Finally Warner Brothers are starting to use their heads in a world where it seems they are hell-bent on ruining their comic book film income for the upcoming years.

The Daily Mail here in the U.K. are claiming that some members of the crew working on HARRY POTTER 6 have told them of WB’s plan to film the last book in the series HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS in two movies, with the final chapter released just a couple of months after the first, ala’ THE MATRIX finale a few years back.

This move would seem to make sense as,

A) HARRY POTTER movies make around $600 million PROFIT, so it’s an extra cash-cow for WB and with them struggling to find a POTTER replacement and get tentpoles off the ground… this is easy money.

B) The book is 776 pages long (more than 3 times as large as the first few books) and fans were pissed with each growing movie over how much material was being left out. Two movies obviously allow a far larger scope.

C) It’s more appealing to big directors, because they know this one will be epic and grandiose finish.

My girlfriend is absolutely desperate to get me into this series because as you know my current CV of Potter knowledge only consists of 20 minutes of one of the movies and not one book read. I will give them a go… but I’m not convinced it’s the world I’m going to be interested in.

Next job for WB is to find a director for this. Interestingly my girlfriend is a big LOTR fan and she claims that Guillermo del Toro was PERFECT for THE DEATHLY HALLOWS but not the type of director she wants to see on THE HOBBIT.

I’m pretty convinced he will end up with one of the gigs. But just which one? Time shall tell.

source - cinema blend

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So we’ve already seen Heath Ledger hung to death in some unofficial photo’s taken by press camping out on the set of Terry Gilliam’s next movie THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS, you would think that the next set of images couldn’t get any weirder.

Wrong! I give you Ledger at a fancy dress ball with a fucking long nose…

The movie as far as I understand it, is about a group of misfits who are all entertainers in a travelling theatre/freak show but somewhere along the line, the audience become part of the act. Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole and Tom Waits co-star with Ledger who this Summer will under the lime-light like never before in THE DARK KNIGHT.

I’ve always been of the impression that movies with titles that you can’t pronounce at the ticket booth without sounding like an idiot, are always films to avoid but there is something about a travelling carnival that peaks my interest.

I think it’s my Caligari side. Terry Gilliam is far from my favourite director but the plot and the likes of Ledger & Plummer should be enough to win my money next year.

source - cinematical, just jared

Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen have all spoken in the past about their desire to work with Peter Jackson again in a Middle-Earth movie and I’m pretty convinced that every couple of months those three and more will continue with those sentiments until filming gets under-way on the now official movie.

At least now we can believe they are not throw-a-way comments anymore and with production expected to start this year on THE HOBBIT, it’s ok to get excited now without getting burnt with disappointment.

We think anyway!

Wood spoke to MTV, first about his involvement in any future movie (which if he were to appear as Frodo, could find a place for himself in the second upcoming LOTR movie) and whether he has spoke to Peter Jackson…

“I haven’t spoken to him directly about it [but] I’ve e-mailed him, and as far as I know the two films that they’re doing, one will be ‘The Hobbit’ and another will take place between the 60 years that happened between ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings…If I’m asked to go back and revisit that character and it makes sense, I would love to. I would absolutely love to.

“It’s a great triumph [that Peter is involved.] I think that’s really important that the same team that worked on the [earlier] films [work on “The Hobbit”], the same effects team, that it be shot in New Zealand. I think that it’s important that Ian McKellen is cast as Gandalf, just so that there’s a synergy between the films,” he insisted. “I think people want it to exist in the same world. So at least now we are assured that it will be done through that same lens, which is great. It’s exciting.”

Personally, I don’t think any of the LOTR cast would turn down the opportunity of returning to work with Peter Jackson on Middle-Earth again, least not Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen. Still no director attached yet… but the big three of Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson himself seem favourite.

source - coming soon

The Universal horror CIRQUE DU FREAK has added another cast member to a flick that is quickly becoming a freakishly bizarre movie.

Variety say that in her first deal since she got pregnant, Salma Hayek has agreed to join the movie which we said in November would be led by John C. Reilly, an actor who just recently failed to carry his first leading role with WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY.

Reilly stars as a vampire who hires a 14 year old girl as his assistant and sucks her into a undead state.. to fight on his side in the war between Vampires and Vampanese. Hayek will play Madame Trusk, a.k.a. The Bearded Lady.

The movie is based on the successful Paul Shaun series of books, of which there has now been 12 published… all have been picked up by Universal. Shooting is set to begin next month.

