Call Sheet: Sean Penn a GENIUS, Tom Cruise MI:4, Fincher casting DRAGON TATTOO plus Ethan Hawke, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, LITTLE FOCKERS, BABAR and Scarlett Johansson
Aug 10
There’s a lot to get through on this week’s Call Sheet casting wrap-up! Let’s get straight to it:
THR reports Sean Penn will play literary editor Maxwell Perkins in the biopic Genius. Perkins was the literary editor for such great authors as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe.
Vulture reports Tom Cruise has agreed to a reduced upfront payment for Mission Impossible 4, although he still has ‘points’ attached to any profit the film makes at the box office. The Mission Impossible 4 budget is set at a cosy $135 million. I don’t really care if he ‘star power’ or not, the guy should be in any Mission Impossible film while he still can. I bet he’s extremely happy this deal went through.
The newly-appointed director of (yet another) comic-book superhero movie X-Men: First Class, Matthew Vaughn, (who also directed this year’s Kick-Ass) has told Hero Complex that he accepted the offer from 20th Century Fox because he believes this might be his last chance to helm a big budget superhero movie. He (correctly) believes the audience will be getting sick and tired of all the comic book movies.
“It’s been mined to death and in some cases the quality control is not what it’s supposed to be. People are just going to get bored of it. I think [the opportunity to do one], it’s only going to be there two or three more times. Then, the genre is going to be dead for a while because the audience has just been pummelled too much. It is a crowded room. It’s too crowded.”
ComingSoon spoke to Vincent Cassel during the week and he revealed he’s returning to the character Kirill in Eastern Promises 2. When was the last time you heard of a sequel simply called ‘2’, with no sub-heading or creative plural included? David Cronenberg will be shooting this once he wraps A Dangerous Method.
Remember School Of Rock? That silly Jack Black comedy where he gets a bunch of school kids together to make a rock band? Yeah, well... THR reports the director Richard Linklater is collaborating with Black again on a film called Bernie. Legendary actress Shirley MacLaine is also attached to star as a widow Black (Bernie) kills and then “does whatever it takes to keep the illusion that she’s still alive.” So, it’s a sequel to Weekend At Bernie’s? Similar premise, similar titles… Oh dear.
Filmschoolrejects, reveals that Bryan Cranston (from TV’s Breaking Bad—a show I still need to catch up on) will star with Ryan Gosling in an adaptation of Drive , adapted from a book of the same name by James Sallis. Gosling plays a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. Until Ryan Gosling gives me a reason to not watch anything he’s in, I’ll check out his flicks. Yes, even The Notebook.
News.com.au reckons Russell Crowe has signed on to star as fisherman Luther Fox in Phillip Noyce’s Dirt Music, based on the novel by Tim Winton. This is the role Heath Ledger was briefly attached to before he decided to play The Joker in some Batman movie.
Production Weekly confirms Sony is interested in Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz (from Inglorious Basterds) playing a villain in the 3D Spider-Man reboot being directed by Marc Webb (that pun still makes me chuckle) and starring Andrew Garfield as the new Peter Parker.
Risky Business confirmed Will Ferrell will be starring in a Spanish-language comedy with English subtitles, titled Casa De Mi Padre (House Of My Father). The press release makes it sound like Ferrell has been forced to do the project in order to settle a lawsuit. Clever. Hopefully the film is, you know, actually funny.
“Ferrell’s participation is the result of “a closed-door settlement” of a pending lawsuit with the fictional Sanchez”
“NALA can’t comment regarding the circumstances surrounding why Will is attached to the project,” said Loquet. “We are just thrilled he is on board and are moving full steam ahead since we have one month to teach him Spanish.”
Sanchez himself merely remarked: “What comes around, goes around, Will Ferrell.”
Neither party would otherwise comment on the feud.
Yahoo reports Tim Blake Nelson has joined the cast of Everybody Loves Whales with John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore and Kristen Bell. It’s a true story about the 1988 rescue of a trio of California gray whales that got trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle.
