Curious about what the major studios’ post-strike production schedules look like? Prepare to have your questions (potentially, partially) laid to rest.
A Collider reader named Max (he’s described as someone “who works in the movie industry” — do with that what you will) has passed along a semi-detailed partial breakdown of what’s brewing in Hollywood, complete with scheduled start dates, locations, cast and crew. Sound too good to be true? For all we know, it is — but hey, reading it is free:
20% Fiction
Scheduled Start Date: Early March 2008
Shooting Location: Los Angeles
Producer: Robert De Niro, Bret Saxon, Jeff Bowler, Josh Kesselman, Josh Silver
Writer/Director: Barry Primus
CAST: Val Kilmer
A dramatic comedy about a jaded Hollywood acting coach to the stars who travels from Los Angeles to Rivergrove, a small town where he finds a new kind of happiness teaching the locals a few acting tricks.
25/8
Scheduled Start Date: April 7
Shooting Location: Connecticut
Producer: Marianne Maddalena, Wes Craven, Iya Labunka
Writer/Director: Wes Craven
As legend has it, a notorious serial slayer will return to the sleepy community of Riverdale to finish off the seven children born on the night he purportedly died. But is the slayer really dead, or is he still at large? Or has the mysterious evil personality that once impelled his bloody spree entered the body of an unwary teen, who will now be compelled to do his evil bidding?
Amelia
Scheduled Start Date: April 2008
Shooting Location: Toronto, Nova Scotia, Hawaii
Producer: Kevin Hyman, Ted Waitt, Lydia Dean Pilcher
Director: Mira Nair
Writer: Ron Bass
CAST: Hillary Swank
Swank will play Earhart in the formative stages of her career. George Putnam, a publisher and publicist, was engaged by society denizen Amy Guest to set up a daring nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. When Guest was talked out of trying to become the first woman to make the trip, she dispatched Putnam to find a female pilot, and to turn the flight into a media event.
American Carol
Scheduled Start Date: Late February 2008
Shooting Location: Los Angeles
Producer: Steve McEveety, John Shepherd
Writer/Director: David Zucker
A comedy that re-imagines Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” set on the 4th of July.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Scheduled Start Date: March 3
Shooting Location: Shreveport, Louisiana
Producer: Mark Damon, Ted Hartley, Moshe Diamant, Avi Lerner
Writer/Director: Peter Hyams
CAST: Michael Douglas, Amber Tamblyn, Jesse Metcalfe
A remake of Fritz Lang’s 1956 film noir. The story is about a journalist (Metcalfe) looking to take down a corrupt district attorney (Douglas) by setting himself up as a suspect in a murder he didn’t commit. His plan backfires when the D.A. uncovers the scheme and gets rid of the evidence the journalist has amassed to prove his innocence, making him look like he did, in fact, commit the murder.
Cadillac Records
Scheduled Start Date: March 10
Shooting Location: New Jersey, Mississippi, Chicago
Producer: Sofia Sondervan, Andrew Lack
Writer/Director: Darnell Martin
CAST: Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Columbus Short, Beyoncé Knowles, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Cedric the Entertainer, Tammy Blanchard
About Leonard Chess, the legendary founder of the South Side Chicago blues label Chess Records. The period piece follows the rise and fall of Chess Records, which launched the careers of such R&B greats as Muddy Waters, Etta James and Chuck Berry. Chess, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, scoured the South, checking out the various blues scenes and selling records from the back of his Cadillac.
Cheri
Scheduled Start Date: April 7
Shooting Location: France, London
Producer: Thom Mount, Tracey Seaward, Bill Kenwright
Writer: Christopher Hampton
Director: Stephen Frears
CAST: Michelle Pfeiffer
Set in 1920s Paris, where the young son of a wealthy courtesan is educated in the ways of love by a middle-aged friend of the man’s mother. When he is forced to give up the six-year relationship after marrying someone else, the young man can’t forget her and retreats into a fantasy world.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Scheduled Start Date: Summer 2008
Shooting Location: Prague, New Zealand
Producer: Cary Granat, Mark Johnson, Andrew Adamson
Director: Michael Apted
Based on C.S. Lewis’ novel, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In the enchanted land of Narnia, Edmund and Lucy join King Caspian on a sworn mission to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. So begins a perilous new quest that takes them to the farthest edge of the Eastern world on board the mighty Dawn Treader. Sailing uncharted seas, the old friends must survive a terrible storm, encounters with sea serpents, dragons, and invisible enemies to reach lands where magicians weave mysterious spells and nightmares come true. They need every ounce of courage and the help of the great lion Aslan to triumph in their most hazardous adventure of all.
