Oct 15 2009 'Red Riding' Being Remade, Just in Time
Red Riding, a British adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding Quartet, aired on Channel 4 as a three-part miniseries in March. That was like seven months ago, though--that shit is old!--and, even more offensive, it stars Britons! Yuck! Who wants to see them!? Their voices are slightly different than mine!
Luckily, Columbia Pictures understands the need for recent British works to be immediately, senselessly remade with marketable American stars I'll recognize, so they're doing just that:
Columbia Pictures has acquired rights to remake the U.K. miniseries "Red Riding," and is negotiating with Steve Zaillian to write the script and Ridley Scott to direct.The miniseries is a study of power and police corruption framed around the investigation of the disappearance of several young girls. For the pic, the setting will be transferred from Britain to the U.S. The mini clocked in at more than five hours, so Zaillian and Scott have their work cut out for them to compress it into one film.
Hey, that sounds like it would be a pretty good movie if it were to take place in locations I can more easily locate on a map! But, ugh, Ridley Scott is directing? I'm not sure he's quite right for the project. He just seems so... you know. Can't we get a Bay in here for this? Each frame of his films are like American flags waving their explosions with national pride.
Sep 1 2009 Here's a 3-D Smurf
From PVCBlue.com, some sort of devoted Smurf site, here's the first look at a CGI Smurf from the upcoming film adaptation of the three-apple-high species. Looks like Columbia is really trying to hit that small group that both loves The Smurfs and Scarface references. Get them and the rest will follow. As they say.
(via ComingSoon)
Jun 1 2009 Swift to Fight Cyborg Kickboxer on Film
Amidst the scramble to pick up absolutely any franchise that might have any hint of name recognition for anyone, Columbia has purchased Swift, a pitch from Barry Sonnenfeld and Ben David Grabinski that reinvents the largely bygone character Tom Swift.
Swift, first introduced 1910, is a boy adventurer, and his series have focused largely on such fantastical inventions as a cyborg kickboxer, a blatant C-3PO rip-off, a rifle powered by the mystical force of electricity, and something called a "motor cycle." The updated version, Variety says, "would feature Swift as one-half of a father-son team who are among the greatest inventors of all time." Meaning, in the film, Tom will inevitably have to rescue his father from the clutches of an evil rival scientist trying to steal the Swifts' plans to use on a powerful new weapon.
Personally, I'm hoping the film have a basis in the novel Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel. With today's computer rendering power, we could finally get a true vision of just how big this big tunnel is.
Apr 21 2009 Tom Hanks Will Find That 'Lost Symbol'
If you know anything about Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, you know there is always another Da Vinci for him to decode or another Illuminati to stop, so, no surprise, Columbia Pictures is all prepared to capture his next Church-denounced adventure on film:
While Columbia Pictures is prepping for the May 15 release of Ron Howard’s Tom Hanks starrer "Angels and Demons," the studio will move quickly on the third pic in the franchise.Author Dan Brown has announced that his next installment in the "Da Vinci Code" series will be "The Lost Symbol," which Doubleday will publish in the U.S. and Canada on Sept. 15.
Sources said Brown has completed his manuscript. Sony has the rights to the Robert Langdon character, which gives the studio the right to negotiate a deal for the new title.
Can we get a return of the Da Vinci Haircut in this one? I'd be much more likely to pay to watch Tom Hanks chase down a lost symbol if he had that little cape of hair flapping against his skull again.
Columbia moves on 'Symbol' [Variety]
Jan 30 2009 'Ghost Rider 2': They've Got All Those Spare Leather Jackets Lying Around Anyway
The world's bored, collective sigh at the closing of Ghost Rider still wasn't enough to extinguish the fiery skull of its protagonist. Bloody Disgusting is reporting that Columbia Pictures is officially looking for screenwriters to get to work on a sequel:
It's pretty shocking that it has taken this long for a sequel to get a move on, but finally Columbia Pictures is gearing up for GHOST RIDER 2, the sequel to the smash-hit comic book adaptation from 2007 that saw Nicolas Cage as a stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze who gives up his soul to become a hellblazing vigilante, to fight against power hungry Blackheart, the son of the devil himself. What we learned this evening is that Columbia Pictures is officially out to writers to pen the sequel and that Nicolas Cage is in fact attached and signed on to return.
I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long for an official writing call when the special effects team has already been working on action sequences:
Dec 3 2008 Studio Logos: What's the Story?
If you've ever watched the studio logos opening a feature film and wondered, Columbia Pictures Lady: friend or foe?, I've got something for you. Neatorama has put together an informative piece on several of the big Hollywood studio logos, the histories behind them, and their variations throughout the years, laying out the stories behind the MGM lion, the Paramount mountain, and more. Sadly, the Nickelodeon Studios logo was left off the list, so we may never learn the full story behind a clusterfuck of orange shit.
Aug 22 2008 'Quantum of Solace' Pushed Back a Week
Columbia and MGM have decided to move Quantum of Solace back a week to November 14th, leaving the previous weekend open to party, party, party:
"We saw the film recently in London and Marc Forster, Daniel Craig and the entire team at EON have truly delivered another extraordinary Bond adventure," said Jeff Blake, Chairman of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution for the Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group. "'Quantum of Solace' is a seamless continuation of the storyline that began with the last film. We believe November 14th is a great date that allows us to play straight through Thanksgiving and right into Christmas. The Bond films have a long history of entertaining audiences in this holiday corridor going back to Goldeneye in 1995. The studio enjoyed tremendous success opening 'Casino Royale' in North America on November 17, 2006, and we believe this decision will give the public a wider opportunity to see the film over the holiday."
Yeah, yeah, say what you want. We all know the real reason you're pushing this back. Yanni's birthday.
Quantum of Solace Moved Back a week [Coming Soon]
