Random News of the Week (November 16 - November 23, 2008)

More Bourne is on the way. Universal Pictures has set a deal with "The Bourne Identity" author Robert Ludlum's estate that gives them exclusive rights to the Jason Bourne character. Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have signed on for a Bourne 4 and are ready for a Summer 2010 release.

Aaron Eckhart’s next film will be BATTLE: LOS ANGELES. The story will be about U.S. Marines battling aliens in Southern California. Jonathan Liebsman (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING) is going to direct.

Word is that even though the latest X-FILES film was a complete bust, there still might be one more in the works. Frank Spotnitz says “there's life in the franchise still. I think these are great characters... I think after the DVD comes out, the studio will decide whether they want to roll the dice on another X-Files feature. There's a date that looms very important in X-Files mythology, which is December 2012. I mean, if we were to make one more feature, I think we would definitely have to deal with alien colonization. I honestly think that's the movie that most non-hardcore X-Files fans, as well as a lot of hardcore X-Files fans are dying to see. Obviously, I think Chris has had ideas about that from the very beginning when he dreamt up this show, sixteen years ago.”

Josh Schwartz (THE O.C.) has been hired to write a new X-MEN film that will deal with the main characters origin stories as they come to Xavier’s school for the first time. The film will be titled XMEN: FIRST CLASS. According to the studio, he is tasked with “injecting a next-generation sensibility” into the franchise. Schwartz also has the option to direct. This sounds like an absolute disaster.

After the good news about Joe Johnston as the director of the upcoming CAPTAIN AMERICA flick, we hear something that’s taken a lot of the wind out of the sales. The “dynamic” writing team who brought us the first two NARNIA tales has been hired to write. Release is still set for 2011.

Simon Pegg talked about his upcoming self-written comedy PAUL. It will be directed by Greg Mottola (SUPERBAD). The story has Pegg and his regular cohort Nick Frost as Graham and Clive – two British geeks on a pilgrimage to the annual San Diego Comic-Con.

John Stevenson (KUNG FU PANDA) is in talks to direct a HE-MAN movie. It will be live action instead of CG. According to their sources, the former Muppet Show character designer and animation artist pitched a new take on the Mattel and cartoon character which got him the job.

McG had a few new things to talk about this week in regards to TERMINATOR: SALVATION. He claims they are taking it back to the basics and “trying to strip away any sense of glitz or irony and focus on character, drama and gritty, intense action." He mentioned the first experience he had attempting to get Christian Bale on board. “He told me to f*** right off, he didn’t want to do it. He said, 'Write it so that it could be read cold on stage and I’ll think about doing it.'" McG staged a ‘cold table reading’ of the script to prove to the star that it could work as a serious drama without the benefit of special effects and stunts. In reference to Arnold’s involvement, he said, “We’re trying to synthesise a human character with a CGI character and that may or may not have something to do with the T800...At the moment it’s not good enough and we’re running out of time."