Random News of the Week (January 5 - January 11, 2009)

The star of TR2N will be Garrett Hedlund (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, FOUR BROTHERS). He’s playing a computer geek who retraces the steps of Flynn (Jeff Bridges character). Jeff Bridges is also confirmed for the film and we found out last week that Bruce Boxleitner is back as well so this is a must see at this point.

DJ Caruso’s (EAGLE EYE) next film looks like it will be JACK THE GIANT KILLER. Supposedly, Y: THE LAST MAN is taking longer to get going to so he is doing JACK first. The film is an adult look at the Jack and the Beanstalk tale. It won’t be modernized though. It is still set in ancient times.

A new animated feature is on track called QUANTUM QUEST with some really cool voice talent. William Shatner, James Earl Jones, and (not excited about this one) Hayden Christiansen will join Mark Hamill as voices in the story of a Photon who lives in the sun and who is drawn into an Intergalactic battle between the Core (played by Shatner) and the Void (played by Hamill).

McG (TERMINATOR SALVATION, CHARLIES ANGELS) has been tapped to direct a remake of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for Disney. Bill Marsilii (DÉJÀ VU) is scripting.

It has been rumored that Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell may be playing super villains opposite Iron Man in IRON MAN 2. Most believe that Rourke is going to be playing Whiplash. Rockwell is said to be playing the part of billionaire rival of Tony Stark, Justin Hammer. Hammer is a super weapons manufacturer that sells to super villains instead of the good guys.

The big screen debut of SHAZAM is officially cancelled. Screenwriting John August has said, “By “dead,” I mean that it won’t be happening. I don’t think it’s on the studio’s radar at all. It may come back in another incarnation, with another writer, but I can say with considerable certainty that it won’t be the version I developed.”

Some news is out on what Warner Bros. is doing with their master plan around all of their DC Comics properties. David Goyer (co-writer of DARK KNIGHT) has said “A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while the figure out, they're going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment. It was the double header of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out, so more than ever I think they've realized, I think DC was responsible for 15% of Warner Brother's revenue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it's become a new genre, one of the most successful genres.” So we may not see a sequel for Batman or Superman for longer than we originally thought.