Eloise in Paris
Scheduled Start Date: Mid June 2008
Shooting Location: London, Paris, New York
Producer: Thomas D. Adelman, Patrick Meehan, Ron Rotholz
Director: Charles Shyer
Writer: Hallie Meyers-Shyer, Larry Spencer, Charles Shyer
CAST: Uma Thurman
Based on the children’s book “Eloise in Paris” by Kay Thompson. Eloise is an irrepressible six-year-old who lives with her British nanny, her dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee in New York City’s Plaza Hotel. Eloise makes a nuisance of herself — riding elevators, dragging sticks along the walls as she roller-skates down the corridors, and “helping” the staff prepare rooms for official functions. If you are going to Paris France you have to turn into French and absolutely go wild. Obviously this is what Eloise does when her mysterious mother beckons. Richard Avedon must take her passport photos in New York. In Paris Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent must design her clothing. And zut, Eloise and Nahnee must linger at the same Parisienne café as Lena Horne.
Giallo
Scheduled Start Date: March 17
Shooting Location: Torino, Italy
Producer: Rafael Primorac, Richard Rionda Del Castro, Oscar Generale, Claudio Argento
Director: Dario Argento
Writer: Sean Keller, Jim Agnew
CAST: Ray Liotta, Asia Argento, Vincent Gallo, Elsa Pataky
Yellow (Gallo) chooses his victims based on their beauty, because he himself is not beautiful. Scorned and rejected in the orphanage where he was raised as a child, he now hunts beautiful women to torture and to kill. He keeps them alive, mentally and physically abusing them, until he grows bored. Then, he kills them and discards their body. He’s efficient, and always has his next victim ready to torture. And he’s clever, only going after tourists, women who won’t find an advocate in the police department. His latest victim is an Asian exchange student. After her, he has Celine, a gorgeous fashion model. Linda (Asia Argento) is a smart, attractive flight attendant, in town to spend time with Celine, her sister. When Celine doesn’t arrive for their planned meeting, she gets worried. The local police don’t want to be bothered with her, so they send her to the basement to deal with Inspector Enzo Lavia (Ray Liotta), an eccentric detective who doesn’t fit in with the department. The details of the case remind him of a strange killer he’s been hunting.
High School Musical: Senior Year
Scheduled Start Date: April 21
Shooting Location: Salt Lake City
Producer: Bill Borden, Barry Rosenbush
Writer: Peter Barsocchini
Director: Kenny Ortega
CAST: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman
Based on the television movie “High School Musical” that originally aired on The Disney Channel. The continuing adventures will revolve around seniors Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Hudgens) facing the prospect of being separated from one another as they head off in different directions to college. Joined by the rest of the Wildcats, they stage an elaborate spring musical reflecting their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.
I Love You Man
Producer: Donald De Line, Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock, Jeffrey Clifford
Writer/ Director: John Hamburg
CAST: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel
Centers on a man about to get married who actively seeks out a male friend to be his best man for the wedding.
Jennifer’s Body
Scheduled Start Date: March 17
Shooting Location: Vancouver
Producer: Jason Reitman, Mason Novick, Dan Dubiecki, Brad Van Arragon
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Diablo Cody
CAST: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried
The story of a cheerleader who is possessed by a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. Her “plain Jane” best friend must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshiping rock band responsible for the transformation.
Land of the Lost
Scheduled Start Date: March 3
Shooting Location: Los Angeles
Producer: Sid Krofft, Marty Krofft, Jimmy Miller, Julie Wixson-Darmody
Director: Brad Silberling
Writer: Chris Henchy, Dennis McNicholas
CAST: Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, Anna Friel
Based on the ’70s NBC television series. Eccentric (and remarkably unlucky) paleontologist Dr. Rick Marshall validates his discredited theory of time travel by heading back into an alternate universe inhabited by dinosaurs, monkey people and reptilian Sleestaks.
Moon
Scheduled Start Date: January 2008
Shooting Location: United Kingdom
Director: Duncan Jones
CAST: Sam Rockwell
About a man stranded on the moon for three years.
Open Road
Scheduled Start Date: February 2008
Shooting Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Writer/Director: Michael Meredith
CAST: Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, Mary Steenburgen
This father-son dramedy centers on the adult son of a baseball legend who, together with his girlfriend, embarks on a road trip with his estranged father.
