Shane Hazen

Exclusive: ‘Star Trek’ Teaser Trailer Description Surfaces Online

MagnoliaFan — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:08:41 -0700

CHICAGO – HollywoodChicago.com on Tuesday had a trusted source post on our message boards a description of the upcoming teaser trailer for J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek”.

Following this post, various other movie sites (see a list of independent validations here) have confirmed the accuracy of this information with multiple sources along with a source at Paramount Pictures. Here’s our exclusive teaser trailer description. Warning: This is full spoiler information about the teaser trailer.

Here’s the “Star Trek” trailer description. Hope you can use it.

Slow Paramount logo.

Bad Robot logo.

Black, suddenly some sparks (very saturated [with] Michael Bay-looking cinematography).

We hear an old NASA radio countdown: “30 seconds and counting.”

Close up of a timeless guy with goggles leaning down doing some wielding and sparks flying around.

He lifts his googles. Slightly futuristic head covering. It’s not a space suit, by the way.

The dude leans down and wields some more. He’s standing on big metal.

“From director J.J. Abrams” (blue font with a nice lens flare).

Some Kennedy speech about space flight: “The eyes of the world now look to space.”

People walking around the saucer section. The wielders are everywhere – showing size.

We hear: “The eagle has landed.”

Huge overhead shot pans across [and] suddenly [shows] what looks like miles of scaffolding underneath.

Title: “The future begins”.

Really impressive shot from … people all over the ship and you can see a huge industrialized city or shipyard in the background. It’s being built on Earth [rather than] in space.

Neil Armstrong: “One small step for man…”

Camera slowly cranes up over the whole saucer section.

Then we hear Leonard Nimoy’s line: “Space. The final frontier…” and the familiar “Star Trek” theme horns.

The shot continues [and reveals] the writing on the top of the saucer – “U.S.S. Enterprise” – and these huge aircraft-like warp engines in the background. Technically, the first reveal of what we’re seeing.

Just the Starfleet log (no title).

Title card: “Under construction”.

“Christmas 2008”

Overall, really great teaser (by the definition of the term). Very industrial. I’m most intrigued by the background Earth stuff.

The teaser should be attached to the Abrams-produced “Cloverfield,” which opens this Friday.

Head to our forum to discuss this development!

1:20 p.m. update on Jan. 17, 2008: The first photo of the U.S.S Enterprise from the new “Star Trek” turned up at Moviefone on Thursday. The photo can be seen below and a larger version can be found here. It appears to be taken from the teaser and be the reveal shot we first mentioned above. Here’s a link to Paramount’s official “Star Trek” Web site.

The first photo of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the new “Star Trek” film.
Photo credit: Moviefone

11:57 a.m. update on Jan. 18, 2008: IESB.net just posted the unofficial “Star Trek” teaser trailer!

1:16 p.m. update on Jan. 20, 2008: “Star Trek” producer Roberto Orci has gone public about the intentions by the filmmakers for the “moderately esoteric and largely eerie teaser”. Read all about it in our forums here!

1:15 p.m. update on Jan. 21, 2008: Yahoo! now has the “Star Trek” teaser trailer in HD!

3:09 p.m. update on Jan. 23, 2008: The first “Star Trek” viral marketing site has just gone live at NCC-1701.com. It was discovered by clicking a red dot near the “under construction” label on the official film site.

By SHANE HAZEN
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
shane@hollywoodchicago.com

News You Need: ‘Enemies’ in Chicago, NBR Awards ‘Old Men,’ Filming ‘Freakonomics’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:35:30 -0700

Mann to Ambush Depp Outside the Biograph: Michael Mann and Johnny Depp have agreed to film “Public Enemies”. It’ll be a Chicago-based film about Depression-era gangsters set in 1933 to 1934.

Depp will play John Dillinger, according to Variety. The film is slated to start shooting in Chicago on March 10, 2008.

Michael Mann.
Photo credit: IMDb
Mann wrote the script based on the book by Bryan Burroughs. Depp recently backed out of Mira Nair’s “Shantaram” due to WGA strike-related script problems.

