George Clooney In Talks For Brad Bird’s 1952
Variety reports that George Clooney is talks to take the lead in Brad Bird’s (Ghost Protocol) sci-fi epic 1952. The Disney franchise-in-the-making film written by Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek Into Darkness, Prometheus, World War Z) and Jeff Jensen is said to be in the vein of Close Encounters of The Third Kind and involves contact with aliens. Clooney recently worked with Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) on the highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Gravity.
Should We Expect Facehuggers In PROMETHEUS Sequel PARADISE?
It’s looking like even more awesome stuff was eventually cut from the final version of Prometheus. As screenwriter Jon Spaihts tells Empire. The major one revealed by Jon is that the facehuggers were going to factor heavily into the plot of the film. Holloway getting himself facehugged during the exploration of the planet along with David purposely infecting Shaw with a xenomorph. It’s likely this stuff was being held back for the sequel Paradise which hasn’t been officially given a release date yet.
“I did have facehuggers in my original draft,” says Spaights. “David, as he began to get fascinated by the science of the Engineers, doesn’t deliberately contaminate Holloway with a drop of black liquid. Instead, Holloway hubristically removes his helmet in the chamber, is knocked unconscious, facehugged and wakes up not knowing what had been done to him, and stumbles back into the ship.”
“In my draft, he returns to his cabin, is embraced by Shaw, who is delighted to see him having feared that he had died, and the two of them make love,” he goes on to say. “And it’s while they’re making love that he bursts and dies. So that lovemaking sequence echoed my original lovemaking sequence where he explodes! It was messy.”
“David, fascinated by these creatures, begins delaying the mission and going off the reservation on his own, essentially because he thinks he really belongs with the Engineers,” Spaihts explains.
“They’re smart enough and sophisticated enough, great enough, to be his peers. He’s harboring a deep-seated contempt for his human makers. So at one point Shaw goes to stop him and David ties her up and deliberately exposes her to a facehugger. He caresses an egg open and out comes a facehugger.”
“David doesn’t smell like a person – his breath isn’t moist – so he can handle the thing like a kitten. It doesn’t want him; it’s not interested. But then he exposes it to her and it goes for her like a shot. He toys with her for a bit and then lets it take her. That, in my draft, was how Shaw was implanted with the parasite that she had to remove with the medpod sequence.”
SPECULATION: Peter Weyland Showing Up In BLADE RUNNER 2?
It’s looking like Ridley Scott is trying to connect the Alien/Prometheus and Blade Runner franchises. ThePlaylist has caught an Easter egg from the steel book version of Prometheus that has a memo from Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) on his mentor. The mentor Weyland talks of is likely Eldon Tyrell who formed the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner. Considering the new Blade Runner film has been confirmed to be a sequel it’s likely it could focus on the company and replicants in the wake of the death of Tyrell. It’s been rumored that the sequel’s protagonist will be female and won’t focus on Deckard (Harrison Ford).
However, this connection to Weyland could mean we might end up seeing a cameo from Guy Pearce. Considering Runner was set in 2019 and Weyland’s Ted Talk was for 2023. It’s not hard to imagine Guy showing up or at least Weyland making a play to buyout Tyrell. Yes, there are rights issues here but considering how deeply involved Ridley Scott is with both studios and the creative development of the projects it’s possible. I don’t see why Fox and Alcon/WB wouldn’t want to see these epic sci-fi worlds connected in some way. My hope it’s just a small cameo as the film should really focus on the replicants revolution on the off-world colonies.
Len Wiseman To Direct THE MUMMY Reboot
Deadline reports that action junkie Len Wiseman (Underworld, Die Hard 4, Total Recall) will direct The Mummy reboot for Universal. The site reveals the reboot won’t be a period film like the successful trilogy. It will be a present day set horror flick removing the comedy elements of the other films. Giving us a “darker and scarier” take on the classic monster movie. Wiseman will be bringing his excellent visual presence and flare for action sequences. While the scary script will be handled by Jon Spaiths who recently wrote Prometheus for Fox.
