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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It’s been quite some time since we first saw Tom Hanks lead a group of soldiers on an emotionally gripping journey through Nazi-occupied France in Saving Private Ryan, and frankly it’s one of those rare films who’s haunting images still impact me today. Well, according to THR, Hanks and Gary Goetzman, along with the pair’s Playtone production company, will be teaming up with Universal to produce the pre-WWII drama, In the Garden of Beasts.

Hanks will also possibly be starring in the adaptation of Erik Larson’s non-fiction novel, which would mean a welcomed return for the star to the tradegic era of Hitler and the Nazis, as well as yet another return to historical dramas. With Hanks producing television mini-series such as The Pacific, Band Of Brothers, and John Adams and also starring in Charlie Wilson’s War, it’s safe to say that the star is quite the history buff.

Of course with a main focus on the early days of Nazi Germany before WWII, it seems In the Garden of Beasts may be more of a dramatic character piece and less explosive battle scenes, which would mean a star like Hanks would definitely provide the dramatic punch needed to bring an already captivating plot to sophisticated heights.

Here’s the official synopsis of In the Garden of Beasts:

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha… Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance–and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Those of you familiar with Larson’s novels may notice that he’s also the author of The Devil In The White City, a book also getting the film treatment with another notable actor/producer at the helm- Leonardo Di Caprio. So with a devoted fan-base and large popularity, In the Garden Of Beasts could no doubt use a big star like Hanks to give it a well-needed dramatic, and respectable, treatment.

Hanks has recently been working on the Wachowski’s Cloud Atlas and Paul Greengrass’ A Captain’s Duty, with the latter being Hanks’ next appearance, set to begin shooting in February 2012. This may actually provide with a big enough window in Hanks’ schedule, making the chances for him to star in the film pretty good. Only time will tell, though, once more announcements start to circulate, but until then keep your eyes peeled because we’ll keep you posted with each update.

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When news first hit last fall that Universal is planning a remake of Scarface, it was if the world was coming to an end and the little faith most fans have left in Hollywood seemed to have been thrown out the window. And who would blame them with the original being so well loved as well as being considered one of the greatest gangster films of all time?

Well, Universal’s planned remake may have its credibility slightly renewed with the announcement that the writer of Training Day, David Ayer, will be handling the script, according to Deadline.

This announcement comes as a pleasant surprise to some and seems to go hand-in-hand with Universal’s aim to make this new version of Scarface into a story made specifically for the modern age, albeit dealing with the relevant issues and controversies that the original did so well for the 80′s.

Ayer of course isn’t just known for the gritty Training day, but has quite the reputation with urban cop/crime dramas such as The Fast and The Furious, Dark Blue, and S.W.A.T, as well as directing both Street Kings and Harsh Times (which he also wrote). So obviously the script may certainly be in good hands, and it will be definitely be interesting to see a new storyline and approach to the source material.

Ayer is known to be quite fond in Los Angeles as the starring locale, so this may be the obvious choice, which could mean a Mexican cartel of some sort may in fact be the main focus. This may actually prove to be a refreshing contrast from the original’s Miami setting and Cuban drug lord, but honestly we can speculate all day with what little we have to go on for now.

To get a small taste of Ayer’s thoughts on writing the script, check out what he had to say in an interview with Deadline below:

“This is a fantasy for me, I can still remember when I saw the film at 13 and it blew my mind, I sought it out; I went after it hard. I see it as the story of the American dream, with a character whose moral compass points in a different direction. That puts it right in my wheelhouse. I studied both the original Ben Hecht-Howard Hawks movie and the DePalma-Pacino version and found some universal themes. I’m still under the hood figuring out the wiring that will translate, but both films had a specificity of place, there was unapologetic violence, and a main character who socially scared the shit out of people, but who had his own moral code. Each was faithful to the underworld of its time. There are enough opportunities in the real world today that provide an opportunity to do this right. If it was just an attempt to remake the 1983 film, that would never work.”

So the speculations that the remake will just be a rehashing of the original can rest now that we can see that Ayer respects the original and its overall message enough to leave well enough alone and ultimately use that passion to create an entirely different story that still captures that same message.

