Casting Future Movie Franchises: Who Will Star in The Hunger Games?

nymag.com: Earlier this year, Chris Evans entered and won the “Who gets to be Captain America?” contest. Earlier this summer, Andrew Garfield entered and won the “Who gets to be Spider-Man?” contest. Sometime soon, an actress — probably an unknown; maybe Natalie Portman; definitely not Carey Mulligan —will win the “Who gets to be Lisbeth Salander?” contest. And then what? Will we be asked to go weeks without a young Hollywood talent competition to obsess upon? Would the moviemaking gods be so cruel? Please. The next win-a-franchise battle — this one called the “Who gets to be Katniss Everdeen?” contest — is scheduled to begin on August 24, with the release of Mockingjay, the third installment in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, a series of adult-loved YA books that will be adapted into movies, and that you will only be hearing more about.

Saoirse Ronan
The blonde, coltish, Ronan — the star of Atonement and The Lovely Bones — is the right age, 16, and, with some dirt on her face, would look the part. She’d have to suppress some of her natural fragility.
Odds: 4 to 1

MORE HERE

Cameron hints another film could delay those Avatar sequels

blastr.com: Looking ahead to Avatar 2? (And Avatar 3, also, since James Cameron has said that he’d be filming those two sequels back to back?) Well … we might have to wait a while, because the director just hinted this morning about a new project he might want to film first.

Cameron appeared on KTLA 5 Morning News today and said that we shouldn’t expect to return to Pandora until 2014.

“I think three years would be the minimum, probably more like four from where we’re sitting right now,” he said.

‘Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows’ Gets Screened, And Here’s What The Fanbase Thinks

SPOILERS!!!

moviesblog.mtv.com: On Saturday, some lucky test screeners in Chicago got the opportunity to see the first cut of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.” The CGI wasn’t completely finished, it had a stand-in score and its runtime was 150 minutes, but the response from the fans was overwhelmingly positive despite any issues they may have had with the first cut of the movie.

In The Beginning…
The film opens with Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour holding a press conference informing the media of the dangers facing the wizarding world. It then cuts to the scene in Malfoy Manor where Snape tells Voldemort about the plan for Harry to leave 4 Privet Drive, and this scene is supposed to be amazing. Note: filmmakers did include the murder of Charity Burbage as well. Then, Hermione is shown using a memory charm on her parents — something explained but not shown in the book — which is the scene from the trailer that shows Hermione walking towards a church. It is after this scene that the title credits roll.

MORE HERE

Why Post-Apocalyptic ‘Priest’ Won’t Be Your Regular Vampire Story

splashpage.mtv.com: Admittedly, I was late to the game in picking up Hyung Min-Woo’s “Priest,” but ever since I cracked open the first volume, I’ve been eager to see what director Scott Stewart has planned for his upcoming live-action film based on the popular manhwa series.

When MTV News had a chance to sit down with Stewart and “Priest” star Paul Bettany during Comic-Con, the pair explained why the post-apocalyptic story isn’t your average vampire tale — and why the title character might not be the hero mainstream audiences are expecting.

MORE HERE

It would be really interesting to see who gets to play Katniss, but I don’t picture her as any of those girls. Maybe someone unknown. Do you know what other contest I would like to see? How about a who gets to be Clary Fray Who do you think would be great to play Katniss?

Are the Avatar fans disappointed about the delay of the sequels?

I confess I got myself spoiled. I couldn’t help it, but well I’ve read the book like three times. I know most of what happens and who (unfortunately) dies. Now i just can’t wait to see it, November doesn’t look too far away now. What did you think? What are you waiting to see?

I’m really interested in seeing Priest after seeing the trailer they showed at Comic Con. Cowboy vampire slayers, that’s what I imagine after seeing Cam Maybe it’s different like Daybreakers was. We’ll have to wait. What do you think of the movie?

Bekmambetov is Directing ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

Although I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with Wanted, my excitement for any future projects from director Timur Bekmambetov (of Night Watch, Day Watch as well) certainly hasn’t waned. As a matter of fact a new bit of news has just turned it up to 11 as Empire spoke with the filmmaker who revealed that in addition to sharing producing duties with Tim Burton, Bekmambetov will also direct Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. On top of that, the director also shared some information on Wanted 2, a forthcoming 3D project called Red Asphalt; another 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a very odd new take on Moby Dick.

