Bloody Disgusting is reporting a rumor Mark Wahlberg has been offered the lead role in Relativity Media’s remake of Alex Proyas’s The Crow. Nick Cave has been working on a rewrite of Stephen Norrington’s script based James O’Barr’s original comic with Norrington expected to direct. The original 1994 film featured the late Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a young rock musician who was brutally murdered a year earlier that comes back from the dead to avenge his and his fiancees murder.
Continuing with rumors from Bloody Disgusting, they are reporting James Franco and Anne Hathaway are now contenders for the lead roles in Ridley Scott’s untitled Alien prequel. Previously it was said Natalie Portman was the production’s #1 choice for the lead role of a female Colonial Marine with Swedish star Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) also being highly regarded. It sounds as if something official may be very close to being announced.
Word has it Ben Affleck’s follow-up to The Town may be Replay, a Jason Smilovic-scripted adaptation of Ken Grimwood’s 1989 novel centered on a 43-year old radio journalist who dies, wakes up in his 18-year old body and gets to relive his life over and over. With his original memory intact, he takes the opportunity to travel down roads he passed up the first time around. The obvious comparison would be to Groundhog Day and this seems to be the dramatic ying to that Groundhog”s yang.
Next is a story that isn’t rumor, but is in fact… a fact. David Chase (creator and producer of “The Sopranos”) is teaming with Steven Van Zandt for a new film, to be directed by Chase from his own screenplay, described as a music-driven coming of age story set in 1960’s suburbia. The untitled film will serve as Chase’s feature film directorial debut and will star John Magaro, Jack Huston and Will Brill with Paramount Vantage handling distribution. Principal photography is already underway in New York.
Perhaps you didn’t know, but Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) has a new film on the way called Tower Heist and he’s already cast Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and Alan Alda in the action-drama and today Deadline reports Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Michael Pena (Battle: Los Angeles) have been added to the cast.
The film centers on the overworked manager (Stiller) of an illustrious tower residence who leads a team of defrauded workers in a heist of its penthouse tenant, a Bernie Madoff-type Wall Street capitalist (Alda) who pulled a Ponzi scheme and swindled the staff. Sidibe and Pena will play employees who work in a luxury high-rise and discover their pension funds have been drained. Universal has already set a November 4, 2011 release date for the pic.
Finally, Deadline reports Dimension has hired Feast scripters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan to pen the script for Piranha 3 DD. Not only known for the independent horror film Feast, Melton and Dunstan are most likely better known as the team behind the scripts for Saw V, Saw VI and next week’s Saw 3D. However, Feast seems to be the key for the decision as Feast helmer, John Gulager, has also been hired to direct the feature with expectation to get the film in theaters by August 2011.
I’m not sure if the hiring of the writers and director is bigger news, or the fact it’s being called Piranha 3 DD?
