Thursday, November 12

• New Ninja Assassin Clips

  Six new video clips have emerged for Ninja Assassin, the latest action spectacle from producer Joel Silver and his V for Vendetta and Speed Racer partners, Andy and Larry Wachowski (the creators of The Matrix trilogy). The trio of producers brought V for Vendetta's director, James McTeigue, in to helm the feature, which was shot in Berlin, Germany.

  Starring Korean pop star Rain in his first featured role, Ninja Assassin tells the story of Raizo, a boy trained to kill in an orphanage that serves as an assassin factory for the Ozunu Clan, a secret society thought only to exist in myth and legend. When Raizo attempts to escape from the clan and start a new life, they track him down to exact their revenge.

  
  
  Next Showing: Ninja Assassin opens November 25
  

  Ninja Assassin - Trailer

  This trailer follows the path of one person, from boy to man, who becomes a deadly assassin

  Posted 11/12/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Andy Wachowski | Joel Silver | Larry Wachowski | Ninja Assassin

Wednesday, November 11

• Sgt. Rock Adaptation Set on Fast Forward

  Producer Akiva Goldsman is already involved in the production of four comic book movie adaptations, including Jonah Hex, The Losers, Lobo, and Swamp Thing, and now he's attached to a fifth. Goldsman is joining Joel Silver in his decades-long quest to bring DC Comics' WWII hero, Sgt. Rock, to the big screen.

  Only, Rock and his "Easy Company" are not going to be slogging through the trenches fighting Nazis in war-torn Europe. According to THR, the Sgt. Rock movie will be set in the future. Previously envisioned as a Dirty Dozen-esque "authentic" war film, the change of time period and locale is said to be reflective of the lack of interest by moviegoers in period war films.

  Silver had previously enlisted Guy Ritchie to script and direct Sgt. Rock, but Ritchie has moved on to direct Lobo with Silver so Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) has been brought in to front the film. Chad St. John (The Days Before) will write the script.

  
  

  Posted 11/11/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Akiva Goldsman | Joel Silver | Guy Ritchie | Francis Lawrence | Lobo | Jonah Hex | The Losers

Friday, September 25

• Swamp Thing Actor Dick Durock Dies

  Hollywood actor and stuntman Dick Durock, most famous for portraying the DC Comics anti-hero Swamp Thing in the original 1982 Wes Craven film, passed away recently after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Durock was 72.

  Durock was a television staple for years before donning the green latex suit that made him famous, appearing on The Little House on the Prairie, Quincy M.E., The Incredible Hulk, The Rockford Files, and many other shows. While critically panned, Swamp Thing had a strong cult following and Durock went on to reprise the role of Dr. Alec Holland's mutated alter-ego in The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) and in 71 episodes of the Swamp Thing TV series that ran on the USA Network.

  In one of Durock's final interviews, he confessed that he was not familiar with the character before getting the part.

  You know, honestly, I wasn't. I grew up in the era with Superman, Batman, all the classic older comic books, and by the time this came about, I guess I was past the comic book stage. In my era, comic books were strictly for kids, though, later on, they obviously had a great adult appeal.

  Durock said that he enjoyed playing Swamp Thing, but there were definitely aspects of the role that he did not relish.

  I hated the thought of having to go through the whole thing of wearing 50, 60, 70 pounds of weight in the summertime in Savannah, Georgia, but the money was there, and it's a job.

  Joel Silver, the producer the Predator, Die Hard, and Matrix series, recently announced his interest in reviving the Swamp Thing franchise using digital 3-D technology.

  
  
  

  Swamp Thing - Trailer
  

  The Return of Swamp Thing - Trailer

  Posted 09/25/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Joel Silver | Dick Durock | Swamp Thing | The Return of Swamp Thing

Tuesday, September 15

• Jeffrey Dean Morgan Joins Red Dawn, Possibly Lobo

  

  Ever since Jeffrey Dean Morgan appeared in Watchmen, he hasn't stopped working. Dean Morgan has already finished the period drama Shanghai, is currently shooting The Losers (another comic book adaptation), and, he tells ComingSoon, will start work on yet another movie once The Losers wraps:

  I'm jumping back in. I go to work on something about ten days after I've finished shooting [The Losers] ... It's a remake of a movie that I love ... Red Dawn I just love that f**king movie, ever since I was a kid.

