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Exclusive: New Alice In Wonderland Pic
14 July 2009 10:30 AM, PDT
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is surely one of the best fits of director to subject matter ever, and a film that looks to be both weird and, of course, wonderful. So it's with delight and delirium that we bring you a new picture of Anne Hathaway's White Queen from the film, talking to a rodent who looks to our untrained eyes like the Dormouse.The White Queen doesn't appear in the book Alice in Wonderland, appearing in the sequel Through The Looking Glass as a chess piece instead. While she's largely on Alice's side, she's not the most useful or reliable ally ever, and since she seems to live her life backwards (screaming before she's injured etc) she's a little odd, to say the least. Although whether anyone will notice in this company remains to be seen.Here are further hi-res stills of Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter,
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Natalie Portman Joins Thor Cast
14 July 2009 1:00 AM, PDT
Natalie Portman has been confirmed as part of Kenneth Branagh's Thor ensemble, alongside Chris Hemsworth as the Mighty one, and Tom Hiddleston as God of Mischief Loki.Portman will play Jane Foster who, in the cast of Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott's original comic, was a nurse who fell in love with her doctor colleague, unaware that he was secretly a Norse deity. Marvel's Kevin Feige told The Hollywood Reporter that Jane "is the human lead, so to speak, who helps ground the film in reality. We spend a lot of time amongst the other realms of the Nine Worlds of the Thor mythology and she's our human anchor to that."All well and good, and, by the bristling beard of Wotan, it's always a pleasure to see Padme. But we hope beyond hope that this doesn't indicate that the script will be using Donald Blake, Thor's "mortal
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Ioan Gruffud Is Banking On Mr Toad
14 July 2009 12:51 AM, PDT
The Wind in the Willows is getting a tad more fantastic as Ioan Gruffudd steps into the shoes of financier-turned-author Kenneth Grahame for biopic Banking on Mr. Toad. Also rumoured to be joining the cast is Samantha Morton, who would be set to play the unconventional childrens character creator's wife Elspeth.The film, set to be directed by Driving Miss Daisy's Bruce Beresford, will follow the man who formed one of Britain's best loved storybooks, The Wind In The Willows, from his beginnings as the secretary of the Bank of England in Victorian England to dealing with the challenges of raising an autistic son in a less than accepting society.The adventures of Willows characters Mole, Ratty and Toad, first published in 1908, were influenced by Grahame's early years living with his grandmother following his mother's death along the banks of the River Thames . The stories of these anthropomorphised creatures
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Universal Get Themselves A Fear Agent
14 July 2009 12:46 AM, PDT
Universal is in for a thrill, having lined up an adaptation of Fear Agent, the Dark Horse comic about a fearless alcoholic astronaut.Setting off for outer space, the sci-fi project will follow Heath Huston, a crazy cosmonaut from Texas whose job as a Fear Agent places him in the fight to save Earth from external alien threats. The outlandish Rick Remender comic kicked off in 2005, and joined the Dark Horse stable a year later. The publisher has a busy year ahead with the movies, with Universal alone taking on development of missing teen thriller The Secret, as well as Emo's favourite befringed anit-heroine Emily the Strange.The rugged dark-haired space daredevil looks almost to be a bit of a Bruce Campbell of the cosmos, but is there anyone else who could assume the role of Fear Agent? Perhaps ol' Lantern Jaw Affleck could relive his Armageddon days once more?
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Denzel Washington Has Stopped
14 July 2009 12:34 AM, PDT
Following recent news that Tony Scott's Unstoppable had hit a fault on the line, Variety reports that star Denzel Washington has walked away from the project.Washington and Scott are still on amicable terms as they promote The Taking of Pelham 123 (they've got three and a half successful collaborations behind them, and this split is through circumstance rather than a falling out) but the actor's "people" confirm that he is in the job market for the autumn.Pelham has performed disappointingly at the box office, causing Fox to ask for budget cuts to the tune of around $20m on what amounts to another runaway train film from Scott. They also suggested paying Washington a mere $16m instead of his usual $20m. Honestly, it's hardly worth getting out of bed for that.However, all may not quite be dead in the water, with Fox apparently having returned with a counter-offer to the actor,
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Century Old Director Set For New Project
14 July 2009 12:32 AM, PDT
Giving the term Centurion a different slant, Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira shows that 100 is the new 50 when it comes to directing, as he picks up a brand new project The Strange Case of Angelica, at nearly 101 years old.A Strange Case Of Angelica (like a Portugese girl cousin of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button) will be set in the 1950s, and will follow a photographer tasked with photographing a dead girl for her hotelier parents, taken from a script written by Oliveira way back in 1952.Not to be confused with some chump change retirement project, the film is likely to be made to a budget in excess of 2.5 million Euros and will be filmed in his native Portugal from December when he hits the big One-Oh-One.Maybe he'll even get a birthday card from the Queen!
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Ninja Turtles To Go Live-Action Again?
