Weekly Movie News

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New Line Cinema Teaches How to be a Villain Source: The Hollywood Reporter Sunday, November 2, 2003

New Line Cinema is developing a comedy designed to show the lighter side of world domination. The studio has optioned Neil Zawacki's book How to be a Villain for Mandeville Films to produce.

The book, a step-by-step guide to joining the forces of darkness, offers humorous takes on such issues as whether to invest in winged monkeys or ninja warriors and where to locate your evil hideout.

The big-screen adaptation, for which a writer has yet to be hired, will center on a loser who, in an effort to seek retribution for a life of finishing last, sets his sights on becoming a supervillain.

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Blade: Trinity Plot Summary Released Source: New Line Cinema Saturday, November 1, 2003

New Line Cinema has released the plot summary for the third and final Blade movie, Blade: Trinity...

Wesley Snipes returns as the day-walking vampire hunter in the explosive third and final film in the Blade franchise, Blade: Trinity. When the Vampire Nation hatches a plan to frame Blade in a series of brutal killings, he must join forces with the Nightstalkers, a clan of human vampire hunters, in an extreme battle in which the trail of blood leads directly to the notorious vampire legend, Dracula. Written and directed by David S. Goyer, Blade: Trinity also stars Jessica Biel as Abigail, the daughter of Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who inherits the vampire-slaying duties that once belonged to Blade (Wesley Snipes); and Ryan Reynolds (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) as Hannibal King, one of the Nightstalkers.

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The New Punisher Trailer Now Online Source: Artisan Entertainment Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Artisan has brought online the new trailer for comic book adaptation The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Laura Harring and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.

It tells the story of FBI undercover agent, Frank Castle, who until now has beat considerable odds. A former Special Forces operative, he is finally moving out of the field and into a desk job -- and a normal life with his wife and son. Then Castle's world is shaken to its core by a nightmare he has longed feared: his family is executed as a repercussion from his final undercover assignment. With unparalleled intensity, ferocious intelligence and fearless actions, Castle seeks to punish the murderers -- and finds the one thing he least expected: redemption.

You can check out the trailer at this link.

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Two Wonder Woman Movies at Once? Source: Associated Press Tuesday, November 4, 2003

'Joe' caught this bit from an Associated Press article on movie serials...

Found a snippet that the producer of Wonder Woman is considering filming two movies at once, to present wonder woman as a "serial".

Here's the excerpt:
"It depends on the project," said "Matrix" producer Joel Silver, who is developing a big-screen take on the "Wonder Woman" comic books. "Who knows? Maybe if I do 'Wonder Woman,' maybe I'll do two at the same time. It all depends on the material."

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Flash Gordon: Wild Rumour of the Day: Stephen Sommers once wrapping work on "Van Helsing" might be looking up another hero - "Flash Gordon".

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The Day After Tomorrow Official Teaser Site Up Source: 20th Century Fox Tuesday, November 4, 2003
The official website for the 20th Century Fox disaster film, The Day After Tomorrow, is now up. It looks like there's only a countdown clock so far at the site, but the first trailer should be coming very shortly as well.

In the Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) film, Dennis Quaid plays a climatologist who tries to figure out a way to save the world from abrupt global warming. He must get to his young son (Jake Gyllenhaal) in New York, which is being taken over by a new ice age.

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During Marvel's conference call, Avi Arad said that he wished to clear up some misinformation about Marvel’s relationship with Artisan, stating that the studio (which was just acquired by Lion’s Gate) does not have “15 Marvel properties.” The only property Artisan has any stake in currently is Punisher. Arad said that if things go well between Artisan and Lion’s Gate, Marvel may expand and/or continue their relationship with the studio. Arad stressed that, despite reports, Artisan does not have the rights to Iron Fist and Black Panther.