Since 2006’s “Miami Vice,” Mann has been jumping on and off abandoned projects. “Public Enemies” sounds close in tone and period to an untitled Hollywood noir written by John Logan that stars Leonardo DiCaprio. That project fell through due to a budget climbing in excess of $100 million.

Mann also was attached to “Empire” – a media-mogul drama again written by Logan (which its proposed star, Will Smith, recently compared to “Richard III”) – along with a former Martin Scorsese project entitled “Frankie Machine”. “Frankie Machine” was due to star Robert De Niro and be rewritten by Alex Tse (“Watchmen”).

Mann was possibly to step in and direct “Edwin A. Salt,” which is a CIA thriller to star Tom Cruise.

Its original director, Terry George (“Reservation Road,” “Hotel Rwanda”), recently dropped out due to script problems. Despite the strike, Mann also wouldn’t commit without a rewrite to the screenplay by Kurt Wimmer (“Equilibrium,” “Ultraviolet”).

Depp and Mann previously almost collaborated on an adaptation of “Death of a Dissident” about the assassinated former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Mann, who was born in Chicago, previously filmed “Thief” and “Manhunter” in the Windy City.

Then the NBR Woke Up: The National Board of Review (NBR) – annually the first film awards organization announcing its prizes – has named its best film of 2007: the Coen brothers’ “No Country For Old Men”. Other awards follow.

Javier Bardem in “No Country For Old Men”.
Photo credit: IMDb
Top 10 films (in alphabetical order): “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford,” “Atonement,” “The Bourne Ultumatum,” “Into the Wild,” “Juno,” “The Kite Runner,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Michael Clayton” and “Sweeney Todd”

Best actor: George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”

Best actress: Julie Christie, “Away From Her”

Best supporting actor: Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford”

Best supporting actress: Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”

Best adapted screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, “No Country For Old Men”

Best original screenplay: Diablo Cody, “Juno,” and Nancy Oliver, “Lars and the Real Girl”

Best director: Tim Burton, “Sweeney Todd”

In recent days, the NBR was rumored to have ousted influential member Annette Insdorf. She’s the head of the Columbia University film department and an acclaimed scholar on Francois Truffaut and Krzystof Kieslowski.

Documentarists to Get Their ‘Freak’ On: A who’s who of documentary filmmakers will each take on the non-fiction best-seller “Freakonomics,” according to Variety.

The film has enlisted Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (“Jesus Camp”), Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”), Laura Poitras (“My Country My Country”), Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight”) and Jehane Noujaim (“Control Room”) to each direct a documentary segment on chapters in the book.

The film will be produced by Chad Troutwin and Seth Gordon (“The King of Kong”). The controversial book, which is written by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Steven J. Dubner, is full of lateral thinking.

It uses pop culture and data to argue (among other things) that legalized abortion might lead to a lower crime rate or that beginning drug dealers on Chicago’s south side make less money than the starting counter wage at Burger King.

The authors also maintain a blog for further debate.

Spurlock has been the talk of movie blogs recently. Speculation spread that his next film, “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?,” actually contains an interview with bin Laden.

Morgan Spurlock.
Photo credit: Rebecca Sapp, WireImage.com
This sudden news was based on two things: first, a conveniently truncated Variety quote from June.

Most sites reported the film’s director of photography, Daniel Marracino, as saying: “We’ve definitely got the Holy Grail.” Still, the majority neglected to continue the quote: “Visually, this film is just going to be gorgeous.”

Secondly, there was a bidding war for the film at the Berlin Film Festival won by the Weinstein Company – last February. AICN alleges that the Weinstein Company spent $25 million on a 15-minute preview.

It took blogs from both The Guardian and the New York Times to debunk the rumor.

“Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” debuts at the Sundance Film Festival in Jan. 2008. “Freakonomics” plans to shoot in the beginning of January and hopes to be completed by the summer of 2008.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

Is the WGA Strike Almost Over?

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:07:25 -0700

On the eve of talks resuming between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the New York Times sanctioned blogger Nikki Finke.

She reported the following in a post headlined “Dare We Hope a Deal Has Been Struck…?”:

[A] very reliable source tells me that there appears to be a deal seemingly in place between both sides. …

That’s because of the weeks worth of groundwork by the Hollywood agents working the … guild leadership on one side and the studio and network moguls on the other.

