WB Adds Possible 'Potter' Replacement

I wonder what it feels like to carry the burden of having two huge successful franchises on your shoulders while attempting to find yet another one. For those reading along at home, I'm referring to Warner Bros on the verge of saying goodbye to the Harry Potter franchise. Sure they have Hobbit and at least one more Batman movie somewhere in their arsenal, but WB is looking for a juggernaut in the vein of the Potter Series.

That search for the next big thing has brought WB to Stohl and Garcia's "Beautiful Creatures". According to The Trades, WB has purchased the rights to the popular novel in hopes that the twist on your typical coming of age story turns into the next "Twilight" at the very least. Richard LaGravanese has been selected to write the script and station himself behind the lense. You may remember LaGravanse for his directorial touch on "P.S. I Love You" or if you somehow got your hands on his scripted adaptation of "Water For Elephants" Synposis for "Beautiful Creatures" is below.

Ethan Wate, a popular high school student, hates living in a small in South Carolina where nothing happens—until he meets and becomes bewitched by Lena Duchanne, a 16-year old whose family has moved back to town and who wishes for a mundane life.  The star-crossed couple has to confront an age old curse that has haunted her family for generations, as she comes to grips with her powers.

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.

"New Moon" Repeats As Box Office Champ

Weekend Actuals Nov 27th - 29th

1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon $42,870,031
2 The Blind Side $40,111,364
3 2012 $17,651,729
4 Old Dogs $16,894,511    
5 A Christmas Carol $15,758,273
6 Ninja Assassin $13,316,158
7 Planet 51 $10,218,641
8 Precious $7,081,032
9 The Fantastic Mr. Fox $6,965,267
10 The Road $1,502,231 

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.

Has Jeremy Renner Been Cast As Hawkeye?

Jeremy Renner has been getting a fair share of job offers after his turn in The Hurt Locker. He was even a candidate to replace Mel Gibson for Mad Max 4: Fury Road. Not one to be let down by losing that gig, he seems content with doing a franchise of some sort.

The actor revealed to Empire Online he’s had some chats with Marvel Films about coming their way. Who would he play, you ask? If this is to be believed, he might end up portraying the bow-and-arrow yielding Hawkeye throughout the various Marvel-related movies. As he explains to the world’s best movie magazine:

"I met with the Marvel guys, actually, but we didn’t talk about Captain America. But one of the writers, Zak Penn, we’ve become friends over time and he was thinking maybe Hawkeye could be interesting. He sounds like an interesting character."

Interesting. However as Coming Soon pointed out in their coverage, Renner made similar statements about “hoping to appear” in next year’s The Losers - which never wound up happening. Also it’s never wise for anyone (i.e. actor, filmmaker, etc.) to start publicly blabbing about a job they’re in contention for, when it is still up for grabs.

The studios prefer to make any official announcements on their own.

I Spit On This Remake

The good folks over at Movie Hole have an exclusive update on the remake of I Spit On Your Grave or as it was originally titled Day of the Woman. That's the 1978 exploitation picture Roger Ebert has long referred to as the worst film he's ever seen. God would I love to see the footage from Siskel & Ebert where they first reviewed this back in their PBS days.

This new version will keep the same plot (i.e. young woman is beaten and gang-raped multiple times by four men only to survive and seek revenge - in ways only a woman can!) It will add a Sheriff character (Why?!?) and try to up the brutality of the original film. I seriously doubt director Steven Monroe can "top" the graphic 30 minute rape and the bath-tub castration.

Production is currently under way in Shreveport, Louisiana with a cast including unknown Sarah Butler in the lead and Rodney Eastman. Yes, folks the mute do-gooder Joey from Nightmare On Elm Street 3 and 4 is playing a rapist.

I haven't seen anywhere near as many films as Mr. Ebert. But I Spit is certainly down there among the worst pieces of shit I've sat through. I'm well aware of the story behind the movie and get what writer/director Meir Zarchi was going for. But...that doesn't remotely change my feelings on the film. It will remain one of the most controversial films ever made.

To be fair, there was one good idea to come out of I Spit On Your Grave. All rapists and child predators should be castrated and let to bleed to death as done to the ring-leader in the original and presumably this remake. I'll gladly tip my hat to Zarchi for that.

The Hobbit Now Filming By Summer 2010

Just before the Thanksgiving holidays last week, Peter Jackson gave a Hobbit update to In The News. Long story short, the first draft was completed and turned into Warner Brothers for approval and/or ogling by studio executives.

Now that we’re all returning to work after a long-ass weekend of stuffing our faces (like I’ve ever needed an excuse to do that), comes another update on the two-part Lord of the Rings prequel.

You can go ahead and scratch off filming to start up March 2010. I know we’ve been told that date forever and a day now. You can thank MGM going up for sale as the factor. It wasn’t flat out stated as being the reason. But everyone knows that’s why.

