Paramount Delays NINJA TURTLES Reboot
Time now for another episode of PARAMOUNT’S GOT PROBLEMS. Deadline is that the troubled studio, reeling from the double delay of G.I. JOE: RETALIATION and WORLD WAR Z, has put the kibosh on Michael Bay’s proposed TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES reboot.
Here’s the scoop:
The issue is said to be the script. Paramount has delayed several big movies from this year to 2013, including G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Brad Pitt’s World War Z, leaving it with a spotty pipeline for the current year. Now it has halted work on its planned holiday movie for 2013, temporarily laying off preproduction staff and informing those prepping the film that the work stoppage is “indefinite,” according to sources. Another source close to the production says the movie has been pushed by ten weeks.
Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes is producing and Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans) is set to direct from a script by Kevin Eastman and Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. Other key players include Bourne franchise line producer Denis Stewart and second-unit director Dan Bradley (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol).
The move comes as analysts have been knocking Viacom’s Nickelodeon division for lower ratings. The Ninja Turtles project, a joint Paramount-Nickelodeon production, was eyed as a chance to bolster Nickelodeon as well as reboot a family film franchise. The studio had paid a hefty sum for rights to the property, which had been the basis for three hit movies for New Line Cinema in the 1990s.
Badass Digest is saying the script was rotten and I’m apt to believe them. Bay and company thought dropping the TEENAGE MUTANT from the title and making the group aliens from a world full of giant turtles was a GOOD idea. Nobody, especially fans of the franchise, want to see that.
Click on the pic to check out the full story…
Kenneth Branagh In Talks To Direct Paramount’s Jack Ryan Series Reboot
EW is reporting Kenneth Branagh is in talks to helm Paramount’s untitled Jack Ryan project. I’d like to say this is good hire (it is) but I kinda feel bad for the dude. He’s basically taking control of an already sinking ship.
Jack Bender (of LOST fame) was the original hire to direct but bowed out due to problems with the studio, lead Chris Pine and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Word has it Bender wanted to make a traditional Ryan pic (more in tune with THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and PATRIOT GAMES than the previous reboot THE SUM OF ALL FEARS), Pine wanted a character-driven piece, Lorenzo was pushing for a full-on action epic and the studio wanted a glossy thriller. Suffice to say, nobody backed down and Bender bailed.
Enter Branagh. I’m guessing Paramount is hoping he’ll be able to convince everyone to play nice and work together to craft the most profitable blockbuster they can. Reminds me a bit of what happened when they hired him for THOR. Flick was plagued with tons of problems (which ranged from the script to casting to tone to character to pretty much every other little thing) and should’ve been a massive flop. But Branagh rolled in, rallied the troops and managed to make that flick one of biggest hits of 2011. Here’s hoping he can do the same here.
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Paramount Pursuing Alexandre Aja To Helm PET SEMATARY Reboot
Twitch is reporting that the long-rumored remake of PET SEMATARY is still kicking. Paramount is ready to put up funding, Matt Greenberg (writer of 1408 and REIGN OF FIRE) has written the script and Alexandre Aja (director of HIGH TENSION and MIRRORS) is in talks to helm…supposedly. Nothing is official yet and there definitely could be complications securing Aja since he already has COBRA: THE SPACE PIRATE and the TV version of David Cronenberg’s SCANNERS on his plate.
Not sure the world needs a PET SEMATARY reboot– especially considering the original is a rather nasty piece of work that still holds up. I hope Paramount leaves this one buried. Sometimes dead is better.
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Full Specs For FRIDAY THE 13th: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION Revealed!
Good news and bad news for FRIDAY THE 13th fans.
The good news is that Paramount has decided to lump together all eight of the previously released FRIDAY THE 13th deluxe editions along with a few new features and goodies into a reasonably priced box set. The specs are included below and I think it’s safe to say that any Jason fan will be more than pleased with what is offered here.
Only JASON GOES TO HELL, JASON X, FREDDY VS JASON and the recent remake are missing and that’s because New Line owns the rights to them. This collection represents the purest of the Jason flicks– IE the ones before the series went insane and the big guy became a body-hopping demon slug who got launched into space and developed a fear of water before ultimately reinventing himself as a hillbilly pot farmer.
The bad news is that the set is apparently DVD-only. Doesn’t look like Paramount is ever going to bring parts 4 through 8 to Blu. And those of you who bought the deluxe editions separately (they were originally around 15 bucks a pop and would’ve cost you around 120 bucks to collect all eight) are probably pretty pissed to see this set priced-to-own at 30 bucks. Sorry Paramount screwed you over like that.
Click on the pic for the full specs…
Rumor Mill: Is Paramount Eyeing Jason Statham To Headline TRANSFORMERS 4?
