PTA and Philip Seymour Hoffman Reteam For 5th Film

When Paul Thomas Anderson begins a new movie, get excited. If Philip Seymour Hoffman participates in said movie in development, think happy thoughts. Having made four films together, it was about time they reunited for a fifth crack at the whip.

Between 2002s Punch Drunk Love and now, Hoffman went from being a "That guy!" character actor in supporting roles to an Oscar-winning "That guy!" character actor in leading and supporting roles. Anderson, meanwhile, penned and helmed what many consider his masterpiece with 2007s There Will Be Blood.

Variety reports their new collaboration (currently working under no title) will have Hoffman portraying "The Master" who starts his practice in the early 1950s which quickly catches on. Yes, I immediately thought of L. Ron Hubbard too. The central plot revolves around Hoffman’s snake-charmer turned religious leader and a young kid turned key player in the organization named Freddie.

So we’re talking about a years-long relationship not unlike Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood. There's been plenty of allegations against Hubbard and the Church of Scientology over the years. So I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if that wasn't addressed (in one form or another) in this film.

Martin Campbell Walks From The Birds Remake

You guys remember that Birds remake by Platinum Dunes with Naomi Watts and Martin Campbell attached? Me neither. I mean, I do remember the news-item. But that was quite awhile back to be fair to my sometimes horrible memory. As the never-ending cycle of projects that appear sure as Hell to get made only to well…not, this one was another victim of falling between the cracks in Development Hell Nothingness.

This morning, Pajiba reports that Campbell is flat-out off the Hitchcock remake. I mean, he is busy and all - what with Green Lantern getting ramped up to shoot this coming March in New Orleans. Hey, maybe we’ll finally get some official casting announcements other than Ryan Reynolds talking it up to the press.

Universal is said to be still keen to get this one going and already has a replacement lined up in the form of Dennis Iliades. He’s the director behind the shit-tastic Last House on the Left remake. Leaving along with Campbell and apparently Watt (albeit not confirmed by the site or their sources) is the originally intended PG-13 version. Nope Iliades is going for a hard-R, boys and girls. So you better get those fake I.D.s in hand, since we all know how teenagers want to see a horror movie about birds.

Hey, at least Iliades isn’t going for the shot-for-shot angle that Gus Van Sant did for his Psycho remake. Talk about being a fucking lazy approach.

New Mad Max Talks Fury Road

Correction: The “strongly indicated but still not confirmed by George Miller” new Mad Max (despite being leaked and officially confirmed by the trades) talks Fury Road.

Why Tom Hardy is saying this is beyond me. Maybe he’s been jinxed in the past with earlier roles that alluded him? Is he the superstitious type?  Is Sam Worthington that upset he wasn’t cast? Eh, he has his reasons.

Never the less, the actor spoke about taking the reign from Mel Gibson for the first time to MTV:

"If I get offered it and George really wants to go with me, then George will tell me exactly what he wants to do and we'll work together on the floor to create what it is that he wants to achieve. And I hope I can get that done for him."

Speaking of which, he apparently didn't even read for Max (or any other role in Fury Road) for his screen-test:

"The audition process had nothing to do with Max and nothing to do with the story or the script. It was unorthodox to the point where actually I could have been auditioning for anything. It was an anonymous read. [Miller and I] haven't actually gotten into the conversation at all about Max."

I have faith that George Miller knows what he’s doing. This isn’t another Justice League: Mortal situation. Mad Max is his fucking baby. If he thinks Hardy has the chops to pull this off, then he’ll do great. Plenty of people who saw him in Bronson seem to think so too.

The Hobbit Now Headed to 2012 Release?

A few days back, Peter Jackson confirmed principal photography on the two-part Hobbit film adaptation had been delayed from March to an unspecified mid-2010 start. Although it was certainly in the back of everyone’s minds, there was no direct indication that this decision would affect the Christmas 2011 release date on The Hobbit – Part I.

Now The Wrap has been told by their contacts at Warner Brothers that the first installment will most likely be pushed back from Christmas 2011 to 2012. Obviously, such a move would put the second one now hitting our silver screens to 2013 by default. As previously reported, the writing team (i.e. director Guillermo del Toro, Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens) have turned in the first draft and already typing away on the second. While other pre-production work such as set construction has commenced.

If shit gets even further delayed, then I’d start to worry.  Hell, there’s still the possibility we could get some casting announcements this month. It’d be nice to know who will replace Sir Ian Holm as Bilbo.

