Movie Minesweeper - The One Mouthful At A Time Edition

Our Stories, Saw IV, Metamorphosis, Michael Haneke, The Heart is a Dark Forest, Dark Shadows, Johnny Depp, Jon Favreau, performance capture, The Lovely Bones, Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Blade Runner, Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy, Ed Burns, Virgin Comics.

- Saw IV has been given an NC-17 rating. If you think for one second they won't cut if for an R, you're sorely mistaken.

- The Ford Motor Co. has forged an alliance with Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Our Stories set up. Ford will place cars in the films as well as promoting the finished products. It's all an attempt to 'crack the urban market'. Sigh.

- Daniel Bruhl, Anna Paquin and Stephen Rea are to star in a movie of Kafka's Metamorphosis. No news on who will write or direct, or how the bugification will be handled. The same Variety piece announces Michael haneke's next, The White Tape or the Teacher's Tale, and Nicolette Krebitz' The Heart is a Dark Forest. A cheerful little set of films, no doubt.

- Dark Shadows is being adapted for the big screen... with Johnny Depp starring. What're the odds on him bringing Tim Burton along?

- Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega have been (re)confirmed for roles in Repo! The Genetic Opera. The film has 55 different musical compositions, apparently spanning a wide variety of styles and genres.

- Three more performance capture films are coming up the the pipe at Imageworks - Maximum Ride, Jon Favrea's Neanderthals and an untitled action epic derived from Japanese mythology.

- Peter Jackson has cast Susan Sarandon as Susie Salmon's grandmother. It's one of the best roles in the Lovely Bones film and, again, Sarandon's casting has taken me by surprise. But I like it.

- Not only will Zachary Quinto be playing young Spock, old Spock will be reprised with Leonard Nimoy in the ears once again. According to JJ Abrams, there's still hope that Shatner will appear - essentially once they work out how to shoehorn him in. Clearly, there was a reason for an older Spock to pop up in the script, but not an older Kirk. Rejigging just for a Shatner appearance seems like quite a bad idea.

- Four Christmases has it's stars: Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. They play a couple trying to visit all four divorced parents on Christmas day. A neat conclusion would have our protagonists themselves driven to divorce by this horrendous holiday... neat yes, but not commercial.

- Ed Burns' effort for Virgin Comics is to be a 1920s gangster piece, Dock Walloper. The role Mad Dog Madden will be created for Burns himself to play in any eventual feature film adaption.

- The Blade Runner DVD set is due to hit stores on December 18th. That only gives my favourite Christmas gift giver one week to do the right thing. Apparently, the hefty documentary included will run to three hours. I had been hoping for six or seven. Here's a look at what you'll receive, at least materially.

Movie Minesweeper - The Red Rubber Jacket Report Edition

The Dardenne Bros., Luka Moodysson, Neil Gaiman, Step Up 2 the Streets, The Bell Jar, Watchmen, Star Trek, Southland Tales, Alfonso Cuaron, Naomi Watts, Joseph Fiennes, Harry Potter 6, The De2cent.

- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are receiving the funds for their next film from the Eurimages pot. Le Silence de Lorna revolves around the arranged marriage between an Albanian immigrant and a junkie. Eurimages have also coughed up a wad for Mammoth, Lukas Moodysson's next, an English-language film and, hopefully, a return to form.

- The Hollywood Reporter have had a good chat with Neil Gaiman.

- MySpace users and abusers might win a dance-on part in Step Up 2 the Streets.

- Julia Stiles talks The Bell Jar in her recent interview with MTV.

- Patrick Wilson has been confirmed for Watchmen, Zachary Quinto for Star Trek.

- Richard Kelly will be signing Southland Tales posters at Comic-Con. We can expect the trailer in mid-August, and a release date soon. I expect September.

- Alfonso Cuaron has had quite a dull week.

- It's been months since I first suggested Naomi Watts would be in Harry Potter 6, but it now seems that Joseph Fiennes has signed on too.

- The Descent sequel is to be called... drum roll please... The De2cent.

Is Heroes' Zachary Quinto The New Spock?

Well, maybe. And it may be all because he asked for the part. More than once.

I'll put a big heap of chips on this one, I think.

Movie Minesweeper - The Retirement Age Edition

I'm getting too old for this. film ick isn't my day job, you know: it costs me money. Sometimes I just don't have the patience. But I never have the choice.

And now I've vented a little, I feel better. I'm listening to The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas by They Might Be Giants. That should cheer me up a little bit.

- Is Halle Berry the next Barbarella? Probably not. Maybe. I found the link via JoBlo.

- Mark Wahlberg has confirmed Darren Aronofsky's directorship of The Fighter. No start date has been locked, however. Wahlberg said "If it aint like Raging Bull, then it aint worth doing" but I beg to differ. For one thing, we already have Raging Bull. For another thing, Raging Bull is actually rather bad.

- Nicole Kidman is headed to Monte Carlo. The film is to be directed by Tom Bezucha, previously guilty of The Family Stone.

- The site for Derren Brown's US show is now a go. If you don't watch it you're making a mistake. This man is one of the two greatest illusionists since Harry Houdini.
- Paramount have already reaped 1 billion dollars in the US this year.

- I don't need to update you at all on any forthcoming (or not) Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, Ocean's, Bourne, Hulk, Mummy, Indiana Jones, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Hellboy, National Treasure or Wolf Man films because The Hollywood Reporter have done it for me.

- 'Angry Sherriff' Don Murphy listened to the fans re: Transformers and now the NYTimes have a piece on his approach. If only he'd listen to me about We3 and... er... give me the job of directing it.

