Aronosfky and Weisz Prep Jackie O. Project: Darren Aronofsky and his fiance Rachel Weisz are prepping to work together once again on Jackie. The film was written by first time screenwriter Noah Oppenheim and centers on Jackie Kennedy Onassis (Weisz) over the course of the four days following her husband, President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and his burial, showing Jackie O. at both her most vulnerable and her most graceful. Aronofsky will direct and produce the picture along with his producing partner Scott Franklin and their Protozoa Pictures film company. Aronofsky just finished with Black Swan starring Natalie Portman and is an off-and-on-again candidate to potentially debut at Cannes in May. [EW]
Hutcherson Added to Spidey Mix: I really couldn’t care less about the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. To be honest, I’ve been over the Spidey franchise for quite some time and now the blogger bickering over who will play the lead role in the new high school years Spidey is just tiresome. Nevertheless, it’s my job and new reports say Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the Center of the Earth) can be added to the list of two alongside Logan Lerman as potentially starring as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. As was the case with the lead casting of The First Avenger: Captain America I don’t expect this to be the end of the finger pointing. [IESB]
Copley is Negotiating Starring Role in I am Number Four: Sharlto Copley went from first time actor in District 9 to starring as Howling Mad Murdock in Joe Carnahan’s The A-Team and is now said to be in talks to topline I am Number Four at DreamWorks. D.J. Caruso (Disturbia) is directing from a script penned by Al Gough and Miles Millar based on the upcoming young-adult science fiction book by James Frey and Jobie Hughes. Alex Pettyfer is playing the title role of Four, one of nine aliens who escape their home planet before its annihilation by a rival species and hide out on Earth disguised as human high schoolers. Copley is playing a man who hailed from the alien world’s serving class but now is the title character’s adult guardian and mentor. [Heat Vision]
Johansson and Rockwell Eye Lunatic at Large: Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are two of the newest members to the Iron Man franchise and it doesn’t stop there as they have both been attached to star in Lunatic at Large based on an original story by novelist Jim Thompson and the late Stanley Kubrick. The script was once thought to be lost, but then found among Kubrick’s vast library of saved material and details of the story have been discussed previously such as in the following passage from a 2006 New York Times article:
Set in New York in 1956, it tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a Hopperesque tavern scene. There’s a newsboy who flashes a portentous headline, a car chase over a railroad crossing with a train bearing down, and a romantic interlude in a spooky, deserted mountain lodge.
The great set piece is a nighttime carnival sequence in which Joyce, lost and afraid, wanders among the tents and encounters a sideshow’s worth of familiar carnie types: the Alligator Man, the Mule-Faced Woman, the Midget Monkey Girl, the Human Blockhead, with the inevitable noggin full of nails.
Stephen R. Clarke did a recent rewrite, of which commercial director Chris Palmer was once expected to make his feature directorial debut. Whether that’s still in the cards is yet to be seen. [Production Weekly]
Cronenberg’s Talking Cure Retitled: David Cronenberg’s next film has gone from the title of The Talking Cure to A Dangerous Method. The film is based on the play by Christopher Hampton and is about the conflict between Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and his pupil Jung (Michael Fassbender). Keira Knightley will play Sabina, a disturbed young woman brought to see Jung by her father after which Jung and Sabina have an affair. Filming starts next month and will take place in Berlin, Vienna and Zurich. [Production Weekly]
Jackman and Wilde Spin Butter: Hugh Jackman and Olivia Wilde have joined the cast of Butter to be directed by Jim Field Smith (She’s Out of My League). The comedy is set to begin production later this month and Jackman will play an old flame of Garner’s character, while Wilde will be playing a tattooed stripper with a Betty Page hairdo who’s also the mistress to a term-limited butter-carving champion (Ty Burrell). Also, we recently learned Alicia Silverstone had joined the cast and now we have confirmation she will play Jill Emmet, the adoptive mother of Destiny (Yara Shahidi), a teen girl who becomes a major contender in the butter-carving competition. Filming is scheduled to begin in Shreveport next week. [Variety and Movieline]
Foxx is Welcome to the Jungle: Jamie Foxx and 20th Century Fox are putting together the animated feature Welcome to the Jungle based on an original pitch by Foxx and scribe Malcolm Spellman. Foxx is attached to star in the story, which is being kept quiet for now. [Variety]