Other topics mentioned by Arad included:

- Spider-Man 2 just completed principle photography
- Iron Man is targeted to be a PG-13 release and on target for a ’05 release.
- Elektra, which is in current development, will be the “sequel” to Daredevil, with the character first appearing there, and then be reunited with Daredevil in Daredevil 2.
- Marvel is “feverishly” working on Fantastic Four with Fox, and that the studio has it on it's schedule for December 2004.
- Hulk 2 is in development for an 06 release. Arad reported that 6.5 million DVDs shipped for the release, and 3.5 sold within seven days.
- Namor is in active development.
- Arad said that X-Men 3 is in development, but neither Marvel or Fox is willing to tentetively put it on the schedule yet, for either 05 or 06 release.
- Arad reported that Captain America is in discussion with top writers and directors, now that litigation surrounding the character has been resolved.
- Arad said that the production budget for Punisher was in the upper $30s, while the marketing budget will most likely be in the mid $20s (millions).
-Finally, Arad said that he should be able to release more information about upcoming Marvel film projects closer to the November 18th analysts' call.

Other notes from the conference call:

- Spider-Man 2 is already seeing more licensee activity that the first film.
- Marvel is already talking to, and negotiating with licensees for Fantastic Four.
- Marvel will be working to expand its worldwide licensing business, and as such, will be opening offices in Europe and Japan to further licensee relationships internationally. The offices should be opening within the next 60 days.
-Man-Thing was named as the intial fruit of the company's strategic review - a low-budget film with Marvel creative support which may be the model for many Marvel properties in the future. Marvel acknowledged that the film will have very limited licensing, but it could spawn sequels.
-Final monies due in from Spider-Man are related to television and cable rights for the film. Revenue from those deals is expected in 2004.
-Spider-Man 2 merchandise rollout should begin in early Q1 2004 and will build through to the release of the film.

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Murro Replacing Verbinski on The Ring 2 Source: Variety Tuesday, November 4, 2003

DreamWorks is moving forward with The Ring 2, hiring commercials director Noam Murro to helm the second installment of the horror hit, which Naomi Watts will once again topline.

The studio is preparing to start filming The Ring sequel in January, aiming to release the film in November, 2004.

Murro replaces Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), who directed the first film, which generated $129 million at the domestic box office, and an additional $120 million overseas.

The sequel will bring back Watts and David Dorfman, as well as screenwriter Ehren Kruger. The plot is being kept tightly under wraps at the studio.

Murro caught the attention of DreamWorks executives with a darkly toned "Got Milk?" commercial he directed for the California Milk Processor Board that features a boy who can predict unfortunate future events.

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Punisher-Trailer Vid-Caps

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The very marrow of Hollywood has been infected with the remake virus.

The cure? Wait until the disease has run its course and devoured its way through the studio system. With plans to develop re-imaginings of The Amityville Horror, Prom Night, The Fly, The Thing, Demons, Black Christmas, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, and many more I'm sure I've forgotten to mention, I think all we can do is put on our Haz-Mat suits and brace for the worst.

Monday evening your devoted Rotten one received a call from a source inside one of Hollywood's top agencies with news that just had me howling. Seriously. Reason being? Because some time back, when I made light of the "remake trend," I opened my big mouth and said, "Oh, so what're they going to do next...'The Howling'?"

According to my connection (who hasn't failed us yet), that's the plan: a remake of Joe Dante's 1981 horror/comedy The Howling (dvd review).

Why a remake after so many abominable sequels is beyond me but that hasn't stopped two studios from racing to get their respective Amityville Horror projects into theaters first. That's including MGM, rights holders to The Howling.

Perhaps someone in development was watching the sales of the recent Howling Special Edition DVD?

Who really knows for sure, but honestly that's all we can report. My source couldn't provide much more info beyond the fact that somewhere the seeds are being planted for a possible Howling remake. I wouldn't be too keen on it, but I'm certain there are a few ghouls out there who don't think the original stands the test of time. Pity.

Creature Corner

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Incredible Shrinking Man Starts Shooting in March Source: Sci Fi Wire Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Producer Brian Grazer says that the remake of the classic film, The Incredible Shrinking Man, will start shooting in March with Eddie Murphy as the title character. Ben Garant and Tom Lennon wrote the script.

