News Roundup

• According to Deadline.com, Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit)  is in talks to direct The Hunger Games. For those of you not in the know, Suzanne Collins' trilogy of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, is the next big thing in Hollywood.  At least book adaptation-wise.  

From the official Scholastic website:

Twenty-four are forced to enter.  Only the winner survives.  

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts.  Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death - televised for all of Panem to see. 

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12.  When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence.  If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Awesome, right?  This trilogy is already on my I-must-read-this list.  Other possible names up for director were Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and David Slade (Twilight Saga: Eclipse).  This is all in early stages, though securing a good director goes a long way in attracting big names to the project just like the Harry Potter series.  Lionsgate owns the rights to The Hunger Games series.  

• I may be the only one happy about this.  There's gonna be a Johnny English 2.  I don't why but Rowan Atkinson makes me laugh.  It could be because I have watched all of Mr. Bean episodes many many times.   Don't judge.  Anyway, Johnny English Reborn will also have Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Dominic West (The Wire), Rosamund Pike and Daniel Kaluuya.  The film is expected to release summer 2011.
• It's been 35 long years since Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) first began making movie magic happen and to commemorate this momentous occasion, Encore will screen the documentary, "Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible" on November 14th.  Leslie Iwerks (The Pixar Story) directs and the documentary is narrated by Tom Cruise.  It includes interviews with George Lucas (of course!), Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams, Jon Favreau, Jerry Bruckheimer, John Lasseter and many others.  The documentary will also contain footage from its many many award-winning films and technologies.  
• In news that'll make you go, huh?  Russell Crowe will be in RZA's new kung-fu movie, The Man with the Iron Fist.  Doesn't Crowe's name pop up first in your head when you think kung-fu? Maybe to the paparazzi but seriously, was Jackie Chan busy?  And Gladiator was 10 years ago, the only way I'd watch this flick is first Crowe loses a few pounds and gets in shape.  Don't have double standards, Hollywood, if you're going to ask Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway to lose weight for The Devil Wears Prada, do the same for the male leads as well.  
• And last but not least, in the oh, no, I can't believe they're making another sequel category, Universal Pictures has released the official synopsis for Fast Five, yet another Fast and the Furious sequel.  Is this how young kids will learn how to count?  It pains me to post this.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead a reunion of returning all-stars from every chapter of the explosive franchise built on speed in "Fast Five." In this installment, former cop Brian O'Conner (Walker) partners with ex-con Dom Toretto (Diesel) on the opposite side of the law. Dwayne Johnson joins returning favorites Jordana Brewster, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar for this ultimate high-stakes race.

Since Brian and Mia Toretto (Brewster) broke Dom out of custody, they've blown across many borders to elude authorities. Now backed into a corner in Rio de Janeiro, they must pull one last job in order to gain their freedom. As they assemble their elite team of top racers, the unlikely allies know their only shot of getting out for good means confronting the corrupt businessman who wants them dead. But he's not the only one on their tail.

Hard-nosed federal agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) never misses his target. When he is assigned to track down Dom and Brian, he and his strike team launch an all-out assault to capture them. But as his men tear through Brazil, Hobbs learns he can't separate the good guys from the bad. Now, he must rely on his instincts to corner his prey... before someone else runs them down first.

That's it for now.  In tomorrow's post, the trailer for the The Tourist and Tangled and some cool links to check out.