Now that Milla Jovovich might not be returning for another shot at the Resident Evil franchise, it's nice to see that she isn't still pining away for another chance at playing Alice. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Jovovich has signed to star in the real- life mystery, The 4th Kind. The film was written and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, a first time writer/director, who started his career as an assistant to Joe Carnahan (once again proving that in this business it's who you know).

There aren't many details about the story so far, but what we do know is that the film is based on a series of mysterious disappearances that took place in Alaska. The unsolved mystery of what happened to these people over the last 40 years has often been blamed on a government cover-up, or worse. Judging from the title, I'm going to go with aliens on this one. Kind will most likely use some of the juicier conspiracy theories as a starting point for the story. Jovovich will play an investigator sent to the remote town to uncover the story behind these unexplained abductions.

You know if there were a lot more blood-shed involved in the two competing biopics about drug baron Pablo Escobar; it probably would have tickled him to see two Hollywood filmmakers fight over his life story. But I can't help but wonder what he would think about the casting choices. In an interview with Collider, Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez confirmed that his is the forerunner to play Pablo Escobar in Antoine Fuqua's film, Escobar. Ramirez made his North American debut in the Tony Scott flick, Domino. Luckily he's been landing better roles ever since and next up will be a role in Soderbergh's Che Guevara pic, Guerrilla.

At first, Ramirez played it cool about the Escobar casting and told Collider, "It would be a great challenge and it would be a great responsibility to history-of contemporary history-in my region. We're talking about a character who really definitely changed the face of a whole country and the face of a whole region, and a character filled with contractions....so it would be quite a challenge and something very interesting to get involved with." But, off the record, Ramirez commented that it was almost a done deal that he would star as one of the leaders of the Medellin Cartel.

By now we are probably all aware of the 'feud' between the two films surrounding the life of Pablo Escobar. So while Joe Carnahan has been pretty vocal about his disapproval, we haven't heard much from Fuqua's camp. Maybe he just thought it was best to let the films speak for themselves. If Ramirez has landed the role, then it would certainly look like Escobar is going to be the first film to cross the finish line. Escobar is scheduled to hit theaters in fall 2009.

For those closely following the exploits of writer-director Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces), you'll remember that shortly before the new year, he posted an image of the comic character Juggernaut, with a cryptic message that read, "I'll let you guys go nuts on this one." Of course, fans immediately thought the guy had been hired to direct an X-Men spin-off flick featuring Juggernaut, but Carnahan has finally spilled the beans and it's nothing like that at all. In a new post over on his official blog, Carnahan explains how he was approached to do "a limited run for Marvel comics after striking up a relationship with current X-Men editor Axel Alonso." However, Carnahan goes on to say that "my take on Juggernaut would have directly interfered with a major Marvel event, so I was asked to revive a character called Taskmaster and just today, about an hour ago, I got word that we were moving forward."

Carnahan goes on to add: "It will be a 4-6 volume series and will commence with the events following Taskmaster's severe beat down at the hands of 'Moon Knight.' I've always been a latent comic nerd and this will represent my opening salvo into that world. I'm being given the opportunity to literally build this character's origin story as well so I'm looking forward to pushing it as much as possible." Seeing as I'm not a hardcore Marvel geek, here's what I managed to dig up on Taskmaster (pictured above, via Wikipedia):

"Taskmaster possesses an ability which is a unique form of photographic memory that ties directly into his muscle memory, giving him an ability he refers to as "photographic reflexes." This ability enables him to watch another person's physical movements and duplicate them without practice as long as it is physically possible for an ordinary human to accomplish. He is capable of emulating the styles of, among others, Daredevil, Wolverine, Captain America, Elektra, Spider-Man, the Punisher, and Deadpool. In addition, he is a very capable marksman, able to emulate Bullseye's perfect aim, as well as that of the Punisher and Hawkeye."

He sounds like a really cool character, and definitely the kind I'd like to see adapted into a big-screen flick. Should Carnahan's work here prove successful, it will be interesting to see if he's approached to write and direct a Taskmaster film. What say you fans?

