Elizabeth Banks

From ReelLoop.com
Since last year’s massively successful The Hangover, Bradley Cooper’s name has been attached to a slew of projects, some legit and forthcoming (The A-Team), and others premature and no-go (McG’s in-the-works romantic comedy This Means War). One project that Cooper is set to star that’s flying under the radar, however, is director Neil Burger’s psychological thriller Dark Fields. And now, the always gorgeous and appealing Elizabeth Banks is in negotiations to join Cooper in the film.

Those partial to the actor’s work in the unfairly dismissed Clive Barker adaptation Midnight Meat Train should dig on this: Dark Fields places Cooper in the shoes of a failing writer who scores a hush-hush pharmaceutical drug that makes folks smarter. Success and riches come his way, but also trippy side effects, including life-in-stop-motion and unfriendly pursuers.

Banks will be the film’s female lead, though nothing more is known of her exact role. As for Burger, if his name sounds familiar, you’re most likely a fan (and rightfully so) of the writer-director’s solid The Illusionist, the clever 2006 magician film starring Edward Norton.
Source(s): Bloody Disgusting

Taylor Lautner

By Rick Porter – Zap2it.com

There’s only room for one toy-based action movie on Taylor Lautner’s plate.

The “Twilight Saga” star had been attached to two projects based on action figures: “Max Steel,” based on the Mattel action figure/cartoon from the early 2000s, and “Stretch Armstrong,” the elastic strongman first introduced in the 1970s and now owned by Hasbro.

Lautner signed on to “Max Steel” first, but now New York magazine is reporting that he’s dropped the project (which Paramount was developing) in favor of “Stretch Armstrong,” which is in the works at Universal. The mag also notes that Lautner and Hasbro are both clients of the same giant agency, WME.

Hasbro also has a somewhat better track record of getting its properties turned into movies — perhaps you’ve heard of “Transformers”? — and has films based on everything from Candy Land to Risk in the works.

Universal bought the rights to “Stretch Armstrong” in 2008, and mega-producer Brian Grazer is producing the movie, which the studio wants in theaters in 2012.

Mickey Rourke

by Josh Wigler – MTV News

It’s a good time to be Mickey Rourke. He punched his way back into the mainstream with Marv in “Sin City” and blew away the art house crowd with his award-winning turn in “The Wrestler.” He’s set to kick the tar out of Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man 2″ and he’s currently in negotiations for a nice role in “Conan.”

But the good fortune doesn’t end there, as Deadline Hollywood reports that Rourke is negotiating for a role in “War of the Gods,” the mythological war movie helmed by Tarsem (“The Fall”) and starring Henry Cavill (“The Tudors”) and Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”).

If cast, Rourke would play King Hyperion, the Greek ruler that goes to war against the gods.

Cavill’s role is already billed as the film’s hero, but with the promise of Mickey Rourke bringing his considerable might to bear upon the powerful divines of Greece, it’s a sure bet that he’s going to steal the show.

Director Tarsem isn’t exactly a household name in the mainstream world, so it’s unclear how widespread “War of the Gods” is going to be, but this could be a movie that steps Rourke’s game back up to a whole new level. This could be the one that takes the Oscar-nominated actor from the gruff villain and misunderstood muscleman to the rollicking action hero he deserves to be.

Freida Pinto

By Phil Guie – CinemaSpy.com

Canadian cinematographer Derek Vanlint may not have worked on many movies, but one of them left a considerable impression on the sci-fi genre.

Vanlint, who passed away on Tuesday, worked with director Ridley Scott on 1979’s Alien, the sci-fi classic that spawned a number of sequels. His most famous shot was the opening sequence, in which the camera slowly pans the corridors of the silent spaceship Nostromo, and across the crew members in stasis. The shot helped establish the eerie, suspenseful mood that permeates the rest of the film.

Born in Great Britain, Vanlint was a veteran director of commercials, and worked extensively in that genre even after Alien. His record includes spots for Guinness, Pepsi, British Airways and Levi’s. His other film credits include the 1981 fantasy Dragonslayer and special effects work on Bryan Singer’s X-Men.

His short films include Jimmy Pacheo and Rosa’s Time, directed by Daniel Hawkes, which debuted at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

Vanlint died in Toronto following a short illness at the age of 78.

From Shocktilyoudrop.com

Anthony Hopkins will play a priest who is an expert in exorcisms but performs them by unconventional methods in the upcoming supernatural thriller The Rite for New Line.

1408 helmer Mikael Hafstrom will direct. Adapted from a book by Matt Baglio and based on true events, the story centers on a disillusioned American seminary student who attends exorcism school at the Vatican and ultimately finds his faith through encounters with demonic forces.

Michael Petroni wrote the screenplay. Contrafilm’s Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson are producing.

Director Wes Craven

By Mike Moody – DigitalSpy.com

Horror director Wes Craven has revealed that he still has not signed to helm Scream 4.

Responding to a Los Angeles Times report claiming that the filmmaker had officially boarded the sequel, Craven said that he is still in negotiations for the project.

