Ever since the Alexander Litvinenko biopic Londongrad re-appeared, it has been a hot ticket in Hollywood. It was announced that Graham King and Johnny Depp would produce the film at Warner Brothers, and that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes director Rupert Wyatt was likely to direct the project.
The other day though, news broke that it looked like Wyatt had dropped out of the project as 20th Century Fox had fast tracked the Apes sequel, leaving Wyatt unavailable.
However, at the Hugo premiere, producer Graham King cleared up the mess saying he thinks that Wyatt will still direct Londongrad. When The Playlist spoke to King and asked if Wyatt would direct the film, he had this to say:
“Rupert loves it, he loves the script, and I think one day he’ll make it. But right now, he’s going to do the sequel to Planet of the Apes. He’s working on that, and a few other things. [Rupert] came to us, and Warners and said ‘I love this script, and I’d love to make this, but [Apes] is what I’m doing now. And we were like, fine. He’s a great filmmaker, and I really hope I get to work with him.”
He was then asked whether Shame star Michael Fassbender would still star in the film. King said that it depends entirely on “when the movie gets made.” It’s great news that Wyatt will hopefully still helm the project, but with Warners’ increased interest, they still may replace him, which would be disappointing. However if Wyatt does stay at the helm though, we likely won’t see Londongrad until at least 2014.
As for the remake of Tomb Radier, Olivia Wilde recently stated via her Twitter that she was not the new Lara Croft, which put the project in some doubt. But fear not reader as King has given an update on that project as well.
“I just got the script in about two weeks ago, so I want to get [press for Hugo] out the way, and over the holidays think about what direction to take that in. I’m really excited about it, it’s something that’s much different than I’ve done before. It’s a fun reboot, taking Lara Croft back to her roots, when she was growing up, becoming Lara Croft. It was done so successfully with Batman, and ‘Planet of the Apes’ this year… so I think if we can be clever and smart about it, it could be good.”
He was then asked about the possibly casting of the film now that Olivia Wilde stated she wasn’t in it, to which King said:
“It’s all rumors, I haven’t really focused on it. So many rumors, every young actress to play Lara Croft, but we won’t do anything about it until we get a script and a director.”
That’s all the info King was willing to let out but it’s enough for us. What do you think of the recent updates on the two projects?
We’ll be sure to keep you posted as more news surfaces.
Published: Nov 21, 2011 02:06 pm