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Sony has dropped the Steve Jobs movie that Danny Boyle has been preparing to direct. This is surprising development for Aaron Sorkin‘s Steve Jobs script, even given the lengthy and public casting process associated with it. The film was taking some time to come together, but Sorkin’s script is said to be unusual and demanding, and we would not have guessed this would go down like this. All is not lost for the script, however, as Universal is reportedly making moves to pick it up.

We don’t have any details on the particulars of Sony deciding not to make the film, but expect those to emerge within days, if not hours. Deadline reports that Universal is very interested in the film, and that whatever momentum it has going at this point might be preserved if the studio makes a deal for the script.

Update: Deadline now says the Universal deal is all but greenlit, and that we could hear news of a deal by tomorrow.

That said, we don’t know about any of the talent associations beyond that. Sorkin’s script, based on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs and focused on three particular product launches from the Apple co-founder’s career, is the core of the movie. (It also features some potentially new material not covered by Isaacson, thanks to participation with Jobs’ daughter.)

Will Danny Boyle still direct? Probably, yes. Will Michael Fassbender commit to the film, and who will star in other key roles? These later questions are all open for now. (Boys Kit of THR has tweeted that producers had just offered a role to Scarlett Johansson — perhaps Jobs’ daughter?)

THR reports that one partner in the Sony version of the project was Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Productions, and that the company had pulled out recently. Precisely how important that is as a contributing factor in Sony’s decision remains to be seen.

The post Sony Drops Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs Movie [Updated] appeared first on /Film.

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“There can be only one (sexiest man alive)!” There is going to be a Highlander reboot, and the producers reportedly want Tom Cruise to be in the film. But he wouldn’t be the hero who learns that his own strange birthright automatically enrolled him in a violent game amongst immortals competing for the ultimate price. No, Cruise is being eyed for the revamped version of Sean Connery’s original role. So his part would be of the wise and experienced mentor/swordsman who helps the Highlander come to terms with his life and immortality. Get a few more very cautious details of the possible Tom Cruise Highlander deal below.

The Wrap reports the interest in Cruise, saying that his reps returned queries with notes that he’s been offered the gig, but that the star is “far from talks” and that “he is offered tons of projects.” (Probably room for a “show me the money!” line here.)

Similarly, anonymous sources inside the film’s camp said there are no current talks, but did not deny their interest in Cruise. (I imagine the lack of denial coming in the form of a silent eye-roll; of course they want Cruise. That’s what it’s like to be Tom Cruise.)

So at this point this is really just an idea. On the surface, though, it’s a pretty nifty idea. Cruise has been going strong in sci-fi type pictures over the past couple years, and based on the original Connery template there’s a role here that is romantic, strong, and earns crazy audience sympathy. In the best-case scenario, it would be great for Summit and the film, and also potentially good to Cruise.

While Justin Lin was once attached to direct, he’s now in an exec producer role while VFX supervisor Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (Snow White and the Huntsman) will direct. Of course, if Cruise was enticed onto the film, that directorial assignment might change very quickly. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway scripted based on a Melissa Rosenberg draft; Neal H. Moritz is producing with Peter Davis.

The post Rumor: ‘Highlander’ Reboot Producers Want Tom Cruise appeared first on /Film.

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Which superhero actor was voted the Sexiest Man Alive? What did Jared Leto say when asked about playing The Joker? Where and when is Suicide Squad going to film? Is Benedict Cumberbatch ready to talk about Doctor Strange? Who was James Gunn‘s second choice to play Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy? Which alien race has officially come to Agents of SHIELD? Want to see photos from the Arrow/Flash crossover episode? Is there a way you can watch Batman vs. Superman right now? Read about all this and more in today’s Superhero Bits.

In case you didn’t hear, Avengers and Thor star Chris Hemsworth was voted the sexiest man alive by People Magazine, beating out Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Chris Pratt.

The full Guardians of the Galaxy blooper reel from the Blu-ray has leaked online.

The first rule of maybe playing The Joker, you don’t talk about it.

