It was a smart move for Fox to hand over the reins to FX whiz Robert Rodriguez on a Predator sequel. He promised to deliver them a $45-million movie—modest, for an action sequel—which he wrote and produced at his Austin Troublemaker Studios (with location shoots in Hawaii) with Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) at the helm. Rodriguez offers studios a one-stop shop on a somewhat smaller scale than Peter Jackson’s Weta operation in New Zealand. The deal is, they leave him alone to deliver the goods. “Do your thing and make it cool and make it a Troublemaker Studios movie,” Fox told Rodriguez. “We’ll release it, but you don’t have to make it a Fox movie.”
Next on Rodriguez’s platter is Spy Kids 4. He just handed the script to the Weinstein Co. It’s set ten years later with a new set of kids. He wants to return to the look and feel of the first Spy Kids, with plenty of practical effects, he said: “That’s my most loyal audience.”
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Robert Rodriguez, Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Action, Sci-fi, Sequel, Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Video, Trailers on March 17, 2010 at 12:04pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (3)
“We have a fantastic story,” Chris Nolan tells the LAT’s Geoff Boucher about the upcoming Superman reboot. Nolan and wife producer Emma Thomas wanted to clear up some of the misconceptions that have been flying around the internet about the project which will be written by David S. Goyer and directed by someone not yet named. Yet they don’t offer up much to Boucher:
Still, it was a frustrating moment in the Batman franchise that led to this new Superman revival. Nolan and Goyer, a key collaborator on both Batman films, were at a story impasse on the third Batman film (which is now picking up steam as well) when, as a distraction, Goyer gave the filmmaker a daydream version of how he would tackle a story about the last son of Krypton.
“He basically told me, ‘I have this thought about how you would approach Superman,’” Nolan recalled. “I immediately got it, loved it and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.”
Goyer is now writing the screenplay and Nolan is keeping it close to the vest.
First up for Nolan is finishing his complex three-level dreamscape, the Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer Inception, which opens July 19.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Franchises, Batman, Superman, Genres, Comics, Sequel, Headliners, Leonardo DiCaprio, Studios, Warner Bros./New Line on March 10, 2010 at 8:56am PST | Permalink | Comments (1)
Last June producer Jon Landau gave me the flip cam interview below (for a Popular Mechanics Avatar feature I was writing) in the Lightstorm screening room the day he and James Cameron made their big videogame presentation at E3. I was about to see about fifteen minutes of 3-D footage from Avatar—which blew me away. It’s hard to recall how nervous and concerned Landau and Fox and Cameron were about selling this unbranded original movie. Remember how badly the first online trailers played on Avatar Day, August 21? The rest, shall we say, is history.
It doesn’t really matter what happens on Oscar night. The movie is up to $2.5 billion, but will slow its pace as it loses its IMAX 3-D and many 3-D screens to Alice in Wonderland on Friday. Going into Avatar, Landau and James Cameron did not contemplate accolades on the awards circuit. Now they really want their crew to get their just rewards. In the last phase of the Oscar campaign, they have been emphasizing the movie’s environmental message (Cameron was terrific on that front on Charlie Rose). Cameron spoke before the TED conference (video on the jump), and participated in an National Resources Defense Council, where he was interviewed by The Treatment’s Elvis Mitchell.
Now a bit more relaxed, Landau had some fun with Fran Drescher in this video audition for Avatar:
by Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Directors, James Cameron, Franchises, Avatar, Genres, Sci-fi, Sequel on March 4, 2010 at 4:31pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
The deal on The Wanted sequel: Universal wanted Angelina Jolie to star. That meant that she had to approve the script—which had to persuasively bring her back from certain death. Once she turned the movie down, Universal killed the sequel—what could have been a valuable franchise for the studio—and Jolie is moving on to space thriller Gravity, for Warners, reports New York Vulture.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Sequel, Headliners, Angelina Jolie on February 25, 2010 at 4:44pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Warners/D.C./Legendary have hired David Goyer to write the new Superman reboot. Goyer’s working with Jonathan Nolan (Batman Begins) on an idea from his brother Christopher Nolan. There had been speculation—denied by DC—that Christopher Nolan would be supervising the new Superman iteration. In fact, Goyer reinvented Batman with Nolan. And his story for Nolan’s The Dark Knight went on to earn $1 billion. He also wrote Marvel’s X-Men Origins: Magneto. Warner Bros. was cautiously making sure it had the right approach to its next Superman picture before losing the rights to the character in 2013. Here’s Variety (which credits Latino Review with breaking the story):
Read MoreAccording to sources close to the companies, Goyer pitched a more action-packed idea—titled Man of Steel—that involves Superman battling archnemesis Lex Luthor and super villain Brainiac—far different than the original story that was seen in “Superman Returns” in 2006. He could wind up helping another scribe develop the final script, as he did with “The Dark Knight.”
by Anne Thompson, posted to Franchises, Superman, Genres, Sequel, Studios, Warner Bros./New Line, Writers, Screenwriters on February 24, 2010 at 11:54pm PST | Permalink | Comments (2)
In the second trailer for Toy Story 3, when Andy takes off for college, his toys—even Woody and Buzz—wind up in the hands of the toddlers at Sunnyside Daycare. We also meet Barbie and Ken. The 3-D Pixar/Disney pic opens June 18.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Animation, Sequel, Video, Trailers on February 11, 2010 at 9:09am PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is almost upon us. The 3-D Disney fantasy opens March 5. The LAT’s Geoff Boucher asks screenwriter Linda Woolverton (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) about adapting Lewis Carroll. She based a lot of this “sequel” on The Jabberwocky, one of my favorite poems of all time.
And Johnny Depp talks about playing the Mad Hatter in this featurette:
by Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Tim Burton, Franchises, Genres, Fantasy, Sequel, Headliners, Johnny Depp, Video, Interviews on February 10, 2010 at 4:04pm PST | Permalink | Comments (1)
When your career needs a boost and there are few available top-dollar jobs: take a franchise.
On the heels of disappointments Away We Go ($10 million) and Oscar contender Revolutionary Road ($23 million), Sam Mendes, who is repped by CAA, is in talks to direct the 23rd James Bond film, which is reportedly moving toward a 2011 release, despite the looming sale of MGM. It is in MGM’s interest to present its biggest franchise as an ongoing concern.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Franchises, James Bond, Genres, Sequel, Studios, MGM/UA on January 5, 2010 at 3:20pm PST | Permalink | Comments (4)
Another film caught in the MGM warp is Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit, which according to producer Fran Walsh, was set to begin casting in mid-December in New Zealand.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Franchises, James Bond, Genres, Sequel, Studios, MGM/UA on January 4, 2010 at 4:15pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Surprise! The most-viewed trailers of 2009 were also among the year’s biggest b.o. grossers. Among some of the anticipated movies of 2010 are two Leonardo DiCaprio movies—Chris Nolan’s Inception and Martin Scorsese’s pushed-back Shutter Island—as well as Pixar’s latest, Toy Story 3. More trailers and clips are on the jump.
Here’s an advance peek at Pixar’s Toy Story 3, due June 18.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Jon Favreau, Franchises, Iron Man, Genres, Sequel, Headliners, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey, Jr. , Video, Trailers on December 28, 2009 at 2:00pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Anne Thompson does more than just break news; she provides an insider’s clear-eyed analysis of a business that defines culture at home and abroad.
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