I have no doubt that there will be still an abundant amount of sceptics out there, and even though their thoughts can be justified, we can at feel a bit of relief that we have an entirely capable writer, and who knows, maybe it really won’t be that bad (let’s hope).

So what do you think? Are you still upset that the remake is in fact being made? Or are you a little excited now that the writer has been announced? Comment below and let me know your thoughts!

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Nowadays, it’s become just an average everyday occurrence that we come to expect when Johnny Depp is given a new role to play. He’s played so many diverse characters from Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise to John Dillinger in Public Enemies, so it’s no surprise really that, according to The Hollywood Reporter, his next role will be literary icon Dr. Seuss, also known as Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Depp has played a famous writer before (shocking right?) in Finding Neverland as the man who created Peter Pan, James Matthew Barrie, so taking on Dr. Seuss will be familiar territory for him. Universal, along with their Illumination Entertainment production house, will be working on the biopic. Even though the two companies are responsible for the CGI hit Despicable Me and also working on an adaptation of Seuss’ The Lorax, don’t expect a heavily colorful and CG heavy environment a la Alice and Wonderland.

However, a few animated elements may still come into play considering Seuss is responsible for literary classics such as The Cat in The Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and Horton Hears a Who among others. The film will also take a look at Seuss’ life before he hit children’s book fame, including his career as a magazine illustrator in the 1920s and later as a political cartoonist during World War II.

Depp seems like the perfect candidate to pull it off and his schedule continues to grow, including this year’s The Rum Diary and even as Tonto in the long-stalled The Lone Ranger, so it’s safe to say we will be seeing a lot of him for the next few years. Other than Depp producing as well, no more news regarding production details has sprouted but we’ll keep you posted when more comes about.

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Production seemed to be going smoothly on The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Stephen King’s epic book series to be directed by Ron Howard. Recent Oscar nominee Javier Bardem had recently been confirmed to lead the film, which Universal hoped would span three movies, with TV miniseries in between each film.

However news has hit the web that Universal are having second thoughts about the ambitious project (as far as the budget is concerned) and according to Deadline “Universal Pictures has put pre-production staff on hiatus as they discuss ways to bring down the budget”.

The planned September start has been delayed while Universal, director Ron Howard and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman discuss the next step. One option may be to take The Dark Tower to Warner Bros., but that’s only if Universal decides the project is too big of a risk.

The Dark Tower follows a gunslinger called Roland Deschain who is the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers, and humanity’s last hope to save a civilization that will fall unless he finds the Dark Tower. Ron Howard says he sees the trilogy as their answer to the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Ring trilogy, with an old West setting instead of Middle Earth.

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Last month Disney decided against making Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion (also known as Horizons) as the “gritty PG-13 science fiction action project didn’t fit into the Disney mandate”. This lead the Tron Legacy director to look elsewhere for studio backing, and now Deadline reports that Universal has emerged as the front runner to finance and distribute the film.

The graphic novel on which the movie is based is set “in a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition and the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jak discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows.”

Deadline says Tom Cruise “doesn’t have a deal at this point, but they are talking”, so he may jump onto it now that At The Mountains of Madness is no longer happening. Universal back out of Madness because they didn’t want to spend $150 million on an R-rated horror film, but Oblivion will have an easier time getting made as the budget will be around $100 million.

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Two days ago we got the rather depressing news that Universal had bailed on Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, despite James Cameron acting as producer and Tom Cruise ready to sign on. The studio was concerned about the $150 million budget and R-rating, and in a lengthy interview with Deadline del Toro spoke about his disappointment, but still hopes to make his dream project in the future.

Here are a few snippets:

They were blown away by the visual presentation, they openly admitted to loving the screenplay, saying it was dead on. And we hit the target on the budget they gave us, not a figure I arrived at. This came after months and months of story boarding, haggling with VFX companies, and bringing down the budget number. The week before the decision, I was scouting in the border of Canada and Alaska. We were a week away from opening offices in Toronto. We were crewed up, and frankly, I am as puzzled as most people are. One of the biggest, biggest points for me with this movie was the scope and the R, going hand in hand.

I think the R should be worn like a badge of merit in promoting the movie. To say, this is not a gory movie, not a movie full of profanity or violence, but it’s a really intense movie.

