Somewhere there’s a dusty, unloved blank canvas sitting in a guest room of Steven Soderbergh’s house, wondering what he really meant when he said he was going on retirement and taking up painting full time. Because the director is now in talks to produce and direct a period drama series starring Clive Owen called The Knick.Yes, far from taking it easy, the one-man filmmaking machine might have stepped back from cinema, but Cinemax, the US cable channel, is another matter.The company is locking down the details of a deal where by Soderbergh will produce and direct all 10 episodes of a series set in New York in 1900. The title refers to Knickerbocker Hospital, where the staff (including Owen) shove the boundaries of science at the time, where antibiotics are a few years away and the mortality rate is high.Big Miracle co-writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler worked on the pilot script as a spec assignment and will produce along with Soderbergh and Owen. It’s not the director’s first stab at TV – he also produced short-lived political drama with K Street with George Clooney for HBO back in 2003. Cinemax seems an odd choice for the series given its predilection for action/sexy fare, but perhaps this represents the channel looking to branch out. And let’s face it: it’s Soderbergh. You know this thing has a high chance of being great.
It would seem that the genre of realistic space exploration sci-fi is in for a good year, what with Gravity on the way later and now Europa Report. At least, it’s staunchly realistic for the first chunk of this trailer, online over at Apple.With a much lower profile and likely a lower budget than Alfonso Cuaron’s starry night, Report uses a documentary-style format to follow a team of astronauts from Earth to Jupiter’s moon.With scientific data suggesting an ocean lurking beneath its icy surface and the faint promise of single-celled life, everyone is naturally excited. Europa Ventures, a private company, sends its team off to explore the place, but things go badly wrong when something nasty happens…With the likes of Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Christian Camargo, Embeth Davidtz and Dan Fogler aboard, Europa Report looks like it could be a fun ride, and more along the lines of Moon than, say, Red Planet.The US gets this one on VOD June 27 before a theatrical release August 2. No word on a UK date just yet.
EXCLUSIVE: Syfy has renewed flagship drama Warehouse 13 for a fifth season, which will be its last. Production on the final six-episode installment of the series, on which Jack Kenny serves as executive producer/showrunner, will begin in Toronto this summer for a 2014 run. “Warehouse 13 has been an incredible signature series for us,” said Syfy President of Original Content Mark Stern. “We are grateful to the loyal and passionate fan base and know that Jack Kenny, his gifted creative team, and outstanding ensemble cast will give them an amazing finale season.” Saul Rubinek, Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Allison Scagliotti and Aaron Ashmore star in the drama from Universal Cable Prods.
American Horror Story alumna Britne Oldford has been cast in ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars spinoff Ravenswood as a regular, playing Remy, who can fit anywhere but doesn’t belong to any one crowd. Inquisitive and determined, she won’t stop looking for the truth until she finds it. The spinoff takes place in Ravenswood, near Liars‘ hometown of Rosewood, PA, and revolves around five strangers who are connected by the curse that has plagued Ravenswood for generations. Oldford is with Gersh.
Angela Bassett and Patti LuPone have joined the cast of FX’s American Horror Story: Coven. The two join Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Francis Conroy, Lily Rabe, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Gabourney Sidibe. Recently in Olympus Has Fallen, Bassett — repped by Gersh, Lighthouse and Fox Rothschild — next will be seen in Black Nativity and White Bird in a Blizzard.
UPDATE: Took awhile, but I’ve gotten clarity on this Jeff Nichols Warner Bros project, and it was worth the wait. Michael Shannon, the Boardwalk Empire star who turned in a powerhouse performance in Nichols’ Take Shelter and appeared more recently in Mud, will star in Midnight Special, which Nichols wrote and will direct at Warners. Described to me as a contemporary science fiction chase film, the pic will be produced by Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, with Glen Basner and Christos V. Konstantakopoulos the exec producers. Shannon just played a hitman in The Iceman, and he plays General Zod in the Superman reboot Man Of Steel, so he is absolutely on the Warner Bros radar.
BREAKING, Earlier, 2:21 pm PT: After getting raves for his latest film Mud, Jeff Nichols is stepping up to the big league. Warner Bros chief Jeff Robinov just acquired Nichols’ next film, and it will begin production in February. Nichols, who also helmed the Michael Shannon-starrer Take Shelter, is carving an intriguing path to the studio ranks. He’s repped by CAA, Mosaic and Sean Marks, with Shannon repped by CAA and Wetzel Entertainment. Developing…
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, goes the old saying. While the studios continue trying to crack the nut of getting Hollywood films into China, many of the majors also have a wider global strategy that’s proving lucrative both there and elsewhere: Local-language production. Hollywood’s involvement in the area is not new. But, increasingly, movies that are co-produced or distributed by the majors in such places as China, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, Korea and Latin America are finding themselves reaping strong returns.
The markets “are huge,” especially where local box office rivals that of Hollywood pictures. Homegrown films in China, for example, generally snag about 50% of the annual market share and are currently widely outperforming Hollywood films – this week’s Iron Man 3 notwithstanding. In India, the indigenous share of a $2B market can be as much as 90%. There’s an argument to be made that Chinese or Indian films don’t cross cultural borders, but with those kinds of numbers, “Why would the film need to travel?” posits an exec.
