Filmonic

Brandon Routh’s Superman contract has expired

Liam — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:32:42 PDT

Nobody knows what’s going on with the Superman franchise. It’s unlikely Bryan Singer will be returning to direct the sequel. There has been talk of a reboot, as well as talk of a direct sequel to Superman Returns, however nothing has been announced. Warner Bros. have taken that long in deciding what the next move will be, that Brandon Routh’s contract to return as Superman has expired.

From Portuguese site Omelete (translated by /Film)

Here are the key quotes from Routh. Firstly, on the small matter of the contract:

The term of the contract expired. But if they call me again, I’ll go back to the character without thinking twice.

On Warners’ plans for the series:

I do not know anything. I’m sure that Warner Bros. is moving there, but everything is still uncertain. Actually, I do not know anything.

On why he thinks Superman Returns may have disappointed:

I think it is missing some beating.

I’ll assume ‘beating’ means action. I liked Brandon as Superman, and off the top of my head I can’t think of anyone else who could play him. If they do reboot/recast they will either have to get another unknown or go the opposite direction and hire a known actor.

Nick Fury is still just a talker in Iron Man 2

Liam — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:52:06 PDT

Samuel L. Jackson had a brief scene after the credits as Nick Fury in Iron Man, and he will be meeting up with Tony Stark once again in Iron Man 2, however Jackson revealed to SplashPage that Fury won’t be doing anything bad-ass just yet.

“Not this time, not yet,” Jackson told MTV News of the likelihood we’ll see his character become the action hero fans know in “Iron Man 2.” “We still haven’t moved Nick Fury into the bad-ass zone. He’s still just kind of a talker.”

Asked whether fans will have to wait until the superhero team-up in “The Avengers” to see Fury get ready to rumble, Jackson simply said, “Looking forward to that, yeah.”

Jackson signed a 9 movie deal with Marvel back in February so there is plenty of time for us to see Nick Fury do this thing. He will probably just be a talker in Thor and Captain America as well to connect the worlds. The Avengers will be where it all goes down.

Will Transformers 3 be 3D?

Liam — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:29:01 PDT

For Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen director Michael Bay filmed three action sequences with IMAX cameras and made a life sized Optimus Prime. Over the past few years, especially this year, 3D has been gaining steam with more and more movies are being made in 3D, and many 3D screens are being fitted all over the place for us to see them, so will Michael Bay go a step further and give us a life sized Optimus Prime in 3D for Transformers 3?

No. No he won’t.

From the Wall Street Journal:

I prefer the flat screen. I’m not jumping to do 3-D at all—it’s a pain in the neck to shoot it and I actually like the flat image. I’ve heard that some people can’t even see 3-D and, moreover, that a major side effect of watching it is feeling exhausted. Can you imagine how you’d feel watching one of my movies in 3-D?

He has a point. Spending 2 hours and 40+ minutes watching 3D robots going at it, while cool, would be enough to shut down people’s brains and souls. Bay also commented on his next project, which shockingly will contain little or no special effects.

I’ve been talking to some big actors right now about something that is totally different. A small dark comedy, a true story, with actors just acting, no effects. I’m done with effects movies for now. When you do a movie like “Transformers,” it can feel like you’re doing three movies at once—which is tiring.

I just want to take some time off. It’s been almost three years that I’ve devoted myself entirely to this world of robots. At some point, enough is enough—and I literally carried this movie on my back. I only finished it in the last week. It was a tough movie for me to finish—especially with the writers strike, the possible SAG strike. At one point, we were the only union movie in America shooting—Hollywood was so messed up from those two events.

Stan Lee written into Venom script

Liam — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:47:17 PDT

In April Venom spin-off writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick said that they’ve handed in a draft of the script to Sony and were waiting for feedback, however they couldn’t reveal any details for obvious reasons. Now SHH managed to speak to them again and they did reveal one thing. Stan Lee will be making an appearance in the film.

“Oh, yeah. Stan Lee is in it,” Reese told us. “I feel like that’s the one thing we can say. He does appear in our script, and we’re very specific about where he is and why. May he live forever. Let’s hope he’s in many movies to come.”

Stan Lee has been making cameos in Marvel films ever since the first X-Men movie back in 2000, so we can expect him to keep this tradition up for many years. I imagine he’ll be popping up in Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, even if he wasn’t directly association with the characters during his comic book career.

