The Smurfs’ Take Over The Big Apple

As we are all filled with anticipation for the new live action/CGI Smurfs film to be released, we can’t help but want a little bigger peek into what the film is going to look like. We had a short teaser trailer come about and now Coming Soon was kind enough to print an official picture  with the headlining smurf cast presented. The official synopsis is presented below:

Audiences everywhere are in for a Smurfy good time as the Smurfs make their first 3D trip to the big screen. When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours – in fact, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down. The film is set for release August 3, 2011.

Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, and Hank Azaria star on camera opposite an all-star voice cast. Anton Yelchin will play Clumsy Smurf; comedy legend Jonathan Winters, who voiced roles in the “Smurfs” television series, will voice Papa Smurf; Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Katy Perry will play Smurfette; Alan Cumming will play Gutsy Smurf; “SNL’s” Fred Armisen will voice Brainy Smurf; and George Lopez will play Grouchy Smurf.

In the live-action roles, Azaria will play the Smurfs’ nemesis, the evil wizard Gargamel. Harris and Mays star as an expectant couple whose lives are turned upside down when the Smurfs cross over from their magical village to New York City. Vergara plays Odile, Harris’s boss, a cosmetics executive.

The Smurfs hits theaters August 3rd, 2011.

The Avengers to Assemble in New Mexico

Thor not only kicks off the summer movie season of 2011, but it sets in motion the events that will culminate in the Marvel superhero team-up epic, The Avengers, the following year. With story elements of Thor taking place in New Mexico, and the production actually shooting in Santa Fe and Galisteo, it’s no surprise to see Marvel Studios returning to the mountainous state once again for their biggest project ever.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Marvel Studios officially announced the agreement today, making The Avengers the single largest film production in the state’s history. The current schedule has Joss Whedon’s The Avengers shooting in New Mexico between April and September of next year, using both Albuquerque Studios and of course, the beautiful and vast surrounding locations that so many other major Hollywood films have used in the past.


The Avengers also is set to shoot scenes in Michigan and New York but production will primarily take place in New Mexico’s largest city Albuquerque. Having been there myself earlier this year on the set of Cowboys & Aliens, there are not many areas in the U.S. that offer such a wide variety of natural and vast scenery to take advantage of for on-location shooting.

Thor opens May 5, 2011; 
The First Avenger: Captain America hits July 22, 2011
The Avengers is scheduled to debut May 4, 2012.

Source: New Mexico Film

Anne Hathaway talks Judy Garland project

Anne Hathaway may have spent her last movie (Love And Other Drugs) rolling around in the sack with Jake Gyllenhaal, but she’s not going to mope now that’s over – instead looking to the future.

While rumours were shot down last week that she’d be starring in the Barbarella remake, Hathaway will definitely be starring in a Judy Garland biopic – if it ever gets made.

“It’s a very sensitive project and there have been so many stories told about her life that we’re really trying to get it right,” she tells BBC Radio Four’s Front Row. “So we’re taking our time with it.

“I know it seems like it’s sort of an endless process but it’s very, very slow incremental steps. I had a meeting about it a couple of weeks ago and we’re all very motivated.”

So at least the reason for the project’s slow birth is that they want to get it right – not that Hollywood thinks it’s a duff.

The singing aspect of the movie is also something that’s being debated, with it unclear whether Hathaway will do a Reese Witherspoon and sing herself, or mime to Garland’s existing vocals.

 “I certainly don’t sing like Judy Garland but the talk is to have me do the singing,” Hathaway says. “But I think people might cry murder if they don’t get to hear Judy’s beloved voice so the talk is for me to sing but I don’t know if that’s exactly what will happen.”

Source: Front Row

Vin Diesel talks third Riddick film

Vin Diesel has hopped onto Facebook to post a message about his third Riddick movie, and he's divulged an intriguing little snippet of information.

According to the muscle man’s post, his third outing as the intergalactic alien-killing criminal will see the actor taking on three different looks.

