Yet another Hasbro-based movie has bitten the dust at Universal. But this one, unlike Clue, Ouija, Monopoly and Magic The Gathering, immediately found a new home. Stretch Armstrong, which was originally set up to star Twilight-phenom Taylor Lautner and be directed by Rob Letterman (Gulliver’s Travels), has been dropped by Universal and picked up by their most-of-the-time partner in crime, Relativity Media. That company has already locked in a release date, April 11, 2014, but both the star and director are out. Read more after the jump. Read More »
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Ladies and gentleman, there are some real, honest to God problems with the movie business. That’s pretty obvious from the huge void of original content that’s being released by Hollywood in the coming months, including a record breaking 27 sequels in 2011 alone. And while we all know this problem exists, the genesis of how and why it’s happening, and a possible solution, are concepts few of us have the wealth of knowledge and experience to fathom.
In a new GQ column called The Day the Movies Died, author and former Entertainment Weekly executive editor Mark Harris does just that. He weaves a story from Top Gun to Inception to Stretch Armstrong of how Hollywood went wrong and – SPOILER ALERT – why it might not ever get fixed. Harris’s article should be required reading for anyone who cares about movies in today’s society. Read a short excerpt and find the link to the full article after the jump. Read More »
Nicholas Stoller has made a name for himself as director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the upcoming Get Him to the Greek, but he’s also a writer. His script was the backbone for the Jack Black version of Gulliver’s Travels that is now being promoted at Cannes, and he’s the screenwriter behind Stretch Armstrong and the co-writer (with Jason Segel) of The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time.
While promoting Get Him to the Greek, Stoller explained his approach to writing Stretch Armstrong and talked about the current state of the Muppets. Read More »
Who is going to direct the Steve Oedekerk-scripted big screen adaptation of Stretch Armstrong? And why should you care? Originally there were rumors that Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon) would helm the toy adaptation. Then Twilight sensation Taylor Lautner joined the cast, skipping out on Max Steel.
And last month it was reported that Monsters vs. Aliens co-director Rob Letterman may helm the picture. And today HeatVision confirms this earlier report. Letterman just finished Gulliver’s Travels with Jack Black, and has brought Forgetting Sarah Marshall/Get Him to the Greek writer/director Nicolas Stoller on board to re-write the script.
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Posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 by David Chen
In this week’s episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, Adam Quigley and Russ Fischer discuss their thoughts on this year’s Oscar nominations, reflect on the novelty of 3D upconversion, assess Taylor Lautner’s career, show some love for Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, and share theories about the final season of Lost.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next week on Monday night at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review Wolfman.
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Earlier tonight, news broke that Twilight star Taylor Lautner had signed on to play the title character in the upcoming 3-D superhero adventure Stretch Armstrong. What we didn’t know at the time is that the announcement coincides with a release date shift for Hasbro’s big screen adaptations.
The “epic action-adventure” film Battleship will now hit theaters on Memorial Day weekend — May 25th 2012, while Stretch Armstrong has also been moved back to a To be announced 2012 release as well. Battleship was originally set to hit theaters on August 5th 2011, and Armstrong was originally announced with an April 11th 2011 release. You can read the press release from Universal/Hasbro that explains the reasons behind the schedule changes after the jump.
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Yeah, you read that headline correctly. Somehow it makes sense that the kid who was in one of the early unnecessary entries of the current wave of 3D movies, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl 3D, will now topline one of the latest unnecessary entries in the current wave of 3D movies. But while Taylor Lautner starring in a 3D Stretch Armstrong film may make a vaguely weird sort of sense from that slim perspective, we don’t have to like it. Read More »
A couple weeks ago we told you that Academy Award winning producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, American Gangster) had signed on to produce the Steve Oedekerk-scripted big screen adaptation of Stretch Armstrong. The film is part of Universal’s multi-picture development deal with Hasbro to turn board games and toys into a series of possibly horrible probably pointless movies. For Stretch Armstrong, they even have a release date – April 15, 2011. So who is going to direct? How about Ron Howard?
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