Just above is a new look at Zack Snyder’s upcoming film Sucker Punch, which features young ladies in their underwear with guns, a giant robot and apparently dragons battling it out with airplanes for supremacy in an alternate 1950s setting. Snyder’s Cruel Films released the pic earlier today and you can get a larger look right here.
For the past several years, wrestling and action movie fans alike have been complaining about Dwayne Johnson (the artist formerly known as “The Rock”) continuing to make family films and seemingly throwing away his chance to become an action star. I’ve always sided with Johnson, thinking there’s nothing wrong with him wanting to make movies he can watch with his family. I mean, I’m sure he’d much rather his kids see him dressed up in a tutu than being beaten with a steel chair by a guy named “The Undertaker.” That said, it has been nice to see him get back to more adult fare of late. He was awesome in The Other Guys and Faster looks like a fun, if generic, action-thriller.
But it looks like this return to action is more of a brief pit stop rather than a lengthy stay, as Heat Vision‘s Borys Kit is reporting he’s landed the lead in Journey 2: the Mysterous Island, the sequel to 2008’s $250 million worldwide hit family adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) will return to his role, with Johnson playing his mom’s boyfriend who accompanies him on a trip to (you guessed it) a mysterious island to find his missing grandfather. Three other characters will be introduced and cast in the coming weeks. Brad Peyton will direct the sequel, which unlike the first one will be shot in 3D.
Brendan Fraser toplined the first go ’round, but scheduling conflicts have forced New Line to go a different route. Johnson is surely more bankable to the family audience than Fraser anyway, as his last three ventures in the genre have all crossed the worldwide $100 million mark.
Moving along, yesterday I brought you the initial casting news for director David R. Ellis’s (Snakes on a Plane) Shark Night 3D and today Variety has thrown three more names into the mix. The latest batch of college friends who will vacation to the shark threatened lake house includes Sara Paxton (Last House on the Left), Dustin Milligan (Extract) and 2006 “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee.
The American just hit theaters today, but George Clooney is already focused on casting his next foray into directing. The project is the political drama Farragut North, an adaptation of the off-broadway play. He announced his intentions for the project three years ago, but a cast that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and possibly Chris Pine is finally coming together for a planned February start date. The screenplay (and stageplay) by Beau Willimon was inspired by Willimon’s work campaigning for Howard Dean in 2004 and follows a young spin doctor and the dirty tricks he pulls to get his candidate the nomination against a rival senator. Leonardo DiCaprio was once attached to play the lead but Clooney is now looking to Pine, who played the part in last year’s L.A. stage production.
Strangely enough, Hoffman is taking a role previously coveted by Brad Pitt, that of the young lead’s veteran boss. According to Vulture‘s sources, Clooney has sent out additional offers to Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei. Clooney also plans to take on a small role, possibly that of the candidate himself. At this point, it looks like the film will be produced as an independent with Sony handling distribution duties.
Next, we have news from Production Weekly that Marvel’s Runaways (aka Small Faces) is scheduled to begin filming in March. For those unfamiliar (I had to do some research myself), the comics created by Brian K. Vaughn follow a group of teens who discover their parents are are super-villains, run away from home and discover their own inherited powers. Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) is set to direct a script by Drew Pearce. I’d still suggest a name change so maybe that’s what they’re doing with Small Faces, but perhaps not enough people saw the Cherie Currie/Joan Jett biopic to make a difference.
Just below is a Russian trailer (via SlashFilm) for the upcoming remake of the French crime feature 13 Tzameti, this time more simply titled 13
Finally, check out the new French poster for Let Me In.
