Here’s a massive news roundup that should get you caught up on all the major developments from over the weekend. Let’s get to it.
No doubt capitalizing on the surprise success of last year’s The Town and (to a lesser extent) Takers, the L.A. Times has the scoop on two more bank robbery films looking to make it to the big screen:
The first is a remake of the recent German film The Robber, which centers on a marathon runner who robs banks for sport. Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, The Amazing Spider-Man) is a fan of the original and has expressed interest in playing the lead, which is based on German bank robber Johann Rettenberger. The film is said to be gaining momentum at Sony Pictures.
The second is the long awaited movie about Eddie Dobson, the so-called gentleman bank robber who used a fake gun as he robbed more than 72 banks in Southern California in the 1980s as a means for supporting his trendy Melrose Avenue shop and a growing drug habit. The film would be called Electric Slide and has Ewan McGregor attached to star. Blue Valentine producer Jamie Patricof will produce, while writer/director Tristan Patterson will deliver a script in the next few weeks.
Moving on, Deadline reports Catherine Zeta-Jones is negotiating to play the wife of a legendary gambler (Bruce Willis) in Stephen Frears’s Lay the Favorite. The adaptation of Beth Raymer’s memoir following her rise from Vegas cocktail waitress to a top sports gambling bookmaker has The Town‘s Rebecca Hall attached for the lead role.
Fresh off an Oscar win, it looks like Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) will score and appear in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Sources tell Bad Ass Digest that The Social Network scorer will play the vampire who kills Lincoln’s mom in the film. Reznor will also score David Fincher’s version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, so it looks like this whole film thing has become a second career of sorts for Reznor. Keep it coming, Trent.
An Ain’t It Cool News report confirms Iron Man 3 director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) will be writing the film’s script as well. Black also told the audience that Iron Man 3 will not be another “two men in iron suits fighting eachother” film. Instead, it would be more like a Tom Clancy thriller, with the hero taking on real world villains. And (thankfully) it sounds like after The Avengers Marvel will be moving back into “self-contained single-character stories.” So with Iron Man 3 they’ll again focus on Tony Stark, rather than bring in other heroes from the Marvel Universe. Brad discussed this in more detail earlier this morning, for that click here.
Sony Pictures has brought in David Koepp (Spider-Man) to work on the script for Men In Black III, which will end its production hiatus and resume shooting on March 28. Deadline notes the picture still has to film a time travel sequence that sends Will Smith’s Agent J back to 1969, with Josh Brolin playing a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K character and Alice Eve playing a younger version the agency head portrayed by Emma Thompson. Even with the delay, returning director Barry Sonnenfeld will ready the film for a May 25, 2012 release.
Also at Deadline, Brie Larson has landed the leading female role in 21 Jump Street. She joins Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube in Sony’s adaptation of the ’80s TV series that starred Johnny Depp as a young police officer who goes undercover looking to control youth crime. Larson is best known for playing Toni Collette’s rebellious daughter on Showtime’s “United States of Tara”.
THR reports Chris Pratt (“Parks and Recreation”) and Rhys Ifans (Greenberg, The Replacements) have joined Universal’s Judd Apatow-produced comedy Five-Year Engagement. The film follows the ups and downs in the relationship of a couple (Jason Segal and Emily Blunt) and will be directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek).
And finally, you can add a couple more names to the cast of New Line’s adaptation of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages, which already has Tom Cruise on board for a major part. Director Adam Shankman told The Wrap that Julianne Hough, who got her big break as one of the dancers on “Dancing with the Stars,” has landed the leading role of a girl who comes to Los Angeles to chase her dream. Meanwhile, THR reports Alex Baldwin has joined the cast as Dennis Dupree, an ex-rocker who runs the Rock of Ages nightclub. Will Ferrell and Steve Carell passed on the role before it was offered to Baldwin. Mary J. Blige has also signed on to play Justice.