Patriots
Scheduled Start Date: Early April 2008
Shooting Location: New Orleans
Producer: Raymond Brothers, Scott Glassgold, Michael Beugg
Writer: Robert Eisele
Director: Tim Story
CAST: Forest Whitaker
Whitaker will play Al Collins, basketball coach for John Ehret High in Marrero, La., who led his Patriots to the state championship a year after Katrina ravaged the school and displaced many of its students. Collins’ team consisted of 10 players who attended five different schools before the disaster.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Scheduled Start Date: July 2008
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer, John August, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman
Director: Mike Newell
Writer: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Passing through India en route to Azad, King Sharaman and his son, the Prince of Persia, defeat the powerful Maharajah of India with the promise of honor and glory. After looting the city and capturing a giant hourglass full of sand, a mysterious dagger, and the Maharajah’s daughter Farah along with other treasures, they continue to Azad. A dying Vizier, who had betrayed the Maharajah and aided King Sharaman in return for a share of the spoils, demands to have the dagger, as he was promised his choice of the Maharajah’s treasures. But Sharaman refuses to take the dagger from his son, who captured it first. So the Vizier, who wishes to harness the power of the sands in the hourglass for himself, making him an immortal god and giving him control over time itself, tricks the Prince into opening the hourglass. When the Prince uses the dagger to unleash the Sands of Time from the hourglass, the Sands destroy the kingdom and turn all living beings into hideous sand creatures. Only the Prince, the Vizier, and Princess Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah, remain unchanged due to their possessions; the Prince’s dagger, the Vizier’s staff, and Farah’s medallion.
Spread
Scheduled Start Date: February 25
Shooting Location: Los Angeles
Producer: Jason Goldberg, Peter Morgan, Aaron Kaufman
Writer: Jason Dean Hall
Director: David Mackenzie
CAST: Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Jason Leigh
A world-class seducer, handsome, directionless Jason has made a career of exploiting women — particularly rich women like the beautiful Samantha, who serve his purposes very nicely. When his women are out of town, Jason tools around in their luxury cars and lures other young women to their mansions, pretending that the “spread” belongs to him. But Jason isn’t getting any younger, and his manipulative wiles are wearing thin. When Jason falls in love with a female counterpart, Heather, who has made a habit out of manipulating men, he gets a shocking taste of his own medicine, and realizes his game-playing ways have led him into a tragic emotional dead end.
The Surrogates
Scheduled Start Date: Late April 2008
Shooting Location: Boston
Producer: David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Max Handelman, Elizabeth Banks
Director: Jonathan Mostow
CAST: Bruce Willis
Based on the graphic novel “The Surrogates” written by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Story is set in the near future, where humans live in isolation and interact vicariously through surrogate robots who are better-looking versions of themselves. Willis plays a cop who, through his surrogate, investigates the murders of others’ surrogates. The cop is forced to venture from his own home for the first time in years and unravels a conspiracy.
The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3
Scheduled Start Date: March 3
Shooting Location: New York
Producer: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch
Writer: David Koepp
Director: Tony Scott
CAST: Denzel Washington, John Travolta
Remake of the 1974 film “The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3” directed by Joseph Sargent. The latest incarnation takes place in contemporary New York and is set in motion when four hijackers take over a subway train and hold the passengers for ransom. They threaten to shoot one hostage each minute until a ransom is fully paid.
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins
Scheduled Start Date: May 5
Shooting Location: New Mexico
Director: McG
Writer: John Brancato, Michael Ferris
CAST: Christian Bale, Josh Brolin
The fourth installment in the “The Terminator” franchise. The film is set in the future, in a full-scale war between Skynet and humankind. John Connor, now in his 30s and soon to be wife Kate Brewster realize they must create a resistance organization with Earth’s remaining survivors against the army of robots slowly being built up by Skynet. As they are building this resistance, one survivor happens to be a traitor in disguise, and has a secret that nobody would ever come to suspect.
This Side of the Truth
Scheduled Start Date: April 14
Shooting Location: Boston
Producer: Lynda Obst, Oly Obst, Asif Satchu, Mordecai Wiczyk
Writer/Director: Matthew Robinson, Ricky Gervais
CAST: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Louis C.K., Jonah Hill
The comedy takes place in a world where everybody tells the truth. Gervais plays a storyteller whose job is to ramble on about the 1300s. Faced with losing his job because his terrain is a boring period in history once he gets beyond the Black Death, he invents lying as a way to save himself. Lowe will play his arch nemesis. Hill will play Mark’s humorous neighbor who also suffers from depression, while Louis C.K. will play Mark’s loser best friend.