Nikki Finke.
Photo credit: MediaBistro.com
Finke went on to vaguely detail how a deal might have already been agreed upon.

When it was first announced that the WGA and AMPTP were to resume, pundits commented on the odd, 10-day lead-in time for talks. The blogosphere rumor mill continued speculating that agents had brought both sides to agreement as they have in past strikes.

This round of talks, which is unusually scheduled for three days (past talks were scheduled as one-day sessions), was supposedly to flesh out a deal already in place.

Nothing has been confirmed yet by the official sources such as Variety or the Hollywood Reporter. They along with the New York Times have all been criticized for their supposedly AMPTP-friendly coverage.

Rumors spread with both outlooks: some hopeful and some cautious. Finke posted that the studios arrived with “a very comprehensive proposal [that] laid out to all the entire [road map of] the deal”.

The most clear speculation on a settlement came from Craig Mazin.

Of the two major issues (DVD and Internet residuals), Mazin personally felt the concessions would be made over the former for gains in the latter. He added: “The companies know their current offer is a non-starter in a general sense.”

If we’ve gotten past some of the major stumbling blocks and boiled it down to the serious stuff at hand … and … if the AMPTP is ready to acknowledge certain basic realities, … then we might be back to work soon.

Craig Mazin.
Photo credit: IMDb
Variety recently reported on two polls. A Pepperdine poll showed 69 percent of the public favoring the WGA while a SurveyUSA poll had 63 percent backing the position of the writers.

Talks between the WGA and the AMPTP are set to resume on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. and will go through Wednesday if a settlement is not reached. Tuesday was the first official negotiation since the strike began on Nov. 5.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com

News You Need: State of ‘Play,’ Carnahan’s Updates, Embry Gets ‘Eagle Eye,’ Ambrose With ‘Wild Things,’ ‘Hulk’ Photos

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:48:46 -0700

State of Pay or Play: According to Variety, Russell Crowe is in talks to take over for Brad Pitt in “State of Play,” which is an adaptation of the 2003 BBC mini-series.

Brad Pitt.
Photo credit: WireImage.com
The film was written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (“The Kingdom”) and directed by Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”). It was undergoing a rewrite by Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”) and Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) before the WGA strike.

While Pitt has been notorious for dropping out of pictures at the last moment, his publicists claim he wanted to postpone shooting until after the strike.

Crowe – who is currently shooting Ridley Scott’s al-Qaeda/CIA-themed “Body of Lies” with Leonardo DiCaprio – is also prepping “Notingham” with Scott.

If Crowe turns down the role, Universal will likely go after Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp. Their strike movies (Ron Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code” prequel “Angels & Demons” and Mira Nair’s “Shantaram,” respectively) were also postponed.

“State of Play” already had the cast of Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman (reportedly playing a Mohawked “bisexual fetish club promoter”), Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright Penn lined up.

Nikki Finke off-handedly reported that Variety held off the story of Pitt’s exit for 10 days “at the request of Universal Pictures”.

‘White Jazz,’ ‘Killing Pablo’: Carnahan’s brother – director Joe Carnahan (“Narc,” “Smokin’ Aces”) – recently made two posts on his blog about the in-flux productions “White Jazz” and “Killing Pablo”.

“White Jazz” was adapted by both brothers from the James Ellroy “L.A. Quartet” novel.

The first post was simply a picture of Marvel’s Juggernaut, which was played in “X-Men: The Last Stand” by Vinnie Jones. He made a vague and playful inference that Jones was up for a role in either “White Jazz” or “Killing Pablo”.

Vinnie Jones.
Photo credit: IMDb
Jones – who was central in Guy Ritchie’s first two films – actually wasn’t in “Smokin’ Aces” (though it’s easy to mistake that film of Carnahan’s for one of Ritchie’s).

The second post pointed out that Christian Bale – who AICN has rumored to be playing John Conner in McG’s fourth “Terminator” – is still in “Killing Pablo”.

Christian Bale.
Photo credit: WireImage.com
Carnahan’s blog has been consistently entertaining and honest since George Clooney exited out of “White Jazz,” which then was set for a Jan. 2008 shoot date.

