Ok, its the end of the week, which means… its tidbits time! So sit back and enjoy the offerings we have for you this week. First up, there is a great little featurette on Captain America’s shield, then we have a sneak peek at the new ‘Green Lantern’ cartoon, a trailer for the Australian superhero rom-com ‘Griff The Invisible’ and much more. Of course, you’ll also find the usual casting news, posters, and images included. Enjoy your weekend and stay safe.
David O. Russell (‘The Fighter’) has begun screen-testing actresses for his adaptation of Matthew Quick’s ‘The Silver Linings Playbook.’ According to Risky Business, the following actresses are set to testing for the female lead, Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Andrea Riseborough and Olivia Wilde.
The story centers on a delusional former high school history teacher (Mark Wahlberg) who’s just been released into the custody of his mom. Believing that he’s only been away for a few months instead of the four years he just spent in a mental institution, the teacher sets about wooing back his ex-wife.
20th Century Fox has tapped Max Landis (‘Chronicle’) to pen the screenplay for its takes on Mary Shelley’s classic ‘Frankenstein.’ The studio is eyeing several high-profile helmers for the project, including Paul Greengrass and David Yates. The project is one of five adaptations currently in development.
Former ‘Law & Order: SVU’ star Christopher Meloni is in negotiations to join the cast of Zach Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel.’ While there are details on what part the actor will take, Deadline reports that he is up for a “major role.” Let the speculation begin.
Norton has released a nice little featurette titled ‘Behind The Shield’ for Joe Johnston ‘s ‘Captain America: The First Avenger.’
Talking to the LA Times, Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in taking the director’s chair for Disney’s ‘Maleficent.’ Sadly scheduling stands in the way of del Toro taking the gig.
“Let me put it this way, if they ask I’ll take the meeting… I think Maleficent’s dragon is the only design with the wings separate from the front legs, the only time that design has ever worked. And let me tell you how much of a fan I am… It’s one of my three favorite Disney films. I would love to. But I don’t want to put too many hopes on it. They’re probably on a fast track and I cannot take any more projects on a fast track.”
A sneak peek at Cartoon Network’s upcoming ‘Green Lantern The Animated Series.’ Hopefully it does better than Martin Campbell’s big screen outing.
Below is the new Japanese trailer for Shawn Levy’s ‘Real Steel.’
Katie Cassidy (‘Gossip Girl,’ ‘Supernatural’) is in talks to join Charlie Matthau’s adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s crime novel ‘Freaky Deaky.’ The actress would be playing the lead female opposite Matt Dillion, who plays an LAPD bomb squad officer who stumbles upon a plot by two former hippie activists who plan to use their bomb-making skills to trick an alcoholic movie mogul into handing over millions of dollars. Brendan Fraser co-stars. William H. Macy was attached but has since dropped out and producers are currently on the lookout for his replacement.
Director Jim Jarmusch (‘Broken Flowers,’ ‘Coffee & Cigarettes,’ ‘Ghost Dog,’ ‘The Limits of Control’) has collaborated with Dutch acclaimed minimalist composer/lute player Josef Van Wissem for an album titled ‘The Joy That Never Ends.’ You can check out three tracks below. The album is available through Important Records.
The Joy That Never Ends
His Is The Ecstacy
Concerning The Precise Nature Of Truth
Writer-director Paul Haggis (‘The Next Three Days’ ‘Crash’) is in negotiations with Universal to develop a feature based on the Daniel Silva’s trademark Gabriel Allon character.
The hero of ten novels by best-selling author, Allon is a fortysomething Mossad agent, who having avenged the murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics earlier in his career, has taken a quieter job restoring art. But he is often called out of retirement for covert missions, many of them involving terrorists with ties to radical Islamic groups. Universal is hoping to make a franchise with the character.
The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. is set to “radically reinvent vampire mythology” with ‘Blood Wars.’ Based on a story by Chad St. John and Blacklight Transmedia, the story, which reminds us of ‘Daybreakers,’ has vampires in control of the world with humans as their slaves. But humans infiltrate the vampire army and plan a rebellion. Dalan Musson will provide the script.
