Weekly Entertainment & Movie News

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Hugh Jackman on Aronofsky's The Fountain
Source: COMING SOON!

Sci Fi Wire talked to Hugh Jackman who says he will play three characters in writer/director Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. "It's basically about the search for the Fountain of Youth," Jackman said.

"It is really an extraordinary [film]," he added. "I think Darren could become, in the final analysis, another Kubrick. I think he's an amazing director, and he's written a script that is just phenomenal. I'm honored to be a part of it, I really am; I'm very excited about it."

The sci fi film is about the journey of one man in the present as well as both 500 years in the past and into the future. Among the issues it tackles are love, death and immortality.

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Sam Mendes to Direct Universal's Jarhead
Source: COMING SOON!

Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) is set to helm Jarhead, a Universal drama based on Anthony Swofford's Persian Gulf War memoir, reports Variety. Cast Away screenwriter William Broyles wrote the script for the film, which begins shooting in the fall.

Drawing on his own experiences as a Marine grunt in Vietnam, Broyles wrote a script that studio and producers felt captured Swofford's voice and vivid descriptions of war, says the trade. While Mendes has no background in soldiering, he liked the world enough to commit after reading the script and doing some work on it with Broyles.

"This is equal parts black humor, honesty, rage, lyricism, profanity and the mixture of machismo jarhead culture. With the exception of 'Three Kings,' this is a war that has been overlooked but which has a burning relevance to what is happening right now in the Middle East," Mendes said.

The production will start casting and scouting locations right away, with the deserts of the Southwest a possible destination, after they made a convincing backdrop for Three Kings.

To tackle Jarhead, Mendes will have to postpone film adaptations of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd and Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner.

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Goran Visnjic Aboard Jennifer Garner's Elektra
Source: COMING SOON!

ER star Goran Visnjic will play the male lead opposite Jennifer Garner in 20th Century Fox's Elektra, which starts filming early may in Vancouver.

In the Daredevil spin-off, Garner reprises her role as Elektra Natchios. She plays the beautiful and deadly assassin who was trained by the Hand, a clan of mystical ninjas. When she turns her back on them, they want her dead. Elektra is assigned to kill Visnjic's character by the Hand over something his grandfather did; however, she ends up falling for him.

Terence Stamp rounds out the cast. Visnjic heads to Vancouver after wrapping up duties on ER. He also stars in the current release, Close Your Eyes.

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The Rock Up for Sub-Mariner?
Source: DarkHorizons
Dark Horizons has an interesting rumor that says The Rock is attached to star in Universal and Marvel's Sub-Mariner. Stay tuned for possibly more on this.

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Early Preacher Designs Online
Source: SUPERHERO HYPE!

'John K' pointed us to this link which features some early designs for the Preacher movie, which James Marsden is still attached to star in. Though these designs probably won't be used for the film, as the designer no longer is working on the project, they're definitely worth a look.

Hit this link to check them out.

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The missing bits of KILL BILL VOL. 2
Article compares film to screenplay
Source: Cinescape

An interesting comparison between the final cut of KILL BILL VOL. 2 and Quentin Tarantino's screenplay is now online at Screenwriter's Voice. As you may know, Tarantino originally wrote KILL BILL as one 200+ page screenplay and intended to release it as one single picture until Miramax requested that it be broken up into two separate films. Screenwriter's Voice examines the scenes in VOL. 2 and compares them to their corresponding segments of the screenplay to see what's changed along the development process. If you're curious to find out what Tarantino originally had in mind when The Bride and Bill have their climactic showdown, it's in here as well as an overview of a deleted scene featuring Bill at a high stakes card game.

"No single detail is enough to drastically change the second half of KILL BILL, but the combination, plus the decisions made in the editing room, have created a very different film than what appeared on the page," writes Dayna Van Buskirk in his script comparison article. "The pace is much slower, the scenes don't flow they way they once did. It's equally interesting and frustrating how a script once meant to be one single film can go through enough changes to become two films that are so very different."


SPOILERS abound in the Screenwriter's Voice article (link) but that's to be expected.

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Batman: The Animated Series on DVD
Source: Comics Continuum


Warner Home Video on July 6 will release Batman The Animated Series: Volume One, a four-disc set.

Here's how Warner describes the collection, which will cost $49.98:

"This fantastic 4-disc set packs 28 awesome adventures of the World's Greatest Detective taking down an array of criminal masterminds plus Exclusive Extras also worthy of investigation. Experience the thrills of vigilante justice as millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and alter-ego Batman protect the streets of Gotham City from a host of villains. Intelligent, dramatic stories, unique characters and sharp dialog shaped this edgy TV series into an Emmy-winning powerhouse that brought the Caped Crusader out of the dark alleys of TV history and into the present for fans of all ages."

Each disc will contain seven episodes.

