Sony Prepares To Pick Up Doctor Parnassus

VARIETY: 'Parnassus' finds Stateside buyer

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John Hughes, 1950 - 2009

VARIETY: Director John Hughes dies at 59 - by Pat Saperstein

"John Hughes, who captured the zeitgeist of 1980s teen life as writer-director of The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles and produced and scripted family hits such as Home Alone, died Thursday of a heart attack in Manhattan while taking a walk. He was 59.

After an impressive string of hits -- Home Alone is one of the top-grossing live-action comedies of all time -- Hughes, who never won a major show business award, stopped directing in 1991 and virtually retired from filmmaking a few years later, working on his farm in northern Illinois."

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LA Gossip Examiner: Tom Hanks - Will produce, direct and star in 3D animated Woody Woodpecker film?

LA GOSSIP EXAMINER: Tom Hanks - Will produce, direct and star in 3D animated Woody Woodpecker film?

I highly doubt this is true, but it's the weirdest rumor I've run across in a while!

Comic book cover scan from sawlady.com.
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Production Begins On Secret Of The Unicorn

VARIETY: Bell, Craig to star in 'Tintin'
Steven Spielberg sets cast for trilogy
By TATIANA SIEGEL - Posted: Mon., Jan. 26, 2009, 3:45pm PT

Steven Spielberg has set his cast for "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," the first installment in the 3-D motion-capture trilogy that Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment are co-financing.

"Billy Elliot" thesp Jamie Bell will star as the titular character, an intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure. Daniel Craig will co-star as the nefarious Red Rackham.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

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Refresh my memory here. Is "Secret of the Unicorn" a title of one of the original books, or is "Red Rackham's Treasure" being adapted under a different title?

Watchmen Legal Wrinkles Ironed Out

VARIETY: WB, Fox make deal for 'Watchmen'
Warner to open superhero film March 6
By MICHAEL FLEMING, DAVE MCNARY
Posted: Thurs., Jan. 15, 2009, 7:33pm PT

Warner Bros. and Fox have settled their very public battle over "Watchmen." A deal has been hammered out that that gives WB some face-saving points, but which gives Fox the equivalent of a movie star’s gross participation.

Warner Bros. gets the right to open its superhero pic on March 6 as planned, and Fox's logo will not be on the film, sources said.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Jack and Ben Shut Down, Layoff At Laika

OREGONLIVE.COM: Laika lays off 65, shelves CG film
by Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian
Wednesday December 17, 2008, 2:29 PM

Laika, Phil Knight's Portland animation studio, laid off 65 people today as it pulled the plug on a long-gestating film.

"Jack and Ben's Animated Adventure" was a computer-generated feature once slated to be Laika's second film. The first movie, a stop-motion picture called "Coraline," is due in theaters Feb. 6.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

What If... Brad Bird Had Directed The Spirit?

LA TIMES: 'The Spirit' movie that could have been
by Steven Paul Leiva - 11:55 AM PT, Dec 12 2008

For every movie that makes it to the screen, there are a thousand projects that fall to the wayside. Later this month, "The Spirit," finally, hits theaters after plenty of failed attempts. Steven Paul Leiva was a key figure in one of those failed attempts and in this guest essay for Hero Complex he talks about the film that could have been.

Frank Miller’s film version of Will Eisner’s innovative 1940s comic book, “The Spirit” opens on Christmas Day. It will be stylistic and hyper-visual, a hoped-for perfect melding of film and “sequential art,” a term coined by Eisner. What it will not be, however, is revolutionary. Comic book movies are now the meat and potatoes -- not to mention several side vegetables -- of Hollywood. And even its green screen, scene-simulation style is just part of a Miller continuum that started with “Sin City.”

But if the world had turned a little differently, if fate had been a little kinder, a “Spirit” feature film would have debuted in the 1980s that would not only have been revolutionary but -- those of us involved in it were convinced -- a huge hit, possibly the first $100 million-grossing animated feature. And the futures of such filmmakers as Brad Bird, Gary Kurtz, John Musker and John Lasseter might have taken alternative paths.

For the rest of the article, click here.

Thanks to Cartoon Brew for the tip!

Yogi Bear Returns to The Big Screen

YAHOO! NEWS: Yogi, Boo-Boo ready for their close-ups
By Steven Zeitchik - Thu Oct 2, 8:46 AM ET

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Warner Bros. is taking a trip to Jellystone Park.

The studio is developing a feature version of "Yogi Bear," the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon. "Surf's Up" co-helmer/co-writer Ash Brannon will direct the film.

To read more, click here.

The Sad Story Of David Lean's Nostromo

"Sir David Lean is rightly celebrated as one of British cinema's greatest ever directors, the creator of, among others, Lawrence of Arabia, Great Expectations and The Bridge on the River Kwai. And yet little is known of his final project, Nostromo, which proved to be one of the biggest epics never to see the light of day and which caused the downfall of a tormented genius.

Based on Joseph Conrad's novel, written in 1904, the project took five years of work, involving four different scriptwriters and some of the most celebrated names in cinematic history, including Steven Spielberg, Alec Guinness, Marlon Brando and Peter O'Toole. But the effort involved proved too much for the director, whose mental and physical health declined dramatically during the course of the project and, ultimately, led to his death on 16 April 1991 at the age of 83 – six weeks before the film was set to shoot."

To read the rest of Chris Evans' article for The Independent, click here.

Iron Man 2, Avengers, Thor, Captain America Films On The Way

Thanks to Iron Man's $100 million + weekend, Marvel Studios has announced their slate for the foreseeable future:

04/30/10 - Iron Man 2

06/04/10 - Thor (directed by Matthew Vaughn)

05/06/11 - Captain America: The First Avenger

07/?/11 - The Avengers

(Thanks to slashfilm.com for the tip)

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Well, we'll see what happens. Personally, I'm the most psyched about a Captain America movie.

What I'd love to see is a World War II story, with Cap (and Bucky?) battling the Red Skull. The film ends with the Skull defeated, but Bucky dies and Cap's frozen until present day (the sequel, or the Avengers movie). Hah? Haaaah??

Daniel Myrick: Success As Librating Force

“The Blair Witch Project,” the cult hit released in 1999, ends without ending, but the viewer is pretty sure that what follows after the abrupt camera cut is quite grim. And one of the people who never seemed to make it back from those dark, awful woods was Daniel Myrick, the film’s co-director.

Mr. Myrick spurned the Hollywood blandishments that came his way in the film’s aftermath, instead charting his own course, including a few straight-to-video projects that did not remotely approach the culture-tilting or commercial impact of “Blair Witch,” his first feature. But despite the jokes — and articles — about “The Curse of the Blair Witch,” Mr. Myrick never became frantic about the next big thing.

To read the rest of David Carr's New York Times article, click here.

Remake OTD: The Fury

Fox 2000 is set to bring Brian De Palma’s “The Fury” back to the bigscreen.

The label has tapped Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman to pen a contemporary reimagining of the 1978 supernatural horror film.

New version will center on a young man with heightened kinetic powers who is abducted by the government in order to take advantage of his special gifts.

To read the rest of Tatiana Siegel's Variety article, click here.

Where Is John Hughes?

"JOHN HUGHES hasn't set foot in Hollywood for years, but his influence has never been more potent. The king of 1980s comedy, Hughes now qualifies as something of a Howard Hughes-style recluse -- he doesn't have an agent, doesn't give interviews and lives far away, somewhere in Chicago's sprawling North Shore suburbs where most of his films were set."

I'm not the biggest fan of his films, but this is an interesting article. Read the rest of it here.

New Muppet Film In The Works

VARIETY: Segel and Stoller take on Muppets
'Marshall' duo to write, direct film for Disney
By MICHAEL FLEMING - Posted: Wed., Mar. 12, 2008, 9:00pm PT

Disney has enlisted scribe-thesp Jason Segel and helmer Nick Stoller to create the next Muppet movie for the studio.