13 July 2009 11:49 PM, PDT
For all its faults, the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film Tmnt was notable for being CG, and therefore having Turtles unburdened by the need to wear heavy prosthetics anda shell while high-kicking and karate-chopping. But judging by a casting call to martial artists that's just gone out, a film for the characters' 25th anniversary will be live-action once more - at least partly.At the time of Tmnt, both studio and filmmakers raved about the way that CG allowed them to try bigger and better stunts and make the Turtles move in a more convincing way. Now, a casting call has gone out for members of the evil Foot Clan, so they at least will be real people under their masks. Whether the Turtles will also be real, motion-captured or entirely animated remains to be seen.The next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film is due out in 2011. Cowabunga,
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Superman + Fetish = Film?
13 July 2009 11:36 PM, PDT
According to Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe, the artist behind the creation of Superman also penned a series of mob-financed underground fetish-comics that sparked an anti-comic crusade among politicians but have been largely forgotten - until now. Yoe's book has been optioned for the screen, making for a sort of Hollywoodland meets The Notorious Bettie Page prospect.Yoe is a comic archivist and stumbled across a cache of the controversial books at an estate sale, and says that he recognised them as Shuster's work. The books, called The Nights of Horror, were sold under the counters of Times Square bookshops, until a series of copycat crimes by a group called the Brooklyn Thrill Killers led to a Supreme Court censorship case, several sensational trials and a crackdown on comics.The film adaptation that's now being planned is to use the crime
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It's The Greatest Show On Earth
13 July 2009 11:22 PM, PDT
P.T. Barnum, the 19th century showman extraordinaire whose name is still a byword for a big production, is set to get his own biopic, in The Greatest Show on Earth from Columbia.Written by original Moneyball screenwriter Stan Chervin, this is the story of Barnum's early years, as he rose from shopkeeper to showman via a lottery scheme and some local politics. If it only covers Barnum's early years it's unlikely to reach the period where he founded his famous circus, but we'll have to see.Not to be confused with the 1952 Cecil B. DeMille Oscar winner, this will be produced by Todd Garner, who just finished work on The Sorceror's Apprentice. There's no word on a director or casting yet - although, on the basis of this picture, if there's a flash-forward to Barnum's later years Jim Broadbent would be a good fit.
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Stephen King's Cell Now Set For TV
13 July 2009 10:37 PM, PDT
Waaaay back in 2006, Eli Roth was all set to direct a film version of Stephen King's Cell, but then he left it to focus on his own original material. Well, now Fangoria has learned that screenwriter John Harrison is developing the story for a TV miniseries instead.The plot of the book, for those of you who haven't read it, sees everyone receive a mobile phone signal that wipes their mind - and then rewrites it. Chaos follows as almost everyone is apparently affected, while a few clear-minded survivors tries to make it through the violent aftermath.Harrison has said that he sees the book less as a zombie movie than a Village of the Damned-alike tale, mostly due to second- and third-act developments that we won't spoil here.The writer's previously worked on the King-scripted Creepshow and Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, which included a King segment,
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New Photos & Poster For Orphan
13 July 2009 7:41 AM, PDT
Full of the joys of summer? Tough: we're still going to scare you witless with the new UK poster, and some exclusive new stills, from Jaume Collet-Serra's Orphan, due out here on August 7.It's the story of a couple - played by Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard - who lose their baby and decide to adopt a 9 year-old girl, only to get more than they bargained for. From these pictures, it should have been immediately obvious that she's evil (we're assuming) but hey! Some people never learn.{Orphan Poster}The film's out on August 7 here: you can watch the trailer here.
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Bruno Wins Box-Office Race
13 July 2009 4:45 AM, PDT
The Us box office results are in, and they show Bruno strutting straight to the number one spot with $30.4m over the weekend. The Austrian joke's only real competition was blockbuster summer sequels Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($27.6m) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($24.2m).But Bruno's grand opening weekend is not as good-looking as his custard yellow lederhosen might lead you to believe. Though $30.4m is not to be sniffed at, it comes with a huge drop from $14.4 million on Friday to $8.8 million on Saturday, suggesting that the publicity campaign was effective in getting fans out on the first night, but may have alienated a wider audience later. Bruno's chances of matching Borat's $128.5m total million now look somewhat unlikely - but then, so do his outfits and he seems to carry those off Ok.Elsewhere it was a similar story to last week, as Public Enemies
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Let's Get The Flock Outta Here
13 July 2009 12:41 AM, PDT
Transformers producer Don Murphy and ER producer John Wells have teamed up to develop The Flock, the novel by James Robert Smith about giant prehistoric birds in the Florida Everglades. Yes, we know: sounds awesome.The premise is that these prehistoric, predatory birds live in secrecy in a large uninhabited tract of Florida, using their highly-evolved intelligence to hide themselves from humans - and indeed to hunt them down if threatened. However, the modern world inevitably threatens their territory, and they're caught between "billionaire rogue environmentalist(!)" Vance Holcomb and "Disney-style conglomerate the Berg Brothers, who want to build houses on the land.Don't hold your breath for this one, which has only just gone out to writers, but it sounds suspiciously like a must-see for fans of Anaconda (yes, both of you) and similar unlikely monster movies. In fact, given the ever-so-slightly velociraptor-like design of the birds, it could even break the mainstream.
