Fincher Heads 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Personally I don’t really like the sound of this. David Fincher directing a special effects tentpole feature doesn’t necessarily have me shouting from the rooftops. I like Fincher drenched in noir and I think he’s the perfect director for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which will be his next feature after this Fall’s The Social Network, but following that up we now have something of a different beast.
Fincher is set to take over McG’s recently departed seat as director of a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake for Walt Disney Pictures. Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) is in talks to adapt the script based on the classic 1869 Jules Verne science fiction novel about a group of men who encounter a vengeful scientific genius and his warlike submarine. [Heat Vision]
Seymour Hoffman and Wright In Talks for Moneyball: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright are in early talks to join Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in Columbia Pictures’s Moneyball for director Bennett Miller who last worked with Hoffman to an Oscar win with Capote. Based on Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book, story centers on the 2002 Oakland Athletics, who were led by general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) to an excellent season despite having the lowest payroll in the Major Leagues. Hoffman would play team manager Art Howe, who frequently clashed with Beane over strategic decisions. Wright would portray Beane’s ex-wife. [Variety]
Sargent Called In to Punch Up the ‘Spider-Man’ Reboot: Alvin Sargent did script work on Sony’s Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3 and has now been called into action on the currently Untitled Spider-Man Reboot which Marc Webb is directing for a July 3, 2012 release date. He will be doing a “production polish” on Jamie Vanderbilt’s original script with expectations to begin shooting later this year. [Heat Vision]
Bruce Willis to Play Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Looper: Rian Johnson’s Looper is gaining traction following its earlier blurb of a mention as the sci-fi film has now added Bruce Willis to the cast to play an older version of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character. The film is a time travel feature in which a group of killers (called Loopers) work for a crime syndicate in the future who send their targets back in time to be killed. [Deadline]
Notes From Cannes: Today I conducted interviews with the team from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and got a few nuggets of information:
- Michael Douglas will begin filming Liberace for Steven Soderbergh and co-starring Matt Damon around this time next year.
- I think Frank Langella may be working on a new film with Oliver Stone, but he wasn’t offering the information up explicitly.
- Shia LaBeouf begins principal photography on Transformers 3 on Tuesday, May 28
A Secret Wachowski Sci-Fi In the Works?: Back in December 2009 Arianna Huffington Twittered some photos saying she was working on a futuristic movie on Iraq for the Wachowskis. Nothing had been heard of the feature since other than a similar report from Jesse Ventura. Now, we get the following information:
I’m told they are circulating a new script that brings them back to terrain they covered in 1996’s Bound, a heist film with a lesbian romance. This one’s a drama that focuses on a “hard R” homosexual relationship between a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi. It’s a cinema verite-style treatment that begins in the near future and then spans back over years that include the current war in Iraq. I’ve heard the siblings completed the script, want to direct it next, and that it is out to financiers.
Listening to that description I am just hoping they aren’t expecting a large budget. [Deadline]
