Last year we heard that Angelina Jolie’s next movie would be an untitled Luc Besson thriller set up at Universal. However last month Disney hired Robert Stromberg to direct Maleficent, a live-action take on the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty, and now Jolie has confirmed that will be her next project instead.

From THR:

Jolie, speaking at a crowded news conference Saturday at the Berlin International Film Festival, where her feature directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey is screening out of competition, brought up the project — without directly mentioning a title — when asked about the next step in her career.

“I haven’t acted in two years, and I haven’t done anything else since this [Land of Blood and Honey]. The next thing I am looking at is a Disney movie,” said the actress

Jolie has previously expressed her enthusiasm for the Maleficent script, which has been written by Alice in Wonderland screenwriter Linda Woolverton. While Robert Stromberg hasn’t direct a movie before, he served as production designer on Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Sam Raimi’s upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful. Stromberg has also worked on visual effects for such films as 2012, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Master and Commander.

Disney is aiming to begin shooting Maleficent sometime this year, so Luc Besson’s thriller will have to wait.

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According to Deadline Disney has hired Robert Stromberg to direct Maleficent, a live-action take on the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty.

Tim Burton was originally intending to direct, having hired his Alice in Wonderland screenwriter Linda Woolverton to write the script, but in the end he decided against it. Names such as The Fighter director David O. Russell, Harry Potter director David Yates, and Black Swan‘s Darren Aronofsky were been mentioned here and there, but Stromberg now has the gig.

While he hasn’t direct a movie before, he served as production designer on Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Sam Raimi’s upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful. Stromberg has also worked on visual effects for such films as 2012, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Master and Commander.

Angelina Jolie is attached to star as Maleficent, but filming may not begin for some time as she will next shoot “a dramatic thriller that is rooted in true scientific elements” with Luc Besson (The Professional), and then plans to team up with Ridley Scott for an historical epic about Gertrude Bell, an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who became an influential figure in Middle East politics during the run-up to WWI.

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Angelina Jolie’s directorial and screenwriting debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, hits limited screens in a few weeks, but people have been wondering when Jolie will next be seen in-front of the camera. Disney’s Maleficent, Sony’s Cleopatra epic, and a potential Salt sequel have all had movement over recent months, but it looks like Jolie’s next film will be a thriller with Luc Besson.

According to Deadline Universal has acquired 80% of the worldwide distribution rights for the movie, which is being described as “a dramatic thriller that is rooted in true scientific elements”. Luc Besson (The Professional, La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element) has written the script and will direct, and filming is set to begin next April.

Following this Jolie is expected to team with Ridley Scott for a historical epic about Gertrude Bell, an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who became an influential figure in Middle East politics during the run-up to WWI. The Constant Gardener writer Jeffrey Caine is currently rewriting the script.

With Jolie now a director it will only increase the amount of projects she has in the pipeline, but at least they will keep her busy for the foreseeable future.

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According to Variety Eric Roth, writer of Ali, Munich and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is in talks to write the script for Sony’s Cleopatra.

Angelina Jolie is still attached to play the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, and The Social Network‘s David Fincher is still in the frame to direct.

Producer Scott Rudin said this new take, an adaptation of the Stacy Schiff book Cleopatra: A Life, will be “a much more grown-up sophisticated version” than previous Hollywood efforts:

“She’s not a sex kitten, she’s a politician, strategist, warrior. In the Joseph Mankiewicz movie, Elizabeth Taylor is a seductress, but the histories of Cleopatra have been written by men. This is the first to be written by a woman. It felt like such a blow-the-doors-off-the-hinges idea of how to tell it, impossible to resist.

Like most historical epics, the movie won’t be cheap, but Jolie has proven time and time again that she is a box office draw with The Tourist and Salt making $278 and $293 million worldwide last year. Add an Oscar winning screenwriter and frequent nominee David Fincher into the mix and Sony should have a success project on their hands.

No news on when filming will begin, but Roth will apparently begin writing within the next several weeks so there could be movement sometime next year.

