Random News of the Week (September 1 - September 7, 2008)

Aaron Eckhart talked about the possibility of another Batman movie. Here’s what he had to say, “He wasn't thinking about the next movie when he made [THE DARK KNIGHT]. All the vegetables were in this stew. I think that this franchise has shown that it doesn't have to bring back characters. I mean, there's still Catwoman. I've heard Angelina Jolie really wants to do Catwoman; I think that's a fantastic idea. I'll be a happy audience member this time. And what's gone on with Heath and everything... I think Heath was the one that was going to come back. And since he can't... (Pauses) You know, Chris hasn't said that he's going to make another one. He never said he's going to make another one. I'm sure they drove the Brinks truck up to his house and dumped money on his lawn. But I think Chris wants to go out and make other movies, too. And he should. He's an independent filmmaker at heart. He's got a lot of ideas.”

A little more info on AVATAR (Not last of the air benders) is out now. James Cameron said, “The photo-real digital film is 20% live-action with humans shot on location and 80% live-action mixed with CG elements. It's a CG film with live-action in it.” With a budget of almost 300 million, I just don’t see how this makes money no matter how good it is being a niche and bizarre Science Fiction film?

There is already talk of a sequel to GHOSTRIDER, one of the worst of the Marvel films yet extremely profitable. Nick Cage is in talks with Marvel Studio. Cage said, “they talked about a whole different setting for the character. The general idea was to take the character to Europe where he will work with the Catholic Church, deal with supernatural stuff on the continent and figure out a connection working with different religious figures. The film's main antagonist has yet to be decided.”

Johnny Depp talked about the recent rumors about him playing Riddler in the next Batman. He said, “It seems like it'd be a fun gig for a while, yeah, but as for already being cast? Not that I know of."

Mark Millar (writer of the WANTED graphic novel) talked about the new direction they want to take things for a Superman film. “I've had this plan for like 10 years for a big three-picture Superman thing, like a Lord of the Rings epic, starting over from scratch again with a seven-hour Superman story. One to be released each year." Millar said. If the studio buys on the idea, they will be shooting as early as next summer.

Unbelievably, writers got the greenlight to start writing GHOSTBUSTERS III! All the original stars have expressed varying degrees of interest and at least agreed to be involved. Here is what Harold Ramis said himself, “yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg. judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level. he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson. the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity. not much else to say at this point. everyone is confident a decent script can be written and i guess we'll take it from there.”

Looks like SPIDER-MAN 4 and 5 are getting closer to a reality and with at least Toby McGuire and Raimi onboard. Sony wants to shoot both back to back to save money and get the same creative style. According to the source at Sony, we don’t know the villain yet but “when we hear who the villain is, we'll know who'll be playing it.” The Lizard has been the buzz lately. PLEASE! No Mysterio! You all know how much I hated SPIDER-MAN 3 and loved SPIDER-MAN 2. I want Raimi to do something else but I will keep watching how this all pans out. Just AVOID Venom at all costs.

Tom Cruise may be voicing the villain in the SHREK THE FOURTH. It is supposed to be an origin story about Shrek.

A writing team has been hired for a remake of POLTERGEIST. Vadim Perelman (HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG) will direct. This is beyond lame!

THE WATCHMEN’s fate is looking worse by the week. Warner is counter-suing Fox now so it is getting messy. It is becoming a war. Here are the sorted details: Warners has now come back arguing that Fox "sat silently" as producer Lawrence Gordon took the project "to studio after studio with Fox's express knowledge" and paid the studio a third of a million dollar sum for the rights to the property as early as 1991. Warners says Fox was even offered the opportunity again in 2005 to make the film but "simply rejected it," and they'd gone so far as to grant Warners rights to the title "Watchmen" which they had earlier registered with the MPAA. Fox claims Gordon did not keep the studio apprised of his plans as required by a 1994 agreement under which he was supposed to deliver a much larger buyout price that has never been paid.