This week’s Ketchup, coming to you just before the Labor Day weekend, covers what was admittedly sort of a slow week in movie development news. Included in the mix are stories involving Steve Carell, Matthew McConaughey and Joaquin Phoenix, and the James Bond, King Arthur, Underworld, and Alvin and the Chipmunks franchises.
Martin Scorsese has been trying to make a musical biopic for most of his career as a famous film director. These attempts have included in the past both Dean Martin, and more recently, Frank Sinatra. Those two would seem an obvious fit for the director of such movies as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and (especially) Casino, but this week we found out that the eventual winner in the Martin Scorsese musical biopic search might be as different from Martin and Sinatra as 20th century musicians could get. Martin Scorsese is now planning on someday directing a movie about The Ramones. The Ramones started out as a 1970s hard rock group that blended 1960s-style garage band pop melodies with a fascination with pop culture and “outsider” sensibilities (and yet, they all took the same last name). There were eight Ramones over the year, but the core group was Joey (died in 2001), Dee Dee (2002), Johnny (2004), and Tommy (2014). The year 2016 will be the 40th anniversary of the Ramones’ first album, so one has to wonder if the timing isn’t sort of perfect for Scorsese’s The Ramones to also come out in that year. Standing in the way, however, is the fact that there’s currently no screenwriter attached to adapt The Ramones, and Martin Scorsese is himself preparing to direct a different film, the “missionaries in Japan” drama Silence. Adam Driver, Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Ken Watanabe will star in Silence, which is currently expected to be released in late 2015.
Monday night’s Emmys broadcast made a big point of celebrating the fact that Matthew McConaughey was there, as a nominee for True Detective. McConaughey didn’t actually win (Bryan Cranston did, for Breaking Bad), but it didn’t seem to hurt his career, if a new report about Warner Bros is correct. The studio is reportedly eyeing Matthew McConaughey for two different roles, including one in their adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, to be directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars). Reportedly, Warner Bros hopes to recruit Matthew McConaughey to play Randall Flagg, the villain in King’s post-apocalyptic American epic about the final battle between the forces of evil and good, metaphorically represented as Las Vegas and Boulder, Colorado. In addition to being the villain in The Stand, Randall Flagg also appeared in other Stephen King books like The Eyes of the Dragon, and the various entries in the series The Dark Tower. Warner Bros is also considering Matthew McConaughey for Gold, a true story film from screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana), about a 1993 scandal in which a mining company discovered gold in the jungles of Indonesia. McConaughey is not officially in talks with Warner Bros for either The Stand or Gold yet.
Sixteen years after Dianne Wiest costarred in Practical Magic, and nine years after Keanu Reeves starred in Constantine, this week, two more Parenthood stars made the news for movies involving magic. First up, there is Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie, which is expected to be released in 2016, after Captain America 3. The week started with an online rumor that Jack Huston, who’s probably most famous for playing Richard Harrow on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, was in the running. This was followed by a story at Collider.com asserting that Joaquin Phoenix, who had been mentioned as the front runner last month, is now indeed in “final talks” to star as Doctor Strange. What’s missing thus far (as of this writing on early Friday afternoon) is another source confirming Collider’s story. Doctor Strange will be directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil). Steve Martin, who played Joaquin Phoenix’s uncle in Parenthood, also made the news this week for a movie called Magic Camp. Steve Martin will star in the Disney family comedy as a banker who returns to “Magic Camp” as a counselor to help the kids get ready for the big “Golden Wand” competition. Steve Martin also cowrote Magic Camp, along with A.C.O.D. writer/director Stu Zicherman. All of this Parenthood talk might seem a little strange, but if Martha Plimpton (star of 2005’s Dante’s Inferno) plays a witch someday, you… heard this theory here first. Until then, Parenthood director Ron Howard confirmed this week that he and Tom Hanks will start filming their next movie together in April, which will be an adaptation of Dan Brown’s… Inferno.
For this Weekly Ketchup covering these final days of August before Labor Day, the pickings were slim enough that we’re covering stories more in the “rumor” category than would be the norm in a busier time of the year. An example of that is this story from the James Bond fan site “MI6” about a casting call for a new character to be introduced in “James Bond 24.” The casting call is reportedly looking for someone “extremely” physically fit and tall (over 6′ 2″), with consideration including “former sports athletes” and anyone “very unusual.” The new assassin character is going under the codename “Hinx” (not to be confused with Jinx, the Bond Girl played by Halle Berry), and it’s presumed that the producers are looking for a new “iconic” Bond bad guy to follow in the model of classic villains like Oddjob, Nick Nack, May Day, and Jaws. Skyfall director Sam Mendes will return for James Bond 24, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. on November 6, 2015.
