Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci to Produce 'Dragonology' Movie

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are busy guys. The Hollywood power duo are producing and writing next year's Star Trek 2, have signed on to write and executive produce The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and are also developing reboots of both The Mummy and Van Helsing franchises.

Oh yeah. And they're also producing the upcoming heist thriller Now You See Me, the sci-fi literature adaptation Ender's Game, and the upcoming Fox TV series Sleepy Hollow. Phew ' just typing it all out is making me tired.

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the pair are adding one more project to their plate: an adaptation of the popular children's book series, Dragonology. The series, which included 12 books and a series of board games and toys, is a fake non-fiction-style manual about dragons written by Dr. Ernest Drake, a 19th century 'dragonologist' and member of the Secret and Ancient Society of Dragonologists (S.A.S.D.).

The movie will reportedly focus on 'a team of dragonologists who embark on a quest to avert a plot to use the world's remaining dragons to wipe out humanity.'

Universal got started on the project in 2008, with screenwriter Leonard Hartman drafting the first screenplay. With Orci and Kurtzman on board, the movie will get a new screenwriter and Hartman will move into an executive producer role.

Orci and Kurtzman have been involved in a number of box office hits from Star Trek to Transformers. Perhaps Dragonology will be the next blockbuster for the pair. After all, dragons have always been a staple of the fantasy genre (from Smaug in The Hobbit to the lovable Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon) and, as far as concepts go, Dragonology sounds like a pretty solid bet for a big-budget family adventure film.

The first Dragonology book came out in 2003, which means that most of the original readers are likely now in their late teens or early twenties. Were you a fan of the Dragonology books as a kid? If so, share your thoughts on this news in the comments.

Stay tuned for more Dragonology movie news.

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Source: The Hollywood Reporter

 

Paul Verhoeven: The 'Total Recall' Remake 'Was Not Good'

The original Total Recall - directed by Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop) and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger at the top of his game ' was so financially and critically successful, it's a wonder there was never a sequel. By contrast, the remake starring Colin Farrell will be lucky to make its money back.

Last Friday, there was a screening for the 1990 version of Recall at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood with Verhoeven in attendance, and during a Q&A, the director said, among other things, that the remake 'was not good.'

Courtesy of MovieLine, check out his entire statement:

'Arnold being [in the original 'Total Recall'] made the movie a little light, and I think that's very important for these Philip Dick stories. I think if it would have been done in a straight way, I'm not so sure that it would have worked ' at least, not at that time. And recently [in the 'Total Recall' remake], it did not. I get to say that because the producer of the new one said that [the original] was cheesy or something. And Colin Farrell called it in an interview 'kitschy.' So I dare to say that his version was not good.'

In fact, producers Toby Jaffe and Neal Moritz told our very own Rob Keyes:

Neal: It's funny, though. I remember loving the [the original 'Total Recall'], and I did love the movie when I saw it, and when we started to embark on this, when we were getting the rights, we watched the movie again, like we love the movie, but we didn't realize how cheesy it was today. But when we saw it originally, it wasn't cheesy.

Toby: Yeah, it shows you how everything is sort of'

Neal: Evolved.

Toby: 'relative to the context in which you see it. I mean, back then it was incredibly fresh and cool, and when you look at it today the whole filmmaking process has evolved so much that a lot of those sets and production design, and even the effects are rudimentary.

In fairness, it's easy to see why a producer might call Total Recall cheesy by today's standards. It is, without a doubt, an over-the-top film. But then, that wasn't really an accident on Verhoeven's part ' the film, in some ways, is a satire of the typical Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle (e.g. Commando).

And the special effects, while perhaps not realistic, were and are effective to this day, in this writer's opinion. Few effects in all of special effects history seem quite as bizarre and unnervingly organic as Cohaagen's eyeballs protruding out of his head as a result of being exposed to the open Martian atmosphere. It's the sort of strange organic look that CGI has yet to be able to convincingly replicate, despite countless attempts (see: 1982's The Thing VS. 2011's The Thing). If there's an uncanny valley for digital eyeballs, then there's definitely an uncanny valley for weird, gooey, computer-generated gore.

