Ghost in the Shell to be adapted as a 3D live-action film

By Tatiani Siegel – Variety.com

DreamWorks has tapped scribe Laeta Kalogridis to adapt  the Japanese manga property “Ghost in the Shell.”

DreamWorks is making the futuristic police thriller as a 3D live-action film.

Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainment are attached to produce and originally brought the project to DreamWorks.

Created by Masamune Shirow, “Ghost in the Shell” was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two more manga editions, three anime film adaptations and an anime TV series. The second anime film, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence,” was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Jamie Moss was the original writer hired when DreamWorks bought the property last year.

Kalogridis wrote and exec produced Martin Scorsese’s upcoming thriller “Shutter Island,” which stars Leonardo DiCaprio.

Amazon Specials!

Your mind is the scene of a crime in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’

Neil Miller – FilmSchoolRejects.com

Your mind is the scene of a crime. Lucky for us, there is no crime being committed against the art of cinema here, as The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan is finally in the game with a trailer for his new film, Inception. Until today — or this weekend, for those who saw it in theaters — all we knew about Inception was that it was “set inside the architecture of the mind.” Now we know that it includes some sort of a dreidel reference, Leonardo DiCaprio having some wild visions, and two guys fighting in a hallway, Matrix-style.

Where does that leave us? With a continued trust that Christopher Nolan, who before he brought us The Dark Knight gave us films such as Memento and The Prestige, will not lead us astray. He’s a great storyteller who is following the second highest grossing film of all-time with an aggressive science fiction pic. And at this point, it’s impossible to judge this movie based on less than a minute of actual footage. But I will say this: that fight scene in the hallway looks pretty cool.

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. It is scheduled to hit theaters July 16, 2010.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

Bourne 4 gets a new writer

Matt Damon

By Borys Kit – HollywoodReporter.com

Josh Zetumer has signed on to pen the fourth installment of Universal’s “Bourne” movie series, writing what is being described as a parallel script.

George Nolfi, who worked on “The Bourne Ultimatum,” initially came back for the fourth entry. He also boarded to write and direct “The Adjustment Bureau,” an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story that reteams him with “Bourne” star Matt Damon.

But as that movie nears its September start date, Nolfi had to step away from “Bourne.” Not wishing to slow development and keen on making “Bourne” part of its 2011 slate, Universal hired Zetumer to write a new script. It is unclear what will occur after Zetumer submits his draft or whether his script will be integrated with Nolfi’s.

“Our hope is that Nolfi, a key member of the ‘Bourne’ team, will return after he is done with ‘The Adjustment Bureau,’ ” a Universal spokesperson said.

Bourne Trilogy on DVD

Writing two scripts, though rare, is not without precedent in the tentpole movie world. “Star Trek: Generations,” “Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer” and “Wolverine” are movies that had parallel scripts commissioned and sometimes had them combined. “Conan,” still in development, is another project that falls into that category.

Frank Marshall and Jeffrey Weiner are producing the latest “Bourne” installment.

Zetumer, repped by UTA and Management 360, is generating heat around town for writing “Dune” for Pete Berg and Paramount. He wrote “The Infiltrator” for Warner Bros., to which Leonardo DiCaprio is attached and is being produced by Film 360, Appian Way and David Benioff.

Scorsese, DiCaprio pic “Shutter Island” delayed for economic reasons

Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island

By DAVE MCNARY – Variety.com

Moviegoers won’t be going to “Shutter Island” this fall, as Paramount has moved the Martin Scorsese-directed thriller, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, from Oct. 2 to Feb. 19.

Citing economic factors, Paramount made the decision Friday morning, only six weeks before the pic would have opened.

Fox Searchlight immediately moved “Whip It,” its Drew Barrymore-helmed roller derby comedy, forward a week into the slot. The only other pics set for wide release Oct. 2 are Disney’s 3D re-releases of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2.”

The Feb. 19 slot currently contains a pair of actioners: Lionsgate’s “From Paris With Love” and Screen Gems’ “Takers.”

The studio issued a statement from Paramount Pictures chairman-CEO Brad Grey saying: “Our 2009 slate was greenlit in a very different economic climate and as a result we must remain flexible and willing to recalibrate and adapt to a changing environment.

Amazon Specials!