Last year, actress Lake Bell made her directorial debut with In a World…, set in the “movie trailer narration” business, and the result was a Fresh Tomatometer score of 92%. Another film that did very well critically last year was Frances Ha, with a 93% Fresh (and two Independent Spirit Awards nominations). Both of those 2013 independent films come together, basically, to form this week’s news. Lake Bell will next direct an adaptation of the Claire Messud novel The Emperor’s Children, which was adapted by Noah Baumbach (who directed and cowrote Frances Ha). The Emperor’s Children was set in “the liberal intellectual elite of New York, telling the tale of three entitled but unsuccessful late twentysomethings who orbit the life of a famous journalist in the months before and after the events of 9/11.” It’s not yet known if Lake Bell will also take a role in the film.
With Legendary Pictures now at Universal, Warner Bros in 2014 is very much in the business of starting new franchises of their own (like Tarzan, J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts movies, and obviously, the DC Comics franchise). One of those gambles is a new King Arthur franchise, which might end up being a six movie saga, with the first film being directed by Guy Ritchie, who gave Warner Bros their two recent Sherlock Holmes movies, and next year’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. We’ve known for a while that the “Merlin-like” figure will be played by Idris Elba, but the surprising turn came this week when it was revealed that Arthur will be played by Charlie Hunnam (TV’s Sons of Anarchy). The reason this is surprising is that it effectively makes the King Arthur franchise a reunion for Idris Elba and Charlie Hunnam, who were basically the two male leads in last year’s Pacific Rim. That giant robots/monsters movie will be getting a sequel from director Guillermo del Toro (and Legendary Pictures), but no casting has been officially confirmed yet. Warner Bros also made the news this week as part of a “rumor” that the studio now has a “no jokes” policy for their upcoming DC Comics adaptations, following the perceived box office failure of Green Lantern (which had lots and lots of jokes).
Speaking of Warner Bros’ continued plans to fill in holes in their production schedule, there’s this story. The studio had a big animated movie success with The LEGO Movie, and with both a Ninjago movie and a LEGO sequel on the way, Warner Bros is looking to repeat that success in coming years. Other kid-friendly properties at Warner Bros are the various Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. In recent years, the Weekly Ketchup has covered news stories about Looney Tunes getting a “reboot movie”, and rumors about Space Jam getting a sequel (which may or may not have been correct). Another project that’s been in development for years now is a currently untitled Looney Tunes spinoff about the “ACME” company that provides characters like Wile E. Coyote with the various gadgets that they use in their animated adventures. This week, we found out that Steve Carell is now attached to star in this live-action spinoff. The script was written by the team of Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class), and it might be directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who directed Steve Carell in Crazy Stupid Love.
As Guardians of the Galaxy again took the #1 box office spot (and ascended past $500 million worldwide), fans might have been disappointed when they clicked the link about a new “Drax” movie. Jamie Dornan, who took the lead role in next year’s adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey, will star in The 9th Life of Louis Drax, a Miramax psychological thriller to be directed by Alexandre Aja. In addition to Mirrors and the upcoming Horns, Aja directed the remakes of The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha (which was Aja’s only Fresh Tomatometer score). Jamie Dornan will play a doctor who helps a young boy explore the strange circumstances behind a “near fatal fall… testing the boundaries of fantasy and reality.” This adaptation of the novel by Liz Jensen was previously in development as a project for the late director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley), and the script was adapted by his son, actor Max Minghella (The Social Network, Art School Confidential).
The year 2012 saw the release of Underworld: Awakenings, the fourth film in the Underworld franchise, following the original film in 2003, Underworld: Evolution in 2006, and the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans in 2009. Kate Beckinsale starred as a vampire in three of those movies, but it’s possible the British actress is done playing Selene. Still, Lakeshore Entertainment is apparently not done making Underworld movies, because the production company is now developing a reboot of the vampire/werewolf action franchise. To that end, Lakeshore has hired screenwriter Cory Goodman, whose previous films have included Priest and Apollo 18. This is one of the week’s “Rotten Ideas” because of the results on this search page.
If you want to feel old, consider that there is a growing chunk of the moviegoing audience who only knows Alvin and the Chipmunks from the three movies released in 2007, 2009, and 2011 (though really, if you have strong memories of them before that, you’ve probably got lots of reasons to feel old). These musical live-action/CGI animation hybrid “comedies” have never been critical hits, and so this week’s Rotten Idea was an easy one to peg. 20th Century Fox is moving forward with plans for Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. The studio has hired screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer, whose credits include 2010’s Tooth Fairy, and the 1993 crossdressing comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, starring the late Robin Williams, which had also been a Fox production (and one that the studio had been a developing a sequel for). Some sources list the title of this fourth movie as Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Trip, with a release date in 2016..
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.
