It Continues! ‘Iron Cross’ Filmmaker Sues Variety For Negative Review
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never could get a response from Variety, but the LA Times did. Variety put Robert Koehler’s review of Iron Cross back up, and claimed they had taken it down in order to investigate “factual inaccuracies” after Newton complained. This investigation included Variety’s editor Tim Gray actually sitting and watching the film, and deciding that the trade could stand by Koehler’s review. Gray declined to give his own opinion on the film to the Times.But Iron Cross’ Newton isn’t satisfied. According to the New York Times, Newton has now filed a lawsuit against Variety accusing the paper of “contractual breach, negligence, fraud and deceit, and unfair business practices.” He believes he was betrayed by the paper that suggested the film as a potential awards contender and approached him two months later with the advertising package. They formed an “exclusive media partnership” which included print and online ads, 40,000 DVDs, and inclusion in an awards screening series sponsored by the paper. Newton spent an additional $800,000 to finish the film for its brief theatrical run in Los Angeles that would allow it to qualify for the Oscars. The producer claims this partnership and Oscar campaign was undermined when Koehler ran a negative review of the film. He’s asking for “general damages, punitive damages, restitution of funds paid and an injunction to prevent Variety from further comment on the movie” but has not specified a monetary amount.
Filed under: Awards, Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Movie Marketing, Oscar Watch
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Hollywood Prepares for Dueling ‘Wizard of Oz’ Remakes
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With re-imaginings and reboots being the keyword for every movie being churned around Hollywood’s grist mill, it’s no surprise that they’re turning to L. Frank Baum and The Wizard of Oz for some fresh content to churn around. According to The LA Times, Warner Bros and New Line (blood brothers) are both looking at remakes of The Wizard of Oz in the hopes of grabbing some of that sweet cash that Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is raking in.
Warner Bros’ Oz is very much taking the Alice route. Written by Josh Olson, and produced by Basil Iwanyk, it centers on a granddaughter of Dorothy returning to Oz to vanquish evil. Todd McFarlane is involved somehow, either as producer or consultant which suggests they’re really inspired by his Twisted Land of Oz series. (That link is a bit NSFW.) Who wants to see S&M Dorothy and a monster, flesh-hooked Toto? Hollywood might! Wheee!
New Line’s project is a lot more mysterious. It has a script by Darren Lemke, but no title and it doesn’t come up on his IMDB credits at the moment. It’s also being produced by Temple Hill who has made a killing with Twilight. Could it be something focusing on the later books of Baum’s Oz series? Could they be attempting a more faithful adaptation of Baum’s book? There’s a difference between doing that and a straight-up remake of MGM’s iconic film. For now, at least, no one is looking at doing that.
In the meantime, those who favor Broadway’s re-imaginings over Hollywood’s still have Wicked to look forward to. It’s still in the works at Universal with producer Marc Platt, and all this fervent interest in all things Oz might just give it the fuel injection it needs to make it to the big screen.
Filed under: Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Universal, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
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Christopher Nolan Talks ‘Superman’ and ‘Batman 3′
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Time probably stopped for Superman and DC fans when news broke that Christopher Nolan was going to oversee Warner Bros’ Superman reboot, and that David S. Goyer would be penning a new Man of Steel story. (Possibly even titled Man of Steel.) As Nolan is one of those quiet chaps, there’s been little word on what he and Goyer plan to do, but he’s broken his silence and given an interview with Hero Complex.
Nolan remains tight-lipped on Goyer’s idea, but revealed that it came about as they hit an impasse on Batman 3. “He basically told me, ‘I have this thought about how you would approach Superman.’ I immediately got it, loved it and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma [Thomas] and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.” He wasn’t willing to discuss villains (though he said Mr. Freeze won’t be in it) or what time period it’ll be set in, though he denied all the Man of Steel rumors currently circulating. There’s a Superman reboot, and Goyer is writing the script. That’s all he’ll say, the tease.