“This is a situation facing every single studio as we all work through the financial pressures associated with the broader downturn. Like every business, we must make difficult choices to maximize our overall success and to best manage Paramount’s business in a way that serves Viacom and its shareholders, while providing the film with every possible chance to succeed both creatively and financially.

Pundits had put “Shutter” high on the list of possible awards contenders this year, given the Scorsese-DiCaprio pedigree and the fact that it’s based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River”). However, the trailers, which have been running for several months, sell it as a thriller, which is not always a genre that gets kudos attention.

Laeta Kalogridis penned the script for the project, a co-production between Phoenix Pictures, Scorsese’s Sikelia and DiCaprio’s Appian Way banners. Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brad Fischer and Scorsese are producing.

“Shutter Island” is set in 1954, with DiCaprio portraying a U.S. Marshal investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.

Ridley Scott, DiCaprio travel to “Brave New World”

By Steven Zeitchik – Rueters

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Ridley Scott is going back to the futurism.

The “Blade Runner” director is joining forces with Leonardo DiCaprio to take on one of the most highly regarded dystopian works of literature, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”

Both are producing the Universal project, which DiCaprio would tentatively star in and Scott direct. The studio has brought on “Apocalypto” scribe Farhad Safinia to write the script; he’s expected to be working shortly.

Scott has mentioned casually in interviews that he’s interested in the 1931 novel, whose film rights are owned by DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company, prompting a flurry of rumors on sci-fi and other blogs over the past year. But the studio details as well as DiCaprio’s personal involvement always have been murky.

Now, with a writer on board and production executives meeting frequently during the past six months, the project has more momentum, though several people familiar with it emphasize that it remains at the development stage.

Much of the timing going forward will depend on the script. Scott is not committed to direct anything beyond “Robin Hood,” which is in post-production. DiCaprio is shooting the Christopher Nolan adventure tale “Inception,” but does not have a movie lined up after that.

“Brave” has had several go-rounds on television, including a Leonard Nimoy-Peter Gallagher picture on NBC in 1998. But Huxley’s idea-rich novel hasn’t had a shot on the big screen.

Huxley sets his book in a seemingly perfect 26th century world that has achieved harmony by tightly controlling birth, which takes place mainly in laboratories, and outlawing family. The world is populated by a series of five castes, each with its own defined roles.

Characters who figure in are Bernard, a lower-caste member, and Lenina, the woman with whom he is infatuated. DiCaprio would likely play Bernard, who is persecuted when the leaders of the society find his behavior antisocial.

Dystopian stories have sometimes proved difficult to film. George Orwell’s “1984″ has had several theatrical turns, including Michael Anderson’s Columbia version in 1956 and the somewhat better regarded John Hurt vehicle 25 years ago.

Scott is considered one of the few who can pull it off. The director took the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” and turned it into the 1982 futurist pic “Blade Runner.” While the movie divided critics and didn’t enjoy a great theatrical run, it has had a long life on video and become a cult classic.

Scott directed DiCaprio in last year’s Middle East thriller “Body of Lies,” and the two are also producing dark thriller “The Low Dweller” at indie filmmaker Relativity.

Leonardo Dicaprio Making a Gothic “Little Red Riding Hood”

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company is developing a Gothic reimagining of “Little Red Riding Hood” with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson (Orphan).

Leonardo Dicaprio

The “Red Riding Hood” project has been developed internally at Appian Way but isn’t being positioned as a possible acting vehicle for DiCaprio.

The best-known version of the story — in which a wolf disguises himself to fool a girl delivering food to her sick grandmother in the forest — was published in the 19th century by the Brothers Grimm. Earlier oral versions of the tale, which date back to the Middle Ages, are far darker and sometimes involve a werewolf rather than a wolf; the first published version, by Charles Perrault, concludes with Red Riding Hood eaten by the wolf, with no happy ending.

Source(s): WorstPreviews, Variety

Ohio native penned horror movie ‘Orphan’

Mansfield News Journal staff

Since Patty McCormack’s murderess Rhoda Penmark in “The Bad Seed” in the 1950s, the horror movie subgenre featuring wicked kids has been scaring people no matter their age.

Now comes “Orphan,” by screenwriter David Leslie Johnson, who broke into the movie business in his hometown of Mansfield.

He began his career as a production assistant on director Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption.” The 1994 movie, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, was filmed at the historic Ohio State Reformatory, where Johnson’s great-grandfather had once worked as a prison guard.

