Thompson on Hollywood

Tarantino's Django Unchained Cast Shaping Up for Fall Shoot; Washington Joins Foxx, DiCaprio, Waltz

The latest actor to board Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (December 25, 2012) is Don Johnson (TV's Miami Vice, Nash Bridges; Bucky Larson, Machete, Tin Cup). The actor is in negotiations to play plantation owner Spencer Bennett. He would be joining Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell. UPDATE: Kerry Washington is now confirmed to be playing Django's wife, Broomhilda. The synopsis is below.

By Sophia Savage
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October 13, 2011 5:48 AM
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Brothers Grimm: Snow White Stills Diminish Hope in Relativity's Family Flick

The more we learn about Relativity's The Brothers Grimm: Snow White, the less excited we become. This "family friendly" take on Snow White (with Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer), versus Universal's edgier (or so they want us to think). The Brothers Grimm: Snow White, is directed by Tarsem Singh, and will be first out of the gate on March 16, 2012. Rupert Sanders' Snow White and the Huntsman (with Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth) is in theaters July 1.

By Sophia Savage
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October 12, 2011 6:33 AM
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Fassbender and McQueen Set for Third Collaboration: 12 Years A Slave, Based on True Story

Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen will team up for a third time for 12 Years a Slave. Following Hunger and Shame (pictured together on set), the actor and writer-director will bring to life the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a citizen of New York who was kidnapped and enslaved in 1841, before being saved from a Louisiana cotton plantation twelve years later.

By Sophia Savage
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October 11, 2011 9:53 AM
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Soderbergh's Liberace Goes to HBO with Douglas and Damon

Milk's Sean Penn and James Franco, J. Edgar's Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer, now add Michael Douglas and Matt Damon to the list of Hollywood actors playing romantic leads. And yes, yet another high-profile filmmaker and project are finding a safe harbor at HBO Films. Steven Soderbergh will direct Douglas as the flamboyant lounge pianist Liberace and Damon as his lover Scott Thorson in a movie adapted by Richard LaGravanese from Thorson's memoir Behind the Candelabra in this long-in-development biopic. HBO plans to sell the movie to theatrical distributors overseas via film festivals, but it will air on HBO in North America.

By Anne Thompson
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October 11, 2011 6:17 AM
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Depp Developing Live Action Dr. Seuss, Thin Man Remake Finds New Scribe in Billy Ray

It was only a matter of time. Dr. Seuss will be brought to live-action life, and as long as Johnny Depp is accepting the stupid money, he'll likely be in the title role. The project is in development at Illumination Entertainment and Depp's Infinium Nihil, with Depp producing (and possibly starring), and Keith Bunin pegged to write the script.

By Sophia Savage
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October 7, 2011 7:38 AM
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Robert Downey Jr. Developing Perry Mason for the Big Screen; Listen & Watch Past Incarnations

Yet another TV brand heads to the movies. Will they never learn? But the casting is choice in this case: Robert Downey Jr. may bring Perry Mason to the big screen through Warner Bros. and Team Downey. Like the original Erle Stanley Gardner books--there are 82; Downey and producer David Gambino are looking for a writer to adapt their own original story based on the character--the film would be set in 1930s Los Angeles and would follow defense attorney Mason, his secretary Della Street, private investigator Paul Drake and courtroom adversary Hamilton Burger.

By Sophia Savage
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October 5, 2011 5:17 AM
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Aronofsky's Noah Goes Ahead with Paramount & New Regency: Will It Sail With Bale?

Paramount is on board to co-finance Darren Aronofsky's Noah with New Regency, and shooting is set to kick off in Spring 2012. This means no more wondering how Aronofsky will follow up his Black Swan success.

By Sophia Savage
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October 4, 2011 6:52 AM
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EXCLUSIVE: Rookie Levin Starts Filming Indie Farm Drama Land of Tomorrow in Kentucky October 11

More and more these days, getting a movie made is about a tenacious filmmaker making it happen. Theater and television writer/director Kimberly Levin didn't wait for CAA to raise financing. She's forging ahead with an October 11 start for her first film, the drama Land of Tomorrow, near her hometown Louisville, Kentucky.

By Anne Thompson
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October 3, 2011 9:55 AM
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The East: Clarkson Set to Join Scripter-Star Marling, Page, Skarsgard in Batmanglij's Eco-Thriller

Zal Batmanglij's The East, written with his Sound of My Voice collaborator/co-writer/producer Brit Marling (clip below), will star Marling and Alexander Skarsgard, and is inches away from casting Ellen Page. The thriller is about a woman (Marling) who works for a firm that is hired by corporations to protect them from big business haters and environmentalist radicals. She must infiltrate one such anarchist group, 'The East,' which is led by Skarsgard. Page, fresh from Woody Allen's Bop Decameron, will play his one-time lover and a member of the group; according to Variety, Felicity Jones was originally attached. UPDATE: Patricia Clarkson and Toby Kebbell join the cast as Marling's boss and “a doctor who was treated with a tainted drug that caused him to have Parkinson’s-like symptoms,” respectively [FSR].

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
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September 29, 2011 9:12 AM
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Spielberg's Tintin Opens in Europe First; Director Talks Robopocalypse, Lincoln

With the Tintin comics much more well-known in Europe than stateside, the plan was always to open the Peter Jackson/Steven Spielberg collaboration The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn overseas first, in late October, followed by a December holiday-friendly release in North America. (Trailer below.)