In a match made in heaven for fans of dark, twisted thrillers, acclaimed director David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac) is set to reteam with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn to adapt the UK thriller series Utopia for premium cable channel HBO. The pair previously worked together on the film adaptation of Gone Girl, which Fincher directed and Flynn scribed.
Over at Blumhouse Productions, Jason Blum is working away on a slew of buzzy horror projects, including sequels to his studio's biggest hits (Sinister 2, Insidious: Chapter 3) and stand-alone flicks that he likely hopes can spark franchises (Ouija, Lazarus). Personally, I'm already on the lookout for Visions, a Blumhouse pic that, despite its fairly generic premise, is building an increasingly promising cast. Now, Deadline is reporting that Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria has climbed on board the project.
We all knew that we hadn't seen the last of the dystopian future America presented in last summer's The Purge after the film grossed $89 million on a minuscule $3 million budget. Now that the sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, is due to drop this June, it appears that Universal is aiming to turn the property into a series with Paranormal Activity-type ubiquity.
I was very impressed by Rupert Wyatt's 2011 reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For a remake, it was much more creative and well-acted than it needed to be, and Andy Serkis's motion-capture performance as intelligent ape Caesar was far and away one of the strongest performances from that year. So, I'm very excited to see what Let Me In helmer Matt Reeves brings to the series in this summer's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which rejoins Caesar a decade after the events of Rise, during which a deadly simian virus began to spread through the world.
Whatever you may have thought of January Jones's portrayal of The White Queen/Emma Frost in superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class, there's no denying the actress's versatility. She's been nominated for a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Satellite Award for her performance as Betty Draper in AMC's period drama Mad Men, had supporting roles in action blockbusters like Unknown and the upcoming Good Kill, appeared in raunchy comedy American Wedding and even toplined her own Western (Sweetwater). Now, Jones is set to add another genre to her already strong resume: horror. The actress just signed on to topline a supernatural thriller called The Shuddering.
When Barton Fink actress Judy Davis dropped out of 24: Live Another Day last week, Fox was left scrambling to find a replacement so that they could keep to their tight filming schedule. With the 12-episode miniseries event set to bow in May, time is one luxury that Fox does not have at the moment. Luckily, the network has secured another actress to take on Davis's large role: Game of Thrones' Michelle Fairley.
I had to actually catch my breath after the final frames of Kevin MacDonald's latest, a gut-punch of a film called How I Live Now (trust me, that vague and unmemorable title is the worst part). As someone who has seen and admired countless war dramas, from Black Hawk Down up through The Hurt Locker, I can honestly say that How I Live Now left me more disturbed, more rattled and certainly more saddened than any of those (excellent) films.
After spending years toiling in development hell, David Yates' big-budgeted 3D reimagining of Tarzan is finally getting off the ground. The project had already been proposed, green-lit, shelved and canned by 2012, when Yates became involved. The director, known best for his work on the juggernaut Harry Potter franchise, has been working away to get Tarzan green-lit ever since, but Warner Bros. came close to pulling the plug last April over budget concerns. Now, it appears that the film finally has a clear path to the box-office, as the studio has slotted it for a July 1, 2016, release date.
Though her Depression-era drama Serena, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, is still sitting on a shelf somewhere, director Susanne Bier is still moving from project to project. She was previously attached to direct Love Is All You Need but eventually dropped. Now, she's settled on A Second Chance, an intense drama starring Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (pictured above in the first image from the film). Though we already knew that the film would address the moral turpitude faced by those who have endured terrible tragedies, a new plot synopsis has shed some light on what we can expect.
50/50 was not just one of the best comedies of 2011 - it was one of the year's best, period. Hilarious, deeply moving and strongly acted, it took on the daunting subject of cancer to great success. Though some people found the film to be overly flippant in dealing with such a sensitive subject, I adored its earnestness and originality. Now, we're hearing that the film's director, Jonathan Levine (also behind last year's Warm Bodies) will be reteaming with 50/50 stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen for a project currently known as Untitled Xmas Comedy.