With White Jazz seemingly shelved for the time being, Smokin' Joe Carnahan is in a fighting mood and not about to let anybody knock his Pablo Escobar biopic off its perch. And what exactly does he think of the Oliver Stone-produced Pablo biopic that's to be directed by Antoine Fuqua? The one that will focus on Pablo's relationship with his brother and start shooting in early 08'? Um, not much. On his blog, Carnahan takes that subject head on, stating that the movie is "getting turned down by a lot of folks ... memo to aspiring screenwriters, if you want to know how not to write a screenplay, pick up that piece of shit and use it as reverse tutelage." Ouch. But he's not done yet. "It not only does a disservice to the craft of writing, it mocks one of the greatest figures in Latin American history with a non-existent, wholly fictionalized Butch and Sundance angle involving Pablo and his brother Roberto. It's laughably lame."

Nope, he's still not done. "Good luck chumps. And it doesn't matter if you get out of the gate six months earlier than me. I will have an announcement after the new year that will absolutely break your hearts and kill whatever middling credibility you have ... and you deserve that heartbreak, trying to push a shitty, insultingly bad Pablo pic into production against mine and being nasty and conniving and devious about it." He closes his rant with a "war is war" warning, but isn't very specific about what provoked all this ire. Does anyone have any more info on this brewing Pablo biopic war?

In the ongoing battle of Pablo Escobar biopics, I think Smokin' Joe Carnahan finally has managed to one-up Oliver Stone in the war between the two (possibly three) Pablo Escobar films currently in development. Carnahan recently updated his personal blog with news that he had received a letter from Juan Pablo Escobar, the only son of the infamous drug baron. It would appear that Carnahan has managed to impress the family member, since according to Joe, "He offered me unlimited access to his family's history, including photos, films, letters and the like". Carnahan's film is based on the book by Mark Bowden, and focuses on the "cocaine cartel dismantled by US Special Forces and intelligence, the Colombian military, and a vigilante gang controlled by the Cali cartel".

The whole thing started back in October when news of Stone's film first began to hit, and that they were aiming for a pre-strike production date (which as we all know never materialized, but it probably did nothing to help the bad blood between the productions).Considering that Carnahan wasn't exactly happy with having to compete with Oliver Stone and Antoine Fuqua's Escobar, getting the seal of approval from Escobar's only heir could be what Carnahan needs to trump Stone's project; which is based on the book written by Pablo's brother, called Mi Hermano Pablo. Carnahan has been struggling for years to get his Escobar flick into production so you can see where he is coming from when he shouted "no fair" when multiple projects were being rushed into production. Carnahan has already scored Javier Bardem (though Bardem may bow out because of scheduling conflicts) and Christian Bale for his film which automatically gives it another advantage over the yet-to-be-cast Escobar. Killing Pablo is set for release in 2009 ... if Joe ever gets around to filming it.

[via Filmstalker]

You know you must like an actor when you are willing to sit through a film you are convinced you have already seen dozens of times before. The new website for the crime drama Pride and Glory has launched with fancy new photos and a theatrical trailer. Pride was co-written by Joe Carnahan and director Gavin O' Connor, and was inspired by O'Connor's childhood growing up in a home full of policeman. O'Connor was quoted as saying, "My father was a New York City detective, and I grew up in that world. It's a celebration of honest cops, which was everything my father was about. Though it is fictional, it is an homage to my father". New Line president Toby Emmerich had reportedly been a big fan of the script and made sure that the project found a home at New Line.

The film focuses on a family who are at the center of a police corruption scandal that could ruin not only their careers, but tear apart the entire family. Norton stars as a good cop up against crooked cops and the "Blue Code of Silence" when he is put in charge of solving the murder of four police officers. Joining Norton are Colin Farrell as the the black sheep of the family (as to be expected) with Jon Voight stepping in as the patriarch. The part had originally gone to Nick Nolte, but due to a knee-injury he had to be replaced by Voight. Pride and Glory will hit theaters on March 14th, 2008.

[via Latino Review]

Life used to be much easier. I remember a time when iconic figures would only have two biopics being made about them. Now it's a crazier era, in which a person may have any number of films being made about him or her. Poor Columbus; poor Capote; poor Harvey Milk. I guess none of them were good enough for three biopics. Not like Salvador Dalí, who I already wrote about today (and he seems to have a lot more than three in the works), or Pablo Escobar. According to the New York Times, there's more than just the Joe Carnahan and the Oliver Stone/Antoine Fuqua versions of the drug kingpin's story. Joining them at the American Film Market is another pic, which is to be helmed by Resident Evil: Apocalypse director Alexander Witt. Though he only has one credit to his name as the big man in charge, and it's something as crappy as RE:A, Witt is a true veteran of the industry, having worked as second unit director and DP for many of Jan De Bont and Ridley Scott's films (including this week's new release, American Gangster). Plus, he shot footage for Casino Royale, The Bourne Identity and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He's even worked for Spielberg and Altman. So, he has to have learned something. Right?