"[They] had a genius idea as to what the occupation of the guy should be," Grazer told Sci Fi Wire. "He's going to be a Las Vegas magician. It's so great, because what happens is he's that bigger-than-life [persona]. It's Eddie with an attitude. It's not happy Eddie. It's Eddie with his edgy attitude being like David Copperfield or David Blaine. But he's somehow been relegated to do the day show, like babysitting kids. And he's pissed."

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Dimension Options Stephen King's 1408 Source: Variety Thursday, November 6, 2003

Dimension Films has optioned Stephen King's short story 1408, with Matt Greenberg attached to write the feature adaptation. Lorenzo di Bonaventura will produce.

The story concerns a successful writer, known for haunted house and graveyard tales, who gets a taste of his own fictional medicine during a frightening stay in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel.

Greenberg previously scripted Halloween H20 for Dimension, which resurrected John Carpenter's Michael Myers franchise and grossed $55 million in the U.S.

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Brendan Fraser Talks The Mummy 3! Source: Chuck the Movieguy Wednesday, November 5, 2003

The Mummy and The Mummy Returns were huge hits for Universal Pictures and director Stephen Sommers. There's been a lot of talk about whether or not Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and Arnold Vosloo would return to the franchise for a third film. We asked Fraser what the current status of the project is.

"I've spoken with Stephen Sommers and he intends to finish up Van Helsing [first]," Fraser said. "He is going to investigate storylines and what to do, but look, I told him I'm in, but I'll wait for the call. But I can't imagine there won't be one." That's definitely music to fans' ears.

Fraser says he doesn't provide much input into the "Mummy" stories. "You know working with Stephen, the suggestions that I ever made were just like, 'You want me to do another take? Can I jump a little further? Shorter?' Things like that. Storyline things, I leave that up to him."

But does he have any thoughts on what the third movie will be like? "Let's face it, it's The Mummy, he's a thousands-of-years-old bad guy. He's kinda like you can't get rid of him, you can go anywhere. He's been endowed with certain powers. [Sommers] may explore other characters from other periods of history that have been mummified. The Aztecs certainly, other ancient societies. I really don't know the answer aside from a lot is possible."

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As announced earlier this week, Michael Bay's production company Platinum Dunes struck a deal with Dimension Films to develop and produce films for that studio. According to the trade stories, the first slate of Platinum projects being developed will be priced at about $15 million dollars each, and that the production firm is already considering several of Dimension's properties.

Which leads us to what one of our industry insiders had to tell us. Our source is well-known and has scooped us news items that we broke first before we saw them appear in the trades.


According to this source, one of the franchises that has been mentioned as a possible project for Platinum Dunes is a remake of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. Yes, really. "Remake" as in the latest THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, which was Platinum's, and the remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR that the company has going on over at MGM right now.


Now before going any further, let us say that our source wasn't sure if Bay or anyone from Platinum is taking this idea seriously, or even if they've been presented the notion of remaking HALLOWEEN for a 21st century audience. All that our source knows for certain is that there has been a mention within Dimension that this could be a possible endeavor for Platinum to take on -- day-dreaming, one might say. Maybe it won't get farther than the gleam-in-the-exec's-eye phase; maybe Bay or one of the other Platinum owners will nix the idea, or maybe Platinum will commit to another Dimension project before considering a HALLOWEEN remake.


Nevertheless, someone has said it within the walls of Dimension Films. Would it have the blessing of Moustapha Akkad, the rights holder to the HALLOWEEN franchise? The last anyone heard was that plans were being drawn up for a HALLOWEEN 9. The official HALLOWEEN website makes no mention of any remake at all of the original film.


After the box office success of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, would Platinum Dunes contemplate taking on a new HALLOWEEN? The idea itself screams controversy, and fans of Michael Myers number greater than those of Leatherface...but it hasn't stopped Hollywood before.