Random News of the Week (June 6, 2009 - May 14, 2009)

Del Toro talked THE HOBBIT this week in some more detail. G4 has this interesting excerpt: the film will take some liberties with sub-plot material that is briefly discussed in the book. Most notably among this, is Gandalf's departure from Bilbo and the Dwarves to confer with The White Council in Dol Guldur on dealing with an entity called the Necromancer (which later turns out to be Sauron himself.) We've always suspected this based on some statements, but this time, the intention to document Gandalf's quest (which is not covered greatly in the book) was articulated clearly. Smaug the Dragon, del Toro revealed that after eight whole months of design work, they have only just “cracked the basic engineering.” It is anticipated that another six or seven months of application will be needed before the great flying, fire-breathing, gold smuggler will be in any kind of presentable form.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER THE MOVIE producers have sent a message to Joss Whedon, asking him to direct. His response was, “I think that's something better left untouched by me,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “So I wish them luck.” An EW poll reveals that 3% of respondants would see a Whedon-free “Buffy.” Ouch.

There was a lot of talk this week about who would direct the Robert Rodriguez produced PREDATORS film. Early word came out for Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT, DOOMSDAY) but we heard later in the week that is a front runner of many up for the helm.

After losing Ratner, the CONAN film has been afloat for a while now. New word is that Marcus Nispel (remake of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH) is now locked to direct the CONAN remake. Nispel said he will blend his childhood imaginings of the character with the influence of the famous Conan illustrations by Frank Frazetta, and the influence of such viscerally violent period films as Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto."

This is so hilarious. Word is out that the GI JOE: RISE OF COBRA film test-screened so bad for audiences, that the director has been fired. There was a message post which claimed that a test screening of the upcoming action film scored the worst marks in the studio's history. As a result Paramount exec Brad Weston had the film's director Stephen Sommers (THE MUMMY, VAN HELSING) fired and locked out of the editing room. Stuart Baird, a renowned "fixer" editor was brought it to try to see if it could be made releasable, while producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was told "his services were no longer needed on the film either". When word of the firing started to get around, Sommers "was summoned back to the editing room but only to save appearances, Baird is still editing the movie with studio input." All I can say is that the trailer looked beyond ridiculous and I could see it being this kind of epic bad.

In regards to the balancing of LONE RANGER and a PIRATES CARRIBEAN 4, Jerry Bruckheimer said this week. "It's a great franchise for them and for us, too. We love the character and Johnny was really excited about coming back to Captain Jack. He certainly is interested in Tonto, but Disney's priority is to get 'Pirates' made first. You never know what's going to happen, but they would like it.”

Rumor has it that Fox is demanding that Ridley Scott direct an ALIEN prequel. This is probably due to the massive Internet backlash last week when fans heard that a commercial and music video director had been hired instead and Ridley was only going to produce with his brother.

With all of the delays on the Y: THE LAST MAN film version, Shia Lebouf said this week that he is officially out. He said he may be too old for the character and that it is too much like his TRANSFORMERS character any way and he does not want to be type-cast.

A few tidbits of what the setting could be for TERMINATOR 5 were leaked this week. Supposedly, the sequel to Terminator: Salvation, will be set in London in the year 2011, with a time-travelling John Connor.

Liam Neeson may be up for the part of Hannibal in the Joe Carnahan directed A-TEAM. Also, Bradley Cooper (THE HANGOVER) may also be back up for the role of “Face”. The story keeps the premise of the classic 80's series but will take a more serious tone with the story of four war vets wrongly convicted of armed robbery escape from a military prison to become mercenaries helping the impoverished.