- Spielberg has a finger in Aaron Sorkin's pie, lending finance and production muscle to the Broadway incarnation of The Farnsworth Invention with an eye to later turing it into a movie.

- Anywhere Road have snapped up the distibution rights to Brad Gann's Black Irish.

- Cartoon Brew have a wee piece on Barry Purves new Stop Motion book.

- Peter Berg is to produce and direct Gone Like the Wind, a based-on-fact story about the slaughter of a kentucky Derby winner because he'd broken his leg. Euthenasia for wounded sporting animals - discuss. The original Vanity Fair story was written by Berg's cousin Buzz Bissinger, and you can currently read it online.

- 3:10 to Yuma has been brought forward a month. That is, out of prestige season. Because it isn't much good?

- Stellan Skarsgaard is to star in the improbable sounding Patrick 1,5. This one is about a gay couple adopting a kid sight unseen, believing him to be 18 months old but actually, ending up with a fifteen year old homophobe.

- Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now might be on the Hairspray soundtrack CD, but it isn't in the film. On the other hand, The New Girl on Town was nixed from Boradway but it has been used for a montage sequence in the film. Stream the entire soundtrack courtesy of AOL - if you live in the US.

- Sam Rockwell has been talking Star Trek. And so has William Shatner - who seems to think there's a spot for Leonard Nimoy in the script.

- Hannah Montana is headed to the big screen. Miley Cyrus is the next...? Hilary Duff? Lindsay Lohan? Christy Carlson Romano?

- Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Hefner? Maybe. Though probably not.

- The Pirates of the Caribbean MMO game has been delayed. All the same, I bet it rolls out in a glitchy version and needs a whole string of patches.

- Richard Kelly is still promising Southland Tales news without actually delivering any. Wake me up when it hits DVD will you?

- Universal have snapped up the rights to Beware the Moon, a documentary on the making of An American Werewolf in London. I hope it's good.

- I heard Ricky Gervais and Chris Rock discussing Badge Buddies during the Live Earth concert but I didn't think for one second it was actually real. They just seemed to be making it up as they went along. What do you think?

- Leonard Hartman is adapting Water for Elephants into a screenplay.

- Season 7 of 24 has gone back to the drawing board.

- The full programme for this year's Fantasy Film Fest has been published. My picks? Paprika, Edmond, I'm a Cyborg But That's Okay, Tales From Earthsea and Bug have all been widely seen elsewhere, so how about The Last Winter, Stuck, Dead Daughters and The Deaths of Ian Stone. The title of the last one there is very amusing to me, but, chances are, you wouldn't find the in-joke at all amusing.

And as we come to close on this Minesweeper, I'm listening to Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sedaka.

Movie Minesweeper - The New Broom Edition

- Luis Tosar is to star in Spleen, from first time director Alfonso Zarauzer.

- Don Murphy had posted a response to Michael Bay on his own site, but now... it's gone. From memory: Murphy commented on how he and Tom De Santo had nurtured the Transformers project for years before Bay's involvement; he credited Bay for making the film such a success; he stressed how good he felt the film was. Where's the comment gone? And why? And how true is it that Murphy is 'widely reviled by executives at Paramount and Dreamworks', as reported in The NYTimes? [EDIT: An old statement has been re-linked by Murphy]

- Alex de la Iglesia going to write and direct the film adaptation of The Yellow Mark, a story from the Blake and Mortimer comic book.

- The Icelandic media seem to believe location scouts for the new Star Trek film have come knocking.

- Richard Corliss has published a paen to animation in Time. Might seem a little naive to actual animation fans.

Movie Minesweeper - The Hat Like A Shoe Edition

- Yunatron has posted some snaps of Aaron Eckhardt and Maggie Gyllenhaal on the Dark Knight set to their flickr collection.

- Carlos Cuaron's Rudo y Cursi is filming now - and Reuters have a picture and some details. This is the first of the ChaChaCha movies to get rolling.

- The new Star Trek film starts shooting in November. Casting is underway, and we can expect to hear more at Comic-Con.

- CanMag have some Ratatouille trivia and concept art.

And... it's Sunday. Things go slow on Sundays. More later... I hope.

Star Shines On Garner

This scan found on TrekMovie but originated, as you can see, in Star magazine. Therefore, it's very likely to have very little basis in reality.

Matt Damon, Adrien Brody And Gary Sinise In J J Abrams' Star Trek?

IGN are alleging that Matt Damon, Adrien Brody and Gary Sinise are in talks to appear in J J Abrams' Star Trek film - as Kirk, Spock and Scotty, respectively. [Of course, I meant Bones McCoy, not Scotty. Because, you know, I was wide awake when I wrote this and I even care a tiny little bit about Star Trek and everything. Thanks to Adam for the correction]

So I can give up on 'hoping for' Leonardo DiCaprio, D J Qualls and John Hannah then. [Or, in this case, DiCaprio, Qualls and... er... I dunno. Who was this Bones chap anyway?]

Ahem.

Beloved Sci-Fi Properties In Hands Of TV Names

Alias and Lost's J J Abrams appears to have signed on for the next Star Trek film; Babylon 5's J Michael Straczynksi is scripting the big-screen adaptation of Max Brooks' World War Z. My money's on the latter being the better film, providing they get a half-way decent director.

And not just because it has zombies in.

Hey - what do you reckon the chances of Romero being offered the big studio pay cheque might be? It almost happened with Resident Evil, after all.