Mark Waters Making Time Travel Comedy Get Back

Variety reports Mark Waters will direct the time traveling comedy Get Back. The story centers on two music-obsessed friends who decide to time travel to 1966 London in order to prevent John Lennon and Yoko Ono from meeting, who they blame for the break-up of the Beatles. A complications occurs when one of the guys gets caught up in a love triangle between the infamous couple.

It’s interesting to note that originally Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) was slated to make his feature film directorial debut with Get Back.

 

Kevin Smith Will Edit Red State Before Road Tour

Kevin Smith’s new film Red State last Sunday premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mix reviews, some loved it, others hated it but one thing almost universally agreed on was that Michael Parks’ sermon was too long.  Smith was recently interviewed on Kevin and Josh Movie Show says:

John [Gordon] fought me on it. John was just like ‘Why bother dude, we’re our own bosses, nobody’s telling you to take it out’, like back in the old days Harvey would be ‘I love it! Take ten minutes out,’  no direction at all, just take the time out, so John’s like ‘We don’t have to do that now, we don’t have to really cut the movie at all’ and I said ‘Yeah, but I’m a filmmaker first and foremost, dude, and I want the movie to play as gangbusters as possible’ and if the length of Parks’ speech is making anybody remotely go ‘Maybe that speech is a little long…’ I want them to love Parks as much as I do, so for me, right, I’m an editor, you kill your babies every step of the way as an editor

I’m happy to see that Smith who has been very anti-critic lately recognized their problems with the film and went about changing it. I hope that the full speech will be available on the video release as I would love to see it in its entirety.

Also keep in mind that the Sundance screening was the first time it was screened for an audience and therefore not a surprise that Smith would need to go back in and fix somethings that didn’t work the first time.

 

Mia Wasikowska Joins Stoker

Deadline reports that Mia Wasikowska has joined director Park Chan-wook’s Stoker. The story centers on a moody teenager whose mysterious uncle comes back into her family’s lives after the death of her father.

Originally Jodie Foster and Carey Mulligan were casted in the film but both have left the project. There is no word on who play the older woman and the mysterious uncle.

The script is written by Wentworth Miller, star of the TV series Prison Break.

 

Saoirse Ronan Joins The Hobbit

ComingSoon reports that Saoirse Ronan has joined the cast of The Hobbit. ComingSoon spoke to casting director of  Ros Hubbard The Hobbit and he says:

Saoirse’s family will go too, everyone is very close and very loving on those sorts of jobs.

Ronan starred in Peter Jackson’s last film The Lovely Bones. Ronan will play Itaril, a woodland Elf from the Silvan Elves. It’s really good casting, she looks the part of an Elf from Middle Earth. As this film shapes up I’m really looking forward to it.

 

 

Trailer For Peep World Starring Michael C Hall

IFC Films released the official trailer for Peep World. Peep World is about a dysfunctional family whose lives are ruined when one the siblings writes a novel that exposes all of their secrets.

The cast features Michael C Hall (Dexter), Sarah Silverman, Kate Mara, Rainn Wilson, Judy Greer, Ben Schwartz, Taraji Henson and Ron Rifkin as the father of this dysfunctional family.

Peep World is s directed by Barry W. Blaustein.

Based on the trailer this move looks like a fun, quirky comedy and I will be checking it out when it hit theaters on March 25th. The film will also havea VOD debut on February 9th.

SOURCE: Yahoo

Benjamin Walker Will Play Abe Lincoln

Deadline reports that Benjamin Walker has landed the lead role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Walker will play Abraham Lincoln and will hunt vampires.

The film is scheduled to hit theaters in June of 2012.

Poster Premiere For Max Winkler’s Ceremony

The first poster for Max Winkler’s (son of Henry Winkler) first film Ceremony has hit the internet.

The film stars Michael Angarano and Uma Thurman. The story is about Angarano’s character thinking he’s older than he really is, rushes to a wedding on Long Island to stop the bride who is older than him from getting married because he thinks he’s in love her.

This is the first feature film from writer/director Max Winkler. The film  hits theaters April 8, 2011 but will be available on VOD on March 4th.

SOURCE: Moviefone

Emile Hirsch Casted In The Motel

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans producers Alan and Gabriel Polsky are gearing up to produce an adaptation of Willy Vlautin‘s novel The Motel Life. Emile Hirsch is the first actor to be casted and will play one of two brothers who run from their Reno motel after a hit and run accident.

No other actors are currently involved and the film does not yet have a writer or director.

The official synopsis of the novel sounds interesting:

Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, who abruptly ditch their Reno motel after Jerry Lee drunkenly kills a boy on a bicycle in a hit-and-run. The two are case studies in hard luck: their mother died when they were 14 and 16, respectively; their father is an ex-con deadbeat; neither finished high school. Frank has had just one girlfriend, motel neighbor Annie, whose mother is an abusive prostitute. An innocent simpleton, Jerry Lee is left feeling suicidal after the accident, despite his younger brother’s efforts to console him: “It was real quiet, the way he cried,” says Frank, “like he was whimpering.” On returning to Reno, an eventual reckoning awaits them. Vlautin’s coiled, poetically matter-of-fact prose calls to mind S.E. Hinton—a writer well-acquainted with male misfit protagonists seeking redemption, no matter how destructive.

SOURCE:Variety

David Milch Writing Heavy Rain Adaptation

Variety reports David Milch is currently writing an adaptation of the video game Heavy Rain. Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne will produce the project with Unique Features via their first look deal with Warner Bros.

Heavy Rain, based on the Sony Computer Entertainment game released last year, spans four days of mystery and centers on the hunt for a murderer known as the Origami Killer. Four characters, each following his own leads and with his own motives, take part in a desperate attempt to prevent the killer from claiming a new victim, with each character’s decisions affecting the plans of the other three.

Sounds like an interesting idea.

 

Brian De Palma To Direct Remake Of French Film Love Crime

It’s been a long time since Brian De Palma has directed a really good film. The last feature film that De Palma directed was Redacted back in 2007.

Variety reports that De Palma will direct the remake of the French thriller Crime d’amour (or Love Crime).

The original film starred Kristen Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier.  The story follows two feuding executives and one of them is driven to murder the other.

Production is schedule to begin in August as in international co-production between France, Germany, Spain and England.

Talking about the project De Palma says:

Not since Dressed to Kill have I had a chance to combine eroticism, suspense, mystery and murder into one spellbinding cinematic experience.

That sounds very promising. The film has not announced any cast members yet but with the film being set in England I’m sure we can expect to see some English actors.