 “[Director David Twohy] has a new challenge in store,” Diesel writes. “He wants me to have three different body looks for this next chapter… There is the DiNorscio type, the Dom type, and the lean Furyan type… but all in the same movie, haha…”

Which basically means we’re going to see Riddick as fat, ripped and skinny (Vinny's referencing three of his own films there). Could this third Riddick involve some kind of weird viral infection that causes Riddick’s body to change and mutate?

Whatever happens, Diesel seems up for it. “When it comes to art, we all like a challenge,” he says.

Little Fockers

Will Tony Scott direct 24: The Movie?

Could Tony Scott be the director to pull 24: The Movie out of production hell?

Ever since 24 arrived in 2001, reinvigorating TV schedules and Kiefer Sutherland's acting career, rumours of a movie version have persisted.

Since the series came to an end this year, speculation has been rife. We've already had one slightly naff 24 TV movie, which aired between seasons six and seven.

Now it looks like Tony Scott could be calling the shots on Jack Bauer's big-screen outing.

The show's executive producer Howard Gordon spoke to AssignmentX to about the status of the movie.

Gordon said: "The rumours are that Tony Scott has an idea that he is going to run by or has run by Kiefer Sutherland. I don't know what the status of it is."

On a script that had previously been turned in by Billy Ray (Flightplan, State of Play), Gordon commented: "There was a script, but ultimately it wasn't the right proposition."
"It wasn't strong enough or compelling enough to the studio obviously to move ahead with it."

So nothing firm there, but a director of Scott's heft could help to get the project moving again.

He seems like the ideal candidate to helm Bauer's cinematic outing, with a track record of tense, kinetic action thrillers.

Kiefer Sutherland has previously stated that the movie wouldn't play out in real time, and would instead condense a 24-hour period into two hours.

Source: AssignmentX

Alex Pettyfer to play racing driver James Hunt

Alex Pettyfer is continuing his efforts to make good on his Next Big Thing tag, by signing up to play British racing driver James Hunt.

DreamWorks, who are also producing Pettyfer's next big shot at stardom, I Am Number Four, are behind the adaptation of Shunt: The Story of James Hunt, a biography by Tom Rubython.

Hunt became the Formula One champ in 1976, and he was deemed to be a big factor in the growing popularity of the sport.

Hunt is quite a character for Pettyfer to get his teeth into. He was known for his fiery attitude behind the wheel, as well as his eccentric behaviour away from the track.

Hunt went on to become a commentator on the sport, before he died in 1993, aged only 45.

His life story certainly seems ideal for a cinematic adaptation, with a decent character to invest in amidst the high-speed racing action.

I Am Number Four is due for release in February, and following that Pettyfer can be seen in Beauty and the Beast update Beastly, which arrives in April.

Source: Deadline

Wrath Of The Titans will be better than Clash

Clash Of The Titans earned itself a bad rep this year thanks to its lacklustre 3D conversion and potholed story, but star Sam Worthington has promised that the sequel will be an improvement.

Talking with Moviefone this weekend, the Aussie native acknowledged that Clash had its shortcomings. But he fully intends to rectify those with sequel Wrath Of The Titans.

“I just think we can improve on it,” he says. “I think the first one, we kind of let down some people. And yeah, I totally agree. The only point of doing a sequel is either the audience demands it or you believe you can better the first one.

“What we’re setting out to do with this one — the writers and the director and myself — is improve.”

Worthington goes on to add that he thinks he “can act fucking better, to be honest…” Meanwhile, it seems he’s been trawling the net to find out just what went wrong in the eyes of moviegoers.

“[I'll] take all the notes from people that I have been reading about on the ‘net and give them a movie they fucking want,” he says. “This one I want to kind of try to satisfy a lot more people.”
Wrath indeed...

