Yet Another X-Man Getting Spun-Off...Joy.

As much of a "Meh!" film X-Men: The Last Stand was, there was still enough material left to move forward with a fourth installment as well as the "revolving door"of actors - some of whom including Shawn Ashmore and Ellen Page are still under contract for follow-ups. But instead Fox gave the go-ahead on the prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

To be fair, it wasn't an unwise move considering the popularity of X-Men (from the comics, films and various animated-series) boils down to everyone's favorite Canadian mutant. And in this case, actor Hugh Jackman whose spent the last month pimping this film more so than I recall for the previous ones.

                                                               Ironically enough, the future of the merry mutants continues to involve their past as Fox is already developing a number of spin-off/prequels to go along with Wolverine (assuming the opening weekend is as big as it's tracking to be!) Of course, we're already aware of David Goyer's Magneto prequel and X-Men: The First Class as well the possibilities of more solo Logan outtings and Deadpool who makes an appearance in Wolverine.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner explains to IESB big-cheese (and now fancy-pants War Monkeys producer) Robert Sanchez that Gambit (another popular mutant making his silver screen debut in the prequel) won't be enrolled in The First Class. However, "internal discussions" have been under-way for a spin-off for the Cajun card-playing mutant.

Usually, I'm as high as a kite in terms of excitement - especially when it comes to the summer film-season being kicked off. But I've frankly lost all interest in this franchise. Don't get me wrong, I've already got my ticket purchased - just know the line Friday evening will be long. But for fuck's sake, more X-Men prequels?!?

What are they just trying to avoid working with Halle Berry again or something?

Movie Moan - To Boldly Go Off-Topic

On this week's edition, our heroes discuss Universal's recent decision to place BioShock "on hold" and what this means for its director Gore Verbinski.

Phil gives his $.02 on Clash of the Titans and asks the eternal question "How can Ralph Fiennes compare to James Woods?" and Jamie is given one last time to "repent" from his prediction that Wolverine will churn out $70-$80 million as the 2009 Summer Box-Office season officially begins this coming Friday.

But as usual, the guys (mostly Jamie, to be fair) get off-topic posing such questions as "Is Diet Pepsi considered a food?" and "Is Sam Worthington really worth the hype he's been getting for the past two years now?"

All of that and more (including what Jamie thinks is going on with Sam Raimi and Spider-Man 4 behind-the-scenes) on this week's Movie Moan!

Movie Moan - To Boldly Go Off-Topic

Jolie Sleeps with the Corpses

When it comes to Angelina Jolie, the general public seems to only care about whether the next child she has will be another "collaboration" with live-in fuck-buddy Brad Pitt or simply adopted from an 8th rate country. That's not a strike against her. But face it, you all know it's true.

That, and when she headlines an action film. Hence her appearing in last Summer's ass-awful surprise-hit Wanted and of course the Tomb Raider series which she has wisely seperated herself from.

In addition to possibly appearing in the forthcoming Wanted sequel (despite a bullet clearly going through her head at the end of said film), the former Lara Croft is now attached to play fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta (whose appeared in 16 novels from author Patricia Cornwell) in a potential franchise-launcher.

The only bits of info pertaining to this currently-untitled film is that it will be a "suspense thriller in the vein of 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Seven'" and that it will follow in the path of Bond and Bourne before her. That is to say the filmmakers will merely "pick and choose" with little-to-no regard of being faithful to said novels.

Tom Cruise - Crazy Actor, Crazy Busy

Honest to God, I never jumped on the "Fuck Tom Cruise!" bandwagon most of the known-world did after Mission: Impossible III under-performed during Summer 2006 despite grossing $400 million.

The only thing that miffed me about Cruise was his going after Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants upon giving birth to her second child. When he literally has another human being ripped outta his lower region, then he can make an argument.

That asside, I had no issues with the guy and felt that people were going after him 100% because it was in fashion to do so. Wow, he jumped on a couch on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Big fucking deal.

