Ohh… boy. This sounds way too crazy for words, so we’re just treating it as an informed (?) rumor until there’s further confirmation. There were similar musings a few days ago regarding 진시황 프로젝트 (The Qin Shi Huang Project), using a Chinese tabloid as the source for the apparent casting of Tang Wei and Jang Dong-Gun in the leading roles, but since they were still treating Luc Besson as someone working on this (and you know how high on the BS meter that was) I ended up ignoring it all. Sure enough, a day later Jang Dong-Gun denied any involvement with the film, saying he just received the script.
Now, shall we carefully try it again? Lee Man-Hee’s 만추 (Full Autumn), starring Shin Sung-Il and Moon Jung-Sook, is not only one of the very best Korean films of the 60s, but also one which enjoyed quite a few remakes. First it was Saito Koichi in 1970, then master Kim Ki-Young in 1975, and finally Kim Su-Yong in 1982, so we’re dealing with the fourth remake of the masterpiece. Since we have Korea and Japan on the list, how about the Chinese side? The fifth “installment” of Full Autumn is in fact supposed to be helmed by 墨攻 (A Battle of Wits)‘s Jacob Cheung, in a Korea-China coproduction. Sources reveal the producers, who have been preparing this remake since the Fall of 2006, are very close to signing Tang Wei of 色, 戒 (Lust, Caution) and Lee Joon-Gi of 왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown) as the leads, with the final ink on paper expected to come within the end of the week. Young Lee is one of the rising stars in Asia, after striking it big with Lee Joon-Ik’s clowns, and then starring in the badass TV action noir 개와 늑대의 시간 (Time Between Dog & Wolf) and the fusion sageuk 일지매 (Iljimae), and Tang should be pretty familiar to most film fans by now.
If they can get the feel of the original right, this could be really a killer melodrama, and with that kind of cast, a huge hit at least in Asia. Now we can only hope it won’t join the ranks of tabloid bullshit art.
[DongA]
Here is a tidbit from the rumour-mill as strange and wacky as the Timecrimes do-over with David Cronenberg (here). The Hollywood Reporter indicated today that Werner Herzog is the director on board for the Bad Lieutenant remake, and the star will be Nicholas Cage. While I’m sure Cage can “OOOOO, OOOOO, OOOOOOOO” as well as Harvey Keitel, it seems highly likely that a second go around at the delicate balance-act of Abel Ferraras film seems destined to crash and burn. But Werner Herzog? There is a wild-card director if there ever was one and always a sign of mad genius. Cancel that with Avi Lerner on the production side, whose company Millennium Films, responsible for the critically trashed Al Pacino vehicle 88 Minutes and worse War Inc. is the new Cannon or Golan-Globus.
This is too strange not to post!
Screen offers a few quotes from those involved in the remake that underscore the misguided-ness:
“In the spirit of the original, we really wanted this to be a director’s piece,” Pressman said. “And we couldn’t be more thrilled with the explosive combination of Herzog and Cage as they explore the depths of human depravity and moral ambiguity that is unique to this character.”
“Bad Lieutenant is one of my all time favorite films,” Lerner said. “I am pleased to be working with Nic Cage, Werner Herzog and Ed Pressman. Their updated take on such a brilliant film is sure to be a hit with today’s audience. This all makes for a winning combination.”
How Bad Lieutenant makes for an audience-friendly hit is beyond me (And heck, MGM couldn’t sell the heroic story of Rescue Dawn into a hit, then how does a morally depraved lunatic-cop investigating the raping of nuns (oops, this time around it is Senegalese illegal immigrants and drugs) become palatable to the mainstream - Yes, they’re funny folk over at Millennium Films)
EDIT*** I’m half way out the door for the whole weekend and I’m just awaiting word from Edgar if this report is indeed untrue. Until I have confirmed otherwise we sadly have to assume that it is the real Edgar who has responded in the comments below and that the report over at RoboJapan is incorrect. Bummer. Oh well, doesn’t cost anything to dream.
Oh this is yummy news. Once you have proven you have the skills to pay the bills then your workload starts to add up. Writer/director Edgar Wright, much loved for his work in British television and film [the only SPACED tv series that counts! Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz], has announced another project. Edgar wants to put a man in a suit and remake the 1961 monster movie Gorgo, a film I had the pleasure of seeing screened from an original film stock in the last year. Giant monster goodness is on the horizon!