Previously, adapted from Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter reveals that the 16th president’s mother was killed by a supernatural creature, which fueled his passion to kill vampires and their slave-owning helpers. Timur talks about the tone of the film and even the potential for more sequels

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:Somehow we missed reporting on this in May, but Timur is working on an adaptation of 20,000 Leauges Under the Sea (which is completely separate from David Fincher’s version at Disney). Here’s what he had to say about that project: “Yes, it is happening. We are in development with a writer and Ridley Scott’s people. It’s early in development. I would like to direct myself – it’s a great tale that I love from my childhood. It will be a modernised version of the famous book.”

Read more HERE

There WILL be a Quantum Leap movie

via io9.com Scott Edelman

Not sure how we missed this news coming out of Comic-Con until now, but for Quantum Leap fans, it might have been the BIGGEST news to come out of Comic-Con. Quantum Leap will be back. And it will be back on the big screen.

At the “A Leap of Faith—A Quantum Leap Retrospective” panel, Scott Bakula shared the big news with the 600 fans who attended:

The good news is that Don [Quantum Leap creator Donald P. Bellisario] is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it … It’s about time. But what I always thought would happen, happened … [that he's now too old for the role]. But Dean [Stockwell, who played Al] and I will have a part in it somehow. Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, ‘getting you and Dean out of my head.’ But I know he will do it.

So to recap—Big-screen Quantum Leap, yes; Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett, no; Scott Bakula as … something, yes.

James Cameron Reveals Specifics about Avatar’s Re-Release and the Future of 3D!

“The AVATAR re-release will have 9 extra minutes, not 8 and it will all be CG. No extra footage of live action characters drinking coffee. Rainforest; some at night; a hunt sequence – a lot of flying; high impact action; an emotional scene toward the end has been added back; “the best CG in the film has been added as far as facial performance”; A Na’vi counterattack after the bulldozer attack; more of Grace at the school; adding the Stingbat and Sturmbeast creatures; additional Quaritch final AMP Suit battle shots; more of the glade love scene. It is all on par with the best of the rest of the film. They had lots of footage to choose from and they put back the absolute best scenes and shots they could.”

At least, like James said, the extra footage is not of peeps drinking coffee or of the Na’vi playing basketball. It looks like we will get some boring footage of the school house. Still, I dont see this drawing people to go spend another 50 bucks at the theater.

James then spoke to MTV about what phase of Avatar 2 he is working on:

“‘Avatar 2′… we’re still working on deals. We don’t start the movie until we get the deals worked out,” he said. “I’m making notes. I’m not sitting idle,” Cameron said. “But really, what I’m working on primarily is the novel.”

“I never had a chance to get the novel done while we were making the movie, and I always intended to. I didn’t want to do a cheesy novelization, where some hack comes in and kind of makes s–t up. I wanted to do something that was a legitimate novel that was inside the characters’ heads and didn’t have the wrong culture stuff, the wrong language stuff, all that.”

Read more HERE

‘Saw 3D’ Motion Poster Gives New Meaning To ‘Heart-Pounding’

Via MTV.com

A few weeks ago our friends over at UGO debuted a really slick new motion poster for “Saw 3D.” We’ve got an awesome new one for you today, another rotating image that is better seen than described. Like the headline above suggests, “heart-pounding” is quite literally the order of the day.

A Different Saw 3D movie poster – but just as sick!

Check out the NEW poster HERE

What did you think about today’s movie news? Are you excited for the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter film, do you think Timur Bekmambetov will do the book justice? Are you a fan of the Quantum Leap series, and who would you like to see direct the movie? Will you see the re-release of ‘Avatar’, how many times will that be now Lastly, are you a fan of the SAW series, and what did you think about the new wicked poster?

Comics turned into movies, ‘Apama’ released, Straczynski takes over ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Superman’

Recently, actress Megan Fox was quoted as saying it’s impossible to make a movie based on a comic that would please comic-book fans. She said they nitpick and are unhappy if the movie isn’t exactly like the comic. She’s missing the point. I’ll concede there are some who will never be satisfied. But most comic readers, like everyone, want to see a good movie.

