In the mood for another needless remake?

Of course you are, and Variety will tell you all about it:
Twentieth Century Fox and Lakeshore Entertainment are mounting a remake of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," the 1985 teen comedy that starred Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker.
The comedy will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Miley Cyrus. Lakeshore's Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg will produce.
The studio has set Michelle Morgan to write a new version of the film, which centered on two girls who share a passion for dancing and the hit show "Dance TV."
Morgan just scripted "Is He the One," a Todd Garner-produced romantic comedy for Fox, and "Imogene" for Anonymous Content.
-Miley Cyrus star vehicle remake...all we need is Uwe Boll...thoughts?

The (American) Return of Paul Verhoeven!

Via The Hollywood Reporter:
Paul Verhoeven is coming back to America.The Dutch director, who most recently helmed his native-tongued “Black Book,” has come aboard to develop and direct “The Surrogate,” a thriller for 20th Century Fox. Ralph Winter is producing via his Winter Road shingle along with Deborah Giarratana, Robin Guthrie and Susana Zepeda. Based on the 2004 book by Kathryn Mackel, the story centers on a couple desperate to have a child who find themselves in an unbearable position when they find out the surrogate they hired to carry their baby is insane.The project originally was set up at Fox Atomic but moved to Fox proper when Atomic was shuttered. Debbie Liebling, who ran Atomic, is overseeing “Surrogate.” Roderick Taylor and Bruce Taylor wrote the original draft.Winter, a producer on Fox’s “X-Men” movies, most recently was a producer on “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Verhoeven, repped by ICM and Marion Rosenberg, became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after directors in the 1990s with such movies as “Total Recall” and “Basic Instinct.” He became disenchanted with Tinseltown after his 2000 sci-fi thriller “Hollow Man” fizzled. He then returned to the Netherlands, where he made “Book.” The World War II thriller won several awards and thrust him back in the limelight. Verhoeven is developing several projects, including “The Winter Queen,” with Milla Jovovich attached to star.
-His films are certainly never boring...

A real life pirate rescue movie coming soon?

Perhaps, according to Variety:
Weeks after his dramatic attempted escape and eventual rescue from armed Somali pirates, captain Richard Phillips’ life rights have been acquired by Columbia Pictures.
Studio, which has also optioned the film rights to Phillips’ upcoming memoir, will bring to the bigscreen the cargo ship captain’s capture by four Somali pirates and subsequent rescue by the U.S. Navy.
Michael DeLuca, Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti and Scott Rudin are onboard to produce. Brunetti, a former member of the Coast Guard, was particularly instrumental in helping land the rights. He flew to the East Coast to meet with Phillips to discuss how the film would be handled.
"We were drawn to this remarkable story of heroism and courage as events were unfolding off the coast of Africa," Col co-prexy Doug Belgrad said.
Film will retell the events that garnered headlines worldwide in April. After his ship was hijacked on the high seas, Phillips surrendered himself to the pirates in order to protect his crew. The married father of two made one unsuccessful escape attempt before an elite squad of Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed three of the four pirates — an action authorized by President Obama. A fourth pirate surrendered and is in custody.
Earlier this month, Phillips signed with CAA to help him navigate book and film offers.
Spacey and his producing partner Brunetti recently teamed with DeLuca and Rudin on an untitled Facebook project at Col.
-Hmm, could be baity, no pun intended...thoughts?

Woody finds that replacement he needed for Nicole Kidman in his next flick

Variety has the casting choice:
Woody Allen has tapped British actress Lucy Punch to join the cast of his upcoming untitled film. She replaces Nicole Kidman.
Allen does not disclose details on plot, characters or even his titles, but sources said Punch will play a high-priced call girl similar to Ashley Dupre, who was at the center of the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Kidman bowed out because of a schedule overlap with "The Rabbit Hole," the John Cameron Mitchell-directed film she is producing as well as starring in.
Landing the role is a coup for Punch, who was a regular a few seasons back on the CBS sitcom "The Class." Her screen credits include "Hot Fuzz" and she just wrapped the Anna Faris-Topher Grace-starrer "Young Americans."
Punch joins Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts and Freida Pinto in a film that Allen will shoot in London, with financing from Mediapro, the Spain-based company responsible for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
-This might turn into the English Eliot Spitzer movie? Weird, but I'm in...what about you?

