Sacha Baron Cohen and Freddie Mercury. (Reuters and AP)
It has been announced that comedic actor, Sacha Baron Cohen will star as Freddie Mercury in an upcoming biopic. The film has been in the works for quite some time, according to Collider.com. There have been several biographies written about Mercury and his time in Queen, but this will be one of the first film biopics specifically about Mercury.
Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) is the frontrunner to direct the project, according to Variety.com, although negotiations have not yet begun.
Collider also reported that Cohen may actually be singing Queen songs in the film. He did his own singing for his part in Tim Burton’s 2007 musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The plot of the biopic will follow Queen’s formation up through their appearance at Live Aid in 1985. Mercury’s battle with AIDS and death in 1991 will not be featured in the film.
Frears is currently busy directing the HBO drama Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, but he has confirmed he will have a relatively open schedule for the near future. Peter Morgan (The Queen) wrote the most recent version of the script.
Producers for the film have already purchased the rights for parts of Queens catalog, including “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”
Cohen, best known as a comedic actor for films such as Borat, Bruno, and his newest film, The Dictator, bears a definite resemblance to the classic rock frontman. The question, however, is whether Cohen can master Mercury’s wide vocal range.
In case you are worried about Cohen’s singing prowess, check out these videos of previous singing engagements:
AMC began production on season three of “The Walking Dead” Monday, and Executive Producer Robert Kirkman did an on-set interview with AMCtv.com to discuss his thoughts and expectations for the upcoming 16 episodes.
According to Kirkman, Season three will see several changes, some of which were teased in season two’s finale such as that the group will at last depart from Herschel’s farm after it is overrun by walkers and that they will arrive at a seemingly abandoned prison, where a numerous plot twists unfold.
When it comes to the prison, Kirkman said he is very excited for fans to see the prison set.
They’ve taken a lot of what you see in the comic book series and brought it to life in ways that I didn’t think possible,” he said. “This is going to be one of the most impressive looking things that’s ever been put together for a show.”
Season 3 will also see the addition of new characters such as the sinister Governor (David Morrissey), whose actions suggest humans may pose more of a threat than the undead.
The plan was always to evolve naturally into a place where the zombies essentially become a manageable threat,” Kirkman said. “You know the rules. You know how to deal with them. To a certain extent they become something to not really be scared of unless you mess up. Humans, however, do not follow any rules and will always do something that surprises you and are capable of doing things far worse than trying to eat you…We’re definitely going to be seeing a lot of horrible things.”
Along with the Governor, fan-favorite zombie slicer Michonne, played by Danai Gurira, will also be joining the cast.
Kirkman explained he was impressed with the sword skills she is picking up in training.
She’s going to be doing all of the hard character stuff and drama that The Walking Dead is known for, but she has tremendous physical capability and the sword training that I’ve seen is absolutely amazing,” he said. “I can’t wait to see her hack up some zombies.”
Season 3 will have 16 episodes, making it the show’s longest season yet. With the extra time, Kirkman said he looks forward to packing in as much character development and action as possible.
The actors and the crew and a lot of the producers would not be thrilled to hear me saying this, but I love doing 16 episodes a year,” he said. “I think the more the better, and I think it’s a lot of fun. We are going to get to tell bigger stories, and tell more stories, and get into the characters a lot more. So the more the merrier.”
AMC wisely had renewed “The Walking Dead” for it’s third season on October 25th, 2011 after the season 2 premiere broke cable ratings records. Actual filming for season 3 is scheduled to begin shooting in another area, Senoia, on May 31, 2012.
AMC Networks has acquired all US rights to filmmaker Walter Salles’ On the Road.The project, based on the iconic counterculture novel by Jack Kerouac, is finally preparing to be released thanks to AMC who will release the film through its distribution labels IFC Films and Sundance Selects.
The film stars Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst. Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Braga, Elisabeth Moss and Viggo Mortensen also appear.
The screenplay was written by Jose Rivera (Academy Award nominee for The Motorcycle Diaries).
The film’s world premiere will be at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, followed by a major theatrical release in late fall.
AMC will attempt to make the premiere a big event.