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Scheduled Start Date: Late March 2008
Shooting Location: Los Angeles
Producer: Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald
Writer: Aaron Sorkin
Director: Steven Spielberg
CAST: Sacha Baron Cohen, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeff Daniels, Colin Hanks, Will Smith
Based on the 2007 documentary “Chicago 10,” by Brett Morgen. At the 1968 Democratic Convention, protesters, denied permits for demonstrations, repeatedly clashed with the Chicago Police Department, who waged a week-long terror campaign that resulted in riots witnessed live by a television audience of over 50 million. The events had a polarizing effect on the country. Needing to find a scapegoat for the riots, the Government held eight of the most vocal activists accountable for the violence and brought them to trial a year later. The defendants represented a broad cross-section of the anti-war movement, from counter-culture icons Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to renowned pacifist David Dellinger.
Seven of the defendants were represented by Leonard Weinglass and famed liberal attorney William Kunstler, who went head-to-head with prosecution attorney Thomas Foran. The eighth defendant, Bobby Seale, co-chair of the Black Panther Party, insisted on defending himself and was bound, gagged and handcuffed to his chair by Judge Julius Hoffman. From the start, the trial was a circus with the eight defendants on a collision course with the governmental authority.
The Ugly Truth
Scheduled Start Date: April 15
Shooting Location: Los Angeles
Producer: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Steve Reuther
Writer: Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith
Director: Robert Luketic
CAST: Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler
Story centers on a romantically challenged morning show producer Abby Richter who is reluctantly embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love. His clever ploys, however, lead to an unexpected result.
Untitled Sam Mendes Project (aka This Must Be the Place)
Scheduled Start Date: March 31
Shooting Location: Connecticut
Producer: Ed Saxon, Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf
Writer: Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida
Director: Sam Mendes
Follows Verona and Burt’s journey around the U.S. as they search for somewhere to put down roots and raise the baby they are expecting. Picking up some wisdom and warnings from their adventures, they find to their surprise that sometimes you have what you need right in your own (long neglected) backyard.
Untitled Supernatural Thriller (aka Born)
Scheduled Start Date: March 3
Shooting Location: Chicago
Producer: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Jessika Borsiczky-Goyer
Writer/Director: David S. Goyer
CAST: Gary Oldman, Odette Yustman, Cam Gigandet
The psychological thriller follows an 18-year-old who is haunted by a Dybbuk, the soul of a dead person barred from heaven, in the form of a young boy who perished in Auschwitz.
The Vicious Kind
Scheduled Start Date: March 1
Shooting Location: Norfolk, Connecticut
Producer: Tim Harms, Neil LaBute
Writer/Director: Lee Toland Krieger
CAST: Adam Scott, Brittany Snow
Snow will play a woman targeted by the obsessed older brother of her boyfriend after he brings her home for Thanksgiving. Scott will play Caleb, the obsessive older brother.
Wasp 2008 (Woody Allen Spring Project)
Producer: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum
Writer/ Director: Woody Allen
CAST: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood
Welcome to the Rileys
Scheduled Start Date: Late April 2008
Shooting Location: New Orleans
Producer: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Costigan, Stephen Margolis, Guy Collins, Steven Zaillian
Director: Jake Scott
CAST: James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart
Story concerns a man and a woman who have been driven apart by grief after losing their daughter and are brought back together when they meet a troubled young woman.
When in Rome
Scheduled Start Date: March 31
Shooting Location: New York, Rome, Italy
Producer: Benny Medina, Jeff Pollack, Gary Foster, Andrew Panay, Rikki Bestall
Writer/Director: Mark Steven Johnson
CAST: Kristen Bell
Bell will play a successful real estate agent in New York who can’t find a lasting relationship. When her younger sister impulsively marries in Rome, she flies out for the wedding and, after picking up coins from a reputed “fountain of love,” finds an overabundance of suitors waiting for her back home.
The Wolf Man
Scheduled Start Date: March 17
Shooting Location: London, Castle Combe, Lacock
Producer: Scott Stuber, Mary Parent, Andy Davis, Nigel Gostelow
Director: Joe Johnston
CAST: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt
Remake of the 1941 film “The Wolf Man” directed by George Waggner. The film will be set in Victorian England. Del Toro will play a man who returns from America to his ancestral homeland, gets bitten by a werewolf and begins a hairy moonlight existence.
Source: Collider