Ok, not quite. Nolan quickly quashed any idea that a new Superman movie will lead to a Justice League spinoff. Superman will exist in his own world of Metropolis, and have no conception of a world where other superheroes exists. “A lot of people have approached Superman in a lot of different ways. I only know the way that has worked for us that’s what I know how to do …. Each [hero] serves to the internal logic of the story. They have nothing to do with each other.”
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
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‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ Trailer (10 Second Version)!
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Summit Entertainment has released a 10-second preview of the upcoming Twilight Saga: Eclipse trailer, set to officially hit theaters (in its full form) before prints of Remember Me this weekend, but it will arrive online tomorrow at 6pm PST (9pm EST). Summit has gotten into the habit of releasing these short snippets from their Twilight trailers before releasing the actual full-length preview, and though it totally feels like a cheap move, I suppose it’s better than another boring image of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) embracing in a field of flowers. Vampires like flowers? Who woulda thunk it?
The clip (watch it after the jump) is clearly divided into two parts: One with Edward being all sympathetic to Bella’s struggles, and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) telling Bella that he’ll fight for her until her heart stops beating. Really? Bit much, no? I think I’d be a little freaked out if some dude said that to me; immediately wanting to turn around and be all like, “Wait, who said my heart is gonna stop beating? I know you’re, like, a wolf and all, but that was a little morbid and stuff.”
And … the end. What, it’s only 10 seconds long! How much do you expect them to cram in there, anyway? They did their job, they set up the film’s central conflict — Bella having to choose between Edward and Jacob — and now we all have to hold onto our Robert Pattinson bobble-heads real tight in anticipation of the full-length trailer tomorrow night.
Excited? The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hits theaters on June 30th.
Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
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Child Star Corey Haim, Dead at 38
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I know it’s considered “fun” to see has-been movie actors struggle through Z-grade horror flicks and painfully embarrassing reality shows, but here’s where things get non-fun in a big hurry. Former child star Corey Haim, best known for films like The Lost Boys, Dream a Little Dream, and License to Drive, died a few hours ago from an apparent drug overdose. (Haim had dealt with substance abuse and addiction for most of his adult life, I believe it’s fair to say.)
So that’s the long and the short of it, right? A cute kid star turned into a not-so-cute grown-up with a lot of problems and not all that much self-respect, and now he joins the drug-riddled stat sheet full of cautionary tales. End of story.
Only … Corey Haim was born six days before I was. His was always a welcome face on the movie screen as I was growing up. He was funny and goofy and endearing. And then he vanished, partially because of drug problems, and probably (in large part) because he wasn’t all that great of an actor. But you know what? He was a “bankable” little star for a few good years, but (as it often happens) Hollywood just spit the guy out and he became a C-list tabloid joke. Mostly because of his own doing, absolutely … but it’s still a sad story any way you slice it.
So make your Corey jokes and have a nice hoot, but when you’re done with that, go rent a great little movie called Lucas, and then stop back here and tell me a Corey Haim joke if you still feel like it. I hope you won’t.
Filed under: Obits
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Christopher Nolan Talks Superman: “We Know the Genre and How to Get it Done Right”; Jonathan Nolan at Work on Batman 3
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Remember when DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson denied that Christopher Nolan was overseeing the new Superman film? It’s stories like this that make the movie rumor business so sketchy, because an official denial doesn’t always mean that something isn’t true. We know now that Nolan is overseeing Superman for WB as David Goyer writes the script based on a story by Nolan and Goyer. We know this because Nolan is talking about it. The director promises good things for the next Superman, and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, denies a few other recent rumors.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Nolan is ‘now doing the hard work’ on a script for Batman 3, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and Goyer.
The LA Times has quotes from Nolan and Thomas about Superman. The big one is from Nolan, speaking about the story that Goyer pitched to him when they were stalled for ideas for Batman 3:
It’s very exciting, we have a fantastic story. And we feel we can do it right. We know the milieu, if you will, we know the genre and how to get it done right…[it] is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.
A further quote suggests that we shouldn’t expect a team-up of Batman and Superman, at least from Nolan. The LAT describes Nolan’s Batman films as creating a world in which Batman is the only hero, and that is expected for Superman as well. “Each serves to the internal logic of the story,” says Nolan. “They have nothing to do with each other.”