This is a major step forward for us, and we plan to work across AMC Networks in putting all our resources together to make this theatrical release into a significant cultural event,” Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films said. “We will show the same passion in releasing this film as the team took behind producing it.
The novel’s official plot synopsis follows:
On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac’s works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all of Kerouac’s writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac’s real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac’s alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.
The full cast list includes:
Sam Riley as Sal Paradise
Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty
Kristen Stewart as Marylou
Kirsten Dunst as Camille
Viggo Mortensen as Old Bull Lee
Amy Adams as Jane
Tom Sturridge as Carlo Marx
Steve Buscemi
Elisabeth Mossas Galatea Dunkel
Matthew Deano as Little Ray
Alice Braga as Terry
Danny Morgan as Ed Dunkel
Terrence Howard as Walter
Patrick Costello as Chad King
Joey Klein as Tom Saybrook
Alison Louder as Dorie
Clara Furey as Inez
Adam LeBlanc as Remi Boncoeur
Jake La Botz as the Okie Hitchhiker
Rocky Marquette as Alfred
Imogen Haworth
Marie-Ginette Guay as Gabrielle Levesque (Aunt of Sal Paradise)
Edward Abbey’s 1975 environmentalist novel The Monkey Wrench Gang is headed for the silver screen. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who worked on the 2010 Sundance Film Festival documentary Catfish and Paranormal Activity 3, will write and direct the adaptation.
Edward R. Pressman (American Psycho) and Grammy-winning album cover artist Gary Burden are producing.
The producers have been discussing ideas for the film for about 15 years, but now feel they have the right filmmakers to move ahead in the project, according to Deadline.com.
The novel is about a group of four men who are protesting industrial development in the 1970s American West. Their method of protest consists of attempts to damage industrial equipment without ever harming humans, animals, plants or rocks. The plan is followed, with the exception of one member, a Vietnam veteran named Hayduke, who wants to blow things up.
We’re excited and honored to turn this book into a movie,” Joost and Schulman said in a release on Deadline.com. “People often ask us why we work together, and as Edward Abbey used to say, ‘One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain’t nothin’ can beat teamwork.’”
Pressman said he feels the duo will do a good job with the comedic nature of the book, according to the same release.
Henry and Ariel’s approach to the film adaptation will connect to the humor and cultural zeitgeist of today in the same way Abbey’s book does,” Pressman said. “I’m delighted to collaborate with them on this irreverent comedy.”
See the official plot synopsis below:
Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a “comic extravaganza.” Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it’s true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief. The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. As they do, his characters voice Abbey’s concerns about wilderness preservation (“Hell of a place to lose a cow,” Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah. “Hell of a place to lose your heart. Hell of a place… to lose. Period”). Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. It’s comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert.”
There is no word yet on when this adaptation is predicted to be released.
It was announced quite a bit ago that Angelina Jolie will star as the titular character in Maleficent, a new take on the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. And now several other cast members have finally been added to the project.
Imelda Staunton, from the Harry Potter series, and Miranda Richardson (Sleepy Hollow) have also joined the cast. According to the blog from Hollywood Reporter, Staunton and Lesley Manville will be playing the characters of Knotgrass and Flittle, respectively. The characters are “two of the three pixies that end up taking care of Aurora.”
The new project comes from Director Robert Stromberg, most known for his work on Pan’s Labyrinth.
According to Heat Vision, Elle Fanning, star of Super 8, has officially been added to the cast as the Princess. As for Queen Ulla, Richardson will be “a Fairy Queen who is Maleficent’s aunt with a dislike of her niece.”
Kenneth Cranham (Made in Dagenham) and Sam Riley (Brighton Rock) have also joined the production, which is set to begin filming in June.
Cranham will be playing the role of the human king who plots to conquer the fairy kingdom. Riley will portray Diaval, a character described as a raven who changes into human form and is Maleficent’s right hand.”
Sharlto Copely has also been announced to be going the cast in the lead role of Stefan, “the half-human, half-fairy bastard son of the human king.”
