Now under the guiding force of Disney, Star Wars' next director is becoming a source of intrigue. Last week, one major rumored contender - Steven Spielberg - said he is a no-go and now two other front-running prospects have weighed in with their interest. The studio recently nabbed Star Wars creator George Lucas' Lucas Films for $4.05 billion and tapped Michael Arndt to lead the way on Star Wars: Episode VII, which is set for a 2015 release.
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Also in Thursday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Strand Releasing and Cinema Guild pick up films for U.S. release. Ashely Judd and Robert Forster take on roles in an upcoming action-thriller and Universal sets a release for The Man with the Iron Fists.
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Also in Tuesday afternoon's news round-up, Participant Media picks up Mexican actor/filmmaker Diego Luna's latest project starring Michael Peña and America Ferrera, Relativity scores Alberto Iglesias for its latest project, indie thriller Backgammon gets rolling, meeting young Hollywood's "It-Photographer" and Moscow's Bolshoi to hit U.S. theaters.
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This just in from Variety: "Ben Kingsley is in final talks to play the villain in Iron Man 3, but fans of the comic book character will be disappointed to learn he won’t take on original Tony Stark archenemy the Mandarin." Well, good. I for one am glad that Ben Kingsley will not be playing a Chinese guy. Instead, the Oscar-winning actor will reportedly play a baddie "involved in the spread of a virus through nanobots."
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Of the major Universal Studios flops in recent memory, a handful stand out for their massive, and high profile, box office failings: 2009's Sid and Marty Krofft adaptation Land of the Lost, 2010's abysmal Wolfman and geek cult film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and this summer's megawatt disappointment Cowboys & Aliens. No one, it seems, is more painfully aware of Universal's missteps than longtime studio head Ron Meyer, who candidly addressed his recent Tower Heist VOD experiment, revisited his rise through the ranks to the top of the Universal chain, and admitted Wednesday in Savannah that some mediocre movies deserve their fate: "We make a lot of shitty movies. Every one of them breaks my heart."
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Not only is Olivia Wilde open to appearing partially nude in movies -- as she does in Cowboys & Aliens and the upcoming Change-Up, but she is totally down to talk about said partial nudity at length in interviews. Earlier this week, she admitted that her own exposed behind in the latter film was a surprise, even to her, and the other night on a special Jon Favreau-directed episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actress told the host (and all of America) about the CGI movie magic involved in her topless Change-Up scene with Ryan Reynolds.
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The Comic-Con crowd has always been good to Jon Favreau -- recall the splash he made here in 2007 with Iron Man, a geek director finding his people -- and charmingly (or cunningly, but mostly charmingly) Favreau knows it. So even without a panel to present at Comic-Con this year, he brought his latest film, the sci-fi Western Cowboys & Aliens, to San Diego in a big way: By hosting an enormous premiere filled with cast, crew, hundreds of fans, and a rousing, touching speech that seemed to genuinely come from the heart.
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As evidenced by Jon Favreau's old talk show Dinner for Five, the guy likes to shoot the shit with people, and he's pretty good at it. So as a means of promoting his upcoming Cowboys and Aliens, he sat down to do a series of behind-the-scenes interviews with his cast himself. After the jump, watch Favreau and star Harrison Ford talk costuming, Star Wars ad-libs, Ford's Han Solo audition, and more in the first interviews of the series.
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Appearing over the weekend at the Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex Film Festival, Jon Favreau and surprise guest Robert Downey Jr. talked up a storm regarding their two Iron Man flicks, the Avengers movie, Favreau's work on the upcoming Magic Kingdom, and Iron Man 3, --which is being directed by Downey's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang helmer Shane Black. Favreau revealed how, despite having vacated the director's chair on the threequel, he's still helping out in front of and behind the camera.
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Though he doesn't appear in Dax Shepard's filmmaking mockumentary Brother's Justice -- which follows Shepard (as himself) and producing partner Nate Tuck on a years-long quest to make a martial arts action movie entitled, yes, Brother's Justice -- Chuck Norris figured prominently in the genesis of the project. "Originally I envisioned fighting Chuck Norris in the third act," Shepard explained to Movieline via telephone. "That was our full goal, that I would fight him at the end of the movie."
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For a summer blockbuster whose makers are trying to emphasize its seriousness, Cowboys & Aliens sure is shaping up to be a fun little dust-tinged ride through the alien-infested Wild West. Or is it the Wilde West, now that marketing materials are giving fans the sense that resident hottie Olivia Wilde is actually in this thing? Behold, the second full trailer for Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens, packed with more (partial) alien peeks, more action, naked Olivia Wilde AND shirtless Daniel Craig! Yes, there's something for everyone.
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When it comes to conventions, Jon Favreau is nothing if not a man of the nerd people. Mindful of how much he owes to the Comic-Con faithful for jump-starting early word of mouth on the Iron Man franchise, he came to San Francisco this weekend with a treat: Nine minutes of footage from Cowboys & Aliens cut exclusively for the WonderCon audience, including a special reveal of the film's big, bad aliens -- aliens that Favreau otherwise intends to keep under wraps.
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Writer-director Shane Black is reportedly in negotiations to direct Iron Man 3, taking over from series helmer Jon Favreau for the threequel, which is already slated for release on May 3, 2013. But hey, no pressure! Two years should be plenty of time for the guy who wrote Lethal Weapon in six weeks. Besides, Black's got plenty of qualifications that should inspire fanboy confidence. Such as:
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