Is It Really All About The $$$? Amy Pascal and Sony Gain Clooney, Ditch Soderbergh

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:39:56 PDT

In case you haven’t followed the ridiculous process of Amy Pascal of Sony and Columbia Tri-Star suddenly putting a full halt and turnaround on the baseball pic Moneyball, I direct you to post number one HERE and post number two HERE.

Now, we’re hearing the end of this argument and some details about what exactly went wrong with the script to make Pascal halt the $58 million dollar production mere days before the project began filming with Brad Pitt in the starring role. The word on the digital street was that the script that director Steven Soderbergh delivered was so tonally different from the Pascal-approved draft written by Schindler’s List scribe Steven Zaillian that she ground the movie to a halt. At that point, Sony had already pumped an estimated $10 million dollars into the development of the script.

What were the script details that caused Pascal to boot Soderbergh off the flick, and why is Sony so eager to save money on Brad Pitt films while risking money on George Clooney films?

The Big Picture LA Times Blog actually talked to Pascal about why Moneyball didn’t get started:

“I’ve wanted to work with Steven forever, because he’s simply a great filmmaker,” Pascal told me today. “But the draft he turned in wasn’t at all what we’d signed up for. He wanted to make a dramatic reenactment of events with real people playing themselves. I’d still work with Steven in a minute, but in terms of this project, he wanted to do the film in a different way than we did.”

Soderbergh’s last-minute revisions represented a huge change from the shooting script I read when I was working on a story about the film during its pre-production. The script, written by Oscar winner Steve Zaillian, was a baseball movie, but it was loaded with great comic moments and dazzling dialogue that captured the frenetic energy of Beane, a strikingly good-looking former phenom who washed out after a brief stint in the majors, only to resurface as a general manager who operated more like “Entourage’s” Ari Gold than the buttoned-down insiders who normally run big-league teams. Beane was a born hustler, always wheeling and dealing, staying one step ahead of his rivals as he scouted unlikely unknown minor leaguers to replace the high-priced free agents a small-market team like the Oakland A’s couldn’t afford.

Soderbergh wouldn’t talk to me about all this, but it seems clear that he became obsessed with authenticity, replacing many of Zaillian’s inspired scripted set-pieces with actual interviews with the real people who were involved in the events. The Soderbergh aesthetic, according to one source close to the film, was simple: If it didn’t happen in real life, it wasn’t going to be in the movie.

Summation: Steven Soderbergh went for an authentic re-telling of real-life events and Pascal wanted the Brad Pitt, A-List, possible Oscar nod movie she signed up for.

This would be an interesting creative vs. business argument if there wasn’t another side to the story: the Soderbergh-working-with-Major-League-Baseball side. In an interesting Left Coast/Right Coast bit of reporting dialogue, it was The New York Times that added the new piece of the puzzle:

One reason was to win the approval of Major League Baseball, which was not happy with some factual liberties in Mr. Zaillian’s version. Such approval is crucial in a baseball film that intends to use protected trademarks.

“Typically, on a film like this, we look at it for historical accuracy,” said Matthew Bourne, a vice president of Major League Baseball for public relations. “We’ve been in touch with Soderbergh and Sony, and they’ve been receptive to our requests.”

What baseball saw as accurate, Sony executives saw as being too much a documentary. Mr. Soderbergh, for instance, planned to film interviews with some of the people who were connected to the film’s story.

The executives, who had just seen disappointing results from “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” and “Year One,” rebelled. Ms. Pascal and Matt Tolmach, co-president of Sony’s film operation, personally told Mr. Soderbergh of their dissatisfaction.

Summation: In one corner we have Steven Soderbergh and Major League Baseball and in the other we have Sony, feeling the hurt of Year One and The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3 underperforming as DVD and home video sales decline.

I can understand not wanting to launch a $58 million dollar Brad Pitt film unless you’re damn sure that you will make your money back, but there’s one more piece of news that seems to contradict this fiscally-responsible attitude Pascal seems to be relying on.

Namely, Sony has acquired George Clooney’s production company Smokehouse Pictures after Clooney and production partner Grant Heslov left Warner Brothers. Which is odd, because if Clooney’s flicks were making bank, Warners would have put up a fight, right?

