Oct 29 2009 Tony Scott Directing Perfect Film for Your Sad, '80s Bachelorette Party
Chippendales: The Movie, ladies! It's time to learn how muscular hunks dressed like Snagglepuss somehow became a big thing in stripping and calendar-making for sad women for a while, then suddenly stopped being a thing. And it turns out it's more interesting than you'd think. From Variety:
Tony Scott has become attached to direct a film about the rise and fall of Steve Banerjee, the man responsible for creating Chippendales, who was consumed by excess and competition when the male strip clubs became a phenomenon in the 1980s.With a tone similar to the Scott-directed "True Romance," pic will follow the improbable rise and fall of Banerjee, who went from pumping gas in Culver City to running a high-end nightclub that evolved into Chippendales. After hiring a New York choreographer to polish the all-male dance troupe, Banerjee became wildly rich, as well as unreasonably competitive and paranoid. Banerjee hired a hitman to murder the choreographer when negotiations went sour. After being arrested, Banerjee died in jail awaiting trial.
Wow, murder was involved in the fall of Chippendales? I'd always assumed it was somehow related to that SNL sketch with Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze. Or just people finally realizing that men dancing in portions of tuxedos is disgusting.
Jul 14 2009 Denzel Washington Refusing to Iron Out Any More Train Issues
Denzel Washington to 20th Century Fox: "I'm sorry but you're just going to have to find someone else to stop that runaway train full of toxic chemicals." The actor was set to star in Unstoppable--another film following the Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 formula of Tony Scott + Denzel Washington + trains--but Variety is now claiming the project is in jeopardy.
Sources say three months with little progress on Fox's side led the Oscar winner to pull out of the project last week, though reportedly Washington said he will look at where they are with the script before making a final decision. So, Fox, this would be a great time to hurry up and write in some parts where Denzel spontaneously grows Wolverine claws and cuts an entire locomotive to shreds before it can collide with an oncoming passenger train. The guy's done the Oscar thing; he's probably just looking to tear some shit up now.
Apr 24 2009 Denzel Washington, You've Got To Stop This Out-of-Control Train Full of Hazardous Waste!
When a runaway train filled with toxic chemicals is on the loose, and another train with a rookie conductor is sent to chase it down, there's only one expert engineer who can board that second train, wrestle the controls away from the novice, and catch the original, toxic chemical-carrying train: Denzel Washington. From Variety:
Denzel Washington is negotiating to star in drama "Unstoppable," the Tony Scott-directed that 20th Century Fox has on track for a fall production start.Washington would play an experienced engineer who jumps in a locomotive with a young conductor to chase down a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals. Mark Bomback wrote the script, which is loosely inspired by a true event.
The drama would reunite Washington and Scott for their fifth film together. Aside from "Crimson Tide," "Man on Fire" and "Deja Vu," the duo just completed another train-based thriller, "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," which Columbia Pictures releases June 12.
So, just to make sure you caught all that, Tony Scott and Denzel Washington just made a movie where Denzel is a dispatcher stopping a subway train taken over by terrorists, and now they're doing a movie where Denzel is a conductor stopping a train full of toxic chemicals. Their next collaboration is just going to be the plot of the monorail episode of The Simpsons but with less singing.
Jan 28 2009 'A-Team' Acquires New Teammate
For reasons unclear, it looks like the A-Team is still driving its racing-striped van into theaters. THR is reporting that Smokin' Aces' Joe Carnahan is in talks to direct the Ridley and Tony Scott-produced adaptation:
Joe Carnahan is in negotiations to helm the action movie with Ridley and Tony Scott's shingle Scott Free coming on board as producers. Stephen J. Cannell, who co-created the show, is also producing.The trek to bring "A-Team" to the big screen has been a long one, with various actors, directors and writers landing on it before springing off of it. John Singleton was last attached, but ultimately left after casting issues stalled the project.
Fox is betting this is the right combination, setting a June 11, 2010, release date for the feature, which is written by Skip Woods.
I expect to hear the cast announcements soon; otherwise it means Joe Carnahan will have to deal with daily calls from Mr. T for that much longer.
Nov 8 2007 'Tell-Tale Heart' is Nothing Like 'The Tell-Tale Heart'
A film inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," produced by Tony and Ridley Scott and starring Josh Lucas, doesn't sound too bad, right? These guys are all at least marginally talented, and the source material is strong, so this could be one to keep an eye on.
Except, as you'll soon learn, "inspired by" can often mean "only vaguely resembling in any way." Such as just using the idea of a heart and a murder...
Inspired by the classic Edgar Allan Poe story "The Tell-Tale Heart," the contemporized adaptation sees Lucas starring as a single father whose recently transplanted heart leads him on a frantic search to find the donor's killer before a similar fate befalls him.
So, instead of a murderer going insane with the imagined beating of his chopped-up victim's heart, we have this absurd tale where a murderer (who is no longer the protagonist) apparently wants to kill anyone who has a particular heart--like sort of a cardiac Blade Runner--and Lucas as a sympathetic single dad.
Why are they even saying this is inspired by Poe? I guess "heavily inspired by the 2000 David Duchovny/Minnie Driver romantic comedy Return to Me" didn't have the same ring to it.
