McG
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BirthDate BirthPlace |
N/A
Kalamazoo, MI |
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Elizabeth Banks Is Tinkerbell
July 15, 2010 5:52am ESTIf you believe in fairies, start clapping. Elizabeth Banks will star as Tinkerbell in Tink, a live action film about Disney's blond fairy. Banks herself has been developing the project with her production company, Brownstone Productions. McG (Terminator Salvation), Adam Shankman (The Last Song) and Jennifer Gibgot (Hairspray) have also signed on to produce. The project seems set to follow in the vein of Disney’s last live action rom-com Enchanted, which put a modern spin on the fairy tale genre. Banks' casting seems spot-on for the project, as she both looks the part and has proven her comedic chops on 30 Rock and Scrubs. McG, who is usually known for his action fare, seems like an unlikely choice for the project and both Shankman and Gibgot have their names on some questionable work, like The Pacifier and Step Up 3D, so I would keep expectations low for the moment. Tinkerbell may have started as Peter Pan’s sidekick, but she has proven to be an unexpected merchandising juggernaut for Disney. I could be optimistic and attribute it to the fact that she’s one of the few early Disney women with any characteristics outside of “nice”, or pessimistic and say that it has more to do with the fact that she’s sparkly, irritating and high maintenance, which tweens can relate to. Either way, Disney has a lot of incentive to make a Tinkerbell film, and will probably make it a high priority. Source: Variety
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David Fincher Going '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'
May 17, 2010 5:28am ESTSource: The Hollywood Reporter After new Disney topper Rich Ross started sending projects into turnaround, pundits began wondering what his new direction for the Mouse House would be. Though punting McG from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was a good idea, the film itself represented a wonderful opportunity to make a classic relevant (and profitable) once again. Luckily, with David Fincher at the helm it looks like we'll be voyaging with Captain Nemo after all. The Hollywood Reporter scoops that the Fight Club and Benjamin Button director will take over as navigator of the $150 million production, which will be scripted by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, The Bourne Ultimatum). Jules Verne's time honored tale about a group of men who encounter a vengeful scientific genius and his warlike submarine was previously adapted by Disney in 1954 with Kirk Douglas starring. Fincher, who is in post-production on The Social Network for Sony, will likely direct another film before boarding Disney's big-budget redo. The move marks a change of pace for the filmmaker, who is known for dark subject matter a la Zodiac and Se7en and is a refreshing choice for such an important and potentially lucrative piece of work. Perhaps now, 20,000 Leagues will have some gravitas to go along with it's dazzling action sequences.
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Fascinating fact
May 07, 2010 5:00am ESTCHARLIE'S ANGELS director McG and LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD star MAGGIE Q are teaming up to revamp cult action film and TV series LA FEMME NIKITA. The actress will play the titular character in the upcoming TV drama, taking on the assassin role previously played on the big screen by Anne Parillaud and by Peta Wilson in the late 1990s spin-off TV series.
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Chris Pine Joins McG's 'This Means War'
May 07, 2010 4:49am ESTSource: Entertainment Weekly After becoming a household name as the James T. Kirk of the (alternate) future in J.J. Abrams much lauded Star Trek, Chris Pine signed on for a plethora of projects, including Tony Scott's Unstoppable (currently in post-production for a November release) and a handful of films at Paramount Pictures, including The Art Of Making Money and a reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise, tentatively titled Moscow. Before jumping into any of those or the eventual Star Trek sequel, Entertainment Weekly reports that he'll fight an as-yet-unnamed second male lead for the affections of Reese Witherspoon in McG and 20th Century Fox's action comedy This Means War. The film, which was purchased by Fox in 1998 and has seen numerous combinations of actors and directors come and go since, tells the story of two best friends, inseparable since childhood, who fall in love with the same woman (Witherspoon). The two men's bond disintegrates and their ensuing battle escalates to mammoth proportions, with New York City demolished in their wake. The most recent draft of the script is by Timothy Dowling (Role Models) and the studio hopes to start filming the in July. I'm happy to see Pine getting bigger roles these days; he's certainly come a long way since Just My Luck. Even in that 2004 Lindsay Lohan stinker, the 29 year old actor showed promise with plenty of charisma and all American looks. He played against type and was nearly unrecognizable (and wildly entertaining) as Darwin Tremor in Joe Carnahan's kinetic actioner Smokin' Aces and proved that he's got the right stuff as the cocksure Captain Kirk in Trek, which has led him to the lucrative career path he's now on. I'm sure that we'll be seeing a lot more of him in the future, so get used to Pine as the movie star he was always meant to be.