Cohaagen's death scene in 'Total Recall' (1990)

The Total Recall re-do is just the latest remake to disappoint at the box office. In the past few years, remakes have disappointed far more often than not, including the aforementioned The Thing (a prequel/remake hybrid), Fright Night, Arthur, Straw Dogs, and a whole host of horror movies. Will the upcoming Red Dawn or The Evil Dead manage to break the trend and make bank? Only time will tell.

Make sure to head over to MovieLine to read the full (and very interesting) Q&A with Paul Verhoeven, where he talks about the 1990 Total Recall and much, much more.

The Total Recall remake is currently number 15 at the box office.

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Follow me on Twitter @benandrewmoore.

Source: MovieLine

'Prometheus' Concept Art Reveals Alternate Creature Design

Ridley Scott's Prometheus, at one point among the most highly anticipated films of 2012, has come to rest somewhere in the middle ' with its fair share of adoring fans and annoyed detractors. Contentious to say the least, Prometheus' story (scripted by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts) presented a few inconsistencies that it left audiences questioning the little details.

But what if Ridley Scott and co. had been as thoughtful about the production and its lofty themes as we'd hope for? What if Scott had planned out several of the film's key scenes so many times that he had back-up scenarios upon back-up scenarios? While we can't say that was true about the entire film, we can confirm that one scene from Prometheus ' occurring about midway through the film ' could have played out a few different ways.

From here on out a few specifics from the film's second act are going to need to be spoiled, so those who have yet to see Prometheus should turn back now.

About a third of the way through the film, Prometheus' geologist Fifield and biologist Milburn encounter a worm that has been genetically mutated by the film's mysterious black goop. Milburn, being of a curious and scientific mind, puts his head close enough to the worm that it is able to attack and kill him. Fifield on the other hand, is not so lucky, and is horribly scarred by some sort of corrosive fluid.

A few scenes pass by before the surviving members of the research vessel come to discover Fifield's new visage, a mutated collection of skin, muscle, and hair; but when they do he's hell-bent to kill them all. In the actual film, through the use of practical make-up, Fifield looks like this:

But in case the practical make-up didn't 'work' on the day or look believable in editing, Ridley Scott had several CGI versions of the character to use as back-ups. As we already know, the practical version of Fifield won out, but CineFX has obtained some concept art that shows how the character would have looked in CGI form.

It's not necessarily a far stretch from the practical version, but the CGI Fifield looks much more alien (not Alien) than the production might have intended. The melted face idea is there, but these CGI creations would have given some audience members the impression Fifield had become an entirely new creature, or worse, made them wonder who this random alien attacking the crew was. And since they were already struggling to understand the Engineers that would have compounded the problem even further.

We're glad to see that Scott, a pioneer in sci-fi filmmaking, stuck to his guns and kept the practical effects in, but it's also interesting to see how other versions of the mutation could have played out.

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Source: CineFX (via Bloody Disgusting)

 

'Justice League': Ben Affleck NOT Directing; Wachowskis Being Considered?

While the first phase of DC Entertainment's Justice League plans don't truly begin until after Zack Snyder's Superman reboot The Man of Steel releases, fans are already chomping at the bit to know how the DC superhero team-up movie might play out. We've seen several different rumors pop up over the course of the month ' including a discussion about whether or not Joseph Gordon-Levitt should assume the Batman role ' but the most intriguing has been DC's reported courting of Ben Affleck to direct Justice League.

Unfortunately, though, those rumors about Affleck directing weren't true ' he was never planning on the directing the film, and news of him doing so were purely rumor-filled gossip. That same rumor mill is now churning with word that several other high-profile directors are in the running for the Justice League director's chair. Read on to find out who.

In an interview with 24 Hours Vancouver, Affleck confirmed he is not set to helm The Justice League, but says it sounds 'really exciting':

'I'm not working on the Justice League. One of the problems with entertainment web sites is that they need to fill pages, and that's how rumours get started'Justice League sounds really exciting, but it's not something I'm working on.'

