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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

James Franco For Child of God

News is circulating that James Franco will be adapting the novel Child of God.

The star will be making the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel after his attempts to adapt McCarthy’s other novel Blood Meridian have seemingly hit a wall.

Child of God is a novel/film about a backwoodsman called Ballard who decides to live outside of society in a cave situated in the East Tennessee hills after being released from prison. He also decides to experiment with a little bit of necrophilia whilst he’s there. Nothing too strange then.

It isn’t clear at the moment what happened with Blood Meridian, as the film already had a producer in the form of Scott Rudin and twenty minutes of footage with Scott Glenn and Luke Perry. All that is known is that Franco has said it’s ‘on hold for now’ so it may never come to fruition in other words.

There are no further details regarding Child of God at the moment, so you will have to stay tuned for that one. But I’m guessing it may go the same way as Blood Meridian.

Lion King 3D  Tops Box Office

The house of mouse has shown its huge power once again, as The Lion King 3D soars to the top of the American box office.

The film took an incredible $29.3 million at the box office over the weekend, showing that there are still a lot of people out there with a soft spot for samba and his animated friends.

The film pushed last week’s number one Contagion down to the number two position, as it took a still impressive $14.4 million over the weekend. Coming in third was Ryan Gosling’s latest effort Drive, which took $11 million this weekend. A slightly disappointing return considering it was given quite a lot of praise from the critics, but cinemagoers had other ideas this weekend.

Coming in fourth, and slowly slipping away from the top of the box office after several weeks there was The Help, which took in $6.4 million. And coming in fifth was the reboot of Straw Dogs, which only managed to pull in $5 million.

Possibly one of the biggest disappointments was Sarah Jessica Parker’s latest effort I Don’t Know How She Does It, which only managed $4.5 million. SJP seriously needs a new Sex and the City film if she wants to up her box office cred again.

Silk To Be Remade

Taiwanese Film Silk is to be made remade for western audiences.

With remakes being big at the moment, and with Hollywood apparently having no originality about them it looks as though they have turned to foreign cinema once again to help them get a big hit.

Gold Circle Films have hired hired Marco King, Mary King and Jonathan Watters to remake the chilling tale of a dead child and seemingly barmy scientist.

The original movie, that was made in 2006 and was directed by Chao-Bin Su, and found a crippled scientist using his latest invention to capture the essence of a ghost child, who may also be a little bit vengeful. After discovering that the child was killed by his mother and buried at a nuclear power plant things start to go seriously wrong for everyone involved.

So far no details have been released as everyone is staying tight lipped about this movie, but to be honest it does sound quite exciting. Lets just hope they do it justice in the remake.

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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Nathan Lane Joins The English Teacher

Nathan Lane has been added to the line up staring in the new indie comedy The English Teacher.

Lane will be joining a cast that already boast Julianne Moore and Greg Kinnear.

The film will see Moore playing a high school teacher who has her life turned upside down when one of the schools former star pupils returns home to the small town after trying and failing to make it as a playwright in New York.

Lane will be playing the role of the schools drama teacher, and it looks as though he is enlisted by Moore’s character to help the struggling playwright. There is still no word on what role Kinnear will be playing.

The movie will begin shooting in New York next month with television director Craig Zisk taking the role of director on his first film.

This film really is shaping up to have quite the cast. Hopefully some more details about Kinnear character will come soon.

Inbetweeners Writers Working on New Film

News has surfaced that the writers behind the smash hit Inbetweeners Movie are currently working on a new film project.

Iain Morris and Damon Beesley who were behind the comedy gold that was Jay, Simon, Will and Neil’s escapades in Malia, which went on to be a massive hit at the UK box office, grossing £39.4 million to date, are working on a new comedy film called Mortal.

Yes it is a shame it isn’t another Inbetweeners movie but, it’s from the same comedy creators, so it’ll be worth a watch.

So far the writers have written the first draft of the script, which finds two brothers travelling to the coast of northern Scotland with their two friends so they can spread the ashes of their recently deceased father.

Now this does sound a little bit sombre compared to the constant hilarity of The Inbetweeners, but with these two behind it I’m sure there will be a few classic comedy moments, if not many.

Christopher Young is also on board to produce, so it’s just the cast and director they need to nab. Maybe the cast of The Inbetweeners? We can only hope.

Oyelowo Joins Jack Reacher Film

Actor David Oyelowo is in talks to join the cast of new film One Shot.

If he nabs this role it will be the his highest profile part yet, after staring in two minor roles in two of the biggest hits of the summer, The Help and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

He would also be staring alongside Hollywood acting royalty; Tome Cruise.

The film, which is an adaptation of the Lee Child’s book, is being both written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. The film will feature the iconic character Jack Reacher from Child’s book series.

