Bryan Singer eyes ‘Excalibur’ remake

By Borys Kit – HollywoodReporter.com

Warner Bros. and Bryan Singer are unsheathing “Excalibur,” redoing the 1981 John Boorman movie about King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable.

The project is still in the early stages, with Warners only tying up the remake rights, which it shares with Boorman. Singer’s involvement is still in the talking stage and Legendary Pictures may come aboard the project.

If deals are made, Singer would produce with Julie Yorn. Former Warner exec Polly Johnsen (formerly Cohen) would also produce.

Matt Reilly is overseeing for Warners while Erik Olsen, who instigated the project by contacting Boorman, shepherds for the Yorn company.

Alex Garcia, an executive at Legendary and Singer’s former partner at Bad Hat, was instrumental in bringing in Singer. If Legendary comes aboard, Garcia would oversee.

The 1981 movie starred Nigel Terry as Arthur and Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere and featured early performances from Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and Gabriel Byrne. The movie told the well-known myth, in a gritty and dramatic fashion, of the young man who draws the sword Excalibur from a stone, is mentored by Merlin, establishes Camelot, loses his wife, Guenevere, to his best friend, Lancelot, and engages in the quest for the Holy Grail.

Singer’s “Excalibur” will be a more epic and fantasy version compared with the more earthy Clive Owen-starring “King Arthur” movie released by Disney/Touchstone in 2004.

“Excalibur” is not Singer’s next movie. The candidate for that is shaping up to be “Jack the Giant Killer,” New Line’s action fantasy about a young farmer who leads a rescue mission to the kingdom of giants when a princess is kidnapped. No offer has been made, though Singer has taken meetings.

The director, repped by WME, is coming out of hibernation, and “Excalibur” joins Universal’s big-screen version of “Battlestar Galactica” as one of his projects in development.

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Bryan Singer boarding ‘Battlestar Galactica’ for Universal?

ScreenRant.com – Drew McWeeny at HitFix has the exclusive on some very interesting developments on the Universal Pictures feature film adaptation of Battlestar Galactica.

The amazing television series brought to us by Ron Moore and David Eick gave fans new and old, a more realistic take on the classic series from the late seventies. Their show stood strong to complete its story on their own schedule, and after four full seasons, they’re now in the midst of launching the spinoff series, Caprica, that has already had its pilot released on DVD.

According to Drew, his sources have informed him that Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns, The Usual Suspects) is being brought in by Universal to produce the project. It’s possible he’ll be directing the film but there’s no word on that yet.

For those who don’t know, Bryan Singer and Tom De Santo actually had a plan for a new Battlestar Galactica television series years ago that would have been set up as a sequel of sorts, based 20 years after the classic series. That project was canned as the terrible events of 9/11 unfolded due to the introduction of the storyline being based on an all-our surprise attack, not a good idea around that time period.

Sadly, a lot of work was put into that and a bunch of CG animation had been worked on as they were only months away from shooting when they had to stop. The story of Singer’s series would follow the human survivors as they live on a colony after voting to abandon their search for Earth.

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Back in February, we first learned that Universal’s new movie would be taking us back to the original Battlestar Galatica series and would still have the key characters of Adama, Starbuck and Baltar in it. They’d just have nothing to do with the Moore’s recent incarnation which is still pushing forward with a movie titled The Plan on its way as well as the Caprica series mentioned above.

We also learned at that time that creator and writer, Glen A. Larson, was in negotiations with Universal to work on a new BSG feature film.

So, are Larson and Singer working together on this and will it follow the original series, new series or be an entirely new take?

Since most mainstream audiences aren’t aware of the history of the Cylons, and since we know it’ll be separate from Ronald D. Moore’s vision, it would have to be an origin films of sorts and yet another different take on the franchise as we know it.

A concern for me is the story and how it could be told in two hours. There’s so much more to it than that and it’d be have to structured as a franchise set of films, likely as a trilogy.

If someone’s got to be chosen for this, Singer is the right choice. He has the sci-fi/fantasy roots with his Superhero film background, he’s a big name in the industry, and he already has worked on Battlestar Galactica before.

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Len Wiseman to develop ‘Shrapnel’

Len Wiseman

Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit – The Hollywood Reporter

Len Wiseman has signed to develop and direct a film adaptation of the graphic novel “Shrapnel” for Radical Pictures.
Wiseman said was browsing comic-book stores with his 10-year-old daughter, Lily, when he happened upon the comic the day it hit shelves. He quickly had his agent at ICM scout the rights.
The graphic novel, which Radical Publishing teased at last year’s Comic-Con, describes a sci-fi future where humans have colonized the solar system and formed a Solar Alliance to govern the planets. The story focuses on Venus, the last rebellious holdout, and a self-exiled former Marine who teaches the colonists how to fight back.
“I am really drawn to the reluctant-hero story,” said Wiseman, who noted that the last hero he directed — John McClane in “Live Free or Die Hard” — fit that archetypal mold.
Nick Sagan and Zombie Studios chief Mark Long created the property. Radical principal Barry Levine will produce with Wiseman and Mark Gordon.
Josh McLaughlin of the Gordon Co. brought the project in and will oversee “Shrapnel” for the company. Long and Radical’s Jesse Berger will exec produce.
Being developed as a live-action pic, a 3D approach is considered possible. A video game is planned with Zombie Studios.
ICM-repped Wiseman is attached to direct “Motorcade” at DreamWorks from a Billy Ray screenplay and also will helm DreamWorks’ adaptation of the comic book “Atlantis Rising,” penned by Joby Harold, for a summer 2011 release.
Wiseman also plans to direct the video game adaptation “Gears of War” for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. and is producing the original sci-fi action thriller “Nonstop” for DreamWorks.
Radical has several of its comic properties in development, including “Abattoir,” to be written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman; “Freedom Formula,” which Bryan Singer is producing for New Regency; and “Hercules: The Thracian Wars,” which Peter Berg is producing for Spyglass/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.

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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.

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— “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.

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