Carnahan even leaked the shooting scripts to “White Jazz” and “Killing Pablo” before being told hours later to take them down.

New ‘Eagle Eye’ FBI Agent: “Eagle Eye,” which has been shooting in Chicago, just added Ethan Embry (“Freakylinks,” “Brotherhood”) to its cast to play Rosario Dawson’s FBI partner.

Ethan Embry.
Photo credit: IMDb
In Other ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ Alumni News: Lauren Ambrose will replace the voice of Michelle Williams in Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are”.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the filmmakers got along with Williams but felt her voice “didn’t match their original vision”.

Lauren Ambrose.
Photo credit: Theo Wargo, WireImage.com
The film co-stars Catherine Keener along with the voices of James Gandolfini, Forrest Whitaker, Tom Noonan, Paul Dano and Catherine O’Hara.

Written by Jonze, Michael Goldenberg and Dave Eggers (who is writing an adult novel adaptation), the film is to combine live action, computer animation and puppetry.

“Where the Wild Things Are” finished shooting in Dec. 2006 and is set for a fall 2008 release.

“Where the Wild Things Are”.
Photo credit: MTV
Ambrose is also set up to co-star with Parker Posey in Fox’s mid-season sitcom “The Return of Jezebel James” from “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.

The network did, however, reduce its show order (thus giving it this Fox seal of quality: probable fait accompli cancellation).

Hulk Smash: ComingSoon.net has posted new photos and video of “The Incredible Hulk” along with a first look at the smartly cast William Hurt as General Ross.

Zey Don’t Belong Here, Mozambique: MovieWeb has a spoiler-full and potentially obnoxious rumor about potential cameos in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” by “old friends”.

Hint: They know sign language, and no, it isn’t the digitally generated ghost of Francois Truffaut.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com

News You Need: Aronofsky and Rourke to ‘Wrestle,’ ‘Star Trek’ Explained, Verhoeven to Direct Remake Sequel

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:13:04 -0700

Harley Davidson in a Wrestling Picture: Mickey Rourke is set to play Randy “The Ram” Robinson in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” Variety reports.

Mickey Rourke
Photo credit: Steve Granitz, WireImage.com
The role was previously reported as being played by Nicolas Cage. It had been previously unclear as to whether Aronofsky would direct. The film is set to shoot beginning in Jan. 2008.

Aronofsky has been denying association with numerous projects since the release of “The Fountain” this time in 2006.

These include a fast-tracked thriller set in the world ballet (“Black Swan”), a biopic on boxer Mickey Ward (“The Fighter”) and a Noah’s Ark epic (which Aronofsky himself is writing). The shoot date fits with recent comments Aronofsky made on his blog.

“[N]othing you’ve seen online or anywhere is accurate,” Aronofsky wrote on Oct. 1. He added that the real and then-unannounced project would shoot in Jan. 2008.

“The Fighter” seemed most likely next as it was set to star Mark Wahlberg and Brad Pitt. The film was originally to reunite Wahlberg with his “Departed” co-star Matt Damon until Pitt replaced Damon.

This was viewed odd at the time of the announcement since Pitt dropping out of “The Fountain” in 2002 led to a production delay of three years.

Rourke, whose career has been recently revived since “Sin City,” spent the early 1990s returning to his teenage career of boxing. Did you know, according to Wikipedia, he was originally offered Bruce Willis’ role in “Pulp Fiction” and was edited out of “The Thin Red Line”?

Space… A Confusing Frontier: Just when we asked for more clarification on J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot, IESB has published a lengthy, spoiler-filled rumor to answer the question.

While the report emphasizes spoilers, it’s relatively tame information that will probably be featured in a first full-length trailer. (I don’t mean the other rumored teaser, which will allegedly show the Enterprise being built.)

The rumors do sound interesting. Read on to see how and if the 11th “Star Trek” connects to the greats of the series, from the best movie (“The Wrath of Khan”) to the best Original Series episode (“The City on the Edge of Forever”).

Update: AICN has an angry email response from “City’s” teleplay author, Harlan Ellison.