Red Band Trailer for The Goods

-Something about this trailer made me laugh more than I should admit...what did you think of it?

Transformers 2 gets an IMAX Poster

If ever there was a movie that needed IMAX to help its cause...

Natalie Portman goes the comedy route for her next project

From Variety:
Natalie Portman will star with Danny McBride and James Franco in "Your Highness," a Universal Pictures comedy that begins production in July in Ireland. David Gordon Green ("Pineapple Express") is directing.
Scott Stuber is producing through his U-based banner.
McBride, who wrote the script with Ben Best, plays an arrogant lazy prince who with his brother (Franco) must complete a quest to save the kingdom and his brother's fiance. Portman will play a warrior princess that the lazy prince falls in love with.
McBride and Best set up the project with U and Stuber last year. Jon Mone and Andy Davis are exec producers.
Portman is currently starring with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rainn Wilson in the Spencer Susser-directed "Hesher," which marks Portman's feature debut as a producer under her banner, Handsomecharlie Films.
She will next be seen in the Jim Sheridan-directed "Brothers," with Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal, which is due out in December. Portman just wrapped the Don Roos-directed "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits."
McBride and Best are exec producers and costars on the raunchy HBO comedy "Eastbound and Down" and they also co-wrote the 2006 feature "The Foot Fist Way" with helmer Jody Hill.
-David Gordon Green has shown he can handle comedy as well as drama lately, so I'm excited...thoughts?

Teaser Trailer for Toy Story 3!

-The child in me smiles...with the way Pixar's been on fire and how good the first two were...can this film not be one you're looking forward to in a big bad way?

Spielberg's Tintin movie gets a release date

Which we can see in this article from Variety:
Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" will hit U.S. theaters in December 2011 -- long after bowing internationally.
Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment unveiled plans to release the motion capture pic Stateside on Dec. 23, 2011. But in an unusual move, film will launch internationally in late October and early November 2011, with Sony Pictures Releasing Intl. handling Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and India, and Paramount distributing the film in Asia, Australia, the U.K. and all other English-speaking territories.
The two studios also revealed that they will release "Tintin" in 3-D, a move that had been mulled for several months. Insiders said the dailies convinced them that 3-D would offer the best rendition.
Film, which began production in late January, is the first of a planned series based on the iconic character created by Georges Remi, better known to the world by his pen name "Herge." The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Peter Jackson.
The decision signals the two studios' belief that the property, which has been translated into 70 languages, shows stronger potential overseas than domestically. Not surprisingly, the film's cast skews international with Brit Jamie Bell starring as the intrepid young reporter. Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook round out the cast.
Spielberg, Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy are producing the pic, which will compete for North American audiences against Warner Bros.' "Happy Feet 2" and Disney/Pixar's "The Bear and the Bow." Nick Rodwell, Stephane Sperry and Ken Kamins are exec producing.
-Thoughts?

A Poster and Trailer for The Answer Man

-Looks ok to me...what do you think?

Kevin Smith gets an additional "Couple of Dicks"

The cast is coming together nicely, according to this in The Hollywood Reporter:

Seann William Scott and Adam Brody are joining Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Warner Bros.' "A Couple of Dicks," a buddy action comedy being directed by Kevin Smith.The script, by Robb and Mark Cullen, follows a maverick cop (Willis) and his partner (Morgan) who, while tracking a valuable stolen baseball card, tangle with a memorabilia-obsessed gangster and rescue a Mexican beauty who holds the key to millions in laundered drug money. Scott plays a thief known as the Shit Bandit for the souvenirs he leaves at his robberies. Brody is an abrasive detective not happy to be working with Willis and Morgan. Shooting begins Monday in New York. Marc Platt and Polly Johnsen are producing. Sarah Schechter and Matthew Milam are overseeing for the studio.Scott, repped by CAA, recently starred in Universal's "Role Models" and will next be heard in Fox's sequel "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." Endeavor-repped Brody next appears in Boaz Yakin's indie drama "Death in Love" then in "Jennifer's Body," a Diablo Cody-penned dark comedy starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried.
-I like both of these actors, and dig Kevin Smith, so this film is looking very good to me...what about you?

Poster for the latest Final Destination movie

Hopefully there's some truth in advertising...

