Benicio Del Toro

By Perri Nemiroff – CinemaBlend.com

Jack Garcia was a Cuban-born FBI agent. He was also an investor in a strip club, a jewel thief and an extortionist. No, he wasn’t moonlighting to make some extra cash; he was in the business of undercover investigation. He participated in 100 covert operations, but none could compare to the degree of dedication required to infiltrate the Gambino Crime family. Under the alias Jack Falcone, Garcia successfully took down 39 members of the infamous New York crime organization.

According to Deadline Hollywood, a movie about Garcia is in the works and it’ll star Benicio del Toro. The project will reunite del Toro with his Che writer and director, Peter Buchman and Steven Soderbergh. Buchman penned the script and Soderbergh, who’s currently fishing for a director, is on board to produce. The duo originally had Making Jack Falcone set up at Paramount, but DH predicts the studio will soon let it go.

I don’t quite understand why they would ditch the project, considering this seems like a fantastic filmmaking idea with a fascinating character at its core. Garcia had everything working against him. At 6’4” and 390 lbs, blending in wasn’t really an option and even being of Italian lineage, his Cuban heritage posed a major problem. With help from his handler, Garcia went through ‘The Mob School’ and came out extremely knowledgeable of every little nuance down to the broccoli band wallet. Thanks to this training he was offered the mafia’s highest honor, becoming a made man, just before the FBI closed the investigation.

So, is del Toro capable of acting as well as the man he’s trying to portray? He might need to put on some pounds in order to make it truly convincing, but if any actor can do it, it’s del Toro. The guy’s played everything from Samoan Attorney Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to American actor Lawrence Talbot in the recently released The Wolfman.

From Shocktilyoudrop    Source(s) The Hollywood Reporter

Matthew Greenberg

Matthew Greenberg, who wrote the Stephen King adaptation 1408 has been tapped to script the new remake of Pet Sematary for Paramount.

Published in 1983, King’s tale centered on a family that trades the city life for the country life in Maine, then discovers that they have moved near a pet cemetery that rests on an ancient burial ground. When the husband’s toddler son is killed in an auto accident, the father takes the boy’s body to the cemetery, where it is resurrected in demonic form.

Paramount brought the book to life in 1989, with a feature version adapted by King that starred Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby and Fred Gwynne.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schneider are producing the update.

Scott Caan

From MovieWeb.com

Ocean’s Eleven’s Scott Caan has signed on for the role of Danny “Danno” Williams on CBS’ updated remake of Hawaii Five-O.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new Hawaii Five-O hails from CBS Studios, Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and CSI: NY executive producer Peter Lenkov, and centers on an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police headed by Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin).

Williams, who was played by James MacArthur on the original series, is a New Jersey cop who has recently undergone an acrimonious divorce and has transferred to Hawaii to be near his 7-year-old daughter. Forced to partner with McGarrett, Danno is initially leery of their association — but as he grows more familiar with his maverick new boss, he begins to appreciate the opportunity to work with McGarrett.

The character’s name was immortalized by McGarrett’s catchphrase, “Book ‘em, Danno!” which closed most episodes of the original series and is expected to live on on the new show.

Caan will be a guest star on the Hawaii Five-O pilot because of his commitment to HBO’s Entourage.”

He will then segue to Hawaii Five-O as a regular if the pilot is picked up to series.

director Francis Lawrence

by Russ Fischer – SlashFilm.com

The story of Marco Polo has been brought to the screen before and will probably be adapted many times in the future. The next film about the explorer could be directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) as Warner Bros. has attached the director to a project based on a pitch by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who will write a script based on Polo’s adventures.

Marco Polo

The key word here is likely adventure. Variety says the Cooper/Collage project is “seen as a fantasy-adventure rather than a biopic,” which is actually fairly appropriate given that the authorship of some of Polo’s tales is in doubt. Cooper told the trade “We see this as something that takes place in the Orient of our imagination amid the cultural clash of the East and the West.” Hey, the fictionalized take on Polo worked for Neil Gaiman, so why not for these guys?

The Venetian Marco Polo spent 24 years journeying to and residing in the court of Kublai Khan, who ruled the Mongol Empire in China. When he returned to Venice he found the city at war with Genoa, and he was imprisoned in a Genoese cell. There he dictated his adventures to another inmate (who likely embellished Polo’s stories and added his own) and they were eventually published in various editions and under a number of titles, including The Travels of Marco Polo and Il Milione.

