Forumchem - Forum with AI(ALICE BOT & HAL9000) and TTS

Sam Worthington has become one of Hollywoods most sought after actors, and he literarily blew up from out of no where. He"s gone from one big high profile film to another, with Terminator Salvation, Avatar, and Clash of the Titans already under his belt he"s ready to get to work on some more big projects.nbsp;

According to Pajiba he"s been cast as the lead in a new film called Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future. Now I bet your wondering who in the hell is Dan Dare Well, he"s been around for quite awhile actually. He"s a British sci-fi comic hero who was created by Frank Hampson way back in the year 1950.nbsp;Dan Dare appeared in the Eagle comic story Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, dramatised 7 times a week on Radio Luxembourg.

The stories were set in the late 1990s but the dialogue and manner of the characters is reminiscent of British war films of the 1950s. Dan Dare has been described as as the British equivalent of Buck Rogers. The comic was distinguished by its long, complex story lines, snappy dialogue and meticulously illustrated comic-strip artwork.

Virgin Comic nbsp;actually launched a comicbook mini-series a few years ago, which was written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Gary Erskine and is a completely new and somewhat darker intrepretation of the character.

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Here"s a description of Dan Dare:

His full name is Colinelnbsp;Daniel McGregor Dare. He was chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet. He was born in Manchester, England, in 1967 and educated at Rossall School.nbsp;Although not a super-hero, he sometimes pulled off exceptional piloting and often proved extraordinarily lucky. He excelled at jiu jitsu, but he most often found non-violent solutions to predicaments. He was bound by a sense of honour, never lied, and would rather die than break his word.

This film project is now a priority at Warner Bros, but They have yet to bring on a writer or director. They are on the hunt but as of right now Sam Worthington is the only name attached to the project. He"s got a good amount of projects on the pipeline already so who knows where this falls in line with the rest of them.

Worthington seems like a very likable guy, and the character of Dan dare seems to fit him perfectly, so I"m excited to see this film go into production.

What are your thoughts on Worthington playing Dan Dare

FOX has been in the process of trying to get a new Planet of the Apes film off the ground for some time now. They want to reboot the whole franchise starting with a film that will act as a prequel to what we"ve already seen and know. Now it looks like it"s getting closer to becoming a reality because they hired a director.

Rupert Wyatt is the man who will develop this new Planet of the Apes reboot, which was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Wyatt"s last film that he directed was The Escapist.nbsp;

This decision comes after reports came in that Fox was looking at high profile directors which included Kathryn Bigelownbsp;(Hurt Locker),nbsp;Tomas Alfredsonnbsp;(The Danish Girl),nbsp;Robert Rodrigueznbsp;(Sin City), The Hughes Brothersnbsp;(The Book Of Eli),nbsp;Pierre Morelnbsp;(Taken),nbsp;James McTeiguenbsp;(Ninja Assassin),nbsp;Dennis Illiadisnbsp;(The Last House of the Left), andnbsp;Scott Stewartnbsp;(Legion). I guess they all turned down the opportunity, which was in my mind, the right thing to do.

The new story, which has been nicknamed Ceasar, will show how genetic experiments on apes led to their evolutionary eclipse of humans. Caesar refers to the genetically altered leader of the simian rebellion, so dubbed because the ape was capable of grand strategic thinking on par with Julius Ceasar. The Caesar code name also foreshadowed the script"s plot: Like the actual Julius Caesar, the ape begins a guerrilla war and emerges the emperor of the known world.

So now that Fox has their director the movie can movie forward.

Is a new Planet of the Apes film something you can be excited about

It"s been almost a year since it was announced that Martin Scorsese would be directing Universal"s Frank Sinatra biopic, which is being written by Phil Alden Robinsonnbsp;(All of Me, Field of Dreams).

The legendary Oscar-winning director recently spoke with Shortlist, and in the interview he gave a couple of blurbs about the current status of the long-gestating biopic, addressed casting rumors, and revealed the way he"d like to approach depicting the iconic entertainer.