Segel and Stoller will write the script and Stoller will direct.

Segel, who graduated from Apatow-produced skeins "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" got his first sole writing credit on the Apatow-produced "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Universal releases the pic, which Stoller directed, on April 18.

In "Sarah Marshall" Segel's character writes a "Dracula" musical performed by puppets. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Henson puppeteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie when he was invited in for a general meeting with exec Kristin Burr. Segel got a deal in the room and enlisted Stoller to co-write and direct the project.

Segel and Stoller just made another U deal to co-write the comedy "Five-Year Engagement," with Stoller helming and Segal starring.

Segel, from the CBS laffer "How I Met Your Mother," next stars in "I Love You, Man" at DreamWorks.

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Well, this could be cool - I hope they're both fans of the show. It'll be interesting to see how the transition to writing for puppetry goes. I'm assuming it's significantly different from writing live-action.

A More Direct Route To Audiences?

NY TIMES: Giving the Outsiders a Say on Movies
By CHARLES LYONS - Published: March 10, 2008

Film enthusiasts vote at the box office on which movies succeed or fail. The idea behind a new Web site, Massify.com, is to give them a vote on which films are made in the first place, along with some say in the script and the casting.

Massify members (membership is free and anyone can join) are offered a platform to promote themselves and whatever current projects they are involved in, and are also eligible to vote on other users’ film ideas through online competitions in which members vie for financing and distribution from Massify and its partners.

And after granting money to winners of its online competitions, determined by popular user vote, the investors in Massify will maintain a financial interest in the films that originated there, and help produce and bring them to market.

Massify aims to encourage collaboration, but it is not a philanthropic enterprise. Like most Web sites, Massify wants to attract advertisers even as it faces the challenge of proving itself as a practical place for the film industry and the public to discover new talent. “We’re building an audience before the film is made,” said Kenneth Woo, one of Massify’s two founders.

Brett Icahn, Massify’s other founder, said: “Online networks should apply a democratic process to the creation of content, not just the distribution of it,” he said. “The Massify community crowdsources the best ideas, and elects the best actors. It’s more a production network than a social network, because it’s driven by a creative purpose.”

Massify’s 10 full-time staff members, most of them under 30, occupy a loft office on Cooper Square, near New York University.

Mr. Icahn is the son of the financier Carl C. Icahn, who is backing the venture, giving Massify an edge on many start-ups noted for their ebullience and optimism, not their cash flow.

And among aspiring filmmakers, cash can be highly alluring. Mr. Woo said that Massify has already offered members the chance to win a student grant, awarding Ryan Bemler, a Columbia film student, $10,000 toward a short film after Massify users chose his project in an open competition.

Massify’s second online competition is co-sponsored by an independent horror film distributor, After Dark Films, which will present the winning film as part of its ongoing series “Eight Films to Die For.” Massify members will develop the film using the Web site’s online tools; they are invited to participate in a pitch round, after which 10 semi-finalists will be chosen by popular vote.

Once a final idea wins the competition, a round of casting allows actors registered with Massify to upload audition videos and vie for the film’s four leading roles. Users select 10 male and 10 female semifinalists for each role; these actors are flown to Los Angeles for screen tests.

The top four male and female vote-getters win principal roles in the film, which will be produced by After Dark Films and directed and written by established professionals.

In theory, the notion of empowering people who are trying to break into the movie business by allowing them to contribute to the filmmaking would seem to provide a crack in a long-closed Hollywood network, where entrance is not always predicated on talent but access.

“It’s a new way of thinking,” said Eugene Hernandez, co-founder of IndieWire.com, the independent film Web site begun in 1996, who said he had only recently become aware of Massify. “It’s exciting — all these things happening at the same time. Maybe the dream of democratization can become a reality.”

Practice is another matter, however. It remains to be seen just how effective a cluster of people in their 20s can be at reinventing what the French critic André Bazin once called “the genius of the system,” referring to Hollywood films made during the classic studio era, roughly the 1920s through ’50s.

During those years, and still today, power flowed from top to bottom in vertically integrated studios. But Massify wants power to flow the other way around, to give the people at the bottom of an organization an opportunity to be involved in the decision-making.

Not everyone registered on Massify appears to be looking for that sort of responsibility. The site’s key tabs lead to areas for film pitches, roles, people, and competitions. Many users have posted their photographs and just want to be attract Internet friends, not necessarily collaborate on a film.

Not yet, that is. Some Massify members have also begun posting short video clips or trailers teasing feature films they are trying to make. Others have uploaded full-length screenplays, effectively circumventing traditional gatekeepers like agents, managers and studio executives.

“There will come a point,” Mr. Hernandez said, “when the dominant generation will have emerged — and they won’t be wedded to traditional models of success.”

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It's an interesting idea - combined with a video-sharing site, films could be chosen, created and distributed without studio involvement at all. I imagine if this takes off, though, it'll get quickly snapped up like YouTube.

JLA vs. SAG

NY TIMES: A Film’s Superheroes Face Threat of Strike
By MICHAEL CIEPLY - Published: March 1, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Do five or so of the greatest superheroes in the universe have the power to make a movie these days? Warner Brothers is struggling to find out.

Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are among the biggest icons of DC Comics and are likely to be featured in the upcoming "Justice League" film.

In a Hollywood upended by labor strife — writers just ended one walkout, while actors are rumbling about another — the studio has been trying to begin production on a film based on the long-running DC Comics series “Justice League of America.”

The series unites Superman and Batman with Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and other extraordinary beings. Thematically, it shares an impulse with “The Three Musketeers”: one for all, all for one, their combined attributes stronger than any one superhero’s.

But nothing has been easy in a season when the usual difficulties of a globe-spanning, effects-laden production with a budget that could approach $200 million have become tangled in uncertainty over pending negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild. Around the industry, executives are wrestling with versions of the same dilemma: Should they go forward with movie projects that might be disrupted by an actors’ strike if shooting does not end by the guild’s June 30 contract deadline? Or should they wait, with the risk that prospective films will fall victim to afterthoughts and lost momentum?

Some of the movies working their way through that bind are Sony Pictures’ sequel to “The Da Vinci Code,” called “Angels & Demons”; Paramount and DreamWorks’ “Transformers 2”; and 20th Century Fox’s “Tooth Fairy.” “Justice League,” if it happens, will give Warner a summer blockbuster either next year or the year after. It could spawn sequels, like the Marvel-based “X-Men” series, which has taken in $1.2 billion at the global box office for 20th Century Fox. Just as important, the film could extend the appeal of Warner Brothers’ two caped mainstays, Superman and Batman, to lesser-known heroes (and inexpensive actors) who might then be featured in blockbusters of their own.

But Warner Brothers’ dreams of a widening stream of profits will come true only if the new film does nothing to detract from a continuing string of Batman movies, the next of which is “The Dark Knight,” set for release in July, or the Superman pictures, another of which is in the works for 2010.

In the past week the unlikely writers of “Justice League” — Kieran and Michele Mulroney, better known for Mr. Mulroney’s acting and his relationship to his brother Dermot Mulroney than for their uncredited work on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” — were in Australia. They were consulting with the film’s director, George Miller, and revising a script that was being rushed to production when the writers’ strike hit in early November.

Warner Brothers executives declined to comment. And Mr. Miller, whose work has been as varied as “The Road Warrior” and “Babe: Pig in the City,” did not respond to requests for an interview. But several people involved with the film — who requested anonymity because of the studio’s policy of silence about a work in progress — said the revisions were part of a push to revive a project seen as crucial to broadening the studio’s rewards from its subsidiary DC Comics.

Six weeks ago, as the writers’ strike wore on, Warner Brothers, based in Burbank, Calif., halted the plans amid concerns that the screenplay did not quite meet the challenge of introducing a new series without undercutting the old ones. In effect, Batman and Superman would have to exist in two parallel movie universes without making the audience uneasy.

