Universal Already Thinking Long-Term with Fast & Furious Franchise

They've had many a financial misstep, but Universal knows it has one sure-fire money-printing machine in The Fast & the Furious franchise. Add an extra 0 or two at the end of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's already-handsomely paid checks, highlight the latest slick vehicles on the market and let Justin Lin concoct crazy action set-pieces and they're good to go at the box-office.

The studio is ramping up for Fast Six as the centerpiece of their 2013 summer line-up handing it a prime Memorial Day release date. But Twitchfilm reports like any smart set of fat-cat executives, the decision-makers at Universal are already thinking past Movie #6.

Their spies are telling them one idea being toyed with is having Lin and the gang shoot Fast Six and a Fast Seven back-to-back next year when production begins in Europe. Furthermore continuing the trend of getting established action-stars to the Fast brand-name (following how well Dwayne Johnson turned out in Fast Five) a new name has been bantered about to join the franchise: Jason Statham.

Not that these plans are 100% locked, mind you. Talks between Universal and Statham's people are in "preliminary conversations" (i.e. getting a feel of his interest level) and it isn’t known if the hypothetical plan would entail him being in both films or having him appear a la Eve Mendes and Michelle Rodriquez at the tail end of Fast Five as the sequel setup/hook to get the audiences game for the next one.

Warner Brothers To Adapt Satori; DiCaprio To Star!

Well this sounds particularly awesome, an espionage thriller set in the Korean War, centered around the CIA using a an elite assassin trained by a Japanese master. DiCaprio is a great actor but this certainly sounds more like a high concept action thriller than an attempt to win an Oscar, which his how some see his role picking. Since it's at Warner Brothers I am crossing my fingers that Christopher Nolan may well end up directing.

Comingsoon.net via Toldya have the details.

Warner Bros. has plans to develop Don Winslow's Satori into a feature film, Deadline reports. What's more, Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star as Nicholaï Hel, a master assassin first introduced in the novel, Shibumi by Trevanian. The plot of Satori is officially described as follows:

It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu, or “naked kill,” is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary “proximity sense” - an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world’s most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him.

The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union’s commissioner to China. It’s almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori - the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.

Trevanian, a pen name for the late Rodney Whitaker, created the character of Hel for his 1979 novel, which has become heralded as one of the classics of the literary spy genre. Released in 2011 (six years after Whitaker's death), Satori is designed to serve as a prequel to Shibumi, a book whose title refers a Japanese word that reflects the aesthetics of simple beauty.

DiCaprio has plans to tackle project sometime after the now-in-production literary adaptation The Great Gatsby and Quentin Tarantino's soon-to-shoot Django Unchained.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol IMAX Poster Promises Spider-Cruise

Let it not be said we didn't know Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was sporting IMAX action with the highlight being a set-piece of Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) climbing the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world located in Dubai. They've made that very clear in all the marketing so far.

In case you didn't see the "Meh" trailer, this new IMAX poster (courtesy of Yahoo! Movies via Coming Soon since it was a pain-in-the-ass to get an embed file from the former) reminds you the most famous IMF agent in the world is hanging from yet another high altitude location.

Guess Who Was Supposed to Croak in Rise of the Apes?

No, not the franchise since Rupert Wyatt shocked everyone and directed a quality prequel (Very few can make that claim!) to the Planet of the Apes series and not the general public since they made Rise of the Apes into the surprise hit of this past summer.

Via THR, Ted Gagliano, big-cheese of post-production at 20^th Century Fox, relayed a story during a panel this weekend about a last-minute decision on Apes that caused a frantic scrambling to get new shots rendered in lieu of its August 5^th release – remember it got moved to Thanksgiving 2011 for awhile there. James Franco's character of Will Rodman originally took a dirt nap at the end. Funny they admit that because a lot of us got the impression he wasn't going to make it in those trailers and it was a real surprise to see him still rocking a pulse when the credits rolled.

If you're curious to know how the scene played out and don't want to wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray (which Gagliano confesses will be there and speaks frankly on the subject of how deleted footage is a big selling point for the home market), The Playlist has the script-pages. I won't cut-and-paste them here but needless to say you can see how this would trigger Caesar (Andy Serkis) into screaming, "Fuck all humans!" and wiping out the race.

Where it stands now, it's not a given Franco will return for the inevitable Rise of the Apes sequel. Certainly, it'd be a nice payday for the actor since his days of being Tobey Maguire's onscreen BFF are long over. Were he included, I feel like his only purpose would, in fact, be to die...and they already passed that up the first time.