It does not have to slavishly follow the comic, though that worked well for “300″ and “Kick-Ass,” but it does have to be true to the spirit of the source material. Isn’t the comic the thing that inspired the movie to begin

Writer J. Michael Straczynski has taken over Superman and Wonder Woman and is off to a great start.

Someone accused Superman of distancing himself from humanity. He thought about it, and agreed. So beginning with “Superman” No. 701 (DC, $2.99) the catch phrase becomes, “Look, walking the streets, it’s Superman” as the Man of Steel walks across the country.

Read more HERE

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go to premiere at London film festival

A movie adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s unsettling bestseller Never Let Me Go featuring three of Britain’s brightest stars – Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield – is to open this year’s London film festival, it was announced yesterday.

It will be the second film based on an Ishiguro novel to open the festival after Merchant-Ivory’s The Remains of the Day in 1993. “It is a fantastic privilege, I feel very lucky,” Ishiguro said. “To some extent it is a showcase for British talent and it’s a tremendous honour.” Ishiguro’s 2005 novel was adapted into a screenplay by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later) even before it was published.

The film has three of Britain’s brightest acting talents in the central roles. Knightley is well established while Mulligan had an Oscar nomination and Bafta win for An Education. Garfield is set for superstardom when he replaces Tobey Maguire in the next Spider-Man movie.

Read more HERE

Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark Movie Trailer

Fans of Guillermo del Toro can now see the screenwriters upcoming work via the Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark Movie Trailer (Video) that has been dropped to the web. Are you ready to be scared?!! Starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison, check out the trailer for yourself with pictures of the cast to follow.

A Halloween release would have been cool. The creepy story about a girl who goes to live with her father and his girlfriend features actress Katie Holmes as the girlfriend Kim (a reported Martha Stewart double) along with Guy Pierce and actress Bailee Madison in the role of the father and daughter, Alex and Sally Hirst.

‘Avatar’ Sequels Could Shoot Back-To-Back, Story Hints In Upcoming Novel

Anticipation for an “Avatar” sequel has been riding high since December 18 of last year, also known as the day the first movie hit theaters. Writer/director/producer James Cameron promised multiple times that there was more story to tell… but the when’s and how’s have remained mostly a mystery. Deals still need to be made, Cameron revealed in an interview with MTV’s Josh Horowitz yesterday, but momentum is nonetheless building in other ways.

‘Avatar 2′… we’re still working on deals. We don’t start the movie until we get the deals worked out,” he said. “I’m making notes. I’m not sitting idle,” Cameron said. “But really, what I’m working on primarily is the novel.”

He continued, “I never had a chance to get the novel done while we were making the movie, and I always intended to. I didn’t want to do a cheesy novelization, where some hack comes in and kind of makes s–t up. I wanted to do something that was a legitimate novel that was inside the characters’ heads and didn’t have the wrong culture stuff, the wrong language stuff, all that.”

Read more HERE

What did you think about today’s movie news? Is Megan Fox full of it, or does she have a point about comic book fanatics? Are you excited for the book adaptation of ‘Never Let Me Go’, will you see the movie? Don’t be Afraid of the Dark looks insane, what did you think…will you check it out? Lastly, how excited are you about potential sequels to Avatar?

EXCL: Saw 7 Producers Talk Actual Title, Traps, 3D

Source: Ryan Turek, Managing Editor -shocktillyoudrop.com

Fans of the Saw series were divided this week when Shock Till You Drop broke the news about a title change occurring to Saw VII, due for release on October 22. The sequel is significant in that it marks the return of Cary Elwes, picks up where part six left off (a chapter that appeared to tie up many loose strings) and is, of course, in 3D.

If you missed our previous report, we were informed the title of the new entry would be Saw 3D The Traps Come Alive. However, I got on the horn with producer Mark Burg and Oren Koules today to discuss the moniker change.

Burg clarifies, “The title of the movie is Saw 3D.”

“The Traps Come Alive” is simply a tagline. Koules notes, “It’s a tagline that was added in and misinterpreted. Most of our movies have taglines. One of the things we talked about during the campaign – especially with shooting in the 3D process, the traps really do come alive and we wanted that clear in the campaign. But the title of the film is Saw 3D.”

