1.) After throwing the idea around last week, it’s becoming more and more likely Peter Jackson‘s will turn The Hobbit into a trilogy. The story was originally slated for just two films, but the director has expressed interest in doing reshoots during the summer of 2013. The release dates of the first two films wouldn’t be effected. A final decision will be made within the next two weeks, but it sounds like the studio is on board if everything works out financially. And why wouldn’t it? More Hobbit movies mean more money. And movie studios like money. [THR]
2.) Updating a THR]
3.) Jon Favreau is the latest big name to join Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, playing a securities lawyer in the Leonardo DiCaprio-led feature. Meanwhile, Favreau is getting to work on his next film, Magic Kingdom, for Disney, which he will apparently Pixar will be helping him with. In a new interview he says, “What we’ve been doing is writing a script, going up to Pixar, meeting with the brain trust, coming back down, bringing on artists, story editors and putting it together as though it were an animated film so that by the time we actually film it, we’ll have a rock solid story… It’s going to be a family in the park. It’s an alternate reality version of the park that they get launched into. So much of it is just how it weaves together as a tapestry and what the visuals look like in creating this rich world. It’s informed by everything that I remember and know about the park from going there since I was a small child.” [Deadline and Crave]
4.) Denzel Washington may have found his first franchise as Sony has put his film The Equalizer on the fast track with plans for an April 8th start date. The film is an update of the ’80s TV series about a former covert operations officer who hates injustice and devotes himself to helping people who are being victimized. The project carries just a $50 million budget ($20 million of which is Washington’s salary), and Sony is looking at Pierre Morel (Taken), Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive), Gavin O’Connor (Warrior and Gareth Evans (The Raid) as potential directors. [Deadline]
5.) Disney has decided to move the 3D re-release of Monsters, Inc. up one month to Dec. 19 to take advantage of the holidays and a lack of competition. Right now, the film is the only animated film scheduled to open in December so it should do gangbusters over the holiday weekend. The sequel to the Pixar classic, Monsters University, hits theaters on June 21, 2013. [THR]
QUICK BONUS: Jay Baruchel is nearing a deal to join the cast of Robocop as the head of marketing for Omnicorp, the company that is building the police cyborg, and Liev Schreiber is set to play President Lyndon B Johnson in The Butler for director Lee Daniels.