J.J. Abrams Manages to Squeeze Billy Ray into His Mystery Box

Hearing J.J. Abrams has sold a pitch to Paramount isn't a surprise. He pumped adrenaline into the heart of a dead property (Star Trek) and off that success turned a "One for me..." pet project into a commercial hit (Super 8). In between he convinced the studio to make Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise firmly secured in the lead still. I can't prove it but I get the impression Abrams, and his power at the studio post-Trek, made that happen more than anything else after the public fallout between Cruise and Viacom big-cheese Sumner Redstone.

So when Abrams walks into the top executives' offices and spit-balls ideas for another genre adventure film, they're going to buy it for no other reason than it came from him. Been there, done that, yes the man has a lot of projects on his slate from a producing stand-point in addition to his (recent) official commitment to helm Star Trek 2.

What makes this any different?

According to "TOLDJA," because the screenwriter onboard for the "mystery adventure" project is the great Billy Ray, writer/director behind Shattered Glass and Breach (both recommended viewing) as well as screenwriter on State of Play (which I liked despite some miscasting and it not being the BBC mini-series) and The Hunger Games, the latter may be a gravy-train hit that'll put his grandkids through college.

As per usual with Abrams, who the Hell knows what it's about. But it's an intriguing enough combo to strike my curiosity.

"Arrested Development Movie is Happening We Swear!" Update #223452 - But This Time with a Mini-Season!

"Everything that is old is new again" as the saying goes and nothing applies better than the arrested development of the Arrested Development movie and how the Internet, every six months or so when another non-news quote gets dropped by creator Mitchell Hurwitz or someone from the cast (usually Jason Bateman or Will Arnett with rare occasions from David Cross or Jeffrey Tambor) about how this time it’s "really going to happen this time we swear sometime next year!", suffers from Alzheimer's and reports the same bullshit we've heard numerous times before. Followed by absolutely nothing happening - rinse, lather and repeat.

In what at first glimpse looks like them filling their non-news quote quota, Hurwitz and the entire cast reunited at the New Yorker Festival and guess what? They said the movie was happening. Who didn't see that coming? But there's a twist. The plan involves a mini-season comprising of nine-or-ten episodes following each member of the Bluth family and their whereabouts since the series-finale that would transition into the movie. All of this would go down sometime in early 2013.

That's a Hell of a plan. If we hadn't already heard claims that never came to be, the optimistic Arrested Development fan in me would out-weight the questionable "Is this really a good idea?" fan in me. But again, we’ve heard this all before.

Subsequent news dropped, courtesy of EW, that Showtime (who tried to save the series back in 2006 to no success) and Netflix (in a move that would turn their bad-press around in the geek circles) are in talks with 20^th Century Fox to take the reign on the mini-season four.

Talked to a reliable buddy of mine who reassures that this time it's for real. It's not that I doubt him. But once again, we've been in this place with this property and these claims from Hurwitz and the actors before. I'll believe it when I see it.

Weekend Box Office: Sept 30 - Oct 2

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Dolphin Tale - $14.2 million

2.  Moneyball - $12.5 million

3.  The Lion King 3D - $11 million

4.  50/50 - $8.85 million

5.  Courageous - $8.8 million

6.  Dream House - $8.2 million

7.  Abduction - $5.65 million

8.  What's Your Number? - $5.6 million

9.  Contagion - $5 million

10.  Killer Elite - $4.8 million

Lions, dolphins...the box office has been ruled by adorable animals the last few weeks, hasn't it?  Dolphin Tale, the family film about a rescued dolphin saved by a prosthetic tail (top, that Free Willy!) managed to jump to the top of an essentially slow box office weekend with $14.2 million, dropping only a mere 25% from last week, when it debuted in third place. 

Where does that leave Simba in all this?  The Lion King 3D dropped to third place with $11 million.  It wasn't even supposed to be in theaters this weekend - Disney extended its run after it topped the box office during its initial two-week return engagement.  The 1994 film, which has grossed $79 million since returning to theaters, will be out on DVD/blu-ray on Tuesday, so this impressive box office run will likely dwindle quickly from here.  Don't be too sad about it.  I have a feeling this won't be the last Disney 3D re-release we'll be seeing, considering how well this one did.

Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, continued to perform well (even with the MLB playoffs in full swing this weekend), dropping only 35% to earn another $12.5 million.  The film has grossed $38.4 million in theaters so far. 

As far as the new releases, Courageous fared the best with $8.8 million.  For those of you wondering the same thing I was ("What the hell is Courageous??"), the film is from Sherwood Pictures, the Christian film production company who produced the similarly-themed Fireproof, and tells the story of police officers dealing with a tragedy.  Made for only $2 million, the Courageous seems to heading for the same kind of success Fireproof had, with screenings fueled by church group trips to the theater to see it.