Like Marvel's Avengers, it appeared that DC was looking for a proven director to assume control over what should be a very prized property. Affleck's connections to the role of Superman in the biopic Hollywoodland were only slight, but his skills as a director were nothing to scoff at, and his newest film, Argo, looks to be a serious awards season contender. That's all to say: it's something of shame that this rumor didn't pan out.

Dreams of Christopher Nolan (who has numerous times said he is uninterested), Guillermo Del Toro, or Brad Bird directing the film have already begun to manafest, but for now we know as much as fans do, which is pretty little. During the Warner Bros. panel at Comic-Con, Man of Steel director Zack Snyder suggested that the success of his superhero film would determine the future of more DC Comics properties, saying that after they get Superman's 'house in order' anything is possible.

And as it stands with Justice League, some of those 'possibilities' for a director are apparently more likely than others'

NEXT PAGE: New Justice League Director Rumors'

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'The Wolf of Wall Street' Set Photos: Leonardo DiCaprio As Jordan Belfort

Any time Martin Scorsese begins production on a new film, it's worth paying attention to, especially when that project involves frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio. The duo's forthcoming The Wolf of Wall Street has only been filming for a few weeks now, but today we've got set photos featuring Leo's character, a New York stockbroker who refuses to succumb to Wall Street-based corruption.

Given the money mogul nature of the role, we wouldn't expect anything less than DiCaprio sporting a slick-backed hairdo and a neatly pressed suit (of course, he also sports those things on a daily basis). In the photos snapped from The Wolf of Wall Street's set, we see DiCaprio hailing a cab and looking extremely concerned.

That constant over-the-shoulder looks might have something to do with his character laundering $200 million from the same folks who wanted him to back a mob-based corruption. It's somewhat familiar territory for director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed), but this film puts an interesting spin on it.

The Wolf of Wall Street uses the memoir of Jordan Belfort as its basis, with DiCaprio playing the author. Belfort was a major player on Wall Street ' his firm served as the basis for the Vin Diesel film The Boiler Room - and went on to commit many of the crimes that will take place over the course of the Scorsese's film.

Check out the set photos courtesy of Celebuzz:

Since teaming up with Scorsese for 2002's Gangs of New York, 'Marty and Leo' have made four feature films together ' most of them critically acclaimed, and some of them ' like 2006's The Departed - received Academy Awards. Their last collaboration, Shutter Island (2011), was the duo's first collaboration since Departed, but now it appears they're getting the band back together.

Joining DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street will be Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Margot Robbie, Cristin Milioti, and Oscar winner Jean Dujardin in one of his first English-speaking roles.

The Wolf of Wall Street will hit theaters in 2013.

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Source: Celebuzz

'Premium Rush' Star and Director Talk NYC Bicycle Culture & Survival Skills

The new thriller Premium Rush  (read our review) offers something that most other films in the genre don't: a look at the frantic and often dangerous world of New York city bike messaging. As star Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character (Wilee ' 'The Coyote Man') points out at the onset: bike messengers work within the punishing gauntlet of NYC street traffic, face nearly impossible deadlines, and are pretty much reviled by much of the citizenry, who consider them annoyances on two wheels. If that all wasn't enough, Wilee is handed a parcel that puts him in the crosshairs of some very bad people, turning an already hazardous job into a life-or-death race across town.

In our interview with Gordon-Levitt and Premium Rush writer/director David Koepp, we discussed the fascinating sub-culture the film explores, and the very real hazards of trying to film a movie in the streets of New York City.

The last few years have seen Joseph Gordon-Levitt's star rise considerably, thanks to starring turns in acclaimed dramas like 50/50, blockbuster behemoths like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, promising genre fare like upcoming sci-fi film Looper - and, of course, Premium Rush. Koepp, on the other hand, has a long and famous track record, both writing scripts for films like Mission: Impossible, Carlito's Way, Spider-Man and Jurassic Park, and directing genre fare like Stir of Echoes and Secret Window.

However, despite the collective experience of the star and director, Premium Rush definitely presented some new filmmaking challenges and experiences ' not least of which was trying to construct a movie that uses the bustling streets of The Big Apple as its playground.