Maleficent tells the story from the point of view of the witch who cursed Aurora to a permanent sleep on her 16th birthday. The character of Maleficent is often viewed as the most powerful and sinister of the Disney Villains, frequently acting as their leader in many genre crossovers, and her scenes in the climax of the film are among the darkest and most intense produced by Disney. In Ultimate Disney’s top 30 Disney Villains countdown, Maleficent ranked #1.She also plays a major role in the Kingdom Hearts series, as a recurring villain.
Probably no surprise to anyone, Marvel’s The Avengers took the top spot in the U.S. box office ratings this weekend, earning roughly $200,300,000 in 4,300 U.S. theaters. The film, directed by Joss Whedon, broke the record for highest grossing debut of all time, previously held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2, according to a report by Walt Disney Pictures.
The Avengers averaged $46,063 per theater in North America.
The film has received positive reviews from fans and critics alike, scoring 93 percent from Rotten Tomatoes and 96 percent from fans on the movie rating site.
Christopher Orr reviewed the film for The Atlantic.
But ultimately it all comes back to Whedon: his clear vision for each character and how they might be profitably intermingled; his unexpected knack for action choreography; his funny, tender, immaculately constructed script (from a story he co-wrote with Zak Penn). I don’t think I’m giving anything away by revealing that the picture ends with Loki locked up for years. If Marvel has a lick of sense, they’ll do the same with Whedon.”
Think Like a Man was knocked out of the top spot by The Avengers and is now at number two, in its third week since release. It earned $8,000,000 over the weekend and $73,029,000 since its release. Think Like a Man cost $12 million to make.
When looking at figures provided by ComingSoon, it seems that Marvel’s The Avengers have not only been a definite commercial success but the film has broken several other records as well.
The global box office for The Avengers has already surpassed the global box office totals of Captain America: The First Avenger ($364 million), Thor ($449 million), Iron Man ($585 million) and Iron Man 2 ($624 million). The film had the biggest opening weekend of all time in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Central America, Peru, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines. In Russia, the film earned $17.9 million. The movie has become the fastest to reach the $200 million mark domestically in three days. It earned $80.5 million on Friday, which is the second-highest single day take of all time and Saturday’s take of $69.7 million is the highest Saturday of all time.”
Before The Avengers was released, The Hunger Games was the biggest box office moneymaker, earning $155 million domestically in its first weekend. The Hunger Games is now at spot number three, making $5.7 million during the weekend. It has made $380.7 million in seven weeks domestically and cost $78 million to make.
Season 5 of “True Blood” may feel like it is taking forever to arrive (June!) but at least there are a few spoilery things we already know going into the new seasons.
This article is written assuming you have seen season 4.
RUSSELL IS BACK!
One of the first things we learned about season 5 was t hat neurotic and evil vampire, Russell Edgington, is back and ready to wreak havoc in everyones lives.
At the end of season 4 we saw his cement tomb broken open and the vampire king of Mississippi gone. Eric as already accused Pam releasing him, but as of now we don’t know who has done it or why. However, he is probably reasonably more upset and crazy than before and if he before he ripped a spine out of someone on live television we can only imagine what he is capable of now that he is pissed off instead of just distraught.
Steve Newlin is also returning
Close-minded anti-vampire activist Rev. Steve Newlin is also returning and it appears he has been turned. His return as a member of the undead was revealed in the season 5 trailer. However, given the tricksy nature of Bon Temps and the “True Blood” world, everything should be taken lighting till we see it for sure.
If he is now a vampire, will he still be in love with Jason, and will he still be annoyingly preachy? Or has he replaced that with a penchant for drinking blood (and probably being happier for it.)
Pam and Eric might no longer be “Pam and Eric”
We know that Eric is Pam’s maker, but we also know she has been incredibly faithful to him for MANY years. Despite her constant lashing out regarding his feelings for Sookie and her “precious fairy vagina.” Through four seasons she has remained by his side, albeit full of anger and sarcasm. However, after a recent clip was released for season 5, it seems she will no longer be by his side. She even goes so far to request him to release her from their bond that most fans thought was mutual rather than maker-bound.
There is a bromance a-brewin’
In an interview recently with E Online, Alexander Skargard, the hot distraction known as Eric, revealed some insight into the weird eskimo-bro relationship that is Eric and Bill.
