Add another twig to the pile of kindling known as the probably-never-happening list of Ridley Scott projects. Deadline reports that Scott has signed on to produce and direct a new version of his beloved sci-fi classic Blade Runner for production company Alcon Entertainment. Little else is known about the film (there isn't even a script yet), but expect it to be a prequel or a sequel. Sean Young, call your agent! [Deadline]
Robert Rodriguez pulled out all the stops for Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D: Jeremy Piven in a dual role, Ricky Gervais as a talking dog, the spectre of 3-D and even Aromascope. That latter bell and whistle includes scratch-and-sniff cards that patrons will get upon entering the theater, and corresponding onscreen numbers that alert them when to take a whiff. "Originally, we didn't have any really rancid smells, but kids wanted something really stinky in there," Rodriguez said about one of the smells, a dirty baby diaper. "It really doesn't smell that bad. No one's going to get sick in the theater." From the smells, at least. [Huffington Post]
Also in this Thursday edition of The Broadsheet: Jennifer Lawrence will sing for Hunger Games... The Smurfs sequel gets fast-tracked... Robert Downey Jr. will help bring the USS Indianapolis to the big screen... and more ahead.
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I'm always nervous for adaptations of less-appreciated Shakespearean works. If you're going to mount, say, Titus Andronicus, you have to find a way to make the violence meaningful. If you're heading up a Tempest reboot, you have to deal with the extraneous fourth act elegantly. And if you're reworking Coriolanus, you have to -- well -- find a way to make it interesting. Luckily, Ralph Fiennes is summoning his Amon Goeth fury in the poster for the new Weinstein adaptation, and Gerard Butler looks tough as his adversary. Excited?
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It seems like Sean Penn schedules his birthday the day after Madonna's almost every single year, which shows his true character. But let this not be a day of judgment! The 51-year-old thesp is the pride of Gen X's acting pool, and with good reason: The two-time Oscar winner is a commanding presence, a distinct powerhouse, and a whiz with punchy dialogue. What's his best line in a movie?
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We can all agree that the posters and images released so far for Summit's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 have been a little subdued, with far less angst on display here than in previous installments and more of a focus on Bella and Edward's domestic skinny-dipping, chess-playing, honeymooning bliss. Fine enough. While you wait with bated breath to see what Summit unveils as their actual official poster, take a gander at newly surfaced key art that sees nine familiar characters in their new Breaking Dawn garb.
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Hollywood's little miss sunshines are growing up, and how (looking at you too, Dakota): Variety reports that 15-year-old Abigail Breslin has been cast as one of two leads in The Class Project, an indie drama based on the real-life "Bathtub Girls," two teenage Canadian sisters who murdered their mother in 2003 and got away with the crime for a year before being found out. Stan Brooks will direct from a script by Fabrizio Filippo and Adam Till who adapted The Class Project from Toronto Star reporter Bob Mitchell's 2008 book, The Class Project: How To Kill a Mother: The True Story of Canada's Infamous Bathtub Girls. [Variety]
As you may have heard, Disney shockingly put the brakes on the planned big-screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger that star Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski were aiming to bring into theaters next Christmas. The reasons were budgetary -- the cost of Ranger had reportedly ballooned to $250 million -- but it appears that a mere ("mere") $20-30 million is all that separates the studio from the filmmakers. Provided some cuts can be made -- a task easier said than done, as backend deals and three large-scale action scenes revolving around trains reportedly threaten the compromise -- The Lone Ranger could conceivably hit theaters at some point. Unless, of course, Disney realizes it might not be the best idea anyway.
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Word just over the transom at Movieline HQ has announced Sony Pictures Classics' plans to give Midnight in Paris one final push to end the summer, expanding the film once again over 1,000 screens as it pursues the $50 million milestone -- by far the best domestic gross ever for a Woody Allen film.
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Did you need another circus movie? Good. Because Michael Gracey -- a commercial/VFX veteran who just signed on to helm the Snow White picture The Order of the Seven -- will direct Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman on Earth, a musical biopic of 19th century circus master P.T. Barnum written by Sex and the City scribe Jenny Bicks. Hopefully it will redeem the recent misfire Water for Elephants and 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth, which remains the most dubious Best Picture winner of all time. Jackman's Boy from Oz zest is perfect for the role, so I suspect he'll keep the movie from becoming another third-ring sideshow. (Ding!) [Variety]
Sexually exciting news: This week's important new movie Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D (that's not the sexually exciting part) is both "futuristic" and "sci-fi" -- which means we have reason to revisit the futuristic, sci-fi lovefest of Logan's Run. Hooray! It's one of the most decadent, senselessly gorgeous Bad Movies We Love of all time. Better we re-watch it now than after the remake comes out and destroys our nostalgia. Are you ready for ray guns, cult-like "carrousels" of death, and the hirsute hotness of Peter Ustinov?
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· Universal may have knocked down Ron Howard's planned adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, but that doesn't mean all hope is lost. Howard's Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer apparently told Page Six that the men are still looking for outside financing for the ambitious project, which would then be distributed through a major studio. Great! Just don't expect this to come together anytime soon. "[T]he soonest we could do it would be June next year," Grazer said. Mark that on your calendar in pencil, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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On August 17, 1943, Robert De Niro was born in New York City to parents Robert De Niro Sr. and Virginia Admiral. Over the course of the next six decades, the younger De Niro rose to become one of the most acclaimed actors in the history of Hollywood, as well as a paycheck player seemingly willing to star in anything. (Hello, New Year's Eve!) In honor of Bobby's big birthday, let's celebrate the less-lauded performances he's given in his career. What's Robert De Niro's finest slumming performance?
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When Gérard Depardieu's gotta go, Gérard Depardieu's gotta go. The passengers and crew of an Air France flight from Paris to Dublin learned that the hard way today when the legendary French actor, denied entry to one of his plane's locked lavatories, proceeded to empty his bladder on the floor.
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Should have been you, Hayley Atwell. Deadline reports that Rosamund Pike is in negotiations to star opposite Tom Cruise in One Shot, the Christopher McQuarrie-directed adaptation of Lee Child's 2005 novel. Pike -- who apparently beat out Atwell and Alexa Davalos for the role -- will play the daughter of a district attorney embroiled in a mystery involving six-foot-five ex-cop-turned-drifter Jack Reacher (Cruise) and a sniper. She next stars in The Big Year, and will appear in Clash of the Titans 2 in 2012; One Shot is set to begin shooting early next year. [Deadline]
