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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Justin To Spin Some Gold

Justin Timberlake has signed on to star in new movie Spinning Gold.

The star that seems to have completely ditched his music career to concentrate on films will play Neil Bogart, the founder of Casablanca Records in the new musical biopic.

The record company that was discovered in 1974 was credited with launching the careers of a huge roster of singers who have since gone on to become music superstars. This roster included; KISS, Donna Summer, The Village People and Parliament.

The film is written and produced by the late music mogul’s children, Tim and Evan Bogart. Tim said of the film, “This movie is literally three decades in the making, but we knew that without the perfect actor to bring our father to life on film, his essence and impact on the lives and careers he inspired would never be fully captured - from the moment we met Justin, we knew we'd found our Neil Bogart.”

The film will also be getting the musical soundtrack treatment, so lets hope Timberlake finally gets singing some tunes after his five year hiatus.

Cult Comic To Hit Big Screen

With the comic book film market growing and growing it looks as though cult comic Area 52 has been picked up to get the big screen treatment.

Summit entertainment recently picked up the rights to turn Area 52, which were originally published by image, into a movie.

Brian Haberlin wrote the 2001 comic book mini series and the art was done by Clayton Henry and revolved around Corporal Monica Lane as she was dispatched to an outpost in the Arctic. The remote area where she has been dispatched also turns out to be the place where the US military dispose of things they don’t understand. After the gets off to a boring start thing soon change after an alien killing machine is hatched.

Sounds pretty good to me and it will be nice to see a relatively unknown comic book get the big screen treatment instead of rehashes and reboots of the same ones over and over … Superman, Spider Man and X-Men anyone?

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian will be producing the film and will be going out to writers for the story soon.

Duchovny Joins Phantom

David Duchovny has signed on to star in indie thriller Phantom.

Duchovny will be staring alongside Ed Harris, Natasha McElhone and William Fichtner, while he takes time from his series Californication.

The film itself is set on a soviet submarine during the time of the cold war, and will see a Russian captain battling with not only a rogue KGB unit but also a supernatural force that appears to be trying to take over the submarine vessel. Doesn’t sound like a fun time for the people in the submarine does it?

The film does sound very interesting indeed, although a little strange so it should be interesting to see how the pull this one off.

Harris will be playing the role of the captain and Duchovny will be stepping in to replace Andy Garcia as the Soviet Special Forces team leader.

The film will be written and directed by Todd Robinson, and will start shooting next month in Long Beach, California.

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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Anna kendrick in Talks for Pitch Perfect

Anna Kendrick is currently in talks to join singing comedy film Pitch Perfect.
If she does sign on the Scott Pilgrim Vs The World star will be playing a rebellious student goth.

The film has been adapted from the non-fiction book written by Mickey Rapkin, and follows what happens when Kendrick’s potential character, swaps her normal high school where her father teaches when she discovers her musical talent, needless to say she heads to stage school. The previously rebellious teenager soon makes waves at her new school after being noticed as one of the best singers in the school’s a cappella group.

Bridesmaids’ star Rebel Wilson is also on board for the new film project.

The film has been written by Kay Cannon, who wrote 30 Rock, and will be directed by Jason Moore, who has directed puppet musical smash Avenue Q.

Shooting will kick off in New Orleans within the next few months.

Wolverine Being Re-Written

After a number of delays and setbacks plaguing the current Wolverine film it looks as though a re-write is now being added to the list of things to do.

Mark Bomback, the man who wrote Unstoppable has stepped up to re-write the film’s script, after filming was delayed due to weather issues in Japan.

The new film will see anti-hero Wolverine looking for a place in the Japanese underworld, where he will find love and a number of problems courtesy of of the evil Silver Samurai.

It has also been reported that Wolverine will also be facing problems from Viper, the secretary for Japan’s Minister of Justice. Fans of the comic book world will already know Viper, having once trained with Wolverine himself and having deeper dealing with Silver Samurai.

