MacGyver headed to the big screen

Ahhh making old TV shows into movies, a favourite in Hollywood over the last 15 years ince Mission Impossible hit big, the degree of success in which this has been acchieved varies but the potential is always there. Now The Hoilywood Reorter is err reporting! that 80's hero MacGyver is in line for the silver screen treatment.

New Line is using twine, bubble gum and a pencil to throw "MacGyver" into development as a feature film.

Raffaella De Laurentiis, daughter of Dino De Laurentiis, is producing through her Raffaella Prods. along with Martha De Laurentiis and series creator Lee Zlotoff.

Dino De Laurentiis is exec producing.

"MacGyver" was a science-oriented adventure series that ran from 1985-92 on ABC. Richard Dean Anderson, later of "Stargate: Atlantis" and "SG-1" fame, starred as an incredibly resourceful secret agent for the Phoenix Foundation who frequently would escape from dangerous situations with ingenious and lightning-quick engineering trickery.

Two telefilms starring Anderson aired in the years after the show's cancellation. The character eventually achieved enough cultural penetration to become a reference for anyone attempting to jury-rig a solution out of household items. "Saturday Night Live" took the concept to the next level with its spoofs "MacGruber," starring Will Forte.

No writer is attached, but the studio hopes to find a script that can acknowledge how the concept has staked a place into pop culture yet still makes for a serious and fun adventure movie.

"We think we're a stick of chewing gum, a paper clip and an A-list writer away from a global franchise," said New Line's Richard Brener, who will oversee with Sam Brown and Walter Hamada.

MacGyver is one of my favourites and one of the few shows from the 80's that still holds up, mainly because it's cheese factor was a good degree lesser than shows like Knight Rider and because it had more varied storylines than The A Team, but mainly due to the character and premise. MacGyver was a likable hero who used his brain not brawn, abored violence, cared about the enviroment, was honourable and could make something out of anything just with his brain and his trusty Swiss Amry knife! He had a much more fully realized personality than most 80's action heroes, in truth he was a character where as most from the other shows were caricatures or character types.

If New Line are to get this right nailing the tone is the key, think Raiders of the Lost Ark in a modern setting with spy secrets as opposed to ancient artifacts, as well as casting someone with the charm but everyman qualities that Richard Dean Anderson emobdied in the original show. No small feat then but I am not opposed to this.....yet.

Olga Kurylenko as a Warrior Woman in 'Centurian'

Empire has an exclusive first look at Bond babe Olga Kurylenko in Neil Marshal's upcoming movie 'Centurian' in which she plays a “a savage-looking Pict warrior woman” named Etain. Empire also grabbed a word with the lovely Olgan on set:

“She’s quite furious,” agrees Kurylenko. “Because one sense is not there – she can’t speak – all the others are more developed. She sees very well and hears very well: she is an animal!”

Kurylenko stars alongside Hunger’s Michael Fassbender, who plays the title character, stranded behind enemy lines, and a superb roster of established and up’n’coming talent, including Dominic West, Noel Clarke, David Morrisey, JJ Feild and Riz Ahmed (soon to be seen in the rather excellent Brit-grit thriller Shifty, out April 24).

Centurion is being produced by Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-snaffler Christian Colson and Robert Jones (Run Fatboy Run) and Empire has visited its sets in both Scotland and Surrey and witnessed the action and intensity up close, so expect regular updates online and in the magazine, in the build up to its release (likely to be later this year).

Marshall's prior two movies are a mixed bag. 'The Descent' was a first rate original horror film, the best ive seen in years, but his follow up 'Doomsday' was such a hotchpotch of genres and influences a lot of people felt it was a muddled and jarring mess, personally I thought it was fun but it's any guess as to where this one will land, I actually hadn't heard of it until today.

Spider-Man 4 Non-Updates From Sam Raimi

If one is to believe the advanced word of mouth (and I certainly do especially after seeing the great trailer last week), then Sam Raimi has got his "A-game" back with his horror film Drag Me To Hell.

Now with his energy reclaimed, Raimi's headed right back to the franchise that brought him success and power in Hollywood - Spider-Man.

Honestly, the fourth installment is in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category. Granted, the last film made $900 million despite its negative reception and a May 6, 2011 release was officially announced last week for Spider-Man 4.

Raimi gave the same non-answer we've heard before to MTV Movies Blog concerning his "hope" of bringing Kirsten Dunst back as Webhead's main-squeeze Mary Jane Watson despite the fact that damn-near everyone else wants her gone.

To be fair however, he did confirm that they are not developing two Spider sequels at once as previously rumored.

Meanwhile, he told IGN Films that the film is still in the "earliest stages" of writing. That's certainly interesting considering that Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire was hired last November. Surely it's further along than that - unless said writer is off the project and they've moved on to someone else. *Shrugs*

Actor Ron Silver Dead At Age 62

According to multiple sources, actor Ron Silver, 62, succumbed to cancer on March 15, 2009.

During his career, Silver enjoyed success on stage, screen and television.

Silver won the Tony Award for best actor for David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" in 1988. In addition, he was nominated for an Emmy in 1988 and again in 2002, a daytime Emmy in 2005 and a Gemini Award in 1997.

His most popular roles included lawyer Alan Dershowitz in 1990's "Reversal of Fortune" and a recurring role as Bruno Gianelli on "The West Wing," for which he was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a drama series.

In addition to his acting career, Silver was an avid political activist; first as a loyal Democrat, before becoming an out-spoken Republican following the September 11 terrorist attacks

According to the New York Post, Silver had been fighting a two-year battle with esophageal cancer. Reports state his family is making arrangements for a private service.

