This Week’s Ketchup includes the requisite toy movie, but thankfully there are no remakes (although there is one movie based on an old TV show and two different movies based on young adult book series). Included in the original concepts are two comedies about today’s economic hard times, a biopic about a classic children’s book author, a historical epic about King Henry V and a time travel sci-fi action movie called Arena.
With Paramount just a couple of weeks away from releasing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the studio has found another action figure franchise in the form of Mattel’s Max Steel. Max Steel started as an action figure in 1999 and starred in an animated TV series from 2000-2002. It’s apparently proven to be much more successful in Latin America, where Max Steel is the #1 action figure property. For those not familiar with the character, Max Steel is a 19-year-old extreme sports enthusiast who is injured in an accident that infects his body with nanobots that make him superhuman. This leads to him being recruited by a secret agency, where he is of course teamed up with lots of other action figure-friendly characters. Mattel hopes that a major motion picture will help relaunch the toy line in the United States and other regions outside of Latin America. There is currently no writer or director attached to Max Steel, or word on when Paramount plans on releasing this latest toy property, which now joins the toy-to-movie ranks at Paramount, alongside Hasbro’s Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises.
Variety is reporting that it is “rumored” that Working Title is developing a third movie in the Bridget Jones series. This would follow the two movies based upon books by Helen Fielding, despite there not being a third novel to adapt for a third movie. Instead, it is expected that this third movie will be based upon columns that Fielding wrote in 2005 for the British newspaper The Independent, in which Bridget, now in her 40s, attempts to have a baby before it’s too late. Renee Zellweger did just turn 40 this past April, so the timing is quite on the mark. Another bit of news for Working Title this week is that the British production company has hired Cate Blanchett to star in Indian Summer, a drama set in 1947 in the final days of British rule of India. That film has been written by William Nicholson (Shadowlands, First Knight) and will be directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist).
In quite unexpected news, the 1965-1969 ABC family western TV series The Big Valley is being developed as a movie scheduled to start filming in April, 2010 in Michigan and New Mexico. The Big Valley was the story of a widowed matriarch (Barbara Stanwyck) of the prosperous Barkley ranch in central California, and her three sons (including an illegitimate half-brother played by Lee Majors) and a daughter (Linda Evans). The show was very similar to the long-running Bonanza, if you switch Lorne Greene out for Barbara Stanwyck, and use a less dusty setting. The concept for this Big Valley movie was developed by the show’s creators, and is being produced by Kate Edelman Johnson, the daughter of original show runner Louis F. Edelman. The Big Valley was written and will be written by Daniel Adams, who also directed this year’s independent drama The Golden Boys, starring David Carradine, Bruce Dern and Rip Torn. There’s no word yet about who will be cast in the movie’s five major roles.
Rather than take up four slots on the list that could go to new projects, this entry will cover this week’s major bits of casting news. First up is the announcement that Willem Dafoe has joined the cast of John Carter of Mars as Tars Tarkas, the four-armed giant green warrior that befriends Carter when he arrives on Mars. It’s not known how exactly Dafoe will portray Tarkas, but my best guess would be some sort of motion capture CGI animation. Then there is is the confirmation that Natalie Portman will be costarring in Thor as Jane Foster, but this news actually first appeared online a few months ago. What’s new is that the movie’s version of Jane Foster will not be a nurse (as portrayed in the comics), but rather a sort of doctor/scientist. This change is most likely due to Thor’s Dr. Donald Blake alter ego from the early comics not being an element in the movie adaptation. Next up is British comedian Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) who will be starring in I Hop, one of the competing Easter-themed movies that is being raced through development. I Hop is the story of a slacker who runs over the real Easter Bunny, breaking his leg so that he can’t hop, and so the guy has to take on the Bunny’s duties. Finally, Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard (HBO’s True Blood) will costar with James Marsden in the remake of Straw Dogs, which moves the story of rape and revenge from England to Mississippi. Bosworth is playing Marsden’s wife, and Skarsgard is playing her high school boyfriend, a former football hero. The changes to the story’s setting and some character elements make this Straw Dogs a hard project to predict, but like most remakes, the real question is… why bother remaking a movie that was already great?
Walt Disney Pictures has acquired Aprilynne Pike’s bestselling young adult novel Wings as a starring vehicle for their Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus. The first installment of a planned four book series, Wings is the story of a 15 year old girl who discovers that she is actually a faerie. Sent to live among humans as a guardian of the gateway to the magical land of Avalon, she learns about her heritage when a bump on her back blossoms into a giant flower and eventually becomes wings. The faerie falls in love with another faerie as she learns that she is destined to be caught between a war between faeries and trolls over control of the gateway to Avalon. Published in May, Wings has been a success but has also garnered expected comparisons to the popular Twilight franchise, and it just so happens that the producers of Wings also coproduced the first Twilight movie. So, are you looking forward to seeing Miley Cyrus running around with giant flower-like wings bouncing around her shoulders?
