Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) has been brought on to do a “three-week production polish” on the screenplay for the video game adaptation of Uncharted which will be directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) following the previous draft written by David Guggenheim (Safe House). Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) recently passed on an offer to play the film’s lead, an Indiana Jones type named Nate Drake, a descendent of explorer Sir Francis Drake, who believes he has learned the whereabouts of the fabled golden South American city El Dorado from a cursed statue. The film is currently slated for a June 10, 2016 release. [THR]
Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Starred Up) and Julia Roberts are in talks to join George Clooney in director Jodie Foster‘s financial thriller Money Monster in which Clooney stars as Lee Gates, a bombastic financial TV personality who offers up stock advice on his hit show “Money Monster”. O’Connell will reportedly play a blue-collar worker fed up with being exploited by the sharks on Wall Street. With a baby on the way, he feels he has no choice but to take Lee hostage on the air in order to increase a stock’s value and expose the corporate crooks who have been deceiving the American public. Roberts will serve as Clooney’s love interest and director and executive producer of “Money Monster”. [The Wrap]
Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy) will direct and develop the sci-fi thriller Second Born, based on an original screenplay by David Jagernauth. The story takes place in a futuristic world in which neural microchip implants are used to store one’s consciousness, leading to black market body-swapping. [Variety]
Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb) is eying the director’s chair on 40 Thieves for Fox. The film is described as a retelling of the classic tale of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” as an adventure film with strong comedic undertones. Fox hopes it turns into the type of four-quadrant tentpole that Levy has made a name for himself directing. The Wrap adds that the project is “in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy and Pirates of the Caribbean“. [Variety]
Lee Daniels (Precious, The Butler) is eying a thriller as his next feature, that being the fact-based film currently titled Demon House, based on Latoya Ammons and her family, who claim to have been victims of a demonic possession that has spanned over two years and counting. I’ve included a Fox News report on the incident to the right. [Deadline]
Ryan Coogler‘s Creed, a Rocky spin-off which sees Michael B. Jordan playing the grandson of Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers in the Rocky movies), is still moving forward. The film will find Jordan’s character mentored by Rocky Balboa with Sylvester Stallone reprising his role as Rocky with champion boxers Andre Ward and Tony Bellew joining the cast. Bellew will be the main opponent for Creed, a fighter called “Pretty Ricky Porter.” The movie is looking at a January start and is due to shoot in Las Vegas and Philadelphia. [THR]
Universal will distribute M. Night Shyamalan‘s The Visit (formerly Sundowning) for a September 11, 2015 release. The film centers on a single mother finds that things in her family’s life go very wrong after her two young children visit their grandparents.
Word is X-Men: Apocalypse is being crafted around Jennifer Lawrence‘s Mystique character and Michael Fassbender‘s Magneto and will take full advantage of Lawrence and Fassbender’s star power, placing Mystique and Magneto’s romance front and center. [THR]
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are teaming for Central Intelligence for We are the Millers director Rawson Marshall Thurber and New Line Cinema. The story begins with a class reunion approaching, as a former high school sports star turned accountant (Hart) is contacted by a classmate (Johnson) who was bullied and humiliated back in the day. The “loser” that the accountant remembers is now a CIA contract killer who ropes him into helping foil a plot to sell classified military secrets. [Variety]
Hardest workin' man in the room, talkin' to… the other hardest workin' man in the room… http://t.co/Fdfq8ZE5YM
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) November 8, 2014
I see you big fella….The world is not ready for what we are about to hit them with @TheRock ……Let's … http://t.co/qp4uOq7To1
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) November 8, 2014
Alexander Payne is eying Alec Baldwin for his new movie Downsizing. [Omaha.com]
The Mechanic 2 has been given the greenlight under the title Mechanic: Resurrection and will see Jason Statham return as Arthur Bishop. When someone from his past (be cool if it was John Wick) forces him back into the business, Bishop has to complete an impossible list of assassinations of the most dangerous men in the world. Jessica Alba, Tommy Lee Jones and Michelle Yeoh co-star in the film which is set to hit theaters on January 22, 2016.
Jamie Foxx is attached to star in Harmony Korine‘s (Springbreakers) ensemble gangster drama The Trap, which Korine has described as “his most ambitious film to date.” Benicio del Toro is also attached to star in the revenge pic, which is expected to shoot early next year in Miami. [Variety]
