MOVIE NEWS FOR OCTOBER 19TH

SHREK DIRECTOR MITCHELL BOARDS ‘MONSTER SQUAD’

www.comingsoon.net: Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After) will direct Monster Squad, formerly known as “Nightcrawlers,” a supernatural action comedy at Warner Bros. Pictures.

The studio picked up “Nightcrawlers” as a spec script by Brian Lynch in 2000. While the title has changed, the film is not a remake of Shane Black’s 1987 film of the same name. Brad Copeland wrote the current script. The studio is targeting a shoot in late summer 2010. Donald De Line is producing.

 More here.

NEW ‘DAYBREAKERS’ POSTER, ‘NEW MOON’ PIC AND ‘THE LOVELY BONES’ POSTER

www.ropeofsilicon.com: I’ve added plenty of new images over the past week and if you haven’t been paying close enough attention you may have missed a few of them such as full galleries for 2012 and The Fourth Kind or full-size posters for Daybreakers, The Lovely Bones and Edge of Darkness.

See the pics and read more here.

JOSH HUTCHERSON ON ‘THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT’

www.teenhollywood.com: 16-year-old cutie Josh Hutcherson impressed us as a kid actor in tons of movies; The Bridge to Terabithia, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D, Zathura and more. Affable, friendly Josh usually plays “the good guy” in films but he is stoked to portray “baddie” Steve in the new fantasy vampire film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant based upon the book series.

TeenHollywood: So, how cool was it on “Cirque” to play the bad guy for a change?  Did you really go after the role?

Josh: Yeah, it was cool to play a bad guy. When I read the script, I read it early on before it got settled as to who was going to play what role. Darren was the lead role and that was interesting and I like the character a lot but, for me, I was more interested to play Steve because it was something I’d never really taken on before so it was great.  I loved getting to play the bad guy and kind of unleash the evilness.

TeenHollywood: Did any funny goof ups happen on set?

Josh: We messed up a lot.  There is always stuff like ‘Oops!’ But we had a lot of fun. Chris and I set off these little bombs we made out of water bottles and dry ice. We kept on exploding those down in the basement of the theater (where they were shooting the film) and there were rats crawling around. It was so much fun though.

More here.

 SCOTT DERICKSON JOINS ‘THE LIVING’

www.dreadcentral.comDirector Scott Derrickson has had enough of giant robots and wooden actors who contribute to the Earth standing still. The filmmaker whom many of us love for The Exorcism of Emily Rose is now heading back to the land of the supernatural with his latest flick, The Living.

Variety reports that Derrickson has been tapped by Lakeshore Entertainment to direct the supernatural suspense thriller.

More here.

‘WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE’ TAKES IN 32.5 MILLION THIS WEEKEND

www.necn.comSpike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved picture book, “Where the Wild Things Are,” took in $32.5 million opening weekend.

The film features a misbehaving young protagonist who travels to a make-believe island of monsters, following a real life argument with his mother.

More here.

EARLY PICS FROM JOHN CARPENTER’S ‘THE WARD’

www.dreadcentral.com: The film stars Jared Harris (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mamie Gummer (Taking Woodstock), Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass), Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), and Danielle Panabaker ( Friday the 13th remake) and was written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen.

Synopsis
The Ward is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen, is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined.

More here.

JEEPERS CREEPERS 3 IS MOVING AHEAD

www.horror-movies.caIts been a really long time since we have had any updates on Jeepers Creepers 3. The last we talked about the film was in November of 2008. Victor Salva will be directing but today from DreadCentral comes an update from the writer on the films progress;

“Breck will of course don his wings once again as our favorite flying man-eater, though we have decided, after much fan feedback, to give him his truck back for the new film. Gina Phillips will be back in Jeepers Threepers (as we like to call it) playing Trisha Jenner, 23 years later, a successful business woman who has her own teenage son, Darry, named after her long lost brother.”

More here.

PRODUCER TALKS ‘AVATAR’

www.mania.com: It’s been relatively quiet on the Avatar front since the teaser trailer and “Avatar Day” excitement but producer Jon Landau still believes it will come through for fans, both in expectations and at the box office.

“Any fear about this film is long behind us,” Landau said on the sidelines of the 14th Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea, after screening 30-minutes of selected scenes from the film.

More here.

SALMA HAYEK ON ‘CIRQUE DU FREAK’

www.mania.com: Question: What do you like about vampire mythology?So, what do you think of today’s movie news?

 Salma Hayek: I don’t have a fascination with vampires. It’s quite ironic. I’ve actually been a vampire in a movie and I’ve been in love with a vampire in another movie, yet I have no fascination whatsoever with vampires. I loved this script, but I actually found the concept of the circus freaks more interesting than vampires–maybe because there’s been less movies done about them. I also liked that it’s a film for young people, but it doesn’t treat young people as a cliché. It’s respectful of their uniqueness. It doesn’t tell them exactly what they’re supposed to think. It gives them space to take different things in different ways. I thought it was quite smart. That’s what attracted me about this project, and it just happened to be a vampire project. It also just happened to have facial hair, which is the third time I’ve done some kind of freaky facial hair in a movie.