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Olympia Dukakis Grabs a Lesbian 'Thelma and Louise'

Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Scripts

Same-sex love is most definitely in the air. I already wrote about Julianne Moore and Annette Bening were coupling up for a new film today, but they're not the only ones. In a Thelma and Louise meets The Bucket List move, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Oscar winners Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker will star in a new road trip comedy from Thom Fitzgerald called Cloudburst.

Dukakis and Fricker will play a couple who have been together for 30 years. Itching for a little adventure, the two "break out of a nursing home and head to Canada to get married, picking up a young, male hitchhiker along the way." I can't begin to count the ways these two films are great. Both have long-term lesbian couples, played by women with oodles of talent, and in this case, feature an older generation of actresses -- a theme which seems to be slowly gaining momentum in Hollywood as the boomers get older.

I've got to wonder -- are these gigs thanks to the anger incited by Prop 8? It's rare to get one LGBT film, let alone two at the same time. Whatever the case, it's a nice and refreshing change to see some originality heading towards Hollywood. Think Dukakis and Fricker can give Sarandon and Davis a run for their money?

Seth Rogen Might Be Taking a Road Trip With ... Barbra Streisand!

Filed under: Comedy, Paramount, RumorMonger, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Dreamworks

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost aren't the only ones getting to take a road trip with Seth Rogen. He's gotta move, gotta get out, gotta leave this place, gotta find some place. Some other place, some brand new place ... with Barbra Streisand. (I know, I can't believe I know those lyrics either.)

HitFix has the scoop that Rogen is developing a comedy called Mother's Curse, and while it's one of an estimated 300,000 projects the unlikely A-Lister is working on, this one has Streisand. Mind you, she's not even officially attached, and the movie doesn't even truly exist. Curse's storyline is under tight development wraps, and the script is still in the process of being written. As Drew McWeeny notes, "When I asked Seth about the film, he referred to it as 'one of the many projects I may or may not do in the next fifteen years,' which is a fair description. So keep in mind... I'm not saying this will or won't happen ... just that it could." It's a pet project of Paramount's new head of production Adam Goodman, so that alone could get it made under that fifteen year mark.

Just the names of Rogen and Streisand together is pretty delightful though, isn't it? I like this new trend of mature, Oscar-loaded actors being game for just about anything. It's like we went back to the Golden Age of screwball comedies when it was ok for everyone to cut loose onscreen, and comedy wasn't just Meet the Spartans schlock.

Ruffalo Lends Bening and Moore Some Sperm

Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Scripts

What do you get when you mix Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo in a comedy? A same-sex couple and one eager sperm donor. (Bet you weren't expecting that!) Variety reports that the trio, plus Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia) and Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), will star in a new film called The Kids Are All Right.

Bening and Moore are playing a couple who long ago used donated sperm to start a family. Years later, when their son and daughter (Hutcherson and Wasikowska) have grown up, they want to find the man behind the sperm. So, they hunt down Ruffalo's character, and he "totally upsets their family dynamic once he enters their lives."

This project is coming from Lisa Cholodenko, which bodes particularly well for the already-unique story. You might remember that she's the writer and director of Laurel Canyon, one of the few films to show the lovely Frances McDormand as a beautiful and carefree woman, rather than a quirky gal steeped in kitsch.

So, a filmmaker who can challenge the norm, a same-sex couple played by two multi-Oscar-nominated actresses, and an original storyline to boot? Pinch me, I must be dreaming. The film just started production, so I can only hope we get to see how this all pans out soon.

Matt Reeves Talks 'Let The Right One In' Remake

Filed under: Foreign Language, Horror, Casting, Deals, Scripts, Remakes and Sequels

As much as I enjoyed the shaky-cam mayhem of Cloverfield, I'm pretty bummed about the idea of Matt Reeves helming a remake of the 2008 vampire film, Let the Right One In. Even before the original film had hit theaters stateside, there were deals in place for Reeves to remake the film for U.S. audiences -- and that's what has me worried. Whenever something is remade for North America, what it usually means is that a little 'sanitation' is in order. For better or for worse, audiences tend to react badly to seeing children in a decidedly non-childlike way, and that's what made The Right One so memorable. But I guess I better get used to the idea, because Reeves recently told the L.A. Times that he's been scouting locations and that a second draft of the script has already been completed and now has the new title, Let Me In.