The studio allowed options to lapse on a cast of fresh, and relatively cheap, faces. Hired to step into superhero costumes were Armie Hammer, who has appeared on “Desperate Housewives,” as Batman; D. J. Cotrona, from the television series “Windfall,” as Superman; Adam Brody, of “The OC,” as Flash; the rapper Common as Green Lantern; and the fashion model Megan Gale as Wonder Woman.

Word that revered heroes would be played by relative unknowns raised howls on the Internet. Comic-book fans, a wary lot, “daydreamed about whether people from ‘The OC’ could fly,” in the words of one post on the movie site Joblo.com. Mr. Hammer, the great-grandson of the Occidental Petroleum Company chief executive Armand Hammer, was elsewhere referred to as “Frat-Man.”

But the ensemble had already bonded with Mr. Miller and one another on a trip to Australia, and the cast appears to be intact, even though the actors are no longer under contract.

“We’re having a long engagement, but sometimes a long engagement is worth the wait,” said Joan Hyler, who manages Mr. Hammer, speaking of her client’s standby status. As the writers’ strike ended a little over two weeks ago, some at Warner Brothers were still eager to get “Justice League” in production by mid-April, a start date that would almost certainly make the finished film available for the summer of 2009.

But studio executives now have a leery eye on the actors’ guild. The guild’s leaders will not conclude a survey of members’ concerns until the end of March, and have not yet scheduled negotiations that could provide a hint as to whether companies can expect a strike-free settlement along the lines of those with the writers’ and directors’ unions in the last few weeks. Guild leaders have been under pressure from some of the highest-paid actors, from the union’s longtime ally American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and from its own East Coast wing to get the talks going as quickly as possible.

So “Justice League,” while still moving forward, is not expected to start production this spring; a summer or fall shoot appears more likely, actors willing.

By then, the production may find itself leaving Sydney, where Mr. Miller made “Happy Feet.” According to a report this week in The Sydney Morning Herald, filmmakers and government officials have been embroiled in a debate as to whether the new film, with its enormous budget, would qualify for an incentive that provides a 40 percent rebate to Australian producers. If not, Warner — which has been discussing a financial alliance with Legendary Pictures, its partner on “The Dark Knight” and “Superman Returns” — may move the production to Canada or elsewhere.

The project’s title has also undergone some rethinking over time. According to some involved with the film, the word “America” may drop out, to make the film more palatable abroad, an ever more important consideration for the big studios.

If the movie is delayed, Warner Brothers will not be without heroics, of a sort, next year. Zack Snyder, who directed “300” for the studio, is finishing up his version of “Watchmen.” Set for release in March 2009, the film is based on Alan Moore’s revered graphic-novel series about flawed superheroes who become entangled in the difficulties of real life.

In Burbank, that story is a familiar one of late.

New Line Merges With Warner Brothers

VARIETY.COM: Warner Bros. gobbles up New Line
Company ends 40-year run as indie studio
By VARIETY STAFF - Posted: Thurs., Feb. 28, 2008, 1:22pm PT

New Line’s 40-year run as an independent studio ended Thursday when Time Warner said it would fold the company into Warner Bros. New Line will become a unit of Warners, maintaining separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations.

Co-toppers Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are ankling but are in talks to continue some business relationship with Warners.

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I've been told that Warners bought New Line (Turner Entertainment) in 1996, so I'm not sure what folding the studio into Warners' film division will mean.

Trek Now An '09 Release

VARIETY: 'Star Trek' pushed back to 2009
Paramount shuffles major releases
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
Posted: Wed., Feb. 13, 2008, 5:43pm PT

Paramount is pushing back the release of J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" from Dec. 25 to May 8, 2009, saying the pic's gross potential is greater as a summer tentpole.

Move was part of a major reshuffling to the studio's release calendar, as well as to DreamWorks' release sked. A second key change: DreamWorks' 2008 Ben Stiller summer comedy "Tropic Thunder" is moving from July 11 to Aug. 15.

That's likely to mean that another film will take "Tropic's" old spot on July 11, particularly since there is such a dearth of broad comedies in the May-July stretch.

Like Par, many of the majors are likely to revisit their release skeds in the wake of the writers' strike as they try to balance out their 2008 and 2009 calendars.

"Star Trek" has no competition in its new slot -- at least not so far, although it opens one week after 20th Century Fox bows "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and one week before Sony is slated to bow sequel "Angels and Demons."

Paramount also dated two titles. Martin Scorsese's Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer "Shutter Island" will be released Oct. 2, 2009.

An untitled comedy produced by Marlon and Shawn Wayans will be released on Feb. 9, 2009. Their brother Damon Wayans is directing from a script the three co-wrote with two other family members. Par is keeping the logline under wraps.

Here are the other release changes to Par's sked:

* Eddie Murphy family pic "Nowhereland" is moving from Sept. 26, 2008, to June 12, 2009.

* Renee Zellweger horror-thriller "Case 39" is moving from Aug. 22, 2008, to April 10, 2009.

* David Fincher's Brad Pitt starrer "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is moving from Nov. 26, 2008, to Dec. 19, 2008.

In addition to the new date for "Tropic Thunder," DreamWorks and Par announced that Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet "Revolutionary Road" will be distributed by Par Vantage, and not the studio proper.

TV Guide Movie OTD: The Greatest American Hero

PRODUCTIONCHARTS.COM: The Greatest American Hero
STATUS: July 2008
LOCATION: Arizona
PRODUCER: Stephen J. Cannell - Michael Dubelko
DIRECTOR: Stephen Herek
WRITER: Chris Matheson - Ryan Rowe

Based on the ABC-TV series which ran from 1980 to 1983. Story concerns a nebbishy teacher who becomes a reluctant superhero after extraterrestrials give him a special suit with powers he can barely understand or control when he loses its instruction manual. The film will reference the old series, but in the update there is more than one suit floating around the world.

Thanks to I Like Toys! for the link.

And So It Goes

VARIETY: Singleton hunts for 'A-Team' team
Fox in early talks with director on remake
By TATIANA SIEGEL - Posted: Sun., Dec. 16, 2007, 8:00pm PT

Director John Singleton is gearing up to direct a bigscreen version of 1980s TV series "The A-Team" and talking about the casting possibilities all over town.

Twentieth Century Fox is in early talks with the helmer to resuscitate the gang, but the studio said no deal is in place, and the project is not envisioned as a pre-SAG/DGA strike affair.

Ice Cube, who starred in Singleton's debut, "Boyz N the Hood," has been rumored as a potential B.A. Baracas (played by Mr. T in the NBC series), but Fox denied that possibility.

Latest incarnation, penned by Jayson Rothwell, revolves around a group of Iraq vets wanted by the U.S. military for a crime they didn't commit. Their adventures combine helping the innocent while running from the law. Story has been given a modern twist by involving oil tycoons and laser technology.

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Nothing says 'modern' to me like lasers and oil barons.

Hammer Walks Among Us

VARIETY: Hammer comes back from dead
Film to be released via MySpace
By ARCHIE THOMAS - Posted: Thurs., Dec. 13, 2007, 8:02am PT

LONDON — The recently revived Hammer Films will produce its first feature in three decades and distribute it via social networking site MySpace’s web TV arm.

Legendary Brit production company Hammer built its name on a string of genre pics released in the 1950s and 1960s under the Hammer House of Horror label.

The new pic “Beyond the Rave” will be released in 20-minute online webisodes on MySpace TV and then be made available in its entirety on DVD to buy or download.

The youth-skewed vampire story set in England’s underground rave party scene follows a hedonistic soldier in his quest to track down his missing girlfriend in the last 24 hours before he flies to Iraq.

Cast includes Sadie Frost (“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”), Jamie Dornan (“Marie-Antoinette”), Nora-Jane Noone (“The Descent”) and Tamer Hassan (“Layer Cake”).

