Spiderman 4 (2012): James Cameron

Showing posts with label James Cameron. Show all posts

Annapurna Pictures Outbids Lionsgate For Terminator 5 & 6 Rights

It looks like the bidding war for the Terminator rights has ended. Deadline reports that Annapurna Pictures who is responsible for financing Cogan's Trade, Wettest County In The World, Killing Bin Laden and Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has landed the rights. The up and coming production company outbid Lionsgate for the film rights that are intact until 2018 when they revert back to James Cameron.

It sounds promising as they are known for getting involved with solid directors and hiring high profiled actors. Even if director Justin Lin (Fast Five) isn't enough to keep people interested in Terminator 5 I expect they'll be able to attract a decent cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger is attached to have a role and Lin has said he'd ignore the canon/events from Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation bringing the franchise back to it's roots. Vin Diesel has also been mentioned for a role. The question now is which big studio will come in to co-fiance and distribute?

Neil Gaiman Hired To Write Journey To The West Film, Guillermo Courted To Direct & James Cameron Will Consult

Variety reports that Neil Gaiman has been hired to write a film based on Journey To The West. The classic 500 year old tale that follows events that befall the Monkey King, armed with a magic staff, as he journeys with a monk, a pig spirit and a fish spirit to India to retrieve Buddha’s scrolls in an effort to find enlightenment.

They go on to say that Guillermo del Toro is being offered to direct while James Cameron would consult with the script and the 3D side of things. The tale was recently turned into a stage musical by the fellows behind the Gorillaz and I hope their artwork ends up being used as inspiration. While some might cringe to the idea of Westerners taking on the Asian tale it seems to be in good hands at the moment as everyone involved is respectful to original material.

Guillermo Confirms At The Mountains of Madness Is Dead

It's amazing how quickly these stories go from zero to sixty in a short amount of time. Just last night rumors were circling of a June start for Guillermo del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness. Along with that Universal had been pegged as passing on it because of the price tag and the rating. Now CriterionCast has confirmation from the director himself the project is indeed dead.

There aren't any details being released it's unknown at this point if the producers are able to move the project over to 20th Century Fox. Yet what is known is that this is crushing for the director as this was his dream project. This has to be the worst move by Universal as I think this could lead to del Toro walking from future films with the studio.

Shawn Levy To Direct Fantastic Voyage

Deadline reports that Shawn Levy (Real Steel) is set to direct the 3D remake of Fantastic Voyage. James Cameron is producing the film which has Laeta Kalogridis set to do rewrites on the script. Kalogridis is becoming known for writing massive films previously working on Avatar and Shutter Island. She's also been working on Battle Angel Alita and Ghost In The Shell adaptations.

Other directors who met with Cameron about the film included Timur Bekmambetov, Darren Aronofsky, Louis Leterrier and Jonathan Mostow. Paul Greengrass (Bourne 2-3, Green Zone) had been attached to the project at one point and it was rumored Cameron wanted Leterrier (Clash of The Titans, Incredible Hulk) to direct. I really have zero interest or expectations with this remake. Hopefully it ends up a fun adventure film either way.

Having James Cameron on board as a producer doesn't mean a film will be as good as one of his. Sanctum, which Cameron produced hasn't been doing well with critics or audiences. His silly promotional stunts (holding interviews underwater) gave hints about the quality of the film. While Levy isn't a proven action director outside his kids films he could do very well with a solid script from Laeta. Along with a decent cast and help from a solid special effects/3D camera team.

James Cameron Gives Battle Angel Alita Update

While talking to Collider James Cameron gave a brief update on his long gestating adaptation of Battle Angel Alita. Jim confirms that he is indeed still directing the film and is expecting to start on when he completes Avatar 2 & 3. Which means we won't see production start on the film 2016. It's sort of frustrating since Battle Angel has a completed script and has years of production art finished. You'd think Cameron would focus on a project that is further along. Yet they could be still trying to work out the arch for the Alita trilogy.

"I’m obviously going to be pretty busy for the next five years and so I had to consider, do I hand this project off to another director? And then I thought, ‘No, I love it too much.

It’s such a rich world. What I’m going to do is take the spine story and use elements from the first four books. So, the Motorball from books three and four, and parts of the story of one and two will all be in the movie."

James McAvoy Briefly Talks At The Mountains of Madness

It had been reported by Collider that James McAvoy had been Universal's choice the play the lead role in At The Mountains of Madness. While Guillermo del Toro had been campaigning to get Tom Cruise in the part. Tom and del Toro had been talking about making a new Van Helsing film before it got axed to make Mountains which was reported by Vulture. There is also word from Deadline that Cruise is aiming for supporting role in the musical Rock of Ages but is still attached to Mountains. Ron Perlman (Hellboy1-2, Blade 2) seems to be the only person currently cast in the film when Guillermo announced to MTV writing a role just for him.

Currently promoting a new film James McAvoy was asked by CinemaBlend about At The Mountains of Madness. He seems to playing it safe not coming out and confirming or denying his involvement.

"I don’t know anything about the story, but he’s an amazing director. I would be very lucky to be able to work with someone like that one day."

Based on the classic science fiction horror story by H.P. Lovecraft. A group of scientists and archaeologists travel to Antartica on an expedition in the early 1920's. There they stumble upon the ancient relics of an abandoned city hitherto completely unknown to mankind and uncover a prehistoric species that is awakened only to wreak havoc on their victims.

It's been a passion project for Guillermo del Toro and has even the caught the attention of long time friend James Cameron who is producing. Guillermo has written the film and will direct now that he's left The Hobbit. It's expected to be shot in 3D and it's effects are sure to be a blend of practical makeup, puppets and CGI. That along with his amazing touch of detail to his sets, characters and monsters it should be another quality horror film.

Blizzard Wants James Cameron To Direct Starcraft Film

Recently Blizzard teamed up with Legendary Pictures and director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 1-3) to bring Warcraft to the big screen. Now they've talked to MTV giving some insight for who they'd like to see direct the Starcraft film (if it ever happens). They mention James Cameron which isn't hard to understand since his film Aliens highly influenced the series.

"We've always had an interest in seeing our stuff on film or TV. It's just tricky to find the right partners. We probably could have made a ['StarCraft'] movie or something on TV years and years ago, but it's really important to us that we find creative people that are really talented but also really excited about our properties. That's always been the challenge for us. I think if Jim Cameron came to us tomorrow and said, 'You want to make a 'StarCraft' movie?' we'd probably sign that."

CASTING THOUGHTS:

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Jim Raynor

Scarlett Johansson as Annabella Terra (Nova)

Bryce Dallas Howard as Sarah Kerrigan (Queen of Blades)

Jeff Bridges as Arcturus Mengsk

Guillermo del Toro's At The Mountains of Madness Updates

Guillermo del Toro announced back in July his next film would be an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. The film is being produced by James Cameron which will be shot in 3D May 2011. The story is written in first-person perspective by the geologist William Dyer, a professor from Miskatonic University. He writes to disclose hitherto unknown and closely kept secrets in the hope that he can deter a planned and much publicized scientific expedition to Antarctica. On a previous expedition there, a party of scholars from Miskatonic University, led by Dyer, discovered fantastic and horrific ruins and a dangerous secret beyond a range of mountains taller than the Himalayas.

Wired recently spoke to producer James Cameron about the project and he compares the film to his own Aliens. "In this particular case, I’m working with Guillermo because I enjoy his company, and a creative collaboration is something that we’ve talked about doing for a long time," Cameron tells Wired. "It’s going to be an epically scaled horror film and we haven’t seen anything like that in a really long time — I guess since ALIENS."