Not to mention some interesting inclusions in the press release:

The Smokehouse Pictures team includes Senior Vice President of Development Nina Wolarsky, and creative executive Alex Meenehan. The company is currently in development on the following projects with Warner Bros:

THE CHALLENGE
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. An adaptation of Jonathan Mahler’s nonfiction book chronicling the historic Supreme Court case in which two lawyers sued the Bush administration on behalf of accused terrorist Salim Hamdan.

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS
A satirical comedy about American spin doctors competing in the same Presidential election in Bolivia. Based on the documentary by Rachel Boynton, with a script by Peter Straughan (MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS).

FARRAGUT NORTH
An adaptation of Beau Willimon’s critically acclaimed play, set during the Iowa primary of a presidential race.

ESCAPE FROM TEHRAN
The true story of how the CIA used a fake movie project to smuggle hostages out of 1979 Tehran. Chris Terrio is writing the screenplay.

THE TOURIST
A contemporary spy thriller about a spy who risks everything to reveal a conspiracy after he’s accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Based on the bestselling book by Olen Steinhauer. Tony Peckham is writing the screenplay.

THE INNOCENT MAN
Based on the bestselling nonfiction book by John Grisham, the true story of murder and injustice in a small town in Oklahoma. Adapted by David Gordon Green.

Any of those movies sound like a sure-fire hit to you? Probably not. They all sound interesting and intellectually challenging, as is the wont of Smokehouse Pictures, but marketable? As Will Smith would say: “Naw.”

As of now, Moneyball still exists as a project, though Soderbergh has been booted and Pitt is the only name attached. Pascal still has her finger on the Moneyball money button, since Steven was unable to drum up any other studio support for his accurate film while the script was in limited turnaround.

So here’s the question: What is Amy Pascal doing? Is she going to save money, make money, or simply refuse to roll the dice on a project based on creative integrity alone?

Guess what, Amy, you just made my watchlist (though you’ll never usurp the top Most Hated spot from NBC’s Ben Silverman).

Save Me From The Robots, Robert Downey Jr!

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:33:48 PDT

An interesting report coming in from the Iron Man 2 set, even though I’m fairly sure it’s wrapped. This from Cinemablend:

…apparently an extra was injured while filming a robot scene in some fashion. Unfortunately no one noticed, except Robert Downey Jr. who their sources say, “Robert, who wasn’t in the scene, suddenly noticed one extra twisting in pain and moaning.” The story goes that Robert then ran across the set, charged into the scene braving rampaging robots while yelling “Cut! Cut!” to save the extra.

So what injured this extra?

An iron robot.

Yes, the scene in question was said to include “stunt men dressed as robotic villains [rampaging] through the set.” One of the stunt men, dressed in an iron costume whacked the extra with his heavy robo-gear and injured him.

What have we learned? Iron Man 2 will include rampaging robotic villains and for whatever reason, these costumes were made out of actual iron instead of using the kind of movie magic that makes plastic look like iron so said plastic can’t whack extras hard enough to hurt them.

We’ve also learned that RDJr sits off set, ready to pounce in should he need to ruin a take or save someone in pain. You can bet the insurance company isn’t so happy about that.

The Squeakuel No One Was Waiting For

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:12:41 PDT

Oh yes, the first teaser for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel has premiered on MTV, and it features six more X chromosomes than the original film. That’s right, The Chipettes, Brittany (Anna Faris), Jeanette (Christina Applegate) and Eleanor (Amy Poehler) are going to meet Alvin, Simon and Theodore and…

…God, who knows or cares what kind of mischief they get into?

[Check out the preview in the media box to the right, or CLICK HERE to see it at the source]

Here’s what I do know, both sets of these characters were created by Ross Bagdasarians Junior and Senior to sing popular songs pitched up in a squeaky Chipmunk-esque voice. When this was all originating with Witch Doctor in 1958, Senior Ross Bagdasarian was making novelty records and using technology unavailable to the modern consumer in making the Chipmunks talk and sing. This formula worked so well for him and his son of the same name that it wasn’t until 1982 for the Chipmunks collection of movie songs, “The Chipmunks Go Hollywood” on RCA, that a female character was needed to sing the Olivia Newton John part on “You’re The One That I Want” from Grease. Enter “Charlene The Chippette” who would eventually give birth (by providing the impetus, not through sexual contact) to the three Chippette’s now recognized.

