A Reboot Is Out There

Last summer's X-Files sequel I Want to Believe served as nothing more than a sacrificial lamb to the box-office monster that was The Dark Knight. Hell, the fact that another film was made to begin with was a miracle in its own right. Nobody fucking cares about the X-Files anymore. Sorry if that comes off as too harsh. But the truth (while also being out there) hurts, folks.

Now comes word from X-Files News (via Dnevnik) that another feature-film is in the works. That is according to Agent Scully herself Gillian Anderson who reveals that another installment is being discussed and targeting a 2012 release. Normally, I'd disregard such news-items because it's coming 100% outta the mouth of someone who needs it and thus would openly talk it up. See also: Tom Arnold on True Lies 2, Vin Diesel on another Riddick film, etc.

But Bloody-Disgusting confirms (via their sources) that Scully speaks the truth. But the catch is the rumblings in question don't involve a sequel to the first two-films and cult television series. Nope, Fox is talking about rebooting the damn thing altogether. I get that hitting the reboot button is "the thing to do" right now. But the answer is fixing every troubled-franchise doesn't involve just starting over from scratch. Of course, a property like X-Files would be better left where it is at the moment - dead.

We can thank Star Trek for Fox headed in this direction.

James McTeigue Talks Superman Reboot

The word from our spies has been that Warner Brothers was looking for a certain "type" of filmmaker to relaunch the Superman film franchise. Someone who was obviously talented and worked well with the material, but more importantly took orders from the studio like casting and what not. They've handed to the keys to Metropolis over to a number of "big-name" directors over the years in an attempt to get the franchise back up and running to mixed results.

Thus when reports hit a few weeks back that Wachowski alum James McTeigue was a candidate, it made a lot of sense. However, mum's been the word from the V For Vendetta director ever since the rumors first hit. He gave a non-answer to /film a week or so back. But he's surprisingly more forthcoming with MTV on the matter - albeit still in a "I won't confirm or deny" mode:

"I think if I was ever going to go near Superman, I would do a complete reboot—take it in a direction that you would absolutely not expect, actually. So, that would be my thinking on it, if I was ever going to go near Superman. I think it's good that they just had a court case where, basically, if you make another Superman movie, you can't touch Superman growing up—that's part of the story that you can't touch any more. That wouldn't be a bad thing. I think everybody's a bit sick of seeing the origin story."

Here's the thing though, folks. McTeigue wouldn't be so open about talking Superman if he was actually involved in the next film. "How so?" you ask. He's not officially (and to our knowledge "un-officially") on-board. If he was, then the studio themselves would want to make a big announcement of it first-hand and tell the director to keep his mouth shut towards all Supes-related questions.

Hell, we've still yet to hear a word from Martin Campbell on Green Lantern and he's been on that since the start of the year.

Bryan Singer Returns to Genre Fare Full Time

Sure, he's done solid work with thrillers like The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie (that's putting it lightly). But Bryan Singer always seemed like he was more at home working in the sci-fi/fantasy genre with his X-Men films and Superman Returns.

Last week plans were announced that he would produce/direct his own big-screen reboot of Battlestar Galactica for Universal. Presumably it's to be his next directorial project. However that might not be the case.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Singer has two other projects set up at Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures to produce and possibly direct. Sounds like the studios have finally worked around the expensive "Pay or Play" deal they inked with Singer for the planned Superman sequel that never came to be.

The first is a remake of Excalibur, the life-story of King Arthur & his Knights of the Round Table. The original 1981 John Boorman-directed film remains one of my all-time favorites. If you'll remember, plans for a remake were first revealed by comic-book writer Warren Ellis who was working up his own story treatment. However, his name doesn't appear anywhere in the trades. So one can only assume he's no longer involved.

Singer's also said to hovering around Jack the Giant Killer. According to reports, it's this project (which D.J. Caruso was previously attached to) that might be his return to the director's chair after Valkyrie.

Something I've always liked about Singer is that he's clearly one of us. That is he too is a nerd who gets excited about stuff like J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot or the Avatar trailer being officially released. It's nice that he's finally getting to play with his toys again in the genre he so clearly loves.