While we’re on sea mammals, how does a movie inspired by a true story about an injured dolphin named Winter who was rescued off the Florida Coast thanks to a boy who befriended her? It’s called Dolphin Tale and will star Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, and will be shot in 3D… You don’t believe me, do you? Sorry to say, THR confirms it. Just… facepalm!
Now that he’s finished his Facebook movie The Social Network (yes, I will always refer to it as ‘the Facebook movie’) David Fincher is busy casting his next project, his take on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, based on late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson’s first book in his Millennium trilogy. Deadline reports Robin Wright has signed on to play the character Erika Berger, publisher of crusading finance magazine Millennium and also the occasional lover of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, played by Daniel Craig. Stellan Skarsgard has also signed on to star. Sony insists they are adapting solely from the novel and not remaking Niels Arden Oplev and Daniel Alfredson’s popular Swedish film.
Writer/director John Landis sold the rights to his 1981 classic An American Werewolf In London to Dimension Films last year, and now 24 Frames reveals Dimension have hired Fernley Phillips (The Number 23) to write the remake screenplay. Apparently it’ll be a ‘huge departure’ from Landis’ original film, taking a modern approach. So we should expect it to be in 3D and pointlessly glossy like The Final Destination? Ugh. I dread what might become of this.
24 Frames believe Tony Scott is only “a step away” from directing Paramount’s adaptation of John Grisham’s The Associate, with Shia Labeouf attached to star. Both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are in talks to have supporting roles.
Deadline reports Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams have joined the cast of On The Road, based on the 1957 book by Jack Kerouac.
Vulture reported during the week that Little Fockers will go back into production for a week of pick-ups in September with Dustin Hoffman rumoured to come back as Bernie Focker. It’s all in an effort to ‘save’ the movie which, remarkably, hasn’t turned out as funny as director Paul Weitz had hoped. Principal cast, including Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro are all involved in the pick-ups. Sounds serious.
Kevin Smith has tweeted his next film Red State will star Michael Parks and production will start on September 22nd.
Variety notes Ethan Hawke has signed on to indie drama A Late Quartet, playing a member of a string quartet that whose members have performed together for 25 years and have to adjust to one of them retiring due to Parkinson’s disease. Sounds like that’ll be heavy viewing.
Deadline reveals producers behind The Twilight Saga, Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, are working with the owners of the rights to the character Babar, in order to bring us a Babar family-friendly movie. More CGI cartoon characters mixed with live action footage, I suspect.
Unfortunately, Deadline confirms Paramount have hired Davis Guggenheim to direct a 3D feature biopic based on the life and story of Justin Bieber. Yes—Justin Bieber. It’ll apparently be similar to 8 Mile with Justin playing himself. Paramount, trust me, it’ll be nothing like 8 Mile. I’d rather that dolphin film, thanks.
Heat Vision reports Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Inception) will join Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake in Andrew Niccol‘s I’M.MORTAL.
Finally, Vulture has it on good authority that Scarlett Johansson will star alongside Vince Vaughn in David O. Russell‘s Old St. Louis, about a travelling salesman who’s life as an absentee father suddenly drastically changes when his daughter becomes part of his life. Sounds thrilling, right? Never mind, here’s an obligatory pic of Scarlett to spark your brain back into action.
See you next week!
Call Sheet: THE AVENGERS at Comic-Con, Brad Pitt in WORLD WAR Z, Jim Carrey, Katherine Heigl, Guillermo del Toro, Tim Burton
Jul 26
Call Sheet: A weekly run-down of movie casting news and rumours from around the web.
Comic-Con 2010 is underway in San Diego leading the way with most headlines across the web this week. Amongst all the preview footage, panels, exhibitions and guest appearances, only a handful of casting news has trickled out of the convention.