SPOILER SPECULATION: Where The ‘PROMETHEUS’ Sequel Is Headed
SPOILER ALERT This entire post includes massive spoilers from Prometheus and other Alien films. If you havent watched any of these films skip over this article. The film asks more questions than it answers and a lot of people have been disappointed by this but the film was always envisioned as a two-part story. SPOILER ALERT
CREW: You’ve been given plenty of warnings so I’ll jump right into it. Shaw and David are only survivors of the Prometheus crew and on their way to the Engineers/Space Jockey planet (in an alien ship piloted by Dave). We now know that the Space Jockey’s planet is going to be massive part of the sequel. Shaw wants know why the Engineers created humans only to want to wipe them out (with the black goo which is a bio-weapon). The real question is if there was disaster on this military instillation planet why didn’t the rest of the Engineers move forward with wiping out Earth. I would assume that either the Engineers have died off on their homeworld in a similar fashion because of the black ooze or they regret the mission. It’s possible that they’re
ENGINEERS: The carbon dated dead Engineer had been lying around for over 2,000 years. At that point in human history the large event was the crucifixion of Christ. Rumblings online have speculated that Jesus was an Engineer sent to calm down a warring human popular with messages of love and peace. This ended up with a brutal/violent death for this messenger and angered the “gods”. One of the murals in the cave is a xenomorph like creature in a crucified pose. There are correlations that Weyland is essentially a modern Roman Empire looking to conquer the universe and setting up colonies.
It’s quite possible the Engineers understand that humans will eventually discover space travel and could be a massive threat to the universe including them. Our bloodlust instinct would rather have us destroy than build, with the Engineers are our creators seeing us a failure. That being said the one in this film is all about killing and completing the mission he had originally been tasked to carry out. We have no idea if they’ll be peaceful once Shaw makes it to their planet.
Self-sacrifice has always been a theme of the franchise not to mention religion. Mainly, Ripley somewhat becoming a Jesus-like figure in the latter films. In Alien 3 we see Ripley as a Mother Mary/Jesus figure as she carries a Queen and kills herself to save innocent lives which is pretty much human redemption from our past evils. Of course Rips would end up getting her own resurrection in Alien 4 only to find out she’s human/alien clone hybrid (pretty much superhuman). They might want to explore Jesus in an intro similar to the beginning of Prometheus or that aspect being explained by the Engineers themselves.
XENOMORPHS: We never really find out what wiped out the Engineers but we do get a tease of what the DNA ooze can do. However, we do somewhat get an idea where the xenomorph’s origin comes from. Holloway ingests the goo without his knowledge then has sex with Shaw. The barren doctor ends up with alien-like fetus which see pulls out of her body on her own. It’s a squid-like alien creature that ends up growing a massive amount (like the xenomorph chestburster to warrior/drone) grabbing the Engineer acting like a giant-squid version of the facehugger. The Jockey acting as the host leads to a xeno-like creature bursting out of him. This very well could be the first Alien Queen.
A couple of things give me the impression more will happen on the planet before LV-223 is re-classified as LV-426 in Alien. Leading to the Nostromo setting down in 2127, thirty years after the events of Prometheus. The dead Space Jockey (killed by a chestburster) and egg room with some sort of laser barrier (Engineer tech to keep the eggs from hatching?) aren’t fully explained yet. It’s possible the Alien Queen sets up shop in the now derelict ship while Shaw and David are trying to answer their questions. In Alien, someone (new character, Shaw?) is in the Space Jockey suit likely to get oxygen only to have a xenomorph burst out of their chest. There is air in the crashed ship but in Alien they needed suits to breathe. I assume that the terraforming tech is damaged or stolen during the next film. Maybe it’s the only piece of technology Weyland is allowed to take from the planet as it’s the means of life not death.
WEYLAND WEAPONS DIVISION: After the events of Prometheus, Weyland would likely want answers why the crew hasn’t returned if Peter Weyland and next in-line Vickers are among the lost crew. Knowing aliens are involved in their mission could bring a large military force to the planet along with another group of genetic scientists in-case of first contact and alien-contagions. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Weyland makeshift a weapons program on the planet only for it to go wrong. Prometheus took elements from AVP and made them more interesting/cinematic. I could see a sequel re-working the themes from Alien Resurrection (military operation) to fit better into this universe.
One steady theme within the entire Alien franchise is that the company has seemingly known about the alien’s existence previous to the events of Alien. Ash receiving orders the alien is extremely valuable and the crew of the Nostromo is expendable. Like David, Ash could have allowed events to take place as a science experiment for the company. Allowing Kane on board (which could have killed the whole crew) and trying to smother Ripley when his orders are discovered. My theory is that Weyland once got their hands on it and it was somehow lost to them. Perhaps, David erased all information from the Weyland databases making the planet LV-223 full of bio-weapon gold lost to them. Until they start colonizing it as LV-426.
