DreamWorks has acquired rights to The 39 Clues, Scholastic’s 10-book fantasy adventure series which will launch on September 9th 2008. Steven Spielberg is considering directing the project. Scholastic is hoping to replicate the success of the Harry Potter book series.
Benjamin Franklin, Mozart, Napoleon and Houdini are just some of the relatives of the most powerful family in the world - the Cahills. Grace, the Cahill clan matriarch is found dead just moments after she has changed her will, giving her descendants the choice between $1 million or a clue. Yes, one of 39 clues which reveal the source of the family’s powers. The series will follow two young Cahills, Amy, [...]

Here is a rundown of all the essential information that you should know about the Spielberg/DreamWorks situation, and the current developments by Steven to raise a billion dollars for independence:
In 1994, Steven Spielberg founded DreamWorks with Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (forming the SKG present on the bottom of the DreamWorks logo) and a $500 million investment from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Over the next fourteen years, Spielberg directed eight films under his new studio (Amistad-Munich), a streak that ended in May 2008 with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
DreamWorks won three consecutive best picture Academy Awards starting in 1999 with American Beauty (followed by Gladiator and A [...]

As expected, DreamWorks Animation has released the teaser trailer for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and boy is is annoying. It starts with some crappy club music and the characters singing that “You Got To Move It, Movie It” song. As predicted, the penguins look like the only funny thing in the movie. I’m not even sure King Julien, voiced by the hilarious Sacha Baron Cohen, will make you laugh in this one. Hey look, the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace comes out the same weekend. Did I mention how excited I am to see WALL-E?
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DreamWorks has acquired Roundtable, a new action comedy spec script from comic book and LOST scribe Brian K Vaughn. The story for Roundtable revolves around “Merlin assembling a bunch of modern-day knights to battle a resurrected ancient evil, only to discover that today’s knights are all washed-up athletes, cowardly scientists or Academy Award-winning actors.” Apparently it’s an update to the classic King Arthur legend, described as more Ghostbusters than Excalibur. Sounds like an incredibly strange concept if you ask me, but Vaughn has earned my faith.
His Y: The Last Man is the greatest comic book series ever created. It’s very accessible, if you don’t like comic books I highly m [...]

The neighbors of the Transformers 2 Bethlehem Steel movie set have gotten a letter from the location manager warning them of, among other things, “large scale pyrotechnics”. Yes that’s right folks… As expected, Michael Bay will be blowing more shit up in the Transformers sequel, beginning next week (Not that anyone was expecting anything less…). You can complain all you want about Michael Bay, but one thing you can’t deny is that he knows how to blow shit up (see the awesome highlight video from last year). Thanks for /Film reader Ironhide for e-mailing us a scan of the letter, which also gives us a look at the film’s in-production [...]

I’m not sure if you’ve heard this yet, but Steven Spielberg had this idea which is the basis for Shia LaBeouf’s next film. NO, I’m not talking about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (that was clearly George’s idea). I’m talking about Eagle Eye, the first original story Hollywood has seen from Spielberg since 1985’s The Goonies. And before you get too excited, no, Spielberg didn’t direct (he was way too busy with that little Harrison Ford film), Disturbia director DJ Caruso was again paired with Shia.
The teaser trailer comes off as a cross between The Matrix and Enemy of the State, although the official plot [...]

Steven Spielberg has confirmed that the current plan is to co-direct the third TinTin movie with Peter Jackson.
“We are going to make three Tintin movies back-to-back. I’ll direct the first one, Peter will direct the second one. We’ll probably co-direct the third one.”
The first movie in the performance capture series is scheduled to begin production in September with Speilberg in the directors chair. Jackson will helm the second film in the series. Based on the classic comic-strip, Tintin follows the adventures of a junior reporter and his faithful dog Snowy. Jackson regular Andy Serkis (you know, the guy behind the characters of Golumn and King Kong) is signed on [...]

