Things appears to be getting serious with the Tomb Raider reboot, with Heat Vision reporting the Iron Man and Cowboys & Aliens writing team of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby has been hired to script the film with the goal of rebooting the action-adventure franchise with the first film in the planned franchise eying a 2013 release. Of course, the most important question has always been about who will replace Angelina Jolie as the titular archaeologist/adventuress. Some of the better suggestions I’ve seen are Abbie Cornish and Jessica Biel, but who do you like for the role?
Variety reports the Catfish team of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman will direct Paranormal Activity 3. Paranormal Activity 2 writer Christopher B. Landon will return to write the film, while Oren Peli, director of the original, will produce. The third film in the popular supernatural franchise is currently being envisioned as an origin story set in the 1980s that will follow a new family.
Deadline‘s Mike Fleming hears Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) is set to join Woody Allen’s The Wrong Picture. The Rome-set feature had previously wrapped up names like Jesse Eisenberg, Penelope Cruz, Ellen Page and Alec Baldwin, but Benigni would be the first Italian actor to join the cast.
Thompson on Hollywood adds to the news with word Allen, who hasn’t appeared on screen since 2006’s Scoop, has written a part for himself in the film. Allen says the film is “more an out-and-out comedy” and “not as romantic” as Midnight in Paris, the film that will open the Cannes Film Festival May 11.
The Place Beyond the Pines, a multi-generational crime drama from Blue Valentine writer-director Derek Cianfrance, has received a boost with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment coming aboard to finance and produce the project. Ryan Gosling is set to star in the film as a pro motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, while Bradley Cooper has been offered the role of the rookie police officer he crosses paths with. That Gosling character sounds an awful lot like the one he plays in Drive, that of a stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver.
Cooper, on the other hand, is also being targeted to star in Paradise Lost for director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Knowing). The film is an action-heavy, possibly 3D shot, adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem that tells of a war in heaven between archangels Michael and Lucifer. Coincidently, Cooper is also mulling over an offer to star in a reboot of The Crow.
Warner Bros has acquired the rights to Father Daughter Time: A Tale of Armed Robbery and Eskimo Kisses, which Deadline reports Matt Damon is approaching as a possible starring and directing vehicle. The Matthew Albrich spec script follows a father and daughter on a cross-country crime spree. If plans follow through, the film would mark Damon’s directorial debut. It could probably use a title change though, eh?
Vince Vaughn has joined the cast of Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite alongside the likes of Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film follows the true story of Beth Raymer (Hall), a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who becomes one of the top sports gambling bookmakers. Deadline reports Vaughn will play a Long Island bookie she once worked for.
Michael Fassbender, who can be seen in practically every movie for the next three years, is now in talks to join Danny Boyle’s next film, the art heist feature Trances. THR reports he would play the leader of a gang of thieves hired by an auction house employee to steal a painting. Fassbender tends to choose interesting roles, but he might want to slow down a bit before people tire of seeing him in every movie and start groaning “ugh, it’s that guy again.” These things do happen, you know.
And finally, Australian actor Joel Edgerton is the first actor to join Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama Bin Laden movie. The L.A. Times reports he’ll play a special operative, a role he opted for over the titular role opposite Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman. I can’t say I can blame the guy, as he is about the 5th guy to turn down the Huntsman role. He’ll next be seen facing off with Tom Hardy in Warrior and, in my opinion, the more we see of the fast rising star, the better. Bigelow is currently working on the untitled picture with her The Hurt Locker scripter Mark Boal with an aim to begin shooting as early as this summer.
