Hello there, Shockya readers. My sincere apologies for this belated edition of Movie News Cheat Sheet. Let’s all agree to blame Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. Sound good?
Anyways, to make up for my tardiness I bring you an extra news tidbit today. By the time you hit the office or get to school tomorrow, you’ll be fully loaded with not ten, but the 11 most pivotal movie news stories of the week.
Ready? Set? Go!
1. Arnold to Return as The Terminator: Terminator fans get ready and I’m not talking McG’s Terminator Salvation; this is the real deal, Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator! Schwarzenegger is attached to star in a rights package aimed at reviving the franchise. CAA is shopping the deal around and supposedly already caught the attention of Universal, Sony, Lionsgate and CBS Films. Robert Cort is on board to produce, but the project is still without a writer or director although, rumor has it, Fast Five director Justin Lin has a shot at getting behind the lens. (via Deadline)
2. Five-Year-Old Talks About Writing Fast Five: Perhaps this joke loses a little value now that Fast Five is the highest grossing film of 2011 and was received very well by the critics, but this kid is so damn cute, it doesn’t matter. The Onion posted an interview with the Fast Five writer himself, Chris Morgan. Okay, it’s not the real Chris Morgan, rather a five-year-old with the same name who really seems to know what he’s talking about when it comes to Vin Diesel and fast cars. Oh, and he’d rather not wear shoes. Check it out for yourself right here.
3. Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Hitting an AMC Near You: I’d like to bet most of you diehard Lord of the Rings fans have sat through all three films in a row once before, if not more. Well, that was a mere 544 minutes. Think you can handle a whopping 682 in Middle Earth? That’s 11 hours and 22 minutes! It’s okay; you can relax. AMC is staggering the release of Peter Jackson’s director’s cuts. The Fellowship of the Ring will hit on June 14th, The Two Towers on June 21st and The Return of the King on June 28th. Then again, I’d like to bet some of you out there would have been thrilled to sit through a massive marathon. (via The One Ring)
4. Jane Lynch Joins The Three Stooges: Yeah, having to grow up in an orphanage might not be much fun, but what if Jane Lynch was the nun assigned to keep an eye on you? Lynch is the latest to join the Farrelly Brothers production, The Three Stooges, snagging the role the writing-directing duo once hoped to give to Cher, Mother Superior. Did the brother see Burlesque? This is a casting win for the film. Lynch will join Sean Hayes as Larry, Will Sasso as Curly and Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe when filming begins in May. (via Deadline)
5. First Breaking Dawn Images: We’re a little less than seven months away from the release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and here come the images. Twihards rejoice because the first ten have two of your favorite things, Edward and Bella looking deep into each other’s eyes and Jacob all wet and muscular. We also get a look at Elizabeth Reaser as Esme chatting it up with franchise newcomers Maggie Grace, Casey LaBow and MyAnna Buring looking all pretty at Bella’s wedding. Then there’s one of Stewart and Ashley Green as Alice Cullen rocking her new pixie cut as well as a shot of Christian Camargo as Eleazar with Mia Maestro as Carmen and one of a not-so-happy looking Michael Sheen as Aro. (via CNN)
6. The Royal Wedding, The Movie: This was bound to happen, right? Here in the states, people went nuts over the union of Prince William and Kate Middleton; is it not perfect Hollywood material? Don’t worry; nobody’s turning this into some tacky romantic comedy. The ones responsible for this seven-figure pitch sale are Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter, the duo behind (500) Days of Summer. Sony Picture snagged this one, which is about “a girl from the Midwest who goes to the UK and winds up marrying a prince” and is described as “Notting Hill meets Meet the Royal Parents.” (via Deadline)
7. Quentin Tarantino’s Next Film Title Revealed: It’s been two years since we got Quentin Tarantino’s smash hit Inglourious Basterds and the writer-director has yet to reveal the details of his next project. There’s been some talk about some sort of spaghetti western, but the details are hazy. However, as of recently, Twitter is a-chirping and user @AgentTrainee apparently got his hands on the cover of the script, which is labeled “Django Unchained.” Yes, of course this image could be fabricated, but Cinema Blend does a nice job at examining the elements, the result of which makes me think this is the real deal.
8. Bryan Cranston in Rock of Ages: As a huge Breaking Bad fan, this is the best thing to happen to the stage-to-screen adaptation of Rock of Ages yet. Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough, Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige, Diego Boneta and Paul Giamatti have nothing on Brian Cranston. Cranston joins the Adam Shankman production as a new character, one that didn’t appear in the musical. Zeta-Jones’ character is a new addition as well, a villain who’s fighting to ban rock and roll. Cranston’s character is her husband. (via Deadline)
9. Trailers: Harry Potter, Immortals and What’s Your Number: It almost isn’t fair to the other two films to kick this section off with the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, but have you seen it? How can you blame me? It’s absolutely chill inducing and will undeniably make any Potter fan ache for the film’s July 15th release. No, the dialogue in the trailer for Immortals isn’t anything particularly creative, but this is Tarsem Singh we’re talking about here; whatever the script lacks, he’ll make up for on the visual side. Of course that assessment doesn’t sound particularly promising, but after taking a look at the film’s first trailer, you’ll see what I mean. Singh has absolutely no trouble compensating. Lastly, we’ve got one of our last looks at Chris Evans getting his comedy on before hitting the big screen as Captain America in the trailer for What’s Your Number. It looks like more of the same, but I’ve got faith in Anna Faris; she’s got the comedic timing to make anything funny, even if it’s in a rather awkward, guilty pleasure type of way.
10. Box Office: We all thought Fast Five would demolish the competition at the box office, but $86.2 million? Not only is that the highest opening of the year, but the highest for the franchise and Universal, too! Trailing far behind is third weeker Rio holding on fairly strong with another $14.8 million. Then there’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, which, in true Tyler Perry fashion, dropped a massive 60.7%, taking in just $9.9 million in its second week out. Following right behind is Water for Elephants with $9.3 million, which was more than enough to put a gap between itself and newcomer Prom, which wound up being a major disappointment for Disney earning a mere $4.7 million. (via Box Office Mojo)
11. R.L. Stine Heading to the Big Screen: It’s about time someone decided to turn a Goosebumps book into a feature film. No, rights holder Gotham Group isn’t going for a Stine classic like Welcome to Dead House, Night of the Living Dummy or, my personal favorite, Say Cheese and Die!, rather a film based on Stine’s latest, It’s the First Day of School … Forever! due out in July. The story is about a 12-year-old kid named Artie whose first day of school is the worst day of his life. Unfortunately for Artie, the second is exactly the same, and the third, fourth and so on. Gotham CEO and founder Ellen Goldsmith-Vein called the book “a thoroughly reimagined Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Groundhog Day.” (via THR)
By Perri Nemiroff
