Boy is The Three Stooges mounting to up to be an...interesting affair.
Last week, comedian Will Sasso (whom I remember vividly from his Mad TV stint) was pegged to step into the role of Curly, and now Variety reports after a search that included contenders to the throne of Stooge middle-man Larry Fine that included Sean Penn and James Marsden (both inspiredly "out there" choices) Sean Hayes has been selected.
The Will & Grace star is a fine actor, but it takes a second to let it settle in visualizing him with that hair and being slapped around by Sasso's Curly and whomever the Farrelly Brothers settle on for Moe. Although if they're listening (and they aren't nor is this casting choice remotely realistic), I'll echo the thoughts of AICN's Alan Cerny: Daniel Day-Lewis for Moe!
This sounds like the perfect Funny or Die! sketch. Only it's for real and not an unfortunately timed too-late-after April Fools prank. I know because it's the cover story for the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly and noticed during my weekly ritual of partaking in the magazine while on the shitter.
Oh yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stan Lee (The same "Stan the Man" campaigning to appear in The Dark Knight Rises – not-so-subtly telling the world he’s jealous of Warner Brothers/DC Comics, perhaps?) are forging their powers together to bring the world...*wait for it*... The Governator!
Coming Soon has the trailer for the planned animated series that will accompanied by a live-action 3D feature film, comic-books, action-figures, Cuban-cigars, condoms and the works:
For all the shit the Internet has given Will Smith for pushing his kids in the spotlight (as unhealthy as its proven to be for, oh I don't know, most child actors thanks to their stage parents), the general public doesn't seem to mind. Hell, they appear to be just as charmed by Jaden Smith as dear old Mom and Dad are at home.
Throw li'l Jaden in a "feel-good/inspirational" big Christmas release with Sir Willie (The Pursuit of Happyness), and it's a big hit. Slap him in that already-unnecessary The Day the Earth Stood Still remake and they're still lapping it up, and just last summer they proved their power after The Karate Kid remake kicked the shit outta Hannibal Smith & the A-Team.
So, what's the next other untouchable thing the Smiths can turn to gold? How about an M. Night Shyamalan film? Most of you kids were in diapers when he last made a good movie.
Sony has announced today that Will and Jaden will both star in an untitled sci-fi adventure film to be directed by Shyamalan. Here's the bare-bone, non-spoilery plot synopsis:
"Set 1,000 years into the future, the project centers on a young boy who navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes."
The story originated back in October via Heat Vision and was at the time, presumably no longer, under the working title One Thousand A. E.
As of last week, it was down to four yet-to-break-out/lesser-known actors for The Bourne Legacy. So in typical fashion (and following the trend of the up-and-down, back-and-forth casting process for Captain America and The Amazing Spider-Man a year ago), none of those guys appear to have nabbed it.
Sounds like Universal is thinking wise and wanting someone with audience recognition since the task of being "the new guy" after Matt Damon is so daunting. Latino Review says what started out as a disagreement between writer/director Tony Gilroy and Universal (He wanted Oscar Isaac, currently in Sucker Punch while it's still in theaters and they didn't; guess who got their way?) over the lead has resulted in what could be our guy.
A formal offer they report has been sent out to, and waiting word back from, to Jeremy Renner to be the new face of the Bourne series.
Great actor; but I wonder if he's already overloaded with too many other tentpoles for his own good. Tom Cruise is passing the Mission: Impossible torch to him this Christmas with the Brad Bird-directed Ghost Protocol, and he has The Avengers coming up (and potentially a slew of Marvel movie follow-ups as Hawkeye along with it) and then there's the ridiculous-sounding Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters lensing right now.
It wouldn't make sense to you if I hired one of the greatest chefs in the world, and once getting him into my restaurant I told him his job was strictly serving water to customers. So it strikes me as off that someone as renowned for their writing skills as Shane Black, especially in the action genre, isn't being 100% utilized to write the film he's recently been assigned to direct Iron Man 3.
For the moment, Black is taking a back-seat as Drew Pearce (writer/producer of the UK superhero series No Heroics) pens the third Shellhead installment with Robert Downey Jr., says "TOLDJA!" Pearce's script for Runaways, another Marvel adaptation that seemed all but certain to happen...until it didn't, is said to have gotten him the gig.
Yes, yes, I understand this is a big corporate asset from one of the world's entertainment giants (Disney) with a May 2013 release date set and all that cross-promotions with toys, tee-shirts, drinking cups and the big McDonald's Happy Meal push, to name a few. It's not like Black is planning to drop F-words left and right and have Iron Man 3 go out guns a'blazing with a hard-R rating.
He'll be involved in the writing process, as will Downey of course. Just surprised Black didn't get a first crack at the script before others came in.
John Travolta hasn't acted in awhile. By that I mean, he hasn't done a film in the longest that wasn't a cash-grab and required as little of his talent as possible. Get the impression he just takes the fattest paychecks with the quickest shooting schedule so he can go back to his family and aviation.
He may have found a role to re-remind people of his acting chops, says THR. He's set to play mobster John Gotti in the indie Gotti: Three Generations to be directed by Nick Cassavetes.
The story, according to the trades, centers around "the relationship between John Gotti Sr., the head of the Gambino crime family who died in prison in 2002, and his son John Gotti Jr., who took over the family business for his father, served time in prison, but then successfully escaped conviction in four subsequent racketeering trials."