In regards to Leonardo DiCaprio replacing Robert De Niro as Scorsese"s new go-to lead actor,nbsp;he was asked if there was anyone he"d like to work with next. To which he responded, dropping some A-List names,

Johnny Deppnbsp;is one. I like him. Hersquo;s unique. I donrsquo;t know how he does it.nbsp;George Clooney.nbsp;Brad Pittnbsp;is interesting. Andnbsp;Tobey Maguire. Therersquo;s a lot of good people.

Depp has been long been rumored to be Universal"s first choice to portray Sinatra, while Clooney was the primary choice fornbsp;Sinatra"s daughter, Tina -- who also acts as an executive producer on the film.nbsp;

So naturally, with the two names perhaps Freudian slipped,nbsp;the follow up question turned to whether or not these are actors Scorsese isnbsp;talking to about for the Sinatra project, which Scorsese only somewhat denies saying:

Not right now, no.

That leaves it open to him previously talking to them about it, or that he plans to. Clever. It"s like someone asking if you"re cheating on your wife... "No. Not RIGHT now."

But Scorsese then reassures that it"s still early in development, explaining:

Wersquo;re still working on the Sinatra script. Itrsquo;s very hard because here is a man who changed the entire image of the Italian-American. And thatrsquo;s just one thing. Along with his political work, civil rights, the Mob...

So with Scorsese having directed films that would cover similar aspects of Sinatra"s life, he was also asked which of his previous films, he could compare it to, throwing out the Howard Hughes biopicnbsp;The Aviatornbsp;and his acclaimed mobster flicknbsp;Goodfellas as references.

I was hoping it would be a combination of the two. Yeah, because in structure Irsquo;d like it to be more like GoodFellas. But like The Aviator, it only deals with certain times in his life. We canrsquo;t go through the greatest hits of Sinatrarsquo;s life. We tried this already. Just canrsquo;t do it. So the other way to go is to have three or four different Sinatras. Younger. Older. Middle-aged. Very old. You cut back and forth in time ndash; and you do it through the music. See what Irsquo;m saying So thatrsquo;s what wersquo;re trying for. Itrsquo;s very tricky [laughs].

This could be viewed as Scorsese considering tackling Sinatra"s life in the same waynbsp;nbsp;Todd Haynes" I"m Not There, in which he enlisted several actors (and an actress) to portray Bob Dylan through different stages of his life, which earned Cate Blanchett several awards and an Oscar Nomination.nbsp;The Playlist certainly throws that out as a possibility, and I agree, even if it is just wishful thinking. So, for the the sake of who"d be Sinatra at what age,nbsp;DiCaprio could play younger Sinatra, Depp as the older and Clooney as the middle-aged. It would be interesting, but I"d much rather see one actor really transform, and develop the character. I don"t see how the aging could possibly be an issue with the seamless things they can do with make-up and CGI.

Personally, I think Matthew Bomer (White Collar, Chuck), would make for a great young Sinatra. He"s already rocking suits of that era and the charisma on White Collar.

But that"s just my suggestion.

But whatever direction Scorsese takes with the casting and structure, Scorsese still has three other films he"s developingnbsp;-- his adaptation of the children"s booknbsp;The Invention Of Hugo Cabret, the once fallen through nbsp;Jesuit-priest pic Silence, that was set to star Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal, and mob-flick The Irishmen with Robert De Niro -- before he can take onnbsp;Sinatra.nbsp;nbsp;So it"d be safe not expect it to beginnbsp;until 2012 at the very earliest. Then again, he was supposed to take on Silence before Shutter Island, before it first fell through, so cross your fingers.

What do you think of Scorsese"s ideas for the structure of SINATRA Who do you think should be cast as Sinatra

Okay, seriously this is pretty freakin awesome. It"s such a simple concept and something we use to do all the time as kids when we would read those choose your own adventures books. Only now it"s possible to do it at the movies! I would definitely like to go to this movie and experience it.

