Tuesday, January 29, 2008

NEWS OF THE DAY

Director Mark Romanek (ONE HOUR PHOTO) has dropped out of the director's chair on the $100 million WOLFMAN for Universal Pictures. Benicio Del Toro is the wolfman and Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt lend support. No replacement director has been named as of yet, but something tells me the seat won't be empty for very long. The script was written by SEVEN screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker. I was a big fan of ONE HOUR PHOTO so I am disappointed that Romanek has left this project; now go out and get Sam Raimi or David Cronenberg to direct this flick.

Michael Bay's horror production company Platinum Dunes is set to remake both FRIDAY THE 13th and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. I personally have no use for either of these remakes and wish that Bay would just concentrate on what he knows best -- blowing shit up on film.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are both set to star in the fourth installment of THE FAST & THE FURIOUS franchise. Do they need work/money that bad?

Channing Tatum and Dennis Quaid have joined the cast of GI JOE for director Stephen Sommers (THE MUMMY, VAN HELSING). I am willing to bet that this movie will be monumentally brain dead but might feature some cool action sequences.

The extremely talented director Guillermo Del Toro (PAN'S LABRYNITH, HELLBOY) is about to start wasting his time under producer Peter Jackson by directing back-to-back THE HOBBIT films. I was not a LOTR fan so these movies are about as exciting to me as having a root canal.

There is talk that wild-man director Terry Gilliam is going to re-evaluate his latest fantasy film THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARSANUSS, which Heath Ledger was starring in, so that the film can actually be finished.

And just a reminder--next Tuesday, one of last year's finest films, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, will hit DVD.

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