And I knew that all of the trash-talk would disappear the moment the dude apologized, calmed down and (most importantly) headlined a good movie that made money.

And that it did after his infamous Tropic Thunder cameo and (more so) the surprise box-office success of Valkyrie last Christmas. Like or lump it, Cruise is back and attached to a number of forthcoming projects. The question is what will he choose next?

According to Variety:

The frontrunners for his next film appear to be the Dreamworks drama "Motorcade," to be directed by Len Wiseman, followed by Spyglass remake "The Tourist" (with Charlize Theron), to be helmed by Bharat Nalluri, and Fox action comedy "Wichita" (with Cameron Diaz), which James Mangold will direct. Also still in the mix is MGM's "The Matarese Circle," which potentially matches Cruise with Denzel Washington and helmer David Cronenberg.

Interestingly Cruise has opted out of the Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman penned 28th Amendment which I personally thought was going to be his Valkyrie follow-up.

In fact, the last update I got on that one was Warner Brothers was hoping to have the film in theaters for Summer 2011. Granted, I always had that one pegged as a Fall release myself (i.e. early November-ish!) Also absent was any mention of The Hardy Men, which Cruise and Ben Stiller have been attached to for years now.

Movie Moan - The Revenge of the Disconnection

After a 2 week hiatus, Phil and Jamie return with another edition of Movie Moan. This week, our heroes bullshit about a wide-range of topics such as Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the one thing Guillermo del Toro & Bret Ratner have in common (and how one gets criticized for it and the other doesn't) and Beverly Hills Cop IV.

Because they're both excited about Star Trek opening in mere weeks now, Jamie brings up the marketing of J.J. Abrams' "requel" and how they're learning from mistakes made by past "franchise revivals" Batman Begins and Superman Returns. And speaking of the Man of Steel, Latino Review's review for the Bizarro Superman spec script is discussed as well.

Phil does his Woody Allen impression, chats up the forthcoming Tron sequel (Tron 2.0, Tr2n, whatever) and hypothesizes why The Hobbit has now been split into two films resulting in the death of the much-discussed Lord of the Rings "bridge" film.

And just because we couldn't at least have one audio issue, Jamie's mic gets cut off at the very end. But fear not, Jamie (and Phil) will return in "Licence to Skype."

Movie Moan - Revenge of the Disconnection

Ratner Sets the Record Straight on His Projects.

I'm at the point with Brett Ratner where him attached to a directorial project is flat-out "non-news" (i.e. Mark Millar trash-talking about his Superman trilogy that's so amazing Warner Brothers won't go anywhere near it or Spielberg "loving" Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen!)

Mind you, I'm not shitting on the guy. It's common for a filmmaker to be attached to multiple projects concurrently. Some of them will ultimately get made and others won't. That's just how it works. The problem is that Ratner's thrown his name in the hat of quiet a few projects and it's hard to dicipher which will actually happen.

Thankfully, the folks over at Movieline had a quick chat with Ratner where the X-Men: The Last Stand director set the record straight for the most part (i.e. no mention of his Hugh Hefner biopic possibly with Robert "I'm Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, dammit!" Downey Jr. or Youngblood!)

In regards to his Conan the Barbarian reboot, it's 100% on "budgeting the script and trying to figure out when’s a good time and where to shoot it." (Side note: If you haven't already, check out Latino Review's awesome video-review of the script here!)

The oft-mentioned Beverly Hills Cop IV is still happening and with a "hard R!" But the bigger question is when will it happen. Since Paramount officially announced the project like a year ago for May 2010 release and it's looking increasingly like that won't happen.

In fact, it appears that Trump Heist (currently being written by Ted Griffin) is the closest to be moving forward. If my memory serves me correctly, that's supposed to feature a predominantly African-American cast with Eddie Murphy and Chris Tucker attached. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, folks!

Now let it be known that unlike about 70-75% of the nerd community, I don't hate Ratner. So that means I'm a fan, right? Actually, no. He's made a few films that I've enjoyed (i.e. Family Man and Red Dragon) and others I didn't (i.e. the Rush Hour sequels!)