READ MORE HERE

Avatar To Re-Release Worldwide With Extra Footage On August 27

Source: thaindian.com

July 12, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster 3D sci-fi epic Avatar is going to be re-released on August 27 with some extra footage, which were never seen earlier.

The Academy award winning movie will be released again in 3D and IMAX theatres all over the world. The extra eight minutes will have some new creatures and action scenes.

On the addition of only eight minutes, the officials informed, “IMAX has permitted a maximum run time of 170 minutes. The original Avatar released in December 2009 had a run time of 162 minutes so the new version could add only eight more minutes”.

Audiences always wanted to see more of Pandora and hence the filmmaker came up with this new version.

READ MORE HERE

Brad Pitt Beats R Pattz To Be Named Hottest Vampire

Source: mtv.uk

Brad Pitt has topped a poll of hottest vampires, beating Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson to the er, prestigious title.
Pitt played Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview With a Vampire and it seems that over 15 years since the film’s release fans still remember his sexy blood sucking character.

READ MORE HERE

Edward Norton responds: Losing Hulk role “makes me sad”

Source: scifiwire.com

So Edward Norton won’t play the Hulk in The Avengers. We heard Marvel’s side. We heard from Norton’s agent.

But what does the actor himself have to say?

Here’s what Norton posted earlier today over on his Facebook page.

READ MORE HERE

Watch men become monsters in Adrien Brody’s prison experiment

Source: io9.com

We’ve been waiting for news on this film forever, and finally the trailer has been released. The Experiment recreates the infamous Stanford prison experiment in 1971, documenting what happens when college students are transformed into prisoners and prison guards.

To be fair, this isn’t the first film to recreate Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Experiment. A German film called Das Experiment, which this American film seems to have been directly inspired by, was based loosely on the experiments.

READ MORE HERE

I LOVE Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment. That, and Stanley Milgram’s work are by far my favourite social psychology experiments as they show a very interesting part of the human psyche, and paved the way to understanding  how environment and authority figures influence people’s behaviour. I’m not sure on how it’ll translate into movie form, though! It really could go either way. What do you think of Edward Norton’s facebook message? I love Edward Norton, but never saw him as Bruce Banner – I was looking forward to seeing him in The Avengers.

Anything you’d like to comment on in today’s movie news?

Join us in the forum to discuss!

Exclusive: Dread Attends the World Premiere of The Last Exorcism; Eli Roth Talks PG-13 Rating, Thanksgiving, and More!

This writer attended the world premiere of Lionsgate’s The Last Exorcism last night at the Ford Theatre in Hollywood, CA, and while there chatted with the flick’s producer Eli Roth.

I’m very excited!,” said the very personable Roth of the screening, which, in addition to last night’s audience, was the first time the majority of the cast in attendance had ever seen the completed, PG-13 rated film.

“Switching hats,” conceded the 38-year-old writer/producer/director-turned-notable actor, “but I’ve produced my own films and I enjoy producing, and I’ve always wanted to continually have movies going where I’m working as a director or a producer. You know, I’ll never be able to make all of the movies I want to make in one lifetime so producing is a great way to have a hand in it creatively without carrying the burden of the film. Also, it’s exciting to introduce a new director to the world like Daniel Stamm, who’s just done an amazing job with the movie.”

more here

Sam Worthington – Avatar Wins Big At Saturn Awards

‘Avatar’ won 10 prizes at the 36th annual Saturn Awards in California last night (24.06.10).

‘Avatar’ picked up 10 prizes at the Saturn Awards yesterday (24.06.10).

The James Cameron-directed epic won awards including Best Actor and Actress for Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana respectively, while also picking up the Best Science Fiction Film at the 36th annual event to celebrate the world of sci-fi and its associated genres.

James Cameron also picked up Best Director and Best Writer at the event, presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films at the Castaway restaurant in Burbank, California.

Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver won the prizes for Best Supporting Actor and Actress for their roles in ‘Avatar’.

more here.