“There’s a bit of a bromance between going on this year between Eric and Bill…It’s fun because I love Stephen Moyer to death, and after four years of butting heads, this is more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We have a common enemy and we have to team up this year.”
Eric and his … Sister?
Not much is known about her… at all. What we do know that she is her Vampire sister, sired by Godric to be part of their Vampy family.
The character is to be played by Lucy Griffith, and during a recent interview with TV Guide, she said this about the character:
“She’s an irreverent British lady who we think was turned during Elizabethan or Victorian times. It’s been years since she’s seen Eric, and she is very excited. She looks up to him, but they’ve had a fiery love/hate relationship in the way that brothers and sisters do.”
Sounds creepy to me. Hopefully she isn’t the same brunette we see Eric kissing in the trailer.
Chris Meloni, need I say more?
A few months ago it was revealed that SVU star Chris Meloni would be in Season 5 as a Vampire named Roman and a member of “The Authority.”
We don’t know much about what his character will be like in the series, but what ever it is, I’m sure it is bad-ass.
There is going to be a lot more Terry
Last season we saw the entrance of a character played by Scott Foley. He was Terry’s platoon leader in Iraq and from what we have seen, it appears that some really terrible stuff went down while they were serving. While nothing is ever as simple as mean people and PTSD, we assume something more is going on behind the scenes.
However, having more sweet lovable Terry in the show is definitely a win.
More Fairies…
So far we have only gotten small glimpses into the true fairy world. We met Claude, who helped Sookie escape from Fairy land, who turns out is part of a fairy triplet set that includes Claudine, who is already dead after Eric drained her, and Claudette.
According to Deadline, we will be meeting Claudette for reals during this new season. Supposedly she will be helping Sookie learn more about her Fae roots and their way of life. However, I don’t suspect that will go over so well. You know, with all the vampires… that are everywhere… all the time.
Jessica and her well … something
What is going on with Jessica and Hoyt? After their incredibly cute relationship that ending increibly badly, we can’t help feel bad for Hoyt… in a way that makes us want to hug him… forever. So where do they stand in the new season? Not much is certain, but if he dies, or becomes a vampire… I might cry.
Sam and Luna got some trouble headed their way
A new clip released a few weeks ago feature shape shifters Sam and Luna talking about something pretty mysterious. What we do know is that Sam is going to protect his woman. No matter what she turns into. Who is going after who is the question but with Sam at her side, they will probably be fine… right?
Paramount recently announced it is working on a seven-figure deal to acquire the film rights to Jonathan Tropper’s novel, “One Last Thing Before I Go.” It has also been reported that J.J. Abrams, famous for his hit television show “Lost,” will be producing, and Tropper will be writing the script.
Paramount, making a leap forward, has optioned the book that hasn’t even been released yet. The book will be published in August by Dutton Publishing. According to Deadline, multiple studios were in competition for the rights to adapt the novel.
“One Last Thing Before I Go” is the story of a man in a mid-life crisis. His ex is about to remarry, his Princeton-bound teenage daughter is pregnant and he could die at any moment without an operation he refuses to undergo.
Tropper has written five other novels, including “This is Where I Leave You,” “The Book of Joe,” “Plan B,” “How to Talk to a Widower” and “Everything Changes.”
“This is Where I leave You” is also being adapted for film by Warner Brothers, and will be directed by Adam Shankman, known for his previous adaptation of A Walk to Remember.
Read the official synopsis below:
Silver has begun to accept that life isn’t going to turn out as he expected. His ex-wife is about to marry a terrific guy Silver can’t quite bring himself to hate. And his Princeton-bound teenage daughter Casey has just confided in him that she’s pregnant—because he’s the one she cares least about letting down. With the wedding looming and Casey in crisis, this broken family struggles, bonds, and comes together only to risk damaging each other even more. Lives begin anew, change radically, or in Silver’s case—as he discovers that he could die at any moment without an operation he refuses to have—may be about to end in an instant.
One Last Thing Before I Go demonstrates yet again Tropper’s deft touch with the darkest of materials and his ability to make readers laugh out loud in one paragraph and move them to tears in the next.”
