Focus Features has Sam Mendes for two years. Variety reports the studio has made a first-look deal with Mendes, which includes “Butcher’s Crossing” and “Middlemarch.” Mendes is already set to produce “Butcher’s Crossing,” an epic about a man who decides to move to a small town in Kansas to hunt Buffalo herds over pursuing a Harvard education, but may take on directorial duties as well. “Middlemarch” is based on George Eliot’s novel about a provincial English community in the 1830s.
Common and Queen Latifah are just right for Fox Searchlight’s “Just Wright.” Latifah will play a sports trainer who falls for a professional basketball player (Common) while helping him recover from a serious injury. According to Variety, shooting will begin mid-July in New York.
The winner of this year’s Heineken Audience Award at Tribeca has a distributor. Variety reports Anchor Bay acquired the rights to send “City Island” to theaters in North America, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The film starring Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Alan Arkin and Emily Mortimer is expected to hit theaters in the U.S. later this year.
Inferno Entertainment and Magnet Media Group have assembled an impressive group of test subjects. According to Variety, Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Elijah Wood and Cam Gigandet have all signed on to join the cast of “The Experiment.” The psychological thriller is a remake of the German original about a group of men who agree to participate in an experiment in which some act as prison guards and others as prisoners so researchers can see how their levels of power and control effect the subjects. Brody will play the leader of the prisoners while Whitaker will be a guard corrupted by power.
Check out this freaky new poster for “Pandorum” from Coming Soon. The sci-fi thriller, due out on September 4th, stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster as a pair of crewmembers who wake up aboard an abandoned spaceship with no recollection of who they are. You think that’s scary? Things get even more terrifying when they realize they’re not alone.
DreamWorks has ghosts on the brain. First and foremost, the film, which is known internally as “Boo U.,” has just been given a writer. Jon Vitti is set to pen the screenplay for the film about a ghost who fails at his job and has to go back to school. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced “Boo U.” could hit theaters in late-2012. There’s also the project “Freakers” involving a story told from a ghost’s point of view, but that one’s inactive. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there’s also a third ghost concept in the pitch stage.
A “Scream” movie without Neve Campbell? According to Ace Show Biz, the trilogy’s leading lady will not be involved in the fourth film. Screenwriter Kevin Williams twittered “Trying to figure out a Sid-less scenario. She won't do it. This sucks." Is Campbell really that busy that she can’t even do some sort of cameo? Actually, she is. She’s starring in NBC’s “The Philanthropist” and is involved in some movie projects. Courtney Cox and David Arquette are in negotiations to reprise their roles, but there’s no guarantee. At least Wes Craven is definitely involved. Sidney Prescott may be the protagonist in the murderous rampages but Craven is the series’ driving force.
In “Cold Souls” Paul Giamatti plays Paul Giamatti, an actor who thinks he has found the key to happiness: soul extraction. Paul undergoes the process, which involves the removal of the soul and the subsequent deep-freezing procedure. Unfortunately, the results aren’t exactly what he’d hope for and eventually discovers he’s been a victim of soul-trafficking. Check out the trailer below.
