I’ll begin with news that Mark Romanek is now the frontrunner to direct The Lost Symbol as Ron Howard will not return to direct the third film in Dan Brown’s franchise focusing on Harvard religious expert and symbologist Robert Langdon played by Tom Hanks. Howard directed The Da Vinci Code and followed that up with Angels & Demons in 2009, but was expected to move to The Dark Tower after that, but once that fell through he began work on Rush, the Formula 1 racing featuring starring Chris Hemsworth, which will hit theaters next year.
Romanek, on the other hand, was briefly on saying, “That script was a terrific version of that kind of thing, but not something I felt really passionate about,” which brings us to today.
Brown helped co-write the Lost Symbol script with Eastern Promises screenwriter Steven Knight. The story this time around follows Langdon to Washington, D.C., where he begins decoding the symbols of the Freemasons. Romanek is not yet confirmed for the gig, but negotiations are expected to begin soon.
Next we come to a project we haven’t heard much about since Bryan Singer was attached to direct back in brought on to pen the script.
Outside of Anonymous, Orloff’s screenwriting credits include Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, A Mighty Heart and HBO’s “Band of Brothers“. While his track record doesn’t say “sci-fi” he is definitely excited for the opportunity as he commented briefly on the project with HitFix:
“I’m a huge fan of the original series and of the second show, too. But I always thought the first show was a little too heavily reliant on ‘Star Wars,’ you know? Whereas I think the second show was really original and really cool. And I think I’ve come up with a way to write this movie that won’t fuck any of that up. I’m not sure how much they want me to talk about it. Let’s just say it’s not what you expect. It will all work in the universe that exists. It will not conflict with anything Ron Moore has done. I don’t think you can compete with what he’s done.
“I’m actually a science fiction geek more than anything. I just sort of got type cast as sort of a non-fiction screenwriter. That’s because the first thing I ever wrote was ‘Anonymous’ and then my first job was ‘Band of Brothers,’ and that led to ‘A Mighty Heart.’ But I’m a total ‘Star Wars’ geek. I was a huge ‘Star Trek’ nut. ‘2001’ is probably my favorite film. Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director; every movie is like a novel in the sense of the metaphoric depths of his thinking. And so my whole life I’ve always wanted to write a space epic. So to finally get a chance to write in the genre that I wanted to write basically forever is really cool.”
Obviously he couldn’t say much, but the enthusiasm is definitely there.
Next we come to the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewelyn Davis. Oscar Isaac was already confirmed for the lead role as a musician who tries to make it in the New York music scene in the 1960s, and you can add Carey Mulligan to the cast as well, though her role in the feature is currently unknown.
Mulligan has also entered negotiations to take a lead role in an untitled project for Spike Jonze project about world leaders uniting to discuss cataclysmic events. She would join Joaquin Phoenix on the film with Charlie Kaufman penning the script.
Expectation is she’ll begin work on the Coen flick in February and take on the Jonze feature in the spring. She’s currently working with Baz Luhrmann and Leonardo DiCaprio on The Great Gatsby, which was recently revealed would be released on Christmas 2012, going head-to-head with Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
Finally we come to Steven Soderbergh‘s The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which was originally expected to star George Clooney followed by both Matt Damon and Johnny Depp passing. However, a new frontrunner has emerged in Bradley Cooper who currently has an offer to play Napoleon Solo in the drama based on the NBC television series which aired from 1964-68 and focused on the adventures of American and Russian members of a secret agency called the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
Cooper is currently working on The Silver Linings Playbook for director David O. Russell and will follow that up with Paradise Lost for Alex Proyas.