As to the specific approach, Nolan is cagey. He won’t talk villains or any real specifics.”We’re approaching it in a not dissimilar way [to the Batman films] in terms of trying to find an incredible story in a way that audiences can engage with it the way they engage with contemporary action films,” he says. He explains that the high-profile casting of the original Richard Donner Superman is what led him to his casting approach for the Batman films, so it is appropriate that Nolan is coming around to Superman now.
Will it be called Man of Steel, as previously reported? “I don’t know where this stuff comes from,” says Emma Thomas. But by ’stuff’ she could be referencing a number of different rumors mentioned by the LA Times: the Man of Steel title, the inclusion of Lex Luthor and/or Braniac, and more far-fetched rumors of a period piece. That leaves us at square one with respect to having real details.
With respect to Batman 3, Christopher’s brother Jonathan Nolan is currently writing the script, and few other details are being allowed out. Christopher Nolan says the villain won’t be Mr. Freeze, insists that the primary character ensemble from the previous two films will return, and that it will end their story. He explains,
The key thing that makes the third film an great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story…I’m very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters. My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these thing don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling.
The big question now is: who will direct both Superman and Batman 3? Nolan says he won’t direct Superman, and no other director has yet been named. As for Batman 3, Nolan is keeping quiet while he finishes Inception, but the LAT is certainly under the impression that he will helm the film. As the site says, “Nolan, for the record, also won’t confirm that he is actually directing the third Batman film but, well, of course he is, but Inception isn’t in the can yet and it’s against his code.”
- Christopher Nolan Overseeing Superman for Warner Bros.; Batman 3 Moving Forward
- Screenwriting Tidbits: Batman 3, Puss in Boots and The Flash
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- Rumor: David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan Working on Third Batman Script?
- Every Single Dark Knight Sequel Rumor EVER is B.S.
- The Truth About Those Dark Knight Sequel Casting Rumors
Evan Rachel Wood Exits Spider-Man Broadway Production; Kathryn Bigelow Passed on Directing the Film Reboot
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I can’t stop chuckling about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. That’s the Broadway musical version of the character that has gone way over budget ($50m+) and features music from Bono and The Edge. Granted, I have a great love for the show’s director, Julie Taymor, and perhaps she can pull this one out of the fire, but the whole enterprise seems like a fatally flawed attempt to shoehorn a character into the wrong environment.
Now, just as the musical is set to begin a preview period that has been delayed multiple times, it has lost a lead actress. Evan Rachel Wood is gone, leaving Turn Off the Dark in need of a new Mary Jane.
According to Variety, producers of the show acknowledged that Wood had left, due to a ’scheduling conflict’. That leaves leads Reeve Carney as Peter Parker and Alan Cumming as the Green Goblin. (The latter being a genuinely cool bit of casting.) The show will likely go on. If a lack of funds didn’t derail it in 2009, a little recasting problem isn’t likely to throw it off, either. There has been too much invested to let a good career move by Evan Rachel Wood kill the project now.
Meanwhile, there’s an interesting little tidbit about the Spider-Man film reboot in an LA Times article about what the various Oscar winners from this past weekend’s ceremony will be getting up to next. The LAT says that Kathryn Bigelow passed on directing Spider-Man before the offer went out to Marc Webb.
That’s not a huge deal, and Bigelow was likely one of many people approached. But given the recent intersection of her career and that of ex-husband James Cameron, who once planned to make his own Spider-Man movie, it is a neat little detail. In all likelihood, she passed so as not to be in thrall to Sony for the next several years, and who can blame her? She’s apparently still got Triple Frontier on deck, as well as the HBO pilot The Miraculous Year.
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Mark Millar Talks Kick-Ass 2
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As the release date for Kick-Ass gets closer, original comic creator Mark Millar is already looking towards the comic sequel to his original creation, and the film sequel that will hopefully ensue. As such, he’s talking about the direction the story will go, and dropping some big notes and spoilers along the way.
Did I say spoilers? Yep! If you haven’t read and/or seen Kick-Ass yet (hey, not the most unlikely thing, as I know Lionsgate has done a few screenings for comic shop employees, for example) then you might want to tread carefully here.