“Scream 4 – LA Times has it wrong. I’m still in talks but nothing has been finalized,” he posted on Twitter.

Last year, star Neve Campbell claimed that Craven was coming back to direct the fourth film in the series.

The director’s latest project My Soul To Take is due for a 2010 release.

John Krasinski

by John Gholson – Cinematical.com

In the search for a likable, all-American hero that can fill the red, white, and blue costume of Captain America and stand toe-to-toe alongside Iron Man, one potential candidate that hasn’t been mentioned is The Office star John Krasinski. Heat Vision just released a short list of candidates for the role that includes Chace Crawford, John Krasinski, Scott Porter, Mike Vogel and Michael Cassidy. They claim most of these guys are screen testing for the role this week. However, Cinematical received word yesterday through an anonymous tipster that Krasinski is all but a sure thing for the role of Marvel’s star-spangled Avenger in Joe Johnston’s upcoming film The First Avenger: Captain America. Surprised?

It’s exactly the kind of off-the-beaten-path casting that reaped huge rewards for Marvel when they put Robert Downey Jr. in the Iron Man armor. Krasinski is charismatic and funny, he’s the right age for the part, and he’s filled with the sort of wide-eyed youthfulness that plays up Captain America’s steadfast WWII-era optimism. Whoever they choose needs to be someone that can realistically muster an equal amount of screen presence as Downey Jr (for that eventual Avengers team flick), and I think Krasinski is better suited to this task than some of the recently rumored names (like Robert Buckley). Some weight training and the right script, and he just might be a perfect, albeit completely unexpected, fit for the part.

by Patrick Sauriol – CoronaComingAttractions.com

It looks like there’s still hope that one day we’ll see a new Doc Savage movie. The name of that ray of new hope is Lethal Weapon screenwriter-turned-Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black. He’s just been attached to helm the Doc Savage movie that’s set up at Columbia Pictures.

director Shane Black

Producing is Fast and Furious frontman Neal H. Moritz from a script that Black is writing with Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. “Doc Savage is a character with limitless possibilities,” Matt Tolmach, Columbia’s co-president, told Variety. “We have had a great experience working with Neal to bring another classic character from that era, the Green Hornet, to a new generation of fans, and we think he and Shane make the ideal team to bring Doc Savage back to the big screen.”

Doc Savage made his debut in the pages of his own magazine in March 1933. Raised from his youth to be a world-class fighter, brilliant scientist, brave explorer, trained doctor and all-around bad-ass, Savage fought bad guys and ventured into the dark corners of the planet with nothing but his wits, his brawn and his buddies. Savage was a popular character during the golden age of pulps, then slowly he started to sink into the shadows as the popularity of superheroes began to rise in the 1960s. By the time the 1970s rolled around there was an attempt to bring the character back in a movie, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, which starred Ron Ely as the character. Throughout the 80s and 90s there were rumors that Arnold Schwarzenegger was interested in starring in a new Doc Savage movie. Sadly, that movie is only available in the Blockbusters of another parallel world.
Source(s) -Variety

Reuters Life -A Bollywood filmmaker has issued a lucrative challenge to horror movie fans: a $10,000 reward for anyone who can watch his latest supernatural thriller, alone, in a cinema until the closing credits.

Ram Gopal Varma’s “Phoonk 2,” a sequel to his 2008 film of the same name, is about an evil spirit that traumatizes a family. “Anyone who says the movie cannot scare him is going to be put in a theater by himself,” Varma told reporters in Mumbai at an event to promote the movie.

Varma said the film fan who steps up to the challenge will be wired up to a heart monitoring machine as well as a camera that ensures they keep their eyes open during the whole movie.

Readings from the machines will be shown live on a screen outside the cinema, Varma said, and if the contestant succeeds, they will win 500,000 rupees (approximately $10,850).

Varma issued a similar challenge ahead of the release of the original “Phoonk” but the promotional contest was withdrawn after allegations the selection process was rigged.

Varma said the contest winner ran out 30 minutes after the film started, but newspaper reports said a film fan in the southern Indian city of Bangalore booked an entire cinema to prove the director wrong and watched the film alone with a doctor on call and security personnel stationed outside.

(Writing by Tony Tharakan, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Ian McShane

By Borys Kit – HollywoodReporter.com

Ian McShane is in negotiations to play the villain in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth installment of the Disney movie series being directed by Rob Marshall.

McShane will play legendary pirate Blackbeard — whose real name was Edward Teach — who piloted the ship Queen Anne’s Revenge.

McShane will join Johnny Depp, reprising his role of Captain Jack Sparrow, and Penelope Cruz, Sparrow’s foil and equal in many ways, in a tale that revolves around the Fountain of Youth.

Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot wrote the script. Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.

A working British actor since the 1970s, McShane gained notice Stateside for his work in HBO’s “Deadwood,” where he played the brutal owner of a brothel. McShane starred in the short-lived TV series “Kings” and did voice work in “Coraline” and “Kung Fu Panda.”