Talking to GQ Magazine (via Comic Book Movie), James Gunn revealed Glenn Howerton was the second choice to play Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Images from the Arrow/Flash crossover episode have come online.

An Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D producer confirmed to TV Guide that the Kree is on the show.

Comic Book Movie ran a bunch of images from this cool Marvel vehicles user manual.

Director David Ayer will film Suicide Squad in Toronto next summer, via Global News.

Continue Reading Superhero Bits >>

Due to the amount of graphics and images included in Superhero Bits, we have to split this post over THREE pages. Click the link above to continue to the second page of Superhero Bits.

The post Superhero Bits: Suicide Squad, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Agents of SHIELD, Batman v Superman appeared first on /Film.

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Fox’s Gotham is practically drowning in future supervillains, so it’s nice to hear there’s a future superhero on the way. Though he probably won’t be of much help to Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne right now, seeing as he hasn’t even been born yet.

Showrunner Bruce Heller revealed that a “prenatal Robin” storyline is in the works for Gotham. Also coming in a future episode is the return of the pint-sized Poison Ivy — though her BFF Harley Quinn will be sitting this season out. Hit the jump for more on the planned Robin Gotham plot.

Speaking to EW, Heller revealed his approach to Robin. “We’re going to do a prenatal origin story for Robin down the line,” Heller said. “There are no MRIs involved. There’s an episode coming up where we learn how Robin’s parents got together.”

I can’t wait to see what form the heavyhanded foreshadowing takes with this one. Are the Graysons going meet at a Red Robin? Will we see them paint the nursery robin’s egg blue? Might an actual robin will sit outside the hospital window singing while Mrs. Grayson gives birth? Knowing this show, it could be all three and then some.

Though it feels at times like Gotham is introducing familiar characters as quickly as Heller can think of them, the showrunner stresses that they’re trying hard not to rush things. Case in point: While fan favorite baddie Harley Quinn is “definitely planned for later on,” she’s not part of the plan for this season. Heller said:

You can’t just keep pumping these characters into the show in a comic book sort of way, because you get the Super Friends effect—which isn’t a bad effect, but then you have spaceships and need to go underwater and get wacky villains and the rest of it. You have to work as a character piece first. First it has to be real.

Heller assured EW that the pace at which Gotham reveals new characters is carefully considered. “That aspect of the show—which characters to use and when — is a source of constant discussion.” He further explained:

We front-loaded [the show with iconic characters], which we had to do, both for story purposes and marketing purposes. We had to let people know it’s not just a hum-drum police procedural, it’s about these larger than life characters. If you do that you can’t just say, ‘Here’s one larger-than-life character, now wait for next season.’ Once we introduced those initial characters—Penguin, Riddler, Ivy, Selina—then we’ve slowed down with those aspects and we’re bringing in those iconic D.C characters in a much more measured way, which was always the intention. You have to have that amount of spice in the show to make it pop and different. Once the wheels are turning, it’s much easier to bring those characters in in subtle, organic ways. That’s the plan, anyway.

But never fear, they’re not slowing things down too much. Although Harley Quinn won’t appear in Season 1, Heller does promise Poison Ivy will resurface in the near future. And that “Riddler’s girlfriend is coming up.” The Joker will eventually appear as well, after some teasing, but Heller isn’t revealing too much about his backstory yet.

Are you looking forward to “prenatal Robin,” or do you wish Gotham would wait until after his birth to bring him in?

 

The post “Prenatal Robin” Coming to ‘Gotham’ While Harley Quinn Sits the Season Out appeared first on /Film.

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It took Zach Braff ten years to get from his first directing effort to his second, and even then he had to turn to Kickstarter for funding. But it looks like he won’t be waiting quite so long to make his third. And he won’t need crowdfunding to get this one going, either.

Braff has entered talks with New line to direct Going in Style, a remake of the 1979 caper starring George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. Hit the jump for more details on the Zach Braff Going in Style remake.

