Because I know many of you just get all giddy when prospective new Brett Ratner films come up, here’s his latest potential project: The 39 Clues, which is not an Alfred Hitchcock remake, but an adaptation of a young-adult book series. It sounds a bit like a kids’ version of National Treasure, and all the details are after the break. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
Is Men in Black III a total oddity in the studio world or merely the next step in the lineage of films like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and Iron Man, which famously went into production without solid scripts in place? Men in Black III started production last November, but shooting started with only part of the script fully in place. A hiatus was built into the production, officially to make the most of New York tax incentives and weather conditions, but in reality more than half the script was still not finalized.
Things were meant to get back into gear last month, after Jeff Nathanson spent the hiatus getting the rest of the script knocked out. Then that hiatus was extended until the end of March and David Koepp was brought in to deal with the lingering script issues. Now the clock is ticking and Sony is in the very unusual position of having the first act of an unfinished script in the can. A new feature looks into the long, weird development of Men in Black III and suggests that conflicting personalities are turning an ungainly project into something that teeters on the brink of real failure. Read More »
The production schedule for Men in Black III has been a strange thing. A lot of footage was shot for the film last year, then a built-in production break kicked in at Christmas. Originally Sony was going to get the movie back into gear last month, but creative problems pushed the new resume date back to March 28. Jeff Nathanson was hammering out issues with the script along with director Barry Sonnenfeld and others. Now David Koepp (Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, Indy IV) has been brought in to finish the job. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
The production schedule for Barry Sonenfeld‘s Men in Black III has been a strange one. After an initial delay, filming started last year. But a break was planned into the schedule — for reasons innocuous or not, depending upon whom you believe — with the first half of the shoot kicking off last November and running until Christmas. Then there was a planned break, with shooting meant to continue this month.
But now the film won’t have cameras rolling again until March 28, due reportedly to script issues. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
New info on Men in Black 3: the film will start shooting this week in New York, but there’s a wrinkle. The production has hired frequent Steven Spielberg and Brett Ratner collaborator Jeff Nathanson to rewrite/polish one section of the script. (He recently did work on Tower Heist, wrote Rush Hour 2 & 3 and The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can and worked on Indy IV.) The parts that he’s not dealing with shoot this year, and then, after a break, the production will resume to shoot the balance of the picture.
Confused yet? The details involve potential spoilers, so we’ve kept them after the break. (And, really, the spoiler info, such as it is, will likely be revealed in the trailer. We’re just being safe.) Read More »
Posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 by Russ Fischer
This is basically an incremental update on Tower Heist, which we’ve known for a while would likely be the new film from director Brett Ratner. The script and cast were reconfigured a while ago from the original conception (at one point described as a “black Ocean’s Eleven“) and Ben Stiller has been attached to star. Now the film is almost ready to shoot, and should have cameras rolling late this fall. Read More »
IGN has learned that Catch Me if You Can and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull screenwriter Jeff Nathanson might be writing a Houdini movie for Summit Entertainment.
In March it was announced that that Summit had acquired the rights to William Kalush and Larry Sloman‘s biography The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero. The book was somewhat controversial, as it implied that the famous magician and escape artist acted as a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II’s court in pre-revolutionary Russia.
The studio plans to adapt the book into an action thriller “featuring a character who is part Indiana Jones and part Sherlock Holmes.” Sounds like it could be fun. Imagine Indiana Jones, but instead of a whip, he had magic tricks and misdirection. I’m in.
Posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
The Daily Swarm is reporting a story from Hits Daily Double that hack director Brett Ratner is in talks to direct a movie based on the Milli Vanilli story for Universal. Rush Hour screenwriter Jeff Nathanson has written the screenplay about “one producer and two lip-syncing male models who sold millions of records and won a Grammy before their scam was revealed.” Kathleen Kennedy is attached as executive producer.
I hate to report on news or rumors from websites I’ve never heard of, especially when I can’t seem to find the news report on the source site, but sometimes the story is too good to pass up. The project is real, and was even announced in 2007, but as for the Ratner talks — For now lets mark this purely as a rumor.
As much as I dislike Ratner, I think he would be a good fit for this project, especially considering he can relate to the material — Ratner is a mediocre director pretending to be a good director. I kid, I kid… the shot was open, I had to take it. But honestly, tackling a Milli Vanilli biography could mean one less franchise film that Ratner might ruin. And that reason alone makes it worth it. I would rather Ratner stick to making movies about Milli Vanilli and Hugh Hefner over a remake of Conan or Beverly Hills Cop sequel.
via: Playlist