Danny McBride gets a new project

From Variety:
Warner Bros. has acquired "Hench" and will develop the AIT/Planet Lar graphic novel as the template for a comic screen vehicle for Danny McBride, who is set to write the script with Shawn Harwell.
McBride will play a football player who suffers a career-ending injury and needs a job. He signs on as henchman to a successful villain.
Original Films' Neal Moritz will produce with Jason Netter's Kickstart Prods. and McBride. Ken Levin and Ori Marmur will be exec producers.
The graphic novel was created by Adam Beechen and Mario Bello.
McBride and Harwell have collaborated as writers on episodes of the former's HBO series "Eastbound and Down."
McBride, who next stars opposite Will Ferrell in Universal's "Land of the Lost," is preparing to star for that studio in the David Gordon Green-directed "Your Highness." McBride wrote the script and joins Scott Stuber as producer. After that, McBride will return for a second season of his HBO series.
-Sounds pretty cool...thoughts?

Chevy Chase joins John Cusack in a "Hot Tub"!

Kinky, right? Actually, it's just more casting for Cusack's next comedy, via this in The Hollywood Reporter:
In an odd bit of symbolism, the Chevy Chase resurgence is leading him back in time.
The comedy vet is now taking a dip in UA's time-travel comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine," with John Cusack and Rob Corddry. The Steve Pink-directed, Josh Heald-scripted film follows a bunch of unsatisfied guys who get thrown back to their younger days in 1987 via their Jacuzzi.
Chase plays a mysterious repairman who dispenses pearls of wisdom and may or may not be behind the metaphysical road trip. The film is shooting in Vancouver and is scheduled for a February release.
The "Saturday Night Live" alum, who toplined a string of classic 1980s comedies, is enjoying something of a comeback. Chase appeared in a recent arc on NBC's "Chuck," and nabbed a role in the Polish brothers' Tribeca film "Stay Cool."
Chase, repped by Fortitude and Kritzer Levine Wilkins Entertainment, also has a starring role on NBC's new series "Community," in which he plays a community college student carrying more divorces than classes.
He is also considering a new script for the Weinstein Co. that would see him reprise his highly quotable role as investigative reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher. A relaunch of the "Fletch" franchise has been in the works for years, with the current screenplay's approach passing the baton to Fletch's journalist nephew as the semi-retired uncle advises him on his stories.
-Good to see him back...thoughts?

Curious about the next slate of Dreamworks Animated Features?