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McG and Amanda Seyfried Unite To 'Con The Ivy League'
March 18, 2010 4:57am ESTSource: Production Weekly In the wake of his bigger projects being stalled (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Terminator 5) McG has been lining up new, more modestly budgeted films to direct. Recently it was announced that he'd helm the long gestating action-comedy This Means War and today, Production Weekly reports that he'll also direct Amanda Seyfried in an adaptation of the Rolling Stone article 'The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League'. The article tells the true story of how high school dropout Esther Reed created the ultimate fake ID, scammed her way into Harvard and Columbia, and became the target of a nationwide manhunt. You can read it all here. Based on that logline, the film sounds close to a mix of 21, The Perfect Score and Catch Me If You Can - and with a hot commodity like Seyfried in the lead, it's got out attention. No word on which will come first for McG, but we'll keep you updated on these developing projects.
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Cooper drops out of Witherspoon movie
February 25, 2010 5:15am ESTThe actor was due to team up with Witherspoon for the new movie, which sees two undercover agents fall in love with the same woman. Terminator Salvation director McG is reportedly in negotiations to take charge of the picture, while production is slated to begin in July (10). But Witherspoon will now be looking for a new leading man after Cooper pulled out of the project citing scheduling conflicts, according to EW.com. Bosses at the website report Cooper will instead spend his time working on a follow-up to his successful Las Vegas comedy The Hangover, which is slated to begin filming later this year (10).
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Barrymore to remake Charlie's Angels
February 09, 2010 4:00am ESTBarrymore has produced and starred in two film adaptations of the 1970s show - and now she's breathing new life into the franchise, which launched Farrah Fawcett's career, by reviving it for TV. Barrymore is currently scouting a new trio of sexy crimefighters and insists they must be "incredibly capable, but not take themselves too seriously. That's a tough combination to find." Meanwhile filmmaker McG, who directed Barrymore in her Angels films, will serve as consultant on the project - and is aiming to diversify the team of secret agents. He adds, "This is a more progressive, 2010 take on the idea. We want to be even more progressive in terms of racial background." McG has named Rihanna as his dream Angel.
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Murray proud of his 'difficult' reputation
February 08, 2010 6:15am ESTThe Hollywood actor famously fell out with director McG while they were making 2000 action film Charlie's Angels, but denied the moviemaker's claims he headbutted him when a disagreement turned violent. He was also rumoured to have clashed with actress Lucy Liu - one of his Charlie's Angels co-stars. Murray admits he's "nothing but trouble" on film sets, especially when he doesn't agree with the decisions being made - but he doesn't see his refusal to compromise as a failing. He says, "People say I'm difficult and sometimes that's a badge of honour. At work I'm just nothing but trouble with anything I don't want to do. And I fired my agents. I said I didn't ever want to speak to them ever again, and I never did. It saved me money but mostly it stopped the irritation of the endless phone calls."
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Cameron: 'Terminator: Salvation needed Schwarzenegger'
December 18, 2009 6:30am ESTCameron wrote and directed the original 1984 movie which starred Schwarzenegger as a futuristic robot sent back in time, and returned to direct Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1992. The moviemaker sat out the third movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003 and had no involvement with the most recent installment, this year's (09) Terminator: Salvation. Cameron admits the director, McG, did a good job reworking the story - but felt the movie was a disappointment without Schwarzenegger, who only made a brief cameo appearance in the new film. He tells Ugo.com, "Interestingly, I think McG did a good job. I think he was almost too referential to the myths of the first and second film. He over-quoted them in a way. It didn't feel to me to be enough of a reinvention. The thing we did with the second film is that we reinvented the first film completely; spun it on its a** and made the Terminator the good guy, and came up with a whole new concept for a villain, it felt fresh. "I didn't feel the fourth picture was fresh enough. It also lacked a certain stamp of authenticity because Arnold wasn't in it. I mean, he was in it briefly, digitally, but that's not the same thing."
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'Wild Hogs' Sequel Hits a Road Block
December 17, 2009 4:32am ESTRich Ross strikes again. In the third high-profile ditching of a project since the Walt Disney Studios chairman took his post in October, Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride has been scrapped. Variety reports it was not immediately clear whether creative challenges played a role in the film's demise, but says the understanding in the community is that getting a production start on a film at Disney will be a big challenge if it doesn't squarely fit the family branded model. The Touchstone Pictures sequel to the 2007 Wild Hogs was revving up to begin production by next summer. Walt Becker was in to direct with John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy reprising their roles. While discussions were under way with the cast, nobody was pay or play. The move comes after the studio pulled the plug on the Robin Williams comedy Wedding Banned (also a Touchstone pic) and beached the McG project 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Story: http://www.hollywoodwiretap.com/?module=news&action=story&id=43489