CIRQUE DU FREAK will mark the solo directing debut of Paul Weitz, as the previous films he was worked on AMERICAN PIE, ABOUT A BOY, IN GOOD COMPANY and AMERICAN DREAMZ he co-directed with his brother Chris.

We just had our first look at the poster for this Summer’s adventure movie JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH 3D and now New Line have released some official set images from the movie.

The flick doesn’t look or feel as epic as I would have liked but I guess these aren’t the meaty images, which is bizarre because I doubt anyone will leap out to put July 11th in their diary to see this flick after these photos.

MORE IMAGES HERE.

2008 is the beginning of several cool new franchises with IRON MAN, HULK and several others but one that we shouldn’t forget about is SOLOMON KANE, based on the pulp character created by Robert E. Howard (CONAN).

The movie promises to be visceral supernatural spectacular with vampires, ghosts and monsters attacking a 16th century land to be defended a Puritan swordsman by the name of SOLOMON KANE.

We already know that James Purefoy is Kane, veteran Max Van Sydow his father, Ian Whyte as the Reaper (a villain, we presume) and Alice Krige (she was the BORG queen in TREK) are cast but today comes news of a few more names added to the mix.

Buried deep within Variety’s daily updates comes the news of British actors Pete Postlethwaite and Mackenzie Crook’s casting.

Postlethwaite does the supporting gig in his sleep now and it’s always great to see him in something like this, wheras Crook’s film career so far has been restricted to the guy whose right eye pops out in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN trilogy.

Will he be the comic relief here or is he a character of some depth?

DEATHWATCH director Michael J. Bassett helms the Davis Films feature which begins shooting in Prague this month.

Has Michel Gondry revealed the plot of his next movie which we previously heard would be a stop motion animated film, co-written by his young son?

Or is this just another strange and wonderful project in development from the crazy mind that brought us ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP?

The French director revealed the plot details of the project he is working on, titled THE RETURN OF THE ICE KINGS, to MTV…

“I’m writing a story about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it… it’s going to be a scientific story, but completely unrealistic.”

Gondry says he hasn’t finished writing the project yet and with the ongoing writers strike, he won’t be able to for some time.

His next movie BE KIND REWIND opens next month, and it’s one of my most personally anticipated movies of the first half of the year.

Children’s fantasy movies haven’t resulted in the necessary box office returns recently to make them at all worthwhile. ERAGON, THE DARK IS RISING and THE GOLDEN COMPASS have been financial disappointments for their respected studio’s over the last year or so. The problem has never been getting asses in seats, because for an ordinary movie THE GOLDEN COMPASS’ $258 million worldwide would be a massive success, it’s just how much it costs to put them together are enormous.

The Hollywood Reporter say that United Artists are the latest studio about to take the children’s fantasy gamble. They have just paid a seven figure sum to secure the rights to RANGER’S APPRENTICE, a fantasy series written by Australian author John Flanagan which was first published in his homeland in 2004 and has now remarkably seen a further six books published.

The series follows the adventures of an orphan boy named Will who becomes an apprentice ranger and fights to keep the mythical kingdom of Araluen safe from invaders, traitors and other dangers with the help of his master Halt.

Presumably there is more to it than that, otherwise we are in store for another bore fest on par with THE DARK IS RISING.

The first book is titled THE RUINS OF GORLAN, which undoubtedly won’t be the name of the film. It’s not yet known if U.A. plan to film all seven books, or condense them down into several or maybe even one smaller chunk.

Sadly it would seem that Paul Haggis (CRASH, MILLION DOLLAR BABY) is in talks to write and direct the picture in what would be something of a career divergence for him. I’ve gone to lengths in the past about my dislike for his work but maybe with a fantasy movie he will be a little more relaxed with his storytelling.

Interesting move from U.A. Since Tom Cruise resurrected the studio they have only optioned smaller political genre affairs such as LIONS FOR LAMBS and PINKVILLE. They did however tap up the rights to the British 60’s spy series THE CHAMPIONS with Guillermo del Toro attached to direct but today’s news is easily their highest profile acquisition to date.

So he’s the fans choice with Obsessed With Film readers. Well, the extremely low % of our traffic who decide to vote anyway but I think it’s fair to say that if you took a big poll across all the movie sites across the web, del Toro’s name would probably come out as the huge fan favourite.

