Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in Electric New Iron Man 2 Poster

by Ethan Anderton – FirstShowing.net

Over the summer we were given our very first glimpse at Mickey Rourke as the villain Whiplash in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, but now Paramount has followed the other recent poster premieres with yet another teaser poster for the highly anticipated sequel featuring the electric whipping antagonist. Combine Rourke’s disheveled, unstable prisoner look with a background collage of magazine and newspaper clippings featuring Tony Stark as the heroic Iron Man, and you know Whiplash is going to give Stark a run for his money. Now I guess we’ll all be waiting for a poster featuring the sultry redheaded Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.

Iron Man 2 takes place only “six months after Stark revealed his identity as Iron Man” at the end of the first movie. Jon Favreau is directing again from a screenplay written by actor-turned-writer Justin Theroux. Iron Man 2 stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, and Don Cheadle as Rhodey. Favreau revealed that the first official trailer would be attached to Sherlock Holmes this Christmas, so be on the lookout for that next month. Paramount is bringing Iron Man 2 to theaters on May 7th next summer.

First Poster and Official Image for Disney’s ‘Tron Legacy’

Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund in Tron Legacy

by Brad Brevet – RopeofSilicon.com

The first poster and official image for Disney’s Tron Legacy have arrived. Above is a look at Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund as Quorra and Sam Flynn respectively, and below is a look at the poster.

Tron Legacy is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of Tron where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant Quorra (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey of escape across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

 

Olivia Wilde

Scarlet Fire To Bring ‘The Hunter’ To The Big Screen

Blair Marnell – MTV News

Adam Hamdy’s “The Hunter” has been optioned as a potential feature film by Scarlet Fire Entertainment.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hamdy will write the screenplay adaptation for “The Hunter” and is also attached as a producer. Alan Loeb (“21”) and Steven Pearl from Scarlet Fire are also onboard as producers.

First released in 2007 by Dare Comics, a relatively new British comic book company that publishes in the US, “The Hunter” is a four issue miniseries by Hamdy and artist David Golding. It follows a CIA agent who gains superpowers that enable him to unravel a vast conspiracy designed to cripple the United States through multiple terror attacks. Hamdy’s script for the film is reportedly an original story created for the screen.

Hamdy was previously an internet entrepreneur before launching his writing career in 2007. In addition to being one of the founders of Dare Comics, Hamdy has also written material for the video game “50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.” His second comic, “Starmaker: Leviathan” will be published later this month.

“The Hunter” appears to be a part of an ongoing trend of small press comics getting picked up by Hollywood production companies. Earlier this year, titles like “Buskers”, “Chi-Chan”, “The Living and The Damned” and “Almighty” were all tagged for development despite a lack of exposure to the larger comic audience.

Fox hunting werewolves in ‘Howl’ from DreamWorks TV

By MARC GRASER, MICHAEL SCHNEIDER – Variety.com

Never mind vampires — the Fox network is looking to get back into the werewolf business, developing “Howl,” from DreamWorks TV.

Project is being written by Joshua Miller and M.A. Fortin. DreamWorks TV toppers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank would exec produce.

“Howl” is described as an epic family saga about warring families of werewolves in a small Alaskan town.

“Alaska is a place where people disappear and now you know why,” Miller said.

The script reflects the changes that are going on in the country, and “metamorphosis and constant change is the basis of werewolf mythology,” he added. “Howl” is about “the psychology of living with change.”

One of the Fox network’s first series, 1987′s “Werewolf,” also revolved around the mythic creatures. More recently, CBS aired the short-lived “Wolf Lake,” while MTV is currently developing a new take on the 1980s movie “Teen Wolf.”

Real aircraft and aerial stunts in new action-adventure film ‘War Birds’

By Phil Guie  - CinemaSpy.com

Aircraft enthusiasts, take note: War Birds, a new action-adventure film featuring real aircraft and aerial stunts, is about to take flight. It will mark the debut feature of Michael Chait, who also wrote the story.
J. Todd Harris, one of the producers of the 2008 wine documentary Bottle Shock, and Tron Legacy screenwriter Richard Jefferies will polish up the script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Along with Chait, they will produce the film for Michigan-based TMU Pictures.
War Birds will revolve around an airman-turned-airshow re-enactment pilot pulled into the underground world of illegal, dangerous real-life aerial combat. Along with modern military helicopters and jets, the air sequences will be shot using authentic P-51 Mustangs, P-38 Lightnings, F4U Corsairs and a B-17 Flying Fortress. Shooting is scheduled to begin next summer in Michigan, with Titanic cinematographer Russell Carpenter serving as visual consultant.

Chait, whose resume boasts a number of short films, said audiences can expect an old school experience unique to modern cinema.

“I love big, exciting, action-adventure movies, especially when they are shot live, in camera,” Chait said. “Growing up the son of an artist and a pilot, I’ve always worked the drama and production value of aviation into my movies. That’s still the best way to truly immerse an audience in the experience.”

Sean Patrick Flanery Joins Sci-Fi Indie Project ‘Scavengers’

Sean Patrick Flanery

by Ethan Anderton – FirstShowing.net

Although Sean Patrick Flanery is best known for upholding truth and justice as one of the Boondock Saints, the actor will make the big leap into space as THR reports he and actress Louise Linton are joining the independent science fiction film Scavengers. The story follows crews of space scavengers competing for supplies, energy and treasure. When the crew of the Revelator, led by Emerson (Linton), comes across the alien-created Chaos Generator, they must fight to keep it out of the hands of her former shipmate, the sinister Captain Jekel (Flanery).