In an interview Tuesday with DailyActor.com, the 1988 Lexington High School grad said he spent the next five years as Darabont’s assistant, using the opportunity to hone his craft as a screenwriter.

Johnson is a fan of “The Bad Seed,” the 1956 Academy Award-nominated film in which a pigtailed schoolgirl turns out to be a sociopath, killing a classmate, a neighbor and a teasing janitor with relish. Adopted, Rhoda’s bad behavior turns out to be genetic — her mother was a well-known serial killer.

“There’s just something really primal in that mother-child relationship,” Johnson says, “so I felt like that was really the best relationship to exploit and corrupt, to take what should be the most natural bond in the world and turn them into enemies.”

In “Orphan,” Isabelle Fuhrman stars as Esther, who comes across as the perfect child — until she smashes a bird’s head and forces a nun to drive off a snowy road. That’s just for starters.

In many of the evil-child films, the father is absent or bamboozled by his precious kid; it’s left to the mother to come to the slow realization about her offspring.

Johnson follows suit with “Orphan”: Vera Farmiga’s character — troubled by alcoholism, a miscarriage and guilt over the near death of her deaf daughter — figures out there’s something wrong with Esther. Peter Sarsgaard as the father doubts his wife because of her past unreliability and is quite taken in by his adopted child.

Johnson has a special bond with his mother as well — she turned him on to Hitchcock when he was growing up, and “Psycho” was one of their favorite movies.

“My parents were great — I had a completely normal childhood. Everything was fine, I’ve just been a fan of the horror genre and read a lot of Stephen King,” he told DigitalCity.com recently. “I’ve always been fascinated with dark subject matter.”

The local native developed his interest in storytelling as a child, writing plays as early as the second grade. A later interest in film led him, at age 19, to write his first screenplay. He has a fine arts degree from The Ohio State University. In 1999, Johnson wrote an adaptation of the classic Doc Savage pulp novels. Johnson then wrote a miniseries sequel to John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” which brought him to the attention of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, for which he wrote “Orphan.” He’s teaming up with Appian Way again for one of several developing projects — an epic horror and fantasy inspired by a classic fairy tale. Johnson’s next project will be an adaptation of the Australian ghost story thriller “Lake Mungo.”

Depp’s next role unclear as green lights delayed

Steven Zeitchik and Borys Kit – Hollywood Reporter

 Johnny Depp is coming off an acclaimed role in “Public Enemies” and stars in one of the most anticipated movies of this weekend’s Comic-Con, “Alice in Wonderland.”

But the Mad Hatter is facing an unusual situation: Like the character he plays in “Alice,” he soon could be killing time.

Depp is attached to a number of high-profile development properties but is facing a landscape devoid of “go” pictures — those ready for production. Instead, there are a dizzying number of possibilities and schedule permutations, none of which seems likely to result in a produced movie for him anytime soon.

Producers have been interested in Depp for the title role in Warner Bros.’ “The Incredible Mr. Limpet.” Kevin Lima’s remake of the 1964 fantasy comedy that would continue a whimsical, if slightly less drama-intensive, streak for the actor. He has not signed on, however, and in any event the pic would not go into production until next year.

Meanwhile, the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” remains a priority for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. At an earlier point, it was going to be the next picture for Depp, who toplines as Jack Sparrow. But with Gore Verbinski no longer directing the franchise, the ship has slowed.

Disney is seeking a new director, a process that could take time. Although the studio is believed to want an established helmer of franchise and action fare, it has put the word out to agents that it would be open to younger directors and new ideas, potentially prolonging the process. That could mean as much as a four- or five-year hiatus since the 2007 release of the previous picture, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

(Disney also would like to scale back the size and budget of the next movie compared with previous installments; for that reason, it likely won’t bring back relatively pricey Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.)

Because of the “Pirates” lag, a Depp project that was supposed to go into production after the Sparrow-fest, “The Lone Ranger,” could end up getting pushed back further, though there’s also a possibility it could shoot ahead of the nautical tale.

For the moment, though, “Ranger” also remains locked in the stable. “Pirates” writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have written a script for the Disney/Bruckheimer update, but the studio could wind up commissioning a polish or another draft. There’s also no director, and Depp is attached to play Tonto, with the title role still to be cast.