  Dean Morgan will trade the warm climates of The Losers' Puerto Rican location for Red Dawn's Detroit, where he will join Chris Hemsworth (the newly minted Thor), Josh Peck, Adrienne Palicki, and Josh Hutcherson to play a member of a militant group that fights off a communist invasion.

  I guess I'm more or less the old Powers Booth character. There's all the kids and Powers Booth is the pilot that lands in the film and kind of helps them take down the bad guys. Blow communism away. It's a really good, young cast. I'll be the old guy in it, which is cool.

  Red Dawn is scheduled for release September 2010, at which point Dean Morgan hopes to be working on a third comic book movie, Lobo, an adaptation focused on DC Comics' violent anti-hero being directed by Guy Ritchie. Dean Morgan has an in for the role, considering Joel Silver is producing both The Losers and Lobo, but he told SuperheroHype that he may have to do some special training in order to be cast:

  Lobo would be very cool. I don't think that I'm as big as Lobo is, but if you could, like, transplant Mickey Rourke's body on my head, that would be just great.

  Dean Morgan says his involvement in comic book movies is no accident:

  You're always looking for material that's kind of smart and fun and this seems to be where it is right now. The studios are really gravitating towards it, more than I've ever seen them gravitate towards anything in a long time. Comic books are really the thing right now and I don't see that going away for at least the next couple of years.

  
  

  Posted 09/15/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Joel Silver | Jeffrey Dean Morgan | Red Dawn | Lobo

Thursday, September 10

• Three Movies Die Following Warner Bros. Restructuring

  Just yesterday it was announced that Warner Bros. Entertainment had created a new division, DC Entertainment, Inc., to help it better tap into the potential TV and movie properties available to it through its DC Comics subsidiary. One day later, and Warner Bros. has already pulled the plug on three planned genre films.

  Yesterday, an insider source told Deadline Hollywood that Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov is "calling back" high-profile projects like The Flash and Wonder Woman from outside producers in an effort to "severely limit the number of gross participants on the projects," effectively shelving the movies. While the cancellation may seem like bad news to many fans, it could be a sign that Warner Bros. is finally taking the necessary steps to build a stronger, more cohesive "universe" of comic properties along the lines of what Marvel Studios is doing with its film properties.

  Hot on the heels of those cancellations comes a report from Variety that Warner Bros. is scrapping its Joel Silver-led production of Masters of the Universe and severing ties with Mattel. Mattel is expected to take He-Man and the rest of the Masters to another studio with John Stevenson still attached as director, but there is no confirmation of this.

  
  

  Posted 09/10/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Joel Silver | The Flash | Wonder Woman | He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Thursday, September 3

• How Movie Tech Changes: Die Hard 2 to Whiteout

  

  Joel Silver knows a thing or two about making movies. The producer of such successful franchises as Die Hard, Predator, Lethal Weapon, and The Matrix series, Silver tries to stay ahead of the game by keeping up with the latest technology. Silver's latest production, Whiteout, based on the comic book series by Greg Rucka, utilized digital 3-D technology to make the harsh Antarctic weather come to life, a vast improvement over chasing storm systems around the globe, he told Straight.com.

  I don't think that this film would have been possible without the computer-graphics work we do today. The fact that in the middle of these terrible storms you can actually see the people and not see anything else is all due to the technology today. I made Die Hard 2 20 years ago, and you had to have snow and it was difficult to do. We were chasing snow around the world, and it was a complicated way of making a picture. In this one, we did have some harsh environments [to shoot in], but a lot of it was created in a way that you could believe what you were seeing. You believed you were watching these characters living in this environment, which, I think, is what makes the film original and unique.

  Whiteout isn't the only comic book movie adaptation on Silver's plate. He also has plans to make a movie based on the DC Comics classic Swamp Thing, and feels that high-tech might be the perfect thing for this "green" anti-hero.