Production designer Travis Nicholas Zariwny will make his directorial debut with the film, but he’s got a tough act to follow after such a strong showing recently in indie sci-fi with films like Moon and District 9, so I hope

Louise Linton

 whenever this makes its way to theaters it can live up to sci-fi’s strong return to form. I think there’s going to be more and more interest in indie sci-fi, especially with a low key sci-fi filmmaker like Federico Alvarez gaining huge attention for a film he put online only to be followed by a deal with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House banner.

Peter Jackson talks miniseries about Napoleonic wars with dragons

From EmpireOnline.com    Source: Ain’t It Cool News

Peter Jackson has had a busy old 2009 between The Lovely Bones, shepherding District 9, co-writing The Hobbit and overseeing Tintin. But now he’s started to look again at future projects and has pulled out dragon adventure Temeraire as a possibility for his next project.

Ain’t It Cool chatted with the man, and he revealed that the adaptation of Naomi Novik’s book series, which reimagines the Napoleonic wars with dragons, could finally be making its way to a screen – just not necessarily the cinema.

Jackson nabbed the rights to Novik’s swashbuckling novels (five are currently on the shelves and the director says she’s planning nine in total) back in 2006 and since then he’s been slowly developing the stories and commissioning design work.

But as he’s started to think about making them work on screen, his feelings have shifted from a film series to a miniseries.

“I can’t see any degree of common sense in trying to mount them one at a time as feature films. To me the stories, having read the first ones, already work as this continuing, on-going saga, so I’m thinking ‘Is there a marketplace out there yet for a large budget mini-series?’

“I guess you’d think of things like HBO and you’d think of Band Of Brothers and that sort of thing, but it’d be different than that. I’m thinking is there actually a market out there that’d give us the budget to do this properly and allow us to shoot this as a six, seven or eight part series where we have freedom, we have great production values and are able to tackle it as the epic saga that it deserves.”

Director on upcoming ‘Kick-Ass’ movie: “It is violent. Very violent”

Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz)

From ReelLoop.com

Matthew Vaughn is not going to pull any punches in his latest feature, the big-screen adaptation of the graphic novel series, Kick-Ass.

The film is based on the work of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, which is published by Marvel Comics. The story centers on teenage Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who decides to become a real-life superhero after being inspired by the heroes of comic-books. He soon encounters a mysterious vigilante called Big-Daddy (Nicolas Cage), and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz), who are working to bring down the drug baron, Frank D’Amico.

“It’s 11-year-old girls slicing and dicing people, and getting shot,” says Vaughn. “I mean, I’m very bored of the way most of the big movies shoot action, all this shaky camera, handheld, close cutting, quick cutting. So I’ve tried to put a narrative story into every action sequence.”

Vaughn added: “It’s got a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour, so it’s not gratuitous. But it is violent. Very violent.”

Kick-Ass leaps into theaters on April 16th.

Amazon Specials!

Brad Pitt Bringing Young Dracula Back in ‘Vlad’

Brad Pitt

by Alex Billington – FirstShowing.net

Summit Entertainment wants even more vampire movies. The studio is developing a new “action-oriented” take on Dracula, currently in the form of a script written by actor Charlie Hunnam called Vlad. Brad Pitt is also producing the project with Dede Gardner through his Plan B Entertainment. They’ve also hired music video director and photographer Anthony Mandler to helm Vlad; this will be his feature directing debut. The story centers on Dracula as a young prince, when he was better known as Vlad the Impaler, the man behind the Dracula myth. Summit acquired this a while ago, but was developing it quietly until they found Mandler.

THR says that Mandler’s directing reel drew comparisons to Zack Snyder and his style on 300. He directed 10 of Rhianna’s videos as well as other videos for the Killers and Eminem. Warner Brothers had their eye on this project but Summit kept their hands on it. Here’s the best part: “Summit hopes to make a visually edgy and radical period movie that also will break a new talent.”

Amazon Specials!

Taylor Lautner may become boy-toy hero ‘Max Steel’

Taylor Lautner

Steven Zeitchik – LA Times

As Taylor Lautner’s Hollywood profile surges, his handlers are looking for a project for the teen wolf to sink his teeth into next. One strong possibility: “Max Steel,” a Paramount movie about a teenage superhero.

The actor’s representatives at WME and Management 360 are brainstorming about the next move for the 17-year-old Michigan native who plays Jacob in the “Twilight” franchise. Lautner emerged as the big winner after the blockbuster success of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” but, at the moment, his only other big-screen appearance on deck is a character role in Garry Marshall’s ensemble romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day.” That movie has wrapped, so Lautner has a relatively open calendar.

Paramount, meanwhile, is eager to develop more toy properties along the lines of its “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” franchises. Like those films, “Steel” traces back to the toy shelf — the Mattel line that hit stores in 2001, pulled in $100 million in worldwide business in its first year and spawned an animated series that lasted three seasons.

Lautner would play Josh McGrath, a 19-year-old extreme-sports athlete who is accidentally exposed to the unleashed power of nanotechological machines, which become part of him and (in the old show, at least) give him increased strength, near-invulnerability and the ability to change his appearance.

It’s worth noting that Paramount and other studios are eager to cast Lautner because he can bring young women into theaters — always a positive for any action picture.

J.P. Lavin and Chad Damiani are on board to write (they’re also writing the screenplay for the Warner Bros. superhero action movie “Capeshooters,” based on the Rob Liefeld comic book, as well as the Liefeld property “Youngblood”). The script for “Steel” is still being written, which means it could be a while before Lautner actually is seen onscreen in even the most favorable of circumstances. (Paramount and WME declined comment.)

Amazon Specials!