Dear Diary: Fox is developing a contemporary take on the 1989 Christian Slater/Winona Ryder feature "Heathers."
Dark comedy will be adapted for TV by scribe Mark Rizzo, with an assist from "Sex and the City" alum Jenny Bicks. Sony Pictures TV, where Bicks is based, will produce, along with Lakeshore Entertainment, which holds the rights to "Heathers."
Rizzo is still kicking around ideas on how to update "Heathers" 20 years after the film became a favorite among the underground set. But the characters from the movie are all expected to be there -- Veronica Sawyer (played in the movie by Ryder), J.D. (Slater) and the "Heathers."
The original movie revolved around Veronica as she navigates a clique of mean girls -- all named Heather -- and rebels after meeting J.D., the new guy at school. Soon, the Heathers start "accidentally" dying at the hands of Veronica and J.D., who cover up the deaths by faking them as suicides. Ryder's character chronicles her teen angst and the rising body count with regular diary entries.
The idea for a "Heathers" revival came from inside UTA, where reps for Rizzo and Bicks decided the title was ripe for revival and contacted Lakeshore about potentially dusting off the franchise.
For Lakeshore, the project, which is in the script stage at Fox, reps its introduction to the world of TV.
"We had the title, and talked about doing a film remake at times," said Lakeshore prexy Gary Lucchesi. "But doing it for TV seemed like a fresh and original idea."
Rizzo is onboard to write and exec produce, while Bicks is a nonwriting exec producer. Lucchesi and Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg will also exec produce.
Rizzo's credits include the pilot "Zip," which was developed twice at NBC, while Bicks is also known for "Men in Trees" and "Leap of Faith" and has also been adapting "Washingtonienne" for HBO.
The original "Heathers" pic was directed by Michael Lehmann and penned by Daniel Waters. Other stars included Shannen Doherty.
Source: Variety
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Dirty Dancing (2012)
Lionsgate is developing a remake of the 1987 classic "Dirty Dancing" from a new script by Julia Dahl ("Uptown Girl"), says Production Weekly.
The original, released in theaters by Vestron, starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. It was made for just $6 million but went on to earn a massive $213.95 million worldwide.
A follow-up, titled "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," was distributed by Lionsgate in 2004. Produced for $25 million, the movie earned just $27.7 million worldwide.
Source: ComingSoon.net
The original, released in theaters by Vestron, starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. It was made for just $6 million but went on to earn a massive $213.95 million worldwide.
A follow-up, titled "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," was distributed by Lionsgate in 2004. Produced for $25 million, the movie earned just $27.7 million worldwide.
Source: ComingSoon.net
Yellow Submarine (2012)
Disney and director Robert Zemeckis are negotiating to remake “Yellow Submarine,” the 1968 psychedelic animated film based on the music of The Beatles.
The studio has been quietly brokering a complicated rights deal that would give Zemeckis access to 16 original Beatles songs for a movie he will direct in the performance-capture 3-D digital production format he employed for “A Christmas Carol.” Disney opens that film November 6, with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge as well as the three ghosts who haunt him in the Charles Dickens tale.
The hope is to have "Yellow Submarine" ready to premiere around the 2012 Summer Olympics, which begins July 27 in London.
Disney would not comment on the negotiations or the project. Zemeckis’s ImageMovers would produce.
The deal marries cutting-edge 3-D feature technology with a surging reinterest in The Beatles, who appeared only in the film’s closing scene. Actors provided the voices for the animated characters of Beatles Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
The storyline of the original took place in Pepperland, an undersea paradise protected by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. When the band is captured by the music-hating Blue Meanies, a soldier is sent to Liverpool to fetch the Fab Four, who hop in the submarine and save the day.
Key to the deal is Zemeckis’ ability to use a treasure trove of classic Beatles tunes, from the title song to “All Together Now,” “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” “All You Need Is Love,” “When I’m 64,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
The deal has been months in the making with armies of lawyers and sources said that rights will encompass the future prospects of a Broadway stage musical -- much as Disney accomplished with “The Lion King,” a Cirque du Soleil stage production (“Love,” a production based on Beatles tunes, has been running for two years at The Mirage) and merchandise.
“Yellow Submarine” is just the latest in a flurry of pacts for The Beatles. September will be a big month for the band that broke up in 1970, with the release of a flurry of remastered records and the vidgame “The Beatles: Rock Band.”
Disney's talks follow the astounding $60 million deal that Sony made to turn the rehearsal footage for the final Michael Jackson concerts into a feature film.
Source: Variety
The studio has been quietly brokering a complicated rights deal that would give Zemeckis access to 16 original Beatles songs for a movie he will direct in the performance-capture 3-D digital production format he employed for “A Christmas Carol.” Disney opens that film November 6, with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge as well as the three ghosts who haunt him in the Charles Dickens tale.