While two of the leads in this summer’s surprise comedy hit The Hangover, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, have been lining up their next movies over the last few weeks, that left Ed Helms, who played the dentist, with a big question mark as to how he would follow up such a major success. Helms, who was a longtime correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and is now on NBC’s The Office has chosen to go the indie comedy route, rather than sign on for another big studio movie just yet. In Cedar Rapids, Helms will play “a sad-sack insurance agent who goes to an industry convention to try to save the jobs of his colleagues.” Cedar Rapids was developed by Helms, written by newcomer writer Phil Johnston, will be directed Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Chuck & Buck) and is being produced by director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways). Filming of Cedar Rapids will start in October, 2009 while Ed Helms is on hiatus from The Office. Several distributors are currently looking at Cedar Rapids, with Fox Searchlight considered to be the frontrunner after having handled many of Payne’s movies. Ed Helms is also writing, and will costar in, an untitled Civil War time travel comedy for Warner Bros, the studio behind The Hangover.
London’s Independent Film Company has hired writer and producer Michael Hurst, creator of Showtime’s The Tudors and writer of 1998’s Elizabeth, to adapt the 2008 bestselling novel, Agincourt (also known as Azincourt), by Bernard Cornwell. Agincourt, as you might guess from the title, tells the story of the landmark Battle of Agincourt, which was also the central battle of William Shakespeare’s Henry V. In Cornwell’s novel, the central character is an archer named Nicholas Hook, who earns recognition from King Henry V of England and fights alongside him against the French army in a 1415 battle that proved the superiority of the English longbowmen, in what is considered one of the bloodiest battles in European history. Agincourt will be a $35 million production, with filming expected to start in the spring of 2011.
Ioan Gruffudd, who is best known for playing Reed Richards in the two Fantastic Four movies has signed on to star in the British biopic Banking on Mr. Toad, with Samantha Morton (Minority Report, In America) in talks to play his character’s wife, Elspeth. In Banking on Mr. Toad, Gruffudd will play 19th century author Kenneth Grahame, who made the transition from a career as a secretary for the Bank of England to the author of The Wind in the Willows, the classic children’s book about anthromorphic animals, including Mr. Toad, Mr. Badger, Ratty and Mole. Banking on Mr. Toad will be helmed by acclaimed director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies, Breaker Morant) from a script by producer Timothy Haas and Wendy Oberman, both of whom are first-time screenwriters. Production is scheduled to start in Ireland later this year.
As filming continues on the two Deathly Hallows movies to wrap up the Harry Potter movie franchise, Warner Bros is apparently looking at how they can continue on in the lucrative boy wizard business. David Frankel (Marley & Me, The Devil Wears Prada) has been hired to direct Septimus Heap: Magyk, an animated adaptation of the first book of a seven part series by Angie Sage, with newcomer Rob Lieber working on the script. Magyk was the first book in the series, published in 2005, and it was followed by Flyte, Physik, and Queste. The fifth book, Syren, comes out this September, with two more books to follow. Septimus Heap is a young wizard who was the seventh son of a seventh son and who must spend seven years studying magic under a powerful wizard before he can eventually take her place. Specifically, Magyk is the book in which 10 year olds Septimus and his adopted sister discover their destinies, which include his sister eventually becoming a princess. Septimus Heap: Magyk is described as an “animated fantasy project,” but it’s currently unknown what company will be handling the animation.
Summit Entertainment is looking to stay in business with Jeff Wadlow, the director of 2008’s Never Back Down (and also 2005’s Cry_Wolf). Wadlow had been attached to direct a prison escape movie called The Tomb, but when that project stalled, the fledgling studio (Twlight, Knowing, Push) has instead switched Wadlow over to a sci-fi action movie called Arena. First time writers Toby Wagstaff and Darren Howell wrote Arena, which is about a group of modern soldiers who find themselves transported to a strange shifting landscape where they are pitted into gladiator-style combat with warriors from throughout history. Although Summit’s output so far hasn’t been spectacular, it’s nice to at least see that this new studio is mostly focusing on original concepts, rather than all of the remakes and other tired concepts that the major studios are currently obsessed with. Arena might turn out to be awful, but the concept is at least sort of awesome.
Economic hardship is so funny, right up there with Nazis (Life is Beautiful, The Producers) and race relations (Soul Man, White Chicks). And so, there are a lot of movies in the works about people down on their luck (including #6’s Cedar Rapids), and following the intense action of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hugh Jackman has lined one up as well. In the comedy Avon Man, Jackman will play a recently laid off car salesman who takes a job as an Avon cosmetics salesperson, which is “initially emasculating”, until the story eventually takes on a “Full Monty vibe when the car salesman sets out to save his financially strapped family and town by conscripting his buddies into the makeup business to win a regional contest.” 20th Century Fox acquired the Avon Man pitch in a high six figure deal from Hitch writer Kevin Bisch. Here’s guessing that the Avon Man trailer will feature a scene where Jackman’s girlfriend/wife walks in on him fully made up in the sort of dated makeup women haven’t worn since Maude was a hit.
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS through his MySpace page or via a RT forum message.
