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
Showing posts with label criticizm: better directors than this. Show all posts
Showing posts with label criticizm: better directors than this. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
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
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
True Grit (2010)
It seems that in this day and age, even original filmmakers like the Coen Brothers are not immune to the remake bug. It has been confirmed that their next project (after A Serious Man, which is currently in post-production) will be a remake of Henry Hathaway’s 1969 western True Grit. The original starred John Wayne as a hard-drinking, eye-patch wearing U.S. marshal who is hired to accompany a Texas Ranger into Indian territory to help a young girl track down her father’s killer.
Truth be told, this isn’t the first time the Coens have tried their hand at a remake; The Ladykillers was also a remake of a 1955 film by Alexander Mackendrick starring Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers. This will be their first period western however, even though some of their previous flicks had western elements. James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma seems to have revitalized the western genre somewhat, with remakes of other classic westerns like High Noon also in development. According to Variety, the Coen Brothers will tell the story from the girl’s point of view this time. Any fans of the original out there? Are you excited to see the Coens direct this?
Film Junk
Truth be told, this isn’t the first time the Coens have tried their hand at a remake; The Ladykillers was also a remake of a 1955 film by Alexander Mackendrick starring Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers. This will be their first period western however, even though some of their previous flicks had western elements. James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma seems to have revitalized the western genre somewhat, with remakes of other classic westerns like High Noon also in development. According to Variety, the Coen Brothers will tell the story from the girl’s point of view this time. Any fans of the original out there? Are you excited to see the Coens direct this?
Film Junk
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