Wonder no further what Jeffery Katzenberg has up his sleeve, thanks to this in Variety:
"Kung Fu Panda" sequels and "Shrek" spinoffs will be joined by original pics on DreamWorks Animation’s sked as the toon studio ups its output to five features every two years.
CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose contract was recently extended to 2013, will unveil DWA’s slate through late 2012 for the investment community in Gotham Thursday, revealing five original projects and a handful of franchise follow-ups.
Per Katzenberg’s mandate, all pics will be produced in 3-D.
Among the highlights of today’s presentation is the casting of Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey in "Oobermind."
Downey will voice a supervillain who finds life a little dull after vanquishing good-guy rival Metro Man. The superhero-themed pic, based on a spec script (previously called "Master Mind") from Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films, will open Nov. 5, 2010.
Pic is produced by Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino and exec produced by Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld.
With impressive first-quarter gains — but only "Monsters vs. Aliens" on the calendar for 2009 (down from DWA’s usual two-toon-a-year model) — studio brass stressed that their pipeline can now support an additional pic every other year.
"We now have three very successful franchises, but we also want to tell new stories. Now, in addition to one or two sequels a year, we’ll have a new original as well," DWA co-prexy of production Bill Damaschke told Daily Variety.
"Some people wonder if the market can sustain three animated movies from DreamWorks, and I feel there seems to be room in the marketplace for big event movies the entire family can go to," Damaschke said. "Now that people have grown up on animation, there’s an adult audience for animation."
He pointed to a crowded 2010, which will bring a fourth installment in the "Shrek" series (now titled "Shrek Forever After") flanked by two new properties, "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Oobermind."
"Shrek Forever After" is directed by Mike Mitchell, produced by Teresa Cheng and Gina Shay and exec produced by Aron Warner and Andrew Adamson.
"Dragon" will be written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and produced by Bonnie Arnold. It stars Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera and Jonah Hill. Set in the world of Vikings and dragons, it centers on an awkward teen who befriends an injured dragon.
The following year brings two projects. For the first, the company confirmed signing Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman for "Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom," due out June 3, 2011. Longtime story exec Jennifer Yuh Nelson makes her feature directorial debut. Melissa Cobb produces.
In its Nov. 4 slot, DWA has "The Guardians," turning to a not-yet-published book series from kidlit-to-toon titan William Joyce, whose work has previously inspired Disney’s "Meet the Robinsons" and "Rolie Polie Olie."
With animation and vfx vet Jeff Lynch attached to direct, "The Guardians" unites characters every child knows — Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman — to defend the world from a Bogeyman-like villain.
According to Damaschke, the figures have been "somewhat renamed and massively reimagined" by Joyce, who has supplied each of the figures with a fresh backstory and is collaborating closely on the film. The first of the books should be released around Christmas 2010.
Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein produce.
The following year gets crowded once again, as DWA returns to the well for a prequel of sorts. "Puss in Boots" imagines events before the popular character’s appearance in "Shrek 2," while introducing all-new characters. Antonio Banderas returns, and Salma Hayek will lend her voice to love interest Kitty. "Shrek the Third" helmer Chris Miller is onboard to direct, with the film slated for March 30, 2012.
Joe Aguilar and Michelle Raimo produce. Adamson exec produces.
Just two months later, "Madagascar" helmer Eric Darnell offers up a third installment in the zoo-break series, which would relocate the critters from Africa to Europe via a traveling circus. Mireille Soria and Mark Swift produce.
Katzenberg has staked out a third date that fall, Nov. 12, for an original feature, to be chosen from a trio of projects currently in development.
The first option, caveman comedy "The Croods," from directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, was once intended to be an Aardman collaboration. It’s produced by Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell. Another, "Truckers," is derived from Terry Pratchett’s "The Bromeliad Trilogy," with Simon Beaufoy adapting a story of miniature creatures stuck living in a department store.
Damaschke also cited a third option, tentatively titled "Super Secret Ghost Project," that asks what ghosts think about humans.
All three projects are currently under way in some form, with the decision on which one lands the late-2012 slot to be determined down the road.
"These projects are such a huge time commitment, so we develop every film as if we’re going to make it," said Damaschke, who also serves as president of DWA’s theatrical division.
Slate news follows Katzenberg’s announcement last week of plans to adapt two of the company’s pics, "Kung Fu Panda" and "How to Train Your Dragon," into traveling, Cirque du Soleil-style arena shows.
-Downey Jr. lending his voice to anything is a good thing to me, and overall these all sound ok, if not amazing...thoughts?

We finally have the winners of the 2006 ACCA's!

Sorry for the delay, but it's been a vacation sort of week for us here at The Awards Circuit (I managed to keep the blog going so it wasn't a total blackout), but we now have the winners for you, so check them out here:

http://www.awardscircuit.com/Images/acca2006.html

-There's plenty more to come for you, our beloved readers, including more reviews (I've recently seen The Girlfriend Experience), more years for the ACCA's, and perhaps some new and interactive additions to the site....keep reading to find out more!

Tarantino continues to fine tune his Basterds...

