Briefly: Disney’s live-action retelling of Cinderella has been coming together over the past couple months, with Kenneth Branagh stepping in to direct after Mark Romanek moved on, and Cate Blanchett cast as the wicked stepmother who makes Cinderella’s life a minor hell.
Now, after a report that indicated Disney and Branagh were looking at Bella Heathcote, Lily James, and Margot Robbie as possible fits for the glass slipper, Downton Abbey actress Lily James has won the role. There’s relatively little info beyond that — Disney’s press release announcing the casting is a terse two sentences — but we’ll likely hear more soon. Richard Madden (Robb Stark on Game of Thrones) was floated as one possible choice to play the Prince, and with James cast the producers can figure out who’ll best play opposite her as the romantic lead.
Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) wrote an early version of the script, and the current version was written by Chris Weitz (Twilight: New Moon).
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One of the more intriguing films being release this summer is Blue Sky Studio’s Epic. Featuring an insane list of voice talent (Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O’Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler, Beyoncé Knowles) the film tells the story of a young girl who finds herself in the middle of a battle for the forest filled with tiny warriors, bugs and all kinds of action. The trailers show that the film has the potential to be a great family adventure.
The Art of Epic book by Titan shows off a lot of the film’s designs, and they’ve given us four exclusive pieces of concept art. Check them out below. Read More »
Two titans of Tinseltown could be heading Into The Woods with Oscar-winning director Rob Marshall. Both Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep are in talks to join Disney’s film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim‘s Tony Award winning musical about a baker, his family, and a witch who places a curse on them. From there the characters take a trip through several classic fairy tales like Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. Think something on the scale of Les Miserables, but with a story like Once Upon A Time.
Streep is in talks to play the witch and Depp’s role is still a mystery, but it would likely be the baker or the narrator. Filming could start in early 2014, which raises some serious questions about the status of Pirates of the Caribbean 5. We’ll discuss below. Read More »
Posted on Friday, April 26th, 2013 by Angie Han
Netflix reveals posters, stills, and a clip from the new season of Arrested Development. Also after the jump:
- What was the unaired original Game of Thrones pilot like?
- Yahoo gets exclusive access to the 38-season SNL archive
- Corey Stoll lands Guillermo del Toro‘s FX drama The Strain
- AMC forays into the science-fiction genre with Line of Sight
- Hannibal‘s unaired episode has been turned into a web series
- See a new poster and pic from the newly revived The Killing
- Watch a trailer for The Rock‘s new reality competition show
- Peek behind the scenes of Christopher Guest‘s Family Tree
- Dexter conducts his final symphony in an artsy new trailer
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The idea of a live-action remake of one of the movies by animation master Hayao Miyazaki might not be very appealing no matter who wants to make it, even if the project is based on one of the director’s projects that is best positioned for live-action.
But what about the idea of Miyazaki himself contributing to a live-action companion to one of his films?
Both of these ideas are now realities, with Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge) confirmed to direct a live-action version of the coming-of-age story Kiki’s Delivery Service, in which a young witch develops her skills and sense of self-worth after moving to a new town. Miyazaki, meanwhile, contributed a kaiju design for a live-action short that essentially acts as prequel to his early film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Read More »
Briefly: Ruben Fleischer launched his feature career in a big way with Zombieland, made a quick left turn into bitter comedy for 30 Minutes or Less, and then hit a big bump with Gangster Squad. The problems with that last film are many (beginning with a terrible script) and so here’s hoping that his next film starts on better footing, and has a much better fate.
That next film might be a currently untitled sci-fi/fantasy movie for Sony, as Fleischer been set to produce and direct after bringing the idea to the studio. Eric Pearson (a Pixar vet with two Black List-ranked scripts) has been set to write, but we don’t have any details about the plot at this point. Fleischer is also developing an adaptation of the video game Spy Hunter for Warner Bros., but that is a project that has taken so long to move forward that we wouldn’t be surprised if this new Sony project gets to the starting line first. [The Wrap]
Posted on Thursday, April 18th, 2013 by Angie Han
Tim Burton and Robert Downey Jr. have been linked to Warner Bros.’ live-action Pinocchio since early last year — in fact, Downey pitched the movie to the studio — but during the fall the director admitted that he was starting to doubt the film would ever get made. Now it appears Pinocchio is, in fact, moving forward, and there’s reason to think it will be without Burton.
Italian publications have quoted Downey as saying that he hopes Ben Stiller will direct the film. The pair previously worked together on 2008′s Tropic Thunder. Hit the jump for more info.
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Posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 by Angie Han
Universal does have some original releases coming up over the next few years, but their big announcements out of CinemaCon have been all about the sequels. Earlier today, we learned that Fast & Furious 7 would hit next year, followed by Pitch Perfect 2 the year after that.
But that’s not all. In addition, the studio also confirmed that Snow White and the Huntsman 2 is on track to hit in 2015, and that yes, we’re getting another Bourne movie. Eventually.
Read More »
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