The DVD set will feature audio commentary from producers Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Eric Rodomski and the featurette "Batman: The Legacy Continues."

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Van Helsing Review: "This movie sucks nuts!"

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Peter Jackson Talks King Kong
Source: COMING SOON!
The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly includes an interview with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy director Peter Jackson talking about his upcoming adaptation of King Kong. Naomi Watts will play the big ape's love object, Ann Darrow. Adrien Brody will play Darrow's boyfriend, former WWII pilot Jack Driscoll, and Jack Black will be blustery adventurer Carl Denham, who imports Kong to Manhattan.

"We are not reinventing it," says Jackson referring to the 1933 original film. "Our story follows the same structure. It satrts in New York, goes to Skull Island, and there's dinosaurs on the island. Then it comes back to New York and there's the Empire State Building and the biplanes and the whole thing."

He says that one thing they're trying to do that the original didn't is to make it more "emotionally truthful. I put that ahead of anything else, including technology and the realism of the effects," he adds.

"Everybody's image of 'King Kong' is that it's this amazing beauty-and-the-beast love story. And when you look at the original film, there is as sense that Kong is feeling an attraction toward Ann-probably the first empathy he's felt in his life toward another living creature. But Ann is not giving him a thing. She just looks at him as an object of horror the entire time. She screams at him, she's terrified. Her relationship with Kong doesn't go beyond that. We're having a lot of fun making it more psychologically real."

King Kong will be headed for theaters in December of 2005.

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Jessica Alba Moves to Sin City
Source: COMING SOON!

The Hollywood Reporter says that Jessica Alba (Dark Angel, Honey) is in talks star in Sin City for Dimension Films. Shooting is under way in Austin, Texas, on the project, which is being co-written, -directed and -produced by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.

Miller wrote the graphic novel series that inspired the film. The film will comprise three intertwining vignettes revolving around a dark set of characters who call the fictional corrupt town home.

Alba will star in a section opposite Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke playing Nancy, a beautiful exotic dancer known as "the sweetheart of Sin City." Jaime King, Elijah Wood and Brittany Murphy round out the cast.

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Branagh Takes on an Impossible Assignment
Source: COMING SOON!

Kenneth Branagh has joined Tom Cruise and Carrie-Anne Moss in Mission: Impossible 3 for C/W Prods. and Paramount Pictures, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Branagh, who appeared as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, has signed on for the action-adventure sequel, though details about his character are being kept under wraps. He may play a villain, but that's not confirmed.

The trade adds that further casting is under way on the sequel, which is due to go into production in late summer. Frank Darabont is writing for the third installment, which Joe Carnahan will direct.

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HBO is Hooked on Cohen's Poor Bastard
Source: SUPERHERO HYPE!
The Hollywood Reporter says that HBO is developing a potential series from Futurama co-creator David X. Cohen based on the graphic novel "The Poor Bastard."

Cohen, who developed Futurama with The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, would serve as executive producer alongside "Simpsons" writer Donick Carey and Joe Matt, a comic book artist who wrote "Bastard" based on his own life experiences.

Although HBO has yet to see a script, the premium channel was hooked on the concept for the series, which could blend live-action and animation in a manner similar to the HBO Films release American Splendor. Like "Splendor" protagonist Harvey Pekar, Matt recounts his frustrations with relationships in unsparing detail.

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Natassia Malthe is Typhoid Mary in Elektra?
Source: SUPERHERO HYPE!

IGN Filmforce reports it has learned that 26-year-old model-actress Natassia Malthe (Pictures) has won the villainous role of Typhoid Mary in Elektra.

Hit the link above for more on what films she's previously starred in!

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High-Resolution Alien vs. Predator Pics
Source: COMING SOON!

ComingSoon.net has posted a few more high-resolution pictures from 20th Century Fox's Alien vs. Predator, which hits theaters on August 13th.

Hit the link above to check them out!

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New DVD Releases 4/27

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Big Fish
The Cooler
The Dick Van Dyke Show: Season Four
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
Empires - Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire: PBS
ER: Season Two (4-disc set)
Fat Man and Little Boy
Five Films About Christo & Jeanne-Claude: A Maysles Films Production
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection (2-disc set)
Ghosts of the Abyss: IMAX
The Hammer Horror Collection (6-disc set)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Householder
In Search of the Trojan War
Jane Olivor: Safe Return
Like Father, Like Son
Love Actually (widescreen)
Love Actually (pan-and-scan)
Love Don't Cost a Thing
The Medicine Show
The Molly Maguires
My Side of the Mountain
Osama
Popeye: 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition (3-disc set)
Remember the Alamo: PBS
Saved by the Bell: Seasons 3-4 (4-disc set)
Shakespeare Wallah
The Spartans: PBS
The Statement
Stuck on You (widescreen)
Stuck on You (pan-and-scan)
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Urban Ghost Story
Vice Versa