While it’s a lot like ‘Special,’ ‘Defendor,’ ‘Super‘ and ‘Boy Wonder‘ there is something about the trailer for Leon Ford’s ‘Griff the Invisible’ that we are loving. Griff, office worker by day, superhero by night, has his world turned upside down when he meets Melody, a beautiful young scientist who shares his passion for the impossible. Ryan Kwanten and Maeve Dermody star.
Jean Claude Van Damme is set to take the role of an ex-mercenary kidnapping expert hired by a martial arts fighter whose daughter has gone missing in the Ernie Barbarash-helmed actioner ‘Six Bullets.’ The movie was penned by scribes Chad and Evan Law (‘The Hit List’).
Writer-director Oren Moverman (‘Rampart,’ ‘The Messenger’) has signed on to write a movie about the life of Brian Wilson, the deeply troubled leader of The Beach Boys. Producers Bill Pohlad (‘The Tree of Life,’ ‘Into the Wild’) and John Wells (‘ER’) have secured the rights to much of Wilson’s catalogue.
‘Insidious’ director and ‘Saw’ creator James Wan is to return to the haunted house-genre with the low-budget horror ‘The Conjuring,’ Variety reports. The movie’s pitch comes from by scribes Carey and Chad Hayes (‘Whiteout’) and was inspired by the true-life story of the Perron family, who claimed they “lived among the dead.” According to the family, both friendly and sinister spirits inhabited their Rhode Island farmhouse in the 1970’s. A production start date has yet to be announced.
Joel David Moore (‘Shark Night 3D’ ‘Avatar,’ ‘Dodgeball) has joined Oliver Stone’s adaptation of Don Winslow’s novel ‘Savages.’ The crime thriller centers on two pot dealers (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson) who are forced into working for a Mexican cartel when the drug dealers kidnap the girlfriend they share (Blake Lively). Moore will play the role of an “expert computer geek who moves on from a Washington think tank to the marijuana business.” Stone is helming from a script penned by Winslow and Shane Salerno.
The first trailer for Craig Brewer’s remake of the classic 1984 dance drama ‘Footloose’ has turned up online. The movie stars Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough and Dennis Quaid.
Kevin Connolly is looking to develop movie about mixed martial artist Kimbo Slice. Connolly will produce and direct and is hoping to get Slice to play himself. Talking to The Wrap, the filmmaker said:
“I have his life rights, we have a script that’s great. It’s out and about, and the powers that be are trying to put the money together. Kimbo Slice is known as one of the first YouTube celebrities,” Connolly said. “He was the first person I ever sat in front of a computer and typed somebody’s name into YouTube. His fights ended up on the internet, his backyard fights, and he all of the sudden… became this celebrity.”
“It’s so personal to sit with a writer who you don’t know and tell them your deepest, darkest secrets and your life story, so I think it took him a second to get used to. But him and the writer really hit it off, and I couldn’t be happier with the script. I’m ready to go.”
The script for Steve Carell’s upcoming comedy ‘Burt Wonderstone’ is set to get tweak from Jason Reitman. Set in the world of Las Vegas magicians. Carell will play a traditional magician who is dethroned by a younger, hipper illusionist. The aging magician must find a way to rediscover his love for magic. Don Scardino (’30 Rock’) will direct. The project’s most recent script was penned by ‘Horrible Bosses’ scribes John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. This will be the first time Reitman has worked on a film he won’t be directing.
Below is a teaser for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s ‘Life’s Too Short.’ The series will feature cameos from Johnny Depp, Sting, Steve Carell, Les Dennis, Keith Chegwin and Barry off Eastenders (Shaun Williamson).
Author and screenwriter Michael Chabon (‘Wonderboys,’ ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’) has been tapped to pen the script for Jon Favreau’s family adventure flick ‘Magic Kingdom.’ While plot details are being kept under wraps, we do know that the movie will be set in Disney’s flagship theme park. Chabon is the scribe behind Andrew Stanton’s sci-fi actioner ‘John Carter.’
