Brand’s ‘Arthur’ Gets a Winer, ‘Ga’Hoole’ Gets New Name and a ‘Predators’ Composer

Brand’s Arthur Gets a Winer: ABC’s “Modern Family” director/producer Jason Winer has signed on to direct Arthur for Warner Bros. starring Russell Brand as the title character. The film is a remake of the 1981 Oscar-winning comedy starring Dudley Moore who played Arthur, a boozy playboy rascal who is set to inherit a fortune if he marries an heiress his family thinks will make something out of him. However, he falls in love with a working-class woman and turns to his valet for help when his family makes him choose between money and love. Peter Baynham wrote the screenplay for the remake. [THR]

Snyder’s Ga’Hoole Gets New Name: Zack Snyder’s animated film Guardians of Ga’Hoole has been renamed Legend of the Guardians. The film is based on the series of children’s books by Kathryn Lasky and set in the Forest of Tyto, where Barn Owls live in peace until their kingdom is threatened by an evil that could destroy their home. The voice cast includes Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving, Ryan Kwanten, Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Taylor, David Wenham and Sam Neill. The movie opens domestically Sept. 24. [Heat Vision]

Road Trip Escort Pulls in at Dreamworks: DreamWorks Studios has picked up TV writer-producer Justin Adler’s comedy script The Escort. The road-trip story is described as having echoes of Dutch and Planes, Trains and Automobiles as it involves an irresponsible flight attendant who is forced to escort a 14-year-old passenger to Boston after their plane is grounded. [THR]

Brandon T. Jackson Joins Big Momma’s House 3: Brandon T. Jackson went from Tropic Thunder to Percy Jackson and now lands on the doorstep of Big Momma’s House 3 opposite Martin Lawrence. Talk about a career going in the wrong direction. The film will be directed by Big Momma’s House 2 helmer John Whitesell as FBI agent Malcolm Turner (Lawrence) and his 17-year-old nephew, Trent (Jackson), go undercover at an all-girls performing arts school after Trent witnesses a murder. Posing as Big Momma and Charmaine, they must find the murderer before he finds them. Filming is scheduled to begin this April in Atlanta. [Variety]

Kidman Earns a Doctorate?: Nicole Kidman is rumored to be starring in The Wedding Doctor, a film described as the female version of the Will Smith 2005 comedy Hitch in which Kidman would play a relationship analyst who advises couples on their interpersonal dynamics before they marry. But after she meets her latest clients, the doc decides she’d actually be a better match for the groom-to-be, triggering a showdown with his fiancee. No director or studio is attached as Relativity Media plans to shop the project around Hollywood with Kidman’s name attached. I guess that’s what happens as your star begins to flicker out. [Vulture]

Valentine’s Day Composer is Scoring Predators: It’s interesting to look at John Debney’s IMDb profile and see he has scored such films as Hannah Montana: The Movie , Old Dogs and Valentine’s Day to now learn he is scoring both Iron Man 2 and now Nimrod Antal’s Predators, but apparently that is exactly the case. Predators is being produced by Robert Rodriguez who previously used Debney on Sin City, the first two Spy Kids movies and The Adventures of Shark-Boy. Predators hits theaters on July 7, 2010. [Film Music Reporter via STYD]

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