Friday, November 30, 2012

Monsters University Teaser Posters Land

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Less Animal House, more Monster House...

Before you look at the new Monsters University teaser posters below, know this: you are about to have serious letterman jacket envy. Damn you, MU, damn you.Frustratingly, even if you head over to the still-really-rather-impressive Monsters University website, there's no way you can order yourself a proper letterman jacket. Disney! Pixar! Have you no mercy? Anyway, here are the posters in question, one with Mike & Sully in their dorm and another complete with some appropriately-titled books littering the floor. Would you read 'Scareonomics' if it was in your local library? It's a pretty safe bet...

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Mike Newell Talks Reykjavik

Mike Newell is one of cinema's most reliable and talented dramatists, and, with a back catalogue featuring Four Weddings And A Funeral, Donnie Brasco and now Great Expectations, he has a gift for versatility, too. His next project, Reykjavik, shifts forward 150 years or so to 1986 and the pivotal peace talks between Ronald Reagan (Michael Douglas) and Mikhail Gorbachev (Christoph Waltz).

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"It's a story about human contact being established in a desert where it shouldn't exist", Newells told Empire of his historical drama, "and against all the odds it does. It's a triumph of the human spirit."

The director describes it as an origin story for the end of the Cold War, which pits Reagan and Gorbachev in an odd-couple East-meets-West relationship upon which, as Hollywood tagline man might put it, 'the fate of the entire world hangs". Red Heat in an overcoat? Could be.Unsurprisingly, the city of Reykjavik is on the shooting schedule for next year, as well Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, earmarked for interiors work. Newell expects to start working with Waltz and Douglas - both currently shooting elsewhere - in late December or early in the new year. "We have to get the hair right", says the director of the make-up task ahead, "because Reagan was so vain about his hair - and obviously the birthmark and the baldness for Christoph Waltz." Better keep Frank Drebin away from the set.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Saw director James Wan will helm MacGyver

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Hit TV show and frequent source of Simpsons mickey-taking MacGyver is getting a big-screen adaptation, with a less than likely name slated to fill the director's chair.James Wan, the director of horror shockers Saw and Insidious, is reportedly set to be helming the project, in one of the more surprising directorial appointments of recent years.For those of you unfamiliar with the TV show, MacGyver was a secret agent with an aversion to guns and a predilection for homemade gadgets and gizmos. He was the kind of chap who could take down a whole cartel of baddies armed only with a biro and a pack of Blu-Tack.The character was the loose inspiration for recent parody flick MacGruber, but it seems that film's flaccid box-office performance hasn't dissuaded New Line for giving the original a new lease of life.Wan will be directing from a script originally written by Jason Richman and reworked by Brian and Mark Gunn, with work set to begin on the project in the coming months. As for who should play MacGyver, get those suggestions in to the comments board below…

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

‘Big Bang Theory’s Kevin Sussman & John Ross Bowie Sell Toon Comedy To Amazon

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Nellie AndreevaEXCLUSIVE: Writing team John Ross Bowie and Kevin Sussman, actors best known for their roles on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, have sold an animated workplace comedy project to Amazon. Titled Dark Minions, the comedy is set on an evil space station where two opinionated misfits are squeezed into working for “the man.” Peter Principato, Paul Young and Joel Zadak of Principato-Young, which manages Bowie, will executive produce, with Bowie and Sussman co-executive producing and Sussman’s manager Jill McGrath serving as a producer.

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Bowie and Sussman met and became friends while guest starring together on The Big Bang Theory, where they have recurred as Leonard and Sheldon’s nemesis Barry Kripke and comic book store owner Stuart, respectively. Sussman was promoted to a regular going into this season. Bowie and Sussman’s spec Dark Minions caught the attention of Sony TV last year, leading to the studio backing the duo’s comedy The Ever After Part, which sold to Fox last season, and The Second Coming Of Rob, loosely based on Bowie’s life, which sold to CBS in July. The writing team is additionally repped by APA.
Amazon has been ramping up original comedy and children programming development. Amazon Studios, the content development division of the online retailer, is finalizing a deal for its first  ...