A sequel in the works?
By Jason Apuzzo. • Karate Kid was tops at the box office over the weekend, trouncing The A-Team by over $30 million in the battle of the 80’s remakes. Somewhere in the great beyond Pat Morita is smiling … and George Peppard just chomped down on his cigar a little harder.
• Is the legendary agency CAA coming to an end? Deadline Hollywood reports that CAA’s partners may be cashing out and selling the powerhouse agency. Somewhere in the great beyond Lew Wasserman is making some phone calls … (to former client Ronald Reagan?)
• Liam Neeson indicates there may be a sequel coming to Taken, his quasi-right wing smash thriller. In this one they should kidnap Helen Thomas.
• With all roads in Hollywood currently passing through Sam Worthington’s appointment calendar, the producers of Clash of the Titans 2 may start shooting their film as early as January, likely in order to give Worthington space to work on the Avatar sequel later next year.
The Clash sequel will not only have new screenwriters, but also a new director – and a plotline involving Hades smuggling weapons to Hamas.
• … and in related news, The New York Times’ A.O. Scott laments Hollywood’s endless remakes and sequelizing. We feel his pain. Latest bizarre phenomenon: the ‘reboot’ (i.e., when studios fake amnesia about pre-existing franchises – as with The Hulk, Batman Returns, or the forthcoming Fantastic Four reboot). Latest reboot news has Sony floating casting choices for the new Spider-Man. Philosophical question: how do you promote a ‘new’ franchise while pretending the previous, highly lucrative one doesn’t exist? (Have DiCaprio steal the audience’s memory?)
Nolan talks 3D.
• Christopher Nolan talks 3D. In a nutshell: he doesn’t like it, or at least he doesn’t like the current incarnations of it. Nonetheless, he expects to use it in the future due to studio demands. Nolan prefers that 3D develop into a more robust post-production option, rather than having to shoot natively in 3D. He’s also concerned about losing light levels once 3D glasses are put on. These are all reasonable concerns, but I think Cameron put most of them to bed with Avatar. Inception apparently was tested for 3D, but they decided not to do it due to time demands in post-production. No word from Nolan on his miracle-cure for the Superman franchise.
• LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein asks whether Samuel Jackson’s straight-to-DVD terror-thriller Unthinkable is the hottest movie you’ve never heard of. We covered this issue here at LFM a few weeks ago. It is striking to me that this film didn’t get a theatrical release, and since people seem to be downloading it so much right now my thinking is that the distributors really blew it on this one. Wouldn’t be the first time.
• Jennifer Garner may be joining Nick Nolte in a remake of Arthur. I’m sure Nolte can handle the drinking part of the role, but the humor?
Gemma Ward, Disney's new mermaid.
• Megan Fox has a big interview forthcoming in the magazine Interview, in which she’s asked mostly about herself, and is photographed in provocative situations with a mannequin designed to look like … herself. And you know what? If you’re Megan Fox you can get away with it. [Kudos on the Louise Brooks hair, by the way.]
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … supermodel Gemma Ward has been cast to play a mermaid in Disney’s forthcoming Pirates of the Caribbean 4, provided she can keep BP’s oil off her scales.
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …
Posted on June 14, 2010 at 3:36pm.
Poor HelenThomas. (Again). Perhaps at the age of 89 we should forgive her…except for the fact that it is hard to forgive such unkind remarks about people who have suffered as much as the Jewish people have.
Why trash the prior Spider Man franchise? Why can’t Sony work something out with Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire/etc. after all the money they made? I thought there were at least another 2- 3 films left in that franchise. I just don’t get it.
[...] has softened me up. The thing’s kind of classy. Co-editor Jason Apuzzo also do news posts like this one, except they use bullet points instead of asterisks. Everybody’s doing it, I tell [...]
Liam Neeson is a fine actor. He has a natural air of dignity and intelligence that is often at odds with Hollywood’s more commercial movies (though he is still good in them), but I always look forward to seeing him in a film.