July 2008 News Archive

The horribly named sequel to Tron entitled TR2N was recently announced at Comic-Con. 

Thanks to Jim Hill Media, we now know the writing staff for the much anticipated Tron 2: the Lost writing team of Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.  Joseph Kosinksi will be directing.

Additional, according to JHM, the footage shown at Comic-Con wasn't actually a trailer but rather a proof of concept "[t]o voncince Disney executives that his vision for "TR2N" was commerciail viable."

Commericlally viable? Of course a Tron sequel will mint money!

Universal Pictures recently released five TV spots for its upcoming Sci-Fi racing movie, Death Race starring Jason Statham.  Enjoy the following mini-trailers online thanks to YouTube:

Mini Trailer #1

Mini Trailer #2

For two more commericials, please follow the jump!

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Producer Lucas Foster of Mr & Mrs. Smith fame has bought the option for the rights to The Arms of the Sun, a novel by Roberto Zacco, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The novel is the first pat of a trilogy about the Egyptian pharohs and focuses particularly on Nefertiri, the first royal to believe in as single diety.

This deal will mark the first foreign deal for Foster's Warp Films, which most recently released Street Kings in April.

According to Foster, "This is a cool book about one of history's most intriguing women. It will be the basis for an epic romantic adventure film -- movies like this are why I became a filmmaker."

The film will be produced by Foster and Gallini-Durante and writers for the script are still being screened.  The current plan is to shoot the fil n Moroccco and Dubai for $30 million.

We got our hands on some production shots from the upcoming Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li thanks to Legend Films, the production company behind the upcoming Street Fighter.

Now we don't have much faith in this movie due to the disatrous 1994 Street Fighter starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.  However, at least from the follow production shots it looks like we have a hot Chun Li and a scary Balrog:

For the rest of pictures, please check out our Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li photo gallery or click on the following thumbnails to make them larger.

After we reported rumors in February about a Venom spin-off from Sony's successful Spider-Man franchise, it looks like we might have a little confirmation courtesy of The Hollywod Reporter.

According to the Reporter, Sony had commissioned a draft of the script for a potential Venom spinoff from Jacob Estes, the writer from the films Mean Creek and The Gift. However, Sony is considering going a different route and is seeking writers for a new draft.

Additionally, Sony is looking for casting beyond Topher Grace who played Venom in Spider-Man 3. They're worried that the actor could not carry the whole film. Luckily since Venom is just a parasite that attaches itself to a person in the Spider-Man movies, they could easily cast anyone to play Venom.

Spinoffs for well established franchises seem to be all the rage these days. Just look at X-Men Origins: Wolverine due out in May without a X-Men 4 even being announced. Though don't worry Spider-Man fans, Sony will still release Spider-Man 4 by 2011.

What do you guys think. Could Topher Grace play Venom in his own spinoff movie?

MTV got a chance to do a short interview with Seth Rogen about his upcoming Judd Apatow flick, Funny People, at Comic-Con.  Again, for those of you out of the know, Funny People is Judd Apatow's take on the stand-up comedy world.  Below is an excerpt from the interview:

MTV: [Which jokes have made the cut?]
Rogen: “I bailed on ‘The Hills’ bit. I started doing stand-up and I’ve done it a few times and I don’t have any Hills jokes. I feel upset about that. I realized you don’t have to be smart to write a joke making fun of ‘The Hills.’ ‘The Hills’ makes fun of itself.”

MTV: [What will you fill the holes with?]
Rogen: “A MUCH more mature path.  Masturbation and testacles and things of that nature. I’m really branching. It’s very elevated comedy.”

MTV: [Will we see Judd Apatow doing stand-up comedy?]
Rogen “I don’t think so.  It could be funny to see him doing stand-up, but we didn’t have any plans for that.”

You can read the full interview at MTV Movies Blog.

Howard Stern, the infamous disc jockey, is now on board to produce a remake of the 1979 cult classic, Rock 'N' Roll High School.

In the original School, the film focused on a musically-opressed high school whose students rebelled against their principal with assistantance from the punk bank, The Ramones.  According to Variety, Stern came on board for thr remake because he was a big fan of the original.

The remake will be written by Alex Winter of Bill from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure fame.

No other casting or production information has been released.  The big question, of course, is who will replace the Ramones as the ban that helps lead the Rock N' Roll revolution?

Sam Raimi is about to do his first Disney flick courtesy The Transplants, an action-adventure from writers Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Transplants is a four-quadrant ensemble superhero movie with a comic angle to it.  Since Epstein and Jacobson are best know for their movie, Not Another Teen Movie, we can expect it to be a little over the top.

Raimi, now best known as the Spider-Man director, was recently seen at Comic-Con where he showed well-receive clips of his return to horror, Drag Me to Hell.  Fanboys will also note that at Comic-Con, he also announced he still wants to do Evil Dead 4.

We'll have more on this movie as it develops.

At last week's Comic-Con, few men were more popular than Zack Snyder.

The director of next year's Watchmen movie, Snyders talked to the crowd about the incredible maturation of comic-based movies.

"People are interested in comic book movies because they represent mythology and adventure heroes. They allow fantasies to exist in our world," he said. "That worked with a great movie like The Dark Knight, which took it over the top.

You look at Iron Man and you have the same thing, a serious actor like Robert Downey Jr.in a serious portrayal of a guy and then you have this cool fantasy aspect that makes for a great time at the movies."

Zack Snyder has confirmed that Watchmen characters, such as Silk Spectre and Nite Owl, will remain true to their comic book versions.

As for following the Watchmen comic books when outlining the movie, Snyder scoffed at the notion that much would be altered on screen.

"Why would you change it? The film has to exist for a cinema audience the way the comics existed for comic book fans in 1985 and 1986. It's got to be able to comment on how cinematically people relate to superheroes. The cool thing about Silk Spectre is her outfit is overtly sexual.

You can't put that outfit on a Fantastic Four. If I was making a PG 13 movie everybody would be up in arms. This girl is clearly using sexuality as a weapon. That's the point. It's nipply. It's like a dominatrix utfit. That's the fetishistic aspect of it. You have to go all the way."

Brad Pitt's reps have confirmed that the actor is in talks for Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's WWII drama.

Previously, rumors have been floating around that Brad Pitt was up for the role of Aldo Raine and that Leonardo DiCaprio would be up for the Nazi Hans Landa. However, according to EW, the Brad Pitt rumor is true, while the DiCaprio one is false.

With Tarantino finally signing with Universal Studios and now signing up his stars, shooting should be on time to begin in the fall in Germany and France.