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The latest batch of set photos from Paramount's adaptation of World War Z reveal Matthew Fox is back in the cast.
Reportedly cast in June along with Ed Harris, both Fox and Harris then left the project a few weeks later. While Harris' role was unspecified, Fox was said to be playing a character named "parajumper" though other details were not offered.
The set photos give credence the character details, as they reveal Fox in military clothing, near a rescue helicopter, and aiding cast member Mireille Enos and her two movie daughters. Enos plays the wife of U.N. researcher, played by Brad Pitt, who did not appear in the set photos.
Adapted by screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom) and J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling) from Max Brooks' best-selling novel, World War Z is currently in production in the U.K. under the direction of Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace). The movie co-stars Elyes Gabel (HBO's Game of Thrones) and Bryan Cranston, who was recently cast in a "small but flashy" role in the movie.
What's Broken City about? >> Posted 08.09.11 by Ryan -
While there are a variety of positions in a crew of a motion picture, the director is a pretty important one, and now Warner Bros. is lacking one.
Deadline reports that Albert Hughes has exited the adaptation of Akira, based on the Japanese Manga series of comics by Katsuhiro Otomo. The report cites "amicable creative differences" between the director and studio as the cause. Hughes and his brother and directing partner Allen have been attached to Akira since last February, with Albert directing and Allen producing.
In February, Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves was brought in to perform a script polish on Akira, which prompted Warners to put together a shortlist of actors for the two lead roles of Tetsuo and Kaneda. However, the candidates — which included Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield, Garrett Hedlund, Chris Pine, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender — weren't establish enough which is why the studio contacted Keanu Reeves about the role of Kaneda, but Reeves ultimately declined.
Warner may return to their shortlist to fill the roles and are expected to find a replacement for Hughes quickly.
Posted 05.27.11 by Ryan -
Having not directed a movie since 2001's From Hell, Allen and Albert Hughes scored a modest hit with The Book of Eli. With their reputation secure once more, Warner Brothers is looking to give them another job. Deadline Hollywood) reports that the twin directors are in talks to return to comic book adaptations with the live-action version of Akira, the Japanese manga comic that has already received a popular 1988 anime adaptation. Leonardo DiCaprio and Andrew Lazar are producing the movie through DiCaprio's Appian Way production company.
Like Eli, Akira is set in a dystopic future where protagonist Shotaro Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang, has to stop his best friend Tetsuo when his psychic powers start to drive him insane. The original manga covers six volumes, so Akira is intended to be two movies, with each movie covering three volumes. Eli writer Gary Whitta did the initial draft of the screenplay and told Comingsoon last December that he's not sure whether Iron Man and Children of Men screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are re-writing his script or starting from scratch.
...I haven't worked on it for about a year. The version I worked on was about going back to the source and doing the manga version. We were going to adapt the whole six-episode graphic novel. They don't keep you in the loop after you're done ... now I go on the internet to find out what's happening with it like everyone else.
Fans will be pleased to hear that Akira author, and director of the anime movie, Katsuhiro Otomo was at least remotely involved.
We got notes from [Otomo] and we kept in touch, but we never had a formal meeting or anything. The script I worked on was very, very preliminary. We did a couple of drafts of the script but, when I was there at least, it never got wrapped up to the point where I think he would get really hands on.
Akira is still scheduled for release sometime in 2011.
Posted 02.12.10 by Ryan -
The Book of Eli's post-apocalyptic tale, which focuses on a man traveling the country in the year 2043 with the last remaining Bible, seems an unlikely one for an actor like Denzel Washington, but the Academy Award-winning actor told Coming Soon he took advice from his son, producer John David Washington, that convinced him to take the part.
He talked me into doing Training Day, American Gangster and now this one. He really got his teeth into the story. He's a very, very spiritual young man and just a unique individual. He got behind it and he wouldn't take no for an answer.
Joining Washington in his quest to keep the Bible safe is Mila Kunis, who was drawn to the character of Solara because of her strength.