Deadline reported the news. Going in Style has been in development for a couple of years already with Ted Melfi (St. Vincent) writing the script. As of 2013 Melfi was also in talks to direct but that obviously isn’t the case anymore. Donald De Line (of Pain & Gain, Green Lantern, and the 2003 Italian Job remake) will produce. Tony Bill, who worked on the original, will executive produce.

The original Going in Style starred Burns, Carney, and Strasberg as a trio of elderly pals. In an effort to break up the monotony of their lives, they plot to rob a bank despite having very little criminal experience. Going in Style was the studio film debut of director Martin Brest, who went on to helm Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman, Meet Joe Black, and Gigli.

The new caper sounds like a slight departure for Braff, though that’s mostly because Garden State and Wish I Were Here were somewhat similar. Both were indie dramedies starring Braff as a struggling actor with a tendency toward navel-gazing. But Going in Style‘s mix of comedy and genuine emotion shouldn’t fall too far outside of Braff’s wheelhouse.

Aside from his directing work, Braff’s most recent appearances include a guest role on Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer and a supporting role as flying monkey Finley in Oz The Great and Powerful.

The post Zach Braff to Direct ‘Going in Style’ Remake appeared first on /Film.

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Anne McCaffrey‘s Dragonriders of Pern is a few different things. The book series is a work of sci-fi fantasy that holds up well; a promising franchise plan with enough raw story for several films and/or TV shows; and, thanks to the story’s many layered sci-fi concepts,  one really difficult piece of work to adapt. After years of fruitless pitches by writers and producers trying to kickstart an adaptation, Warner Bros. finally optioned the books earlier this year. Now novelist Sarah Cornwell has been hired as the first Pern screenwriter.

THR reports that the author of What I Had Before You, a novel published in January of this year, has been hired for the screenwriting job. She’s also writing Demon Camp for Montecito Pictures, and rewrote The Forest for David Goyer. Given Goyer’s standing at Warner Bros., that last point could indicate how she ended up with the Pern gig.

Presumably Cornwell will begin with an adaptation of Dragonflight, the first Pern novel, in which a breed of all-but-extinct dragons and their human riders are challenged by the reappearance of an old danger thought long past. A young woman, Lessa, harbors violent ambitions against the man who wronged her family, and finds herself able to act on them when she learns that she has a particular connection to dragons. Fold in other aspects of the story — the telepathic connection between dragon and rider; teleportation; and the nature of the planet’s danger — and you can start to see why the Pern books are both a tough prospect to adapt, and a promising place to start a new fantasy film series.

The post ‘Dragonriders of Pern’ Finds a Screenwriter appeared first on /Film.

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Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 36 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness.

Header Photo: Pop Culture Characters Done 16th Century-Style

Punch a Hole In The Sky: An Oral History of The Right Stuff.

We ranked every song in ‘The Little Mermaid’

Alien Face Hugger dog leash with harness.

The 10 Levels of Unoriginality in Hollywood Movies

21 Shockingly Dark Moments In Beloved Children’s Movies

A Stitch in Time t-shirt

18 Things We Learned from the ‘Snowpiercer’ Commentary

6 Movie Directing Tips from Francis Ford Coppola

Too Many Tooks t-shirt

How Freddy Krueger Helped Luke Skywalker for Star Wars!

Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) Talks Various Directors’ The ABCs of Death 2

Check out Excellent Dragon Con 2014 Cosplay with Beat Down Boogie’s 30-Minute Music Video

INTERSTELLAR And The Death Of The Penis

The Movie You Should See Instead Of “Interstellar”

Who Am I? t-shirt

‘Interstellar’ Is a Perfect Antidotal Sequel to ‘Transcendence’

Tamora Pierce‘s Amazing Fantasy Books Deserve To Be TV Shows And Movies

Some Dis-Assembly Required short film

Why Smithers Was Originally Black On The Simpsons

Why ‘Overrated’ Is a Garbage Word

Continue Reading Page 2 >>

The post Page 2: Star Wars, Alien, BTTF, Hobbit, Orphan Black, Interstellar, Roger Rabbit, GI Joe, Simpsons appeared first on /Film.