While Marco Polo may have appropriated other travelers’ tales as his own, his book became the first major representation of Asian culture in Europe. He and his family were hardly the first to go to China, but the book allowed tales of China to spread.

by Nicole Sperling – EntertainmentWeekly.com

There is no more perfect a pairing than the visually stimulating duo Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) to take on the bizarre combination of Abraham Lincoln and vampires. The two filmmakers, who previously came together to produce the animated feature 9, will re-team to make the big-screen adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the newly released novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, will adapt the screenplay. Jim Lemley will also produce.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter turns history on its head, telling the story of the 16th president’s secret battle with the undead–a battle that began during Lincoln’s childhood as a way to avenge his mother’s murder.

Gemma Arterton

By Catriona Wightman – DigitalSpy.com

Gemma Arterton has revealed that she cried over her role as a kidnap victim.

The actress found playing her part in The Disappearance Of Alice Creed “physically exhausting”, The Mirror reports.

“I actually didn’t realise when I was doing it that it was really hard,” she explained. “You know, I’d just go straight to bed – I was exhausted and often I was in tears for, like, eight hours a day.”

She added: “It was physically exhausting, because I was handcuffed and tied to a bed. It was full-on, but that’s why I love acting – all these different experiences that you would never have in your own life, hopefully, you know, so it was a great, great experience.”

The Disappearance Of Alice Creed was shown at the London Film Festival last year.

http://goremaster.com/

Lauren Cohan

Start your engines…and load your weapons. The explosive, all-new high-octane Death Race 2 began principal photography on February 13, 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa. The spectacular prequel to Paul W.S. Anderson’s audacious re-imagining of the Roger Corman cult classic stars Luke Goss (Hellboy 2: The Golden Army), Ving Rhames (Con Air, Pulp Fiction), Sean Bean (National Treasure, Lord of the Rings trilogy), Danny Trejo (Planet Terror, “Burn Notice”), Frederick Koehler (“Oz,” “Touching Evil”) and Lauren Cohan (“Supernatural”) and promises even more outrageously outfitted muscle cars and death-defying stunts in a deadly driving competition. Director Roel Reiné (The Marine 2, The Lost Tribe) takes the helm of the adrenaline-fueled chronicle of Frankenstein, the greatest Death Race driver of all time, in an all-out thrill ride through a dystopian future.

Tanit Phoenix

The screenplay is by Tony Giglio (Chaos), from a story by Paul W.S. Anderson. A top-flight production team has also been assembled, including director of photography John McKay, production designer Johnny Breedt, editor Josh Galvin and costume designer Moira Meyer.

The latest in the hugely successful line of DVD Originals™ from Universal Studios Home Entertainment Productions, Death Race 2 is produced by Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt and executive produced by Paula Wagner and Mike Elliott. Death Race 2 is an official South African/German Co-Production, produced in South Africa by Universal Pictures Productions GmbH and Moonlighting Death Race Films C.C. and co-produced by Genevieve Hofmeyr and Ralph Tuebben.

Since its introduction in 2005, Universal’s extensive DVD Originals™ slate of new live-action and animated content has dominated sales charts, scored impressive ratings on television network and cable outlets, performed successfully in multi-international markets and helped to shape the made-for-DVD arena. The high profile string of hits includes multiple installments of the powerhouse Bring It On and American Pie franchises as well as the epic saga Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior and most recently the explosive action release, Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball.

Death Race 2 takes place in the very near future, as the United States economy begins to decline and violent crime starts to spiral out of control. To contain the growing criminal population, a vast network of for-profit, private prisons springs up, creating a lawless subculture ruled by gangs, cold-blooded killers and sociopaths. The worst of these prisons is Terminal Island. Convicted cop-killer Carl Lucas arrives on the Island to serve his life sentence just as ruthlessly ambitious television personality September Jones launches the ultimate reality show, Death Race. A brutal prison yard demolition derby that pits prisoners against each other in steel reinforced, heavily armed vehicles, Death Race offers the winner the ultimate prize: freedom — if he can survive to enjoy it. When Lucas signs up to be a driver, the stage is set for the birth of a legendary racer.