Very rarely am I attracted to characters that are "woe is me." I'm not a big fan of women who are the victim and who need to be saved at all times. I don't think that's how it is in real life and I don't think that's how it should be filmed. I think that anyone, if given the right, will persevere ... I think it would be an unjust portrayal of people if you didn't let the character grow.
While Kunis admits she only "attempted" to read the Bible during production, Washington keep one with him at all times, using it as a reference.
I just worked my way through the script with [directors Allen and Albert Hughes]. ... We had the Bible there because we were always looking for quotes back and forth. I've sort of taken what I've done as a director and, in this case anyway, applied it to the screenplay, because I was really involved as a producer as well. We would sit up in my house and I would play all the parts and flesh them out ... I do a whole journal on my character. I do that for every film. He's a guy who worked at K-Mart.
Before anyone thinks that the movie is a proselytizing fable, Washington also gets to protect the book by using fighting skills taught to him by Jeff Imada, who was was a disciple of Bruce Lee's student Dan Inosanto. Washington is also quick to point out that the movie is not trying to offer a one-sided moral.
I just thought it was an interesting story. A good story. I embraced these and spiritual aspects of this story and how the quote unquote "word" can be manipulated as it is. You turn on the TV and see it all the time. You don't have to turn on the TV. You can just look. That's what I've always argued the difference between spirituality and religion is. Mankind gets a hold of it and goes, "mine is good; yours isn't." Or "I'm right, you're wrong." All that kind of stuff ... Not that this is a cautionary tale necessarily, but its been going on for thousands of years. Hopefully we're just entertainment.
Posted 01.13.10 by Ryan -
The Book of Eli sibling writers-directors Allen and Albert Hughes are no strangers to comic book adaptations; their last movie being 2001's adaptation of Alan Moore's From Hell. Albert told MTV that after their first movie, they were offered a chance to direct an adaptation of Frank Miller's classic graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns.
Three different Batman projects were presented to us over the years. The first time, it was The Dark Knight [Returns]. I remember how dark the comic book was. Batman was old. He had to rely more on his tools and other s**t, and he was a decrepit, 60- or 70-year-old man in this comic book. I remember saying to them back then, "We want to do this, and you should get somebody like Clint Eastwood to do it." Basically, what we were telling them it was the death of their franchise. Looking back now, we definitely would'vekilled that franchise.
Allen claims that the project was never something they would have considered.
It was a different regime at the time at Warner Brothers, and they did offer it to us a couple times, but we were never going to do that. [Christopher] Nolan's done a phenomenal job with Batman — especially the first one — and that's what we would've done if we were interested, but we were never going to do a Batman or Superman movie. I know we couldn't do that.
Albert agreed, adding that after their first movie the brothers were "offered everything, but we're not capable of delivering a corporate project like that."
Posted 01.13.10 by Ryan -
Once a hot property in Hollywood, Allen and Albert Hughes need a strong success to reestablish their reputation as a directing team. It's been a long time since their last major collaboration, 2001's From Hell, and they are still smarting from its failure to catch on at the box office. As Allen wryly puts it in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:
One day you feel like Superman, the next you feel like you have a kryptonite suppository.
Because of this, the pair pushed hard for the chance to direct The Book of Eli, pitching it to studio executives with a 60-page manifesto illustrating their vision for the movie.
Despite the desperate need for a comeback, they have taken some serious risks with the movie, in particular by playing up the religious aspects of their post-apocalyptic western. Although they toned down the proselytizing in some early versions of the script, they vetted some pretty edgy promotional material, including a poster featuring the frontier town's head honcho, played by Gary Oldman, with message "Religion is Power."
Looking for a universal tone to balance out the mayhem of a post-apocalyptic world and reflect contemporary social angst, they felt that despite the risks, religion had to be a key element of the movie, although, as Allen explains, the particulars of the religion weren't that important:
People are looking for meaning. So you take the Bible and try to speak to all these yearnings in society right now. But it could have been the Torah or the Koran. The Bible is just more, for lack of a better term, commercial.
Posted 01.08.10 by reelz