Remember how we told you last month that Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl and Amanda Seyfried were attached to Justin Zackham’s wedding-themed comedy called ‘Big Wedding’? We’ll forgive you for not remembering, anyhow, the movie appears to have undergone a name change and is now going by the name of ‘Gently Down the Stream’ and has added three new additions to the cast, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon and Topher Grace. Interestingly, the movie is listed on IMDBPro as ‘The Wedding.’
‘Shatner vs. Chris Pine.’ @EpixHD has posted the following photo to promote William Shatner’s upcoming documentary, ‘The Captains.’ Filmed over the past year, the documentary features Shatner sitting down with the actors who played the captains on the various iterations of ‘Star Trek.’ Talking to The Toronto Sun, Shatner revealed how began his interview with Chris Pine for the documentary:
“He’s shy, So the way I started the interview, I put out a table and chairs outside the Paramount gates, and arm-wrestled with him. That was the beginning of my interview with him. I think it broke the ice, that’s for sure.”
Justin Chon (‘The Twilight Saga’) and Skylar Astin (‘Taking Woodstock’) are set to join ‘Rabbit Hole’ actor Miles Teller for the comedy ‘21 and Over.’ ‘The Hangover’ scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore will be making their directorial debut with the movie. The comedy follows two childhood friends who drag their straight-arrow buddy out to celebrate his 21st birthday the night before an all-important med school interview. As one beer leads to another, the evening spirals into an epic misadventure of debauchery and mayhem.
Riki Lindhome has joined the cast of Josh Schwartz’s directorial debut, the comedy ‘Fun Size.’ Victoria Justice, Jane Levy, Thomas Mann, Johnny Knoxville, Josh Pence, and Chelsea Handler are already attached to star. Lindhome is set to play a graphic comic book character.
Ah, the ‘Joe Dirt’ of 2011… ‘Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.’ When a small town nerd discovers that his quiet parents were famous porn stars in the seventies, he heads to Hollywood to follow in their footsteps.
‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ director Steve Carr is set to handle directing duties on the upcoming comedy ‘The Boondoggle,’ Deadline reports. The movie stars Rob Riggle and Thomas Lennon as two guys who attend a boondoggle business trip. Despite the island-paradise setting, everything possible goes awry.
Deadline reports that Takashi Shimizu (‘The Grudge’) is set to direct the “clausterphobic thriller” ‘Flight 75’ for CBS Films. Not much is known about the plot, other than it is set on a transpacific airliner where the passengers encounter what appears to be a supernatural force.
David S. Goyer (‘Man of Steel,’ ‘The Dark Knight Rises’) is to tackle a small screen adaptation of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s comic ‘100 Bullets.’ The scribe is developing the drama series for the American network Showtime. The dark noir-style story is considered one of the best comic books/graphic novels of the past decade. The story centers on the attempt by one man, the mysterious Agent Graves, to destroy a secret group of families that control most of the world’s wealth and power, and it also poses a classic moral question, “If you could get away with murdering the person who ruined your life, would you do it?”
The comic’s starting-off point is Graves giving ordinary people who have been wronged a pistol and a briefcase with 100 untracable bullets, offering them to exact justice for themselves with no danger of being caught. The self-contained storylines eventually blend into a sprawling crime saga where everything — and everyone — is connected as Graves takes on a multinational clandestine organization named The Trust.
Six posters for the Glenn Ficarra and John Requa-directed romantic comedy ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon.
You can see a trailer for the movie HERE.
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Check out these amazing Pixar styled ‘Ghostbusters’ pieces by the talented 3D artist Fabrizio Fioretti. You can see more of his work over at his official site HERE.
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A new image has been released from ‘Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation.’ The short will play in front of ‘Cars 2’ when it hits Irish cinemas July 22nd.
A sneak peek clip can be found HERE.
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Lastly, posters for ‘Cowboys & Aliens‘ (trailer), ‘Abduction‘ (trailer); the ‘Shrek’ spin-off ‘Puss in Boots‘ (trailer) and ‘Our Idiot Brother‘ (trailer), and ‘This Must Be The Place‘ (clip) and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ (trailer).
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You can catch up with last weeks tibits HERE.