There are plenty of science fiction avenues they could explore within this new franchise. However, fans of the franchise want to see the classic xenomorph back in action. This might really be our only chance before they move into different aspects with Shaw as the new Ripley.
Chris Hemsworth Wants Charlize Theron To Play Enchantress
Charlize Theron is having a massive comeback as the Oscar winning actress received critical praise for her role in last year’s Young Adult. Along with commercial success thanks to Snow White And The Huntsman and this weekend’s Prometheus. Theron could have been in the mix for another big project if she wasn’t set to make Mad Max: Fury Road alongside Tom Hardy this summer. Her Huntsman co-star Chris Hemsworth was asked by MTV to comment on Enchantress in the sequel and the fan-casting of Charlize.
“I don’t know much at all but it sounds interesting,” Chris Hemsworth told MTV when asked for his thoughts on the recent Enchantress rumours. “I’m not playing the usual, sidestepping that we normally have to do, I haven’t read a script. They have a bunch of different ideas, but that sounds interesting.” After being told that his Snow White and the Huntsman co-star Charlize Theron is a fan favourite for the role, he said: “Oh right. Well she certainly plays a pretty intimidating villain, I think she’d be awesome but I think she’s tied up in 20 other films. I think she’s going on to ‘Mad Max’ next. [But] you never know. Fingers crossed!”
It sounds like she would have had a decent shot if wasn’t for being busy this summer with Fury Road. Nothing is set in stone concerning Enchantress as the Asgardian hasn’t even been confirmed to be in the sequel. Marvel could hold off using Amora until they’re able to cast Theron in the third film. Having another Oscar winner among the cast couldn’t hurt. Considering that Thor 2 won’t be released until November 2013 they “could” shoot scenes later in the production. Hell, even a cameo could be awesome.
Damon Lindelof Wants To Write ‘IRON FIST’
ComicBookMovie was able to chat with Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek 2, Cowboys And Aliens) about what superhero he’d love to take a shot at adapting. Damon reveals he would like to change the minds of comic fans turning a sort of an unknown lame character like Iron Fist into a badass on screen hero. He points to Matt Fraction’s recent comics as his favorite run. Did you hear that Marvel? Damon Lindelof is putting it out there he’d want to write Iron Fist which would be a giant upgrade from xXx writer Rich Wilkes (who had previously worked on a script).
“I think I would rather do a character that not many people knew, and maybe saw as lame and couldn’t carry their own movie. One character I’ve always loved is Iron Fist, and Matt Fractions incredible run with him a couple of years back. I always thought that would make a really cool movie. But I am hard pushed to think of me doing anything better than The Avengers which I just thought was phenomenal.”
“Yeah well I mean I think it’s because he’s even more fringy than Iron Man was, and also because he’s called IRON Fist they may be worried about some confusion with the Iron Man franchise, even though obviously they are very different characters. But I have to imagine that with the success of The Avengers, they are planning to give Black Widow and Hawkeye their own spin-offs, and there are many more characters on the fringe of the Marvel universe that I feel are equally worthy, like Iron Fist.”
One giant issue concerning Iron Fist is that you’re going to need an extremely good script that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s so much genre involved martial arts, Eastern settings, immortality, mystical powers, shoot em’ ups, noir, terrorists and flashbacks to different time-periods. Damon could certainly pull these elements together. Marvel is aiming to make a film featuring a character outside of the Avengers’ world for it’s second 2014 release and Danny Rand fits that criteria. It would also be an excuse to bring in Luke Cage as a supporting character.
Idris Elba (Thor, Prometheus, Pacific Rim) and Dwayne Johnson have recently lobbied to play Cage. While fans have been championing actors like Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy, Children of Men) and Ryan Gosling (Gangster Squad, Drive, Only God Forgives) for Danny Rand. Personally, I’d love to see Charlie and Idris re-team for something like this. Hunnam had been a Thor candidate so he’s definitely on Marvel’s radar and co-starred with Elba in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim.
CASTING RUMOR: Michael Fassbender Joining ‘DJANGO UNCHAINED’?