Neither Bombs, Bullets, Jets or Rockets Can Stop Gorgo…But This Little Boy Knew His Secret! A salvage vessel is nearly sunk off the Irish coast by an undersea earthquake. A few nights later, a walking sea monster tangles with the fishing boats and enters the town. The salvage vessel captures Gorgo and takes it to London for display. Gorgo’s mother, who is upset and significantly larger follows his trail to London leaving a wake of destruction in her path. IMDB
Avery over at RoboJapan wonders if this was the ‘giant lizard’ that Simon Pegg was referring to when news about the third collaboration between Edgar and himself, titled The World’s End, broke out not too long ago. Either way a project like this can only be handled well by someone who can respect the source material and yet still have a bit of fun with it. Edgar has already displayed those skills so this makes Mack a happy boy.
Keanu Reeves has been prepping a martial arts film tentatively titled Tai Chi Tiger. According to an interview he did in Seoul he revealed that he had asked the king of martial arts choreography, a man who has a knack for making gweilos look half competent at Kung Fu, Yuen Wo-ping to be involved in the project in some capacity about six months ago. Though the script is not complete he would show it to Yuen once done. He had hoped that Yuen would direct the film but Yuen revealed recently that he wishes to only be involved as the Martial Arts Director.
So who would direct the film? It would seem that Reeves’ martial arts teacher and member of the Yuen Clan, Tiger Chen, would not only direct this film but also star in it alongside Reeves. Is he good? You tell me. Tiger Chen has choreographed martial arts for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix trilogy, Charlie’s Angels and Kill Bill. Yeah, I’d say he’s qualified. The two have already been scouting locations in China. This would be the directorial debut for Tiger Chen.
Oh, and the report also says that Yuen has invited Reeves to be involved in another project next year. Could this be the unnamed Wo-ping project that recently made a worldwide casting call for martial artists? Had we known it included the chance to whup Keanu’s butt we would have made something up to get into the casting call.
I haven’t even seen Doomsday yet and already I am looking forward to director Neil Marshall’s next pic. The lads over at BloodyDisgusting tapped into an article from Variety where Marshall talks about his next project Sacrilege, greenlit by Rogue Studios. Giddy-up cause Marshall’s going back to the Old West and he wants it to be horrific!
“It is set during the Gold Rush, a time remembered for incidents like the Donner Party… It is meant to be a pitch-black, gritty, period horror movie… This is ‘Unforgiven’ by way of H.P. Lovecraft, with that grim, gritty setting and a horror element nobody has seen before,” Marshall said.
The western horror is an untapped genre so there is no fear of it being over done and tired. The possibilities are virtually endless right now. This is a fresh field ripe for the tilling. Take a moment to glance at an account of this so-called Donner Party incident as well and this gives you an idea where Marshall’s head may be at as he approaches the script. Tastes like chicken!
So, remember the other week when we talked about someone out there having the bright idea to write a sequel to Neil Marshall’s standout horror film, The Descent? We were pretty much in full agreement that this sequel, with the clever title The De2cent, was not a good idea. For the rest of you may I present to you this finding over at BloodyDisgusting which may sway you to our side. If this is how The De2cent is going to turn out, count me out. It is worse than my crappy Photoshop logo.
We’ve been informed that this is a coverage report from an older draft and there will be re-writes… B-D reader ‘Emmet K’ stumbled upon something that will cause insanity among fans of Neil Marshall’s The Descent. Inside you’ll find a studios coverage report for Pathe’s The De2cent. A coverage report is a studio execs full notes on the screenplay - and is basically a detailed review. This reader recommends it, so hopefully someone picks it up for US (since Lionsgate isn’t involved). Also note, there are many (MAJOR) spoilers, so read on at your own risk!
I’ll send you over to BD to read the full coverage report but not without a SPOILER ALERT WARNING. Don’t come bitching to me cause I’ve warned you now. You can find the report here.
I don’t know how many of you know this but some years ago the Assistant Director of Sony and the President of Sony Interactive Entertainment was an Icelander named Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. Not only was he a big shot in the electronic industry, helped develop the CD and launch the first Playstation, but he was also a big shot in the Icelandic literary scene, having written seven books to date and a couple of plays, none of which I’ve read. But people seem to like them and the books have been translated to several languages over the years.
One of his best selling books is A Journey Home has been in development for years, with the Merchant Ivory company behind it until Merchant died suddenly. Then it went in to the hands of Liv Ullman who wrote a new treatment and was slated to direct. Now it seems that Swedish Oscar winner Bille August is working on the project with Baltasar Kormakur producing.