Finally, Warners’ feature update of the ghoulish TV series “Dark Shadows” — a Depp/Tim Burton collaboration that might have shot later this year or early next year — also might be back-burnered. Burton still has work to do on “Alice,” which opens in March, and tends to spend a lot of time on prep work.

What the possibilities boil down to, besides head spinning, is that there are projects with momentum that Depp has not signed for, and projects he has signed for that don’t have a lot of momentum.

In other words, it’s a very 2009 phenomenon brought on by a star’s choosiness on the one hand and studios’ increasing caution on the other. (In what might be an emerging mini-trend, Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio happen to find themselves in similar situations.)

The result is that Depp could face a year or longer without appearing on the big screen.

That might not sound like a major departure, but for moviegoers, it will seem like a shift. Depp has been in one of the most fertile periods of his career: The actor also stars in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation “The Rum Diary” and had a supporting role in Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which hasn’t yet been released in the U.S. In the past nine years, Depp has not had more than two movies come out in any 18-month period; if “Imaginarium” gets a release by the end of 2010, he’ll have had four.

Then again, the absence of a new role might mean a respite from his breakneck schedule. Even a pirate needs some time off.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

“Sacred Prey” targeted as big-screen project

Steven Zeitchik – Hollywood Reporter

Warner Bros. and in-demand screenwriter Brad Ingelsby will develop a feature based on “Sacred Prey,” Vivian Schilling’s novel about a hit man who becomes the victim of his own takedown.

The high-concept thriller centers on a loan shark who kills a man he believes duped him, only to wake up and find himself in the body of that man three days before the murder. He then embarks on a furious effort to prevent the murder he committed.

Tentatively dubbed “Sacred Prey,” the project might yet get a new title, with “Hit Man” among the names being considered.

During the past 15 months, Ingelsby has climbed from an unknown to the top of the screenwriters’ pile.

An insurance salesman from Pennsylvania, Ingelsby created a sensation with “The Low Dweller,” a spec script he wrote on a lark. The dark thriller, which Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott quickly signed on to produce, ignited a bidding war that Relativity Media won.

Ingelsby soon had other projects set up at Hollywood studios, including the Todd Field-directed “Nancy & Danny” at Paramount and the Marc Forster-produced “Die Bad” at Universal.

Megan Fox and Ryan Reynolds help DC Comics storm the film world

By Borys Kit – Hollywood Reporter

In the comics universe, where characters are endlessly reborn and reoutfitted, a motto from the 1980s — “DC Comics is on the move” — could just as well apply to the current, hyperactive state of the publisher as it relates to Hollywood.A year after “The Dark Knight” became a worldwide phenomenon, there are more DC Comics adaptations in the works than at any other point since the company was acquired by Warner Bros. in 1969.

24"x36" Poster NEW!

Among the projects on front burners:

– “The Losers,” an action-adventure drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, begins principal photography this week in Puerto Rico.

Buy this poster here!

– “Jonah Hex,” a supernatural Western starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, recently wrapped production in Louisiana.

– “The Green Lantern,” Warners’ next big superhero tentpole, is set to star Ryan Reynolds after a long search.

– Fox has picked up the TV series “Human Target,” starring Mark Valley, for the fall.

– And, in a rare example of a film project that has ventured off the Warners reservation, DC has set up “Red,” a spy thriller to star Bruce Willis, at indie producer Summit.

“One of the things that has differentiated us for most of the last 20 years is the depth of our library and the depth of the creative material that we’ve put out and the opportunities that creates for other media,” DC Comics president Paul Levitz said.

Still, when “Dark Knight” invaded theaters last summer, critics of DC and Warners complained there didn’t appear to be a grand strategy in place to exploit DC properties.

In contrast, DC arch-rival Marvel moved quickly in the wake of its successful “Iron Man” to stake out a series of release dates for a slew of movies, branding them as part of one big Marvel universe leading to “The Avengers,” which arrives in 2012.

But DC and Warners have taken a different approach, arguing that DC has a wider breadth of books than other comics companies. They insist their situation isn’t comparable to Marvel, which already has licensed out to other studios a number of its biggest titles: Spider-Man is housed at Sony, while X-Men and Fantastic Four are at Fox.

With fewer marquee superheroes, Marvel works like an animation studio: It only develops select projects and makes most of what it develops, while DC is managing a much larger portfolio.

