Justin Theroux and Will Arnett Speed Up and for SPACE INVADERS

Justin Theroux and Will Arnett

by Michael Sullivan  - Collider.com

Iron Man 2 and Tropic Thunder writer Justin Theroux is penning a new draft of Space Invaders–not based on the video game. The original spec by Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger is about an astronaut who goes into space to catch his girlfriend in the act of cheating on him with a fellow astronaut. Even better: Will Arnett is attached to star! 

The rom-com is being set up for Fox after the collapse of Fox Atomic, with Davis Entertainment (A Perfect Getaway, Aliens vs. Predators: Requiem) on board to produce. Theroux, an actor-turned-screenwriter, has a couple other projects on his plate including a comedy about air guitar competitions, which he may also direct according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Theroux also wrote the upcoming Danny McBride/James Franco medieval-stoner-comedy Your Highness.

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Death on Wheels: Aussie horror ROAD TRAIN

Director: Dean Francis

Writer:  Clive Hopkins

Cast:

Sophie Lowe, Xavier Samuel, Bob Morley, Georgina Haig

Story: Four young friends on a camping adventure in outback Australia are run off the road by an erratically driven road train – a massive three-trailer truck. With their own vehicle wrecked, and the road train stopped, the friends march off to remonstrate with the drivers. But mysteriously, there is no one to be found. Suddenly, the silence is broken by the sound of gunshots. A distant figure in the bush screams and runs towards them.

Have they become witnesses to a murder? There’s no time to discuss it. The friends commandeer the road train. The next town is only three hours away. But the next town is somewhere they will never reach. And what they discover inside the vehicle’s trailers proves more terrifying than anything out there on that lonely road.

From left: Xavier Samuel, Bob Morley, Sophie Lowe, Georgina Haig and Dean Francis

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”Wicker Man,’ ‘Equalizer’ Actor Edward Woodward Dies

Edward Woodward in The Wicker Man

Mike Collett-White – HollywoodReporter.com

Nov 16, 2009. LONDON (Reuters) – British actor Edward Woodward, best known for roles in 1973 cult classic “The Wicker Man” and U.S. television series “The Equalizer,” died Monday aged 79.

His agent Janet Glass said the veteran of stage and screen had been ill for several months and passed away in hospital surrounded by members of his family.

“I knew him a very long time and he was a superb human being,” Glass told Reuters.

“That integrity shone through in the roles he played. I can’t ever remember, in all the productions he undertook, anyone having a bad word to say about him and he never had anything bad to say about anyone else either.”

Woodward played police sergeant Neil Howie in occult thriller The Wicker Man, a story of his search for a missing girl on an isolated island.

Edward Woodward

The movie, famous for its final scene in which Howie is burned alive, also starred Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland.

That part came in the wake of his appearances in the British spy series “Callan,” Woodward’s big breakthrough into television and movie acting.

In the series, which ran from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Woodward played a rebellious British secret agent in a role that echoed his most successful U.S. venture, playing Robert McCall in the hit 1980s show The Equalizer.

The show won him a Golden Globe in 1987 for best performance by an actor in a television drama series, although according to the BBC, the actor regretted making The Equalizer because of the toll it took on his health including a major heart attack.

Woodward also earned acclaim for the 1980 Australian film “Breaker Morant,” about the murder trial of a lieutenant serving in the Second Boer War.

As well as on-screen success, Woodward was a proven singer and stage actor, and was singled out by Laurence Olivier to appear in the title role of a National Theater production of “Cyrano.”

According to Glass, Noel Coward also chose the actor to star in the Broadway show “High Spirits,” the musical version of “Blite Spirit,” and Woodward recorded 12 solo albums.

The actor’s final on-screen appearance was earlier this year in the popular British soap opera “EastEnders.”

Woodward is survived by his wife, the English actress Michele Dotrice, and four children — one by Doltrice and three from a previous marriage.

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Amanda Peet talks pros and cons of special effects on the movie set

Amanda Peet

By 24 HOURS NEWS SERVICES

  Amanda Peet did her her first action movie with 2012, playing a mother who, with her ex-husband, played by John Cusack, flee with their kids from the end of the world.

What she didn’t know was how sick the process would make her, she tells parade.com.

  “I can’t go on thrill rides anymore because I get physically ill. But we filmed on sets where everything was bouncing around like a roller coaster. The worst was where we’re supposed to nearly crash in a plane that was mounted on a gimbal. It gyrated so wildly that I got really nauseous. Every night I’d go home and be like, ‘Am I still on the gimbal? Did I come down yet? Did I throw up?’”

  Peet also relies on special effects — or movie makeup — to cover her physical ‘flaws.’

“I’ve certainly taken my clothes off on camera, but you have body make up and special lighting. I mean, someone with a figure like Jennifer Aniston has a trainer, a cook spinning out some version of the latest diet, and probably a stop at the tanning salon. Then teenage girls go, ‘God, I wish I could look like that.’ Maybe they wouldn’t if they knew what it took.’”

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William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin Team for Another The Exorcist?

From MovieWeb.com

 It seems that William Peter Blatty, the author of the original novel The Exorcist, could be reteaming with William Friedkin, director of the 1973 film based on Blatty’s classic literary work of genius, for another version of the story. Though, according to Blatty, this new project won’t be going to theater screens. Instead, it will be a four-hour miniseries made for television.

Cementary Dance magazine (courtesy of Bloody Disgusting) recently interviewed the author, and when asked if he would change anything about the original film, Blatty stated:

Yes and no. I would love to have been able to include the subplot involving Karl and his daughter Elvira which I did in my first draft, but that script ran to 172 pages, much, much too long. But I might have it my way in the near future, inasmuch as I’ve written an Exorcist miniseries script that not only faithfully includes all the main elements of the novel, but also some rather spooky new material and scenes, as well as a totally new (and perhaps much more satisfying) ending. I’ve also updated it. Billy Friedkin has agreed to direct.