This is more of the John Travolta I want to see. Something tells me I'm not the only one.
Everyone I've talked about Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has had the same reaction:
"They're doing another one?!"
It should be noted that wasn't said in an excited tone; more like fatigue, boredom and great sense of "Just give it up already, will ya!?!" I even saw that reaction when seeing the Pirates 4 trailer in theaters. But in a way, you can't blame Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer; for this one at least. Pirates 3 did earn a hair shy of a $1 billion theatrically. All they're doing is reacting to the last movie and since audience approval or disapproval speaks in dollar signs, they're not wrong per say.
Speaking to USA Today which at CinemaCon, Bruckheimer says work is underway for a fifth Pirates go-around:
"The audience told us what they loved about it is that it was fresh, it was new, it was a whole new story. So that will carry over into the next one, too, to give it something fresh and different. As long as the audience embraces this one, we'll certainly try to make another one. It's really up to Johnny. He loves the character."
That's funny because Curse of the Black Pearl was envisioned as a stand-alone story too. Once the money poured in, and they found a cash-cow in Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow character, they decided to suddenly turn the whole damn thing into a trilogy. Also ironic considering the original plan, according to them, was for Pirates 4 to be the start of a new trilogy and now they're saying it won’t be?
Sounds to me like they're aware of audience fatigue too and readying themselves in case this under-performs, which I for one think it will big time. Find it telling they're not rolling this out for Memorial Day. Is The Hangover Part II that big a threat for ticket sells?
Since principal photography of The Hobbit will eat up all of 2011 and a fair chunk of 2012, there's no telling when Warner Brothers will release official photos of its cast. It's only a week into filming, and already fans are grabbing any "From a far-view distant" snap-shots of the actors in costume. Not that I'm casting a stone at them. When we start seeing set pictures from Superman and James Bond (2)3, I'll be the first to lap them up like a starving mutt.
One Ring has some pictures taken of what appears to be our first-look at Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. It certainly looks like him, and if it isn't, I'll be damned.
I wasn't vehemently against remaking Total Recall when it was first announced. I haven't read Phillip K. Dick's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. So I figured maybe there was material Paul Verhoeven, Ron Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and those guys opted against using for the 1990 film. Something that Len Wiseman and the new guys could take and make their own with the 2012 do-over.
Whatever their intentions, don't expect Mars in the mix according to Heat Vision.
While announcing the great Bryan Cranston will play the baddie Vilos Cohaagen, they released the plot synopsis with a noticeably non-space-bound setting:
"The new story involves nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai, with Douglas Quaid (Farrell) a factory worker in the latter who begins to believe he is a spy, although he doesn't know for which side."
If they're taking the heavy sci-fi elements out of the equation and, most likely, the "Is this real or this a dream?" scenario, then what the Hell is the point of this Total Recall remake?
What we have here is a failure to communicate. Or perhaps a case where things are so early and jumbled that not everyone is 100% in sync at the moment.
The good folks over at Hey! U Guys were able to grab director Zack Snyder for a quick minute at the Sucker Punch UK premiere, and the subject turned to not Superman: The Man of Steel surprisingly, but the recently announced Justice League movie.
When that news broke the other day, we all assumed if Christian Bale's Batman wouldn't be utilized (something I'm still not 100% sold will go down) then Henry Cavill's Superman and Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern would fill that slot of pre-established superheroes in help secure asses in seats; assuming TMOS and GL are the mega-blockbusters Warner Brothers is hoping.
Not so according to director Snyder:
In that Hero Complex article that elaborated on the mater, they openly acknowledged one of the key reasons Justice League: Mortal died was because it was deemed too confusing for general audiences (not to mention, you know retarded as fuck) to have two separate actors portraying Batman with the intention of doing multiple films. All concurrently.
So with that in mind, do I think Warner Brothers will repeat that same mistake for this hypothetical Justice League movie? No.
With all due respect to Snyder, his goal right now is on making one Superman movie and, most importantly, one that works. Cavill has without question signed a multi-picture contract, and there's no rhyme nor reason why he wouldn't be slotted in if it helped the box-office prospects of Justice League.
This also just plain doesn't gel with common sense and logic. WB is going to spend a lot of money pushing Cavill as the new Superman leading up to the reboot's release next Christmas. They already have, as a matter of fact; that EW cover-story awhile back. They're not going to go through all that hard work and dough just to turn around and get someone else as the Man of Steel a year or two later in addition to a possible Man of Steel sequel. That's way too confusing for everyone; general movie-goers and us nerds.
Copyright @ ThinkMcflyThink.com. All rights reserved.All other trademarks and images are property of their respective owners.
ThinkMcflyThink.com is a privately owned website. The opinions expressed on the website belong to each individual writer and are not necessarily representative of the staff as a whole. The site has no affiliation with any studio, major or minor.
ThinkMcflythink.com is not affiliated with Back To The Future, Universal City Studios, Inc. or Amblin Entertainment, Inc.
All names and photos of Back to the Future™ characters, vehicles and all other Back to the Future™ related items or their likeness are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of Universal City Studios, Inc. and U-Drive Productions, or their respective trademark and copyright holders.
Tue, April 5, 2011 
