Ryan Reynolds enters safe house

Just last week it was reported that Ryan Reynolds headed up the list of young actors vying for the role opposite Denzel Washington in the David Guggenheim penned action thriller "Safe House" Now Toldja have word that he's in final negotiations to lock down the role into his busy schedule.

Having read the script I'd say Reynolds is a very good choice for the young CIA agent tasked with getting Denzel's veteran badass to the Safe House. I'm really hoping this one doesn't get delayed, this is just the kind of original high concept action film I was lamenting the loss of the other day, given the role has been so hotly contested it gives me hope that it will be made as a summer blockbuster.

Days after Deadline revealed Ryan Reynolds was front runner for the Safe House  role chased by every hot young actor in town, the actor is now negotiating to play the young CIA agent who must transport a dangerous criminal (Washington) to safety after both are attacked at a safe house. The Universal drama is directed by Daniel Espinosa and produced by Scott Stuber.

CAA is negotiating not only the deal, but how to fit the film into an array of plum projects that came to Reynolds after last summer's breakout trifecta of The Proposal, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and landing the hotly contested title role of Green Lantern in the Martin Campbell-directed film.

Reynolds, who'll next be seen in the Rodrigo Cortes-directed thriller Buried--he is in every frame of the movie, trapped underground in a coffin beneath the sand in Iraq--will start work in October in The Change-Up, the David Dobkin-directed Universal pic. If they can make a deal, Safe House follows early next year.

Alexander Aja to adapt Cobra

Given Aja's latest movie is about ravenous Piranha you';d be forgiven for wondering if the horror director was moving full time to creature features, but this actually an adaption of a manga and is his passion project according to Toldya!

From the sounds of things this will be the most ambitious undertaking of Aja's career so far but if it comes off he'll have a big franchise on his hands.

Director Alexander Aja has emerged from the Piranha 3D fish tank determined to next sink his teeth into Cobra—The Space Pirate. While not well known in America, the Buichi Terasawa-created Japanese manga was turned into an animated series that was hugely popular across Europe and especially in Aja's childhood household.

After a long courtship, Aja said he's been granted the rights by Terasawa. He wants to turn the futuristic saga into a tent pole-sized live action franchise. He is writing the script with Gregory Levasseur and will produce with Levasseur, Marc Sessego and Alexandra Milchan. Since directing the 2003 French fright film High Tension, Aja has stayed in horror mode with The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors and Piranha 3D. He wants to step up to a big science fiction fantasy tale.

In a future where merchant spaceships and ruthless brigands sail across space, Cobra is a notorious rogue pirate whose refusal to align with the United Galaxies Federation or the Pirates Guild puts him on the business end of a huge bounty. As he tries to keep his identity secret and avoid capture, Cobra teams up with a sexy bounty hunter named Jane, who is out to locate her sisters and decode a treasure map tattooed on their backs. Their goal: to liberate a lost treasure on Mars. To Aja, Cobra was every bit a seminal rogue as Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

"I grew up dreaming about Cobra," Aja told me. "My day was, finish school, run home and switch on the TV and I was hardly the only one. Kids did it in France, Italy, Spain, all over Western Europe. For many people there is Star Wars and nothing else, but for me and my writing partner Gregory, there is Star Wars and Cobra. I am so surprised it never crossed the ocean and made the same impact in the U.S., because it is so big everywhere else. There are 60 books, a lot of TV animation and so many adventures, pirates and bad guys that it is perfect to be reinvented into a really cool space opera adventure franchise for a new generation."

Now that the rights are secure, Aja said he and his partners have begun talking to everyone from financiers to creature designers. After unleashing toothy fish through 3D, Aja is considering the same possibilities for the space adventure. "It should be in 3D, science fiction and 3D are a good mix," Aja said. "I'll start work on the script soon, but I have been carrying this inside me for 30 years and we are talking to the creature designers of films like Avatar and Star Trek, building a new world and doing it the right way."

New Deathly Hallows Image

I'm getting more and more excited for this movie, probably because I spent most of a sick day yesterday reading the book again.  In addition to the awesome photos from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that were released earlier this week, a new image from Part 1 has surfaced, courtesy of KansasCity.com:

The new image shows Harry, Ron and Hermione as they enter Number 12 Grimmauld Place, former home of Sirius Black (as well as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix) that serves as the trio's first hideout as they search for Voldemort's Horcruxes.  Fans of the book may notice that Herimone is holding the incredibly useful beaded bag that travels with them throughout the story.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 opens in theaters on November 19th.

Vanishing on 7th Street Trailer

Director Brad Anderson is the man behind "The Machinist" but in truth that film is often better known for Christian Bale's incredible performance where he turned himself into what looked like a victim of anorexia, however the film is a brilliant psychological thriller and now Anderson's new movie "Vanishing on 7th Street" has a Trailer.

The basic premise is a goup of people wake up one morning at the titular location and everyone has vanished and the sky goes black despite the time of day, the few that haven't vanished gather together at a local tavern to try and figure out what has happened, and that is when the real terror begins.

The trailer showcases more of the eerie style that made "The Machinist" so foreboding, it's hard to tell how far into horror territory the film goes but it seems more about mood than gore.

The film is playing at the Toronto International Film Festival and looking for a studio to pick it up, you can check out the trailer below.