Matthias Hoene directs. Ben Grass and Tom Grass of Pure Grass Films produce for Hammer.

“ ‘Beyond the Rave’ was inspired by Tom and my own experiences of raves: the great highs, and the demons that can lurk in the dark before dawn,” said Ben Grass.

Hammer’s latest resurrection came in May when it was bought a consortium led by Dutch producer John de Mol.

DreamWorks, Nickelodeon Team Up For Television

LA TIMES: INDUSTRY - An animated partnership
By Martin Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 10, 2007

ATOP the Nickelodeon studios in Burbank is a larger-than-life cavalcade of the cable network's signature animated characters. SpongeBob SquarePants is up there. So is Dora the Explorer, as well as a handful of others. Joining them soon, hope the network's executives, will be Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private -- the raucously comic penguins from the DreamWorks Animation film "Madagascar."

Thanks to their Viacom Inc. owners, the two entertainment powerhouses are teaming up to produce a new computer-generated animated comedy series for television that spins off the half-billion-dollar worldwide grossing success of the DreamWorks film. In the kind of synergy other corporations may wish upon a star for, the new series, whose working title is "Penguins," is slated to premiere in early 2009 -- just a few months after the sequel, "Madagascar: The Crate Escape," hits thousands of theaters nationally.

For Nickelodeon, the new series is part of a major ramp-up in production at the already humming animation studio. Next year, the 28-year-old company is poised to crank out some 225 half-hour cartoons, an increase in its animation of nearly 50% -- a total that bulks up the output of the nation's largest producer of TV animation. The expansion also represents a broader network strategy to maintain its enviable winning streak as the No. 1-rated cable company for nearly 14 years -- a feat performed in the face of increasing competition from other entertainment outlets, notably crosstown rival Disney.

Of the more than 40 original animated series the studio has launched since 1991, few have come with bigger expectations than are now being carried by the quartet of wisecracking penguins. Nickelodeon is no doubt looking for the kind of phenomenal success it has enjoyed with "SpongeBob," "Dora" and "Rugrats," which together have raked in billions of dollars in product sales.

Even though SpongeBob and Dora debuted before the millennium, both are still going strong, but like the Rugrats before them, they are not invulnerable to the shifting viewing habits of their core 2- to 11-year-old audience. In short, the studio could certainly use another franchise hit, one that a schedule can be built around -- and the wobbly little penguins just may make that kind of splash.

"These movies from Pixar and DreamWorks are very, very popular with kids and families, and Nickelodeon is very smart to capitalize on it," said Brad Adgate, an analyst at the ad firm Horizon Media in New York. "I think they're saying, 'Hey, let's just give the kids what they want.' "

But what about all those other penguins swimming around the cultural soup in recent years? Remember "March of the Penguins," "Surf's Up" and "Happy Feet"? And don't forget the trendy kids' website Club Penguin.

"We had them first," joked Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of DreamWorks Animation. "These penguins are the ones that lead the pack."

Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon, expressed confidence too: "I know, at first blush, it's like, 'Oh my God, more penguins!' But to quote Jeffrey, if everyone in the room thinks something is funny, you're on to something."

Though there will be minor adjustments here and there, the penguins will largely look, talk and act the same way they did in DreamWorks' hit movie. The challenge, of course, will be converting side characters into compelling main ones. In the movie, the penguins, who fancy themselves as a CIA-style strike force, were simply trying to bust out of Central Park Zoo and return to Antarctica -- only to be sidetracked to Madagascar.

But in the TV show, the four will effectively rule the zoo -- Julien, King of the Lemurs, and his extensive entourage will be there to muss their feathers -- and mostly stay within New York City when embarking on their top-secret missions.

"They're almost like four brothers; they're like the Marx Brothers," said Katzenberg. "They can take the littlest thing and blow it completely out of proportion, and it's just hilarious."

The seeds for the collaboration were sown in December 2005 when Viacom snatched up DreamWorks for $1.5 billion. Shortly thereafter, the two giants of children's entertainment were searching for the appropriate project on which to collaborate, Katzenberg said.

After running through a number of creative options, the spunky penguins who managed to steal some of the limelight in the star-studded movie won out.

In fact, the penguins project is the first joint animation effort between the two companies, but more are coming. They are already at work on another television spinoff from DreamWorks' upcoming "Kung Fu Panda," which is scheduled for release in June 2008. The animated movie stars Jack Black as a chunky panda who dreams of becoming a kung fu master.

Though the two companies are under the same corporate umbrella, that didn't mean one wouldn't be left out in the rain when it came to creative decisions. Initially, it seemed as if DreamWorks, which after all invented the characters, was going to call the shots, but the relationship hasn't turned out as expected.

"It's been a 180-degree reversal for us," Katzenberg said. "We originally thought that we were going to take a very hands-on approach, but we were just blown away by their creative team. We're really acting as advisors and consultants."

Likewise, Nickelodeon executives had no less praise for DreamWorks.

"It's almost a perfect marriage since we've led the surge on the TV side and they've led it on the feature-film side," said Mark Taylor, Nickelodeon's senior vice president. "I think they've been appreciative that we've taken what they've done and embraced it as opposed to trying to find a way to do it different, faster, cheaper or whatever."

A good working relationship helps Nickelodeon sharpen another potentially formidable weapon in its seemingly eternal struggle against Disney. The company with mouse ears, which has its own block of highly successful kids' animated programming, has been making particular gains against Nickelodeon in the so-called "tween" demographic (kids from the ages of 9 to 14).

In fact, until a recent NFL matchup, it was Disney's smash "High School Musical 2" that held the record for most viewers for a single program on basic cable. In August, the Friday night premiere drew 17.2 million viewers but was eclipsed by last week's New England Patriots-Baltimore Ravens game on ESPN -- also owned by Disney -- that logged 17.5 million viewers.

Nickelodeon executives believe the new penguin series will pack on competitive muscle for the network not only with its likable story lines, but also with its rich and vividly detailed CG (computer-generated) presentation.

The network plans to generate more CG content than ever next year, when the technique will account for about a quarter of its total animation production, including the shows "Tak and the Power of Juju" and "Back at the Barnyard."

In all, the company expects to deliver 29 hours of CG shows -- a figure that is the equivalent of about 19 feature films.

Just because computers help deliver a visually stunning result doesn't mean the process is easy.

"Computers don't really animate anything," said Josh Book, Nickelodeon's creative director of CG animation. "The choices the computer makes are never the ones you'd want either artistically or creatively. It still comes down to going in frame by frame and putting things where you want them.

"At the end of the day, the computer is a tool," Book added. "It's just like a pencil, but it's a very smart pencil."

Although inheriting the DreamWorks characters eases the load for Nickelodeon's CG animation team, it still takes a week to build a single character, and a single episode takes 44 weeks to complete.

"At any one time here, you can have 40 different episodes in production at varying stages," Taylor said. "It's a real logistical juggling act."

martin.miller@latimes.com

X-Files Halloween, Convention Costumes To Become Recognizable Again

VARIETY: Fox sets date for 'X-Files' sequel
Scully, Mulder return to theaters on July 25
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK, TATIANA SIEGEL
Posted: Wed., Oct. 31, 2007, 3:33pm PT

The long-awaited second "X-Files" film is finally a go, with 20th Century Fox setting a July 25, 2008 release date.

Untitled project reunites "X-Files" creator Chris Carter with thesps David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who will reprise their signature roles as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

Carter begins lensing in December in Vancouver from a script he co-wrote with Frank Spotnitz, a veteran scribe of the long-running "X-Files" television series, which became a worldwide hit in its 1993-2002 run on the Fox network. Spotnitz also co-wrote with Carter the screenplay for 1998 feature "X-Files."

Studio is keeping the film's logline under wraps, but stressed the pic is a stand-alone story and supernatural thriller that takes the complicated relationship between Mulder and Scully in new directions.