Ladies & Gentlemen...James Cameron's Avatar

I remember first hearing about Avatar back around 1995-1996. In fact, it was on the Sci-Fi Channel (pre-retard SyFy) and their weekly news-show Sci-Fi Buzz. You remember that's the one where Harlan Ellison was given 5 minutes to bitch about whatever he so desired at the end of each broadcast.

Anyway, Cameron was working on Titanic (back when it was under it's Planet Ice code-name) and he made mention of Avatar for the first time. What stood out was Cameron talking about it would be a film made up of 100% CG characters - not a single flesh and blood actor in front of the camera. The Internet was in its toddler phase and CG was something only used in mega-budget films back then. So one couldn't help but wonder just what the Hell the film would be about. It was an even bigger question about how it would look.

Well we can officially stop playing up images in our heads as 20th Century Fox has officially unveiled the theatrical trailer for James Cameron's Avatar which you can now check out on Apple in QuickTime.

The floor is yours, ladies and gentlemen. Did the footage live up to the years of hype from Cameron, Fox & Co? I myself will save my thoughts on said trailer for the next edition of our weekly podcast Movie Moan.

Has Salvation Sequel Been Terminated by Bankruptcy Filing?

Honest to Christ, do people still seriously think there's going to be a sequel to Terminator: Salvation?

The LA Times reports on yet another nail in its coffin. Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek (two of the producers behind Salvation and the current owners of the Terminator rights) have filed for bankruptcy. What makes matters worse is their creditors is a hit-list of key players involved in the production of the film. Among those listed include Warner Brothers, McG, Christian Bale, Dan Lin, Paul Haggis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are others listed, but you get the idea.

What this basically means is there's no way you're going to see McG or Bale willing to play ball for Terminator 5 (even though both currently have multi-million dollar options on the table) until they're paid what's already owed to them for Salvation.

As I've previously said, DVD sales aren't going to be a saving factor this time out nor will foreign box-office numbers. Salvation was expected to do $225-250 million stateside and around $500-600 million worldwide. So far, it's earned less than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. You know, the one that everyone shit on claiming it "destroyed the franchise" while Salvation was in development. Oh, revisionist history.

Yellow Submarine Gets the Motion-Capture Remake Treatment

There's a great thread on the CHUD forum right now that asks the simple question, "If you could go back in time and change something from a movie's production..." (which you can check out right here). One scenario that's yet to be brought up is director Robert Zemeckis' decision to work 100% in the realm of motion-capture films. Maybe one of us should hop into a DeLorean and convince him to stick with live-action.

I mean it was an interesting experiment the first time he went that route with The Polar Express, a film that I liked but took some time for audiences to catch up with during its November 2004 theatrical run. Since then the Back to the Future helmer has directed further motion-capture films Beowulf (still haven't seen it) and the forthcoming A Christmas Carol (don't know anyone whose looking forward to seeing that one!)

Now Variety reveals Zemeckis and Disney are planning to remake the 1960s Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine into yet another 3-D motion-capture production. The Mouse has been working their legal muscle to get clearance on the songs from the original film - which itself is nothing short of a miracle.

I'm not going to bitch about this idea because the motion-capture technology would actually benefit from the trippy nature of Submarine. Plans are currently to have it ready for the Summer 2012 Olympics which will occur in London. How convenient.

Christopher Nolan No Longer A "Prisoner"

"Sign right there and your soul officially belongs to me, Christian."The good folks over at CineFOOLS got the word straight from producer Barry Mendel: "Chris Nolan has dropped out of it."

He's referring to The Prisoner, a film adaptation of the 1960s UK series. If you've seen an episode, you can clearly see the influence it's had on Nolan's work. The project was supposed to be Nolan's follow-up to The Dark Knight. It was announced while he was still up to his eyeballs filming his Batman Begins sequel.

Of course, the fact that Nolan opted to make Inception his next film instead (which is filming as we speak) and AMC recently completed their own Prisoner mini-series makes this announcment not surprisingly in the slightest.