In the modern era, since every Mac sold comes with the Garageband tools needed to pitch your own voice up to a Chipmunk, this property has become stale. With the Bagdasarians holding tight to the Chipmunk rights and with the previous kid-friendly CG/Live-Action combo film, it looks like the Chipmunks are never going to take a route that will be interesting to me ever again (like a serious story about Chipmunks in the music industry could be a Blues Brothers-like comedy with bizzaro twists). Why?

The cost to make the live action Alvin and the Chipmunks? $60 Million
The worldwide gross to date? $360,578,644.

See you this Christmas, Squeakuel. I will be drunk.

Random Posts

Surrogates poster

Liam — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:36:26 PDT

ComingSoon.net received an exclusive first look at the poster for Surrogates, which stars Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell as FBI agents who investigate the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves, enabling them to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

You can watch the trailer for Surrogates by clicking here!

An even better look at the Na’vi face

Liam — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:22:58 PDT

James Cameron may think he is big and clever by inventing his new, never seen before, ground breaking 3D technology for Avatar but he and whoever made the Comic Con banner have underestimated the internet fans and their photoshopping (or possibly Paint) capabilities! AvatarMovieZone used the art of symmetry and ‘flipping’ to create a full version of the Na’vi face from the half face we saw earlier.

You can definitely see some lion-like features in the face. The bioluminescence also looks quite cool. Below is a description of the footage that was shown in Amsterdam two weeks ago that gives us an idea what the creature above, possibly Neytiri, gets up to:

In the next couple of scenes Jake (Sam Worthington) meets Na’Vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Jake finds himself alone at night in the jungle with only a torch as protection against some evil looking dogs. Eager to fight them, Jake says: ‘What are you waiting for?’ When one of the ‘dogs’ attacks him he slams the torch in the creature’s face. A fight ensues that Jake can’t win by himself. Lucky for him, there’s Neytiri who with her trusty bow and arrow helps Jake chase away the creatures. Just when Jake wants to offer his gratitude, Neytiri knocks his reached out hand away and says to Jake that killing these creatures is a bad thing. When the scene fades out to black, my mind begins to work overtime. How the hell is it possible that I never once felt like I’ve been watching a movie where almost everything comes out of a computer?

The most beautiful scene follows directly after the one I’ve described above. When Jake wants to take his torch with him, Neytiri takes it from him and throws it in the river. Like magic the flowers and plants – even the grassy soil – begin to glow in the night. The beauty completely takes my breath away. Meanwhile we get to learn more about Neytiri and her people. Everybody who knows the story of Native American Pocahontas and John Smith, will recognize a lot of similarities. Before you can sing “Colors of the Wind,” Neytiri guides Jake through her world. Mysterious flowing and glowing seeds from a mystic tree appear out of nowhere. To Neytiri’s surprise Jake attracts them. She has a look in her eyes like he’s the ‘chosen one.’ And of course she’s right. Jake has to lead the Na’Vi into battle against the massive army of Colonel Quaritch.

Resident Evil: Afterlife in 2010?

Liam — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:06:55 PDT

Exactly one year ago we heard that director Paul W.S. Anderson was talking to Sony about making a fourth Resident Evil film. Resident Evil: Extinction tripped it’s budget so i’m sure it didn’t take much convincing, and now we have word that it may have a title, Resident Evil: Afterlife, and that it may be released next year.

From ShockTillYouDrop:

Late last year, Paul W.S. Anderson revealed he was indeed writing another film. Capcom was getting involved. Everyone, as he said, was “excited.” Well, we’ve just learned from a studio insider that Sony is looking to get Resident Evil: Afterlife into theaters by September 17, 2010. That’s according to an internal memo circulating through the offices there.

Will Anderson direct? Unsure. Will Milla Jovovich be back? I think it would be safe to say yes considering the last entry ended on – SPOILER ALERT – Alice clones getting ready to seek revenge on the Umbrella Corporation which was holed up in Tokyo.

If they are indeed looking at a September 2010 release date then we should be hearing more developments over the upcoming weeks and months.

Resident Evil 4?