Showbiz Spy is reporting that Jason Statham is being lined up to star in the next TRANSFORMERS 4. Please allow me to crib their absolutely bullsh*t scoop and deliver it to you:
“One of the stars being mentioned is Rosie’s boyfriend Jason Statham,” says a Hollywood insider. “It’s clear the franchise still has huge potential but with a new leading man capable of taking Transformers in a new, darker direction. Jason could be just the man to do that and his relationship with Rosie would be an added bonus in marketing the movie.”
Rosie recently revealed how her movie role bought her closer to Jason. “He’s extremely proud and he’s extremely excited to see the movie,” she said . “I love his films and now I get to love doing action too. So that’s something that we definitely share in common now.”
Hahahahahahaha…oh, Showbiz Spy, you funny bastards. Statham and Huntington-Whiteley headlining a TRANSFORMERS pic that would cash in on their romance? Priceless. Needed a good laugh today and you gave me one. Click on the pic to read more…
Film Bites: Craig Brewer’s FOOTLOOSE Wants You To Kick Off Your Sunday Shoes
The first trailer for the remake of the 1984 Kevin Bacon camp (it’s campy, deal) classic FOOTLOOSE is here and remember when director Craig Brewer said that his version would be edgier and not a full-on copy of the original? He lied. Guess we should have seen that coming.
It would seem (based on this trailer) that the new FOOTLOOSE is an exact photocopy of the original that has been punched up a bit with some illegal STEP UP-styled street-dancing (!), some out-of-date line dancing and a way hotter Ariel (Julianne Hough). Makes me wonder why Paramount bothered rebooting this in the first place. Why not just re-release the original and call it a day? Oh yeah, money to be made and they’re the guys to make it. I forget sometimes that greed is what drives the movie-making machine.
Click on the pic to check it out…
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson In Talks To Play Roadblock In G.I. JOE: COBRA STRIKES
According to Deadline, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is in talks to play “Roadblock” in GI JOE: COBRA STRIKES. He’ll be joining Channing Tatum (reprising his role as “Duke”) who is the only returning cast member from the first GI JOE pic. Yes, you read that right, Paramount is prepping a sequel to GI JOE: RISE OF COBRA that is only bringing back the guy from the STEP UP movies. Oh and did I mention that the sequel is being helmed by John Chu…the guy who recently brought the world the Justin Bieber epic NEVER SAY NEVER? I probably don’t need to bring up the fact this will be in 3D, do I?
Cash grab, cash grab, cash grab. That’s the only two words that come to mind when I think about this pic. Don’t care if you cast Johnson or not, a GI JOE sequel that abandons the entire cast (heroes and villains included) and keeps only the most boring character from the original is a bad f**king idea. I know that the first pic isn’t perfect (hell, it’s barely passable at points) and I know that maybe some recasting was necessary (Joseph Gordon-Levitt has moved on to bigger and better things and Sienna Miller ripped the film a new one shortly after release), but why not just reboot? Yeah, yeah, reboots suck, but so do sequels that don’t carry continuity.
Click on the pic to read the full story…
CATFISH Duo To Direct PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3
Bloody Disgusting is reporting that Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the duo behind last year’s controversial faux-documentary CATFISH, have been tapped by producer Oren Peli (who’s riding high off the uber-success of INSIDIOUS) and Paramount to helm PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3. Christopher Landon, who wrote PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, is penning the script. No plot details are available at the moment, but Paramount is hoping to have the film in theaters on October 21, 2011.
Despite CATFISH being a giant load of BS, I think Joost and Schulman will do well here. The only real worry I have is that release date. Considering the script hasn’t been written yet and not a single inch of film has been shot, October 21st might be a hard date to hit. Let’s hope that this trio (along with Peli) manage to hit it without having to cut any corners. This series has done pretty well so far (I personally believe the first two are two of the scariest films of the last twenty years) and I hate to see it crash and burn due to a release date.
Click on the pic to read the full story…
Paramount’s Trip To DUNE Has Been Cancelled
Paramount has ended it’s four-year attempt to bring DUNE to the big screen, according to Deadline. The rights have lapsed back to Richard Rubinstein and ABC who might possibly attempt their own film version or possibly even bring the much beloved novel to television. As of now, however, the spice has stopped flowing.
Can’t say this really shocks me too much. Since Paramount obtained the rights, directors (Peter Berg, Pierre Morel) have came and went, all citing the scope of the project as an exit factor. None of them seemed to be able to crack the secret of how to condense Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi series (five books by Herbert himself with another eleven written by Kevin J Anderson) into a single film or even a trilogy. Even previous attempts like David Lynch’s film version back in 1984 and the two Sci-Fi Channel mini-series knew how to crack this.
Click on the pic to read more…
Theatrical Reviews
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- SINISTER
- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4
- TAKEN 2
- PITCH PERFECT
- HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET
- DREDD 3D
- LOOPER
- RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION 3D
- THE EXPENDABLES 2
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