German website Movie Reporter (translated via One Ring) has the quote straight from Jackson himself:

"We’re currently working on the second script which we hope to have completed by the end of this year or beginning of next.  When the scripts are completed, we can begin with the exact calculation of the necessary budget.  We hope to start filming in the middle of next year. However, we’ve received no green light from the studio yet."

If summer comes and goes with production still not started up, we can kiss off that Christmas 2011 release for Hobbit Part I. Again, this won't get any smoother until MGM just sells off its shart of Hobbit rights. My money's on Warner Brothers buying that up themselves. It might also be the reason we haven't heard any casting announcements.

Breaking Non News: Superman Franchise Still On Hold

Is there anything that riles up nerds of the Internet more than Superman? I can’t think of anything. Maybe the inane hatred of Brett Ratner or the Twilight franchise. That’s another debate for another time. I know.

Anne Thompson of Thompson On Hollywood has the latest developments on the Superman film franchise. And it’s everything we’ve already heard and assumed using good old fashioned “connecting the dots” logic. Nothing is going on at the moment. Of course, DC head Diane Nelson already said this to MTV months ago.

Warner Brothers has hit the “Pause” button on the Last Son of Krypton until reaching a settlement with the Siegel/Shuster estates? Again, we already knew that. Some would like you to think both families can literally take everything from the past 70-odd years of the Superman mythology and just sell it to the highest bidder. I even read a speculation piece on the possibility of Disney nabbing Kal-El and his pals. Uh, yeah. That has a realistic shot of ever happening. (Hint: sarcasm).

Plain and simple, there’s no way there won’t be a settlement. Time Warner has iron-clad ownership on many key Superman elements like the classic \S/ symbol, some of his powers including flight (remember he leaped tall buildings initially), characters like Lex Luthor, famous phrases like “Truth, Justice & the American Way” and so on. They even own the International rights to the character as a whole. The Siegel/Shuster estates will retain the rights to Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Supes/Clark Kent, Lois Lane, his origin story, etc.) by 2013. There's too much money to be made for the parties to dick around forever.

Also no screenwriters are onboard at the moment. Although pitches are still being heard. From the way the article sounds, they’ve still yet to settle on doing a sequel, requel or full-on reboot. But again at this point, who is anyone kidding? It’ll be the latter. It also shoots down the rumors of the Wachowskis (even though we know for a fact they’ve met with the Brothers Warner on-and-off since early 2007 for the gig) or James McTeigue (despite his recent confirmation to the contrary to Collider).

Remember, boys and girls, James Bond and Star Trek were both in the gutter for years. Look at them now. I've said this before and I'll say it again. Superman will grace our silver screens again. It's merely a question of when and under whose directorial eye.

First Look At Voyage of the Dawn Treader

A year from now, we’ll find out whether the public still gives a shit about Christian allegory posing for fantasy adventures. Didn’t the under-performance of Prince Caspian already prove they didn’t? Meh.

That said 20^th Century Fox deserves credit where it’s due. They had the balls to bankroll Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third entry in the sink ship franchise as known as Chronicles of Narnia after Disney threw in the towel. They’ll wind up looking either brilliant or retarded – could go either way. Although my hunch is this’ll do more than Caspian but way less than the killer $290 million gross of Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe. Once again – Meh.

The Facebook page for the Narnia series has the first official photos from Dawn Treader. Say it with me now, boys and girls.

Meh.

First Official Looks At The Losers and Jonah Hex

In the on-going war between DC and Marvel, I’d be hard-pressed to say the latter wasn’t kicking ass and taking names. Yes, DC has The Dark Knight on their side with its Biggest 3-Day Opening Weekend, Highest Grossing Film of the Decade and Second Biggest Movie of All-Time records among others. But they don’t have too terribly much else besides its predecessor Batman Begins, Superman Returns and Watchmen in terms of inventory. It’s easier to pull teeth than get the Burbank-based executives to move forward on a mega-budget DC-related property. On the other hand, throw a rock and you’ll find a handful of Marvel films in development at studios all across California. It’s not even funny how Marvel cleans DC’s clock.

Next year brings two DC properties The Losers and Jonah Hex to your multiplexes against the sole Marvel Film – the future box-office juggernaut also known as Iron Man 2. There should be zero doubt the return of Robert Downey Junior’s red-and-gold armored superhero will itself break records not unlike the Batman Begins sequel did last year.

Omelete has the first official look at both Warner Brothers productions. I offer nothing but the best of luck to both. The Losers is currently scheduled opposite the Steve Carell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night. It should offer the right action quota for the target male movie-goers and do fine. I can already imagine this having a solid trailer. Meanwhile, Hex will open directly against the one film that could topple Iron Man 2 as the biggest movie of the summer if not 2010 entirely - Toy Story 3. Some of you out there will compare the face-to-face competition of Wall-E and Wanted with both films being big money-makers. Obviously Pixar won the battle and war with that one. However, Wanted had retardedly over-the-top action and Angelina Jolie. Hex has Josh Brolin in makeup and Megan Fox whose box-office poison if she isn't standing next to giant robots.