We just got a look at Get the Gringo, an action film that Mel Gibson co-wrote, financed and starred in. But fans undeterred by the actors offscreen actions might still be hoping for an update on another movie that was announced right around the same time Gibson started work on Get the Gringo. That other project was a Viking epic, and a film for which Gibson said he wanted to work partially in a bygone version of the Norse language.
Turns out that Viking movie isn’t dead. While the update we have is minor, for those hoping to see the film one day, it is probably a lot better than nothing. Read More »
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Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s term as Governator has ended, it’s time to see if he’ll go back to acting in any serious way. A very brief cameo in The Expendables could have been him dipping a toe back into the waters after his years in office, or it could have been a final love note to fans.
Looks like it’s more likely the toe-dip, as the actor recently said, “movie-making is a part of my future plans. Some day the waiting is over again and I’m looking forward to that.” He says he’s looking into three different scripts, including one which must be the WWII story WIth Wings as Eagles, which Randall Wallace (Braveheart) wrote in 2001. Read More »
When Lost ended earlier this year, everyone knew what show co-creator Damon Lindelof was up to next: Some cowboys, an Alien and more Star Trek. In the grand tradition of the show that made them famous, though, a mystery remained. What would Lindelof’s co-executive producer, Carlton Cuse, choose as his follow up? Today we have an answer: an “event” series for ABC set in Virginia during the Civil War. He’ll co-write the pilot with Oscar-nominated Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace, who just directed Secretariat, and the pair will co-executive produce. Wallace will direct the pilot if it gets picked up. That’s all the info out there at the moment but one has to wonder, why all the Civil War news today? Thanks to Variety for the info.
Update: Apparently this story isn’t completely accurate. MTV informs us that they have removed the story because Randall Wallace did script work on the McG version of 20,000 Leagues, but that project is dead. The Fincher is something totally different…
Few upcoming projects have quite the promise that Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea does, and much of that is due to it having David Fincher at the helm. If ever there were a director capable of delivering the visual splendor, attention to detail, and focused intensity and excitement that a tale like Jules Verne‘s classic deserves, it’s Fincher.
And between claims that Fincher wants 20,000 Leagues to be his Empire Strikes Back and this latest update from co-writer Randall Wallace, the likelihood of that promise being realized continues to grow. Read More »
Walt Disney Pictures have released a movie trailer for Secretariat, a horse-racing drama about “three people whose lives intersected, thanks to the champion horse Secretariat.” For those of you, like me, who don’t follow horse-racing history: Secretariat is… possible spoiler warning (I guess? Is history a spoiler? And isn’t the achievement of a true story part of the reason we want to see the film adaptations?)… one of a few horses to win the Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes.
The film is directed by Braveheart writer Randall Wallace. The movie stars John Malkovich as Lucien Laurin, the former horse jockey who became Secretariat’s trainer. Diane Lane plays Penny Tweedy, owner of Meadow Farm, a horse breeding business in Virginia that was founded by her father Christopher.
Watch the trailer embedded after the jump. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace has been hired to rewrite Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, which is being developed for McG. Not a good sign for the project, which has already had a couple notable writers. Geek screenwriter Justin Marks (Masters of the Universe, Super Max) was hired in February to rewrite Bill Marsilli‘s (Deja Vu) original draft. Wallace is squeezing the Nemo “writing gig” in before he goes off to direct the racehorse drama Secretariat in September. Wallace, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing Braveheart, has since been credited with Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers, and The Rookie.
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Essential Pictures is developing a potential franchise of films based on Outlander, a series of six fantasy novels by Diana Gabaldon. Not to be confused with the potentially bad ass Alien / Viking movie of the same name, which seems to have gotten the shaft from The Weinstein Co.
Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace penned the script, which has already been sent out to potential directors. The goal is to begin production in Spring 2009. The first book in the series, titled Outlander, tells the story of Claire Randall, who travels through time to the eighteenth century Scottish Highlands. Here is the official plot synopsis from the book:
Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another… In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon–when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord…1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire’s destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life …and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire…and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
Sounds like your typical genre-rom story (ick… romantic genre… and you thought romantic comedies were bad). Unfortunately, with the rise of Twilight, there is a good chance that we’ll see more and more of these types of novels adapted for the big screen.
source: Variety
It seems that everybody is getting their turn at historical epics these days, and now Will Smith is going to have his chance with The Last Pharaoh. Working with a script by Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace, Smith is set to play the Nubian pharaoh Taharqa—who is most famous for defending ancient Egypt against invasions by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon. The film will apparently focus on this conflict.
The Last Pharaoh was initially announced back in March with a script by Carl Franklin (Out of Time, Devil in a Blue Dress), but obviously things went awry. Franklin’s screenwriting history is fairly thin, and the closest he’s come to an epic film is directing an episode of Rome, so the film is probably better off in the hands of Wallace.
While inconsistent (Wallace also wrote The Man in the Iron Mask, and Pearl Harbor), he has at least proven he knows what makes a good epic screenplay. As for Smith, I can’t quite picture him in a massive historical epic—but then again maybe that’s just because he’s not Orlando Bloom.
My excitement for this film will rest primarily on who they choose to direct. Honestly, I’m a bit burned out on the genre—and I fear general audiences may be as well—after the recent failures of Troy and Alexander. I loved the Kingdom of Heaven director’s cut, but the version most audiences saw in theaters was still somewhat weak. 300 sort of brought audiences back to the genre, but obviously it can’t justifiably be compared to realistic epics. I just hope whoever they choose to direct this film can do something beyond more of the same.
Source: Variety
Discuss: Do you think Will Smith is due for his own historical epic? Are you still excited for the genre?
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