Without a doubt the biggest casting news out of Comic-Con came when the cast of The Avengers movie gathered on stage, live, in person, causing fans to go into shock-gasm at the pure awesomeness of the occurrence. Or so I’m led to believe. I’ll get excited if the film itself actually turns out to be any good. On stage were: Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Chris Hemworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, and then Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) showed up and announced Mark Ruffalo will indeed be playing the new Bruce Banner/HULK, and Jeremy Renner will be Hawkeye. I have no doubt these silly hero names are fucking awesome if one is aware of the comic.
News that I actually did get excited about was that of Brad Pitt attaching himself to star in the movie adaptation of the Max Brooks apocalyptic zombie novel World War Z. It was common knowledge that Pitt’s production company Plan B had purchased the rights, but now that it is official Pitt will be the leading guy, a distributor and green-lit script seems likely. Brooks himself told MTV of the news.
Disney released a statement, detailing how director Guillermo del Toro surprised the 6,500 fans gathered at his Comic-Con panel with the announcement that he is currently developing a new film based on the classic Disney theme park attraction, The Haunted Mansion. Apparently it’s going to be fun for the whole family, but still scary. So really, not scary. At all.
Heat Vision notes that Simon Pegg is in talks to likely return as his MI:3 character Benji Dunn in Mission Impossible 4, should Paramount decide to green-light it. Any day now.
Slashfilm landed the scoop from producer Roy Lee that Tim Burton will be directing Universal’s ‘adaptation’ of Monsterpocalypse. What the fuck is Monsterpocalypse, you ask? I had no idea either… Apparently it’s a kaiju-themed collectible miniatures board game that involves battles against a variety of enemy monsters that take place in a metropolis. Paint it black, Tim.
Cinemablend talked to Anchorman director Adam McKay who confirmed there will be no Anchorman 2. Thank fuck for that.
Shocktilyoudrop reports that Daniel Radcliffe will star in a 3D supernatural thriller adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel The Woman In Black. It’s being produced by Hammer Films, the same company behind Let Me In. So long as he doesn’t wear glasses, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Variety reveals that Sam Raimi will be direct and produce Earp: Saints For Sinners, a modern-day reimagining of the classic western hero, Wyatt Earp. It’s based on the graphic novel of the same name created by Matt Cirulnick (who is also writing the screenplay) and David Manpearl. So much for Oz: The Great And Powerful and World of Warcraft (for now).
Deadline reports that Larry Charles (Borat, Bruno, Religulous) has signed on to direct Jim Carrey in the comedy Pierre Pierre. Carrey plays an obnoxious Frenchman who transports a stolen painting from Paris to London.
Finally, THR notes actress Katherine Heigl will star in Andy Tennant’s Adaline, a film about a young woman, born at the turn of 20th century, who is rendered ageless after an accident. I suspect it’s a romantic dramadey and Katherine will look stunning.
How to sell a 3D space thriller called GRAVITY better: put Scarlett Johansson in it
Jul 24
One of the few names that will get me into a cinema no matter what is Alfonso Cuarón’s. The fact that his next picture is going to be set in one of my absolute favourite genre milieus — space — is even better. Gravity sounds like a potential classic of the genre, rivalling the likes of the recent Sunshine or Moon, and even the fact that it’s going to be in 3D can’t dampen my enthusiasm for it.
Neither, surprisingly, is the news that Scarlett Johansson will take the leading role, opposite Robert Downey, Jr. Johansson’s thespian abilities haven’t exactly been challenged of late, but in Cuarón’s capable hands, I’m sure she’s capable of doing great things.
Even better is the marketing aspect of the casting decision. Thousands of people who wouldn’t have taken a gamble on a sci-fi thriller might be swayed to drop some cash on the flick if it features the eyeball-friendly actress in 3D for the first time, and Cuarón deserves every penny of recognition he gets.
Gravity starts shooting later this year, with a a release date expected some time in 2012. Johansson will take the role previously set aside for Angelina Jolie, as a woman who tries to make her way back to Earth after her space station explodes (or something).