The hope is to have "Yellow Submarine" ready to premiere around the 2012 Summer Olympics, which begins July 27 in London.
Disney would not comment on the negotiations or the project. Zemeckis’s ImageMovers would produce.
The deal marries cutting-edge 3-D feature technology with a surging reinterest in The Beatles, who appeared only in the film’s closing scene. Actors provided the voices for the animated characters of Beatles Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
The storyline of the original took place in Pepperland, an undersea paradise protected by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. When the band is captured by the music-hating Blue Meanies, a soldier is sent to Liverpool to fetch the Fab Four, who hop in the submarine and save the day.
Key to the deal is Zemeckis’ ability to use a treasure trove of classic Beatles tunes, from the title song to “All Together Now,” “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” “All You Need Is Love,” “When I’m 64,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
The deal has been months in the making with armies of lawyers and sources said that rights will encompass the future prospects of a Broadway stage musical -- much as Disney accomplished with “The Lion King,” a Cirque du Soleil stage production (“Love,” a production based on Beatles tunes, has been running for two years at The Mirage) and merchandise.
“Yellow Submarine” is just the latest in a flurry of pacts for The Beatles. September will be a big month for the band that broke up in 1970, with the release of a flurry of remastered records and the vidgame “The Beatles: Rock Band.”
Disney's talks follow the astounding $60 million deal that Sony made to turn the rehearsal footage for the final Michael Jackson concerts into a feature film.
Source: Variety
Untitled Wizard Of Oz Sequel (2012)
THE story of Dorothy’s epic journey on the yellow brick road, with a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion, helped bring a smile to the face of millions in a world on the brink of war.
Now, exactly 70 years after its release in August 1939, with the world in the grip of recession and British troops facing mounting casualties in Afghanistan, a Wizard of Oz sequel is being planned.
Filming could start next year – possibly in the UK – and 15-year-old Dakota Fanning, the acclaimed actress from Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds and Charlotte’s Web, is being tipped to step into Judy Garland’s shoes and send her career soaring over the rainbow. But the new movie will be “darker and more action-packed” according to one Warner Bros executive.
It is the brainchild of producer Basil Iwanyk, who explained: “It will be set in the present day and feature Dorothy’s granddaughter.”
Co-producer Todd McFarlane said: “You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley character from Alien [Sigourney Weaver] than a helpless singing girl.”
The original movie was based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and it made an instant star of 16-year-old Judy Garland.
Over the Rainbow won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the film was voted Best Picture. It was not a big commercial success, however, barely recouping its then huge production costs of $2.8million.
It has, of course, since become a television favourite and re-releases have earned it a fortune.
The favourable exchange rate against the dollar, plus the host of Harry Potter technicians and special-effects experts available, make Britain an attractive proposition for the project.
Source: Daily Express
Now, exactly 70 years after its release in August 1939, with the world in the grip of recession and British troops facing mounting casualties in Afghanistan, a Wizard of Oz sequel is being planned.
Filming could start next year – possibly in the UK – and 15-year-old Dakota Fanning, the acclaimed actress from Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds and Charlotte’s Web, is being tipped to step into Judy Garland’s shoes and send her career soaring over the rainbow. But the new movie will be “darker and more action-packed” according to one Warner Bros executive.
It is the brainchild of producer Basil Iwanyk, who explained: “It will be set in the present day and feature Dorothy’s granddaughter.”
Co-producer Todd McFarlane said: “You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley character from Alien [Sigourney Weaver] than a helpless singing girl.”
The original movie was based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and it made an instant star of 16-year-old Judy Garland.
Over the Rainbow won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the film was voted Best Picture. It was not a big commercial success, however, barely recouping its then huge production costs of $2.8million.
It has, of course, since become a television favourite and re-releases have earned it a fortune.
The favourable exchange rate against the dollar, plus the host of Harry Potter technicians and special-effects experts available, make Britain an attractive proposition for the project.
Source: Daily Express
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Orphanage (2011)
Actor-producer-director Larry Fessenden has signed on to helm "The Orphanage," New Line's remake of the Guillermo del Toro-produced Spanish-language horror movie.
Fessenden also has written the script with del Toro, who is producing the new film with Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson of Contrafilm.
The 2007 pic was directed by del Toro protege Juan Antonio Bayona and centered on a woman who, upon returning to the orphanage where she grew up, discovers that her son's imaginary friend is the same person who terrorized her when she was a child.
Fessenden's selection signals the out-of-the-box approach that del Toro and the studio are taking on the remake. They are eschewing another Spanish director to fill Bayona's shoes, and they are not putting the project in the hands of a commercial/music video helmer.