Additionally, this puts the studio without a major tentpole for the Holiday 2011 season. They could realistically place any of their three currently lined-up summer ’11 films in place of Hobbit – Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part II , Green Lantern (ironic considering it was originally scheduled for Christmas 2010) or The Hangover 2 (don’t laugh – Todd Phillip’s next film Due Date was moved from summer to November 2010). If I was a betting man, I’d put the money on the final Potter movie being moved. Of course, there’s also the potential Sherlock Holmes sequel or something else moving there instead.

So Long, Bourne 4

UPDATE: According to The Wrap, the reason for Greengrass’ departure had more to do with his desire to helm a Vietnam War movie before Bourne 4. He was hoping it to push it back for summer 2012. Universal felt otherwise and he walked. That and there is still no script. In addition, Greengrass issued an official statement (also in the afore-mentioned article) confirming his resignation from the Bourne franchise.

In news that according to them should hit the trades at any moment, The Playlist has word that director Paul Greengrass is off Bourne 4. The culprit behind the decision (made by the United 93 helmer himself who walked on his own accord last week) boils down to “creative differences.”

Their source translates that infamous PR bullshit term to say issues arouse over the forthcoming Greengrass/Matt Damon Green Zone. Mainly, the action thriller has proven more expensive than originally planned thanks to multiple reshoots. When you’ve had one of your worst years with a string of pricey under-performers and bombs, Universal isn’t in the mood to let Greengrass go this typical “finding his movie” method in the midst of filming. Then again, that worked out for his two Bourne films.

In addition, the move to hire two separate screenwriters (George Nolfi and Josh Zetumer) who are simultaneously penning their scripts didn’t sit well with Greengrass. Why? Because he was never consulted with the hiring of Zetumer.

This obviously leads to the big question – what about Matt Damon? Although not specifically stated, it’s heavily implied Damon walks if Greengrass isn’t sitting in the director’s chair (i.e. “He’s loyal to Paul”). That, of course, rarely means anything. Look at how Hugh Jackman stuck around with X-Men even after Bryan Singer jumped ship.

They do stress however Universal might end up having to kiss Greengrass' (and to a much greater extent, Damon's) ass to return. Sure, that's altogether possible. But I wouldn't bank on that to happen at this juncture.

I don’t care how much you might bitch and belly ache. This is a blessing in disguise, folks. Having three great movies is something to be grateful – especially when you don’t have to add “But that last one totally sucked!” at the end of a sentence.

Summit Deliberating Over Breaking Dawn

In just two weeks, The Twilight Saga: New Moon has chugged out nearly $500 million worldwide. That much coin would make any studio anxious for "another one of those" ASAP. Thankfully for Summit, the third installment Eclipse is nearly complete with a June 10, 2010 release locked and set.

But looking at the 70% (!) drop-off this past weekend, Twilight isn’t the kind of franchise that benefits from two to three year build up between movies. They’re front-loaded as shit. It’s clear the studio realizes this. Hence why there is an eight month release gap between New Moon and Eclipse. Now comes the $64,000 question –what will they do about the final book in the series Breaking Dawn?

Variety reports that Summit is steadily mulling over what to do. They’ve already commissioned Melissa Rosenberg on penning duties for a fourth go-ahead. She’s written all three films in the series. There’s also the bigger issue of whether to split the finale into two films (a la Warner Brothers’ plan with Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows) or leave it at a single film. A director has yet to hired, although damn-near everyone (i.e. studio, cast, fans, etc.) really wants New Moon helmer Christ Weitz to return. What, no love for the filmmaker who made this phenomenon possible Catherine Hardwicke or David Slade behind the forthcoming Eclipse? Ouch.

Another one little (read: big) issue about the contracts of the three leads: Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. The three young chaps are signed up for four films. If Summit opts for the "Let’s drag this out as much as we can" mind-set, they’ll have to shell out extra dough for Breaking Dawn – Part II.

Of course, they’ll give in to the demands of the actors (and most likely Weitz) because there is simply too much money to be made.

Black Hole Remake In Development

Sometimes when a studio feels confident in a forthcoming release, they’ll go ahead and line up alternating projects with the key filmmakers involved. That’s because they want to stay in business with them. Take J.J. Abrams and Paramount for example. Two months ahead of its release, they re-upped their exclusivity deal with Abrams and his Bad Robot production company. Translation: they knew Star Trek was going to explode which it did. Now everyone is fat and happy with tons of Abrams-centric projects in the pipeline. The point I’m trying to make is this feels like one of those scenarios.

