Random News of the Week (April 20, 2009 - April 26, 2009)

Robert Rodriguez has not been confirmed to be writing PREDATORS, a sequel / reboot to the classic PREDATOR series. What’s more, this film will completely ignore that travesty of AVP. He answered a few questions for AICN. He said, “Way back before I did Desperado, I had taken a writing assignment for a sequel to Predator. With a nod toward Cameron's ALIENS I decided to call it PREDATORS. I set it on a jungle-like Predator planet. It was just a writing assignment, so I didn't have to worry about budget constraints or how the movie would actually get made with the technology that existed back then, so I just wrote any cool thing I could come up with.” It will be rated R and he plans to write and produce. No plans to direct.

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and John Ratzenberger recently watched a "complete story reel" with animatics, temp voices and music of the entire third TOY STORY. Hanks has already had three complete recording sessions for the film, and will probably have one more.

Peter Jackson talked a bit about the TINTIN progress. Speilberg is directing the first film and Jackson the second. "We’re kind of co-directing. I mean, we are co-doing it. Steven’s been on set with the actors for the last six weeks, and I was only there for a week. So he’s definitely directing the first in a way that I’m not" says Jackson.

Director David O. Russell (THREE KINGS) and Christian Bale are teaming up for THE FIGHTER. The drama follows boxer Irish Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his unlikely path to become world lightweight champion. Bale plays Dicky Eklund, Mickey's half-brother and a talented fighter who once went the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard in a title fight but then turned to crime and landed in prison. Then he turned his life around and helped his underperforming brother find the spark for a remarkable run that led to the world title.

Dan Aykroyd talked about GHOSTBUSTERS 3 this week. “When we do the ‘Ghostbusters 3′ movie, hopefully, Sigourney will be in it. I know we’ll make that happen. But there will be a whole new generation that has to be trained, and that whole new generation will be led by an individual who you’ll all love when you meet him but I’m not going to tell you anything yet.”

It was confirmed this week that THE HOBBIT will now be spread over 2 films and will not cover the interim between it and LOTR as previously discussed. Now the film will divide the book in 2 parts to better capture the story. "We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie. The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy" added Jackson. Del Toro also adds that the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur will feature in the new film. "The Hobbit" films will be released in December 2011 and 2012.

Robert Downey Jr. talked about IRON MAN 2 this week. Downey says, “Day one I’m doing a Senate hearing where the government is saying the Iron Man tech needs to be turned over to the Senator and the Senator is Gary Shandling. And we had this fantastic day that was somehow this controlled chaos of a Senate hearing where I keep interrupting them and dah dah dah.” He goes on to say, “And I’ve never been in a sequel and it’s very daunting because I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture and that they expected us to not screw it up. So I actually have taken “Iron Man 2” probably more seriously than any movie I’ve ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood.”

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