I’m going to start today’s roundup with an update on George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, courtesy of Heat Vision. Borys Kit reports Riley Keough (Elvis Presley’s granddaughter) is set to join the cast as one of the “Five Wives” Max (Inception‘s Tom Hardy) must protect from the bad guys. You might recognize Keough from her role in The Runaways, where she played the sister of Cherie Currie. For those unfamiliar, Fury Road takes place just a short while after 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, hence the casting of a younger actor like Hardy. I bet they’re feeling pretty good about the decision not to bring back Mel Gibson right about now.
According to Steven Zeitchik of the L.A. Times, the English-language bestseller and French-language movie Tell No One is taking a path similar to that of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in making its way onto American soil. Tell No One tells the story of a doctor who begins receiving strange messages suggesting his wife, who was murdered eight years ago, may still be alive. The French version of the film made $6 million at the U.S. box office two years ago, and now Andrew Dominik (writer/director of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) has been working on a script for an English version of the film. I haven’t seen the original, but I think I’ll add it to my Netflix queue immediately after I finish this roundup considering it’s also available via Netflix Instant Play.
Reese Witherspoon has been working to get a biopic of singer Peggy Lee off the ground, and Variety‘s Pamela McClintock is now reporting she has lassoed Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, Julie & Julia) to write and direct. Lee, whose signature songs include “Fever,” is regarded as one of the most influential jazz vocalists of all time. Her career spanned nearly seven decades and extended to the big screen, most notably in 1955 when she wrote a number of songs and voiced several characters in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp.
Also at Variety, Dave McNary reports Germany’s Constantin Film has begun development on an English-language 3D animated Tarzan feature. The production has acquired the rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s novels, the first of which was published in 1912.
McNary also has the news that Ethan Hawke has signed on to star as a member of a string quarted in the independent drama A Late Quartet, which centers on a group whose members have performed together for 25 years and have to adjust to one of them retiring due to Parkinson’s disease. Hawke will play a violinist whose marriage begins to fall apart after his desire for more solos leads him to have an affair with his jogging partner.
By now I’m sure you know all about The Avengers, so I’ll just offer the brief note from SuperHeroHype that the plan is to start shooting in February.
Among the items discussed in this interview between Empire and director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) is his upcoming film adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He says they will keep the traditional look of Lincoln (you know, with the big hat and beard) and hopes to start shooting in America this winter, also noting that the movie will be in the vein of Nightwatch. Perhaps Liam Neeson will be interested in this story since he backed out of Spielberg’s long-delayed Lincoln biopic? We already know he can kick all sorts of ass. Bekmembetov mentions they will begin working on Wanted 2 after he finishes Vampire Hunter and James McAvoy wraps up X-Men: First Class, as well as offering tidbits on his nearly ten other proposed projects. Get more right here.
Early tracking for The Expendables has been impressive, so it comes as no surprise producer Avi Lerner is ready to greenlight a sequel if the opening weekend is as explosive as expected. HeyUGuys says they’ll wait until Monday to see what the box-office numbers look like to make a final decision. I’m still holding out hope that Tango will bring around Cash for a second go-round.
Adam McKay’s features have all been quite successful so I’m not sure why he would want to consider a sequel to The Other Guys or Step Brothers, but that’s precisely what he’s suggesting to MTV’s Eric Ditzian. His proposed Anchorman sequel got nixed so his next couple projects will be the dark comic adaptation The Boys and a Lee Atwater biopic, which he hopes will star either Jim Carrey or Edward Norton. Then, he’ll exercise the idea of one of those sequels.
Finally we have a few new posters. First, from Yahoo comes the poster for the Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis comedy Due Date (November 5).
Next is the poster for the independent sci-fi film Monsters (October 29) courtesy of Magnet Releasing. You can get a larger look at the poster, plus two other images from the film right here.
And lastly, here is yet another motion poster promoting Saw 3D (October 29).
