1.) This first story still has a little explaining to do, but it all began when Entertainment Tonight caught up with J.J. Abrams who is producing a feature film on cyclist Lance Armstrong based on Juliet Macur’s forthcoming book “Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong“. Abrams led ET to believe Bradley Cooper may be up for the role saying, “[Cooper] sent me an email and we’ve been talking.” Upon having the news read back to him, however, Cooper seemed dismayed telling Access Hollywood, “Oh my god, that’s so nuts! I didnt even know that J.J. has the rights, I had no idea.”
Cooper’s comment is hardly a denial, and a deal probably isn’t in place and they are unlikely to comment officially until one is. Beyond that, Cooper may be just embracing Abrams’ love of secrecy. Either way, the project is on the table and Cooper may star with Abrams producing. The rest is yet to be seen.
2.) The Impossible director Juan Antonio Bayona is reportedly lining up a new film at Warner Bros. based on a sci-fi script written by Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). If you want anymore information than that, I don’t know where you’re going to find it. [Deadline]
3.) Marvel’s “Phase Two” in their approach to dominating the box-office with superheros is underway. This year will see the release of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World and Marvel president Kevin Feige is out talking about “Phase Three” and what it might include telling MTV, “Ant-Man is definitely part of Phase Three. Like Iron Man 3, it’s certainly set in the Marvel Universe, but it’s also through the lens of Edgar Wright — which is the only reason we’re making the movie…. It’s very much an Ant-Man origin movie from the perspective of Edgar Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish. It will of course be firmly planted in the MCU, but a different corner than we’ve seen before.”
Feige also suggested the comic character Doctor Strange is another eventual big screen possibility. Ant-Man is currently set for a November 6, 2015 release.
4.) Terry Gilliam‘s next movie The Zero Theorum has supposed wrapped production, but there is new news that Bill Murray may be up for a part. The Sunday Times reports the following in a profile on Murray:
He’s also being courted for a role in Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem, but isn’t sure he will have the time (read: Âinclination) to do it. “Terry’s a fun guy to hang out with,” he says. “His stuff doesn’t always work for me, but it’s not for lack of trying. He really throws it out there.”
As for the film’s plot, it centers on a computer hacker played by Christoph Waltz whose goal is to discover the reason for human existence. He soon finds himself distracted, however, by Management who send a teenager and love interest to distract him. Along with Waltz, the cast includes Tilda Swinton, David Thewlis, Melanie Thierry, Ben Whishaw and Matt Damon. [The Playlist]
5.) Last week we got our The Fifth Estate. In terms of details, little was known about the picture, but Assange himself is now speaking out calling the script, written by Josh Singer, “a mass propaganda attack against WikiLeaks, the organization [and] the character of my staff.”
Assange has some details on the film’s plot, saying it focuses on a fictional mole in Iran’s nuclear program who discovers the country has nearly finished building an atom bomb and will soon be in a position to load it onto ballistic missiles. The informant flees to Iraq when WikiLeaks publishes his name among its massive trove of classified material. Assange says of the narrative, it’s “a lie built on a lie.”
He said, “They tried to frame Iran as having an active nuclear weapons program. Then they try to frame WikiLeaks as the reason why that’s not known to the public now.” Then he compared it to Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. I guess we’ll see at the end of the year just what we’re look at once the film hits theaters in November. [News.com.au]