August is of course world renowned for his films, with Pelle the Conqueror, House of the Spirits, Smilla’s Sense of Snow and even a few Young Indiana Jones episodes in his resume.
I don’t know much about the story but the little I’ve read about it online it seems to be about a woman living as a successful restaurateur in England finds out that she has only a year to live and decides to take the journey that she has postponed for over 20 years back home to Iceland.
August was in Iceland last week looking for pontential actors for the film so it seems that the ball is rolling.
Some of you here might be to young to remember the cold war between the US and Russia that started after the end of the second World War and lasted until 1989, illustrated best when the Berlin Wall came crumbling down. But I think most of the readers of this fine site are old enough to remember the strained times between the East and the West during those decades. But what many people don’t know is that Iceland played a large part in ending the Cold War in the 80’s. At least that’s what many Icelanders want you to believe.
You see Reykjavik played host to one of the meetings that would start the process to end this ridiculous pissing contest between the US and the Soviet Union and that would eventually lead to the end of the nuclear race between the two super powers…and allow artist to be able to rent cheap housing in the former East Berlin.
News trickled down the wires a couple of days ago that Clint Eastwood and Ridley Scott had sent people over to Iceland to talk to city officials about doing a film about this historic meeting in our nation’s capital.
This was of course a big thing at the time, not only for us but for the world itself because this would herald the conclution of one of the longest conflicts in the history of our modern culture, one that threatens to rear it’s ugly head again, according to recent news.
Not much was revealed in terms of storyline or how this film was going to be but the two actors mentioned in the lead as Reagan and Gorbachev were the American Gigolo and hard core leftist Richard Gere and beloved cannibal and all around good guy Anthony Hopkins.
Treat this as a rumor at this time but something might come through the grapevine in the near future. Unless the city officials blew their load in their excitement and the whole thing will be scrapped.
Ooh! This could be the very project that Gaiman alluded to not too long ago on his personal blog. He did mention that he was getting together with Guillermo del Toro [Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy... oh like I have to tell you people] to talk about working together on a future project. Neil Gaiman will be making his directorial debut when he helms the screenplay based on one of his own works, Death: The High Cost of Living. Guillermo is said to be executive producing this film.
In The High Cost of Living the main character is a teenage girl named Didi, who at first appears to be an eccentric, orphaned goth, but who insists that she is Death personified. She guides a young male protagonist on a journey of self discovery. Wikipedia
“Everything is moving, slowly, but it’s moving… Guillermo del Toro is executive producing, which is a wonderful thing… and I’m actually planning on going out to Prague very, very soon to do some stuff with Guillermo on ‘Death.’ I think it definitely seems like it’s going to happen.”
I’ll admit, this isn’t the dream team project I was hoping for. While I don’t know which property of Gaiman’s I would like to see adapted to film ideally I would like to see what del Toro could do if he lensed one. Ooh. That gives me the shivers. Nonetheless, it is a good start to what could be a very beautiful relationship.
[source] [via]
It’s just a robots run amok kind of day around here! I didn’t like I, Robot. In fact, I feel bad for director Alex Proyas that his name will forever be attached to it. But, I love Battlestar Galactica. So when BG writer/creator Ronald Moore starts talking life after BG and mentions that he has written a draft for the sequel to I, Robot then I am at least interested. He couldn’t say much about it. That whole sworn to secrecy thing. But he did say that he wrote the draft with a significant budget in mind. Just words for now. We’ll see how this turns out.
Collider.com video interview here [via]
How long ago were we tipped that there would be a Westworld remake? Nearly two years ago. In that time the rumored director, Tarsem Singh, has been dropped. But Sci Fi got a few words from the writer for the film, Billy Ray [Breach, Hart’s War], and what he had to say could suggest the route he is taking with the script.
“There is no director attached. I would resist the idea of directing it myself, not that they’ve offered it to me, because I don’t want the pressure of that kind of a budget sitting on my shoulders.” So either he’s chicken or smart. Just how big is this budget? Well, we’re probably talking event-movie kind of budget. This has me concerned because event-movies are pretty much brainless. Just write the screenplay and get the hell out before the paycheck bounces.
