Monthly Archive: October 2008

So, Woody Harrelson has discovered genre filmmaking.  In addition to his super-hero film, Defendor, he is now making Zombieland, described as a horror/comedy by Columbia Pictures.  

Actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) is said to be negotiating to appear opposite the actor. According to The Hollywood Reporter,they would play “a mismatched pair of survivors who find friendship and redemption in a world overrun by zombies.”

Eisneberg’s character would be Flagstaff, described as “a terrified shut-in whose cowardice makes him an expert at surviving the zombies but who is forced out of his shell to join the band of survivors.

The movie is scheduled to be directed by Ruben Fleischer (Gumball 3000: Six Days in May) from a script by the Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (The Joe Schmo Show)

Harrelson will first appear in Defendor, where he will be a normal guy who thinks he’s a super-hero complete with secret identity.  Kat Dennings (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist) just joined the cast last week, playing a street kid Harrelson’s Arthur befriends.  Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy) plays Arthur’s psychiatrist. The movie is written and helmed by Peter Stebbings (Across the River to Motor City) in his directorial debut.

The director of almost softcore porn viral videos I’m F–king Matt Damon and I’m F–king Ben Affleck is set to tackle an all-new frontier: space.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wayne McClammy will direct Fox’s single-camera comedy pilot Boldly Going Nowhere. The series is a "high-concept comedy is about what happens day-to-day on an intergalactic spaceship helmed by a rogue captain." Sounds something like The Office in space.

Boldly Going Nowhere comes from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia masterminds Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton. McElhenney acknowledges McClammy’s relative inexperience with studio projects, but still has full confidence in the director.

"He might not have a ton of experience, but he had a creative and specific vision for the look, the feel and the tone of the show and how he wants to shoot it," McElhenney said. "And he makes you laugh with what he’s does."

To frame it in contemporary political terms, one might say that McClammy is a Hollywood outsider; a maverick, if you will. Aside from the aforementioned viral videos, McClammy has directed episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program and some segments of The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Though the resume may be short, there’s no denying that McClammy can direct high profile actors, as seen in his star-studded work with Damon and Affleck, the former of which he recently earned an Emmy for.

Just don’t expect Boldly Going Nowhere to be a science fiction show — that’s not how the creators see it.

"What we’re really interested in is a different take, a new twist on the workplace comedy," says McElhenney. "We wanted to make sure it is relatable, it just happens to be set couple hundred years into the future."

Yep, definitely sounds like Dunder-Mifflin in space. Get Stephen Colbert on board as ship captain Tek Jansen and we’ll be completely sold.

Boldly Going Nowhere is based on an idea from Adam Stein. Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Jonathan Goldstein, Michael Rotenberg and Nick Frenkel will serve as executive producers.

Another animation company has been formed as Marvin Gleicher, co-founder and former CEO of Worldwide Operations for Manga Entertainment, has opened Marvin Media. His first effort will be adapting Paul Kanter’s Floating Moon as a feature-length animated film.  It will be directed by Keiichi Sato (Wolf’s Rain) from Manabu Ishikawa’s screen adaptation. The movie can be expected in 2010. Kanter, founder of the Jefferson Airplane, wrote the ecological tale.

Marvin Media is also producing High Def, a comedy from Island Def Jam Music Group, which will be 26 half-hour episodes expected in late 2009.

Gleicher co-founded Manga Entertainment in 1994 and is behind the domestic success of Ghost in the Shell.
 

James Marsters has quite the fan following as an actor but also an equally loyal following as a reader of audio books.  The latter fans will be delighted to know that he has signed on to read the remaining six Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher.  These titles include Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, White Night, and Turn Coat (to be released simultaneously with the hardcover due out in April 2009).

Death Masks will be released when Roc re-releases the book as a hardcover in November 2009. Blood Rites and Dead Beat can be expected when the hardcover reissue of Blood Rites is released in July 2010.

Butcher’s series about Dresden,  freelance wizrd/private investigator has been running for a decade or so now and was adapted as a one season Sci Fi Channel series.  The Dabel Brothers are also producing Dresden comic books and graphic novels, the firstof which will be reviewed here on Wednesday.

As a performer, he will next be seen in 2009’s Dragonball, the adaptation of the anime Dragonball Z.

Peter Jackson is returning to Middle Earth, but he’s not doing it alone. As previously announced, Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy II: The Golden Army filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro will direct The Hobbit and an untitled sequel that leads into the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson will serve as executive producer.

As part of The New Yorker Festival series of talks, Guillermo Del Toro spoke at the Director’s Guild of America regarding his foray into the Tolkien universe. For the director, finding Middle Earth isn’t as easy as a walking into a magical wardrobe. He describes his method:

"I find you have to discipline yourself to write in the morning, and then watch and read in the afternoons stuff that seems relevant, even in a tangential way. For example, reading or watching World War I documentaries or books that I think inform The Hobbit, strangely enough, because I believe it is a book born out of Tolkien’s generation’s experience with World War I and the disappointment of being in that field and seeing all those values kind of collapse. I think it’s a turning point that you need to familiarize yourself with. I’m starting. Peter Jackson is such a fan of that historical moment and obsessive collector of World War I memorabilia, and he owns several genuine, life-size working reproductions of planes, tanks, cannons, ships! He has the perfect obsessive reproductions of uniforms of that time for armies of about 120 soldiers… each. I asked him which books he recommended… because I wouldn’t be watching Krull or The Dark Crystal, I need to find my own way into the story. That’s the same way I did Pan’s Labyrinth or Devil’s Backbone, by watching stuff you wouldn’t think about."

The star of The Hobbit, for Del Toro, is going to be the nefarious dragon Smaug. Literally "The Magnificent," Smaug embodies "greed [and] pride" to Del Toro, who has been interested in dragon lore his entire life. He speaks about Smaug passionately, citing the villain with "some of the most beautiful dialogue" in the film. As for the character’s design, Del Toro is "pretty sure that will be the last design we will sign off on, and the first design we have attempted."

Del Toro is itching to talk more about the project, but insisted that he couldn’t due to something a little less subtle than a gag order.

"Warner Brothers has a sniper right here in the theater," he jokingly warned.

"Listen," he later said, taking a more serious note, "If we were having a drink two years from now I would spill the beans, because I’m a pretty easy guy about spilling the beans, but I can’t in this instance. I can’t because it’s three years from now."

Three years is probably generous, given that Del Toro has a large slate of films on the horizon. Variety reported earlier this year that Del Toro is booked solid through 2017, with films such as Slaughterhouse-Five, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, At the Mountains of Madness and Frankenstein. He spoke briefly about Frankenstein, saying that his vision would be something entirely original.

"I’m not doing Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. I’m doing an adventure story that involves the creature. I cannot say much, but it’s not the central creation story, I’m not worried about that. The fact is I’ve been dreaming of doing a Frankenstein movie since I was a child."

He then promised that "compared to Kenneth Branagh [director and star of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein], I will not appear shirtless in the movie!"