13th Street Films is the group launching the new movie going experience. The first film to be released that will take advantage of the new gimmick is a horror film called Last Call. During the movie the character in the film calls audience members for advise on what to do. This is really a film that the audience members can actually control. Every decision that they make will take the movie to a totally different out come.nbsp;

Heres a detailed description, and below is a trailer that will explain how everything works:

Last Call is the first interactive horror movie in the world where the audience is able to communicate with the protagonist. A film controlled by a member of the audience, thus blurring the boundaries between game and film. Language recognition software transforms the participant"s answers via mobile phone into specific instructions. A specially developed software then processes these commands and launches an appropriate follow-up scene. The dialogue between the movie"s main actress and an audience member leads to a different film - and outcome - every time: sometimes with a happy end, sometimes with a more gruesome one. To participate in the adventure, audience members submit their mobile phone numbers to a speed dial code when they buy their ticket. The moment the female protagonist takes out her phone to call someone who might be able to help her, the film"s controlling software contacts one of the submitted mobile phone numbers. Once the viewer picks up, he hears the actress"s voice - who tells him she would be lost without him. He has to help her escape by choosing a path through the old, rundown sanatorium. Furthermore, he also decides whether she should help other victims to flee the scene -and every single choice shapes her fate: it"s a matter of life and death.

Check out the trailer below and tell us what you think of this new movie going experience.

Jack Kirby"s kids are coming after Marvel and suing them with the intention of terminating the copyrights and gaining profits from films and characters such as Iron Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and more. This could get ugly, and the future of some of our favorite characters hangs on the balance of justice.nbsp;

The suit follows the September move by the Kirby estate to send out 45 notices of termination to Marvel and owner the walt Disney, as well as Sony, Universal, Fox and others, hoping to recapture control of much of Kirby"s work. In January, Marvel filed its own lawsuit, claiming the creations were "work-made-for-hire" and that Marvel was the real "author" of such works under the 1909 Copyright Act.nbsp;

As you know Jack Kirby worked on creating some of Marvels most popular characters in the 1950"s and 1960"s. He also had a big hand in helping Stan Lee in helping draw out the Marvel Universe.nbsp;

This lawsuit isn"t going to be fun, but I"m sure that Disney will get all their best lawyers to take on the challenge. It will be interesting to see what the outcome will be. with all of these Marvel properties making so much money it was only a matter of time before this happened.nbsp;

Here are the full details from THR.

The complaint seeks declaratory relief, including copyright termination and profits. It describes the backstory of Kirby"s creative period, particularly from 1958 to 1963, when Marvel existed in a tiny office with few employees and relied upon "freelancers to which they had little or no obligation." Kirby disputes Marvel"s work-for-hire theory.

Because Kirby often worked in tandem with others, particularly Lee, the complaint is careful about what the estate believes it is entitled to control: "With respect to Co-Owned Kirby Works, as of the respective Termination Dates, Defendants will jointly own the copyrights to such works for their renewal terms: both Plaintiffs and Defendants will have the non-exclusive right to exploit such jointly owned copyrights..."

In other words, even though various studios currently have a license to produce movies such as "Spider-Man" (Sony) and "X-Men" (Fox), the estate"s court action could give it the ability to license competing versions. If it wins termination, that is. Disney and the other studios are sure to throw all of their superpower legal muscle at this fight.

The Kirby estate doesn"t state how much it thinks it"s owed, but any termination of copyrights could be worth tens of millions of dollars, if not more. Last year Disney bought Marvelnbsp;for a whopping $4 billion.

One surprise in the lawsuit is an unexpected claim under the Lanham Act. The lawsuit targets two films, "The Incredible Hulk" released in 2008 and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" released last year, as films that it claims were misrepresented in commercial advertising and promotion. The estate claims that Kirby was not properly identified as being the author or co-author of these works. The estate is seeking "up to three times the damages they sustained and will sustain," which isn"t specifically identified, but could be significant. "Wolverine" made almost $375 million in worldwide gross.

