Josh Brolin to Star in Spike Lee's Oldboy

Looks like Spike Lee got his rumored dream star for the Oldboy film he’s helming: Deadline reports that Josh Brolin will lead the English-language remake of Park Chan-wook’s 2003 thriller about a man held prisoner for 15 years who sets out for revenge upon release. With Brolin onboard, will Christian Bale sign on next as his mysterious foil? (And how faithful will Lee’s remake be to the brutality of the original?) Lee’s Oldboy is scripted by Mark Protosevich, who most recently earned a co-writing credit on Thor and previously adapted studio flicks Poseidon and I Am Legend. (His first film was The Cell, Tarsem’s twisted sci-fi thriller.) It remains to be seen how much he’ll keep Oldboy as sick and viciously violent as the cult hit original, which stars Choi Min-sik as the hammer-wielding vengeance-seeker Oh Dae-su, since the remake is said to draw from both the film and the source manga it was based on as a re-envisioning of the material. The casting of Brolin, however, should bring some comfort to fans; No Country for Old Men went a long way in establishing Brolin’s interest in edgier fare and his ability to play hardened, adaptable men capable of violence. Lee’s a bit more of a mystery here; will his Americanized Oldboy include the kind of gory, visceral moments that make Chan-wook’s version iconic to genre fans? Or will it find a sort of Departed-level happy medium between the gore-inclined sensibilities of Asian cinema and the threshold of American audiences? Personally, I’d prefer the former but I’m expecting the latter. Chime in below: How much deference to the original film should Lee’s Oldboy have? · Josh Brolin To Star In Spike Lee’s ‘Oldboy’ Redo For Mandate [Deadline]

Autopsy: Treme Actor Pulled From River Drowned

FIRST PUBLISHED: August 26, 2011 2:54 PM EDT NEW ORLEANS, La. -- An autopsy conducted on an actor from the HBO series Treme, whose body was pulled from the Mississippi River in New Orleans, found that he drowned. Forty-four-year-old Michael Showers played a police officer in the series. Authorities say his body was found in the river Wednesday after it was spotted by the captain of the riverboat Natchez. John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish Coroners Office, said Friday there was no trauma to Showers body. He says results from toxicology tests for drugs and alcohol will take about three weeks. Showers also acted in The Vampire Diaries, 'Traffic and the new action thriller Colombiana. Copyright 2011 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Twilight duo to hit big screens in A Warrior's Heart

Twilight stars Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene have teamed up once again for A Warrior's Heart. Also together at last in this movie: lacrosse and love.Written by Martin Dugard and directed by Mike Sears, A Warrior's Heart also stars Chord Overstreet (Glee), Adam Beach (Cowboys & Aliens) and Gabrielle Anwar (TV's Burn Notice).Producers Jamie Thompson, Steven Istock and Marc Spizzirri describe the movie as "a heartfelt family-friendly teen love story."The plot, which given that description from the producers probably doesn't thicken, goes something like this:"In shock and denial over his Marine father's death in battle, high school lacrosse star Conor Sullivan starts acting out in self destructive ways until he's kicked off the team and sent to a wilderness lacrosse camp run by his dad's Native American combat buddy. With support from his girlfriend Brooklyn, Conor embraces the game's Native American roots and opens his eyes to the true meaning of sportsmanship and life."If you only see one lacrosse-based movie this year...

Live-Action 'Portal' Short Provides For Us Expect a great Gaming Movie (VIDEO)

If there's almost anything to be learned from 'Super Mario Bros.' to 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of your time,A it's the movies haven't done game titles any favors. But because of short films like Kevin Tancharoen's 'Mortal Kombat: Rebirth' that really perform the source material justice, and more, there's still hope available with this misconstrued medium that's ripe with potential. Following in Tancharoen's actions is Serta Trachtenberg's live-action video clip 'Portal: No Escape.' Based from the gaming 'Portal,' the video clip centers around an un named lady who awakens inside a sealed-off holding cell until she finds out a higher-tech gun that enables her bust out using the energy of physics. Not the very first gaming we'd have called to have an adaptation, but an exceptional game nevertheless. Hopefully Hollywood catches wind and provides Trachtenberg a tight schedule-ahead on that one, while he may be the messiah that us players happen to be requesting. Click through to look at 'Portal: No Escape' on your own. For a lot of great games which have been converted into abysmal movies, it is so nice to determine a number of our faves getting their due, even they are about the small screen. Mind to /Film for additional particulars how Trachtenberg's film is made. Do you consider 'Portal' will make a great full-length movie, or shall we be just setting ourselves up for disappointment?

