Weekend To Do/News

Hi:

Our internet was down most of the morning so this is the first chance I’ve had to write my notes.

Not much new in TV News this week. Been seeing a lot of ‘promos’ for the new shows….

MOVIE NEWS

Keanu Reeves has signed on to play the humanoid alien in the 1951 remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still (that starred Michael Rennie). Production is due to start in late Fall or early 2008.

Well, Oliver Stone is at it again! He is in the process of closing a deal with UA to finance PINKVILLE starring Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum. The story centers on the 1968 MyLai massacre in Vietnam. This will be the fourth time Stone has directed a film focussed on the Vietnam war. The first was PLATOON, followed by HEAVEN AND EARTH and then BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. Bruce will play an Army General who supervises the investigation of the massacre by US soldiers. Tatum will play a helicoptor pilot who sees what is happening and puts his helicopter between the villagers and the soldiers slaughtering them. Sounds like another intense, controversial film for Oliver. I’ll keep you posted on any news of this film.

Sweeney Todd ‘powers that be’ have decided to open WIDE on December 21st rather than the usual NYC and LA in Dec. and worldwide in January. I’m sure this is partly because of Johnny Depp. This is a ‘dark’ musical and may not appeal to a wide audience. I’ve seen it when it was on PBS with Angela Lansbury and enjoyed it very much.

Movie Studios are thinking of doing a big screen version of MAGNUM PI and guess who they think could take Tom Selleck’s place – drum roll please – Nic Cage!!! I guess he’s gotta pay for that new ‘castle’ in England somehow. I can’t honestly see him doing it but ya never know.

Zack Snyder (300 fame) has been hired to do a remake of the ILLUSTRATED MAN. This was a very popular movie back in 1969 starring Rod Steiger and Claire Trevor (who, I think he was married to at the time). Rod gave a chilling performance as a tattooed man whose tattoos come to life! (only in his mind!) This would be a very good rental for the weekend. No stars or when production will start. Zack is busy doing a few other movies at the moment.

DVDs this week

BLADES OF GLORY – Starring Will Ferrell – this movie is sooo funny.
Buy Blades of Glory (Widescreen Edition) on Amazon!

HEROES – First Season (7 disc set so I’m sure it’s got a lot of stuff we haven’t seen)
Buy Heroes – Season One on Amazon!

MASTERS OF HORROR (Showtime) – Season One
Masters of Horror: Season One Box Set is available on Amazon!

IN THEATERS

Not much this weekend – wait until next week -

There will be 3 movies opening that are all ‘must sees’
THE HUNTING PARTY
SHOOT ‘EM UP
and…my fave, natch, 3:10 TO YUMA

NEWS

Michael Jackson’s b’day was this week. He turned 49!!! WOW, still feels like a 12 year old kid to me!!!I guess we got the ‘real’ name of Tommy Brady and Bridgette’s baby.
It is John Edward Thomas Moynihan. Kinda’ thought she’d do the hyphen thing and go with Moynihan-Brady???

I guess that’s it for the weekend – LABOR DAY already.

Have a great one – (you too Robin Thicke). Hope Wayne and Marie are ‘limbering up’!!!!

Joanie

I Am Legend

Directed by Francis Lawrence
Produced by David Heyman, Akiva Goldsman, Neal Moritz, Erwin Stoff
Written by Novel: Richard Matheson
Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman
Starring : Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Alice Braga
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date: December 14, 2007

A man-made virus wipes out the population of New York City, leaving Robert Neville (Will Smith) the last human survivor in the city and possibly the world. Neville lives alone for three years, attempting to contact and find other possible survivors. He is watched by the Infected, mutant victims of the plague. Neville works to find a way to create a cure using his own immune blood, but he finds himself outnumbered by the Infected and running out of time.

Development

In 1994, Warner Bros. Pictures began developing the film project, having owned the rights to Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend since 1970.

In June 1997, director Ridley Scott and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger entered talks with Warner Bros. for I Am Legend, based on a script by Mark Protosevich. Actors Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas were previously considered to star in the film. The following July, Scott and Schwarzenegger finalized negotiations with the studio. Production slated to begin the coming September, with Houston as a stand-in for the film’s setting of Los Angeles. In December 1997, the project was called into question when the projected budget escalated to $108 million due to media and shareholder scrutiny of the studio in financing a big-budget film. Scott rewrote the script in an attempt to reduce the film’s budget by $20 million, but in March 1998, the studio canceled the project due to continued budgetary concerns. In August 1998, director Rob Bowman was attached to I Am Legend, but he moved on to direct Reign of Fire.

In March 2002, Schwarzenegger became the producer of I Am Legend, commencing negotiations with Michael Bay to direct and Will Smith to star in the film. Bay and Smith were attracted to the project based on a redraft that would reduce its budget. However, the project was shelved due to Warner Bros. president Alan Horn’s dislike of the script. In September 2005, Warner Bros. hired director Francis Lawrence to helm the project, with production slated to begin in 2006.

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman( A Beautiful Mind, Lost in Space, Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, The Da Vinci Code) revised the script, with the story being moved from California to New York to take advantage of locations that would more easily show emptiness. The story was also written to be closer to The Omega Man (1971), the second film adaptation of the novel. In April 2006, Will Smith signed back onto the project, with production to begin in 2007 in New York.

(content from Wikipedia.org)

Trailer