  Our company [Dark Castle Entertainment] is currently working on developing a remake of Swamp Thing ... and we think [3-D] might work. There are a couple of things that would work for us, but not everything.

  Whiteout is directed by Dominic Sena and stars Kate Beckinsale as U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, Gabriel Macht as Robert Pryce, and Tom Skerritt as Dr. John Fury.

  
  
  

  Whiteout - Trailer

  Kate Beckinsale Stars - Releasing Sept. 11, 2009

  Posted 09/03/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Joel Silver | Swamp Thing | Whiteout | Die Hard 2

Saturday, August 29

• Joel Silver Developing Swamp Thing Movie

  Prolific movie producer Joel Silver has launched many successful franchises in his career, including the Predator, Die Hard, and Matrix series, and now he has plans to bring a certain muck-encrusted anti-hero to the big screen, possibly in glorious 3-D.

  While participating in the press conference for his latest picture, Whiteout, Silver was asked what plans, if any, he had for making a 3-D movie. Silver said:

  I'm developing a picture now that I'd like to do ... I'll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we've had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3-D. There are a couple of projects I'm thinking about (for the 3-D format), but not everything.

  A DC Comics character, Swamp Thing is a plant elemental, an animated mass of plant material who fights for the survival of the environment against eco-terrorists and supernatural threats. Swamp Thing first received the big-screen treatment in 1982 courtesy of horror master Wes Craven. The first movie was successful enough to earn a sequel and a short-lived TV series, but the big screen and TV versions of the character differed drastically from the comic book version.

  
  

  Posted 08/29/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Joel Silver | Swamp Thing | The Return of Swamp Thing

Friday, August 14

• New Wonder Woman Script Like Raiders of The Lost Ark

  With Warner Bros. looking to jump-start production on their DC Comics–related comic book movies, Wonder Woman may finally get her invisible jet off the ground and into theaters soon. No, the script's not the Joss Whedon one, which was inexplicably tossed in the trash by Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver, but a brand new script from newcomers Brent Strickland and Matthew Jennison.

  The two screenwriters wrote a spec script involving Wonder Woman in World War II that got Silver's attention. Silver then asked for the script to be updated for modern times. In doing so, not unlike Whedon before them, Strickland says they had to take some liberties.

  We certainly took liberties on our spec Wonder Woman, but we also used a ton of stuff from the comic. My feeling is that ultimately something iconic like Wonder Woman needs to be a hybrid of the source material and the writer's original inspiration. We feel an obligation to the fan base not only to treat the property with respect, but also to make it fresh — to reinvent the story without reinventing the wheel, so to speak.

  So what can fans look forward to in this new script?

  There should be breathtaking action sequences alongside character beats that allow the audience to relate to this Amazon princess, and moments where they get to laugh but not because it's campy. People have described the spec as Wonder Woman meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. I think that's a pretty good tone.

  Now it's up to Silver and Warner Bros. to actually make the movie and not dump the script.

  
  

  Posted 08/14/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Joel Silver | Joss Whedon | Wonder Woman

Friday, August 7

• Is James McTeigue Directing the Next Superman?

  

  Last week, IESB reported that Warner Bros. had closed the door on Bryan Singer's involvement with Superman and were looking to reboot the franchise, possibly with James McTeigue as director and Andy and Larry Wachowski producing.

  Warner was supposedly hoping for a more action-oriented director, which McTeigue may prove to be with his upcoming Ninja Assassin. However, when SlashFilm asked McTeigue about the possibility of directing Superman, his answer was decidely vague:

  You know ... I ... I would say. .. I'll keep you guessing, actually. It's good not to dispel every rumor, right?

  McTeigue's answer was surprising considering he was the one to announce Warner's interest in having the Wachowskis take over the Superman franchise in February. At the time, McTeigue thought the Wachowskis may be too busy should their pet project Plastic Man get off the ground, though McTeigue says the movie, at this point, is dead:

  Obviously, Larry and Andy, did a script for Plastic Man back in the day. I'll be very surprised if that movie gets made. We haven't ever really talked about it. But I know it's still a Joel [Silver] property or a Warner property...

