Over at Bleeding Cool, director Rupert Wyatt spitballs about ideas for a sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the first-week critical and commercial successes of which seem like good indications that sequels will indeed happen. Wyatt's idea for the next film in his Apes reboot? "Full Metal Jacket with apes." Oh, yes.
Never mind that there are only three novels in Suzanne Collins' bestselling Hunger Games trilogy -- Lionsgate will reportedly go the Summit/Warner Bros. route and squeeze an extra film out of their highly anticipated property, according to studio execs. You know what that means: put on your speculation hats and predict where Gary Ross & Co. will split the teen homicide-packed saga! [Deadline]
What does Kung Fu Panda 2 have to do with King of the Hill, Midnight Run, and Animal House? Ask screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who co-scripted and co-produced the Oscar-nominated 2008 global hit Kung Fu Panda and its sequel, in theaters this weekend. After working their way up the ranks with TV comedy gigs, the duo has emerged one of DreamWorks Animation's strongest writing teams -- and to think, it all started with a stuffy office job in Boston...
Because of his unique brand of hilariously discomfiting stand-up comedy and, in particular, his mock-confrontational talk show satire Between Two Ferns, which lampoons the celebrity interview itself with clear-eyed vitriol, you might not peg Zach Galifianakis for a warm interviewee. But, like most comics, he's nothing like any of his own characters -- including Alan Garner, the delusional man-child who, along with his fellow "Wolf Pack"-ers (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and, this time around, a monkey) wakes up in a seedy Bangkok hotel room after yet another night of black-out debauchery in The Hangover Part II.
Speaking to journalists Thursday in Beverly Hills, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides superproducer Jerry Bruckheimer was guarded as ever where details of a fifth Pirates were concerned. But at least he was honest about what it'll take for Disney to officially give the green light. "If it makes them a lot of money, it's a success. And hopefully it makes them a lot of money." Something tells us the radical idea Johnny Depp shared for filming Pirates 5 and 6 won't exactly fly.
With Thor poised to kick-off the next chapter in Marvel's superhero empire this week, the film's stars and creatives found themselves looking to the future at a press conference Sunday in Los Angeles. Though actors Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston were loath to drop details on the currently-filming Avengers, they gave a teaser of what to expect when their godly alter egos collide with human superheroes like Iron Man and Hulk in the Joss Whedon-helmed 2012 pic.
A handful of online press got a sneak peek at Paramount's Transformers: Dark of the Moon the other day, complete with face time with Michael Bay himself. Alas, Movieline was not in attendance, so we'll have to take these other folks' word for it and assume Transformers 3 could be the balls-out, insane, eyeball-searing giant robot war movie to end all giant robot war movies! Right, guys?!
After 40 years in the horror movie business, Wes Craven has almost certainly seen it all. What's more, he's practically done it all -- whether confronting taboos with aplomb and with a social conscience (Last House on the Left), creating one of the most memorable monsters of all time (Nightmare on Elm Street), or turning the horror genre in on itself (Scream). But after this week's Scream 4, a sequel-skewering sequel notoriously hampered by production woes and Craven's own public airing of grievances over a lack of script control, will the veteran filmmaker finally be ready to throw in the towel on this particular series?
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