Here"s a nice little trailer for an upcoming suspense thriller called The Square. "A secret affair", "a ruthless betrayal", and "a brutal revenge".nbsp;The film was directed by Nash Edgerton and written by his brother Joel Edgerton. The Square definitely looks like a very heavy film, and I like what I see in the trailer. From what I"ve read the movie has been getting some positive buzz. I doubt we"ll ever see this hit mainstream movie theaters, so I guess it"s one you will look for in your local independent movie theater. The film is currently making the rounds at film festivals.

Synopsis:

A stylish, twist-filled film noir, The Square centers on an adulterous couple whose scheming leads to arson, blackmail and murder. Escaping the monotony of a loveless marriage, Raymond becomes entangled in an affair with the beautiful and troubled Carla. Rayrsquo;s moral limits are tested when Carla presents him with the proceeds of her controlling husbandrsquo;s latest crime. This is their chance: Take the money and run. If only it were that simple...

The seed is planted and Ray, fearing he will lose his love, engineers the plan. Hiring a professional arsonist becomes a fatal error, and the plan goes horribly wrong. Alarm bells sound and suspicions are raised, but miraculously, the dust looks to settle. After all...Nobody knows. Then the first blackmail note arrives. The couplersquo;s nerves are tested as both Carlarsquo;s husband and the mystery author threaten to throw open their secret. With the blackmailerrsquo;s deadline approaching they are going to find out just how far they are willing to go for love.

Check out the trailer below and let us know what ya think!

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DreamWorks has cast 11-year-old Canadiannbsp;actor Dakota Goyonbsp;(Resurrectingnbsp;the Champ) as Hugh Jackman"s son in Real Steel.

Shawn Levynbsp;(Night at the Museum) will be directing the adaptation of the Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, Somewhere In Time) story, which was made into an episode of thenbsp;Twilight Zone.

Set in the future,nbsp;Real Steel is a Rocky-esque tale of a fighter who has to reinvent himself when human boxing becomes obsolete, replaced by 2000 pound human-like robots. Jackman plays the ex-fighter, who gets a shot at redemption when he teams up with his long lost son to train an unusual discardednbsp;robot for a shot at the championships.

The wide net public casting call, was said to be looking for someone to play a "street-smart, tough, charming kid with a hard, untrusting outer shell which hides a warm enthusiastic spirit beneath."

Goyo has a variety of Canadian television credits, but is most known in the States as Josh Hartnett"s son innbsp;Resurrecting the Champ, with Samuel L. Jackson. Goyo can currently be seen in Defendor, starring Woody Harelson and Kat Dennings.

Real Steel marks the first film Dreamworks is doing under its deal with Disney. Shooting will begin shooting in June, with Disney slating the movie for a November 18, 2011 release.

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Here"s the trailer for Dawn of The Dreadfuls, the prequel to the New York Times bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: nbsp;Dawn of The Dreadfuls takes place 4 years before the events of the first book, and explains the genesis of the zombie plague in early-nineteenth-century England, and see how Elizabeth Bennet evolved fromnbsp;naiuml;ve young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead

Steve Hockensmith -- a finalistnbsp;of Edgar, Shamus and Anthony awardsnbsp;--nbsp;takes the reins of the Austen/Zombie mash-up fornbsp;Pamp;Pamp;Z author, Seth Grahame-Smithnbsp;-- who moved onto Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Natalie Portman is starring and producing the feature adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, while Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov and Jim Lemley are developingnbsp;Vampire Hunter.

Check out the trailer and let us know if you think this will get the big-screen treatment as well!

Dawn of The Dreadfuls hits shelves March 23rd.

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Here"s The BookList Description of the Book:

Ever wondered how the Bennett sisters got to be such great zombie killers Hockensmith explains all in the story of the return of the zombie plague and Mr. Bennettrsquo;s secret history. When a neighbor rises up out of his coffin in the middle of a funeral, Mr. Bennett shrugs off the lifestyle of a Regency England gentleman and returns to his old calling as a warrior dedicated to eradicating the Unentionables. Turning the greenhouse into a dojo, he trains all five Bennett girls, with the help of fellow warrior Master Hawksworth, to take up his questmdash;just in time, too, as a deadly incursion is under way. Hockensmith does not abandon Austenrsquo;s original characters. Mrs. Bennett is the most true to the original, and even silly Kitty and Lydia are the same, only they fight instead of fuss over men. Elizabeth, from whose point of view significant elements of the story are told, is the most fully developed, and while she departs a little from the original, itrsquo;s not so far as to make Austen fans cringe (given that theyrsquo;re OK with zombies, of course). This is a must-read for the growing legion of alternate-Austen fans (including, naturally, everyone who has read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).