Rather, Fessenden, repped by WME and Renee Tab at Artist Talent Management, is a filmmaker who has worked in the low-budget horror world for some time, making such movies as "Wendigo" and "The Last Winter" while appearing in pics like "I See the Dead."
Del Toro and Fessenden know each other from the horror circuit, with del Toro's admiration of the triple-hyphenate's work leading him to handpick him for the directing gig; del Toro saw in him a filmmaker who understood the conventions of the horror genre and could execute a movie that would be as scary and disturbing as the original but in an American context.
Fessenden's selection also continues del Toro's predisposition toward mentoring up-and-comers or those on the fringe, as he did with Bayona and is doing with Andres Muschietti with "Mama," set up at Universal.
The project is in search of a lead actress.
Source: THR
Fessenden also has written the script with del Toro, who is producing the new film with Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson of Contrafilm.
The 2007 pic was directed by del Toro protege Juan Antonio Bayona and centered on a woman who, upon returning to the orphanage where she grew up, discovers that her son's imaginary friend is the same person who terrorized her when she was a child.
Fessenden's selection signals the out-of-the-box approach that del Toro and the studio are taking on the remake. They are eschewing another Spanish director to fill Bayona's shoes, and they are not putting the project in the hands of a commercial/music video helmer.
Rather, Fessenden, repped by WME and Renee Tab at Artist Talent Management, is a filmmaker who has worked in the low-budget horror world for some time, making such movies as "Wendigo" and "The Last Winter" while appearing in pics like "I See the Dead."
Del Toro and Fessenden know each other from the horror circuit, with del Toro's admiration of the triple-hyphenate's work leading him to handpick him for the directing gig; del Toro saw in him a filmmaker who understood the conventions of the horror genre and could execute a movie that would be as scary and disturbing as the original but in an American context.
Fessenden's selection also continues del Toro's predisposition toward mentoring up-and-comers or those on the fringe, as he did with Bayona and is doing with Andres Muschietti with "Mama," set up at Universal.
The project is in search of a lead actress.
Source: THR
The Tourist (2011)
Aussie actor Sam Worthington will replace Tom Cruise and join Charlize Theron in The Tourist, a remake of the 2005 French spy thriller Anthony Zimmer.
According to Variety, The Tourist is about an Interpol agent (Theron) in Europe who manipulates an American tourist (Worthington) in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal who was her former lover.
Sam, 33, has been in much-demand since starring in the summer blockbuster Terminator Salvation. He next stars in James Cameron’s Avatar, out in December.
Source: JustJared
According to Variety, The Tourist is about an Interpol agent (Theron) in Europe who manipulates an American tourist (Worthington) in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal who was her former lover.
Sam, 33, has been in much-demand since starring in the summer blockbuster Terminator Salvation. He next stars in James Cameron’s Avatar, out in December.
Source: JustJared
Harvey (2011)
Steven Spielberg has decided on his next film project — a contemporary adaptation of Mary Chase’s play Harvey for 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks.
The play first premiered on Broadway in 1944, and tells the story of an amiable eccentric, Elwood and his six foot three and one half inch tall rabbit imaginary friend Harvey, which causes problems for his family and friends. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, and was performed 1,775 times between 1944 and 1949. The play was adapted for television a couple times, and once for the screen in 1950, with James Stewart in the lead role alongside Fred Gwynne, Richard Mulligan and Madeline Kahn.
Spielberg released the following statement in a press release:
Novelist turned first-time screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (The Book of Joe, Everything Changes, How to Talk to a Widower) has written the new adaptation. No actors have been officially cast, but pre-production will begin immediately, with Speilberg, Dreamworks, and Fox hoping to begin shooting very early 2010.
Slashfilm
The play first premiered on Broadway in 1944, and tells the story of an amiable eccentric, Elwood and his six foot three and one half inch tall rabbit imaginary friend Harvey, which causes problems for his family and friends. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, and was performed 1,775 times between 1944 and 1949. The play was adapted for television a couple times, and once for the screen in 1950, with James Stewart in the lead role alongside Fred Gwynne, Richard Mulligan and Madeline Kahn.
Spielberg released the following statement in a press release:
“I am very happy to be working again with my friend Tom Rothman who shepherded us through ‘Minority Report,’ and with Elizabeth and Carla, who I’m looking forward to collaborating with,” said Spielberg. “DreamWorks has experienced a creative and profitable relationship with Twentieth Century Fox in the past, and I look forward to renewing that time together.”
Novelist turned first-time screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (The Book of Joe, Everything Changes, How to Talk to a Widower) has written the new adaptation. No actors have been officially cast, but pre-production will begin immediately, with Speilberg, Dreamworks, and Fox hoping to begin shooting very early 2010.
Slashfilm
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