Gianni Nunnari Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Another Brazilian filmmaker leaves the favelas behind and moves to Hollywood: The Hollywood Reporter reports that acclaimed yet controversial writer-director José Padilha will make an action movie, appropriately set in South America, for Warner Bros. Hardly a stranger to the genre, Padilha recently picked up the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival for his critically divisive Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), a semi-fictional action thriller about police corruption in Rio de Janeiro. Our own Scott Weinberg, reviewing from Tribeca, called the film "powerfully gritty, slyly engrossing and unapologetically brutal." Prior to that film, Padilha made the brilliantly kinetic documentary Bus 174, which was one of my favorite releases of 2003.

The new project is currently without a name, but the original title was A Willing Patriot. Scripted by Jason Keller (who wrote the 2002 fX TV-movie Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie), the movie will be about an American federal agent who goes undercover in South America's "Triple Frontier" (the dangerous tri-border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay) to break up a terrorist-funding network. Producer Gianni Nunnari (The Departed, 300), who did the hiring of Padilha, apparently referred to the film's setting as "a modern-day Dodge City." The next step for Nunnari and fellow producers Darin Friedman and Guymon Casady (The Final Cut) is to cast a major Hollywood actor and a major Latino actor.

No, this isn't a gang of names from Hollywood, but the production company Hollywood Gang Prods. that has just signed a deal to remake the 1978 classic, The Wild Geese, which they might bring to Warner Brothers. The idea comes from a conversation between HGP producer Gianni Nunnari, and commercial director Rupert Sanders, who will helm the remake. They both see the original as a favorite film, and now want to remake it since, you know, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Sanders says: "It has it all: great characters, action, plot twists and revenge. We are making a tough film, taking ex-British soldiers from the murky London underworld to the battlefields of Africa."

The original, based on an initially unpublished book by Daniel Carney called The Thin White Line, stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger as aging mercenaries who travel to Africa to rescue the former leader of an African country who is about to be executed by the guy who overthrew him. Their raid is a success, but then they are double-crossed and are ready to get their revenge. This could be a fun flick if they get corral some tough, older actors. Personally, I'm thinking about guys like Elias Koteas and maybe Daniel Craig (they had a Bond in the original, after all). Who would you pick?

I love the idea that man's origins are with aliens. I love the concept in "non-fiction" books of UFO lore. I love it in my favorite books, Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I even loved it in Mission to Mars, which was only redeemed for me by that too-expository reveal at the end. Hopefully, the next Indiana Jones movie will also be dealing with the idea. But if not, I can at least look forward to Ocean, an adaptation of Warren Ellis' DC/Wildstorm comic mini-series (now available as a graphic novel), which has just been optioned by producers Gianni Nunnari (300) and Nick Wechsler (The Fountain). I haven't read the title (I would have if I'd known about it -- I'm going to buy it asap), but Wechsler told Variety the comic is, "an alien thriller with a fresh take on the origin of man." From what I can tell, it's the usual, plausible (IMHO) notion that an alien race deposited its seed on Earth and we are the result.

According to the Wikipedia synopsis, Ocean is set 100 years in the future, when alien artifacts are discovered on Europa, the ice-covered moon of Jupiter. Because some of these artifacts appear to be weapons of mass destruction, an inspector from the UN is sent to investigate. Unfortunately, the alien race is still around, only cryogenically dormant, and of course thanks to an evil corporation (apparently modeled after Microsoft) manages to wake up the violent creatures. Sure, it sounds a lot like the plot of Alien, but there's obviously more political allegory in this that makes it more relevant to current events. I also think the relationship between humans and this ancient warlike race, which happen to be our ancestors, is pretty interesting -- especially with the idea that these grandfathers might return in the form of an alien invasion. Hopefully, the movie will retain all these layers of contemplation and we'll get a much-needed deep-thinking sci-fi tale.

Now that 300 Spartans have officially conquered the box office, is it possible to somehow turn this puppy into a franchise? Due to obvious spoiler-ish reasons, there's no way one could throw together a sequel without doing some major back-from-the-dead work beforehand. But, these days, there's no way a studio can wipe their hands clean and walk away from a monster like 300 without first considering all the possibilities. Case in point: In a recent Variety story, Anne Thompson cleverly slides in this little tidbit: "[Frank] Miller is also prepping a follow-up to 300 based on another mythic tale from Greek history, but he won't divulge details."

Oh, is that right? Could it be that, instead of doing a straight sequel, Warner Bros. might be looking at a potential Greek-themed trilogy? And since Miller is on this whole directing kick lately, would he helm? CHUD tells us that 300 producer Gianni Nunnari recently told reporters (while out promoting the film) that there was a way to do a sequel, but didn't go into any further details. Regardless, there's no doubt we'll be seeing more films like 300 crop up in the next couple years -- it's the kind of visual crack that begs to be shown over and over again, utilizing several different formats. It's addictive, it makes a whole lot of money and, most importantly, it's fun to watch on a big screen. Any guesses to what this other "mythic tale from Greek history" might be? And will Zack Snyder be involved? As always, as soon as Cinematical hears more -- good or bad -- we'll serve you the news on an oiled-up half-naked platter. Because, apparently, that's how you like it ...