A farm hand so retarded he’d make Sean Penn blush with envy. A blatant diss at Eddie Murphy (who really needs Inglorious Bastards). Another generous helping of Robert Downey Jr. as an angry black man. Nick Nolte bustin’ capillaries like squibs (on the job). And, well, a requisite death-to-throwaway-foreign-kid, but Rambo already pwned that jingo real estate months ago. There is a lot of laughter and bloodshed to soak up in this new red band trailer for the Ben Stiller directed Tropic Thunder, so call up the neighborhood kids, pass around those mysterious wine coolers inhabiting the fridge and sit back for explosions and expletives set to Edwin Starr’s [...]

Transformers 2 begins production next month in Pennsylvania, and one of the scenes is set to shoot in front of the iconic furnaces in south Bethlehem (shown above). The production will transform the old steel site into an Asian city during the first week of June. They are currently casting local ‘Asian men and women, boys and girls, ages 7 [to] 65” as paid extras in the movie, and are looking for people who have military backgrounds. Looks like big computer generated robots will battle the Chinese military in front of the blast furnaces. The Mayor has been assured that it will be ‘an important scene for this movie.’
Thanks to [...]

Jack Black and 40 Kung Fu Pandas kicked off the Cannes Film Festival yesterday, and here’s some photos:

Someone took a look at Steven Spielberg’s day planner and spilled the details about the legendary director’s upcoming film schedule. Apparently Spielberg is eyeing a September 2008 start for Tintin, the big screen performance-capture adaptation of the popular Belgian comic-strip hero (and his faithful dog Snowy).
After which he will immediately begin work on the long-gestating Abraham Lincoln biopic Lincoln in early 2009. Spielberg is rushing the project into production so that “it can also open in the same year as Lincoln’s 200th anniversary which comes round then.” Spielberg also tells FOCUS magazine that the production of Tintin would not be threatened by the possible upcoming actor’s strike.
“That doesn’t affect us [...]

Last month it was reported that Australian hottie Teresa Palmer had been cast in Michael Bay’s Transformers 2. Bay denies the casting on his personal blog, claiming that “Teresa Palmer was not considered for a role.”
To complicate things further, IGN is now reporting that another Aussie actress Isabel Lucas (pictured right), has been cast in the role of Alice in the sequel. Lucas is a newbie, and will be seen in the upcoming vampire flick Daybreakers, and the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura promises that the big casting announcements will be made over the next several weeks.
“Ultimately, we’ll have a couple casting surprises for everybody soon,” [...]

DreamWorks Animation has released the second movie trailer for Kung Fu Panda. I had the chance to catch an unfinished print of this film back in March, and had very low expectations as I’ve never really been impressed by DreamWorks Animated films. So when I say I really enjoyed Kung Fu Panda, that means a lot. What the movie lacks in character design, it makes up for in laughs. It’s a fun take on the classic kung fu genre. This new trailer, not so much. Tell me what you think in the comments below.
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Last week it was reported that Jonah Hill was in early negotiations to costar opposite Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 2. Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that negotiations between Hill and DreamWorks have broken down and the studio has moved on to other choices.
Supposed leaked casting breakdowns described the character as being Sam’s roommate at Princeton. Chuck (19-25 yrs) runs a conspiracy theory website and is funny in an irreverent, edgy way, he is shocked to see his conspiracy theories come to life.
Discuss: Knowing that the casting directors wanted Hill for the role, who would you cast as Hill’s replacement?

/Film reader S. McGruff informs us that Michael Bay will be filming sequences for Transformers 2 at the University of Pennsylvania:
I’ve been reading for a couple months and love the site. Not sure if this is newsworthy but you can decide. I’m a student at the University of Pennsylvania and a few of my friends involved in student government told me that Transformers 2 will be shooting on campus in one of the nicer fraternities this summer. Im guessing these scenes will involve Shia/Jonah at college. Michael Bay was also seen on campus a few weeks back, so I guess that sort of confirms that the film will be partially [...]