Channing Tatum to Star in The ‘Next Avatar’ billed movie ION

The latest movie to jump on the bandwagon, even going as far as saying it’s ‘The Next Avatar’ is ION based on a script by writer Will Dunn with Fox 2000 getting the rights to the movie. According to Heat Vision the project also has some heavyweight backing from none other than the Scott Brother’s Ridley & Tony who’ll be producing under the Scott Free label with Channing Tatum playing in the lead role. The first question I asked why Tatum? these day majority of his movies come under romance genre like Dear John but ION is a ‘Romantic Sci-Fi’! Even with that he’s not an actor that’ll make me go to the cinema though I do like my science fiction flicks, but what is keeping me interested in this project is the details we have on the plot.

“Tatum will play a man who travels to different Earths and alternate dimensions — all in a quest to find his reincarnated lover.”

more here.

I am not surprised that Avatar cleaned up at the Saturn Awards. Are you?

I’m not sure I see Channing Tatum as a sci-fi star. Do you?

Source: dreadcentral

BRECK EISNER TALKS THE CRAZIES

Now that the dust has settled and The Crazies remake is making its home video debut, we caught up with director Breck Eisner to talk about all of the horrors he faced while working on the project.

The first thing we discussed was what it was like to walk in Romero’s footsteps …

“Without Romero this movie wouldn’t have gotten made,” says Eisner. “About two months before it was getting released, I set up a screening just for him of The Crazies up in Toronto, and he watched it alone. I called him the next morning, and this was an incredibly nerve-wracking call as up until this point I had never really talked to the man. I didn’t know what to expect; all I knew was that I just remade his movie and he had sat alone at 9:00 AM in Toronto and watched it.

Read more here…

Source: bloodydisgusting

MOST OVERUSED HORROR MOVIE DIALOGUE

Watch any trailer for a horror film, and you’ll hear the same lines of dialogue repeated over and over again – likely chosen for their visceral, sound bite-friendly qualities, these lines of dialogue have nevertheless become grindingly repetitive, generic placeholders that have in the intervening years transformed into groan/laughter-inducing moments of artistic bankruptcy (welcome to the world of advertising!). While sometimes it’s all in the name of snappy, attention-grabbing ads designed to appeal to the widest (read: dumbest) possible audience (take it from me when I say that Hollywood executives see us “common people” as a bunch of mouth-breathing troglodytes), often it’s indicative of the films themselves – written by lazy screenwriters with blasters set to “autopilot”. Here, then, is my list of the ten most odious, and overused, lines (words?) of dialogue used in horror films today, listed in the sequence in which they would likely be spoken in a typical movie.

Read more here...

Source: filmcritic

PUTTING THE ENVIRONMENT INTO SCI-FI MOVIES

I do think it’s pretty likely that in the future we’re going see science-fiction movies on these themes, although I think the proximate cause will be less about the oil spill and more about a gusher of another sort: Avatar, which was (at least nominally) an environmentally conscious science-fiction film and which, as we all know, brought in a couple of billion and change at the worldwide box office. There were folks who derided it for its environmental messages, just as there were people who derided it for its story — depictions of the native inhabitants of Pandora, etc. — but, in the end, it’s money that provides the lessons for the movie studios, and, in this particular case, the lesson would be this: environmental themes don’t (necessarily) hurt your box office.

Read more here…

Source: io9

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT AS SNAKE PLISSKEN

Director Breck Eisner is itching to work with hisCrazies lead Timothy Olyphant again, but does this mean there’s a spot for him in Eisner’s upcoming Escape From New York remake? Sounds like there’s a chance.

In an interview with MovieWeb, Eisner was asked about teaming up with Olyphant again. And as opposed to giving the usual non-answer Eisner sang the praises of Olyphant’s Plissken potential:

“Creatively, he would be great for it. We have not yet discussed internally within the studio who will play Snake Plissken.”

Read more here…

My favorite most overused line in horror movies that is so unnecessary is “Please….please…don’t hurt me”.  You KNOW they’re gonna hurt you…so why bother! You think the killer looks the way they do, all mangled looking, blood dripping down their weapon of choice and will decide to change their mind the last minute and break out some daisies and hand em’ to you? Come on! What’s you favorite overused line of dialogue?

Escape From New York was bad ass when it first came out. Kurt Russell embodied Snake Plissken perfectly. But now it’s time to change the guard and Timothy Olyphant would be perfect. He has that poker face pensive look down to a science and has quite a range that I think is yet untapped. What do you think?