Saturday, October 17
X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner admitted to Empire that Wolverine 2 is the "furthest along of all the X-Men projects on the boil." The sequel will be an adaptation of a Wolverine solo comic book series from the 1980s that follows Wolverine as he travels to meet an old flame in Japan.
It's actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. This movie will really focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to him in Japan. We're very fortunate to have a story mostly outlined for us [from the comic book arc co-written by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller].
Shuler Donner believes the movie will also be shot in Japan and is hoping "to have the Japanese Fox executives involved in helping and counseling us" in order to maintain authenticity. She says even screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie is "in Japan in his head." But what will really impress fans is the fighting, with Wolverine taking on both the Yakuza and a ninja clan called the Hand.
What's cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we've seen before. Mariko's father has this stick-like weapon, so Wolverine will have to fight against that. There'll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts — mano-a-mano, extreme fighting. We're going to come up with a new style of fighting. It's going to be awesome.
Next Showing: The Stepfather is currently in theaters
Posted 10/17/2009 by Ryan
Related: Aaron Eckhart | Johnny Depp | Amber Heard | The Rum Diary | The Stepfather | Zombieland
Thursday, February 12
The Rum Diary, the adaptation of a Hunter S. Thompson novel about a journalist living in 1950's Puerto Rico is adding some big names to its cast list. Johnny Depp, who is also producing and has been trying to get the movie adaptation produced since 2003, has long been announced as the lead, with Amber Heard (Pineapple Express) being cast as Depp's love interest just this week. Now both Aaron Eckhart and Richard Jenkins are joining the production.
Jenkins, a current Oscar nominee for The Visitor, will play the man who runs the newspaper Depp works for, and Eckhart will play a wealthy landowner who becomes involved in a love triangle with Depp and Heard.
The Rum Diary starts production in Puerto Rico March 30.
Posted 2/12/2009 by Ryan
Related: Aaron Eckhart | Johnny Depp | Richard Jenkins | Amber Heard | The Rum Diary | The Visitor | Hunter S. Thompson
Monday, July 30
Variety is veritably teeming with casting announcements this post-Comic-con Monday.
Cameron Diaz will be starring in My Sister's Keeper, which was adapted from Jodi Picoult's 2005 novel by Jeremy Leven (The Notebook). The drama, about a lawyer who must defend herself and her husband from the emancipation petition by their 13-year-old daughter who was conceived as a genetic match to save her sister from cancer, will be directed by Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog, John Q).
Keira Knightley will be putting on the corset and hoop skirts again for The Duchess, an 18th century costume drama adapted from Amanda Foreman's best-selling 2001 biography, Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire. Described as the "Princess Diana of her time," Georgiana lived a rather wild life. Sounds a little like the formula used to make Marie Antoinette to us.
And finally, Johnny Depp is going back to the Hunter S. Thompson well for The Rum Diary, an adaptation of the "gonzo" journalist's autobiograhical novel that he wrote in 1959, but wasn't published until 1998. In it, Depp will play Thompson's alter ego, Paul Kemp, a freelancer for a rundown Puerto Rican newspaper who finds himself surrounded by self-destructive ex-pats.
The Rum Diary will be written and directed by Bruce Robinson (Jennifer Eight, The Killing Fields).
Posted 7/30/2007 by reelz
Related: Cameron Diaz | Johnny Depp | Keira Knightley | The Rum Diary | The Duchess | My Sister's Keeper