I have learned in the last few years that God laughs as we make plans. The beauty of it is, in the last few days, I spoke to Tom, who has been incredibly supportive and who said, ‘Let’s keep going, let’s make this movie down the road.’ He’s definitely that interested and that happy where we were creatively. So we have good legs to travel on, if the time and the opportunity present itself. But we’re going to fight for that to happen. I’ve been offered four or five times at different studios the chance to make this movie in what I think was the wrong way. With $20 million or $30 million less than what I need, with a contractual PG-13, and I don’t want to do it that way.

It’s definitely worth reading the full interview here.

Guillermo del Toro confirmed that Pacific Rim was next and the plan is to start shooting in September, although he said he couldn’t go into detail about it at this time. It was descibed earlier this week as “a PG-13 tent pole-sized project with big monsters and the creation of a new world”, so it’s something del Toro can get his teeth into after nearly 3 years without directing.

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Guillermo del Toro certainly doesn’t waste any time. Two weeks after he departed The Hobbit due to continued delays in production del Toro has apparently dived straight into his ‘first look’ deal with Universal, with a Van Helsing movie first on the cards.

From Pajiba:

Universal Pictures is developing another Van Helsing movie. However, it’s not a remake. It’s simply based upon the same fictional vampire hunter character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a great character who was, by all accounts, given an unfair shake in Stephen Sommers’ awful 2004 Van Helsing movie (which now sits at number 13 on our list of worst blockbusters of all time).

Here’s the good news: The movie, which is being developed at del Toro productions, will be based on a forthcoming treatment written by Guillermo del Toro himself, which is being described as an “action horror story.”

del Toro has a thing for monsters, having previously expressed interest in making his own version of Frankenstein, so Van Helsing will no doubt get his creative juices flowing. No word as to whether he will direct, although he has a four-picture deal with Universal so his next directing gig will probably be announced in the near future.

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Yesterday, as the news was pouring in about the death of Michael Jackson by cardiac arrest at the age of 50, I was flipping between MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, scanning Twitter and on the phone with people who call me when pop culture figures die.

As I absorbed the news, I completely forgot that Brüno (July 10th state-side) has a La Toya Jackson scene in it, where the Sacha Baron Cohen character asks La Toya for her brother’s number then mocks his voice and glove. Brüno eventually cons her out of her Blackberry – after serving her sushi on a naked Mexican – only to read MJ’s number out loud (in German, and it’s a 555 number). This sends La Toya stomping out of the interview.

Now, various reports, including The Guardian, The Wrap and Risky Biz Blog claim that this decision has already been made. This from Risky Biz:

But after Jackson’s death on Thursday, the studio and filmmakers decided to remove the scene for the premiere screening out of sensitivity to the Jackson family. The film now cuts directly from Baron Cohen’s gonzo interview with Paula Abdul to a focus-group for his faux reality show.

Still, because many critics attended those earlier showings, its content could make its way into reviews. Indeed, removing the scene in a way calls more attention to it, though the studio clearly wanted to avoid even the perception of poor taste at any cost.

“We decided to take it out for tonight, and we’ll reassess before the release whether to keep it out,” said director Larry Charles at the premiere’s afterparty. A spokesperson for Universal also confirmed that it had not come to any decision on future showings.

Several copies of the film already exist, as the film has begun press and test audience screenings in a few US cities, but it’s unclear if more prints have already been rolled out. Cutting a scene out of a movie is all good, snipping fun until it starts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on interns rooting out the particular reel of the film and trimming some negative. Alternatively, though not cheaper by a long shot, Uni could replace only the reel of film with the scene in question on it, also meaning hefty budgets of new printing costs.

All this after reports that Brüno was already edited so it wouldn’t offend the “Hollywood Gay community.”

I can understand the sentiment of not wanting to pick the scab of the sudden death of a pop icon, or wanting to give the man’s family a few weeks without Jacksons being the punchline in this difficult time. However, if the cut really is what Risky Biz Blog claims above – from Abdul to the focus group – then no one will know that when I call Brad Pitt “Bradolf Pittler” that I’m stealing from Sacha Baron Cohen.

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