ThePlaylist has picked up on a possible rumor that says Michael Fassbender has been spotted on the set of Django Unchained. We recently heard that the anticipated teaser for Django would be attached to Fassbender’s film Prometheus. Harvey Weinstein previously stated that Tarantino fans should expect more additions to the cast and possible surprise cameos. Is Fassbender going to have one of these special cameos?
Fassbender essentially was thrown into the mainstream after his pivotal role in Inglourious Basterds. He is currently shooting Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years A Slave, which just so happens has a similar setting/theme. Apparently, both films are shooting in the Louisiana area which could make it simple for Michael to jump onto the Django set to read a couple of lines. It’s possible that he came in as a favor to Quentin when three actors backed out of the project. Fassy could end up playing Ace Woody (unlikely/Kurt Russell), Scotty (Sacha Baron Cohen) or even the Aussie hick brother originally set for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Or, in true Tarantino fashion a new role has been created on the fly.
TRAILER NEWS: ‘DJANGO UNCHAINED’ Trailer Attached To ‘PROMETHEUS’
We won’t have to wait long to finally see some Django Unchained footage. As Variety reports the first trailer for Django will be attached to Prometheus starting on June 8th. Now you really don’t have an excuse to miss Prometheus. This has to be a no-brainer as the two films are arguably the most anticipated R-rated films of 2012 and match a made in heaven. I’ll be curious to see how they cut up trailer from the seven minute sizzle-reel shown at Cannes. The Weinstien Company isn’t taking any chances and going full force with the early marketing campaign. Cudos to Quentin for releasing a trailer so early in the game as the film will likely be close to being wrapped when the trailer drops. If you can wait a bit longer the Django trailer will likely be hitting the Apple iTunes trailer site in HD soon after.
‘PROMETHEUS’ Officially Will Be Rated R
Collider has confirmation that Prometheus will indeed be Rated R. It was rumored that 20th Century Fox was trying to cut the film for a PG-13 rating, to boost profits. This seemed like rubbish since all four of the original Alien films had been R, even AVP’s PG-13 rating earned the studio massive backlash. Fox’s Tom Rothman revealed that they would release the film Ridley (Scott said his director’s cut was the one being released) made and not cut it for a rating.
While not all the Alien films have knocked it out of the park at the box office they’ve all done extremely well on home video. Prometheus is one of the most anticipated films of the year and while it’s rating could hold back a few numbers it should do very well anyways. The buzz is high and Ridley has a rather large following thanks to early films like Alien and Blade Runner.
Charlize Theron And Director Rupert Wyatt Return To Sci-Fi With ‘AGENT 13’
Variety reports on yet another budding project for Planet Of The Apes director Rupert Wyatt. The project titled Agent 13 has zero details known besides that it’s a science fiction film from screenwriter T.S. Nowlin. Charlize Theron who is recently embracing genre films with Snow White And The Huntsman and Prometheus is attached to star. Currently the project is being shopped to studios that include 20th Century Fox, Sony, WB/Legendary, Paramount and Universal. My gut feeling is this will end up with Fox considering their relationship with both director and actress.
Universal Rebooting The Mummy Franchise
Variety reports that Universal Pictures is looking to reboot The Mummy franchise with a new film as they’ve hired screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Darkest Hour) to pen the new movie. He previously contributed to an early draft Ridley Scott’s Prometheus before Damon Lindelof was hired to do rewrites. Since this a reboot I don’t expect the original cast or previous directors will be returning.
While Stephen Sommers’ original Mummy was exciting thanks in part to taking cues from Indiana Jones. The two sequels become more ridiculous with each release yet still raking in lots of cash for the studio. Not to mention the Scorpion King spin-off which seemed more like a family-friendly version of Conan. This film will be a little darker and horror focused than the previous films. Let’s just hope they’re smart enough to talk Rick Baker into doing the makeup effects which earned Universal/Baker an Oscar for their misguided Wolfman reboot. The studio also has plans for a new Frankenstein film with Guillermo del Toro directing it’s up in the air when that film will ever get made.
Dominic Cooper Could Join Noomi Rapace And Colin Farrell In ‘DEAD MAN DOWN’
Variety reports that British actor Dominic Cooper (Captain America, Devil’s Double, Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is now in talks to join gangster flick Dead Man Down. The film from director Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) re-teams him with Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (Sherlock Holmes 2, Prometheus) and stars Colin Farrell (Total Recall, Fright Night). It focuses on a man (Farrell) that infiltrates a gang to seek revenge for the murder of his family leading him to meet a woman (Rapace) who has similar intentions.