D23: Dan Scanlon and Billy Crystal talk Monsters University

Monsters University might feature Michael 'Mike' Wazowski and James P 'Sulley' Sullivan's college days but the prequel film also saw the production team heading back to school too."At Pixar we do our homework before we start work and that meant literally going back to school," said director Dan Scanlon, before joking: "Most of us went to art school and have no idea what a real university looks like.""It's an animated college movie," Scanlon said, before exclusively revealing the younger designs for Sully and Mike and showing off some of the other characters. "You've got your cool monsters, your nerdy monsters and even goth monsters."He also revealed that Steve Buscemi would return as the voice of Randall Boggs.Billy Crystal and John Goodman looked like they were having fun in a video message played onscreen to the crowd, before Crystal stepped off camera and through the curtains to show up live on stage to an appreciative audience.Talking about the voice acting he said Goodman and himself were having a lot of fun being back together after 10 years, adding that, "college is a long way away for me!"It'll be quite a wait for Monsters University: "Our film is still two years out but we wanted to show you as much as we can," Scanlon said.

With 'The Lone Ranger' Shot Lower, Give Me An Idea to determine inside a Western?

The film dunia ngeblog is buzzing with speculation why Disney may have scrapped an enormous The Actor-brad Pitt reboot of 'The Lone Ranger.' The state reason appears to become the studio thought the project was too costly, though that has not stopped Disney from trading lately in certain other deluxe and dangerous projects, such as the approaching 'John Carter' and 'Oz, The Truly Amazing and Effective.' It appears obvious that you will find other issues at play here, but among the fundamental ones is: nobody appears to possess a handle on which audiences need to see inside a Western -- or even when they would like to see Westerns whatsoever. Or problem was the werewolves. (More about that below.) One problem is nearly surely the failure of Universal's 'Cowboys & Aliens.' The genre hybrid, which cost you a reported $163 million to create, has gained back just $82 million in three weekends of release. The thinking appears to become: If a well-promoted Western having a perfectly descriptive title, shot through the director from the 'Iron Man' movies, starring Mission Impossible and Indiana Johnson, could not succeed, then what Western could? In the end, the Western has not been a well known genre for 4 decades. Its law-and-order theme continues to be replaced by cop films, and it is theme of frontier exploration continues to be replaced by sci-fi sagas. Whole decades have become up not watching Westerns, and they are not going to begin right now. But 'Cowboys & Aliens' does not always prove that there is little drag contemporary audiences to determine a Western, that there is little make sure they are visit a disappointing Western. Does nobody remember a film a couple of several weeks ago known as 'True Grit'? Which was an excellent Western, with top-notch writing, pointing and acting. It made $171 million here and the other $79 million abroad. That isn't the type of money Disney was wishing for from the The Actor-brad Pitt movie -- his latter for Disney, 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Pirates from the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,' both made a lot more than $1 billion worldwide -- however when your movie cost just $38 million to create, a $250 million gross is fairly awesome. Whenever your movie costs $250 million, however, that's another story. That's just how much producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and Depp desired to invest in 'The Lone Ranger,' based on Deadline. Now, why on the planet would a Western that does not have aliens inside it cost much? One reason, without doubt, was the participation of Bruckheimer, Verbinski and Depp, they that made the very first three 'Pirates' movies for Disney (Verbinski did not direct the 4th). If the 3 of these gained their standard costs, that's hundreds of huge amount of money spent before just one frame of film is shot. Still, you'd believe that trio could be worth investing that type of money, because of the billions the 'Pirates' movies have gained. But apart from 'Pirates,' Bruckheimer's movies for Disney happen to be pretty spotty recently. 