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The number one question fans have been asking over the past few weeks is when we’ll see a trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That mystery may have now have an answer. One site has heard multiple reports, including one from the film’s assistant director, that it’ll be released with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which opens December 17. That would give Star Wars three straight December events on the same weekend from 2014-2016.

Star Wars 7 News broke the news. The site reports from a theater owner who was told The Force Awakens trailer would come out with The Hobbit, as well as another fan who spoke to Thomas Gormley, the film’s first assistant director and frequent J.J. Abrams collaborator:

Now here’s the weird problem with this tweet. Minutes after Star Wars 7 News embedded it in their story, not only was it deleted, the entire account was deleted. A cached version of the page reveals the user had been on Twitter since March of 2012, had 196 followers and almost 4000 tweets. So it wasn’t some recent plant.

Another problem: would first assistant director Gormley, whose job pretty much ends once production is done, really know about the film’s marketing? In most cases, probably not. Considering that he’s been J.J. Abrams’ AD for multiple films, and Abrams recently made a video for him at an awards presentation, it’s obvious the two are close. It’s very conceivable he’d know.

We’ve put in requests with both Disney and Lucasfilm for confirmation, but have not heard back as of press time.

If The Force Awakens trailer is indeed on The Battle of the Five Armies, it makes a lot of sense. First up, it’s one year from the release of the film and two years from the release of the spin-off film. It would give Star Wars a nice, big, holiday presence just like they plan on having for the next several years. An early way to let fans know, we are December movies.

We also know Peter Jackson visited the set of J.J. Abrams’ film, so the two know each other and are surely friends. Plus, The Hobbit is the biggest adventure/family movie coming out in this time. While it won’t help boost the numbers of another Disney property – Into the Woods – this would surely generate the most excitement, in theater cheering and all that fun stuff.

The placement of this trailer has been a big topic of conversation here on the site and among friends out in the world. If this is true, and it certainly seems like it is, it sounds like a huge win-win for Warner Bros., Disney and fans everywhere. No Meet Joe Black this time!

Do you think the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer will be in front of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies?

The post Rumor: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Trailer Coming With ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ appeared first on /Film.

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Way back in July, Idris Elba was one of the first actors to get cast in Guy Ritchie‘s long-gestating Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur. Sadly, though, it seems he’s now had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

But the good news is they’ve already found someone to replace him. Djimon Hounsou is reportedly in talks for the role, described as a “Merlin-like figure.” Hit the jump for more on the Djimon Hounsou King Arthur casting.

Variety reported the news. If he closes his deal Housou will be playing Bedivere, previously described as “Arthur’s father’s right-hand man who takes it upon himself to train the young warrior for battle as he learns his true destiny.” Think of him as the Obi-Wan to Arthur’s Luke Skywalker… or as a Merlin type without the Merlin name.

Also in the cast are Charlie Hunnam, who is playing King Arthur, and Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, who is playing Guinevere. Jude Law entered talks to play the villain last week. Joby Harold wrote the script based on Thomas Mallory‘s 15th century compilation Le Morte d’Arthur.

Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur is intended as the first in a six-film series, though of course the next five are contingent on the first one doing well. So far, they seem to be off to a decent start with the casting. Hounsou isn’t as big a name as Elba, but he should be more than capable of taking over the role of Arthur’s mentor.

Hounsou is coming off of a supporting role in Guardians of the Galaxy, and has several films due out in the next couple years including Furious 7, David Yates’ Tarzan, the horror film The Vatican Tapes, and the much-delayed Seventh Son.

Warner Bros. has Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur scheduled to open July 22, 2016. Harold and Ritchie are producing along with Lionel Wigram, Akiva Goldsman, and Tory Tunnell.

The post Djimon Hounsou Joins ‘Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur’ as Merlin-Type Figure appeared first on /Film.

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