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In a few years Angelina Jolie will reach the grand age of 40, which is often the age actresses see a decline in the quality and quantity of roles in an industry which worships at the alter of youth. Luckily for Angelina Jolie she’s the only actress studios will put $100m+ behind (Salt), and her upcoming projects (Cleopatra, Maleficent) indicate she’ll be in demand for a while.

To ensure longevity actors have often turned to directing (George Clooney, Clint Eastwood, Ben Affleck), and Angelina Jolie is aiming to do the same with her directorial debut In The Land of Blood and Honey.

The film, which Jolie also wrote, is a romantic drama about the troubled relationship between a Muslim woman and a Serbian man in the midst of the Bosnian war. Jolie said she wanted to “tell a story of how human relationships and behavior are deeply affected by living inside a war”.

You can watch the impressive trailer (via The Playlist) below:

It’s too early to tell whether In The Land of Blood and Honey has a shot during the upcoming awards season, but it has an Oscar-friendly release date of December 23rd with FilmDistrict distributing. It would stand to make more at the box office if Jolie starred in it herself, but I think Jolie is just trying to prove she can direct (and from the trailer it looks like she can).

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Since Alice and Wonderland made $1 billion last year producer Joe Roth has become involved with many new fairy-tale adaptations. He’s producing Snow White and the Huntsman with Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron for Universal, Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful with James Franco and Mila Kunis, and in March he came on-board as producer for a new version of Peter Pan with Channing Tatum.

Now according to Deadline Roth is in talks to produce Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent, a live-action take on the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty.

Tim Burton was originally intending to direct, having hired his Alice in Wonderland screenwriter Linda Woolverton to write the script, but in the end he decided against it and Disney has since been searching for a director. Names such as The Fighter director David O. Russell, Harry Potter director David Yates, and Black Swan‘s Darren Aronofsky have been mentioned here and there, but none have been confirmed.

With Joe Roth coming on-board to produce the project is clearly a priority for Disney, so a director will likely be found soon. Disney won’t want to keep Angelina Jolie waiting.

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Since Tim Burton decided against directing Angelina Jolie in Disney’s Maleficent, a live-action take on the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty, a number of potential directors have mentioned as a replacement.

First there was Harry Potter director David Yates, then Darren Aronofsky, and last week The Fighter director David O. Russell was said to be circling the project. However one director Disney hasn’t approached, who “would love to” direct, is Guillermo del Toro.

From Hero Complex:

“Let me put it this way, if they ask I’ll take the meeting,” Del Toro said, speaking by phone from Toronto. “I think Maleficent’s dragon is the only design with the wings separate from the front legs, the only time that design has ever worked. And let me tell you how much of a fan I am. I have a collection of over two or three dozen Maleficent figures, some of them four or five feet tall. I own about 10 pieces of conceptual art from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ that include the dragon and a lot more pieces that are just from ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ It’s one of my three favorite Disney films. I would love to. But I don’t want to put too many hopes on it. They’re probably on a fast track and I cannot take any more projects on a fast track. “

del Toro was close to making a movie featuring a dragon when he was attached to direct The Hobbit, but as we know that wasn’t meant to be. The director is currently working on his epic monster movie Pacific Rim which has already entered pre-production, and is aiming to begin principal photography later this year for a summer 2013 release.

If Disney wanted del Toro (why wouldn’t they?) Maleficent would be unlikely to move forward until 2013, so the chances are the studio will find a director who isn’t booked up for the next two years. It’s a shame though, as Guillermo del Toro’s take on Maleficent would definitely be worth the wait.

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Last month we heard that Tim Burton would no longer be directing Disney’s Maleficent, a live-action take on the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty. Burton never officially signed on, but he hired his Alice in Wonderland screenwriter Linda Woolverton to write the script.

THR now reports that The Fighter director David O. Russell has surfaced as one of the directors circling the project, which has Angelina Jolie attached for the lead role.

Russell recently left the film adaptation of the videogame Uncharted due to “creative differences”, which freed him up for other movies. Over the past few days there has been talk of him next directing an adaptation of the novel The Silver Linings Playbook which has Mark Wahlberg attached to star as Pat Peoples, a former high school history teacher who has just been released from a mental institution and plans on reconciling with his estranged wife.

