BROADBENT IS THE NEW BRODY? - Rumors are that British actor Jim Broadbent has joined the cast of Indiana Jones IV, possibly as the new Marcus Brody “type” character.

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IZZARD CAST - British actor/comedian Eddie Izzard has joined the cast of Valkyrie in an unknown role. I think he would make a great Hitler but I doubt that’s who he will be playing.

Tim Burton’s movie based on Ripley’s Believe it or Not has been troubled since day one. The movie which was due to team Jim Carrey and Tim Burton for the first time was resurrected in December after spiraling budget costs ($150 million!), a lackluster script and according to some sources… big creative differences between Carrey and Burton meant the movie was shelved some months prior.

Of course at that time, every movie that Jim Carrey was involved in and subsequently dropped out of was blamed on Carrey and his “attitute”, and bashing him was the popular thing to do on the web at that time. I have no idea if any of it was true but I guess, without smoke there is no fire.

Steve Oederkerk (Bruce Almighty) netted a seven figure sum to re-write the movie’s script and reduce the budget costs (which is ironic given the sum he was given to do such a task) and a winter 2008 production start was planned.

However, the news today from Coming Soon is that Tim Burton has dropped out of the film and he won’t be directing it next year. No word on how this effects the production start of the film or whether Jim Carrey will still be involved but whoever they ultimately get to helm the flick will surely have a much different vision than that of the unique Tim Burton.

Brad Bird’s first movie since The Incredibles in 2004, Ratatouille is about to hit cinema’s in the U.S. but what about his next project? Would he do a sequel to The Incredibles?

Bird talks to AP (via Slash Film)…

I love the world. I love the characters, and if I could come with a story that was as good or better than the original, I’d go there in a second. I have pieces of things that I would love to see in a sequel, but I haven’t got them all together yet, and I certainly wouldn’t want to come out there with something that is less than the original. … Sequels are not part of the business plan at Pixar. It’s all about the filmmakers being passionate about going somewhere.

He is right sequels aren’t usually on Pixar’s mind but remember they made a sequel to Toy Story, and I know a lot of people who think that’s even better than the original so it can be done.

The characters of The Incredibles are so well defined in the original movie and with every superhero series there are so many other things you can do to continue the franchise. I would love to see a sequel to this thing and if Bird is passionate for doing it then I can’t see why Pixar would stop him.

Eddie Izzard who had a fun role in Ocean’s Thirteen and who looks absolutely wacky as hell in the upcoming 60’s movie Across the Universe, has joined the cast of Bryan Singer’s WWI movie Valkyrie.

In the film, German generals hatch a scheme to assassinate Adolph Hitler at the height of WWII. Valkyrie is based on actual events.

Can you imagine if he has been cast as Hitler himself? I’m telling ya he could do it and would be convincing at it.

Love the sound of this movie, love the awesome cast Singer has put together.

source - variety

Jack Black is set to play a schoolteacher for the second time in his career in the movie Man-Witch. It’s funny because he looks and acts most unlike any schoolteacher I have ever known.

The first time was School of Rock, which as far as those comedies go it wasn’t terrible. And of course, you can’t go wrong with Richard Linklater, his writing and dialogue was too clever to make it uninteresting.

The second time will see him star in Man-Witch for Old School and Starsky and Hutch director Todd Phillips says Variety…

In the comedy, Black will play a schoolteacher who suddenly discovers he has witchlike abilities. Taken in by a coven, he is persuaded to attend a school for witches, only to discover that his classmates are all girls.

Phillips is not the kind of director who interests me in the least but I like Jack Black and when he’s on his game, he can make me laugh like no other.

Oh, because The Brothers Grimm did so well!

Variety are reporting that New Regency Productions and Josephson Entertainment have acquired the film rights to the children’s book series The Sisters Grimm.

Pic will be based on the first three books in the projected nine-volume series; four are available in 15 languages and have sold more than half a million copies. Story weaves the tale of orphaned sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, descendants of the Brothers Grimm, on a quest to find their parents.

Actually, after looking through Box Office Mojo, it says The Brothers Grimm made over $100 million worldwide and was actually quite popular internationally. Maybe I should have seen this move coming.

I haven’t seen The Brothers Grimm, any good or was it as bad as the trailer looked?

It was great news two months back when Aardman Studio’s formed a new partnership with Sony, so soon after they were dumped on their ass by Dreamworks. There’s still a lot of life left in Aardman cinema.

Here are some of the projects they have up their sleeve according to an article over Variety. Sadly it would seem there is no Wallace and Gromit in the works…

THE CAT BURGLARS

Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, two writers of the U.K. hit show Life on Mars will work alongside Steve Box (co-director of last Wallace and Gromit movie) for The Cat Burglars, a stop-frame claymation comedy about milk thieving stray cats. It’s been described as a Wallace and Gromit style comedy, mixed with the coolness of Ocean’s Eleven, resulting in “a family friendly Tarantino” flick.

UNTITLED COMEDY ADAPTATION OF PIRATES

Gideon Defoe’s adventure book series Pirates will be directed by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord, his first feature film since Chicken Run in 2000. Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil who have penned episodes of Little Britain will be working on the screenplay along with Nick Park and Peter Lord.

OPERATION RUDOLPH

Borat writer Peter Baynham is developing Operation Rudolph, an action film set on Christmas night which revolves around the idea that the North Pole and Santa are part of an ultra high-tech military procedure which sends out hundreds of elves on “combat” to deliver the presents to the children.

UNTITLED NICK PARK PROJECT

No word on what this is but it’s been reported that it won’t be a further Wallace and Gromit movie.

Real images of the Batman’s new bike have been released online and as you can see it looks completely different to those fake images that were reported about earlier this month. The article at LA Times reveals that the vehicle will once again be manufactured for Bruce by Morgan Freeman’s character Lucius Fox.

I dunno what to think of it. The bike sure looks different but again seeing it in the context of the film is the key thing. I hated the “tank” Batmobile before Batman Begins came out but once I saw it on film, I loved it… so just like the Joker car I’m reserving my opinion for now.

The latest rumor also is that Anthony Michael Hall will be playing The Riddler in The Dark Knight, or more accurately the “good guy Edward Nygma”. Interesting, interesting.

These images (including the one below) have been added to our movie watch page for The Dark Knight.

source - coming soon, cinematical