Once upon a time there was a real break between TV and movies, but that is long since eroded. Writers, directors, and actors regularly bounce between features and TV, and few are quite as known for the practice as Ron Howard. After his early days as a TV actor, Howard reinvented himself as a director, and eventually an Oscar-winning one. But he never left TV altogether, and gave Arrested Development its signature narrative voice.
Howard’s medium-straddling career almost naturally led to the ambitious plan to adapt Stephen King’s The Dark Tower as a series of films and TV episodes. While we wait for that to happen (or not) Howard is putting the finishing touches on his racing drama Rush, and now has a new project set up at Showtime. Conquest is a passion project of the filmmaker’s, and will be a tale of the Spanish conquest in Mexico, scripted by Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries, On the Road.) Read More »
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Posted on Friday, July 13th, 2012 by Angie Han
There’s a ton of TV tidbits to plow through today, some of it Con-related and some of it not. After the jump:
- Breaking Bad‘s Vince Gilligan suggests a Saul Goodman spinoff
- Nickelodeon orders a second season of The Legend of Korra
- TNT picks up Falling Skies for a third season
- Science Channel will shoot a Firefly reunion special at Comic-Con
- Homeland‘s second season will head to the Middle East
- Watch the first two minutes of Dexter‘s seventh season
- Ron Howard tweets from the writers room of Arrested Development
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Before we once again see Chris Hemsworth as Thor, legendary director Ron Howard snatched him up to co-star in the true racing story Rush. Hemsworth plays James Hunt, a world champion Formula One racer whose lifestyle choices made him a direct rival of another world champion racer, Niki Lauda, played by Inglorious Basterds star Daniel Bruhl. Howard has been shooting his period piece for several months, incorporating real race footage, precision driving and more.
After the jump, you can see a nearly 4 minute featurette about the making of the film that cuts between Howard’s production and the actual footage he’s trying to recreate along with interviews and behind the scenes action. It’s fantastic. Read More »
I’m crediting — or blaming — The Hunger Games for this one. Gary Ross’ film adaptation of the Suzanne Collins best-seller has undeniable reflections of George Orwell‘s nightmarish vision of totalitarian information control and thought suppression, and now, just hours before that film is released to the public, we have news of a new film version of his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, often simply called 1984. Read More »
Fittingly for Stephen King‘s long, winding novel series The Dark Tower, the road to the screen for the property has been a weird and bumpy one. Conceived by Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and Brian Grazer as a very ambitious adaptation that would involve three films and two connective television mini-series, the adaptation was originally housed at Universal, thanks to the company’s deal with Grazer and Howard’s Imagine Entertainment.
But Universal balked at the cost of the project, and so Imagine went shopping with The Dark Tower, which has had Javier Bardem attached to star as the Gunslinger, Roland Deschain.
Now it looks like Warner Bros., which has already been planning a multi-film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, is likely to pick up The Dark Tower. But will any of the project’s ambition change? Read More »
Rush seems like a pretty good idea for Ron Howard: a character-oriented true story with a sports/action appeal thanks to the fact that the tale is centered in the world of Formula 1 racing.
Rush follows the rivalry between James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) as they compete in a series of races through the ’70s, representing Ferrari and McLaren. Olivia Wilde and Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles) have supporting roles, and Anthony Dod Mantle is shooting the film, after doing a lot of work to create customized camera mounts to capture the racing action.
On-set photos have surfaced showing Chris Hemsworth suited up for one race. The header pic compares him with a real image of James Hunt, and you can see more pics below. Read More »
Posted on Friday, December 16th, 2011 by Angie Han
It’s been a few months since we’ve heard anything about The Originals, Bryce Dallas Howard‘s planned debut as a feature director, but in the meantime the actress/filmmaker has been keeping busy with another short film. Titled when you find me, the 30-minute movie originated as part of Canon U.S.A.’s “Long Live Imagination” campaign and was inspired by eight photos selected by Howard’s father/producer Ron Howard from a contest that pulled in nearly 100,000 submissions. Watch the full film after the jump.
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Posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 by Angie Han
It feels like just about every network on TV has a Western project in the works by this point, but one of the most recently announced ones also sounds like it could be one of the most promising. Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman are slated to team up for a Western drama about Doc Holliday, the legendary gambler and gunslinger known for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The project is an adaptation of Mary Doria Russell‘s acclaimed novel Doc, which was released earlier this year. More details after the jump.
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