This should be interesting: Variety's Gregg Goldstein reports from Berlinale that Billy Bob Thornton is working on a script for an "'ethereal' road movie" entitled And Then We Drove. Based partly on experiences from his time with ex Angelina Jolie, Thornton says "[it's about] a guy who's on a road trip and picks up this girl along the way, and what happens to them. It's about the question of life: 'What is this? Where do I fit in?'" Or, maybe: Honey, Have You Seen My Vial of Blood? Thornton, who premiered his latest directorial effort Jayne Mansfield's Car in Berlin, will also direct. [Variety]
No one should be surprised anymore at these announcements, but: DreamWorks and Working Title Films are remaking Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning noir Rebecca, because nothing is sacred. At least they've got people at the wheel with respectable creds; veteran producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are onboard while Eastern Promises screenwriter Steven Knight is scripting based on Daphne du Maurier's original 1938 novel, which saw a few deviations when Hitch made his version (which, incidentally, went on to be the only Best Picture Oscar-winner of his career).
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Actor and multimedia DIYer Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to make his directorial debut opposite fellow newbie director Scarlett Johansson in an untitled comedy co-produced under his own hitRecord Films banner. The pic, shooting in April, also stars JGL as a Don Juan-type ladykiller seeking to reform his ways; the actor-director also wrote the script. So yes, it's time to face facts: That kid from Third Rock from the Sun is officially way, way more accomplished than you. [Deadline]
Robert Rodriguez is firing up the Troublemaker machine once again for the sequel he promised from the closing credits roll on 2010's Machete, although this time around things sound decidedly less pointed and political for Danny Trejo's edged blade enthusiast. Machete Kills "finds Machete recruited by the U.S. Government for a mission which would be impossible for any mortal man. Machete must battle his way through Mexico to take down a madman cartel leader and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war across the planet with a weapon in space. Machete takes on an army in an effort to dismantle a plan for global anarchy." Is it too early to lobby for Chris Walken, a bald guy with a cat, a dude with diamonds in his face (or heck, Lindsay Lohan's real boobs) to play said baddies? [Deadline]
... and by better I mean worse, and by worse I mean now that the licensing deal between Universal and toy company Hasbro has ended, Sony has snatched up the Candy Land board game movie project -- you know, the one like "Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy" -- as a vehicle for none other than Adam Sandler. Said Columbia prez Doug Belgrad: "Candy Land is more than just a game. It is a brand that children, parents and grandparents know and love. The world of Candy Land offers an extraordinary canvas upon which to create a fantastical, live-action family adventure film with a larger than life part for Adam. We are thrilled to partner with Hasbro and Happy Madison on this project." [THR]
Park City did indeed turn out to be a robust marketplace this year, with buyers snapping up over two dozen features and docs out of Sundance 2012. Ranging from genre pleasers to indie charmers to potential future Oscar picks and beyond – and veering from critical fest duds to overwhelming crowd favorites – the class of Sundance ’12 is an intriguingly mixed-but-mostly-promising bag of films that will be dotting the cinematic landscape in the year or so to come. Here’s an updated comprehensive look at what sold and which films you should be looking forward to.
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It may be a relatively quiet Sundance year – even Pixar’s Lee Unkrich, in town for the festival, Tweeted his dismay at the “mixed bag” of movies – but films are selling. Granted, they’re mostly the ones with name actors and mostly okay-to-decent reviews (with a few exceptions), but buyers continue to be getting busy in the snow. The latest batch of pick-ups (Olsens and robots and scares, oh my!) after the jump.
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Our Sundance bidding-war preview may have foreseen only part of the fervor around the John Hawkes/Helen Hunt drama The Surrogate, but how's this for compensation: As predicted, the Richard Gere/Susan Sarandon Wall Street thriller Arbitrage went to Roadside Attractions (with its partners at Lionsgate) for just over $2 million. Bam! That's not it for deals, either: Get the updated roster of Sundance pics -– and see which offerings earned raves, and which didn’t -- after the jump.
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James Franco. Hank Azaria. David Cross. Ron Livingston. It's a broad range of actors who've been enlisted previously to play Beat icon Allen Ginsberg, none of them quite delivering the poet's intellect and spirit opposite the, er, best minds of his generation. Now comes the news that Daniel Radcliffe will take a shot of his own at Ginsberg in director John Krokidas's Kill Your Darlings.
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As sort of presumed, the John Hawkes/Helen Hunt-starring, man-in-an-iron-lung-virginity-losing, awards-ready indie drama The Surrogate made an impressive market showing Monday following its Sundance premiere, selling for $6 million -- more than twice the figure noted in last week's festival bidding-war preview -- to Fox Searchlight. Not bad! The studio also has all but closed a deal on director Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild; drop back by for more coverage of each from Sundance and, for The Surrogate in particular, from next year's awards season. Ahem. [Deadline]
A quick update on the flurry of Sundance deal-making of recent days, with well-received documentaries and less acclaimed but star-driven (read: marketable) narratives sitting pretty with distribution agreements. Will this be, as pundits predicted, a high-volume buying year in Park City?
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It's always a thrill to read about some upstart, young first-time screenwriter catching a lucrative break in Hollywood with a spec script, so let's hear it for Cormac McCarthy!
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Internet, please react: A highbrow cult phenomenon is being ramped up for mainstream audiences. This is your time to shine! According to Variety, Harry Potter director David Yates is teaming with the BBC Worldwide to turn Doctor Who, the monumental British science-fiction series, into a big screen franchise. Said Yates of the new project, "We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena." Excited yet? Or nervous in that Absolutely Fabulous-never-ended-up-happening way?
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Congrats are in order to Patty Jenkins, who was confirmed today as Marvel's pick to helm their 2013 sequel, Thor 2. Jenkins, who directed Charlize Theron to an Oscar in 2003's Monster, her feature directorial debut, inherits the helm of the Thor comic book movie franchise from Kenneth Branagh. Full press release after the jump.
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When Disney pulled the plug on its expensive Lone Ranger project, which was to reunite Pirates of the Caribbean cohorts Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Gore Verbinski, a few industry-watchers held out hope that the studio and the filmmakers would yet still reach an agreement over how many hundreds of millions of dollars the would-be franchise would cost. Almost exactly two months later, it seems they've reached that compromise. More stupid money for someone!
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