JeffWadlow Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I really do believe that the world needs more gladiator movies. It can't just end with Gladiator and a remake of Spartacus every couple of years. We need new men and women (yeah, there were female gladiators too) bashing it out in the sand and blood of the arena.

I might get my wish if Summit Entertainment and Jeff Wadlow go through with Arena, which has to be the most delicious pulp movie idea I've heard in months. (But you know me, I'm kind of easy to impress if its a sword and sandals type of thing.) According to The Hollywood Reporter, Arena is a sci-fi/gladiator epic that shoves a bunch of modern soldiers into some kind of creepy, shifting landscape. There, they are forced to do battle with the finest warriors from different eras in a gladitorial battle. It's not clear whether they'll be actual figures from history (I hope so -- let's throw King Leonidas and Miyamoto Mushashi in) or just fantasy versions, but it seems like it'd be a lot more fun if it was the former. It would also be fun if it turns out that the whole thing was staged purely for my entertainment.

Wadlow was originally set to direct Tomb for the studio, but the project stalled out. But they were keen to keep him around the place, so they handed him this offbeat script from Toby Wagstaff and Darren Howell, and put the ever busy Benderspink to producing it. Arena doesn't have a start date yet, but let's hope it fares better than Tomb.

I often wonder what studios look for in their hired guns. Case in point: Jeff Wadlow, director of the tolerable Cry_Wolf and the miserable Never Back Down, who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has been tapped to direct The Tomb for Summit Entertainment. The Tomb is billed as a prison-escape movie with a MacGyver-like protagonist who uses smarts and ingenious devices to escape from a high-security prison that he himself designed. Summit hopes to make the action-packed film into a franchise cash cow.

I've seen both of Wadlow's movies (the first of which, Cry_Wolf, was made with the money he won in the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Competition), and his m.o. seems clear: slick, blandly good-looking, montage-heavy genre flicks. So in some ways it makes sense for Summit to pin its franchise hopes on him: when you're gambling on a movie, inoffensive competence behind the camera may be your safest bet. Like any cinephile, I wish studios would be a bit more adventurous (and thus cringe whenever a bold move -- putting Ang Lee in charge of Hulk, for example -- backfires at the box office), but as a business decision it's perfectly rational.

There's a little film called Get Some gearing up for production that is being called a "teenage Fight Club." Hmm ... A movie about teens beating the crap out of each other ... how uplifting! The film will follow a "rebellious" kid, played by Sean Faris (Yours, Mine and Ours), who is having troubles fitting into his new school. Somehow, he gets lured into an underground fight club along the way. Now, the Palahniuk, adult version of this tale had grown men pummeling each other to find strength, meaning and reason to their lackluster lives -- and for the main guy -- a little mental clarity. If this takes on the same tone, I won't be surprised if some parents get a bit ticked off.

As we learned last month, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane star Amber Heard had signed on to co-star as a girl whose "loyalties are put to the test when her boyfriend severely beats up Faris' character." Now, Variety reports that Djimon Hounsou (recent Oscar nominee for Blood Diamond) is also starring in the drama, although there is no word on his role. Since it's a starring role, I would imagine that he's either going to be a teacher at the school that's instrumental in trying to stop this, or a fight-hungry man instrumental in getting this all together -- or maybe a blending of both. The film will begin shooting in July, directed by Jeff Wadlow, from a script by Chris Hauty and Robert Munic. I, for one, am interested to see what they make of this premise, because it really needs to walk the fine line, unless there is a surprise twist and all the guys are pillow fighting. My question: Fight Club inspired middle-aged men to toughen up with their own underground clubs. Will the same happen in high schools across the country?

21 year-old Amber Heard has just landed another starring role in Get Some, a teen drama that will be directed by Jeff Wadlow, who helmed the 2005 horror film Cry_Wolf. The story of Get Some is being described as, believe it or not, a teenage version of Fight Club, although presumably with not with enough blood to earn an R-rating. Sean Faris will also star in the film as an Iowa teen who moves to Florida and gets involved with the underground club. According to HR, Heard will play a young lady whose "loyalties are put to the test when her boyfriend severely beats up Faris' character." I guess that means she takes pity on the guy who can't cut the mustard and romance blooms. The film was written by Chris Hauty, whose most recent credit is the 1996 film Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco.

Get Some is only the latest of several films that Heard has signed on for, but that haven't gotten around to being released yet. She's also the lead in the much talked-about horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered last year at the Toronto film festival, and she recently signed on for The Pineapple Express, with James Franco and Seth Rogan. If that's not enough, she's also got a TV deal going, starring in Hidden Palms, a Kevin Williamson series that premieres tonight. So get used to the name Amber Heard -- you're going to be hearing it for a while.

Cry Wolf co-writer/director Jeff Wadlow got the $1 million it cost to make his film by winning the first annual Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival in 2002. Did you people know this? I had no idea. One of the requirements of the festival was that entries incorporate a Chrysler vehicle into their scripts, which explains both the co-starring PT Cruiser and why Jon Bon Jovi is driving a Crossfire in the film. I'm sure Wadlow feels that throwing a car into his film is a pretty small price to pay for having it produced and funded. As is the unspecified "minority share" Chrysler gets of the movie's profits.

Pretty sneaky, Chrysler - I've heard of product placement, but this is inspired.