A few weeks ago I delivered a massive update on the sometimes dramatic development of Scream 4. Last week, director Wes Craven offered up the above photo (via Twitter) of Ghostface, the franchise’s maniacal killer, in what appears to be the set of the film, you can get a full-sized look at the shot in the RopeofSilicon gallery right here. Scream 4 will be released on April 15, 2011.
Anyone still interested in Steven Spielberg’s proposed Abraham Lincoln biopic? Or have you lost interest after several years of delays? Well, we certainly aren’t getting any closer to seeing the film now as Digital Spy’s Simon Reynolds reports Liam Neeson, who has been attached to star as Lincoln since 2005, has quit the project claiming he is now too old to play the 16th president of the United States. Neeson seemed like perfect casting to me, so this development makes me wonder if the project will ever see the light of day. I’m having a hard time thinking of a suitable replacement. Perhaps one of you can offer a suggestion in the replies?
Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez of Heat Vision are reporting J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company have bought the rights to the graphic novel-picture book hybrid “Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel” for Paramount Pictures. The book tells the story of the world’s first robot as he fights alongside Teddy Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia before taking on several other remarkable endeavors and disappearing during World War II. At this point, Abrams is attached only as a producer and a director has yet to be named but it definitely sounds like a project to keep an eye out for.
Erik Davis of Cinematical has offered an update on Louie Psihoyos, the director behind the fantastic Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. He has been hard at work on his next project, tentatively titled The Singing Planet, which will be a 3D look at the mass extinction of wildlife caused by humanity. Word has it that he’s also using guerilla-style filming methods similar to those we saw in The Cove.
Tim Adler of Deadline reports that Cillian Murphy (Inception) has signed on to star in the British thriller The Retreat opposite Thandie Newton. Murphy and Newton will play a couple who rent a remote island in an effort to save their marriage and soon learn that everyone on the mainland has been killed by an airborne virus. Gary Sinyor, the film’s producer pitches the film as “Knife in the Water meets Dead Calm. I haven’t seen either of those, but perhaps that helps you imagine the concept if you have. In another interesting note, David Frost – you know, the “Frost” portion of Frost/Nixon – is the film’s executive producer.
The official website of writer/director James Gunn has posted some videos from the Comic Con panel of the filmmaker’s upcoming film Super with stars Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker. He also offers some photos and a few comments on the project, including this little nugget:
Yes, I know, there have been other films that are superficially the same as ours, movies about real people becoming superheroes – including some very good ones. But ours is the first that, although funny, focuses first and foremost on the emotions of the characters involved. It is a dark, gritty, violent, no-hold-barred independent film that is, I promise you, not at all what you expect.
Now, it’s probably wrong to assume that Gunn hasn’t seen or even heard of Defendor, but to me that’s the exact picture he’s describing. But who knows? Super could turn out to be something completely original and great, and it’s hard to argue with that cast. You can get a full-sized look at that pic of Rainn Wilson right here.
There is still no cast or director attached to Fox’s announced Fantastic Four Reborn, but Paul Young at Screen Rant has heard from an inside source that the reboot’s “The Thing” will be 100% CG. As many of you probably already know, a similar technique is being used for Green Lantern, in which Ryan Reynolds’s superhero suit is also 100% CG. In fact, if you take a close enough look at the Entertainment Weekly cover featuring Reynolds in character you’ll notice work on the mask is still incomplete and was painted on digitally for the shoot.
As for this news of “The Thing” also being 100% CG, I guess that’s bad news for makeup artists, but certainly good news for whoever will be playing the Ben Grimm character. For the first two films, Michael Chiklis had to wear all sorts of makeup and orange foam in order to play the character.
Sasha Grey, the adult-film star who broke into mainstream film with a starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, is set to continue that transition and join the cast of I Melt With You according to Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter. The low-budget indie already has Thomas Jane, Rob Lowe and Jeremy Piven on board for director Mark Pellington (Henry Poole is Here) in the drama about a group of former college buddies who meet up at their annual summer reunion and resurrect a pact they vowed to live, die and kill by. It sounds a bit Big Chill-ish to me, only creepier (if that’s somehow possible).
The last bit I have for you on the newsworthy front is a couple of new release dates. Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan will hit select theaters on December 1 and Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours will open in limited release on November 5.
Finally, here are three new posters from Tangled (11/12), Red (10/15) and Enter the Void (9/24).
Several more new photos have been added to the database recently from the likes of Resident Evil: Afterlife, Never Let Me Go and Sucker Punch. For even more check out the RopeofSilicon movie stills homepage right here.
