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Allen and Albert Hughes (From Hell) will direct a feature about Mafia
hitman Richard "Ice Man" Kuklinski. Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura
and Jason Blum have acquired screen rights to Philip Carlo book "The
Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer."
At a hulking six-foot-four and 300 pounds, Kuklinski managed to become
a prolific contract killer for the Gambino family while keeping his
occupation a secret from his wife and three children in New Jersey. By
his own account, Kuklinski killed as many as 200 people.
Before dying in prison while serving two life sentences, Kuklinski gave
interviews to Carlo and others and bragged about his misdeeds. "He is
one of the darkest, most brutal and complicated killers in contemporary
organized crime," said Blum. "He was a serial killer who found the
perfect calling, carrying out hits for the Mafia." ...more click on heading
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Jason Lee ("My Name Is Earl") will star as David Seville in the CG/live-action hybrid film Alvin and the Chipmunks for Fox 2000 and Fox Animation.
Written by Jon Vitti and to be directed by Tim Hill, the project is based on the 1950s cartoon series about chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore, who lay waste to Seville's surroundings and sing in three-part harmony.
Production starts March 28 for a planned Dec. 14 release date. Bagdasarian Productions' Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman are producing; Karen Rosenfelt and Michele Imperato Stabile executive produce.
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Columbia Pictures has scored another Will Smith project from the team
behind The Pursuit of Happyness. The studio has bought rights to
Cooked, a novel by an inner-city drug dealer turned Vegas celebrity
chef, for Smith to produce under his Overbrook production company. He
may also star, pending script approval.
Overbrook's James Lassiter will also produce, along with Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal of Escape Artists.
William Morrow published Jeff Henderson's book late last month. It
chronicles his journey from top San Diego cocaine dealer to
imprisonment, where he discovered a passion for cooking, and his
struggles to make it as a chef. Chef Jeff, as he calls himself,
eventually became executive chef at Cafe Bellagio in Las Vegas.
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Dimension Films has acquired Runt, a comedy pitch that will be written by Wild Hogs director Walt Becker along with David Gallagher. Becker will direct the picture and executive produce. Mandeville Films partners David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will produce.
The project is a high-concept comedy about twin brothers who are complete opposites. Becker and Gallagher previously sold the comedy pitch Schooled to Disney, to which The Rock is attached to star.
Becker said Runt will be akin to There's Something About Mary in tone, and that he was intrigued by the notion of clashing twins.
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Continuing their tradition as the kings of the March comedy, Disney/Touchstone Pictures' Wild Hogs put Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, John Travolta and William H. Macy on motorcycles on the road to an astounding estimated $38 million its opening weekend, an average of $11,560 per theatre. Proving that the sum is equal or greater to the parts, the comedy continues the 2007 tradition by becoming the biggest opening non-animated movie for both Allen and Travolta and Lawrence's second-biggest opening movie after 2004's Bad Boys II with Will Smith...more click on heading
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Maura Tierney ("ER") will play the love interest to Woody Harrelson's character in New Line's Semi-Pro.
She joins a cast that includes Will Ferrell, André Benjamin, Will Arnett, Jay Phillips, Josh Braaten, Rob Corddry and DeRay Davis. The sports comedy is directed by Kent Alterman from a script by Scot Armstrong.
In Semi-Pro, Jackie Moon (Ferrell), the owner-coach-player of the American Basketball Association's Flint Michigan Tropics, rallies his teammates to make their NBA dreams come true.
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Joe Connor has come to teach in Rwanda because he believes he can make a difference. When the school becomes a haven for thousands of Rwandans fleeing the genocide, Joe promises his brightest pupil, Marie, that the UN soldiers will protect her from the hordes of extremist militia baying for blood outside the school. But when the UN abandon the refugees, Joe and the school's headmaster, Father Christopher, face an agonizing dilemma: should they leave or should they stand firm with the Rwandans. As the UN trucks force their way through the terrified refugees, Joe stares at the tear-stained face of Marie: what should he do?
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres: Art/Foreign, Drama, Politics/Religion and War
Running Time: 1 hr. 55 min.
Release Date: March 9th, 2007 (limited)
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Dame Helen Mirren joined Hollywood royalty last night, capping her haul of top awards with a widely expected best actress Oscar - the first of her career - for her title role in The Queen.
The night was also a double triumph for American filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who finally received a long-awaited best director Oscar for crime drama The Departed after being snubbed on five previous occasions.
The 64-year-old veteran’s film went on to win the evening’s most distinguished and closely fought category, beating Golden Globe winner Babel, indie favourite Little Miss Sunshine, Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima and The Queen to win best picture...more click on heading
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Two high-profile New Line projects seem to finally be moving ahead with the news that the company is close to signing the dotted line with two top directors. Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan (Breakfast on Pluto) is being signed to direct the future fantasy Killing on Carnival Row, about a Victorian city inhabited by humans, faeries, elves and vampires, with a detective pursuing a serial killer.
At the same time, Mark S. Waters (Mean Girls) is in final negotiations to helm the long-plagued romantic comedy The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which was picked up by New Line when Disney put it into turnaround last summer...more click on heading
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Presidential hopeful Barack Obama raised more than 1.3 million dollars in a fundraising tour of Hollywood that saw stars such as George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Eddie Murphy and Barbra Streisand reaching for their check books, according to reports Wednesday.
Obama, a popular Democratic senator from Illinois who is bidding to become the first black president, met with hundreds of Hollywood power players at a 2,300-dollar-a-head reception hosted by movie moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen...more click on heading
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Phoenix Pictures and Mike De Luca Productions will team for a feature adaptation of the Charlie Huston vampire novel Already Dead. Scott Rosenberg will write the script. Huston's novel is the first of a five-book series that the producers are eyeing as a potential franchise.
The series revolves around a vampire who happens to be a private detective hired by a New York socialite to track down her runaway daughter...more click on heading
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Maggie Grace ("Lost") has landed the female lead opposite Liam Neeson in the thriller Taken, a co-production between Luc Besson's Europa Corp. and 20th Century Fox. Pierre Morel will direct from a screenplay by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.
Grace is set to play the estranged daughter of Neeson's character who is kidnapped and forced into the slave trade. Neeson's character is a former spy who uses his skills to rescue her.
Shooting begins this month in Paris. Besson is producing alongside Pierre-Ange Le Pogam and India Osborne.
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Sony Pictures and Mark Steven Johnson's adaptation of Marvel Comics Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, rode home with an estimated $15.9 million its opening Friday, about $600,000 more than Johnson's Daredevil opened with over President's Day weekend four years ago.
With that impressive of an opening, Ghost Rider is looking likely to set a new record for a President's Day weekend opener if it hold up well enough to make over $45.1 million over the four-day weekend. (UPDATE: It has come close to making that amount in just three days, which means it will be setting a new holiday record likely to be over $50 million.) ...more click on heading
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Aaron Eckhart is in final talks to play Harvey Dent/Two Face in The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. Pictures' sequel to Batman Begins.
In Batman lore, Dent is the district attorney of Gotham City and an ally of Batman. After half his face is disfigured by acid, Dent becomes the insane crime boss known as Two Face. He chooses to do good or evil by flipping a coin. Tommy Lee Jones played the character in 1995's Batman Forever...more click on heading
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James Cameron chatted with Ain't It Cool News on his way back from shooting three days of live action work in Kauai for Avatar. In the conversation, he confirmed more members of the cast: ...more click on heading
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