Dania Ramirez in 'Premium Rush'

SCREEN RANT: So much of this movie takes place in actual New York City streets ' what was it like trying to film in one of the busiest and most congested cities in the world?

DAVID KOEPP: 'We got huge cooperation from the city and the cops and still it wasn't nearly enough. It was really ambitious: We were on the streets ' I think we shot for fifty-one days, with thirty days of second unit ' I think that there were maybe three days of [interior shoots]. The rest was all on the streets ' and not on the sidewalk, you know? Moving, on the streets. We'd had this genius moronic idea of having all [the characters'] conversations be on phones, while moving through different parts of the city ' you never had just two people in a room talking; like, never.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: [Interrupting] Which was fun for me.

DK: It's fun! But it takes some planning [Laughs with Levitt]. It was a challenge.

SR: Did you ever fear the wrath of New Yorkers who might be a bit peeved that your production was, say, holding up traffic?

DK: Yeah! One thing I did when I started screening it in New York ' the first thing I'd do to the audience is I'd apologize. I'd say, 'I'm sure that 50% of you were inconvenienced by this production at one point or another, and thank you for your patience.' [Laughs]

Not everyone was patient, you know? People lost their sh*t on us. There was one time some pedestrian got mad at a [production assistant] because the PA wouldn't let him cross the street ' which was a good decision, because we were barreling down it and we would've hit him. So the guy head-butted the PA and broke his nose and put him jail ' I mean in prison (I was thinking of where this guy should go) ' wait, not prison, or jail - the hospital. So he breaks the PA's nose because the guy tried to protect him, and I thought, 'This is so outrageous!' It's like if someone was building a building on the corner, and they asked you to cross the street so you didn't get hit by the crane ' you wouldn't get angry with them! Movies are part of the New York economy' I don't know' That guy made me a little upset. Then the 'New York Post' ' god bless 'em ' wrote an editorial: 'It's About Time Somebody Hit One of These Movies in the Nose.' I'm like, 'It's a felony!' I don't know'

SR: Good 'ol New York.

DK & JGL: [Laughing]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dania Ramirez in 'Premium Rush'

SR: Let's talk about New York City bikers and maybe what attracted you both to exploring this particular sub-culture.

DK: Honestly, I was attracted to the images before the sub-culture. I was attracted to the idea of a guy on a bike going from the far Upper West Side to far Lower East Side, because I hadn't seen that before. The idea of putting cameras in traffic, in the point of view of a bike, and moving as fast as we possibly could, I thought was really exciting. And then, pretty soon, logically that [character] becomes a messenger because you don't just want somebody out for a pleasure ride ' you want somebody with purpose. And then [bike messengers] just turned out to be a fascinating species. They're really interesting people who are driven and have a real ethos; they want to ride their bike, if they get paid to ride their bike that's great, but also it is a culture, you know? It's like their lifestyle choice: that bikes are better than cars, and moving around by bike is the right thing to do. So I found it all pretty fascinating.

SR: Joseph, in preparing to play Wilee did you focus more on the physical challenge, or were you concerned with immersing yourself in the culture as well?

JGL: Both. I mean I had to spend probably more time physically ' just to make sure that I was going to be in shape and able to do twelve-hour work days on a bike and not make the crew wait for me to catch my breath. I did a lot of that training at home in LA for six weeks, but once I got [to New York] ' because there aren't really bike messengers in LA; it doesn't work, LA is too sprawled out ' once I got here I made friends with a few guys who did it, and I would echo what David said: I was struck by the fact that there really is an ethic to it.

I found  a lot of environmentalism, a lot of wanting to support local commerce ' a real conscious and positive and progressive way of thinking about life. All of which stemmed from the simple love of riding a bike, which probably comes from when they were kids, well before they were thinking about any of this stuff. But it's true that if more people rode bikes and fewer people drove cars, the world would be better for it. And I would certainly hope that if people coming out of this movie are itching to ride a bike, then it's certainly done a good thing.

SR: Do you have any crazy stories or anecdotes about what you experienced while riding around with actual bike messengers in the city?