Source: Moviefone

H.R. Giger is working on the Alien prequel

Ridley Scott isn’t the only one making a belated return to the Alien film franchise with his upcoming prequel – celebrated concept artist H.R. Giger is also set to return.

The Swiss surrealist, of course, was integral in the creation of the xenomorph in the first Alien movie – and bagged an Oscar for his efforts.

Now, Giger’s wife Carmen Scheifele has revealed that he will be re-teaming with Scott to work on the film’s 3D prequel.

Which makes sense, considering the prequel is set to go back to before the beginning, and explore the origins of the first film’s infamous Space Jockey.

Previously, Giger felt that his work on fourth Alien film Resurrection was so badly interpreted that he had his name scrubbed from the credits.

We're sure Scott will treat whatever genius stuff Giger comes up with for the prequel with the utmost gooey respect.

Source: Digital Spy

Dan Brown taking on Lost Symbol

Dan Brown will be personally adapting his book The Lost Symbol, the third in his Da Vinci Code saga, for the big screen.

Previously, Steven Knight had been hired to write the script adaptation for the third film in the series, but now Brown has taken the reigns.

Neither Tom Hanks – who played Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons – nor director Ron Howard have yet signed on for Lost Symbol.

But considering their first two films made over $1.24bn at the worldwide box office, we’re sure they’ll get some pretty hefty offers to come back.

Lost Symbol sees Langdon unravelling mysteries around the Freemasons during a 12-hour quest in Washington, DC.

Source: Risky Business

McG wants to direct Ouija

Directors Breck Eisner and McG are neck-and-neck in their bid to turn spooky board game Ouija into a movie.

Both have pitched their takes on the project to Universal Pictures – McG this Friday, Eisner the week before. Now all they can do is sit back and wait as the studio decide whose concept is better.

Why so much kerfuffle over a movie about a spirit board? Well, the studio are hoping to create the next Indiana Jones or Pirates Of The Caribbean with Ouija.

Instead of taking the concept into supernatural horror territory, Universal are planning on making a big budget adventure film.
They’ve already set a release date of 9 November, 2012, which means they’ll have to make a decision pretty soon.

Who’s best suited to the job? Both directors have had their duffs, but both also have the aptitude and experience to take something this big on.
McG, if nothing else, is always ambitious, while Eisner’s The Crazies was a surprisingly effective take on the zombie genre.

If only a to-the-death cagefight between the two directors was utilised to make the final decision. Now that’s something we’d pay to see…

Source: Heat Vision

Ron Howard talks Stephen Kings' The Dark Tower

Filmmakers have been trying to adapt Stephen King's The Dark Tower series for years, and in September it was confirmed that Ron Howard would be the latest director to have a stab at the project.

Howard is taking a unique approach to King's rich and complex series; the novels are extremely dense, and draw from influences as diverse as The Lord of the Rings and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns.
Howard's adaptation is set to take the form of three movies (of which he'll direct the first at least), with an additional two television series airing between the films.

Akiva Goldsman is on scripting duties for the mammoth project, but it's not sure what Howard will direct beyond the initial movie.

Talking about the project, Howard said: "Filmically, there are tones in this that I've never used before, tones of fantasy menace and elements of horror and real fear. And there's the burden, on the characters, of this journey that's really palpable. That's what we need to get on the screen.

"I think there's something about Green Mile or a Shawshank Redemption, the complexity and the ballast of them, those are two [King adaptations] where you do get the horror and suspense that's there on the page."
Interestingly, in another Frank Darabont King adaptation, The Mist, there's a cheeky nod made to The Dark Tower via a film poster.

Talking about the large-scale, cross-media approach to the project, Howard adds: "It's different to anything I've ever done and in really interesting ways... There's this entire world and all of these references and there are the books and the graphic novels and just talking to Stephen and it's all this ongoing conversation with the material and it's really exciting.

"In all of it, he leaves a lot open to interpretation and so it gives a great deal of latitude."

Source: FirstShowing