Benjamin Walker Freed the Slaves & Fought the Undead

20^th Century Fox made the call to go in the "unknown" direction instead of more name-recognized actors like Adrian Brody or Eric Bana for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The trades report Benjamin Walker will star in Timur Bekmambetov's film version of the popular (for some reason) novel by Seth Graham-Smith as Honest Abe.

The classically-trained Broadway actor, currently starring in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and future son-in-law to Meryl Streep of all people, had an almost claim to fame last summer. He was cast as Hank McCoy/Beast for X-Men: First Class. But issues of his age arose (He looked too old to be taking lessons from James McAvoy, executives argued) and he was ousted, but paid for his time.

Then after a fruitless search for a replacement (prior to the casting of Nicholas Hoult) they actually went back to the guy with a brand new contract. He understandably turned it down.

But that all looks like water under the bridge.

Maybe if this is a big hit next June, someone will pick-up my Anne Frank: Zombie Killer idea?

Is Ricky Gervais Replacing Steve Carell on 'The Office'?

For anyone who tuned in to watch last night's new episode of The Office (I unfortunately didn't, but I caught this online this morning), you got to finally see the chance encounter between Carell's character, Michael Scott, and Gervais's from the original British version, David Brent.

While it's only a short, one-minute, pre-credits scene, the last few lines of dialogue between the two might be hinting at something concerning Carell's departure before the end of this season.  Take a look for yourself:

Hugh Jackman Is The Easter Bunny

Let's clarify that a little bit:  Dreamworks announced today that Rise of the Guardians, an animated 3D film based on William Joyce's upcoming children's book series The Guardians of Childhood, will feature the voices of Chris Pine as Jack Frost, Alec Baldwin as North (aka: Santa Clause), Isla Fisher as Tooth (aka: The Tooth Fairy), Jude Law as Pitch (aka: The Boogeyman) and as we first mentioned, Hugh Jackman as Bunnymund (aka: The Easter Bunny).

Now what the hell is this movie about?  It seems evil Pitch is hell-bent on taking over the world and with it, the hearts and minds of children everywhere.  That leaves it up to our superpowered band of mythical heroes to join forces and save the world and, of course, the children.  Sounds pretty cool.

Directed by Peter Ramsey and co-directed by Guardians author William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians is set for release on November 21, 2012.  Guillermo del Toro and Michael Seigel will executive produce.

New Oscars Promo

Well, they weren't both nominated this year, but nevertheless, both James Franco (nominated for 127 Hours) and Anne Hathaway (not nominated for Love and Other Drugs) will be hosting this year's Oscar ceremony on February 27, and going by this first promo from ABC, they seem to be having fun getting ready for the show:

Also, the official Oscar website confirmed that Hugh Jackman will be one of the presenters at the ceremony.  Can that mean we might be seeing some more onstage hijinks like we saw when Jackman hosted the show in 2009, with Franco joining in this time around as well?  That would be awesome.

Viggo the Huntsman & Kristen Stewart as Snow White?

Good news, bad news for Viggo Mortensen fans. Yes, it appears he's returning to the realm of fantasy/adventures and will headline a high-profile movie for Universal. Unfortunately, it isn't The Dark Tower as many had hoped. That'd be Javier Bardem – read below.

The trades report the Lord of the Rings alum is in talks in star in Snow White & the Huntsman – the latest in a slew of "revisionist" fairy tale yarns post-Alice in Wonderland and one of several Snow White films in development.

Mortensen would play the Huntsman, who in this version, serves as Snow White's mentor-figure and protector after originally being hired by the Evil Queen (to be played by Charlize Theron) to kill her. Since the door closed on the Rings trilogy, old Viggo has kept himself strictly away from big studio pay-days in favor of smaller endeavors like A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, The Road and Appaloosa.

As for who will co-star, that question unanswered. Despite their intentions for an unknown (including screen-tests conducted this past weekend), Heat Vision says Universal continues turning back to Kristen Stewart for the role. She remains a hot property thanks to the Twilight franchise. But like most actors whose careers exploded once they got bit by the franchise bug, she hasn't produced a hit outside her primary bread-winner.

It's always a wise move for these guys to strike while the iron is hot and show the general public they can be more than just their signature character to avoid type-casting once their series runs out of gas and they’re stuck getting guest-star gigs on Law & Order in ten years.

Javier Bardem May Be The Gunslinger

Whether it succeeds or fails, Universal deserves credit for taking an honest-to-God risk not seen since New Line Cinema put their asses on the line for The Lord of the Rings trilogy over a decade ago.

This plan for a Dark Tower film trilogy and television series (both will star the same cast) could result in hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of egg in their face. But let's face it; this studio has felt hardships for years now with a number of pricey under-performers and flops – quality notwithstanding.

"TOLDJA" says an offer has been sent out to Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, who'd been reportedly a candidate, for the lead role of gunslinger Roland Deschain. Again, the studio and filmmakers (in this case, director Ron Howard) get props for such an outside-the-box choice considering the acclaimed actor's lack of commercial clout, despite his Oscar win for No Country For Old Men.

