Paranormal Activity star Katie Featherston this week said via Twitter that she had auditioned for Danny Boyle. Presumably that was for his next project, 127 Hours, in which James Franco will play mountaineer Aron Ralston who famously amputated his own arm after being pinned for several days during a climb. No word on whether she has been cast or not. However, in somewhat related news, Deadline.com reported earlier this week that the sequel to Paranormal Activity hit a snag when poroducers of the Saw franchise exercised an option they held on Saw VI director Kevin Greutert. Greutert had been all set to direct Paranormal 2, but the contract he had with the Saw guys means he’ll have to turn his lens instead on Saw 3D. The move sees the rivalry between the Saw and Paranormal folk ratcheted up with both set to release their latest franchise installments on October 22 of this year. A disappointed-sounding Greutert himself posted a blog entry this week that read: “I just had the task of telling my 83 year old mother that no, I’m not going to be allowed to direct the movie we were all so excited about when my family last got together, and that I’m being forced to leave town before getting a chance to see her again. Yes, I’ll be filming people getting tortured YET AGAIN. So we’ll have to put off me making a film she can actually watch for another year.” (According to Shock Til You Drop, the posting has since been taken down.) No word yet on who will make things go bump in the night for Paranormal 2.
As had been rumored, Daniel Craig has now been confirmed to replace Robert Downey Jr. in Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens. Downey recently dropped out to focus his attentions on a sequel to Sherlock Holmes leaving his Iron Man director Favreau with an empty saddle to fill. Craig will play Zeke Jackson, the head of a band of cowboys and Native Americans who put aside their differences to do battle with invading aliens. Thus far, there’s no other cast. In related news, Naomi Watts has joined thriller Dream House, which Craig is starring in for director Jim Sheridan. Meanwhile, that Holmes sequel is looking more and more elementary and Downey isn’t the only one switching horses mid-stream. This week producer Joel Silver told The Los Angeles Times that the film was moving ahead and that director Guy Ritchie would table his planned next project, Lobo, in favor of time traveling back to olde England straight away.
The cavalcade of US remakes of French films continued this week. To wit: It was recently announced that Chris Rock will remake surprise French hit La Premiere Etoile while DreamWorks’ Dinner for Schmucks (a remake of “Le Diner de Cons”) is in post-production and The Tourist (a remake of France’s “Anthony Zimmer”), having finally locked down cast and director, looks about to take off. Now, it has come down the pike that Will Ferrell is eyeing a remake of Prete-Moi Ta Main. The original romantic comedy is about a 40-something bachelor whose seven sisters and mom try to force him to get married, prompting him to ask a friend’s sister to leave him at the altar so that everyone will leave him alone. Not only that, but the unlikely duo of Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore are teaming for a remake of one of 2009’s top-grossing French films, “LOL: Laughing Out Loud.” That film tells the story of a teenage girl who, dumped by her boyfriend, sets her sights on his best friend. At the same time, her 40-year-old divorcee mother is struggling to move on with her life. Lisa Azuelos directed the original film, and for once in a sacre bleu moon, will direct her own English-language adaptation.