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Warner Bros.nbsp;has been the highest grossing studio for the past two years. Last year they raked in over $2 billion in domestic grosses, breaking the movie industry record of $1.789 billion set by the studio the year before. Last year they had the help of unexpected hits likenbsp;The Hangovernbsp;andnbsp;The Blind Side.nbsp;And in 2008, they had the testosterone fueled hit with thenbsp;Dark Knight,nbsp;and the estrogen fueled one with thenbsp;Sex and The Citynbsp;movie.nbsp;But for the past decade, the studio"s sure fire money maker has been thenbsp;Harry Potternbsp;franchise, with the 6 films, so far, earning the studio over $4.5 billion world wide at the box-office.

Now with the franchise soon coming to a close with the release of the final book split into two films, -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I at the end of this year, and Part II in 2011 -- the studio is undoubtedly setting it"s sights on something to fill the void... trading in J.K. for DC.

At the ShoWest industry convention yesterday, Warner Bros Presidentnbsp;Alan Horn moderated their annual preview of the studio"s planned releases for the year. Along with new footage of Christopher Nolan"s Inception andnbsp;Clash of the Titans 3D footage, two big announcements were made. The first, Horn revealed, is that ALL of their upcoming tentpole movies would be in 3D. The second, is that they"ll be focusing more onnbsp;DC Comicsnbsp;properties, as a way to fill in fornbsp;Harry Potternbsp;once that series ends in 2011!

This is great new for comic book fans! I"d usually be scared if a studio began relying on comic book films, since, in the past, that would mean they would have to Hollywood-ize them and water them down to make them more appealing to a wider audience. But with Nolan at the helm of the Batman franchise, and with his Godfather-type role with Superman, I think we can trust that this probably means we should be expecting higher profile directors, with the studio putting more time and money into these films.nbsp;

The first announcement isn"t a surprising move considering this month"s announcement thatnbsp;The Green Lantern andnbsp;Sucker Punch would be released in 3D, joining the already planned 3D releases of Legend of the Guardians and the last two Harry Potter films.

Our friends at FirstShowing were at the event, and report:

Horn announced that all of their tentpole movies, including upcoming DC Comicsnbsp;movies and big special effects films, will be released in 3D. This means we can probably expect the new Superman and Batman to be in 3D as well, as long as Chris Nolan approves of it. However, he also said that they"ll look at each project individually and determine whether it"s best to shoot in 3D or convert into 3D on a movie-by-movie basis.

Horn feels that 3D is "new standardnbsp;" for the company, and with Warner Bros. as far ahead of the pack as they are, all of the other major studios are sure to follow in their footsteps. I really wish they wouldn"t cheap out with the conversion, it"s as clear as day that it is inferior (especially when rushed) to things shot in 3D. Addressing thenbsp;criticism of conversion, Horn said "in our opinion, conversion to 3D doesn"t lessen" the 3D experience.

With the introduction of high definition to television, even the low-budget sitcom has had to upgrade to higher budgeted more detailed sets. CGI effects in movies and video games are constantly having to evolve to cater to the more scrutinizing eyes, consciously or unconsciously, of the audience/gamer.nbsp;In my opinion, 3D conversion is in the same boat.nbsp;Audiences are only getting more savvy, and it is flat out human nature to learn to see the flaws in something visually. So when we could literally walk out of a movie shot in 3D, and into one converted, people are going to see a drastic difference, and it"s only going to become more obvious.

What do you think of Warner Bros. putting more focus on DC properties after Harry Potter ends What do you think of them making all of their tentpoles in 3D

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