...in anticipation of unleashing them on American audiences, according to this piece I got from Variety:
In my interview with Quentin Tarantino, he admits that he plans to go back to the editing room with Inglourious Basterds this June. He rushed the movie, getting it done in less than a year to make Cannes, and delivered a cinephile's fantasy:
It’s been a whirlwind year for the director, who has long believed in making films slowly to stand the test of time. That is, until Death Proof, which did not benefit, he says, from too much overfiddling. So he put Inglourious Basterds on a tight schedule with a Cannes deadline.
After finishing last July the 165-page script he had been writing on and off since 1999, Tarantino obtained backing for a $70 million picture from loyal patron Harvey Weinstein and Universal Pictures, landed his most megawatt star ever, Brad Pitt, almost canceled the October shoot before he finally found the multilingual Christoph Waltz to star in a pivotal role, and stayed on schedule during 10 weeks of shooting on location in Germany. And after three months of editing, he delivered a dripping-wet print to Cannes—a place he considers “Cinema Nirvana,” where “cinema matters, it’s important”—at a running time of two hours, 27 minutes: 13 minutes less than Pulp Fiction and 19 minutes less than he needed to retain final cut.
While the war mission movie played better to some than others, the Cannes jury liked it well enough to award the best actor prize to dazzling German linguist Christoph Waltz, who performs fluently in French, German, English and Italian.
As Tarantino goes back to the editing bay, he has some wriggle room. He'll edit together one scene that he shot but didn't assemble; it comes right before the La Louisiane sequence featuring Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger as a British soldier under cover and a German movie star who wants to help him bring down the Third Reich. Fassbender pops in the movie, so it makes sense that the filmmakers would want to give him more screen time.
The scenes featuring Maggie Cheung as Madame Mimieux, the proprietor of a Paris cinema who takes in Shosanna Dreyfuss (Melanie Laurent), won't be restored. It doesn't add to the narrative.
Tarantino also plans to preview the movie in the States, outside of California, not with research cards but just to see how it plays with an audience. He and editor Sally Menke will then fine-tune and tweak the timing. The Weinstein Co. releases the movie August 21.
-I just want to see it already and find out what to make of it myself...how bout you?

Trailer for A Perfect Getaway

-Doesn't look terrible, but doesn't look amazing either...we do get another look at the man who will be Thor, so that's something...right? right?

Tom Cruise finally picks his next movie...

...if this in Variety is to be believed:
Tom Cruise is zeroing in on the 20th Century Fox action comedy "Wichita" as his next star vehicle.
He'll pair with Cameron Diaz in the James Mangold-directed film. That ends a serious courtship that the star had since January with some of the highest-profile projects in Hollywood.
According to sources, Cruise and Diaz have approved the script, and their deals are in advanced negotiations. While Fox has not officially dated the picture, sources said the studio is eyeing a summer 2010 release.
The script has been through many machinations, but the most recent drafts were done by Scott Frank, with Mangold currently fine-tuning the script with Laeta Kalogridis ("Shutter Island"). Two-hander has several action scenes.
Cruise will play a secret agent who pops in and out of the life of a single woman.
Since the opening of "Valkyrie," Cruise has been courted for and has shown serious interest in the Len Wiseman-directed DreamWorks thriller "Motorcade"; the Bharat Nalluri-directed Spyglass remake "The Tourist"; the David Cronenberg-directed MGM drama "The Matarese Circle"; the Universal/Working Title romantic comedy "Lost for Words"; and "The 28th Amendment," the Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck-directed Warner Bros. thriller.
The competition for the slot came down to "Wichita" and "Motorcade." It is possible that Cruise might do one of the other projects down the line.
-Sounds like it has potential...Get Smart last summer was a decent blend of comedy and action, so it could be a profitable film if nothing else...what do you think?

An Uncensored Trailer for the Werner Herzog directed Bad Lieutenant remake

-This is pretty nuts, though I'm not sure if I like it or not...thoughts?

Dustin Hoffman joins the cast of an indie flick

Variety has the details:
Dustin Hoffman will topline opposite Paul Giamatti in indie drama "Barney's Version," based on Mordecai Richler's final novel, with Robert Lantos ("Adoration") producing through his Serendipity Point banner.
Richard J. Lewis will direct from the adaptation by Michael Konyves. Principal photography will begin Aug. 17 in Rome.
Hoffman, who most recently starred in "Last Chance Harvey," will play a retired cop and father of the story's title character -- who has led a reckless life highlighted by three marriages, two children and status as a "person of interest" in the mysterious disappearance of his friend.
"Barney's Version" is produced by Serendipity Point in association with Italy's Fandango and Montreal's Lyla Films. Co-producers are Domenico Procacci ("Gomorrah"), Lyse Lafontaine and Ari Lantos, with Mark Musselman exec producing; investors include Astral Media, Corus Entertainment, Telefilm Canada, Sodec, HGF, OMDC and CBC.
Two of Richler's novels have been adapted into features -- "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" and "Joshua Then and Now," which Lantos produced. Lantos' credits include "Eastern Promises," "Being Julia," "Sunshine" and "The Sweet Hereafter."
-Could this be Hoffman's last grasp at another nomination?