‘Toy Shining,’ Ribisi Joins ‘Gangster Squad,’ Burger is ‘Uncharted’ and Daddario is Up for a ‘Massacre’

There’s more than enough to talk about today, but these following six bits I found to be the most interesting of the flock, with the first one undoubtedly being the most entertaining. Enjoy!

Kyle Lambert posted the above image featuring 25 different individual paintings he created on his iPad for a faux film he dubbed Toy Shining. Here is an explanation for why he did it as well as a video featuring the creation process.

Earlier this year I began following Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story 3, on Twitter (@leeunkrich). As well as his journey to the Oscars with Toy Story 3, Lee often tweets about his passion for Stanley Kubrick and the movie The Shining which inspired him to pursue a career in filmmaking. Having seen both The Shining and Toy Story 3 for the first time recently myself, I thought it would be cool idea to mash the two movies together as a fun side project.

It started off with a few notes on a post-it describing how the two movies could be combined and quickly grew into a 25 panel storyboard. Once I had sketched each composition I set about painting the panels with my iPad using the Brushes app. The project took around 2 months to complete in my spare time from idea to the finished storyboard.

Coincidentally, towards the end of the project I was invited to visit the Pixar Studio for the day by one of their artists Don Shank and thought it would be a great opportunity to deliver a printed version of the project to Lee in person. Unfortunately he wasn’t at the studio that day, but has since received the poster, Tweeting..

You can get better looks at each individual painting at the following link. [Kyle Lambert]

Neil Burger (Limitless) has signed on to fill the David O. Russell’s vacated shoes as director of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for Columbia Pictures. Mark Wahlberg was previously attached when Russell had the gig, but it is unclear as to whether he’ll stick around to play Nathan Drake, a descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, who goes on a quest to seek the lost treasure of El Dorado with the help of his friend Victor “Sully” Sullivan and a female journalist. Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Scarlett Johansson were previously rumored to be up for roles. [Variety]

Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar) is the latest to join the stacked cast of Ruben Fleischer‘s Gangster Squad where he’ll co-star with Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie and Bryan Cranston. The film is based off the L.A. Times’ seven-part series “Tales From the Gangster Squad” penned by Paul Lieberman, which chronicled efforts by the LAPD to deal with a chaotic and corrupt Los Angeles by forming what was dubbed the Gangster Squad to keep the East Coast Mafia out of the city. Ribisi will play Conway Keeler, a cop in the group who is a master of electronics and wires. [Deadline]

Alexandra Daddario (Hall Pass) is in final negotiations to play the female lead in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D for director John Luessenhop (Takers) alongside Bill Moseley. The film has been declared a direct sequel to Tobe Hooper’s classic 1974 film that follows the lead character, Heather (Daddario), who along with her friends, travel to Texas in order to collect an inheritance where they eventually have a run in with Leatherface. Lionsgate has already set a October 5, 2012 release date, just a few weeks ahead of Dimension’s planned release of Halloween 3-D. [Variety]

Relativity Media has announced they will release Marc Forster‘s Machine Gun Preacher in Los Angeles and New York on September 23 with plans to expand into additional markets in the weeks to follow. The film stars Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon and is based on the true story of Sam Childers (Butler), a former drug-dealing criminal who finds faith leading him on a path to East Africa. Shocked by the mayhem in Sudan, Childers becomes a crusader for hundreds of refugee children. Inspired to create a safe haven for the multitudes fleeing enslavement by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, he restores peace to their lives and eventually his own. [Press Release]

Abigail Spencer (“Mad Men”, Cowboys and Aliens) is set to star in Sam Raimi‘s Oz, the Great and Powerful as a young woman who is a willing subject of Oz’s magic tricks which the erstwhile magician is performing in Kansas. She joins James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Joey King and Zach Braff in what is being called a prequel to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz influenced by creator L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” books in which a traveling mid-Western magician (Franco) crash lands in the magical land of Oz after which he runs into three powerful witches (Kunis, Weisz and Williams). The film is already set for a March 8, 2013 release. [Heat Vision]

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