If you were worried about having to wait 12 years between each movie in the Avatar trilogy, fear not, because Adam Rosenberg from MTV has posted an interview with James Cameron where he says the idea of shooting the second and third installments back-to-back is being discussed. They would hypothetically be working under a plan where they would film all the motion capture first, then go back and film the live-action stuff. This of course is all going to come after Cameron finishes the Avatar novel, which he had intended to do while they were working on the first movie.
Rosenberg also sat down with director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), who says a Cloverfield sequel is still in the cards even if he and producer J.J. Abrams have been busy with other things of late. He went on to dispel the notion that Cloverfield and Abrams’ upcoming Super 8 are in any way connected… just in case there was any confusion there.
In supporting reports from The Playlist and Production Weekly, it looks like Sony is interested in Inglourious Basterds star Christoph Waltz as the main villain in the upcoming untitled Spider-Man reboot. It is unknown exactly which villain they’re casting, but Michael Fassbender was previously considered before he opted for a starring role in X-Men: First Class. I’d hate to see Waltz get typecast as a villain (he also plays one in Sony’s The Green Hornet and a bit of a brute in Water for Elephants) the same way guys like Mark Strong, Liev Schreiber and Peter Sarsgaard have, but his inclusion would certainly raise my level of interest in this movie.
Borys Kit at Heat Vision is reporting recent Inception star Cillian Murphy is set to star in the sci-fi drama I’m.mortal for writer/director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). He would join a cast that already includes Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake, though the latter is still in negotiations. The movie takes place in a future where no one ages and people live forever as long as they can afford it. Murphy will play an officer from Timekeepers and he will presumably be tracking down Timberlake, a poor man who is suddenly given a fortune and becomes the target of a murder investigation. Seyfried will play an heiress Timberlake’s character kidnaps along the way. Am I alone in thinking it sounds a bit like Logan’s Run with a touch of Repo Men mixed in?
Edward Douglas of Coming Soon conducted an interview with French actor Vincent Cassel, who discussed a number of items including confirmation that he would be returning for a sequel to Eastern Promises alongside Viggo Mortensen and director David Cronenberg. He also said he would be reuniting with his Brotherhood of the Wolf director, Christophee Gans, in a “huge action, supervillain” movie, which would also star Jean Reno. Cassel will next be seen in the critically acclaimed French gangster movie, Mesrine, which will finally open in the U.S. in two parts beginning August 27.
Fresh off the debut of the trailer for Speed 3: Stop That Train! Unstoppable (watch here), action director extraordinaire Tony Scott has found a new project in the form of Nemesis. Deadline reports 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to the graphic novel written by Mark Millar, who is also responsible for the source material for Kick-Ass and Wanted. Nemesis tells the story of a billionaire genius who’s also a caped vigilante hell bent on exacting revenge against the police chief responsible for the death of his villainous parents.
Lastly, in an odd story from Larry Rohter at Arts Beat, a Kazakh director named Erkin Rakishev has announced he is planning a sequel to Borat in an effort to counter the negative stereotypes against the country in Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 mockumentary. My Brother, Borat will follow a fan of the original Borat as he travels to Kazakhstan and finds a surprisingly prosperous and modern state.