“I love the basic idea of the movie, which is that our amusements can kill us,” Ray said. “I also think the movie provides a great platform for exploring how sometimes machines can behave like humans while humans can sometimes behave like machines.” It would be an interesting idea to explore. Sometimes I think my computer knows when I have a lot of work to do and it slumbers along like an adolescent, dragging its feet.
Ray said he’d love to speak with Crichton at some point. “My understanding is that he was offered the chance to do the first draft of this remake a few years ago, and his response was, ‘I already remade that movie; the remake was called Jurassic Park,’” Ray said. “In many ways, he was right.” Remember when Crichton turned out books that didn’t read like movie scripts. Ah, those were the days.
Two slightly different news pieces about a project that was shopped around Cannes the other week.
According to an identified Hong Kong newspaper, a movie project literally titled “The Iron Mask” was put for pre-sales during the Cannes Film Festival. Marketed as a “romantic actioner”, this project got Yuen Wo-Ping attached as the director and Andy Lau attached as the male lead. MonkeyPeaches
One of the projects… was Iron Monkey sequel/remake (or Iron Mask Man), to be directed by Yuen Wo Ping. Andy Lau is expected to play one of the 2 male leads in this romantic kung fu film, while the female lead might go to Jeon Do Yeon or another Korean actress. Yuen Wo Ping has been preparing for this HK$300 million work since the completion of Fearless. Iron Monkey sequel will be set in Manchu dynasty, and will employ new filming techniques that Yuen Wo Ping picked up in Hollywood. There might be generous amount of special effects in this movie which might imitate some Spiderman movements, such as scaling the walls. Wu-Jing
The idea of a Yuen Wo Ping films excites me. The idea of calling it a sequel/remake of Iron Monkey distresses me. Iron Monkey is one of the great modern martial arts films. It doesn’t need a remake nor a sequel. I really hope this is just the act of attaching recognizable properties to make a sale. And generous special effects? I say nay nay.
According to Icelandic news paper DV, indie producer Jim Stark (The Mystery train, Down By Law) is planning to get together three prominent indie directors to collaborate on a film, with each director getting a 30 minute segment to handle. The directors in question are Finnish director Aki Karuismaki (The Man Without a Past), Norwegian director Bent Hamer (Factotum) and Icelandic director Dagur Kari (Noi Albinoi).
The paper didn’t say if this would be an anthology film or a similar kind of deal as Hark, Lam and To’s film Triangle. It also didn’t say when filming would begin but as of now Karuismaki is the only one of the directors not currently in production, with Hamer doing O’ Horten in his home country and Kari working on The Good Heart in the states.
This is pretty exciting news as all of the directors have done fantastic stuff in the past and it will be interesting to see them work together.
First, read.
“There seems to be an awful lot of travel in my future, now that I just want to stay home and walk the dog and write. Two college graduations (Holly’s this weekend, Mike’s next weekend) over the next two weeks, then the UK STARDUST trip. In addition to which, I had tea with the amazing Guillermo Del Toro yesterday in London, and… well, we’ll see. But it may involve another plane journey.” Neil Gaiman’s journal May 14
Now, salivate.
Can you imagine? Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro working together? Oh my. It’s like Ivan Pavlov just rang the movie geek bell!!!
I will not say anything about the proposed casting of this film, nor will I say anything about it being a remake of the classic kung-fu film Five Deadly Venoms. I am trying to behave today. However, YOU all have free reign over this. Read the list. Ponder the possibilities and have at it…
Director Kirk Wong (The Big Hit, Jackie Chan’s Crime Story) says the cast will probably include Jay Chou (Curse of the Golden Flower, Initial D) as the prodigy and Edison Chen (The Grudge 2, Dog Bite Dog, Initial D), Maggie Q (Live Free or Die Hard, Mission: Impossible III, Naked Weapon), Huang Xiaoming (The Banquet), Wu Jing (Invisible Target, Sha Po Lang, Drunken Monkey) and Liu Chia-Hui (dozens of Show Bros. classics) as the Five Deadly Venoms.
Just to brush up on the story for those unfortunate enough to have never scene the Chang Cheh original. The Five Deadly Venoms was about a young prodigy ordered by his dying master to eliminate five of his previous students, known as the Five Deadly Venoms, who have turned to evil. Each of the Five Deadly Venoms has a lethal skill learned from a toxic animal: The Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad. What is more challenging is that the Master does not know who they were among his students because everyone wore masks. The young prodigy must team up with the right former student in order to defeat the others.
I’ll just be over here… screaming into my pillows.
[source]