2010's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' are generally broadly regarded as flops, since neither gained a lot more than $100 million in The United States, though both movies did far better overseas. Nevertheless, it appears such as the only sure wager with Bruckheimer could be another 'Pirates' movie. Bruckheimer does appear to possess a handle regarding how to attract moviegoers overseas, where 'Sorcerer' made $152 million, 'Persia' made $244 million as well as the broadly criticized cartoon 'G-Force' made $173 million. Worldwide audiences are progressively the pressure that determines large choices in Hollywood, using the domestic market almost an afterthought. And foreign audiences, the logic goes, are specifically bored with Westerns or other movie so heavily rich in Americana. This is where the the werewolves are available in. Based on Hollywood Elsewhere, werewolves were prominent within an early draft from the 'Lone Ranger' script. Positive thing the Lone Ranger uses silver bullets, right? Why werewolves? Well, to begin with, this 'Lone Ranger' is Depp's pet project. In homage to their own heritage (that they states includes possible Cherokee or Creek ancestry), in addition to to his late friend Marlon Brando's well-known advocacy for Indian issues, Depp desired to star as Tonto making him the main focus from the film. (The Lone Ranger ended up being to be performed by 'The Social Network' co-star Armie Hammer, a much less famous actor who's unlikely to steal Depp's spotlight.) Playing in the Indian part of the story apparently brought to Native American folklore and mythology, by which werewolves (or shapeshifters or skinwalkers, give them a call what you should) play a prominent role, as fans of 'Twilight' and 'True Blood' know. That describes Bruckheimer's contribution too, since he's noted for movies which are lengthy on lavish supernatural spectacle (and frequently short on story). Which describes why the film would cost $250 million. Plus, Depp and Verbinski have previously designed a trippy Western together, the 2010 animated hit 'Rango.' Sure, purists will reason that werewolves really do not belong inside a Lone Ranger movie. All you actually need would be the two heroes plus some outlaw adversaries. There you have it. But this movie wasn't being designed for purists, when they even remain. Couple of people alive recall the old radio and TV series, and also the last serious attempt for a film reboot was the 1981 flop 'The Legend from the Lone Ranger.' People recall the character just a little, but mostly, it is simply a recognised brand, a method to provide some familiarity and reassurance, both to Disney suits who would risk 100s of millions about the project and also to audiences who have been apparently likely to be given a tale a good Indian partner who upstages his cowboy partner when they confront werewolves. Variety and Deadline are generally confirming there still may well be a opportunity to save 'The Lone Ranger' in the development Boot Hill when the filmmakers can discover a method to rein within the costs. The apparent method of doing it might be to emulate 'True Grit' and eliminate exactly what does not belong inside a american. But that is not how a system works it's too committed to investing a great deal on large pictures that play well in a language (and never investing a great deal on story and dialogue which are harder to translate). It's accustomed to opening its wallet and saying, "Hi-years old, Silver! Away!" What elements would you need to see inside a reboot of 'The Lone Ranger,' or perhaps in every other new Western? Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

Behar, Minaj, Frost warm to 'Ice Age'

Pleasure Behar, Nicki Minaj, Nick Frost and JB Smoove are probably the new names to become listed on "Ice Age: Continental Drift" at twentieth century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Galleries.Louise Morris, Josh Gad, Alan Tudyk, Kunal Nayyar and Alain Chabat will even join formerly-introduced cast of Ray Romano, Full Latifah, Denis Leary, Jeremy Renner, John Leguizamo, Sean William Scott, Aziz Ansari, Wanda Sykes, Keke Palmer, Jennifer Lopez, Drake and Josh Peck.Chris Wedge, who helmed the very first pic within the "Ice Age" franchise, will reprise his role as Scrat, whose quest for an acorn has world-altering effects which help Sid (Leguizamo) reunite together with his most loved family. The relaxation from the gang, meanwhile, attempts to make their way home despite roadblocks from the determined menagerie of colorful figures. Steve Martino and Michael Thurmeier will direct "Continental" with Lori Forte and John Donkin creating.three dimensional pic is slated for release This summer 13, 2012. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com

India to consider Center Stage at Locarno Film Festival