As of now, there are only two other titles skedded for July 25, both comedies. Sony unspools Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly starrer "Step Brothers," directed by Adam McKay, while MGM has bows untitled Ice Cube family laffer.

Bringing the "X-Files." sequel to the bigscreen was waylaid when Chris Carter brought a 2005 lawsuit against Fox over how the "X-Files" syndication profits were divvied up. Suit was later settled.

Earlier this year, the issue seemed to have been resolved, with Duchovny and Anderson both indicating the that the film was finally forward.

Released in 1998, feature film "The X-Files" grossed $187 million worldwide, including a domestic haul of $83.9 million and an international cume of more than $103 million.

Flash, Green Lantern Films In The Works

MTV MOVIES BLOG: David Dobkin Takes ‘Flash’ Reins, Spills Details
Published by Shawn Adler on Saturday, October 27, 2007 at 11:34 pm.

Faster than the man himself, “The Flash” movie has once again changed directors – and you’ll never guess whose quick hands have grabbed the franchise.

“Wedding Crashers” and “Fred Claus” director David Dobkin revealed to MTV News that he’s signed with Warner Bros. to bring the fleet-footed super to the big screen in a solo project, taking over for Shawn Levy who left for undisclosed reasons.

Dobkin’s film won’t be the character’s first appearance in cinemas, of course, with the Flash a major part of the upcoming “Justice League of America” film. But while fans wait for “JLA” story and casting announcements with bated breath, Dobkin can’t help but hold his – confirming that his movie will exist in the same universe as the upcoming flick.

“It’s designed to work as a spin-off from [’JLA’], so we’re honoring the story and we’re working in tandem with the storytelling,” he said. “I think we’ll just have to see how the movie does and how it works off it, but it certainly would be a movie that comes after ‘Justice League.’”

Asked which version of the Flash would be the hero of his flick, Dobkin didn’t hesitate. “Wally West,” he said. Asked which version of the Flash would be the hero of his flick, Dobkin didn’t hesitate. “Wally West,” he said. This would seem to mesh perfectly with recent rumors that “JLA” opens with Barry Allen’s funeral.

Asked about his vision for the Flash, Dobkin teased us with a somewhat melancholy tagline: “You can’t outrun yourself.”


VARIETY: Berlanti lights up 'Green Lantern'
WB set director for DC Comics adaptation
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Posted: Sun., Oct. 28, 2007, 7:00pm PT

Warner Bros. has set Greg Berlanti to direct "Green Lantern," a live-action take on the DC Comics superhero.

Berlanti will write the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Donald De Line will produce; Andrew Haas is exec producer.

Berlanti hopes to make the jump to big-budget fantasy fare after serving as writer and exec producer on character-driven TV series "Dirty Sexy Money," "Brothers & Sisters," "Everwood," "Jack & Bobby" and "Dawson's Creek." He previously directed 2000 feature "The Broken Hearts Club."

"Green Lantern" was hatched in 1940. Hal Jordan, a second-generation test pilot, is an ordinary man who has been charged with defending a sector of the universe.

Warner Bros. and DC Comics assigned the project to De Line, who is currently in Morocco shooting "Body of Lies," the Ridley Scott-directed WB drama that stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.

Guggenheim, who works with Berlanti as a writer-producer on "Brothers & Sisters," wrote the Marvel comicbooks "Amazing Spider-Man," "Wolverine" and "Blade." Green, the "Heroes" co-exec producer who worked with Berlanti on "Everwood" and "Jack & Bobby," wrote the Marvel Comics title "Superman/Batman" and was a writer-producer on "Smallville."

Thanks to I Watch Stuff! for the links.

Remake OTD: Child's Play

FIRST SHOWING.NET: Child's Play Remake in the Works
October 20, 2007 - by Alex Billington

While talking with David Kirschner this weekend, one of the producers of the upcoming John Cusack film Martian Child, he revealed that they are working on another Child's Play sequel, but it would instead be a remake of the first Child's Play. Don't jump the gun and complain about another remake just yet, you need to here all of the details - because this could be good. The film is only "in the works" at the moment with a story being put together but Kirschner claimed it would definitely be "more terrifying".

First things first, David Kirschner is the producer behind all five of the currently released Child's Play movies. He produced the first one and even the latest one, Seed of Chucky. Secondly, he also said that the same screenwriter who came up with the original Chucky story, Don Mancini, and who wrote all five of them is working on this one as well.

There is no director attached yet, as they're still working on the story, but some interesting discussion arose around what director might be chosen for this. Kirschner went on to explain that it would be very close to the original script, with some twists that the audience won't see coming. Sound like it could possibly be good yet?

Now just imagine a lot of the same things coming together with this that the first film had. Although Child's Play only has a 6.0/10 on IMDb, it is a cult classic in terms of horror movies and I know there a lot of big Chucky fans out there (including myself - that is, at least up to the third Child's Play). So just imagine - you have the same screenwriter and nearly the same script and you get someone like Darren Lynn Bousman, Rob Zombie, David Slade, Mikael Håfström, Christophe Gans, or even Takashi Miike to direct the remake. Now that would be awesome!

Something similar to this exact idea just happened - Rob Zombie's Halloween. Kirschner even mentioned it when one of the members of the press questioned whether a remake is a good idea at this time. Not everyone liked the Halloween remake, but I know people that did. And if you think of putting Child's Play in the hands of one of the new generation's up-and-coming horror directors, we could have a great film in the works.

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I couldn't even finish the first 'Child's Play'. I know horror films are supposed to be, you know, horrible, but it just came across to me as incredibly mean-spirited and repellant. A remake? None for me, thanks!

Remake OTD: The Birds

VARIETY: Naomi Watts set for 'Birds' remake
Martin Campbell in talks to direct for Universal
By TATIANA SIEGEL, MARC GRASER
Posted: Thurs., Oct. 18, 2007, 1:26pm PT

Naomi Watts will star and Martin Campbell is in negotiations to direct Universal's new version of "The Birds."

U is planning a reimagining of Daphne du Maurier's short story, which inspired the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock classic.

Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller will produce through their Platinum Dunes shingle, while Peter Guber and Cathy Schulman are producing for Mandalay Pictures.

U is not looking to rush the pic into production prior to a possible strike.

Stiles White and Juliet Snowden wrote a version of the script that is still being developed. New scribes may be brought aboard.

For the moment, Campbell's and Watts' dance cards are already filled with other projects.

Campbell is attached to Fox's runaway train actioner "Unstoppable" and crime thriller "36" at Paramount. He most recently helmed the latest James Bond installment "Casino Royale."

Watts, who will next be seen in Warner Independent's "Funny Games," is filming "The International" and will follow that up with First Look's adaptation of Amy Sutherland's "Kicked, Bitten and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premiere School for Exotic Animal Trainers."

Mandalay's David Zelon and Jonathan Krauss will oversee for Mandalay. Scott Bernstein is overseeing the pic for U.

Richard Kelly's Next Film

VARIETY: Frank Langella to star in Kelly's 'Box'
Actor joins Cameron Diaz in horror film - By DIANE GARRETT
Posted: Thurs., Oct. 11, 2007, 2:42pm PT

Frank Langella will star with Cameron Diaz in "The Box," a horror film to be directed by "Donnie Darko" helmer Richard Kelly.

The $30 million production is being bankrolled by Media Rights Capital.

Langella will play a stranger who presents a mysterious box to a woman.

Kelly wrote the script based on Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button" He is producing with Sean McKittrick of his Darko Entertainment shingle. Ted Hamm will be exec producer.

Pic starts shooting mid-November (Daily Variety, June 29). By then Langella will have wrapped the film version of "Frost/Nixon" for Imagine and director Ron Howard.

Langella won the Tony award for his work in "Frost/Nixon" on Broadway. In November, Roadside Attractions will release Langella's "Starting Out in the Evening" which played at Sundance and Toronto.