Comicbookmovie.com pulled quotes from Millar out of the film companion book Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie.
To begin, the second volume of Kick-Ass will see the hero unmasked. That’s a favorite idea amongst comic writers (when you’ve got a guy in a mask, the natural idea is to strip it away, unless the character is Judge Dredd) and Millar’s young hero won’t get off easy.
One of my favourite ideas in superhero comics is the exposure of the secret identity… I like the idea of doing that to somebody like Kick-Ass, who’s going to have real-world ramifications if his secret identity gets exposed. I wanted that in the first volume but there was just no room, so I shifted it all into the second volume.
The sequel movie talk comes out when discussing the character of Red Mist, played on film by Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Here’s where the real spoilers start.
Red Mist surviving, becoming the super-villain was always planned, but the idea was that he was going to be a more minor character in the first film. Then we saw what Christopher Mintz-Plasse was capable of! Also, I really like the idea of somebody who people were relaxed watching on screen doing horrible things… the second movie, it’s going to get very, very dark what goes on with him…So the idea of McLovin’ and the fun Red Mist doing something horrible is genuinely quite disturbing when you see it happen. We couldn’t have got away with that with another actor. The minute we saw his performance, we were looking at each other and realised how good he was and what we could do with him in the future…
This is an official promo book, so I expect to hear Millar highly endorsing all the actors’ performances (and Millar likes to talk…a lot… in the first place) and I really wonder if this is the movie where Mintz-Plasse can break the McLovin mold.
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Trainspotting’s John Hodge Rewriting Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur Project
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The last time we talked about Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie, it was suggested that a new script was going to be called for, superceding the Warren Ellis draft and now, we’ve found out who the new writer will be. The lucky winner is John Hodge, probably most famous for having written Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. If his adaptation of Trainspotting is anything to go by, he can certainly make order out of rather sprawling and tangled narrative messes, so perhaps he’s a great choice for guaranteeing a driving through-line in this episodic, stop-start storyline.
At least when Ellis was at the Word Processor the film’s basic shape was to be “very specifically about the gathering of the Knights”. Cue Lock Stock style ensemble of British character actors. Variety have reported that the basic source material will be Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, but I can’t imagine the tone and flavour of a 15th century French romance being maintained under Ritchie’s directorship.
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Oscar-Winning Logorama Duo to Direct New Short Promoting Ghost Recon Video Game Series
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You’ve hopefully seen Logorama, the CGI animated film that won the best animated short Oscar on Sunday night. Credited to the French team H5, which is made up of François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain, the short has led to a lot of curiosity about whether we might see a feature that displays some of the same filmmaking chops and sense of playful anarchy.
Now it seems that Alaux and de Crécy are moving into live-action, though not quite in the typical manner. They’ll direct a short to tie in with French video game publisher Ubisoft’s upcoming title Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
Alaus and de Crécy will make a 20-minute live-action film to promote Future Soldier, which is due out at the end of this year. Children of Men co-writer Tim Sexton is writing the project, says THR, and the short film will set up the events of the game. The budget is between $8-10m, and will be produced by RSA, Ridley and Tony Scott’s commercial company. Does this mean that a good turn from these two might see them working with feature production company Scott Free in the not-too distant future? Doesn’t seem like a stretch to guess yes.
Future Soldier is the fourth full installment of the Ghost Recon series, which has also seen numerous expansion packs that aren’t set up as full sequels. Little is known about the game, which was formally announced in January. The teaser is embedded below. (I would embed Logorama, but in the wake of the Oscars all embeds I’ve found have been removed. If you know of one, mention it in the comments, please.)
Meanwhile, Anne Thompson got a good quote from Logorama producer Nicolas Schmerkin explaining the approach H5 took to the film. Logorama, he said, is “not about America. It’s about our modern western world. So it also applies to France and Buenos Aires, where I am from, so it’s not about Americans. It’s about the way we live and the way we react to these logos. The brain can register 14 logos in less than one second. Making the logos characters with sets and props is about what we’re living. I’m not talking about what the logos represent. They’re used for what they are.”
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