‘Thomas Crown 2’ Now to Feature Boobs, Jesus Imagery: Paul Verhoeven told a Dutch radio program he will direct a sequel to John McTiernan’s “The Thomas Crown Affair,” which itself is a remake of Norman Jewison’s 1968 version.

Paul Verhoeven
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures
According to this translation, “The Topkapi Affair” will combine elements of Eric Ambler’s novel (“The Light of Day”) and its earlier film adaptation. The almost confirmed casting has Angelina Jolie co-starring.

While the original remake was fine, this is sad considering Verhoeven’s recent pledge to get out of Hollywood filmmaking.

He was supposed to shoot another Dutch film (“Kneeling on a Bed of Violets”) in 2007. His last film (“Black Book”) is still in my top five of films released in 2007. It’d be nice if McTiernan himself would direct this if he weren’t so tied up going to jail.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com

News You Need: Mackie in ‘Eagle Eye,’ ‘Star Trek’ Beams in New Captain, Strike Pauses ‘24’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:08:07 -0700

We! Are! Terrorist Cell!: We already told you about Billy Bob Thorton being cast in “Eagle Eye,” which is shooting now in Chicago and is directed by D.J. Caruso.

Now Variety and Hollywood Reporter and are reporting that Anthony Mackie (“Half Nelson,” “We Are Marshall”) has joined the cast as a “hot-shot soldier”.

“Eagle Eye” stars Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan as a falsely accused young man and single mother who are “forced to become members of a cell with plans to carry out a political assassination”.

Thorton will play a “patriotic hero” while Rosario Dawson plays a government agent. Dawson opted out of a role in Kevin Smith’s “Zach and Miri Make a Porno” (a role written specifically for her) to make “Eagle Eye”.

“Eagle Eye” comes from a screen idea by Steven Spielberg. Dan McDermott, John Glenn, Travis Wright, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams and finally Hilary Seitz all worked on the screenplay, according to Film Jerk.

Kurtzman and Orci – who worked on Abrams’ “Star Trek” and did a rumored rewrite to the “Watchmen” screenplay – are overseeing Seitz. Let’s hope in light of the WGA strike that “overseeing” is past tense.

Unless Voted Out By Focus Group, Greenwood Will Boldy Go: Speaking of J.J. Abrams’ increasingly more-interesting “Star Trek” reboot, Hollywood Reporter says Bruce Greenwood (“Thirteen Days,” “I, Robot”) has been cast as Captain Christopher Pike.

Originally played by Jeffrey Hunter, Pike was technically the first captain of the starship Enterprise. That’s due to his having been in the original, shelved “Star Trek” pilot.

Bruce Greenwood.
Photo credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage
Scenes from this unused pilot were reworked as flashback footage into first “Star Trek” season two-parter “The Menagerie”. In that episode Sean Kenney took over the role and played Pike as a scarred mute who communicated via light on his wheelchair.

At one point, Tom Cruise (who worked on Abrams’ last film “Mission: Impossible III”) was rumored for the role. There’s still no official word if the movie is a restarted Ultimatization or simply an alternate reality.

Jack Bauer Now Has Time to Use Restroom: The first big casualty of the Writers Guild of America strike is the seventh season premiere of Fox’s “24”.

Originally set to air on Jan. 13, TV Week reports that Fox has chosen to hold off on airing the show until the strike’s end. The show has run the past two seasons week to week with no repeats.

After last season’s critical drubbing, which saw its viewership down drastically, “24” was set for a major revamp this season. The show already started production a month late after Fox scrapped a storyline that was to partly take place in Africa.

In Bauer’s absence, perhaps now we can finally have a real national dialogue about torture.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com

Jack Nicholson Talks to MTV About Possible Third ‘Chinatown’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:30:25 -0700

In an interview with MTV News, Josh Horowitz talks to Jack Nicholson about the new DVD releases of his directed films and the heretofore unheard-of plot details for a prospective third “Chinatown”.

MTV: Was the third film in the “Chinatown” trilogy ever scripted?

Nicholson: No. I would imagine Robert [Towne] has some kind of outline. I can tell you it was meant to be set in 1968 when no-fault divorce went into effect in California.