Still, in the wake of “Dark Knight,” DC and Warners have made strategic moves in the superhero realm, including centralizing the way DC’s titles and characters are developed. In the past, Warners optioned a property, paying DC a fee comparable to what a property could command on the open market. But while the projects ostensibly were being developed under one roof, many were spread out over a host of producers, each with different visions for how to approach each adaptation.

Watchmen (Director's Cut)

To bring competing approaches into sync, Levitz and DC’s Los Angeles-based film exec Gregory Noveck have overseen a reorganization of the development slate. While Warners execs still drive the creative side, DC now has more input, making it an actual participant in the shaping of material.

“The creative process is by and large a true partnership,” Noveck said. “They’ll ask us a ton of questions, and we’ll give a ton of answers. We will talk back and forth. We’ll discuss writers and talent, but ultimately it’s their decision.”

Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins Wolverine

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (“The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (“Teen Titans”).

Some agents and scribes grumbled about being forced to work with the consultants, never mind that Johns started his career as an assistant to “Superman” director Richard Donner or that Wolfman has worked in animation since the 1980s.

The moves have begun to pay off. Johns worked up a new treatment for a “Flash” script, being written by Dan Mazeau; Johns will act in a producer capacity on the project, which has not attached a director.

The projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on are in the early stages at Warners, whose execs declined to comment.

The process involves one writer taking point, though the trio do collaborate on projects, reading one another’s materials while hashing out a story that will be at once accessible to nonfans yet still adhere to each character’s long history. The writers also work in tandem with producers, writers and the Warners execs overseeing the projects, showing them treatments and providing notes on scripts.

Meanwhile, other superhero projects are moving forward at Warners.

The studio is taking pitches on sci-fi hero Adam Strange and the underwater-breathing hero “Aquaman,” to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way shingle.

Also in the pipeline: “Bizarro Superman” being written by “Galaxy Quest” scribes David Howard and Robert Gordon; a sequel to “Constantine,” with Goldsman and Erwin Stoff producing; two concurrent Green Arrow projects, an origin story and a prison-set one titled “Super Max”; and “Shazam,” which was set up at New Line but has moved to Warners, with Pete Segal attached to direct.

Unsung in the lineup is Warners’ line of straight-to-DVD animated movies released via Warner Premiere. “Green Lantern: First Flight,” the latest entry, will premiere at this week’s Comic-Con gathering in San Diego and has a July 28 street date.

These movies, produced on budgets in the $3.5 million range, apparently overperformed their targets. “First Flight” is the fifth straight-to-DVD title, with “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” in production for a September 29 release.

In the home entertainment arena, DC has overshadowed Marvel, with 2007′s “Superman-Doomsday” generating $9.4 million in revenue and last year’s “Batman: Gotham Knight,” taking advantage of the tidal wave of support for the Christopher Nolan movie, generating $8 million, according to tracking site The-Numbers.com. “Wonder Woman,” released in March, already has chalked up $4.4 million. Marvel’s top seller, “Ultimate Avengers 2,” has pulled in $7.7 million.

Not that all the stars in the DC firmament are aligned yet.

Warners and DC still haven’t figured out how to translate “Wonder Woman” to the big screen. In part, that failure reflects the difficulties DC has had turning out a popular Wonder Women comic. Morrison, during a recent Q&A with Clive Barker at Los Angeles’ Meltdown Comics, admitted he didn’t have a complete handle on the character when he was writing the comic “Final Crisis.”

Also, ever since Bryan Singer’s 2006′s “Superman Returns,” a new Superman has been in limbo.

“Our hope is to develop a Superman property and to try again,” Warner Bros. Entertainment president Alan Horn said in April. “What hurt us is that the reviews and so on for the Superman movie did not get the kind of critical acclaim that Batman got, and we have other issues with Superman that concern us.”

 On the Batman front, a sequel to “Dark Knight” also is quite a way off. Nolan is open to doing a third installment, but his next movie is “Inception,” an original script he penned and is shooting for Warners.

All that has put a damper on any movie about the Justice League, whose roster includes the above-mentioned heroes as well as myriad others including Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. DC would like to present some of the main heroes in their own movies before they are brought together for one big outing, so “League” currently is inactive.

On top of that, there could be another change in how Warners approaches the DC characters, with studio chiefs debating whether to put the operation under one super-exec.

To bring the next generation of superheroes to the screen, DC and Warners might yet have to unleash their own super powers.

Amazon Specials!