in this film!
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For a guy who’s not actually attached to direct the next Superman movie (whatever that will be) Ninja Assassin director James McTeigue has been talking about it quite a lot recently. This is most likely because he’s been asked about it, as rumours were swirling around that Warner Bros. were eyeing him up to direct. In August he shared his vision on what he would do with the caped one if he came on-board to direct, and now he has told FirstShowing that some discussions have taken place.
I asked James if there was any truth to that rumor that he, or the Wachowskis, might be involved in another movie. His answer started out short and sweet: “Maybe some truth to… I’ve had some discussions, the Wachowskis to a lesser degree, but the Superman franchise is in a strange kind of place at the moment,” McTeigue revealed. “I think they’re still trying to work out the mechanics of how that can come together.”
“I think I would be interested in doing it if they let me do it the way I wanted to do it. I would say that, if you take the Richard Donner Supermans and the last Superman [from Bryan Singer], I think that Superman is probably ripe for a bit of a change up. I think society has changed around the core idea of what Superman was.”
“And I’m not saying you do the ubiquitous dark Superman, I’m not saying that… I’m just saying that I think there are some things that you could excise from the Superman mythology that people would get into it, if you took the world that he was in and changed that a bit, and maybe even project that into the future a bit. I think you don’t really have to play into the origin story anymore. I think there’s a whole bunch of things you could do to make that film more alive and exciting again.”
Last month head of DC Entertainment, Diane Nelson, said that no work on a new Superman movie is currently taking place, although Ninja Assassin will be released next month and if that become a hit then Warner Bros. may want to have more discussions with Mr. McTeigue.
What would you do if everyone in your small, isolated, horror movie setting town started to go crazy? Personally I’d move, but some people aren’t as lucky and the only option is to get the shotguns out. The Crazies follows the inhabitants of a small Iowa town who are suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply.
The film stars Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, Timothy Olyphant, Joe Anderson, and is directed by Breck Eisner. His last film Sahara wasn’t all that, but this looks quite good.
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Theatrical trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man
First official image from Skyfall released
Matthew Vaughn will direct the X-Men: First Class sequel