JGL: I mean, I think it was more just riding around, seeing the city. I have four doubles in this movie ' there's five of us who play Wilee. It's me; Austin, who is a real bike messenger and one of the fastest ' if not THE fastest ' in the world; a Hollywood stuntman whose job it was to get hit by cars; then there was one guy who is really good on a track bike and one guy who was really good on a trial bike. So five of us. And just riding around town with Austin, and sort of getting a sense of, 'Oh, this is what a Saturday is like,' when it's all centered around the love of riding a bike around ' it's a different kind of Saturday. It really does put your focus on the journey more than the destination ' and it does make you focus on the city itself, and the communities of people in that city. Riding around Manhattan and Brooklyn is mostly where we would go, and you end up in cool places you wouldn't have ended up otherwise. Sorry if that's not specific.

SR: David, how did you come up with the idea for the 'biker vision' technique used in the film? And what was it like trying construct those sequences?

DK: We called in the script and prep 'Bike-o-vision' ' which we trademarked with a little '',' not that it means anything. But the idea was to have a cinematic way to illustrate those split-second decisions that you make when you're coming up to an intersection. When we were getting ready to write the script, I got my bike out and rode around ' but I rode around as I felt those guys did. And I only wanted to do it once ' because, you know, I got kids and I'm not that good on it ' but [the bike messengers']  self-defense skills are so highand you can't do that if you don't know how to do it.

But I rode around and just thought 'don't stop,' so I'd run lights and what not. As you approach an intersection I noticed that your senses ' it's like rock climbing, when you're not thinking about anything else ' there's nothing else from your day, you're just thinking about that hand-hold. And as you approach an intersection and you know you're going through, your eyes are darting around and soaking up so much information; you're getting reflections off the car next to you that let's you know there's a guy coming from there; you're looking at a pedestrian and you're thinking, 'he's hesitating and he's texting ' does that mean he's about to turnaround and go the other way? Or is he going to keep coming this way?' And I thought that was one of the most cinematic things I'd ever seen in my head. How to get that onto film was the challenge. So we came up with 'Bike-o-vision'' Then trying to get that into reality, it was just a logistical nightmare.

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Premium Rush is now playing in theaters.

'The Way, Way Back' Set Photo: Steve Carell VS. Sam Rockwell

Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, while not exactly household names, have had a presence in TV and movies since the late '90s. The writing pair even earned themselves an Oscar for last year's The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne and starring George Clooney.

This year, Rash and Faxon are doing themselves one better by both writing and directing The Way, Way Back, a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a Boston vacation community. We hadn't heard much about the project's progress lately, but now we have a new set photo that teases a confrontational scene between stars Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell.

Rash (who is perhaps best known for playing the Dean on Community) and Faxon (who is set to star in the upcoming Fox series Ben and Kate) have been trying to get The Way, Way Back off the ground for several years ' it appeared on the Black List back in 2007 ' but a revolving door of directors failed to make that happen. It wasn't until the project ended up in the hands of producer Kevin Walsh that Rash and Faxon were actually able to step forward and assume the directors' chair(s).

And now the film is nearing completion, while still struggling to balance the grueling schedules of two TV stars. Rash and Faxon hope to take it to festivals and see how it plays if they can get a decent cut of the film together after production.

The film itself ' not to be confused with the Colin Farrell film The Way Back - follows a teenager summering at a New England community with his mother (Toni Collette). Over the course of this coming-of-age film, the young teenager befriends a water park manager (played by Sam Rockwell) who, based on the photo, must at some point be at odds with Steve Carrell (who plays the obnoxious boyfriend of Collete's character).

Rash and Faxon say a lot of the film's narrative comes from their own experiences vacationing in the Carolinas and New England. Rash says that specific scenes were pulled directly from the two's younger years, though they feature a few embellishments for film entertainment's sake.

After scoring big with their work on The Descendants, Rash and Faxon should certainly have an easier time selling this movie than they would have before. While both will go their separate ways on their respective TV series, they plan to continue collaborating and hopefully get The Way, Way Back into theaters soon.

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Source: NY Times