Cruise will be playing the role of Reacher, which is quite amusing considering he is described as a hulking bruiser. Better hit the gym Tom.

The film will find Reacher investigating the case of a sniper who is suspect of killing five people at random in a small city in Indiana. But as you may have guessed once he starts looking into the case and digs deeper and deeper, he discovers that not everything is what it seems, and soon the guilt of the man in custody soon comes into question.

Oyelowo is gunning for the role of a homicide police officer that is also investigating the shooting.

The film also features Rosamund Pike as Helen Rodin, a defence lawyer.

With filming kicking off next month it should hit cinemas in 2013.

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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Hellraiser Back Burned

It looks as though the remake of cult horror film Hellraiser has been put on the back burner once again.

The news comes after the creative team behind the remake, Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer announced that their re-envisioned Hellraiser would probably never see the light of day.

The film remake has had numerous ups and downs over the last few year, dating back to 2007 when Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were attached to the project to direct a screenplay written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who wrote the one of the many Saw sequels. After these two left Pascal Laughier was in for a while and then he left and was replaced by Christian E Christiansen, but he too has since left the project. Things aren’t looking good for this remake.

Well, it has to be said that maybe this is a blessing in disguise that the studio have decided to back burn this, I mean isn’t it about time people started making original films once again?

Olivia Wilde To Star In The Longest Walk

It has been reported that Olivia Wilde has been cast in the lead female role in new film The Longest Walk.

The film which is based on a script written by Peter Glanz, who will also be making his directing debut with the film will see a man named Conrad Valmont, who has spent his entire life sponging off his parents have his life completely fall apart during the course of a week. Things don’t sound so good for the life long sponger do they?

The movie is an adaptation of the short film A Relationship In Four Days, which was also created by Glanz and was screened at Cannes and the Sundance Film Festival back in 2008.

The short film version features a girl who comes along and manages to turn around the life of the parent sponger, I’m guessing that’s where Wilde comes in.

There is no news at the moment about shooting or who any of the other cast members are so watch this space.

Contagion Tops Box Office

After spending just over three weeks at the top of the box office The Help has been knocked off its poll position by new film Contagion.

The film, staring Gwyneth Paltrow, took $23 million at the box office, and is also the first film to break the $20 million threshold since The Help opened up a month ago.

However although it has debuted at number one, the film’s producers may have been hoping for a little bit of a better opening to re-coup even more of the movies $60 million budget, although considering it was the 10^thanniversary on 9/11, it may have had a little bit of an impact of people visiting their local cinemas.

Coming in third this week was Warrior, but despite the buzz and hype surrounding the new feature it only managed to take $5, despite estimates being closer to $10 million. Ouch.

It looks as though the box office took a big hit in terms of taking this week, considering movies from the likes of Adam Sandler only came in at number 15, but maybe that’s because he didn’t star in it.

Maybe next week may see a surge in cinema going after this weekends mourning for 9/11.  

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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Offerman joins Gay Dude

Actor Nick Offerman has joined the cast of comedy film Gay Dude.

Offerman will be joined by his real life wife, Will & Grace star Megan Mullally, who will be playing his ex in the flick.

The film will feature Nicholas Braun and Hunter Cope who play two best friends, who make a pact to lose their virginity before their senior prom (nothing new their then). However the film takes a slight twist when Cope’s character comes out as gay to his best friend.

Offerman will be playing the father of Brauns character, while Gary Cole has signed on to play Cope’s father, who happens to be conservative. Mullally will be playing his mother and star of The Hurt Locker Brian Geraghty has signed on to play his annoying older brother.

With such a strong cast and Chris Nelson calling the shots on this film, it looks as though we may get a film that centres on two teenager’s mission to lose their virginity that stays clear of all the clichés that have engulfed these movies since the American Pie franchise burst onto the scene over a decade ago. Lets hope.

Apes Still Dominating 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes has remained at the top of the American box office despite tough competition from a selection of new films.

The film took an amazing $27.5 million, which despite being a 49% decrease in sales was still enough to keep it on top. Its nearest competitor was comedy/drama The Help which took $25.5 million over the weekend.

The latest piece in Final Destination franchise limped in at number three, taking in $18.4 million. Although this may seem like a good weekend, after the success of the previous four films this may be the franchises final destination.

The Smurfs movie dropped for second place to fourth, taking in $13.5 million. Comedy film 30 Minutes or Less rounded off the top five taking in $13 million.

Probably the biggest box office disappointment this week comes from the Glee 3D Concert Movie, which didn’t even make it into the top ten at the box office. The film only took $5.7 million and crawled in at 11^th place. I wonder what the heads at Fox have to say about that?