Given that Burton’s Alice in Wonderland became one of the biggest grossing features in motion picture history, it’s no surprise that the Mouse House wanted to work with him again. Burton then came aboard to direct Maleficent, which aims to take on Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of primary antagonist Maleficent, one of Disney’s most iconic villains.
Actor Chris Hemsworth rose to newfound levels of fame with Marvel’s Thor over the past few weekends as the superhero feature rolled out across the globe to good reviews and a strong box-office take. Now he’s officially taken on the role of the male protagonist in Snow White and the Huntsman opposite Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame.
Neither Bridesmaids nor Priest could stave off the mighty power of Thor this weekend. The god of thunder proved lightening can strike twice in the same place. Domestically, Chris Hemsworth’s leading man debut stands at $119.3 million. After a modest opening last week,Thor had a smaller than average percentage drop of only 48 percent. The bounty from Friday to Sunday was a generous $34.5 million but that will not last long against next weekend’s towering tentpole.
Oscar winner Rachel Weisz has reportedly been negotiating to star in Disney’s upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful alongside Mila Kunis and James Franco. That news hit last week, but here’s where the dilemma starts: she’s reportedly negotiating for a role in Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner.
Taking classic fairy tales and making them darker has been the big craze in Hollywood as of late, with countless productions of such a nature quickly entering production. As such, news about Pan, a darker take on Peter Pan, comes as no surprise.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the project, which initially had Guillermo del Toro sitting in the director’s chair, but we learn from ScreenDaily that the film has snagged three actors for its principle roles.
That goes double for the most recent news concerning an upcoming role for the former Cheers star. Harrelson’s snagged the role of Haymitch Abernathy in Gary Ross’s highly anticipated adaptation of The Hunger Games. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog, he will play the mentor to female protagonist Katniss Everdeen (Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence), as well as Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).
After two disappointing weeks of DVD releases I finally have plenty to report one. The big new release is the independent film Blue Valentine is the most worthy, but other films can not be ignore. On the re-release front there is the Billy Wilder classic Some Like It Hot and the whole Alien series, but this round as individual Blu-rays.
Quentin Tarantino has announced his next film: Django Unchained, a spaghetti Western about a slave in the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter to search for his wife. Aiming for a production date this fall, The Heat Vision blog of The Hollywood Reporter is stating that Will Smith is the frontrunner to star as the central lead.
Up to this point, Steven Spielberg’s long standing Lincoln project had been stuck in development hell until the announcement that Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) would play the 16th U.S. President while Sally Field would play Mary Todd Lincoln. Now, Dreamworks has released the a press release outlining what is shaping up to be an all-star roster for the project.
The French publisher Ubisoft is getting into the movie business. Variety is reporting that the company has unveiled Ubisoft Motion Pictures, which is exactly what it sounds like.
The division of the company will be based out of Paris, France and run by Jean-Julien Baronnet, former CEO of Luc Besson’s (The Fifth Element) film company EuropaCorp. The move looks to capitalize on Ubisoft’s catalogue of hit games, including the “Splinter Cell” and “Assassin’s Creed” series. The company also has the “Prince of Persia” series to its name, though there may be some issues with Disney—who already put out a “Prince of Persia” film last year—in regards to film rights.