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Danny Huston Joins Robin Hood
13 July 2009 12:29 AM, PDT
Ridley Scott's still-not-officially-titled Robin Hood has added another name to its already-impressive cast list, with the news that Danny Huston has signed on to play Richard the Lionheart.Last seen getting his bad guy on as General Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Huston will this time be playing a character who's (traditionally anyway) a good guy in the Robin Hood universe. Richard the Lionheart was the King whose departure for the crusades, and subsequent capture and imprisonment, left the power vacuum filled by the cowardly lion Prince John and the big fat grey wolf the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ed: Some mistake, surely?). This being a reworking of the franchise, it's always possible that the Lionheart's a rather more complex character - as indeed he was in real life.For a start, he hardly spent any of his life in England, based chiefly in his mother's duchy of Aquitaine in France,
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Sarandon And Goodman Join Kevorkian Pic
13 July 2009 12:00 AM, PDT
Speed Racer stars Susan Sarandon and John Goodman are set to be reunited, but this time it will be in the more fittingly dramatic setting alongside Al Pacino as he plays doctor and euthanasia campaigner Jack Kevorkian in the biopic You Don't Know Jack.Kevorkian, a pathologist who became a pioneer and staunch campaigner for the right to euthanasia for terminal patients, gained the name Dr. Death as he became a practioner of assisting suicide for more than 130 patients. In the name of raising the profile of legalising terminal patients' right to die, Kevorkian submitted video evidence of himself helping a man to end his life to 60 Minutes, which led to his conviction for second-degree murder and subsequent eight years imprisonment.The film will draw on former colleague Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie's biography Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia.
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Hong Kong Phooey Goes Digital
12 July 2009 11:29 PM, PDT
Who is the super hero? Sarge? No. Rosemary the telephone operator? No way, man! Alex Zamm, the director of Inspector Gadget 2 and Dr Doolittle 5? Well, possibly, if Hong Kong Phooey rescues him from Dtv Hell.For Penry, the mild mannered canine police station janitor and secret Bruce Lee martial arts superhero bungler, is about to star in a live action update, according to Variety. Hong Kong Phooey, you'll remember, was the number one super guy. He was also quicker than the human eye, had style, a groovy smile and a car that just wouldn't stop. And when the going got tough, he was really rough, with a Hong Kong Phooey chop. And you will now be singing that theme song all day. Chicly bow wow wow. Amazingly, given that it seemed to be playing for our entire childhoods, there were only 16 episodes, all first aired in 1974.The project is
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Zombie Thriller Gatekeeper Gets A Cast
12 July 2009 11:09 PM, PDT
A new zombie thriller called Gatekeeper has landed an '80s-tastic cast, with Back to the Future's Lea Thompson, Beverly Hills Cop's Judge Reinhold and Beauty and the Beast's Ron Perlman. It will also star Brick's Matt O'Leary and Click's Jana Kramer, who may not have starred in '80s classics but who were both born in the '80s.We're told that the film is a zombie thriller, which producer Stephen Emery says will be "in the vein of 'Shaun of the Dead' for American audiences" - a laudable aim, at least. We're told that "a simple mistake" leaves three friends to defend their town from a zombie outbreak, in a script written and set to be directed by Isaac Meisenheimer.There's no word on a release date for this yet, but we'd expect to see it sometime next year. Fingers crossed it manages to match the smarts,
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Paramount Steels Itself For Max
12 July 2009 10:58 PM, PDT
The juggernaut, critic-proof success of Transformers and its sequel means we still have plenty more toy movies to look forward to. Even GI Joe, which advance word has as the genre's Ishtar, doesn't seem likely to halt the phenomenon. And so, courtesy of Mattel and Paramount, we give you Max Steel. Mattel have projects based on Masters of the Universe and Hot Wheels at various stages of development with various studios, but according to Variety's story, were especially keen to set up Max Steel with producer Joe Roth (Hellboy 2, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland) because of his previous involvement with Vin Diesel's xXx. Steel is a teenage extreme sports fiend turned superspy, so you can see their thinking, even if xXx was not, to put it mildly, the finest hour of anyone concerned.Max Steel was conceived as a toy line, but as is the way of these things,
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Kodi Smit-McPhee Joins Let Me In
12 July 2009 10:55 PM, PDT
It doesn't seem to be a done deal yet, but Moviehole have found a nugget of info in the Herald Sun that suggests Australian youngster Kodi Scott-Mcphee, who we've yet to see as the co-star of The Road with Viggo Mortensen, is likely to be cast as Kare Hedebrant's replacement in Matt Reeve's Americanisation of Let the Right One In.We've not seen much of Scott-McPhee to date, but if he can hold his own alongside Mortensen in Cormac McCarthy's bleak, brutal post-apocalyptic landscape, he ought to be well-prepared for John Ajvide Lindqvist's chilly horror.
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