Let the Right One In was the story of Oskar, a young boy living in the suburbs of Sweden who begins a friendship with a vampire child named Eli who has moved in next door. For Reeves' remake, he's kept the time period in the 80's, but relocated the story to Regan-era Colorado. Most importantly, he's promised that he won't be making his Oskar and Eli any older in an attempt to appeal to the 'Twilight Crowd', and the success of his remake will all come down to who Reeves casts for his two leads. The director has already started working with Avy Kaufman to try and find the perfect cast, and luckily, Kaufman has experience when it comes to casting 'creepy kids', having been the casting director for The Sixth Sense and The Ice Storm.

After the jump: the original film's director and screenwriter give their two cents...

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci Have 'License to Steal'

Filed under: Action, Comedy, Deals, Paramount, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand

Oh, the obvious jokes you can make about Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci being involved with a project called License to Steal. Considering they penned both of Michael Bay's robot-gasm installments, and Star Trek, plus produced The Proposal, one could say that this was their Hollywood life story.

But it's not. According to Variety, License to Steal is actually based on Marc Weingarten's Salon.com article The Learjeat Repo Man, which examines world of repo men. Not just any repo men that come after your flatscreen or your Prius, but the "big game" hunter who steal / repossess private jets, yachts, helicopters, and whatever else it is rich, corrupt people own. For the dangers they face (and oh, do they face dangers) they receive a cut of the overall value.

The script is being penned by Shane Salerno, Kurtzman and Orci are its executive producers. The project was shopped around by WME to three major studios, all with directors lined up to bid, and Salerno pitching it each and every time. McG took the project to Warner Bros., Timur Bekmambetov took it to Universal, and Bryan Singer took it to Sony. But Paramount snapped it up before anyone else had a chance to bid, and without a director attached. But Paramount has the dynamic duo pulling the strings, so they'll undoubtedly pull some major name in to tell the story they describe as "a smart, lighthearted action movie ... with a lot of unexpected plot twists." As you wait for the talent to hook themselves up, you can read the Salon piece, and dream of success and adventure ... either those enjoyed by Weingarten's repo men, or that of Kurtzman and Orci.

(Oversight! Thanks to ScreenRant for the photo up there! -- Weinberg)

Pixar Promises a Mature and Classy 'Toy Story 3'

Filed under: Animation, Classics, Comedy, Disney, Scripts, Family Films, DIY/Filmmaking, Remakes and Sequels

When Toy Story 3 was announced to the wider world thanks to that little teaser before Up, a lot of people groaned. I don't know of a single person who hates either of the Toy Story films, and I don't think it's too mushy to say that they hold a pretty special place in everybody's heart. You don't want to see that watered down and exploited.

Thankfully, it's PIXAR at the helm rather than sequel-squeezing Disney, and they assure everyone that the third installment will actually bring closure to the series. SciFi Wire caught up with animator Angus MacLane at the Saturn Awards (he was responsible for Burn-E, and has been with Pixar since Toy Story 2 where he created the crazy Buzz clone), and he spilled a few secrets on the newest adventures of Buzz and Woody. To the surprise of no one that saw Up, their final installment will be a bittersweet one. Lee Unkrich will be directing, and the storyline will center on Andy leaving for college.

"I feel like we've grown up making these movies, and each of the films represents where the filmmakers were at the time of making the films," MacLane said. "Certainly we're approaching this film 10 years later, so I think we're sort of coming at it from the standpoint of [Andy] has grown up, and we've grown up with these toys, and we have a reverence for them, but we also have different things as a priority." In other words, you should start stocking up on Kleenex now, and prepare to feel old and tired when you leave the theater.

Frank Darabont Will Die To Make 'Fahrenheit 451'

Filed under: Action, Classics, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting, Mystery & Suspense, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp

A new adaptation (I refuse to use the word remake here) of Fahrenheit 451 has been in the works for ten years now. I was very excited by the news that Mel Gibson was planning it as a Braveheart follow-up, as it seemed like that would mark a new and serious phase of his directing career. I wish that was something I could have been right about.

Frank Darabont was the next one to take it on, and he's been attached to it since 2001, rewriting Terry Hayes' script and being delayed by everything from Indiana Jones IV, Mission Impossible III, The Mist, and Law Abiding Citizen. SciFi Wire caught up with Darabont at the Saturn Awards, and the director / writer declared that it was really time to get on with it already ... and that it might actually get underway this time, depending on whether or not the Big Name Actor he wants signs on.

