Author: Robert Greenberger

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that a script for Lethal Weapon 5 is completed and all the franchise awaits is Mel Gibson’s blessing. Apparently, producer Joel Silver is trying to get a commitment from Gibson to appear once more opposite Danny Glover as the duo of Murtaugh and Riggs.  The script, from Shane Black, would introduce two new and younger cops from New York.  Black would also take over the director’s chair from Richard Donner.

Currently, Gibson is shooting Edge of Darkness in Boston while Glover will be seen next month in the feature Blindness. Black was just signed by Universal earlier this week to write and director Cold Warrior.
 

Disney’s big announcement that Cars 2 would move from 2011 to 2012 garnered a lot of attention but the question has since turned to, what will families be offered in 2012?

The answer turns out to be…newt.  Slash Film is reporting that the project required more development time so the swap actually benefits the new property.

Sound designer Gary Rydstrom makes his directorial debut with the CGI-animated Pixar production.  He previously directed the short film Lifted which audiences saw prior to Ratatouille.

The plot synopsis from the studio: “What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can’t stand each other? Newt and Brooke embark on a perilous, unpredictable adventure and discover that finding a mate never goes as planned, even when you only have one choice. Love, it turns out, is not a science."

Don Wilder the writer for the Crock comic strip, died this morning at age 74 reports Editor & Publisher.  According to King Features Syndicate, which distributes Crock to more than 200 newspapers, Wilder was also drawing and went on to get his bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University. 

The commercial artist began work as a technical illustrator including a 17 year stint as a visual-information specialist for the CIA.  He also did work for Lockheed Aircraft, RCA and General Electric before moving to comic strips in the 1970s.

The Virginia resident created the strip with Brant Parker, best known for his work on the Wizard of Id, in 1975.  After Parker died, Wilder collaborated with artist Bill Rechin.

No word as yet from the syndicate as to what will happen to the strip, which has been a gentle parody of life in the Foreign Legion.
 

Director Guillermo del Toro has signed with HarperCollins imprint William Morrow for a trilogy of vampire novels which he will cowrite with Chuck Hogan. The Stain, kicking off the event, will be released next summer.

According to Variety, the story will “revolve around an invasion of New York City by a vampiric virus. Series will trace the roots of the vampiric race back to its Old Testament origins.”

Hogan has previously wrriten thrillers including The Standoff and The Blood Artists.  His Prince of Thieves was recently optioned by Warner Bros which Ben Affleck will direct and star in.

Don’t expect the director to adapt his own works, though.  He’s committed through 2017 with the two film adaptation of The Hobbit followed by Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Slaughterhouse-Five for Universal.  He’s also committed to adapting Dan Simmons’ Drood into a feature film.