The 2012 Cannes Film Festival remains a week away, but the wheeling and dealing is already underway — and probably not coincidentally, for competition films starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Last week it was Pattinson's edgy David Cronenberg collaboration Cosmopolis going to E One, and tonight it's Stewart's long-awaited Jack Kerouac adaptation On the Road — just announced as the proud acquisition of IFC Films and Sundance Selects. Read on for the full details, and stay tuned to Movieline for more fest news as Cannes 2012 approaches.
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Universal's going back to the well, this time bringing Star Trek/Transformers/Cowboys & Aliens writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci along to re-envision two horror properties of the not-so-distant past: "Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products will develop and produce a modern reimagining of Universal library titles including The Mummy, alongside producer Sean Daniel and writer Jon Spaihts. The pair will also develop and produce Universal’s reimagined Van Helsing, with Tom Cruise attached to star in and produce the film." Oh, I'm sure it'll all work out just fine. Right, Ron? [Deadline]
After scoring a book deal, selling several TV pilots, and making her name 140 characters at a time on Twitter, microblogging mom and Canadian wit Kelly Oxford has sold her first screenplay to Hollywood. Warner Bros. acquired her spec Son of a Bitch for a reported low- to mid-six figures; the story concerns a pothead party girl who tries to keep her image intact despite discovering she's pregnant. The ringing sound you just heard is Anna Faris's agent's phone. [Deadline]
Well, it looks like Lionsgate has picked their pony in the Catching Fire directing race; I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence has reportedly been offered the job to helm the Hunger Games sequel, which is set to start filming on a tight schedule this August. Lawrence has three features under his belt, in addition to music videos for the likes of J. Lo and Britney Spears; he most recently directed Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in Water for Elephants (but also made 2005's Constantine).
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Strap yourselves in, folks: In the wake of its billion-dollar amusement park-inspired Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Disney is bringing another classic attraction to the big screen — Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The Disneyland staple (a ride itself based on a film based on the children's book The Wind in the Willows) is heading to theaters under the direction of filmmaker Pete Candeland, who will helm the as-yet unscripted CG/live-action adventure. I don't know about you, but I take one look at this Mr. Toad's ride poster and just one spot on the release calendar jumps out. How's about April 20 2013/14, if you get my drift? [Deadline]
Good news for Michael Haneke fans, which, of course, means everyone: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights to Amour, the new film by the director behind Cache, Funny Games and the Cannes-winning The White Ribbon. The brief description, as provided by SPC: "In the film, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter (Isabelle Huppert), who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested." Fantastic. Expect Amour to premiere in competition next month at Cannes; visit Movieline on Thursday for the full lineup. [Press release]
Get ready to double-exhale, folks: It looks like both the Arrested Development movie and Sin City 2 are finally happening at long last -- and both are reportedly set to film this summer. Hurrah! That said, Deadline admits that none of the Arrested Development cast have been inked just yet even as Will Arnett let slip on The Today Show that the long-awaited big screen adaptation was on track for a summer shoot. Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is set to film in Austin, with casting to begin next week. [Today Show, Playlist]
Continuing along the theme of projects that make you feel unsafe within the confines of your own house/cabin/local bed and breakfast, Innkeepers director Ti West has been tapped to script Bedbugs, adapted from Ben H. Winters' 2011 novel of the same name. The tale follows a woman who moves into the perfect Brooklyn brownstone with her family, only to be plagued by an infestation of bugs... that only seem to be biting her. Is your skin crawling yet?
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This is pure speculation, but it's St. Patrick's Day weekend! Let's connect the dots: Lionsgate and WWE Studios are teaming up on a reboot of the 1993 pic Leprechaun, the creature comedy-horror which infamously featured a young Jennifer Aniston and kicked off a series of terrible films centered on a murderous Irish fairy hell-bent on recovering his precious gold. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), meanwhile, has a diminutive wrestler named Hornswoggle under contract, whose ring persona is that of a mischievous leprechaun. Pure coincidence, or will Leprechaun mark the next screen debut for a WWE star?
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This is real: Paramount is in talks with Magical Elves to direct their Katy Perry 3-D concert documentary -- as in Magical Elves, the producing duo comprised of Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, who previously produced the Paramount smash Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in addition to creating reality TV "classics" like Project Runway and Top Chef. The film will follow the singer on and off-stage, with Footloose director Craig Brewer also onboard to executive produce. The question is, can Perry bring the star power and fan adulation that drove predecessors Never Say Never and Michael Jackson's This Is It to huge box office returns -- or will it take some fairy-esque magic to translate Perry's candy-colored pop persona into movie gold? [THR]
Following in the footsteps of hit musical adaptations Billy Elliot, Wicked, and Bring It On: The Musical, Universal's stage adaptation of John Landis's Animal House will hit Broadway with a book by playwright Michael Mitnick, to be directed by Book of Mormon's Casey Nicholaw, with music by the guys who sang the indelible lyrics "Chickity China the Chinese chicken/You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'." Because nothing says "Broadway" like frat boys and crunchy Canadian alt-rock, right? [THR]
I wouldn't brag were it not Monday morning and it's the only thing keeping me from walking in front of a bus, so: The final piece of Movieline's Sundance 2012 Bidding-War puzzle has fallen into place, with director James Ponsoldt's boozehound relationship drama Smashed going to the estimable Sony Pictures Classics. Five-for-five! High five?
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These deals-in-the-making stories always carry a grain of salt since nothing in Hollywood is ever so sure just about until the cameras roll, but the trade scoop that The Killing's Joel Kinnaman may be your next RoboCop is just too tantalizing. Joel Kinnaman who, you may ask, and rightly so? The Swedish-American actor's been in a handful of stateside film projects here and there (including the recent Safe House and, briefly, Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) but the closer I look at his work, the more enticing this casting move becomes.
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Woody Allen, whose Midnight in Paris is competing at this Sunday's Academy Awards, will be bringing his Oscar-nominated 1994 comedy Bullets Over Broadway to the Great White Way in 2013, reports the New York Times. The adaptation has long been rumored to be in the works; Allen himself is writing the book, with songs culled from existing 1920s-era music. Cue obligatory Dianne Wiest quotes! [NYT]
At one point following the critical and commercial success of his 2007 post-apocalyptic blockbuster I Am Legend, director Francis Lawrence entertained the notion of coming back with star Will Smith for prequel, but eventually that possibility trailed off and Lawrence casted doubt onto his involvement with the potential project. But today Warner Bros. announced a deal with Akiva Goldsman and Overbrook Entertainment, who have tapped screenwriter Arash Amel to write a follow-up to the $584M hit. Whether or not it'll be a prequel or some sort of direct sequel is unknown, though it's reportedly being created for Smith. Let's speculate away: Just how WB can possibly pull off another installment?
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