Celebrity stalking site JustJared reported that Jolie and Russell had a meeting this week for The Silver Linings Playbook, with the actress apparently interested in playing Wahlberg’s wife, but they could very well have been meeting to discuss Maleficent.

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Deadline reports that Sony Pictures is moving forward with a sequel to Salt. The movie starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor was released last summer and made $293 million worldwide, proving Jolie can still bring the crowds whenever action is involved.

Kurt Wimmer wrote the first film and he is back to write the script for the sequel. Unlike with Wanted, Angelina Jolie is actually interested in returning as her character Evelyn Salt, so there is a good chance Salt 2 will actually get made.

Phillip Noyce, who directed the first film, in unlikely to return as he said last year that:

“If there ever is a sequel, better its directed by someone with a completely fresh take on what I believe could be a totally entertaining and complex series of stories.”

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Though the first installment never fully captured this guy‘s attention, Kung Fu Panda 2 actually had me yearning for more. When taking that feeling into account, the only true disappointment to note here is that the flick barely runs 90 minutes.  Every animated-action engagement felt climatic from the get-go. The landscape this adventure was placed upon will give audiences an eye-gasm.

With all that praise being said, there isn’t a ton of laughter that will be flying out of one’s mouth. Chalk this up to a personal preference, but there should be multiple laugh-out-loud moments when looking at the make-up of this product. First off, it’s an obese Panda that does Kung Fu. And Jack Black is voicing this man-child. That combination alone should induce a lot more than a soft-smile. In reality, it doesn’t; but this is something the viewer will not dwell on after this story wisps through the screen.

Using a different type of animation within the modern 3D CGI, a back-story is projected to the audience regarding an evil Peacock in Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman). Shen was banished from the great kingdom by his parents, stemming from the horrors he committed against a race of Pandas, based on a foretold prophecy that he will meet his demise from a “black & white” warrior. After he received the boot, he took his army of wolves and vowed to return and rule China.  And the bird lived up to his words. Shen has created a weapon that can counter-act any Kung Fu style. Unleashing this new found fire power (remember it’s ancient China), he begins to destroy all the cities until there are no longer any threats to his reign of terror.

Of course, Po (voiced by Jack Black) and the Furious Five are not just going to sit back and let this happen. So he, Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen), Monkey (voiced by Jackie Chan), Crane (voiced by David Cross) and Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu) travel from the Valley of Peace and battle Shen across rivers, towns and a great fortress. During these exciting battles (that will have people clamoring for the videogame), Po discovers that Shen holds the key to unlocking where he truly came from.

The story is pretty fundamental and obvious (this product is aimed at the kiddies after all), but the execution and environments on-hand create a worthy cinematic experience. Every area Po and his fighting companions explored in this tale brings a sense of wonderment for all ages to engage in.

For those that are just getting introduced to the Kung Fu Panda crew, think of this piece as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ story – with Po representing the immature Michelangelo – being fused with an epic storytelling pattern found in any notable fantasy/adventure flick. The script and the characters are playful and vibrant, and there’s enough moments where the right amount of heart and substance enter in. Seeing young Po as a baby in the recurring hand-drawn animated flashback moments is easily the cutest thing seen on screen this year. (And that’s coming from a wannabe rock star who patterns a portion of his life after Steven Tyler).

When the story does get serious – or even mildly dire at times – the writers are quick to lighten up the mood through the dialogue. Stealing the show in the dialogue department is Gary Oldman as Shen.  The evil, sarcastic Peacock had the perfect balance of being comical one minute and insanely cruel the next.  Oldman found the right amusing tone in his voicing of this arrogant and bitter bird.

So there’s not a ton of laughs, or more specifically, not a ton of NEW laughs on display in this light-hearted piece.  The choreography of a few scenes are set-up to get the younger people giggling.  In the end though, it’s the splendid animation and warm-touching moments that will keep one fully attentive to this adventure.

Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2 trumps the first one and will be pleasing to all audiences. That’s all a sequel of this caliber can ask for. Go in peace…And do not feel guilty about splurging on the 3D.

RATING: 4 out of 5

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