I'll admit my ignorance to the property. Despite being a longtime fan of author Stephen King, I've never been able to get into The Dark Tower series. So I don't have an immediate gage of whether or not Bardem is the perfect choice for Roland. But just on face value, I like this choice.

I'm sure my pal Lou will tell me in explicit detail how wrong I am on this weekend's Movie Moan.

Movie Moan TV - '25th Hour' (2002)

This week, Queen Kristina treats the Movie Moan crew to Spike Lee's '25th Hour'.  This is one film that has it all; 9/11, angry five minute rants against the planet, comedy FBI agents, dying dogs, shady Philip Seymour Hoffman, and an ambiguous ending which will have you debating for years to come.

Oh wait, no it won't.  Watch on as Kristina tells you why.

After the video, why not take your favorite dream/trance sequence from a movie and replace the soundtrack with Hans Zimmer?  That piece of music will go with anything.

Annie Remake Confirmed

Leapin' lizards, Will Smith strikes again.  After successfully pushing...um, producing a blockbuster remake of The Karate Kid starring his son Jaden last year, Smith is now developing a reworked film version of the musical Annie for his 10-year-old daughter Willow.  The project has been rumored for awhile, but was confirmed today by Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment.  Rapper Jay-Z, who famously incorporated Annie's "It's A Hard Knock Life" into his hit single "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)", and who also produced Willow Smith's dreadful hit single, "Whip My Hair," will also be working on this re-imagining of the story of an impossibly happy Depression-era orphan and her adoptive billionaire dad.

Now, Annie is not exactly sacred property.  The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical was first adapted into a feature film in 1982, and remade as a TV movie in 1999.  It's been revived on Broadway, has toured the country several times over, is a staple of community and school drama clubs, and another Broadway revival is planned for the show's 35th anniversary in 2012. 

So much as I wish Will Smith would just buy his kids an Xbox or something when he wants to do something nice for them, honestly...what's one more movie version at this point?  Personally, my heart still belongs to the 1982 film, which I obsessed over back when it was first released.  But the 1999 version was pretty good too (and a much better adaptation of the stage musical), and regardless of the version, the kids seem to still love Annie.  So let's hope they do a good job with it.

Ridley Scott's Prometheus Heads for June 2012

When it was announced Ridley Scott's Alien prequel morphed into Prometheus, 20^th Century Fox also set a March 9, 2012 release. That would put it in direct competition for us paying movie-goer's smackeroos against Disney's John Carter of Mars – itself previously set for June 8^th.

ERC Box-Office got the info out there first – thus we'll credit them. Fox has yanked Prometheus outta March and firmly planted it in Carter's initial June 8^th slot.

Don't know how to interpret this call. Is it a sign of confidence on Fox's end or merely a case of stocking up on their inventory? The only other summer releases they have, so far, are Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Stop giggling - it's said to be a popular book!) and Ice Age: Continental Drift.

What's eerie is how I was noting to my TMT partner-in-crime Peter Georgiou a few days back how that June 8^th opening was unoccupied and assuming the Darren Aronofsky-helmed Wolverine sequel would take it. Here we are today and not only has another Fox production taken it, but I don't know the last time we legitimately heard anything on the X-Men prequel/sequel front.

Weird, is something up or am I just over-thinking this one?

Bursting that Tron 3 Bubble

Just because Disney shot a Tron 3 teaser (ahead of the theatrical release of Tron: Legacy) doesn't automatically translate to a third go-around with the light cycles getting made, contrary to what some would like to believe. The box-office receipts stateside, and especially overseas, say another sequel is highly doubtful. Let's be honest here, the fact that they went forward with a follow-up to the 1982 original is a miracle in its own right.

Jim Hill Media has an excellent post blending together their theories and what they've been whispered to by insider peeper regarding this alleged Tron 3:

"Jut to recap here: If Disney was able to keep that two-minute-long 'Tron' test under wraps under wraps for months, then why did word of this 'Tron 3' teaser leak out just weeks after it was shot?

Well, from what I hear, this wasn't a coincidence. Someone at the Studio supposedly put the word out about this 'Tron 3' teaser because there'd been talk recently about possibly NOT including this footage on the 'Tron: Legacy' DVD & Blu-ray. In essence putting development of a 'Tron: Legacy' follow-up on ice for a while.

This news did not reportedly thrill a number of key creatives at the Studio. Which is why a decision was made to prematurely get the word out about this 'Tron 3' teaser trailer which was supposed to be on the Blu-ray & DVD. With the hope that -- once this news leaked  -- the 'Tron' fan community would become electrified. More to the point, this leak would then put The Walt Disney Company in the position where they'd have no choice but to include this ‘Tron 3’ teaser as part of the 'Tron: Legacy' DVD & Blu-ray release. Which would then (in theory, anyway) give the 'Tron: Legacy' sequel project additional exposure and some increased momentum."

Also interesting to note their inclusion of a teaser trailer for an ultimately cancelled Dumbo sequel as evidence to counter the inevitable "NU-UH!" reaction(s).  For me, Tron 3 fits in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category.