MRC, which pays star salaries along with partial copyright ownership that gives talent a DVD windfall, also bankrolled "Babel" and Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno."

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Hmm. I thought this story was made into a post-Serling "Twilight Zone" episode at one point. We'll see, I guess.

Universal Decides To Spend 100,000 Times More On Land Of The Lost Episode Than Kroffts Originally Did

VARIETY: Universal OK's 'Land of the Lost'
Will Ferrell comedy to cost $100 million
By DIANE GARRETT, MICHAEL FLEMING
Posted: Tue., Oct. 9, 2007, 8:00pm PT

Universal is pushing the button on "Land of the Lost" for a March start.

Decision to greenlight the Will Ferrell project surprised observers, who are aware that U had a rough ride with its $160 million comedy "Evan Almighty." Studio sources suggest the budget of "Land of the Lost," described as an event comedy, was recalibrated from $125 million to $100 million in order to earn its start date.

Brad Silberling will helm the bigscreen adaptation of Sid & Marty Krofft's children's skein of the same name. Jimmy Miller is producing along with the Kroffts; Julie Wixson-Darmody and Daniel Lupi exec produce.

Decision to move ahead effectively removes Ferrell from availability for other pre-strike projects on the cusp, such as "Himelfarb" for Warner Bros. The comedian has been attached to "Land of the Lost" for several years. Miller reps Ferrell and the Kroffts, who have long tried to get a bigscreen adaptation of their show made.

Adaptation by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas revolves around a disgraced paleontologist, his assistant and a macho tour guide who find themselves in a strange world inhabited by dinosaurs, monkey people and reptilian Sleestaks.

Donna Langley spearheaded the effort to obtain rights from the Kroffts, who also produced and created smallscreen skeins such as "H.R. Pufnstuf," "Lidsville" and "Donny and Marie."

Remake OTD: The Wild Geese

VARIETY: Hollywood Gang flocks for 'Geese'
Film unit signs deal for remake - By MICHAEL FLEMING
Posted: Wed., Sep. 19, 2007, 8:00pm PT

Hollywood Gang Prods. has made a deal to remake "The Wild Geese," the 1978 film about a group of British mercenaries who are contracted to free an imprisoned African leader.

Rupert Sanders is attached to direct. Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari will produce. Discussions are under way to bring the film to Warner Bros., where Nunnari was a producer on "300."

Richard Burton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris starred in the original, which was based on Daniel Carney's unpublished novel "The Thin White Line."

New deal came out of a conversation between Nunnari and Sanders in which each recalled the original as a favorite film.

"It has it all: great characters, action, plot twists and revenge," Sanders said. "We are making a tough film, taking ex-British soldiers from the murky London underworld to the battlefields in Africa."

Euan Lloyd and Hollywood Gang partner Craig J. Flores will exec produce.

Hollywood Gang is teamed with producer Nick Wechsler on an adaptation of the Warren Ellis graphic novel "Ocean" and has Sylvain White ("Stomp the Yard") attached to direct an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel "Ronin" at Warner Bros.

"I Don't Hear Anyone Clamoring For This"

BUSINESS WEEK: Depth Of A Salesman
Jeffrey Katzenberg is determined to show that 3D's time has arrived
SEPTEMBER 10, 2007

Early in his days as a Hollywood climber, Jeffrey Katzenberg was known around town for his tenacious pursuit of hot movie scripts. Thirty years later, the hyperkinetic mogul no longer confines his obsessions to screenplays. If you happen to be sitting at the corner table of Beverly Hills' swanky Peninsula hotel, the DreamWorks Animation (DWA ) chief executive is likely to chew your ear off about 3D movies. Katzenberg is convinced they are about to become "the single most revolutionary change since color pictures."


Yes, he's talking about the same kind of 3D movies that had audiences in the 1950s wearing cardboard-framed red and green glasses to catch bouncing blurred pictures of snakes hovering over their heads. These days Katzenberg has become Hollywood's self-appointed evangelist for the second coming of the technology, in a smoother, clearer, digital form. He thinks it could boost a slow-growing U.S. box office and, not so incidentally, help the prospects for DreamWorks' own animated flicks.

Katzenberg's army of followers seems to grow almost daily. Steven Spielberg is on board and is preparing to work with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to produce a 3D film. They join devotees like Titanic director James Cameron and a certain Yoda from San Francisco named George Lucas, who intends to trot out his six Star Wars flicks in 3D starting in 2009. "Jeffrey's Mr. Go Go," says Lucas. "The time has come for 3D to become more than some theme park attraction. We see a business there."

Amazingly, so do a growing number of theater owners. After years of resisting the rollout of expensive digital projectors, America's theater chains are hustling to install that state-of-the-art equipment, which can be upgraded to show 3D films. Digital projectors eliminate a lot of the herky-jerky movements that gave 3D filmgoers headaches, even nausea, in the past, says Michael L. Campbell, CEO of Regal Entertainment Group (RGC ), the nation's largest theater chain.

How did 3D lurch back into the picture? It really started in 2005, when Cameron and Lucas showed up at ShoWest, an annual meeting of theater owners, and pushed them to buy digital projectors to make their films look better. It took a while, but as projector costs came down and Hollywood studios warmed to the idea of helping defray the costs, theater owners started installing the new equipment at a per-screen cost of about $75,000.

Today, about 2,200 of the 38,000 theater screens in the U.S. are digital. Some directors and moguls pointed out that for $30,000 more per screen theaters could be adapted to show 3D films as well. That includes a special screen for the most popular 3D technology. Slightly more stylish glasses than the ones from the '60s are still needed to help a viewer's brain decipher the two images projected onto the screen.

Regal currently offers 3D on 109 of its nearly 6,400 screens. It hopes that as many as one third of those screens will have 3D capability when they all become digital in the next four years. By then, leading 3D equipment vendor RealD should have 4,000 screens installed industrywide, up from 650 now, says analyst Gordon Hodge of Thomas Weisel Partners.

Still, some question whether folks will flock to a medium that remains something of a gimmick. When Walt Disney Co. (DIS ) ran a 3D version of its Meet the Robinsons movie on 581 of the 3,413 screens that showed the film, it generated nearly three times as much business on the 3D screens. But how many people really want to sit in a theater for two hours wearing sunglasses? That's what did in 3D the first time around. "I don't hear anyone clamoring for this," says box office tracker Paul Dergarabedian, founder of the research firm Media by the Numbers. "Maybe if there are some great films that you just have to see in 3D."

That's where Katzenberg comes in. He figures that if he can convert enough tech-savvy directors like Lucas—"the alpha members of our herd," as Katzenberg describes them—to sign on to 3D, other studios will have to follow. "He makes his case with, shall we say, enthusiasm," says Sony Pictures Entertainment (SNE ) Chairman Michael Lynton, who got the corner-table treatment and is now looking for films to make in 3D.

Using a specially equipped screening room at his Glendale (Calif.) studio—where he shows a U2 concert in 3D and test versions of Shrek the Third—Katzenberg tries to win over theater owners and others. He has also hired top 3D gurus to make his own flicks. That includes Meet the Robinsons 3D supervisor Phil McNally, whose voicemail identifies him as "Captain 3D."

Katzenberg's pitch: 3D can spice up the industry's box office take, which is growing this year by only single digits despite blockbusters like Spider-Man 3 and Transformers. Theaters hope to charge as much as $5 more per ticket for 3D films. And the technology keeps viewers away from DVDs (3D films can't be seen on disc, yet) and thwarts piracy since 3D movies are harder to record.

Later this year, Paramount will release a 3D version of director Robert Zemeckis' big-budget fantasy film Beowulf in several theaters, including Imax, which already shows many films in 3D. Next year, New Line Cinema releases its remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth entirely in 3D. Disney, which until now had made a limited number of its animated films in 3D, signed Zemeckis to make future animated films for them purely in 3D. "Until now it was a chicken-and-egg thing," says Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. "There just weren't enough screens for us to make films just for 3D."