The title was to be “Gittes vs. Gittes”. It was to be about Gittes’ divorce. The secrecy of Meg Tilly’s character was … to involve the most private person in California: Howard Hughes.

That is where the air element would have come into the picture.

MTV: Would you consider doing the film still? I would think if you and Towne said “we want to do this,” Paramount would say: “Go for it.”

Nicholson: I certainly would consider it.

I would imagine Bob would as well. [But the second film’s behind-the-scenes problems] left a few bruises. I don’t know how Paramount would be. The timing is about right.

In the introduction to the book “The Whole Equation,” critic and historian David Thomson describes Towne’s original ideas for a proposed trilogy of “Chinatown” movies.

Especially in view of current Hollywood events, Thomson ironically used Towne as an example to illustrate screenwriters’ willing helplessness. Towne’s proposed trilogy was based on the original “Chinatown” happy ending.

Towne’s original third movie had to do with dismantling Los Angeles’ town car system. Thomson pointed out the same plot was used in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, which itself loosely parodied “Chinatown.”

(11/7 Update: It’s rumored that Towne himself was picketing, even though he allegedly has trouble walking. He was, according to AICN’s Moriarty, “sitting in a lawn chair on the line at Sony.”)

Director Steven Soderbergh recently called “Chinatown” “a classic that – in my opinion – is even better than we all think”.

One of my most distinctive film experiences involved watching “Chinatown” in an auditorium of college kids who had no idea what they were getting into. You could feel the room get palpably more disturbed.

Jack Nicholson.
Photo credit: ViewImages.com
Nicholson goes on to speak about changes made for “The Two Jakes” DVD, which is an underrated misfire that – for my money – has as equally haunting a last line as the original “Chinatown”.

No mention was made of Nicholson’s widely respected but largely unseen directorial debut entitled “Drive, He Said”.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com

International ‘Iron Man’ Teaser Surfaces at YouTube

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:11:19 -0700

The new, international “Iron Man” teaser is now online at YouTube. The 59-second spot showcases a little more Gwenyth Paltrow. She at least gets one line.

Click here for the international “Iron Man” teaser.
The film, which is directed by Jon Favreau (“Elf,” “Zathura”) and stars Robert Downey Jr., Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, is set for release on May 2, 2008.

Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man”.
Photo credit: IMDb

News You Need: WGA Says Pencils Down, ‘Nailed’ Being Fashioned, Stallone’s Comeback

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 01:25:20 -0700

Pencils Down: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike went official at 12:01 a.m. EST on Monday.

Eleventh-hour talks ended when the WGA, which has been fighting the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers) primarily for more residuals in DVD and extra media sales, refused to delay the strike past the start date set last Friday.

Variety has the rundown. Ultimately, movies will not have an immediate effect and most scripted television shows have a backlog of five episodes.

However, daily talk shows like “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” will go into re-runs. “The Daily Show” and host and executive producer Jon Stewart is reportedly showing a sign of solidarity by paying his picketing writing staff two weeks’ salary from his own pocket.

The WGA is expecting high-profile picketing. Some high-status writers including John August (“Big Fish,” “Go”) and Jane Espenson (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Battlestar Galactica”) have posted on their blogs where they’re picketing on Monday.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) are expected to join the picket lines since their contract along with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) expires in June. Both SAG and the DGA’s prominent bargaining points are identical to the WGA’s.

In Chicago, ReelChicago.com says one casualty of the strike will be Lifetime’s planned series “Family Practice”.

Meanwhile, Greencine Daily has posted an interesting link to mark the occasion: a 1945 Atlantic Monthly essay on screenwriting by classic noir novelist Raymond Chandler (“The Big Sleep”). Chandler wrote:

To me, the interesting point about Hollywood’s writers … is not how few or how many they are but how little of worth their talent is allowed to achieve.

For among the best reporting on the strike, check out Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily. An immediate settlement is not expected.

8:19 a.m. update on 11/6/07: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama had this to say in reaction to the WGA strike:

I stand with the writers.

The guild’s demand is a test of whether media corporations are going to give writers a fair share of the wealth their work creates or continue concentrating profits in the hands of their executives.