It looks as though due to the issues with filming director James Mangold has taken the opportunity to perfect the script that was initially completed by Christopher McQuarrie, so it should be shaping up to be even better than it would have been. All good things and all that.

Filming for The Wolverine begins in Tokyo and Vancouver next year.

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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Bale May Join Oldboy

It looks as though Christian Bale is on the look out for his next big film project and has Oldboy in mind.

With filming on the next Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises coming to an end, Variety has reported that one of Bale’s potential next film roles is the villain in Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy.

Based on the Korean original, the film would see Bale playing a fiend who locks the film’s hero in a hotel room for 15 years. Which is a definite change from his role as the caped crusader.

This isn’t the only option for Bale, as he has apparently taken a shine to Clint Eastwood’s remake of A Star is Born and Michael Mann’s Gold, a treasure hunt thriller.

Bale is seriously in demand at the moment, which probably has something to do with his Academy Award win earlier this year, as he’s also been linked to Out Of The Furnace and Noah.

However Bales has another project to complete before considering these, as he is apparently appearing in Terrence Malick’s currently unnamed next project.

Wolverine Pushed Back

X-sequel The Wolverine has hit problems, resulting in filming being pushed back from autumn 2011 to some time in early 2012.

One theory behind the filming delay is that it will allow the film’s star Hugh Jackman to begin work on Les Miserables, however there is still the big question of where the filming will take place.

The original plan was to shoot most of the movie in Japan, but with the recent earthquake disaster many of the planned locations have had to be compromised.

A compromise was made with filming to commence in Vancouver in November, but Jackman’s commitments have made these plans highly unlikely.

With Fox reportedly planning on pulling out of Japan all together (which would prove difficult for filming as the majority of the film is set there), this looks like another hurdle for the film after the planned director Darren Aronofsky pulled out.

But with James Mangold now at the helm, and with the success of the original Wolverine film and the recent success of X-Men I doubt Fox will be closing this project anytime soon.

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Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

Doctor Strange coming your way

It looks as though Marvel’s Doctor Strange will be joining the likes of The X-Men as he becomes the latest comic book star to get his own feature film.

There has been confirmation on Marvel’s part that they will be going ahead with a movie version comic book sorcerer Doctor Strange.

Josh Oppennheimer and Thomas Dean, who wrote the films Conan and Sahara respectively, recently handed in their eagerly anticipated script to the comic book kings and it looks as though it has been deemed good enough to pursue further. At the moment it is now down to a short list of directors who will oversee the continued development of the film in question.

As a key character in the world of Marvel Stephen Strange represents the more magical and supernatural side of hero’s rather than the superpower mutants of The X-Men. As a surgeon who had his hands ruined in an accident, he became the world’s first defence against demons and spectres after turning to mysticism to compensate for his accident.

The film featuring Doctor Strange is expected to be arriving in cinemas around 2013, after Marvel’s feature length Avengers reboot.

There is currently no news on who will be directing or staring in the film yet, so watch this space for more details …

David Fincher to produce Dorothea Lange biopic

Director David Fincher is set to lend his support as a producer to a biopic based on the life of photographer Dorothea Lange.

Dorothea Lange was one of the best-known photographers of the depression era, and photographed the iconic image of the Migrant Mother.

Fincher is currently working on the post production of his version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and as he will be exec producing the future project, David B. Ginsberg will be producing.

The film’s script is currently being worked on by Angela Workman, while the director of the film will be documentary maker Leslie Dektor.

Lange, who was born in 1895 in New Jersey, became one of the most prominent photographers of the Great Depression, a considerable achievement considering she suffered from polio as a child and suffered ailments throughout her life relating to a limp she was left with following her bought with the disease.

The Migrant Mother image for which she is best known is said to be the inspiration behind John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath.

The film should know hopefully reach a wider audience with Fincher helping to produce the biopic, and should hopefully bring a whole new audience to Miss Lange’s work.

Fincher’s current project The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will open on December 26^th of this year.