There's an element of self-interest in Katzenberg's campaign. The 3D technology is best suited for special-effects and animated films like those produced by his company. DreamWorks has said it plans to release only 3D movies to theaters, starting in 2009 with an animated horror movie, Monsters vs. Aliens, as well as the latest in its Shrek franchise.

In the meantime, Katzenberg is tireless, even if some of his targets aren't. John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, says Katzenberg has scheduled three breakfasts in the past six months to press him to get his members to speed up their 3D efforts. "It's great when a studio executive is talking about something other than downloads for a change," notes Fithian. "But Jeffrey wants me to devote 24 hours a day to this, and I have other things to do."

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Blah blah excuse to raise ticket prices blah blah more stay home with aggressively marketed DVDs that industry also wants us to buy blah blah went through this fifty years ago blah blah audiences respond to clever stories and compelling characters blah blah blah.

Sequel OTD: Not Surprisingly, 'Rock' Part Of 'Mountain'

VARIETY: The Rock set for 'Witch Mountain'
Actor to star in Disney followup
By MICHAEL FLEMING - Posted: Tue., Aug. 28, 2007, 10:22am PT

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will star in “Witch Mountain” for Walt Disney Pictures. Andy Fickman is directing, and the studio will begin production in March.

Johnson, who just teamed with Fickman in the Disney family comedy “The Game Plan,” is in negotiations to play a Las Vegas cab driver who picks up a pair of siblings with magical powers. Plot advances the storyline from the original “Escape to Witch Mountain,” which Disney released in 1975.

Andrew Gunn produces through his Gunn Films shingle, and Ann Marie Sanderlin is exec producer. Matt Lopez wrote the most recent draft.

Johnson, who most recently starred in the drama “Gridiron Gang,” stars next summer alongside Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway in “Get Smart” for Warner Bros. He’s repped by UTA.

Remake OTD: The Illustrated Man

VARIETY: Zack Snyder to direct 'Illustrated'
Filmmaker also producing redo for Warners By DIANE GARRETT - Posted: Tue., Aug. 28, 2007, 5:32pm PT

Warner Bros. has tattooed Zack Snyder's name on its redo of "The Illustrated Man."

The helmer, busy prepping "Watchmen" for the studio, is attached to direct and produce the remake based on Ray Bradbury's collection of short stories by the same name. "Watchmen" scribe Alex Tse will tackle the screenplay.

The collection, first published in 1951, is narrated by a mysterious man with living tattoos that predict the future. Rod Steiger starred in the title role for the 1969 bigscreen adaptation, distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts; Claire Bloom co-starred.

Di Novi Pictures and Snyder's shingle, Cruel and Unusual Films, are producing the remake. Denise Di Novi, and Deborah Snyder, the helmer's wife and producing partner, are also producing, along with Frank Darabont. Cruel and Unusual's Wesley Coller and Di Novi's Alison Greenspan are exec producing.

Snyder and his wife signed a first-look deal with the studio in the wake of his success with "300" (Daily Variety, Jan. 30). They are producing "Illustrated Man" through Cruel and Unusual.

Di Novi's shingle has produced numerous films at the studio under its production deal, including "Nights in Rodanthe."

That Sticky Stuff At The Bottom Of Your Toy Box Will Probably Be A Movie Soon

VARIETY: Hollywood's toy ploy
He-Man, Voltron, Bratz slated for adaptation
By MARC GRASER - Posted: Fri., Jun. 8, 2007, 5:27pm PT

In this summer's "Transformers," a truckload of Furby dolls gets blown sky-high by one of the film's giant robots.

It's meant as a sight gag, set up by toymaker Hasbro, which introduced the chatty little creatures, as well as the Transformers line, to the masses.

But Hollywood is hardly treating toys as a joke these days.

The next few years will see everything from He-Man to G.I. Joe to possibly Monopoly show up on the bigscreen. As the film biz runs out of original ideas, nothing, it seems, is too much of a stretch.

In the last two decades, Hollywood has gone through several crazes: U.S. adaptations of French comedies, remakes of vintage pics, film versions of old TV series, and adaptations of videogames and comicbooks. Now studios and high-profile producers are buying up rights to dolls, action figures and games, hoping their lasting popularity can prop up the next studio tentpoles.

As the thinking goes, the instant recognition of popular toys can only help an opening weekend. But everyone involved is also nervous. Studios are banking millions on just a brand name, while toymakers are risking their crown jewels to work in an entirely new format, knowing that a bomb can cut into their sales.

Toy sensations of the 1980s such as He-Man and Voltron are aiming to tap into a wave of nostalgia for the Reagan decade. The generation who grew up with these toys are now in positions of power in Hollywood, and the hope is that that same age-group, a key moviegoing demo, will embrace the bigscreen adaptations.

Given the success of the recent "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie ($91.3 million worldwide) and the buzz around "Transformers," there are high hopes for producers and studios.

Consider some projects in development:

* Warner Bros. is mulling a CGI-animated film version of "Thundercats," produced by Paula Weinstein ("Blood Diamond"), about a group of feline-looking warriors who have names like Lion-O, Panthro and Tygra.

* Warners and Joel Silver recently announced plans to make Mattel's "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" as a live-action feature in the vein of "300." (The toy character, loosely modeled on "Conan the Barbarian," was first turned into a film in 1987.)

* Paramount has "G.I. Joe" in the works with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura (who's also behind "Transformers"). The Hasbro character was spun off as "Action Man" outside the U.S., and the film would team up both characters.

* For girls, there's the "Bratz" movie that Lionsgate will release in August, and "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery," from HBO Films and Picturehouse, starring Abigail Breslin. The latter's based on Mattel's American Girl dolls.

* Avi Arad, who is producing "Bratz," is also behind a live-action movie version of the black-and-white animatronic robot "Robosapien," from Wow Wee Ltd. A former toy designer, Arad will also create a new robot that will appear in the film and on store shelves. Crystal Sky Pictures is producing.

* Mark Gordon has his own giant robot movie with "Voltron" that Justin Marks ("He-Man") is penning.

The toys worked because they weren't just things to play with. They were big businesses, backed by Saturday morning cartoons and comicbooks that generated interest around the properties and were essentially commercials to drive sales, much to the dismay of children's television advocates.

As a result, the toys became popular consumer brands. Brands that are now turning companies like Hasbro and Mattel into the next Marvel -- at least, that's the hope of William Morris.

After snagging the toymaker away from CAA as a client (WMA reps director Michael Bay, producer Tom DeSanto and General Motors, whose vehicles play many of the robots), the agency last week announced plans to turn the toymaker's more popular products, including Candy Land, Clue and Trivial Pursuit into movies and TV shows with its roster of talent attached.

For example, it envisions the company's Ouija board as the basis of a horror movie, and has even tossed around the idea of a Monopoly movie helmed by Ridley Scott.

With production and marketing budgets escalating, studios are looking for all the help they can get to open their pics. One solution is established brands. DreamWorks and Par's "Transformers" essentially sells itself (to kids and adults who grew up with the property) just based on the toy's name and awareness.

Hasbro has released an entirely new "Transformers" toy line around the release of the film, flooding stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us with redesigns of its robot characters based on what's seen on the bigscreen. And it's covering all the bases: There's even a Mr. Potato Head Transformer.

For the toymakers, a hit movie could significantly boost sales. Conversely, if any of these adaptations stumble, toy sales could seriously be hurt; franchises are still considered fragile enough among fickle kids to take a tumble. Toy companies are clearly risking their biggest moneymakers on movies just to make more coin.

"They need to be very selective in who they do business with," warns producer Tom DeSanto, behind DreamWorks and Paramount's "Transformers," and exec producer of the first two "X-Men" films. "They need to get people who understand the property. This is their livelihood. If it bombs, it will damage the value of their bread and butter."