Paramount's Development Slate Via Email?

Somehow the sleuths over at The Wrap were able to uncover an email straight from the offices of Paramount which reveals all projects in development. Quite a score for fans. As TMT's own Rob Hunter pointed to in a previous article, the slate includes a high concept J.J. Abrams thriller based of the teen kissing game "7 Minutes In Heaven".

When reached for comment by The Wrap, Paramount insisted that the email wasn't a Paramount document but did reveal that "It has some correct information and some inaccurate information." I think the spokesman's last name was Vague.

See below and let me know what you think.

J.J. Abrams and Jack Bender play Seven Minutes in Heaven

We all love JJ Abrams except those with no taste.....only kidding....well he's involved in yet another project, again as producer with LOST alumni Jack Bender on directing duties.

Heat vision got the lowdown on this one with a lot of help from The Wrap, who "wrapped" their hands around an email from Paramount revealing their slate.

The story, which has a high concept hook based around a kissing game, no doubt the two canoodling in the closet will be aesthetically pleasing and 25 playing sixteen.

J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot shingle are developing a thriller based on the teenage makeout game of snogging in the closet.

Called “7 Minutes in Heaven,” the original idea comes from Jack Bender, who most recently directed the final episode of ABC’s “Lost.” A longtime Bad Robot cohort, Bender signed a feature deal with the company in early June, and the “Heaven” project is his to helm. “Heaven” is being developed internally, but it likely will be set up at Paramount, the studio home of Bad Robot. 

While plot details are being suppressed, it is known to focus on two teens who go into a closet as part of the titular game and find all their friends dead when they come back out.

Bad Robot is looking for a writer to tackle the idea.

This all sounds like it will end up with Robert Pattinson and Amber Heard being chased around for 90 minutes by a mystery killer, but given the talent involved I'm mildly interested. I just hope it doesn't delay progress on the new Jack Ryan movie "Moscow" which Bender is set to direct.

January Jones Goes "First Class"

The casting orgasm that is "X-Men Origins: The First Class" continues with sultry actress January Jones inking a deal with Fox to play Emma Frost according to The Trades. The internet super-highway were ripe with reports that Alice Eve was all but a lock to take on Frost, but obviously that was just another example of mass interweb hysteria.

Jones is best known for her portrayal of Betty Draper on the television show "Mad Men" but has appeared in "Love Actually", "American Wedding", and "Pirate Radio" on the big screen. She'll be joining James McAvoy and Miechael Fassender among others in the Matthew Vaughn directed superhero jaunt.

I personally have little interest in this flick thus far, maybe my mind will change once I start seeing some pictures or video, but as of now I find myself in "meh" status.

Rourke and Fox passion pic

Calm yourselves, this is not as hot/weird/gross as the image title may conjure, it's just the first rather nice image from the indie fantasy drama "Passion Play" starring hell raising legend Mickey Rourke and ex Transformers hottie Megan Fox.

As well as the cool image below early word from the Toronto International Film Festival is that it's good and may well force Fox's many haters to eat their words.

This strange and lyrical love story blends old-fashioned romanticism with all the fantasy of a fairy tale. It is also a welcome sight to see Mickey Rourke in a role that bores beneath his shambling gruffness to find a tender core. The slow-burning passion that gradually simmers between him and a darkly vulnerable Megan Fox showcases the talents of both actors with finesse. Finally there is Bill Murray, the counterpoint whose role is to act as a cold shower whenever heat blows between the two star-crossed lovers.

Nate (Rourke), a small-time jazz musician, is clearly a hard-luck case. Caught trying to break into a car, he is taken off into the desert where his assailant puts a gun to his head. Game over? Not quite. Stumbling into a circus pitched amidst the vast expanses of the southwest desert, Nate finds himself drawn to the exotic beauty of Lily (Fox), the Bird Woman. Lily is cold and dismissive; socializing with customers is not her scene. But it dawns on her that this gentle giant may well be her way out of a life of eccentric exposition. Nate is protective and understanding, and to him her aquiline beauty is a magic part of her uniqueness. As their bond deepens, Nate finds that his dreams of bliss are about to be thwarted by Happy Shannon (Murray), a cucumber-cool businessman with deep pockets and an eye for the bizarre.

Drawing on the remarkable talents of its high-powered cast, this wonderfully offbeat film is filled with surprises and proves that magic can be found in many places. Mitch Glazer balances the tough-guy moments and the rocky romance with the touch and feel of a high-wire artist. It makes for a spirited and uplifting spectacle with all the spirited colour of the circus.

black swan poster

Earlier tonight Mitch posted the trailer for Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan' and now Ropes of Silicon have the poster, which is every bit as ice cold and creepy as the trailer.

Love and Other Drugs International trailer

On Friday the US trailer for this Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal romantic comedy dropped and now Ropes of Silicon have the international version and it's quite different.

For starters it's a bit raunchier, secondly it really showcases Gyllenhaal's shallow playboy, however the really big difference is in the second half of the trailer that exposes something about Hathaway's character that suggests there is more than just a frothy rom com here.

The studio leaving the reason why the film is also listed as a drama out of the US trailer is weird to me. if anything it makes an already appealing looking film even more interesting, and it certainly explains why Zwick directed.

"Love and Other Drugs" Opens on November 24th and you can check out the trailer below.