Yarr: piracy is a crime, especially if you downloaded THE HURT LOCKER
May 19
Internet piracy has always been a fraught venture: there’s the difficulty of finding a good quality file of the right size; finding enough seeders to allow you to download the film in a timely fashion; the monthly internet usage juggling-act, often divided between games, movies and porn; and then the hassle of burning the film onto a DVD so you don’t have to watch it on a crappy little PC monitor (I realise I’m tempting Poe’s Law here, so I’ll just point this out: I’m being sarcastic). As if that weren’t enough, there’s also the small matter of piracy being unethical and potentially damaging to a variety of industries, but that’s been a relatively small issue — until now.
The internet is many things: it is a global stash of porn, easier to hide from your technophobic mother than stolen Playboy magazines; it’s a source of instant knowledge (albeit of dubious authenticity) and breaking news; it’s a place where people with similar hobbies or beliefs can hang out and pat each other on the back in some kind of solipsistic circle-jerk; it is an effective tool of communication; and it is also an unpoliced Wild West-like frontier with few rules and fewer enforcers where you can get anything –literally anything — for free, as long as it exists somewhere in 1s and 0s.
Apparently the internet looks like this.
Now, though, the US has finally decided to criminalise piracy. Piracy has, of course, been illegal all this time, but nobody ever seemed to do anything about it. Now the US Copyright Group is cracking down on movie pirates, starting with those who downloaded The Hurt Locker. In order to catch the people who download movies, the Group requested hitherto-private client information from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) all over the US. That’s right: they know how you surf and they know where you live. Scary, huh? (But, as I’ll explain later, disclosure of your internet usage is actually justified).
If you downloaded The Hurt Locker and you live in the US, chances are you received an email demanding you pay a settlement fee or risk the Copyright Group sueing the rug out from under you. 75% of US ISPs have complied with the Copyright Group’s move (the other 25% have experienced technical delays), and out of all the people contacted regarding their pirate operations, 40% agreed to pay the settlement; the other 60% get one more chance before the Group starts issuing lawsuits.
The reason the Copyright Group is going after pirates is to provide “alternate revenue streams” for studios whose films are heavily pirated. The idea is that for every person who downloads a movie instead of buying a ticket or DVD, the studio loses cash. So to make up for that, lawsuits are being issued. In this case, The Hurt Locker earned approximately fuck-all at the box office, but people pirated it like it was Scarlett Johansson’s secret sex tape, their interest piqued by the film’s nine thousand Oscar nominations. So the Group is trying to recoup some of the perceived monetary losses suffered by studio Venture Pictures, who financed The Hurt Locker.
The problem with piracy is that it’s all so arbitrary, so up-in-the-air. People who pirate movies are usually: too poor or lazy to go to the cinema; scornful of the capitalist system of economy and government; morally deficient; or unable to leave the house, for whatever reason. So the vast majority of pirates wouldn’t have seen The Hurt Locker if they’d had to pay for it / leave their house / contribute to a capitalist society, right? So how much did the studio really lose? Are you sure a limited release and lack of marketing weren’t really to blame?
Recent studies on piracy in PC gaming showed that the average PC pirate downloads dozens and dozens of games each year — many more than they could possibly hope to play in their lifetime — and that piracy rates are inversely proportional to income (that is, unemployed students and people in Russia and India pirate like crazy). It follows that most pirates wouldn’t have bought most of the games they pirated — so how does piracy really affect profits? Most piracy occurs as an idle act of “oh, I’ll take that;” very few pirates single out only the games / movies they really really really want and download only those — say, one every three-to-six months. It’s usually “oh, I heard that movie’s good, and it’s got healthy seeders, so I’ll add it to the collection,” but then they never actually get around to watching the movie. So the MPAA’s annual “we lost $5 billion to piracy this year alone” cry may be somewhat exaggerated.