Movie Moan - The Bourne Placenta

On this week's Movie Moan, Phil and Jamie go into detail about Marvel Studios' new epic plan with their films leading up to 2012's The Avengers while our favorite English gentleman gloats about Thor moving to Summer 2011 - i.e. he's been saying that was going to happen for awhile now!

Our heroes discuss the ever decreasing (and increasingly more depressing) news of Watchmen falling like a rock at the box-office. Jamie nerdgasms over the trailer for Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell. Meanwhile Phil moans about the fact that he won't be seeing Pixar's Up (his most anticipated film of 2009) until October!?!

Also on docket is TMT's exclusive info on Suicide Squad and the news of Wonder Woman picking up steam again over at Warner Brother as well as the status on the next Bond film and Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

All of that and Phil's spec script for Bourne 4 - The Bourne Placenta!

Movie Moan: The Bourne Placenta

Damon Ready To Be 'Bourne' Again

Following up on a trio of successful movies where he portrayed Jason Bourne, Matt Damon told Parade Magazine that he is ready to play the role for a fourth time.

Parade interviewed Damon while he was on set in South Africa filming "The Human Factor."

• Q: Is it official that you'll return as Jason Bourne for a fourth time?
• A: We're working on it. This time it would be from an original script rather than a book by Robert Ludlum. But the director, Paul Greengrass, is busy and I am too, so we'll see what happens.
• Q: Are you ready to be Bourne again?
• A: Listen, when I did the first movie, I was 29 years old. I am 37 now, and after a tough fighting scene, the next day you wake up and feel your body more. That's just the way it is.

The late author Robert Ludlum wrote only three novels about the secret agent with memory problems. And, apparently, the film's producers have decided to "forget" about a pair of sequels penned by Eric Van Lustbader: "The Bourne Legacy" and "The Bourne Betrayal."

Even though the intention was to film only the three Ludlum novels, a fourth "Bourne" movie makes sense, as each installment of the popular series has done better than the last. "The Bourne Identity," released in 2002, pulled in $121 million. "The Bourne Supremacy," released in 2004, made $176 million. And "The Bourne Ultimatum," from 2007, pulled in $227 million.

Damon has been ambivalent in the past about doing another movie, even joking on "The Daily Show" that a fourth movie could be called "The Bourne Redundancy."

However, in October, Universal tapped George Nolfi to write the script for a new movie and secured Paul Greengrass to direct and Damon to star. The movie will be produced by Frank Marshall, with Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison as executive producers.

The plan is to release the movie next summer.

* * *

As for Damon's current project, "The Human Factor" is scheduled to be released in December of this year. In the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, Morgan Freeman will play former South African leader Nelson Mandela. The film, based on John Carlin's book "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela + The Game That Made a Nation," follows Mandela's campaign to bring the 1995 Rugby World Cup to South Africa.

The Rock Lays The Smackdown On Watchmen

Friday estimates are in, and to the surprise of virtually nobody, "Race To Witch Mountain" claimed the top spot on its opening night edging out incumbent "Watchmen" and newcomer "Last House On The Left".

1. Race To Witch Mountain (Disney) [3,187 theaters] $6.5M Friday, est. $24M wkd
2. (Tied) Watchmen (Warner Bros) [3,611] $5.5M Friday, est. $18M wkd
2. (Tied) Last House On The Left (Universal) [2,401] $5.5M Friday, est. $15M wkd

Numbers courtesy of Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily.

Exclusive: Suicide Squad Character List & Casting

As Justin Marks pounds the virtual paper on a "Suicide Squad" script for Warner Bros, producer Dan Lin and others are mulling over which characters to include and who to cast as said characters. My sources are telling me that although not 100% agreed upon this is the list of characters they are working with so far:

Deadshot
Amanda Waller
Count Vertigo
Bronze Tiger
Captain Boomerang
Nightshade
Vixen

Jason Statham's name is being tossed around the boardroom to play the character of Deadhshot and a favorite for Amanda Waller is CCH Pounder.

Track The Trailers

"9"

A group of doll-sized creatures living a post-apocalyptic existence have to follow Nine - aka Elijah Wood, on a quest. The questing party includes One (Christopher Plummer), a war veteran; Two (Martin Landau), an inventor; Five (John C. Reilly), a mechanic; Six (Crispin Glover), an artist; and Seven (Jennifer Connelly), a warrior.

"9" Trailer

"Planet 51"

The inhabitants of Planet 51 live in fear of alien invasion. Their paranoia is realized when an astronaut arrives from Earth. Befriended by a young resident, he has to avoid capture in order to recover his spaceship and try to return home.

"Planet 51" Trailer

Superman/Batman Set To Get Animated in 'Public Enemies'

DC's animated movie branch recently released "Wonder Woman" on DVD and has "Green Lantern" on the launching pad, and now Harry Knowles of Aint It Cool News has discovered the next movie they will make.

"Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" is slated for release in fall 2009 by Warner Bros. animation.

The movie will be based on a story arc of the comic book "Superman/Batman," as written by Jeff Loeb and drawn by Ed McGuinness.

According to a release, "United States President Lex Luthor uses the oncoming trajectory of a kryptonite asteroid to frame Superman and declare a $1 billion bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel and his 'partner in crime' Batman. Super heroes and super villains alike launch a relentless pursuit of Superman and Batman, who must unite – and recruit super help – to stave off the action-packed onslaught, stop the asteroid, and uncover Luthor’s devious plot to take command of far more than North America."

Knowles wrote that Bruce Timm is executive producer of the film, which currently is in production.

"Teen Titans: The Judas Contract" had been rumored as the next DC animated movie, but the project --based on the stories by Marv Wolfman and George Perez -- remains on hold.