Screenhead

Johnny Depp may join Angelina Jolie in The Tourist, a film that is experiencing many, many casting and directing changes – yet is set for production this February.   

If Depp joined Jolie, he would play an American tourist drawn into a web of intrigue and danger by a female Interpol agent (Jolie) as she attempts to locate a criminal who was once her lover.

You may be asking yourself, wait…I thought Sam Worthington was playing this part or Tom Cruise.  You’re thoughts are correct but changes happen in the film biz fast and furious.  Even Charlize Theron was attached to play Jolie’s part.

I am not sure about all the directors, but Alfonso Curaron is at the head of the line to take on this juicy and plum gig.

I like the idea of Depp and Jolie working together on a spy thriller. Don’t you?

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Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are set to host the 82nd annual Academy Awards live on the air March 7, 2009 on ABC.

Sounds like quite a gig for Baldwin while Martin has hosted the celebrated show twice before.

I don’t think either one is much of a song and dance man, perhaps Martin is a bit.

Should prove to be an interesting match.

Martin and Baldwin star in the movie It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep.  Enjoy this interview — funny!

(HQ) Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin – Interview on the Set of “It’s Complicated” – The best bloopers are here

Owen Wilson won’t be acting with a dog like he did in Marley & Me, this time he will be playing a dog as voice over for the rascally Great Dane Marmaduke.

The story is about family named the Winslows who move from Kansas to Orange County with their dog Marmaduke, a slobbery pooch who creates chaos wherever he goes. Once settled in the new home Marmaduke navigates volatile Mutts vs. Pedigrees turf war, woos the purebred of his dreams and overcomes a fall from grace.

Judy Greer, Lee Pace and William H. Macy play the humans, while Fergie, Emma Stone, George Lopez, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Steve Coogan, Damon Wayans, Marlon Wayans supply the voices for all the animals.

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Nope.  Not a chance.  Despite the fact that there are at LEAST twelve dwarves in The Hobbit, and John Rhys-Davies got off a three-film stint playing Gimli, he will NOT be appearing in The Hobbit.

There was some word he’d play Gimli’s father, who apparently figures in pretty heavily in this story, but Rhys-Davies himself was having none of it.  Dig the word:

“I’ve already been asked and to be honest with you, I wouldn’t. I have already completely ruled it out. There’s a sentimental part of me that would love to be involved again. Really I am not sure my face can take that sort of punishment any more.”

So that’s pretty much it, at least for the time being.  They asked, he demurred.  It’s pretty sad, because frankly, Rhys-Davies plays a pretty awesome dwarf, and having him come in on, say, Thorin Oakenshield would be a mindblower par excellence.

Of course, there’s always Warwick Davis….

January Jones will be starting with Nicolas Cage in the thriller The Hungry Rabbit Jumps. Jones is known for her on AMC’s Mad Men.

Rabbit is schedule to start shooting around the beginning of December.

The film follows a man (Cage) who, after a crime is perpetrated on his wife, gets more than he bargained for when he enlists a vigilante group to help him settle the score. Jones will play the wife.

Reportedly, Jones’ role is very meaty and active.   

Roger Donaldson is attached to direct from Robert Tanen’s script.

So here’s a chunk of news that feels like nothing so much as concentrated happy sauce–Hatchet 2 is looking to get started.

The big problem, of course, is scheduling.  Adam Green is a tough guy to catch these days, and Tony Todd, always a genre favorite, isn’t much better.

The teaser poster, which you can see at right, has been vetted and declared legit by no less a presence than Green himself, but it’s just a teaser poster.  Chances are we’ll be getting a whole new poster before things go too much farther.

The hope is that shooting will begin before the end of the year, but considering that the end of the year isn’t that much farther off  (seriously, folks, November is just a few days away), so hopefully we’ll get to see another installment of Hatchet–that sweet Old School American Horror–someime next year, possibly even summer if things go as planned.

Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are talking with Joel and Ethan Coen to hitch a ride with Jeff Bridges in True Grit. A remake or redesign or re-imaging of the iconic 1969 Western tale that Paramount Pictures plans to start production next March for late 2010 release. 

Bridges will play U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn with Damon talking about playing the lawman (played by Glen Campbell in the original) who teams up with Cogburn and a 14-year old girl to track her father’s killer into hostile Indian territory.

Brolin is talking about playing the killer. Jeff Corey played the killer in the original, and Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper also played outlaws.

Coen brothers haven’t cast the young girl yet.

Well now, here’s something interesting for you lovers of dystopian fare, like myself.  Seems that they’re working out some of the kinks involved in a remake of Mad Max, and they’ve come to two very interesting conclusions:

1. Charlize Theron should be in it.

2. Mel Gibson should NOT be in it.

You may be wondering how the elderly raving lunatic that started the whole thing, pretty much, is managing to be thrown over for a much younger man in the form of Tom Hardy.  In case you’re wondering who Tom Hardy is, he’s the guy who played Captain Picard’s clone in the poorly-realized cash grab Star Trek: Nemesis.

And I basically just answered the question right there.  Studio heads claim Mel’s just too old to handle the part any more.  So they’re handing it over to…the guy who made a bad movie even worse?  I guess this is why I don’t make the big bucks, because that just sounds IDIOTIC.

After hearing the various rumors flying around the Star Trek remake, which was still one of the all time greats as far as the Star Trek series specifically goes, and probably as science fiction in general goes, it was a surprise to catch up to this new chunklet of news.

Apparently, there’s talk that no less than William Shatner will be coming back to the second installment of the remade Star Trek.

J.J. Abrams himself is apparently looking at bringing Shatner on Board, saying that he “would love to work with him (Shatner)”, but the big problem was that “his character died on screen in one of his (Shatner’s) Trek films and we that we wanted to adhere to Trek canon”.  So let that be a lesson to you, kids…Shatner cares more about Shatner than he does established canon.

It’s pretty much shameful how Shatner’s been handling this pretty much since the inception of the Trek remake got started, so frankly, I’d sooner not see him back at all.  But if Abrams can work out a way, I’m willing to work with it.

Will Ferrell is set to star in an independent comedy, Everything Must Go, with first time feature director Dan Rush.  They start production in March with the film costing under $10 million. Ferrell is taking a different path, instead of big bucks he is going for quality. 

Rush wrote the script based on Raymond Carver story.  Ferrell will play a guy who loses his job and gets locked out of the house by his wife. She deposits his belongings on the front lawn, and he spends the next four days trying to sell his possessions.

Rush has built his reputation by directing commercials with a humorous bent.  His talent has pulled in offers for movie deals, but he turned them down in favor of writing a film for him to direct.

Everything Must Go is his first screenplay and opened doors to meetings with numerous leading men who liked the script. But Ferrell got the gig and signed on because he was impressed by Rush.

It will be interesting to see how this movie ends up on the screen.

(Source)