Let’s say then, conservatively, that piracy loses a film 5% of its profit: 5% of Avatar‘s profit would be $135 million; enough to finance four Hurt Lockers, if not more. In this case, all those pesky pirates are actually gouging a significant chunk of cash out of the film industry. For its part, the film industry is often thought of as a rich, affluent hotbed of extravagent expenditure and fiscal looseness, but this is not the case: most studios only make a profit on a very small number of films, and must use this profit to finance other films, which might not even break even at the box office. Make no mistake: every dollar is precious in Hollywood.
Aside from the strictly financial arguments, it’s pretty obvious that piracy is, at best, a morally grey area (as judged by a society dominated by the ideas of ownership and property). You could argue that you might simply record the movie when it comes on TV in six months’ time, and therefore own a copy without having paid for it; you could argue that the majority of ticket and DVD sales go to the cinemas and electronics stores, respectively (even if that is simply unture); you could argue that capitalism is busted and you want no part of it (in which case you should move to China); and you could argue that that street vendor in Bali flogging Iron Man 2 for $3 was totally legit, man; but in the end, someone, somewhere, is losing dollars, and it isn’t you. Keep that in mind next time you go to download that .rar file.
To come back to my previous point, there’s been some internet backlash against this “breach of personal privacy” thing. But you have to remember: the internet is a tool, not a toy; a privelege, and not a right. If the only way to track down the people who make child pornography, rape videos, snuff films or that gut-churning crush porn is to give up a small percentage of your privacy, then by all means, it’s justified. Piracy may be a lesser crime than those listed above, but it’s still indicative of the “the internet’s here for my pleasure and I’ll do with it whatever I want” attitude that can easily backslide into immorality and illegality.
Besides, what have you got to hide?
Oh, that's all right then -- wait a minute ...
IRON MAN 2 viral advertising is lost on me
Apr 09
Not literally lost, of course. I get it– I understand how viral marketing works and there’s no doubting it certainly has a very fad place in movies right now. Of course, Hollywood has borrowed heavily from the music industry which has been successfully promoting underground/garage/indie bands for decades using similar viral ‘tactics’.
Viral marketing has been a successful way for studios to bring their indie festival purchases to larger audiences. Most recently Paranormal Activity achieved great heights using viral marketing which somewhat mirrored the horror film many consider to be the first online virally-marketed film, The Blair With Project. And who could deny Warner Brothers masterful viral promotions for The Dark Knight back in 2007/8. That sure paid off! So, I understand that studios feel the need to expose that area of marketing and ensure they net as many people as possible. Yet there are times when that kind of marketing just isn’t necessary.
Incredibly important picture of Scarlett Johansson
The viral campaign for Iron Man 2 has been surprisingly dull and increasingly irrelevant. A different term for this kind of viral marketing should be coined– I believe it’s no longer ‘viral’ once the film is a guaranteed summer blockbuster studio tent-pole film.
Iron Man 2 has a mass audience that is already guaranteed to go see it, viral marketing or not. I know this, because I’m one of those people. The Stark Industry website, the fake Stark Expo and the new videos have missed their mark with me. I’ve found most people are already talking about the film because of the trailer, the poster, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash character, and (to a lesser extent) the TV spots… The swing of promotion is so great that it seems the only people really noticing (and giving a fuck) about the viral are the comic book addicts who, at the height of it all, have determined they noticed what looks like possibly the Avengers logo during a commercial for Stark Enterprises… others say it looks like Fantastic 4‘s logo and should go. I say… really?
As if to underline my point, adding to the pointlessness of it all, those debating such trivial things are already going to see Iron Man 2 opening weekend, without question. So who, exactly, is benefiting from all of this viral guff? Who’s going to see it, put two-and-two together and decide, shit yes, I’m going to see Iron Man 2 when it opens. Who’s is convinced by the Stark Expo yet not by the trailer…? I’m honestly asking, I have no idea.
View the official viral website for Stark Expo which coincides with the release date of Iron Man 2 (29 April Down Under, 30 April in the UK and 7 May in The States).
OPINIONS COUNT