I'm just failing to see the hatred this guy gets from so many people.

Lord of the Rings "Bridge" Film No More!

Ironically, I was just bitching on Twitter last night about the overall lack of news on The Hobbit as well as Spider-Man 4 and the Superman "requel."

Cut to this afternoon as Empire Online gets the scoop straight from the horses' mouths - i.e. director Guillermo del Toro and producer Peter Jackson:

“We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” says Del Toro.

“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy.”

So no more Lord of the Rings "bridge" film eh? That was always the most intriguing aspect of the new "Middle-Earth" films - for me at least.

Plus, I'm not so sure that The Hobbit has enough material to stretch into two separate installments. But maybe that's just me. I am an idiot after all...

From Terminator to Captain Nemo to...Spring Awakening?

Dammit if McG hasn't turned a 180 on his directing career where it was five years ago. His Terminator: Salvation is set to be one of the biggest films of the summer and he's already up to his eyeballs in pre-production on Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo with filming slated to start later this fall.

Now, he's attached to direct and produce a silver-screen adaptation of the Broadway "rock musical" Spring Awakening. The musical which centers around a set of 19th Century German teenagers "discovering their sexuality and dealing with high-wire topics like masturbation, abortion, rape and suicide" has the potential to be one of those "Hot-topic" films that stuggles to get made.

However with McG's career as hot as it is at the moment (and assuming that Salvation and Nemo turn a nice sizeable profit at the box-office), it wouldn't be hard to imagine him finding a studio willing to pony up the cash to properly make the film.

News, Rumors & 100% Grade-A Internet Bullshit - April 14, 2009

- One has to give Chris Pine credit for thinking outside the box. The new Captain Kirk tells the MTV Movies Blog that he wants to be a part of the A-Team - which to be directed by his Smoking Aces director Joe Carnahan. But surprisingly the role he's campaigning for is that of "Howling Mad" Murdock(!)

- Speaking of Star Trek, the J.J. Abrams helmed "requel" has had its release-date pushed up - by a couple of hours. The film will now grace the silver screens on May 7th at 7:00 P.M. screenings. So, the film is "not my father's Star Trek." Although he is a Trek fan and it now opens on his birthday. Weird, huh?

- Producer Frank Marshall (via his Twitter account) reveals that the script for Bourne 4 (that's being penned by George Nolfi) is expected to be turned in by June with its release date pushed back from Summer 2010 to 2011.

- After much debate (including its inclusion on a Pizza Hut box), it's been confirmed that Terminator: Salvation has been rated PG-13. Slashfilm has posted a screen-capture taken from Fox's upcoming "Extended Look" at the film set to air on this week's episode of Bones.

Sin City 2 Moves Away from Weinsteins

If my "Encyclopedia of Nerd Knowledge" is correct, we were supposed to have seen a sequel to Sin City by Summer 2006 originally. As I recall, the rumors were that Robert Rodriguez specifically wanted Angelina Jolie to be a part of the production and was willing to wait for her availability - she was preggers around that time.

Then there were rumblings that Rodriquez and Frank Miller were going to go ahead and film two sequels con-currently. And then I remember...to be honest I pretty much stopped paying attention to Sin City 2 news by that point.

Sure, you'd always hear someone remark, "Yeah, Frank's writing it!" But I didn't give it much thought. Despite the fact that it was quiet a big hit, I assumed any sequels would never see the light of day - even with the recent stories that Miller had completed the script.

Interestingly however, the good folks over at IESB have received word that the Weinstein Company have now lost the rights to any Sin City sequels and that a private equity group will pony up the money with Rodriquez's Trouble Maker Studios producing yet again(!)

One wonders if Mickey Rourke will now return as Marv - easily the best performance from the original film. During his press-tour for The Wrestler, he'd indicted that he wasn't willing to come back. I suppose it was "beneath him" or something.