Garner wants to Be With You
Warner Bros. has acquired remake rights to the 2004 Japanese hit Be With You, with Jennifer Garner starring and producing via her newly formed Vandalia Films banner, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Originally directed by Nobuhiro Doi from a novel by Takuji Ichikawa, Be With You follows a flurry of Japanese tearjerkers but also adds a supernatural element to its love story formula. On her deathbed, a dying young woman (Garner) tells her husband and young son that she will return to them. A year later, father and son happen upon a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the dead woman. And then what happens? I guess I’ll have to wait to see the movie–and I’ll remember to bring a box of Kleenex with me.
Another video game hits the dust
“Max Payne” is the latest action video game to be turned into a feature film. It tells the story of a New York cop whose wife and baby are killed by thugs high on a designer drug called Valkyr. Devastated, the cop joins the Drug Enforcement Agency and goes undercover with the mob to find the source of the drug. Framed for the murder of his partner and hunted down by both the mob and the police, he is forced to wage a one-man war against crime. The game’s intricate film noir story, which involves government cover-ups, the Mafia and a city crippled by the century’s worst blizzard, is told through comic book-style storyboards. Ah, nothing like a movie peppered with lots of violence about a revengeful cop, dealing with the mob and drugs. “I think this is a real actor’s part because although the story will have action and intrigue, at its core it’s a story about a man who loses everything in life that’s dear to him,” Scott Faye, who will produce with Julie Yorn, told Variety. However, they are still looking for their Max Payne. And this will be different from any other movie of its ilk because…?
Jackson, Ricci Moan a little
Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci are set to star in the indie Black Snake Moan, from writer/director Craig Brewer, the man behind the upcoming acclaimed release Hustle & Flow. The Paramount Classics film, whose title comes from a 1920s blues record by Blind Lemon Jefferson, would star Jackson as a blues guitarist abandoned by his wife. He tries to redeem the soul of a girl (Ricci) addicted to sex in a rural town. Here’s the clincher: Pop singer Justin Timberlake is in negotiations to play Ricci‘s boyfriend. Hmmm. Does that mean we’ll get to see a bit of Justin’s nether regions if he plays the boyfriend of a sex addict? Oh, be still the hearts of adolescent girls everywhere (that is if they’ll even be allowed to see what sounds like an R-rated movie).
Garity wants to finish his docu on L.A. gangs
Troy Garity (Barbershop) has been trying to finish a documentary about a Los Angeles gang ceasefire he helped initiate a decade ago. 
Garity was working with charity groups 10 years ago when a gang boss, just released from prison, called on him to help set up a period of peace among housing projects in local gang war zone Watts, according to World Entertainment News Network. The actor/activist is determined to complete his film, which he has been making since 1996, because he wants people to know what a huge impact the ceasefire has had on troubled Los Angeles neighborhoods. Garity told WENN, “I was so enamored with this man and something was going to happen, and they needed another ceasefire agreement. So I rented four vans and we took all these guys up to the mountains and put together a ceasefire agreement. We took the original Israeli-Palestinian Accord and transferred the names and places. That’s how complex these gang wars can be. I know it seems odd that I would be working in this environment, but in the past 20 years, over 10,000 kids have been killed due to gang violence in L.A. alone. That should be classified as a war.” Guess some of his mom and dad’s influence has rubbed off on him (mom is actress Jane Fonda and dad is activist Tom Hayden).
Never fear, Underdog is here…
And we are shaking our heads, asking why? Apparently, the Mouse House thinks it’s a good idea to make a live action, big-screen version of the TV cartoon Underdog. In fact, Disney has high hopes for the property as a possible franchise for its Walt Disney Pictures label. “Anything where you have a dog in that superhero context, that’s appealing on a global basis,” producer Gary Barber told Variety. “Those films do very well, and there’s no better brand than Disney for this kind of movie.” Riiight. The tongue-in-cheek Underdog cartoon, created by Buck Biggers and Chet Stover, made its debut in 1964 on NBC and ran until 1973. The character was an unlikely superhero: a beagle who sheds his milquetoast identity of Shoeshine Boy to become a caped superdog who speaks in rhymed couplets. Wally Cox provided his voice. It was mildly amusing, at best. In the feature script, a diminutive hound named Shoeshine gets superpowers after a lab accident. When he’s adopted by a 12-year-old boy, the two form a bond around the shared knowledge that Shoeshine is really Underdog. Producers also want to keep the cartoon’s original characters, including mad scientist Simon Barsinister and Underdog’s love interest, Sweet Polly Purebred, and Underdog will talk and fly, just as in the cartoon. But unlike Scooby-Doo, this redo will use a real dog, with CGI enhancements. Sounds like it’ll be a cross between the dismal Cats & Dogs and the really, really bad Garfield. In other words, a real winner!
Blade writer goes Invisible
David S. Goyer, the writer of the Blade movies, will start directing the supernatural thriller The Invisible at the end of September in Vancouver. No cast has been set as yet. The story follows a teenager who, after being attacked and left for dead, finds himself in limbo, invisible to the living and racing against time to find his body before he truly perishes. The only living person who might be able to save him is his attacker, a troubled girl who is on the run from the law. Huh? If you can figure out that convoluted storyline, let me know.
Until next week…