There is no word on when or if this proposed miniseries will begin production. We will keep you updated as more info comes forth.

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Paul W.S. Anderson Circling ‘Castlevania’ and ‘Metal Gear Solid’

From AceShowBiz.com

Paul W.S. Anderson, who is currently shooting “Resident Evil: Afterlife”, has planned to keep himself busy after wrapping the movie. His partner in “Resident Evil”, producer Jeremy Bolt, recently told press that the helmer, who has been set to produce “The Three Musketeers”, is circling two upcoming movie projects.

According to Bolt, Anderson has once again eyed the helmer position for “Castlevania”, in which James Wan has been attached to direct. Additionally, he has put his name in the unofficial bidding for directing “Metal Gear Solid”.

“Castlevania”, based on classic video game with the same title, will follow Transylvanian knight who leads his men into a gothic castle to seek refuge from the Turkish army. The knights soon discover the castle is controlled by the original vampire. Paul W.S. Anderson will serve both as producer and writer of the 2010 movie.

As for “Metal Gear Solid”, the action sci-fi movie will serve as an adaptation of Konami’s video game series centering on Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from Foxhound, a renegade special forces unit, in an attempt to liberate their two hostages. Produced by Michael De Luca, it is scheduled to be released in 2012.

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Start your engines: Prequel to ‘Death Race’ is greenlit

From ReelLoop.com

A prequel to Paul W.S. Anderson’s Death Race has been given the go-ahead by Universal Studios. Penned by Tony Giglio and based on the story from Anderson, the upcoming straight-to-DVD feature will delve into the back-story of the masked and mangled Frankenstein, who was original played by the late David Carradine in the 1975 original film Death Race 2000.

Carradine provided Frank’s voice in Anderson’s Death Race.

Death Race was a marginal hit that made $75 million worldwide.

Production on the loosely titled Death Race 2 will begin after Anderson completes Resident Evil: Afterlife. He will serve in a producing capacity.

No word on a cast or who will be helming the project. We don’t care. As long as Natalie Martinez is back.

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‘Silent Hill 2′ to Start Filming in 2010

from AceShowBiz.com

A second installment of the movie “Silent Hill” is likely to start its production soon. In a recent interview with Shock Till You Drop, special makeup effects designer Paul Jones hinted that the shooting for “Silent Hill 2″ will be kicked off in 2010. “Roger (Avary) has some awesome ideas and hopefully we’re going to bring that to fruition sometime next year,” he revealed.

“I was working on storyboards for that around the same time last year.” Jones additionally claimed, “It’s going to be pretty crazy. There’s a lot of cool stuff in there.” However, he remained mum when asked whether or not the script has been completed.

“Silent Hill 2″ will serve as the follow-up to 2006 horror thriller movie “Silent Hill”, which is a movie adaptation of a video game with the same title.

The first film centers on a young mother desperate to find a cure for her only child’s illness. Ignoring the protests of her husband, she travels to an abandoned town in search of answers and finds supernatural occurrences taking place there.

Roger Avary has confirmed he will make a return to his writing position for the second film, while Samuel Hadida has been set to produce it. Though Davis Films has not picked up any name as the helmer and the cast ensemble for the movie, the studio has planned to release the sequel in 2011.

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Independence Day 2 AND 3 Will Invade Theatres

By: Craig Sharp – FilmShaft.com

During the recent promotion for his latest “I’m going to destroy the world in a crazy VFX kinda way” movie – 2012, director Roland Emmerich was again asked about the film that seems to have been cropping up a fair bit recently – the sequel to 1996’s Independence Day.

Talking to MTV, Roland Emmerich dropped a bomb the likes of which nearly tore the world in two (in a crazy kind of VFX way), not one sequel, but TWO.

Given the fact that thirteen long years have passed since the original, I’m quite thankful that noone has gone down the remake route yet, but two Idependence Day sequels? A fanboy’s wet dream. Emmerich told MTV:

“What we want to do in the next – it’s actually two movies – we want to do a bigger arc,” he explained. “‘Independence Day’ was always like the king who leads his troops into battle against an evil force, and that stays like that.”

And if you’re wondering what this all-encompassing story-arc may be called, well Emmerich’s already thought of that too:

So the plan is not just one sequel but two. And Emmerich has got a nifty title in mind: “‘ID4-ever,’ Part I and II maybe?” he suggested.

But before you all start breaking out your ID4 figurines and heading to Area 51, the MTV folks do make a point of saying that there is no script at present, Emmerich himself says “There’s an idea,” he says, before confirming to the guys that if it goes ahead, Will Smith will almost certainly be involved:

“The idea is just to continue the story and actually I don’t know how many years ago this was—twelve, thirteen, fourteen years ago—and just continue where it ended.”

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Martin Scorsese to receive DeMille award

Martin Scorsese

By Gregg Kilday – HollywoodReporter.com

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. will bestow its highest honor, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, on Martin Scorsese at the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 17.

The award recognizes “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field”; the most recent recipients have been Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Williams and Michael Douglas.

Scorsese presented the award to Spielberg at the Golden Globes broadcast in January.

An Oscar winner for directing “The Departed,” Scorsese also has picked up two Golden Globes — for directing “Departed” and “Gangs of New York” — and has five additional Globe noms.

His next film, “Shutter Island,” will be released Feb. 19 by Paramount.

NBC will be broadcast the Globes from the Beverly Hilton; Ricky Gervais is the host.

Nominations will be announced Dec. 15.

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