  After directing V For Vendetta, McTeigue has been no stranger to comic book adaptation speculation. At one point he was in talks to direct X-Men Origins: Magneto, though he dismissed those rumors:

  [Magneto] was just one of those rumors that started out and I don't know where it came from or how it came up. I think that David Goyer would be surprised about that actually.

  I mean, you know, it's not a bad idea.

  So no Plastic Man, Magneto's "not a bad idea," and maybe to Superman? McTeigue could potentially have a full slate is any of these rumors become substantiated. Until then, fanboys will have to wait on Ninja Assassin's November 25 release to see if McTeigue's got the goods.

  
  

  Posted 08/07/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Andy Wachowski | James McTeigue | Joel Silver | Larry Wachowski | David Goyer | Superman Returns | Superman: The Man of Steel | Ninja Assassin | X-Men Origins: Magneto | Plastic Man

Monday, August 3

• Joel Silver Aiming for Avatar-like Adaptation of Lobo

  

  Given the current explosive trend in Hollywood to make feature-length films based on comic book properties, it was only a matter of time before a producer had the daring, and the technology, to actualize Lobo, the "Last Czarnian."

  While Lobo, which oddly stands for "he who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it" and not "wolf," may not be a well-known character to the masses, his name and image are instantly recognizable to comic book fans. A bounty hunter that's as strong as Superman but with very little in the way of morals (Lobo killed every other Czarnian on his home planet so that he could be unique), the character was wildly popular in the early 90's thanks to writer Alan Grant and artist Simon Bisley.

  Producer Joel Silver, while out stumping for his movie Orphan, said that he is "very excited" to make a Lobo movie "soon" and that the technology has finally caught up to the concept.

  When any of you see Avatar, see pieces of it, the technology is genius, the stuff that's out there that is doable is fantastic.

  With the comic book origin that he has, you would think that any movie based upon Lobo's exploits would require a hard R-rating, but Silver said that this is not necessarily the case.

  I think it's structured now as a PG-13 movie. I think we've done it that way, but I love it. I've just wanted to make it for a long time, and I think (Lobo's) a great character, a great guy."

  While this is optimistic news for comic book movie fans, it's unlikely that Lobo will be getting off of the ground any time soon. Silver is currently in various stages of producing Sherlock Holmes, The Book of Eli, The Losers, The Factory, Logan's Run, and The Gamekeeper.

  
  

  Posted 08/03/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Joel Silver

Monday, July 20

• What Joel Silver Would Have Done With Watchmen

  Before Watchmen opened in theaters this March, the movie spent years in development, hopping from one movie studio to another, ultimately culminating in a lawsuit between Fox and Warner Bros. that split the movie's meager profits.

  At one point in the 1980s, Joel Silver, famed producer of the upcoming comic book adaptations Whiteout and The Losers, bought the rights to both Watchmen and another Alan Moore graphic novel, V For Vendetta. While Silver eventually made Vendetta, he lost the rights to Watchmen, something he regrets."When I read Watchmen, it changed my view of so many things. It was the first time I'd read a graphic novel really like that," Silver told Cinematical. He also would have made a different movie than eventual director Zack Snyder:

  I love Zack and I love his work, and I think he's very talented, but the script that we developed, I think was better than the movie they made. I don't want to say he was a slave to the material because he made changes anyway, but I think it could have been a little more satisfying movie. I think Zack made a great movie, though; I don't want to minimize what he did. But I think at the end of the day it was more kind of tuned to just the big kind of fanatics of Watchmen as opposed to a broader-based audience who didn't maybe know the original comic.

  Watchmen's poor box office seems to support Silver's accusations. However, it's possible the DVD release on July 21 of The Director's Cut may financially validate Snyder's version.

  
  

  Posted 07/20/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Joel Silver | Zack Snyder | Alan Moore | Watchmen

Tuesday, March 10

• Lynda Carter Approves Eliza Dushku as Wonder Woman

  Should a Wonder Woman movie ever come out, Lynda Carter would back Eliza Dushku as the Amazonian goddess. Carter, the Wonder Woman from the 1970s TV series, told WENN: "I've always liked Joss and Eliza would make a great Wonder Woman."