"Fahrenheit is the thing I'm trying to get up next, which is casting-dependent, so it's one of those. I'm out to somebody at the moment, fingers crossed, because, boy, do I want to make that movie. I'm not giving up. I'll die in the traces before I don't make that movie ... It's not one of those movies that are vastly expensive by any contemporary standard, but money is still money, and it's of a price that requires somebody that will justify that investment. This is definitely going to be more than The Mist, so those other considerations do come into play."

You can go crazy wondering just who that Big Actor who can pull in the money and box office might be. Could it be someone that rumors have long attached, like Tom Hanks (Darabont's pick for years), Brad Pitt, or Tom Cruise? Or could we be looking at someone newly bankable, like Johnny Depp?

Katherine Heigl Nabs Herself a Drama

Filed under: Drama, Romance, Casting, Scripts

It's not all sh*ts and giggles. After tackling some heavy cancer treatment on Grey's Anatomy, Katharine Heigl has grabbed herself a big-screen drama. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Heigl will star and executive produce an upcoming film called Life As We Know It, which Greg Berlanti (Everwood) is directing.

Written by Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson, and in turnaround since 2001, the film will focus on two singles "who suddenly become caregivers to an orphaned girl after the parents, their mutual best friends, are killed in an accident." What? No romance and laughs in sight? Can it be?

Not so fast. It looks like this script has gotten one hell of a face lift, because when Fox 2000 originally bought it, the basic plot of the project was the same, but it was described as a romantic comedy. I guess someone along the line figured that sad, orphaned children don't make for happy stories ... unless Peter Pan is involved. The film will retain, however, the lingering scent of romance. Although THR says nothing of it, the Variety piece calls it a romantic drama.

Whatever the case, no starting date has been set, but the project is expected to be fast-tracked. Are you ready for Heigl to jump out of the ugliness of The Ugly Truth and into something meatier?

'Arrested Development' Documentary Coming to the Big Screen

Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Independent, RumorMonger, Fandom, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand



My mom and I have only just discovered the delights of Arrested Development on DVD. There's nothing more bittersweet than discovering a television show after its far too late to help its ratings, but at least we can still join the "Please, oh please make an Arrested Development movie" club.

When I was on the Jonah Hex set, Will Arnett said that it was actively in the works. "We're trying to get it done, trying to get all the pieces together to do it. It's something we're actively in the process of doing. There is no script yet, but I've been talking a lot to Mitch about it, and I think that the goal has been to start shooting by the end of the year. It's really just a matter of getting a script. I know that the studio is ready to go and everyone's kind of ready, but there's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of people in the cast, a lot of schedules and stuff, but we're in that process now of figuring it all out, actively." Of course, Michael Cera's made comments to the contrary, so put your faith where you will.

In the meantime, one group of fans have pooled their resources and put together an Arrested Development documentary. Their official website reports that they're currently going from town to town, interviewing fans in order to raise awareness about the show and its tragic fate.They've already gotten a trailer together featuring interviews with the cast and crew of the show. Maybe the quotes are new to you, maybe they're not, but they might help stave off the pangs of addiction. The trailer is embedded below the jump. Enjoy, and keep flying Bluth flag.

[via Film Junk]


'Drake's Fortune' Will Get the Big Screen Treatment

Filed under: Action, Scripts, Games and Game Movies

Talk about inevitability! Any video game with guns like Lara Croft and a hero like the Prince of Persia, one that sold tons of copies, is destined for the big-screen treatment. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Columbia has grabbed PlayStation 3's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for development, and Kyle Ward (who is also busy with the pointless Hitman 2) is set to write the script.

The game focuses on the adventures of Nate Drake, as he pulls his ancestor Sir Francis Drake's coffin from the sea floor, only to find that there's no body inside -- only a diary that details the way to El Dorado. Naturally, Nate sets out to find the fabled land of gold, fighting rival hunters, only to find a forgotten island and a rather curse-ridden statue that takes things into the world of Indiana Jones. In other words -- cursed Nazis and supernatural occurrences. There's an old friend who serves as Nate's right-hand man, and a female journalist/love interest in need of saving.

As a game, it all seems well and good, but will people really bite into a story so very reminiscent of Indy? I guess every generation needs their historically inclined action hero. I just wonder how he'd fare against Lara Croft, who has her own reboot on the way...
 

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