Cut to Internet nerds giving the following reaction to this news-items. That is if they haven't already:

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Does that mean Nolan left so he can do Batman III?!?! *Nerdgasm!*

Just When Two Hobbit Films Weren't Enough...

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was successful in every way imaginable - huge box-office, critically acclaimed, loved by nerds and the general public alike and all those Academy Awards. So even though it feels like it's taking a tad longer than anticipated to get going, there's no doubt that The Hobbit will definitely get made. There's just too much money to make for them to fuck this up.

Peter Jackson recently admitted that the first draft had just been turned into the studio (in this case: Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema) and they'd yet to receive a greenlight to officially get things moving along. Of course, plans have changed a couple of times since the project was first announced. We were supposed to get The Hobbit as well as a "bridge" film that linked it to the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring originally. Said plans changed to instead just adapt Hobbit into two films for Christmas 2011 and 2012 release.

Now MarketSaw has received word that things have changed yet again. As per their source(s):

1. THE HOBBIT(s) will be in stereoscopic 3D.
2. THE HOBBIT will be shot in THREE movies - two Del Toro movies covering the book itself and a third bridge movie.
3. Peter Jackson will direct the bridge movie.
4. Smaug and the characters in THE HOBBIT will be darker than in the book.

Here's the thing. I don't want to immediately shit on this because some of this sounds plausiable as Hell.

I can imagine Warner Brothers wanting to drag this out as much as possible - especially with their Harry Potter franchise coming to a close, Batman III being a ways off, Terminator: Salvation turning out to be a box-office fluke and Superman in hibernation at the moment. And I could also imagine that said "bridge" film could be the only way to get Jackson interested towards returning to the director's chair.

So mark this one under "Rumor" for the moment.

The Curious Case of Professor Moriarty

The fact that the source of this is the British tabloids (in this case, The Mirror) just has to make it true. I mean it's not like they've posted any nasty 100% Grade-A bullshit stories in the past, right? If they're to be believed, Brad Pitt has joined the cast of Sherlock Homes in a series of reshoots going on this week.

Tyler Durden himself would play the role of Professor Moriarty. Various reports have suggested that the film's main villain is Lord Blackwood portrayed by Mark Strong with Holmes' arch-nemesis more of a puppet-master controlling things behind the shadows. The idea, of course, would be for this to lead into a possible sequel.

We'll see what becomes of this rumor. I could see Pitt doing something like this if it's in fact a cameo as previously suggested. But said report sounds like much of the film is being re-tooled to include Moriarty in a larger role than originally intended.

Update: MTV Movies Blog got an official denial from Warner Brothers on the matter - some of it, at least. Brad Pitt is not involved in the production. But reshoots are taking place.

Sony Planning Long-Term for Spider-Man Franchise

You gotta give credit to Sony for thinking ahead on this one.

Spider-Man 4 won't start filming until the early months of next year, but the studio is already looking into the future of the franchise. Variety reports that James Vanderbilt (screenwriter behind the insanely-underrated Zodiac) has been tapped to write the fifth and sixth installments of Webhead's cinematic exploits. If you'll remember, he was originally hired to pen Spider-Man 4 back in October 2007 (mere weeks before the WGA Strike began) and his work was thrown out in favor of the Sam Raimi-approved David Lindsay-Abaire (who himself is subsequently off the film) and now Gary Ross.

Of course, the fact that Sony has opted to go back to the guy after Raimi vetoed his draft speaks for itself. Raimi is finished with your friendly neighbor Spider-Man after the forthcoming installment - which I'm still in the "I'll believe it when I see it...or photos from the set" stage. Good ol Sam has Warcraft in his sights after swinging through Manhattan one last time.

What's more interesting (read: lazy) is the apparent plan to turn Spider-Man 5 and 6 into reboots in case Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst decide to call it a day too. Sorry, but it's a tad soon for a franchise that's relatively still-fresh in people's minds to be throwing around reboots, requels, re-imaginings, etc.