  Carter, who also offered her services to help "groom" the next Wonder Woman, is referring to director Joss Whedon, who wrote a script for the movie in 2005 that he was slated to direct only to leave two years later for creative differences. In February's Maxim, Whedon clarified what really happened:

  I have no idea the status of the movie and, honestly, I never did. I was told they were very anxious to make it. I wrote a script. I rewrote the story. And by the time I'd written the second script, they asked me...not to. They didn't tell me to leave, but they showed me the door and how pretty it was. Would I like to touch the knob and maybe make it swing? I was dealing with them through [producer] Joel Silver who couldn't tell me what they wanted or anything else. I was completely in the dark. So I didn't know what it was that I wasn't giving them. I've moved on.

  Whedon may have moved on, however, Wonder Woman hasn't moved at all. Silver, who commissioned the first Wonder Woman screenplay back in 2001, recently told Comingsoon.net: "It's [Wonder Woman] in a constant state of development, but we just haven't been able to find the right way to do it yet, but hopefully we can and we can make it soon."

  Whenever you do make it, Joel, Lynda Carter is ready to help.

  
  

  Posted 03/10/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Joel Silver | Joss Whedon | Eliza Dushku | Lynda Carter | Wonder Woman

Friday, October 17

• Eternia Weeps

  All of Eternia is wrapped in mourning today at the news of the grim demise of its homoerotic hero. He-Man may have bested the sinister Skelotor countless times, but he did not have the power to overcome the misgivings of executives at Warner Bros., who have apparently halted development on Grayskull, the live-action flick based on the adventures of Prince Adam and his musclebound buddies, the Masters of the Universe.

  It seems that with the recent greenlighting of a 300 sequel, Warner Bros. only has room on its slate for one big-budget tentpole project featuring scantily clad, overly muscled dudes running around with swords. Pity.

  The news amounts to another setback for one-time superproducer Joel Silver, whose recent string of high-profile flops includes Speed Racer, Fred Claus, and The Invasion. And just last week, Mel Gibson dashed Silver's hopes of reviving the Lethal Weapon franchise. Wanna make a comeback, Joel? Three words: Road House reboot.
  

  Think about it.
  

  
  

  Posted 10/17/2008 by reelz

  Related: Joel Silver | Masters of the Universe

Thursday, May 24

• New He-Man flick moving forward

  Good news, children of the '80s: a new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie is one step closer to becoming a reality.

  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver are currently negotiating with Mattell to purchase the film rights to the popular '80s toy line and its corresponding animated series, which chronicled the adventures of muscle-bound He-Man (known by day as the mild-mannered Prince Adam) as he batted the evil Skeletor and his pumped-up minions.

  The script, written by Supermax scribe Justin Marks, "skews more toward gritty fantasy and reimagines Adam as a soldier who sets off to find his destiny, happening upon magical world called Eternia. There, a being called Skeletor has raised a technological army and is bent on eradicating all traces of magic," reports THR. 

  Thanks to the success of 300, look for He-Man to be the first of many offerings from newly spawned "gritty fantasy" genre.

  
  

  Posted 05/24/2007 by reelz

  Related: Joel Silver | Masters of the Universe

Friday, May 18

• By the Power of Greyskull...

  What do you get when you combine the homoeroticism of 300 with the toy-based cross-promotional power of Transformers? He-Man and the Masters of the Universe!

  AICN reports that Matrix producer Joel Silver is developing a new live-action He-Man film for Warner Bros., with Supermax scribe Justin Marks working on the script.

  The popular 80s animated series chronicled the adventures of He-Man and his overly-muscled, scantilly-clad pals as they battled the evil Skeletor and his pumped-up minions.

  If the film does make it to theaters, it won't be the first time He-Man received the big-screen treatment. 20 years ago Dolph Lundgren donned the furry underwear in the comically awful Masters of the Universe. 

  
  

  Posted 05/18/2007 by reelz

  Related: Joel Silver | He-Man and the Masters of the Universe