This weekend's other new releases didn't fare quite as well.  The cancer comedy-drama 50/50, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, barely beat out Courageous with $8.85 million, which is below what they were expecting for the weekend.  Daniel Craig's Dream House, which seemed like it was being dumped into theaters this weekend, didn't do much with only $8.2 million.  Despite being endlessly compared to this summer's smash Bridesmaids, the Anna Faris romantic comedy What's Your Number? outright tanked with just $5.6 million. 

Overall, a fairly quiet weekend at the box office.  Next weekend, IMAX theaters will be invaded by Hugh Jackman and a bunch of boxing robots in Real Steel, and Oscar-watchers will get their first look at The Ides of March, starring George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. 

More Arkham City Gameplay

Arkham City is almost here. Superherohype has the gameplay footage that will have to help hold fans over until the release date on October 18th. Batman makes smooth transitions from one task to the next as he glides above the city and swoops down in the streets to eliminate the threats in an Gotham City gone mad. 

The Future Now!.........Well Kind of

I love Star Wars, I really liked the Star Trek reboot and I dug Avatar but my favourite type of Sci Fi is the type set in the near future, you know? the kind Blade Runner inspired.

This got me thinking of what modern vehicles currently in use in the world today have inspired the vehicles seen in this kind of sci fi, and vice versa.

Cars are a good place to start.

The Bugatti Veyron is still the worlds most powerful and fastest road legal production car to my knowledge, however when unveiled many motoring journalists noticed an inspiration in the design taken from the Lexus concept shown in Minority Report.

Another example is the Audi RSQ concept driven by Detective Del Spooner in I, Robot, despite the reverse opening doors and enclosed wheels, there's little doubt it is derived from the Audi TT and furthermore the inpiration for the very successful Audi R8 Supercar.

Now lets take to the air with the Osprey:

If you are familiar with the Transformers movies you'll know this troop transporter as Michael Bay shoots it like it's a Victoria's Secret Model. The mix of plane with Helicopter gives it a unique look and versatility. It is a very effective means of moving soldiers into and from battle location, and you can see it's inspiration in the Hovership in Minority Report.

Now interestingly the Hovership looks more like a chopper than the Osprey but has no propellers on top, however it serves the same versatile function of transporting the Pre-Crime officers to and from locations and has the same sort of design DNA.

The first Jet fighter to be capable of vertical take-off was the Harrier, it's upwards thrusters making it completely unique and a huge advantage over other jets fighters when it came to being launched from an Aircraft Carrier. Now you may think looking at a Terminator movie as an example of anything real is crazy, however I'd argue with it's jet fighter looks but vertical take-off and hovering capabilities, the inspiration for the Hunter-Killer is none other than the Harrier.

At the moment there really isn't a sci fi underwater vehicle that I could link to modern day or vice versa, Sci Fi films just don't tend to go underwater much but maybe that will change with the Jim Cameron's forthcoming Avatar sequel.

Of course the big thing from these near future films that still hasn't come to pass are hover vehicles, these are a staple of the sub genre and while some attempts have been made they are still nowhere to be seen as a regular mode of transport, in car or bike form, but who knows, maybe ten years from now we'll have a chance to ride around on one of these (Scarlett Johansson does not come with the bike).

WB Aiming High for Twilight Zone Director

Anthology films are a tough nut to crack. The reason they fail is the lack of a singular voice in charge. The formula of hiring several directors, letting them run off with their individual teams, making their short individual films and gluing them all together into a two-hour feature doesn't work.

Its with that we can all agree no matter if this sees the light of day or it does and still doesn't turn out as hoped, Warner Brothers has learned from that mistake made by Twilight Zone: the Movie from 1983.

The studio wants one director to tell one story for their new Twilight Zone movie (that for some reason is untitled – who the Hell are we kidding, it's going to be called The Twilight Zone) being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Variety says their short-list for helmers is comprised of Michael Bay, Alfonso Cuaron, Christopher Nolan and Rupert Wyatt.

With his status as their Pope, it's no surprise the trades' source say Nolan is the front-runner and the still-hot-off Rise of the Apes Wyatt is deemed the dark-horse. Although I have to say, Nolan is the least interesting choice because one could already imagine how he'd do a Twilight Zone movie. No offense, bud. Michael Bay is actually the intriguing in that group. If you're going to make me guess, I'd say Wyatt wins due to his being the most economic choice. Translation: he's the cheapest.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves, let's see if this moves forward and doesn't stall in development Hell. Plus none of these guys could get the job at the end of the day. We'll see.