FILMS THAT SHOULD BE MADE: Legend Prequel/Sequel
We’ve been seeing a renaissance of fairy tale/fantasy films being made within the last couple of years. Recent ones include Snow White And The Huntsman, The Hobbit, Arthur And Lancelot, Oz The Great And Powerful and Maleficent. It would be nice to see a non-story based fantasy film make their way into theaters. Projects that come to mind are the original 80’s films like Willow and Legend. It’s unlikely that we’ll see George Lucas ever try to recapture the success of Willow considering he’s now retiring from large scale film making. The latter film on the other hand could be ripe for a sequel or prequel with Ridley Scott making Prometheus and a new Blade Runner film.
Legend while unsuccessful when it first was released quickly became a cult favorite on home video. Easily one of the best examples of the fantasy genre and would be a major influence on Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy and Hobbit films. While we’ll be getting two Hobbit films they will likely be the end of the Tolkien films. I think returning to the world of Legend could be a great way to continue the Tolkien lore. It would be interesting to see Ridley return to the fantasy genre the same way he’s revisiting science fiction.
Ridley originally wrote Legend with author William Hjortsberg the two wrote so much that the script went into 15 revisions. Instead of developing a film based on a fairy tale or novel the two created a somewhat original story based around a beast like villain (influenced by Beauty And The Beast) and a quest with magical elements. A large majority of the script was scaled back because it was too lengthy, hugely expensive and impractical in size/scope. A non-issue these days with films pushing budgets to $200-300 million and digital aids like CGI. The original quest was trimmed and characters were limited due to time and budget. Apparently the original script had envisioned thousands of characters that would need makeup effects not unlike Jackson’s massive hordes of Goblins/Orcs. The number was scaled back when make up artist Rob Bottin (The Howling, The Thing) signed onto the project. Bottin and his team helped bring to life iconic characters like Darkness, Meg Mucklebones and Blix the goblin.
Universal Pictures financed and distributed the first film when it was originally released. The studio recently made Snow And The Huntsman a dark fairy tale epic with a similar tone of Legend. There seems to be enough unused material that they could pursue another film, be it a prequel or even a sequel. Many characters and subplots were unexplored that could help create the bones of a new film. Casting might not be too much of an issue as Tom Cruise seems willing to keep making large genre films with All You Need Is Kill and Horizons/Oblivion about to go into production. Even if Ridley decides to only produce directors like Guillermo del Toro, Duncan Jones and Rupert Sanders could do the source material justice.
Alcon Debunks Harrison Ford/Blade Runner Rumor
Deadline has received confirmation from Alcon Entertainment’s Andrew Kosove that the rumor of Harrison Ford being pursued for the new Blade Runner is false. He stated that they are still in early stages of the breaking what the story will be and haven’t even chosen a writer yet. So the casting of the film is the further thing from their mind at this point. Ford isn’t ruled out completely but the rumor has been debunked for now. Kosove also mentions they could end up making the new Blade Runner film in the vain of Prometheus. Still set in the same universe of the first film but still being a stand alone movie.
“It is absolutely patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in Blade Runner,” Kosove told me. “To be clear, what we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story, figure out the direction we’re going to take the movie and find a writer to work on it. The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment.” Kosove said they didn’t want in any way to disparage an iconic actor like Ford, but it certainly sounds as though they do not plan to continue his story line. “It’s like asking if we’re going to make the sky red or blue, there has been no discussion about it,” he said. “What Ridley does in Prometheus is a good template for what we’re trying to do. He created something that has some association to the original Alien, but lives on its own as a standalone movie.” Asked point blank if Ford could resurface, Kosove said: “In advance of knowing what we’re going to do, I supposed you could say yes, he could. But I think it is quite unlikely.”
I previously stated that the best way to tackle this project was to mimic the connection between Alien and Prometheus. It seems like Kosove and Ridley very well could be going in that direction. If I have to come up with a writer that could do this subject matter justice it would be Damon Lindelof. He previously worked with Ridley and 20th Century Fox on Prometheus and seems to have retained all the suspenseful elements/tone from the original Alien film. There has been some speculation this will be next for Ridley but many projects have come up that have scripts in place. I expect a film of this scale with the amount of artwork needed would take at least a year to develop it’s concept art.
CINEMA INVASION 