Richard Fox, EVP International for Warner Bros., says the studio is looking to develop relationships to make Chinese-language films. “There are a lot of moving pieces in assessing which countries to focus on,” but, “if it doesn’t recoup in the country of origin, we don’t get involved,” he says. Warner recently bet well in Mexico where its comedy Nosotros Los Nobles smashed records with the second biggest opening ever for a non-animated local film.
funding and casting limbo, he turned his attention instead to the story of legendary New York rock/punk/bluegrass club CBGB and its founder, Hilly Kristal. Now posters for the various ensemble members and the movie itself are online via the Hollywood Reporter and can be seen in the gallery below. {CBGB Posters}Shock star Alan Rickman reunites with Miller to play Kristal, who founded the club thinking he’d specialised in Country, Blue Grass and Blues (hence the acronym name. When he had trouble booking country artists in a club located in the Bowery, he decided to throw the doors open to other musicians with a couple of credos – no top 40s pop stuff, and only original compositions.With fierce loyalty to the acts he nurtured, Kristal became a big figure in the scene, and helped kick-start the careers of bands including Blondie, Television, The Ramones, Talking Heads and The Police.Miller rounded up the likes of Stana Katic, Rupert Grint, Justin Bartha, Malin Akerman, Ashley Greene, Mickey Sumner, Taylor Hawkins and Joel David Moore to inhabit various real-life musical types. CBGB doesn’t yet have a release date, but certainly seems likely to find one soon with that cast.
The big movie musicals today are always looking for leading men and women who can be the triple threat that made Hollywood stars and starlets decades ago, but that kind of talent is a rare breed these days, expect for a few notable exceptions. Deadline is now reporting that 20th Century Fox has won the rights to the Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls," and they have two specific leading men in mind who fit that bill.
According to the report, the studio will pursue Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for the lead roles of Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit, the roles Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra famously played in the 1955 adaptation of the musical.
Please stop screaming and read more about the project after the jump!
While this is simply Fox’s ideal casting for a possible "Guys and Dolls" project, you have to admit that it’s a really good idea. The two actors have never found their profile higher, and both have a certain set of skills that would be right at home in a musical.
Gordon-Levitt showed off his stage presence at this year’s Oscars telecast when he performed "High Hopes" with host Seth MacFarlane and Daniel Radcliffe, a Broadway veteran himself.
Tatum doesn’t have quite the singing voice of Gordon-Levitt—as far as we know—but the boy can dance. All he’ll have to do is his "Magic Mike" routine while keeping his clothes on and he’s got "Broadway star" written all over him.
We’ll have to wait and see if this becomes anything more than a pipedream on Fox’s part, but we bet you’ll have your fingers crossed until then.
Like some of his fellow directors (particularly those working on big superhero films, it appears), Marc Webb has been keeping us all up to date with news and pictures from the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now, thanks to his Twitter Feed (and that of actor Dane DeHaan), we’re getting our first official look at Jamie Foxx’s Max Dillon and DeHaan’s Harry Osborn. {Max Dillon and Harry Osborn pics}The picture of Foxx as Dillon is particularly interesting, as it’s the first real look at Foxx’s appearance in the movie (no, paparazzi snaps do not count). Dillon, in keeping with his pre-Electro character, is very much a quiet, downtrodden, nerdy type within OsCorp, overlooked by his bosses and ignored by almost everyone save for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), who thinks Dillon could be a handy inside man.Dillon becomes a little obsessed with the idea of working with Spider-Man, and we’re betting that will definitely feed into any future animosity when he has his electrical mishap and develops powers of his own.As for DeHaan, he doesn’t need anything in particular to become Harry (at least at this stage of his life), but certainly seems to be embodying him with all the moody emotion you’d comes to expect from Norman’s Os-spawn.With Emma Stone, Shailene Woodley, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper, Felicity Jones, Colm Feore and Martin Sheen in the cast, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is shooting right now in New York and will be out on April 18 next year.
Tom Cruise might be dominating the box office charts here in the UK and elsewhere in the world, but he and Oblivion have to wait until next weekend to arrive in the US. Meanwhile, one of the country’s sporting legends proved to have incredible drawing power as Jackie Robinson biopic 42 scored a win in the charts with $27.5 million.Critically mauled spoof sequel Scary Movie 5 couldn’t compete, though it earned $15.1 million in second place, which means it should at least make its budget back and plans are probably already being drawn up (in crayon) for another. That’s a scarier concept that most actual horror movies. The Croods, which is turning out to be a winner for DreamWorks Animation, stayed in third with $13.2 million, while G.I. Joe: Retaliation fell to fourth with $10.8 million and Evil Dead rounded out the top five, earning $9.5 million.Jurassic Park 3D slipped slightly, falling to sixth place and $8.8 million, while Olympus Has Fallen was down to seventh with $7.2 million. At eighth we find Oz The Great And Powerful still earning, adding $4.9 million for a running US total of $219.4 million. Ninth was Tyler Perry’s Temptation ($4.5 million) and bringing up the read was The Place Beyond The Pines, sneaking into the top 10 after an expanded release gave it $4 million.To see a baseball icon take out some terrible jokes in the full charts, head to Box Office Mojo.