There is no word yet on who will be starring in the film, or a projected release date for the project. We do know they are aiming for sometime in the year 2014.
Fans of Tropper’s work or those who want to stay updated on his novels and film adaptation can visit his official webpage.
With Marvel’s The Avengers topping the U.S. weekend box office (earning a total of $200,300,000 in its opening weekend) it is no surprise that Marvel is wasting no time moving on to its next film, a standalone project about Scarlett Johansson’s character, Black Widow/Natasha Romanov.
Producer Kevin Feige confirmed that the project is in preparation. Johansson, 27, hinted that the film will be more of a prequel that focuses on the gun-wielding hero’s origin.
Johansson spoke with Ace Showbiz about the project saying:
I love her origin story. I think it’s just such a riveting one… It’s just steeped in history and the richness to shoot in Russia, perhaps… I hope that the fans’ voice is loud enough and they want to see a Widow origin story, I know Marvel would be happy to entertain that. We’ve spoken a lot about it.”
In the same interview, Johansson said her character is not just fighting for the good of the world.
She was almost salvaged by S.H.I.E.L.D. and so she’s loyal to that group, to that agency, but only as sort of paid debt,” she said.
The character Black Widow first appeared in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #14 (2002).
Her official history, provided by Marvel is as follows:
“A descendant of Russian royalty, Natasha Romanov was abandoned as a child and found by soldier Ivan Petrovich. A ballerina in her youth, she joined Russia’s K.G.B. and became an elite intelligence operative, a combination of consummate skill and classified government enhancements of her natural abilities. She also became infamous as an often-wed, often-widowed heartbreaker whose husbands (beginning with test pilot turned intelligence agent Alexi Shostakov) tended to suffer “unfortunate accidents”, a quirk which may have influenced her choice of long-term code name: the Black Widow. She eventually embarked on a lucrative freelance spy career, which culminated in her infiltration of New York City’s Latverian Embassy.
Manipulating the naïve young superhero Spider-Man into helping her escape Latverian security, Natasha used the information she gathered to audition successfully for the American-based international spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. She became a mainstay of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s black ops division, often partnered with Hawkeye (Clint Barton).
After Hawkeye and the Widow led the successful extermination of over five hundred Chitauri extraterrestrial subversives, the duo was promoted to the ranks of the Ultimates, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s celebrity super-agents, with newly falsified personal backgrounds. Alongside the Ultimates, Black Widow helped save Earth from a Chitauri plot. She and teammate, Iron Man (Ultimate)”
Comic character photo of Black Widow/Natasha Romanov.
Now that Catching Fire finally has a director confirmed, it seems the project is moving forward. Lionsgate is now bringing in screenwriter Michael Arndt to rewrite the initial draft for the film adaptation.
The first draft came from Simon Beaufoy, and as he is already an Oscar-winning screenwriter, the re-write should be relatively painless.
The new screenwriter, Arndt has also done well making a name for himself. He previously wrote the screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, which earned him an Academy Award. He also penned the screenplay for Toy Story 3, contributed to the writing for Rock of Ages, and also did a refurbishing of Disney’s Snow White-inspired martial arts epic, Order of Seven – and is handling the Mouse House’s impending Phineas and Ferb movie.
Author of the series, Suzanne Collins has already confirmed that she has had a hand in adapting her novel into the screenplay for the film. After writing the first draft of the script, Beaufoy confirmed that he handed the script over to Collins for her to review.
Things always do have to change otherwise there’s always something very flat about very faithful adaptations. But on the other hand, there’s an extremely loyal fan base and readership and you just have to be careful of how many liberties you do take. So fortunately Suzanne is here to help me… she’ll tell me, ‘You can’t do that. You must do this.’ Because there are some things that are sacrosanct to her readers and she knows them very well and she’ll let me know.”
It isn’t clear as of yet, whether or not Collins will play such a direct writing role with Catching Fire as she did with The Hunger Games. However, it is good news to fans that she has at least helped create the script for the film.
With all the actors returning, and Collins helping with the script, it appears the second film of the series is finally materializing.
Catching Fire remains scheduled to begin a theatrical release in the U.S. on November 22nd, 2013.
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