They can't all be Oscar-devouring high-gloss epics: Lionsgate announced today that it has closed a deal to bring Dead Island to the screen, pacting with developer Deep Silver to adapt the celebrated zombie video game as your next major brains-chomping horror franchise. Or next to next, depending on if/when the 'Gate ever gets Pride and Prejudice and Zombies off the ground. All I'm saying is these guys are serious about their undead, and they're hoping you are, too. The press release was just dropped off via a curiously grey, slow-moving bike messenger; read on to rewatch the original game trailer and for the full details of today's agreement.
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What's that off in the distance that has the equine hero of War Horse and his young master Jeremy Irvine so preoccupied? Is it the bloody, unfathomable futility of World War I? Is it some embattled enemy's surrender across a muddy, cratered battlefield? Is it the prospect of peace after their prolonged exposure to mortal danger? Pssshh. There's an Oscar over there!
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Happy Tuesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Jessica Chastain takes up with Tom Cruise... Kevin Costner walks out on Quentin Tarantino... A guide to sabotaging your own film, featuring Red State... and more.
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"For John Gotti Sr, you need a man's man to play that role," critiqued former mobster Lewis Kasman about John Travolta's casting in the upcoming crime-boss biopic from Barry Levinson. "He's a thug, so you need someone who's a thug... a guy who grew up in that life." Apparently, Travolta's Oscar-nominated Saturday Night Fever performance doesn't hold much weight among the mob set either: "John Gotti Sr. never danced a dance in his life." [Daily Mail]
Have you been on the lookout for a living, breathing Harry Potter cast member to call your own? If so, you're in luck because an adorable actor who appeared onscreen in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is looking for a new home. Hint: It's not Daniel Radcliffe.
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MGM's remake of Red Dawn has been languishing on the shelf for ages now, seeking a new home -- and it looks like it found one in FilmDistrict, who is reportedly making a deal to release the film. The action pic, which cast up-and-comers like Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, Adrienne Palicki, and Josh Hutcherson before theirs stars began rising in the last few years, will likely hit theaters in 2012 featuring the altered plotline involving evil North Korean invaders. [LA Times]
Footloose remake co-star and Dancing with the Stars ingénue Julianne Hough has landed the lead in Diablo Cody's newly untitled feature directorial debut about a conservative young woman who regains her faith after heading to Sin City. And who will play the wild and crazy figure that helps her on her debauched path to redemption? None other than Russell Brand. Perfect casting, no?
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If you were one of the curious few who caught Twilight star Taylor Lautner's abysmally-reviewed action star debut, Abduction, then you know how insanely, wonderfully ridiculous it is. Like, Razzie shoo-in, I-can't-believe-I'm-seeing-this-shit awfulsome good times. It's a film with dialogue so inane, Lautner actually asks, "Are you my mother??" And he's serious. I had such a good time "WTF"-ing at Abduction, I compiled all of my screening notes within for your perusal. Needless to say, major spoiler alert!
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Ready or not, Real Steel will box its way into theaters Oct. 7. Before deciding whether you want to spend $15 worth of your hard-earned WWE funds on robo-Rocky, check out Hugh Jackman train his mechanical fighter below.
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In the discussion as to whether or not Daniel Craig is the new Harrison Ford, we should note one critical factor separating screen legend from his younger, blonder Hollywood counterpart: Just one of them has weathered a film with Sean Young and lived to not only tell the tale, but also keep the flame alive in a moment of late-career triumph.
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U.S. hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer had been imprisoned in Iran for two years when a joint effort between the U.N., Iraq, Oman freed them last week. Now, new details reveal the involvement of Venezuela's president (and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ally) Hugo Chavez in the process, and the "American intellectual" who helped bring Chavez onboard: Sean Penn.
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I don't mean to scare you with so much of the Cowboys and Aliens cast in one headline, but I'm sure the thought has crossed your mind: Is Daniel Craig, the rugged movie adventurer with the cobalt glow in his eye, the proper successor to his alien-thrashing co-star Harrison Ford? With the release of this week's Dream House, we're investigating both actors' pasts to discover whether they're cinematically related.
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A funny thing happened on the way to Mindy Kaling attempting to sell a rom-com in Hollywood: "The junior executives' office at Thinkscope Visioncloud was nicer than any room within a fifty-mile radius of the Office studio. After I finished pitching one of my ideas for a low-budget romantic comedy, I was met with silence. One of the execs sheepishly looked at the other execs. He finally said, 'Yeah, but we're really trying to focus on movies about board games. People really seem to respond to those.' For the rest of the meeting, we talked about whether there was any potential in a movie called Yahtzee! I made some polite suggestions and left." [The New Yorker]
You'll be disappointed to learn that many of your favorite Twitter stars sincerely endorsed Moneyball this weekend and failed to make jokes about Brad Pitt's hair, Jonah Hill's weight transformation, and that odious little game called baseball. Still, we're left with seven memorable tweets about the weekend's box office, and one superstar topped them all with a tandem Moneyball/Abduction double tweet attack. Impressive.
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Happy Monday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Breaking down Drive's dive... A journey through the Overacting Hall of Fame... Obama is going to mess up your commute (again)... A very close read of Straw Dogs... and more. [And obviously keep in mind you may encounter what you consider spoilers ahead.]
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