HawkOstby Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We end the week with all kinds of intriguing possibilities and rumors -- try to contain your joy at the Ghostbusters 3 bit, especially if you're at work. We can't have your employers finding out you're reading Cinematical on the clock!

• Bill Murray is at Fantastic Fest, undoubtedly partying with our writers and promoting City of Ember and at the film's Q&A, AICN's Kraken (a stellar guy) asked the question we all wanted the answer too -- would Murray return for Ghostbusters 3? Murray thinks the scriptwriters (borrowed, you'll remember, from The Office) are off to a good start, that enough time has passed to heal the Ghostbusters 2 wounds, and he would definitely be open to playing Peter Venkman again. In fact, his enthusiasm for the franchise was rekindled by recording the voice for the upcoming video game -- and he had even been singing the theme song in public. There's video of Murray's answer up at AICN, so check it out, and get your hopes up.
  

• One of the questions surrounding Iron Man 2 was its change-up on the writing front. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby weren't returning, their job was taken by Justin Theroux, and we all frowned a little inside. But MTV has the scoop that they're unavailable for Iron Man 2 because they're working on something else for Marvel. Fergus wouldn't specify what, he just dropped maddening hints. "There are some really juicy [movies] that we are very much talking intensely with Marvel about ... We're interested in working on a bunch of these other Marvel projections and everything in the Marvel canon is fair game. We have a lot of ideas about all this, but until they officially ask us to come do one of these we'll keep our mouths closed about the actual ideas. It's moving along nicely but nothing official yet. But, yes, we are planning on working on some of those movies. That much I'll say." At this point, all of the Marvel movies have writers -- and impressive ones at that. Either they're replacing someone, or it's a new character altogether. Guess away.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Robert Downey Jr. is in talks to star in Cowboys and Aliens, DreamWorks' adaptation of Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley's graphic novel. (Read Matt's original story on it.)

Downey Jr. would play Zeke Jackson, a former Union Army gunslinger, who is engaged in a battle against the Apache. But the battle between settlers and Native Americans is interrupted when an alien spaceship crashes into the Silver City prairie. Turns out, they have their eye on conquering Earth, forcing the warring westerners to form an uneasy alliance.

The project has been in and out of development for years, but apparently the latest draft is catching some A-list interest. As it was written by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, who were behind Iron Man and Children of Men, I am immediately expecting good things out of something that, if handled poorly, could be as bad as Wild Wild West. Good writers and a good actor like Downey Jr. could make this movie incredibly fun. This is how movies like the first Pirates of the Caribbean come about.

I have to say, between this and Downey Jr.'s rumored interest in a comic-based Sherlock Holmes, I wonder if he is going to plunge into Hugh Jackman levels of geekdom. They will have to start fighting each other to get to the best comic book scripts. And that should be a movie all its own.