Heat Vision reports that Disney is mounting a remake of their 1979 science-fiction epic The Black Hole and they’ve handed the reigns over to Joseph Kosinski and Sean Bailey. They are the director and producer perceptively behind Tron: Legacy - Disney’s big tentpole release for next Christmas.  Screenwriter Travis Beacham (one of the scribes behind next spring’s Clash of the Titans remake) is onboard for typing duties.

I do remember watching the original film on the Disney Channel. This was during their “Vault Disney” period in the late 90s/early 00s. The network would literally old television programs, movies, etc. starting about 11:00 P.M. into the early morning hours. They even played Dune. What says wholesome family entertainment more than a David Lynch movie?

I can speak for most people when I say “Meh!” towards this news-item. Audiences will show up if this Black Hole “reinvention” looks as cool as their Tron sequel does.

Todd Phillips Gives Hangover 2 Update

Call it whatever want, word-of-mouth, lack of competition, it being damn funny, etc. but The Hangover was a commercial smash this past summer. We’re talking $280 million domestic haul kind of money here. Indeed, it made more cash stateside than even the highest estimates of the studio’s very own Terminator: Salvation. Not surprisingly, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures are foaming at the mouth towards a sequel.

While filming his next comedy Due Date with Robert Downey Junior and Hangover alum Zack Galifianakis (or “that funny looking bearded guy” as he’ll forever be known hence forth), writer/director Todd Phillips gave an update to Entertainment Weekly. He’s halfway through the script, but all details are being kept under lock and key.

As he clarifies to the publication:

"What people loved about The Hangover was not Las Vegas or the bachelor party but these three characters. I think you can take those characters and put them in other situations, and you don’t need the sell of Vegas and a bachelor party and all that other stuff."

I don’t disagree with that. But, how should I put this, I don’t know if audiences are flock to see The Hangover 2 like they did for the first film this past summer. It was a total discovery in June. That month was void of mega-tentpoles for the most part (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen didn’t hit screens until the very end).

I also can’t help but think it’s going to be a rehash of the first film despite Phillips’ claims to the contrary. Are people going to go for "Here we go again!" with these characters? Let’s just hope they don’t resort to having Mike Tyson showing up in the sequel.

Iron Man 2 Poster Unveiled

Man oh man, is this a great time to be Robert Downey Junior. Sherlock Holmes is tracking higher than Avatar and appears poised to be the biggest hit of this holiday season. Then there's Iron Man 2. Aside from Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - Part I (which will dominant in the worldwide box-office), I can't see any film doing better business than the Shellhead sequel.

Speaking of which, Yahoo! Movies has a First Look at the new poster. Looks pretty cool and hey, kids, there's War Machine in all his awesomeness. If the rumors are to be believed (and I, for one, do), the first teaser trailer will be attached to Sherlock Holmes in three weeks.

Predators Update From Nimród Antal

20^th Century Fox is hoping Predators will meet a fate similar to their last franchise revival Live Free or Die Hard. In the midst of disappointing threequels back in summer 2007, it was the Die Hard fourquel (Christ, I’m a retard for saying that) that was one of the more positively received tentpoles. This sequel/reboot has the nostalgia factor and writer/producer Robert Rodriquez in its corner.

Coming Soon recently spoke to Predators director Nimród Antal (whose making the press rounds for his third feature Armored opening this weekend) who gave updates on the currently lensing shoot.

Will Predators be a pure CGI fest or an amalgam or computer or practical effects:

"I think we both recognize that the original film was as good as it was because of the practical, because it was a guy in a suit, because it was the jungle, so we stay true to that. We were in Hawaii for a month in the jungle, so there's going to be some pretty impressive locations."

A possible cameo by one Arnold Schwarzenegger:

"Time will tell. We'll see, but we are trying to stay with the original as far as the monster and the atmosphere and the tone of the film, but we are trying to do something new and contemporary and feels fresh."

Translation: We haven’t sorted that detail out. Yet.

Oh and if you’re concerned Antal will head in a direction not unlike McG with Terminator: Salvation (i.e. a PG-13 rating to reach a wider audience), don’t. This will be an R-rated movie all the way, baby. Truth be told, Predators could be a kick-ass genre film that fans eat up like candy. I just don’t know if the public will give a rat’s ass.