The box office is littered with failed vidgame or comicbook pics. The same could certainly happen with toy-based films. Past efforts, like a 1985 film version of the boardgame "Clue," flopped.

To try to prevent that from happening, Hasbro certainly kept a close eye on "Transformers" throughout the filmmaking, with Hasbro chief operating officer Brian Goldner serving as executive producer.

"We wanted to be very involved," Goldner says. "These are our brands. They have great meaning for us as a company and have stood the test of time. It's about igniting the passion of the fans as well as new generations of kids and collectors, for our brands are really beloved and played with the world over."

Goldner worked closely with Michael Bay, exec producer Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks on all aspects of the film's creative development, marketing and promotions, and is managing merchandising in conjunction with the release of the film.

"We think there is a tremendous upside in the movie, and taking the brand to the next level and exposing the idea behind Transformers, which is the 'more than meets the eye' concept to a new generation of adults and kids," Goldner says. "It celebrates what they were at the very core."

If it didn't, it could have been a situation like Mattel and "He-Man." The company has long held off on another "He-Man" movie after the '87 live-action version, starring Dolph Lundgren, wound up too campy. For example, Mattel nixed John Woo's plans for a redo.

While toy marketers continue to produce animated series and direct-to-DVD movies for everything from Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake to Rainbow Brite and Care Bears (Fox will release a new animated film in theaters later this year), the companies have mostly been cautious about doing anything bigger.

Producers say companies like Hasbro and Mattel protect their properties like gold, as they should, but that zeal makes them increasingly more difficult to deal with.

One runaway hit, however, could easily loosen their grip.

"The studios need to bring people on board who might not be on some writers list or directors list that makes the studio feel comfortable, but understands the spirit of why these stories work," DeSanto says.

In other words, it takes a lot of passion toward these playthings. Those involved see them as much more than toys; they see them as, well, almost human.

DeSanto is one of those people: He owns more than 30,000 comic books. So is Arad, who put Marvel's comicbook characters like Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in movie theaters. He's now turning his attention back to the toy biz.

"The toy industry is my first love," he said when announcing the Robosapien project. "Robosapien has intrigued me since he was introduced. He has all the right elements to make a family feature film, with the ability to touch people on an emotional level."

While studios are aggressively snatching up rights to toys, they haven't been quick to greenlight the film versions. Until recently, it's been tough for execs (other than junior execs or assistants) to see '80s toy icons as anything more than something sold on eBay.

"It wasn't their generation," says DeSanto, who had a tough time setting up "Transformers" at a studio. "The decisionmakers have had a hard time wrapping their heads around it," just as they have with videogame adaptations and some comicbooks.

One major reason is obvious: There's not much to adapt. These are toys, not toy stories.

Mattel first set up a "Hot Wheels" movie at Sony in 2003, with McG once attached to direct. That project has since broken down. It just proved too difficult a project to adapt. (Maybe it was the orange track.)

"There are a lot of properties that don't resonate today," DeSanto says. "The key really is finding out what the story is and if people still care about those characters. If they don't, Hollywood will go down the road making a lot of movies that don't speak to anyone other than the people that grew up with the cartoon or the toy. If you don't do them right, you will have a giant bonfire of money burning in front of the studio."

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I don't even remember seeing the Furby gag. Did you?

Remake/Sequel/Re-Imagining/Fool's Errand OTD: The Wizard Of Oz

VARIETY: Warners, McFarlane return to 'Oz'
Olson to write revisionist take on Baum books
By MICHAEL FLEMING - Posted: Tue., Aug. 21, 2007, 8:00pm PT

Todd McFarlane will bring his own take on 'The Wizard of Oz' to the bigscreen.
Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures are teaming on "Oz," a revisionist take on the L. Frank Baum books that hatched "The Wizard of Oz."

Project was acquired based on an idea by Todd McFarlane that was fleshed out and pitched by Josh Olson ("A History of Violence").

Olson will write and McFarlane will produce with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk. Rick Benattar ("Shoot ’Em Up") is exec producer.

Conversations with McFarlane and Olson make it clear that they are still working out the tone of the film. They have plenty to work with. WB has owned the rights to the original "The Wizard of Oz" since buying Ted Turner’s empire, whose assets included the film and other plum titles in the MGM library. There are also 15 novels in the Oz series written by Baum, most in the public domain.

McFarlane has a vision of Oz that is a dark, edgy and muscular PG-13, without a singing Munchkin in sight. That was clear with a toy line he launched several years ago that featured a buxom Dorothy and Toto reimagined as an oversized snarling warthog. Olson has something a little tamer, and PG, in mind.

"I saw those toys, and Dorothy as some bondage queen isn’t something I want to do," Olson told Daily Variety. "The appealing thing about the Baum books to me is how wildly imaginative they are. There are crazy characters from amazing places. I want this to be ‘Harry Potter’ dark, not ‘Seven’ dark."

Both McFarlane and Olson are on the same page when it comes to the promise of marrying the Baum story with benefits of visual effects advancements.

"My pitch was ‘How do we get people who went to ‘Lord of the Rings’ to embrace this?’ " McFarlane said. "I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley from ‘Alien’ than a helpless singing girl."

Olson was keeping plot specifics to himself but said the film will be closer to a sequel than a remake.

"We still want to take advantage of the first film, which might be the most beloved of all time, and rely on its place in your cultural memory to bubble beneath the surface," Olson said. "A lot of the plot is mine, but the characters are all Baum."

McFarlane, a former Marvel Comics animator who created "Spawn," is working on several producing projects, such as Paramount’s "The Torso," which has David Fincher attached to direct. McFarlane is producing with Bill Mechanic and Don Murphy.

Olson is repped by WMA, McFarlane by ICM.

Fire At Cinecitta

VARIETY: 'Rome' burns in Cinecitta blaze
Studio plays down reports of damage
By NICK VIVARELLI - Posted: Fri., Aug. 10, 2007, 7:23am PT

ROME -- Flames blazed overnight on Rome's Cinecitta Studios backlot, where a swath of the monumental set of HBO's completed "Rome" skein burned down but few other damages were caused, leaving the sprawling facility's sound stages, film archives, and other sets intact.

"The studios are safe, sound, and in good shape, except for a corner of the backlot where the fire broke out," Cinecitta Studios deputy director Maurizio Sperandini told Daily Variety.

The Cinecitta exec said the fire broke out near the "Rome" set -- which HBO vacated in January -- between 10 and 10.30 p.m. on Thursday night and lasted for under three hours, thanks to prompt intervention by firefighters who stamped out the flames with powerful fire trucks known as Super Dragons, sent over from nearby Leonardo da Vinci and Ciampino airports.

The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical short circuit in an equipment shed on the compound. Officials are ruling out arson.

Flames quickly spread to the area known as the "suburra," the ancient Roman red-light district on the "Rome" set which is considered among the largest open-air sets ever constructed. It comprises a partial recreation of the Roman Forum, with temples, thermal baths, bordellos, and public buildings, all made using fiberglass panels, and other materials, some of which are highly flammable.

According to Italian press reports the flames reached as high as 40 meters (133 feet) and burned down an area of 3,000 square meters, or 32,000 square feet.

Downplaying the damage, Sperandini said the scale of the fire had "been a bit exaggerated by early press reports."

The large complex founded by Benito Mussolini in 1937 -- and known as Hollywood on the Tiber in its 1950s heyday when "Ben Hur" and "Quo Vadis" shot there -- spreads out over 600,000 square meters (717,000 square yards) and comprises 22 soundstages, including the legendary Studio 5, where Federico Fellini worked.

Besides "Rome" recent Hollywood productions at Cinecitta include Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic" and "Exorcist: The Beginning."

On the artier front, Abel Ferrara last year shot his screwball comedy "Go Go Tales" there.

Sperandini said the BBC is on site preparing to shoot its revived sci-fier "Doctor Who" at Cinecitta in September.