Diving right in we have more horror sequel news after we learned of the first two people cast in Fox’s Alien vs. Predator 2 we also learn of the first two names cast in Fox Atomic’s horror follow-up The Hills Have Eyes 2 to be directed by Martin Weisz. Jessica Stroup and Reshad Strik are the two no names that will be taking on the mutants this time in the film, which is currently set for a March 2, 2007 release. [Variety]
James Wong is set to rewrite and direct The Watch, a horror film set during WWII and being produced by Matt LeBlanc’s and John Goldstone’s production house Fort Hill Productions and New Line Cinema. The film has gone through production hell as it focuses on a team of soldiers sent on a mission that can help end World War II and battle a supernatural force. [Variety]
Rush Hour 3 is filling out its cast as Max von Sydow, Noemie Lenoir and Hiroyuki Sanada join Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in the Brett Ratner directed action comedy. Filming is set to start Sunday in Paris, where Tucker’s and Chan’s characters will battle a wing of a Chinese organized crime family. Max von Sydow will portray the head of the World Criminal Court, while French actress Lenoir will be the love interest for Tucker’s character. [Variety]
Tom Brady, not the New England Patriots quarterback, is set to direct the sports comedy The Comebacks for Fox Atomic. The film will star David Koechner as the losing-est football coach in the history of the sport, who goes for a shot at redemption with a ragtag college team. [Variety]
Tilda Swinton is reportedly close to working out a deal to join Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for director David Fincher. The film casts Pitt as a man who hits age 50 and begins aging backward. Complications ensue when he falls in love with a woman of 30, played by Cate Blanchett. Shooting will start November 6th in New Orleans, wrapping photography in Los Angeles February 7th.. [Production Weekly]
Kristin Scott Thomas is joining Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl, a historical drama based on a novel by Philippa Gregory. Thomas would play Lady Elizabeth, mother of the ferociously ambitious Boleyn sisters, Mary (Johansson) and Anne (Portman), who are rivals for the bed and heart of 16th century English King Henry VIII (Eric Bana). The film is being directed by Justin Chadwick and begins filming next week in Lacock Abbey. [Production Weekly]
Jim Caviezel is in negotiations to star in the epic sci-fi feature Outlander for writer/director Howard McCain. Filming on the project is scheduled to begin on October 16th. The film follows a human-like alien that crashes on Earth in 509 AD who inadvertently releases a horrible alien creature, called Moorwen, that he must destroy with the help of a barbaric Viking tribe. [Production Weekly]
Finally, we learn that director Nick Broomfield is broaching the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha by U.S. Marines as his next film. Broomfield will use dramatic reconstruction rather than documentary techniques to tell the story of the slayings. If you are unsure of what this is in reference to you may remember back in November the stories that came out reporting that Marines allegedly shot dead 24 Iraqi men, women and children in Haditha, in western Iraq, in reprisal for the killing of a lance corporal by a roadside bomb. Witnesses said the Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, including a 1-year-old child. Military investigations into the incident are ongoing. For the full story click the following link. [The Hollywood Reporter]
