Next Please!
Lovely Jessica Biel has signed on to co-star in Lee Tamahori’s sci-fi thriller Next, joining Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore. Based on Philip K. Dick’s short story The Golden Man, the story centers on a man (Cage) with the unique ability to see future events and affect their outcome. Pursued by the FBI, which is seeking to use his abilities to prevent a global terrorist attack, he ultimately must decide whether to save himself or the world. Biel will play Liz, the love interest of Cage‘s character, whom he must attempt to save from terrorists. Ho hum, nothing new. I want the quirky Cage of indie Adaptation back again.
Phoenix Rises to the Occasion
Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix is in talks to star in Without Remorse, based on the latest Tom Clancy book. The story centers on John Kelly, a Vietnam veteran who returns tormented by his experiences. When a woman he loves is gunned down by drug dealers, he goes on a killing spree designed to cleanse the streets of Baltimore. Ultimately, the US government identifies him and gives him a new name and life: John Clark, secret agent. Not sure how going from vigilante to secret agent works, but we’ll go with it. The John Clark character has also featured in other Clancy films, such as Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears, played by Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber, respectively. Author Tom Clancy had previously stated that he favored actor Tom Selleck for the lead role but admits the former Magnum PI star might be a little old to play the part now. You think?
DiCaprio Flies a Kite; Vaughn Gets in the Christmas Spirit
Leonardo DiCaprio will produce and possibly star in Kite, a drama that examines gang culture and guard corruption in the California prison system. Well, now, that sounds like a whole bunch of fun, doesn’t it? Speaking of fun, Vince Vaughn is set to cement his leading man status by reaching the $20 million mark for his starring role in upcoming movie Fred Claus. Vaughn will re-team with Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin for the holiday comedy, in which he’ll play Fred, Santa Claus’ deadbeat older brother. Fred is forced to move in with his brother at the North Pole, and he screws everything up but ultimately redeems himself. Oh man, that’s way too perfect for Vince. Of course, I am also eagerly anticipating his next comedy The Break Up this June, in which he stars with his off-screen love Jennifer Aniston. Looks very funny.
Crowe and Kidman Finally Get Together
Longtime friends Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman have been trying to find a project to do together for awhile. They wanted to do a movie based on the novel Eucalyptus, but the project collapsed last year because of difficulties with the script. Now it finally looks as if they’ve hit the jackpot. The actors have signed up for an Australian historical epic to be directed by Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrmann. The director described the movie as a sweeping romance in the same vein as Gone With the Wind and on the scale of David Lean‘s Lawrence of Arabia, to be filmed in the harsh but beautiful Australian outback. Wow, that’s some big shoes to fill. “We have some of the most extraordinary landscape on the planet and we want to get two of the most extraordinary actors in the world and put them … in that landscape,” Luhrmann told The Australian newspaper. He said the film would be set in Australia from the mid-1930s leading up to the Japanese bombing of the tropical northern city of Darwin in WWII. Ah, such drama!
Wahlberg Shoots Straight from the Heart
Mark Wahlberg has signed on to star in Antoine Fuqua’s political thriller Shooter. Based on Stephen Hunter’s novel Point of Impact, the story centers on an ace marksman, who is living in self-exile in the Arkansas wilderness after causing the death of an innocent person. However, he is persuaded by his former associates to come out of reclusion and help prevent a presidential assassination but is subsequently double-crossed and framed for said assassination. Damn it, I hate it when that happens. The guy is then forced to go on the run while trying to track down the real killer and discover the truth about who betrayed him. Sounds a lot like The Fugitive meets, well, a bunch of other films of this ilk. Still, Wahlberg should fit the bill just fine.
Get Ready for a New and Improved Jason
As if this is needed in life, Jonathan Liebesman, director of the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel, is in negotiations to direct the remake of horror classic Friday the 13th for New Line Cinema. Jason, the unstoppable hockey mask-wearing killer, became horror icon in the 1980s, with umpteenth sequels. Still, in the first movie, the serial killer made only a brief appearance in the final frames (it was more about knives being plunged into nubile teenagers). The setting of the remake will be that of the first movie, Crystal Lake, and, I’m just guessing, will undoubtedly go more in depth into Jason’s tortured past. Because, you know, we really need to know what happened to make him become a monster. Wasn’t Freddy vs. Jason enough?
Purcell, Jones Go Primeval
Oh, here’s another winner. Dominic Purcell (TV’s Prison Break) and Orlando Jones (Drumline) will run amok in Primeval, a killer-crocodile thriller. The high-stakes adventure follows a news producer (Purcell), cameraman (Jones) and reporter who are dispatched to South Africa to track down and bring home alive a legendary 25-foot crocodile known as Gustave. However, their quarry proves far more elusive and deadly than they anticipated, and their situation turns even more perilous when a feared warlord targets them for death. How lovely.
Hathaway Gets Knocked Up; Belle Goes Back in Time
Anne Hathaway is finally breaking away from her Princess Diaries phase and becoming an adult. She’s already proved herself dramatically as Jake Gyllenhaal‘s icy wife in Brokeback Mountain and now she’s trying her hand at what could be raunchy comedy. She is joining the cast of Universal Pictures’ Knocked Up, starring opposite Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in the Judd Apatow romantic comedy. Apatow is writing, producing and directing the movie, which follows a twentysomething guy who finds out he impregnated his one-night stand. Oops. The picture will be similar in budget to his last film, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, which grossed $109.5 million at the domestic box-office and garnered a Writers Guild of America nomination. Meanwhile, Steven Strait (Sky High) and Camilla Belle (When a Stranger Calls) will star in 10,000 B.C., a prehistoric epic from The Day After Tomorrow director Roland Emmerich. Strait plays a young mammoth hunter who embarks on an epic journey to save his dying tribe. Belle plays his love interest. I think it’d be hysterical if Raquel Welch–who got her start in the cult classic One Million Years B.C.–made an appearance in another fur bikini. I’d go see it just for that.
Until next week…