I urge the producers to work with the writers so everyone can get back to work.

I Heart Political Satire: The great Class of ’99 member David O. Russell is in negotiations to co-write and direct “Nailed”. He’s making a noble effort to have more projects in the works than Steven Spielberg.

David O. Russell (on right).
Photo credit: Lester Cohen, WireImage.com
“Nailed,” which will star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel, is about a bizarrely injured woman who crusades to Washington. It’s being co-written by Kristen Gore (the daughter of Al Gore and a former “Futurama” writer).

There’s currently no word on Russell’s proposed adaptation of Kristen Gore’s autobiographical novel “Sammy’s Hill,” the “The H-Man Commeth” (which is set to star Vince Vaughan as a radio host) or his proposed White Queen “X-Men” spin-off.

Let’s not waste an opportunity to link to Russell’s most recent bout with fame. That link, by the way, contains adult language.

Sylvester Stallone’s 468th Comeback: Stallone is in negotiations to direct and star in a remake of “Death Wish” probably because he ran out of old franchises to give a one-off revitalization.

Sylvester Stallone (on left).
Photo credit: Eric Charbonneau, WireImage.com
This “Death Wish” is not to be confused with the other recent unintentional “Death Wish” remake known as “The Brave One”.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com

News You Need: ‘Frankie Machine,’ ‘The Love Guru,’ ‘The Da Vinci Code’ Sequel, ‘Untitled’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:11:13 -0700

Michael Mann has inked a deal with Paramount Pictures to develop “Frankie Machine” as a star vehicle for Robert de Niro.

The drama is an adaptation of the Don Winslow novel “The Winter of Frankie Machine” and De Niro will play a mob hitman who has retired to run a bait shop.

The first photo has been released for “The Love Guru,” which stars Mike Myers and Jessica Alba. Myers plays an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus.

Mike Myers and Jessica Alba in “The Love Guru”.
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Columbia has made official a Feb. 2007 fast-tracked European start to “Angels & Demons,” which is Ron Howard’s sequel to “The Da Vinci Code”. The film is slated for release in Dec. 2008.

Jamie Foxx has signed on for “The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness and Civil Rights” for DreamWorks.

Based on a 2006 book, the story chronicles the series of racially motivated, black-on-white serial killings from 1973 to 1974 in San Francisco.

Celtic Rose Entertainment has optioned the rights to young-adult fantasy book series “Leven Thumps” by Obert Skye.

As a 14-year-old boy, the fate by Leven Thumps is to save the ailing Foo, which is a world that allows mankind to dream and imagine.

Adam Goldberg (from “2 Days in Paris” with Julie Delpy; our Delpy interview on that film can be found here) and Marley Shelton will star in the indie feature “Untitled”.

The film is centered around a tortured musician at odds with his successful brother.

Adam Goldberg
Photo by Jeff Vespa, WireImage.com
Paramount Pictures has begun casting for a G.I. Joe film and plans to begin filming in the middle of Feb. 2008 in Prague and Los Angeles.

Stephen Sommers (“Van Helsing,” “The Mummy Returns,” “The Mummy”) will direct the film from a script by Stuart Beattie. Paramount is currently calling the film the “Untitled Stephen Sommers Project”.

Jim Caviezel (Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ”) and Claudia Karvan will star in the suspense thriller “Long Weekend” for Arclight Films.

The Everett de Roche story centers around a young couple on a camping trip who remorselessly disregard the local environment by shooting guns and wounding wildlife. The animals fight back.

The 11-year-old Kodi Smit-McPhee will play young Logan in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” from 20th Century Fox. Smit-McPhee, who starred in “Romulus, My Father,” will start filming for the “X-Men” spin-off in Dec. 2007.

Kodi Smit-McPhee
Photo courtesy of Superhero! Hype
Freestyle Releasing has scored domestic theatrical rights to Rick Yune’s (“Die Another Day”) martial arts film “The Fifth Commandment” with plans to launch it into 1,000 U.S. theaters in March 2007.

Yune stars as a trained assassin who declines an assignment to off a pop singer because her bodyguard is his half brother.