He just seems to be the perfect candidate, crossing all the boxes that are needed. He can handle big productions (HELLBOY), he has unquestioned artistic vision, he can do fantasy but always grounded in the real world which is something Tolkien’s work relies on (PAN’S LABYRINTH), he knows special effects, he’s paid his dues with years of work in smaller productions and his work in the last few years have made him one of the most talked about directors on the planet.

And just like Sam Raimi, it would seem he wants the gig…

“I’ve heard some rumblings, but nothing official. I don’t want to think about it because it’s such an eventuality,” Guillermo del Toro told EW. “It’s the only Tolkien book I read. I tried my best to read the Lord of the Rings, the trilogy. I could not. I could not. They were very dense. And then one day, I bought The Hobbit. I read it and I loved it. So it would be a privilege. But listen, I wish I knew.”

And my feeling is those won’t be the only two big directors who express an interest in helming this in the near future. It’s rare such a huge project like THE HOBBIT comes up for grabs, the only comparison I could make is if George Lucas decided to give free reign to anyone to direct a new STAR WARS production.

But we have kinda been in this situation before. When the massive HALO production was still alive, del Toro was firmly the fan’s favourite to direct that adaptation under Peter Jackson’s wing and as I understand it, they had a meeting about it and Jackson offered him the job outright but del Toro decided he wanted to do HELLBOY II instead, fearing the script for HALO wasn’t up to scratch.

Whilst with Jackson, he did get to see the WETA workshop, or what he calls ‘heaven’…

”I met Peter and Fran when we were trying to do Halo. I think what they’re doing in New Zealand is amazing. What they’re doing, in terms of the way they approach filmmaking — the way I see it is, it’s Hollywood the way God intended it. Because it’s a filmmaker’s dream and a filmmaker’s facility. So it’s heaven. The question is: Will I go to heaven? I have no idea.”

Exciting times ahead. The news of a new ‘LORD OF THE RINGS prequel’ as the British press are calling it, has hit pretty big time here in the U.K. and I kept seeing announcements about Peter Jackson’s involvement on every channel, radio and even printed press.

We have been burnt with THE HOBBIT so many times in the past, I really hope this time it runs through smoothly and it actually gets made. This is probably the closest we have been to a HOBBIT movie for years and years… let’s hope they get the directing choice right. And as we’ve said, Jackson won’t struggle to find candidates who want the job.

source - slash film

After years of bickering, lawsuits, false promises and lots of bullshit… finally this week the huge announcement that New Line and Peter Jackson had come to an agreement which would allow THE HOBBIT to finally be translated to the big screen left fans with extreme excitement over the future of Middle-Earth, and was soon big it even made the 2nd page of a British tabloid.

For years we all wanted movement on the project and most of all for Peter Jackson to helm and we got a little uneasy when we thought of other people tampering with Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Finally the creative force behind the greatest film achievement this side of the Millenium was back when he belongs.

Though one thing needs to be made clear right now. Peter Jackson is not directing THE HOBBIT. Instead, he will serve as Executive Producer and will do the same job he was set to do on HALO, basically over-seeing every aspect of the film’s production…

“Peter won’t be directing because he felt the fans have waited long enough for The Hobbit. It will take the better part of every day of the next four years to write, direct and produce two Hobbit films. Given his current obligations to both The Lovely Bones and Tintin, waiting for Peter, Fran, and Phillippa to write, direct and produce The Hobbit would require the fans wait even longer.”

This isn’t really that bad of a thing. Jackson is no doubt drained at this point with everything that has gone on so far with THE HOBBIT and taking a back seat might be the best thing for him to do. If he can bring someone who he trusts in for the two movies and if he allows them some pull to make their own big creative decisions, then THE HOBBIT will feel fresh, new and exciting.

Bottom line is, we don’t want someone imitating Peter Jackson’s directing style… because shit like that never works (Van Sant’s PSYCHO). The new director must be able to bring his own voice to the table or this is a disaster waiting to happen.

2008 should see a director attached and the script well on it’s way into development, so the two new Tolkien movies can hit their 2010-2011 deadline. The second film after they have filmed THE HOBBIT, almost gives them free license to bring back any of the LOTR alumni that they please as they will basically be crafting a free story that connects THE HOBBIT to THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.

Wonder who will return. Wonder who will direct? Wonder if New Line pushed for this when the figures came back over how much they lost on THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

source - entertainment weekly