Update: Unlike most of the joke stories posted today, the facts within this story were near perfect. We were skeptical, and have finally confirmed that the story is nothing more than an April Fools Day joke.
Pixar will be stepping out of the animated realm into the live action world. The Incredibles director Brad Bird’s (Ratatouille) next project, John Carter of Mars, will be the first live action Pixar film. The movie will be an adaptation from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ eleven-volume Barsoom novel series.
According to UpcomingPixar, the animation studio will provide the visual effects for the film and Children of Men screenwriter Mark Fergus will co-direct and write the script. Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) has also worked on the story. Bob Peterson will co-produce with John Walker (The Incredibles) and John Lasseter (Toy Story, Cars) will executive produce.
Attempts to adapt the book into a film have been going on since 1931. Jon Favreau, Robert Rodriguez, Ray Harryhausen, John McTiernan and Kerry Conran were each attached to direct at some point. At least three attempts were made to translate this adventure series to film in the past, and all were aborted. The first attempt was to be an animated feature with Burroughs himself on board, but disagreements between the studio and the filmmakers doomed the project.
A Princess of Mars was first published in 1917. The movie will follow Civil War vet John Carter, who is transplanted to Mars, where he discovers a lush, wildly diverse planet whose main inhabitants are 12-foot tall green barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, who is in desperate need of a savior.
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Our friends over at Collider spoke to Shia LaBeouf at the Disturbia press junket and were able to pry a few interesting Transformers tidbits out of him.
According to Shia, the movie is going to run two and a half hours:
“It’s going to be long. He’s going to give you a lot. You’ve got 20 set pieces. You like at Spider-Man and it had five big action sequences – five set pieces. We have 20, and you’ve got to get storyline in, you’ve got to get the narrative in – so a lot of explanation. You can’t just have robots fighting for no reason. You’ve got to explain it. The movies going to run, I think, about two and a half.”
Two and a half hours? Twenty set pieces? He says that the people at ILM (you know, the people who did the FX for Star Wars) say “they’d never worked on anything like this.” Wait, there’s more. LaBeouf went on to claim that none of the actors “got paid above $70,000 dollars. We were all there to blow shit up.”
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Clerks 2 director Kevin Smith has been very vocal about his upcoming slate (or may-be he’s just very vocal period), which includes a horror film and a romantic comedy he wrote for Clerks 2 star Rosario Dawson. So when we asked Dawson about the project, we were surprised to learn that the Mallrats director hasn’t even approached her, YET.
“No. I keep hearing that. The Weinsteins have told me that, but I have not had that confirmed from Kevin so I’m not taking that on,” Rosario told /Film at the Grindhouse Junket. “I’ve been going back and fourth talking with him just in general. I think he’s phenomenal and I hope he’s there at the Premiere on Monday [which he was] because the last time I talked with him he was in Canada. So I can’t say. I know that I’m a rabid ridiculous huge fan of his and love him to pieces and would love to work with him again on anything. So I’ll put that out there and hopefully it will get back to him.”
Smith was recently in Canada filming a television pilot, so it even appears that the Rent star talked with him recently (and probably even more recently at the Grindhouse premeire last week). I just find it extremely odd that, at least according to Rosario, Smith has not mentioned anything to her about the script. It’s especially odd since it appears they have a personal off-business friendship/relationship.
Smith started talking about the supposed romantic comedy project last May:
“She knows I’m writing it and she knows there’s a part for her [Dawson],” said Smith.
Rosario is in Grindhouse which hits theaters on April 6th.
Photo Credit: GenArt
While I’m not a celebrity gossip fanatic, I do love reading the New York Post’s blind items. It’s always fun to try to figure out who they are talking about from the elaborate set of clues. And it also helps that the stories usually involve some really bad stuff (hence being in the blind item section to avoid lawsuits). Anyway, when we were talking with Rosario Dawson about Grindhouse, she inadvertently went off on a tangent regarding a director that doesn’t know how to communicate well with actors. Here is what she told us:
I mean, normally as an actor I’m hired, and I’m hired for a third of the process. So I’m not there for Preproduction and no-one asks me for my opinion on the post. So it can be very frustrating sometimes after actually. Especially when you are working with a director who isn’t great at talking to actors. It can be really frustrating to watch the movie later and go “oh, is that the movie you wanted because if you said that, we all could have collaborated a lot better with you, but because you aren’t good at talking to actors, you shut us down, and I watch half your actors walk through their performance. It’s really too bad. It’s not somthing you experience at all with Kevin [Smith] or with Rob [Zombie].
She then went on to compliment Quentin, Robert, Stone, and Spike. So the question is: Who is the horrible director Rosario speaks of?
I think off the bat you can eliminate the following directors due to their track record with actors, background as actors turned directors, or from Dawson’s previous glowing praise: Larry Clark (Kids), Spike Lee (He Got Game, 25th Hour), Edward Burns (Sidewalks of New York), Ethan Hawke (Chelsea Walls), Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects), Oliver Stone (Alexander), Kevin Smith (Clerks 2), Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), Quentin Tarantino (Grindhouse).
That leaves the list of the following 10 Directors:
Craig Bolotin (Light it Up), Kris Isacsson (Down to You), Harry Elfont & Deborah Kaplan (Josie and the Pussycats), Peter Mattei (Love in the Time of Money), Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black 2), Ron Underwood (The Adventures of Pluto Nash), Billy Ray (Shattered Glass), Peter Berg (The Rundown), Stephen Marshall (This Revolution), Chris Columbus (Rent).
So the question is: Which director(s) is Rosario Dawson referring to? Anyone have any guesses?
See Rosario in Grindhouse, which htis theaters on April 6th.
The other day I received a package in the mail. The postcard inside read:
“Greetings Human -
For centuries, a galactic war has been raging between the Autobots and Decepticons… two factions of an alien race that are bringing their battle to earth. Until now, you have been blissfully unaware.
On July 4th, our world will come to your world.”
Check out one of the first Transformers television spots below, and another one can be seen at IGN.com. Amazing stuff.
[flv:http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/trailers/transformerstv.flv 480 174]
When we sat down and chatted with Mary Elizabeth Winstead last week at the Grindhouse junket, we asked her about her upcoming part in Live Free or Die Hard. Here is what Winstead revealed:
I play Lucy McClane. I’m John McClane’s (Bruce Willis) daughter. A little bit of a damsel in distress but I am a McClane so I get to fight my way through it and throw some punches, some head-butts, gun-shooting, and all that stuff. It was fun to go from Grindhouse where I play this really sissy naive girl to being a McClane, which is totally different shoes to fill. So it was a lot of fun.
You can see Mary Elizabeth Winstead next in Grindhouse, which hits theaters on April 6th 2007.
Grindhouse star Rose McGowan has a huge announcement coming soon. The actress told /Film:
I also have another really big one (movie), but I can’t say it now, in a week or two.
We pressed her for more details but all she gave us was a smile. What a tease. See Rose in Grindhouse, which hits theaters on April 6th 2007.
My sources over at Fox are telling me that the full length Live Free or Die Hard movie trailer will be attached to The Weinstein Company’s Grindhouse, which also features Bruce Willis.
Since both movies are from totally different companies, I would expect an online premiere on Thursday, but nothing is confirmed. But what is known, you will be able to catch the new Die Hard trailer right before Grindhouse, which hits theaters on April 6th 2007.
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