Witt's Escobar project is simply titled Escobar, and is based on original research rather than a book. It has been scripted by Richard Rionda Del Castro (Sid Furie's Partners in Action) and Greg Mellott (Sid Furie's Direct Action, The Rage and American Soldiers), so it's probably fair to assume this one will be more of a low-budget-action-type depiction. Still, Del Castro claims the film has a budget between $22 million and $28 million; he also says his is further into production than the others. We'll see -- let the race to theaters, and our drug-dealer-loving hearts, begin!

Not long ago, we told you how George Clooney had dropped out of Joe Carnahan's adaptation of White Jazz due to scheduling conflicts. Before that, another actor Carnahan was interested in, Chris Pine, opted to become the new Captain Kirk over a co-starring role in Jazz. Now, considering these new developments, Carnahan is reaching out to readers of his blog for advice on how to move forward. As it stands, he has two films that are ready to roll into production: White Jazz (based on a James Ellroy novel) and Killing Pablo (based on a book by Mark Bowden, that takes a look back at the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar). According to Carnahan, the potential writer's strike doesn't hurt either project, as the scripts are pretty much done. However, there's a rival Escobar pic (from Oliver Stone) gaining steam, and so Carnahan is afraid he'll lose foreign buyers if he rolls in as number two.

Okay, so naturally you'd think Killing Pablo would be the way to go. Well, problem is that would mean Javier Bardem would not be able to star as Escobar (due to a another project he's currently attached to) and, additionally, Carnahan isn't crazy about ditching LA at the moment in order to go shoot on location in South America (he's like to stay close to his family for the time being). But, according to the director, he has it figured out: "I've got a plan to base out of LA and I [am] hoping the financiers will see the upside and spend the extra money to keep us relatively local until we've got to hit Argentina or Venezuela or Brazil (Colombia's gonna be ROUGH) and shoot the remainder of the film on location." As far as casting goes, he claims to have the perfect replacement for Bardem, but won't shell out any names.

But what about all the work that's been done on White Jazz, including some wicked-looking concept art of old school Los Angeles that Carnahan displayed on his blog recently? We're not entirely sure; as it stands, it appears there's more pressure to shoot Pablo first because of this rival project, and perhaps the casting woes on Jazz are a sign that Pablo should come up to bat before Jazz. I'd personally like to see White Jazz go first, but that's me. What do you think he should do?

UPDATE: Joe Carnahan is nutty as all hell. In a rare move, he published both the White Jazz script and the Killing Pablo script on his website, asking readers which one he should make. He's since taken them both down after his management company advised him to, but Slashfilm grabbed them and has links to both scripts. I won't give you those links, because we'd be asked to take them down almost immediately (I know it), so head on over to Slashfilm instead to check them out.

George Clooney is one of the busiest men in Hollywood. He's currently promoting his excellent new legal drama Michael Clayton. He's wrapping up acting and directing duties on Leatherheads, a 1920's football romantic comedy with John Krasinski and Renee Zelwegger. He's shooting the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading, a CIA comedy co-starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton (so great in Clayton), John Malkovich, and Frances McDormand. In addition to all that, he's got to fly around the world in a jet made of gold and make the women of the world swoon 24/7. So yeah, the guy's got a lot going on. In fact, he's just decided that he has too much going on.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Clooney has just dropped out of Joe Carnahan's White Jazz, a gritty tale of police corruption set in 1950s Los Angeles. Clooney was set to star in the independent film, which is based on the James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) novel. White Jazz was expected to begin filming early next year, and was scheduled for a 2009 release date. Grant Heslov, Clooney's producing partner, says "It just simply came down to scheduling. George continues to believe in the project and in Joe." Clooney was set to be a producer on the film, and whether he'll remain involved in that capacity has not been announced. And those of you excited about the film, myself included, might not be too happy with this last sentence. According to a spokesperson at Warner Independent, where the film was set up -- White Jazz has dropped off its slate. Currently, there's no word from Carnahan, who, as of a couple days ago, was pretty pumped about starting production in January.

Last Sunday, Cinematical was the first to tell you that Chris Pine was the odds-on favorite to take on the big role of psycho cop Junior Stemmons in Joe Carnahan's White Jazz. Carnahan has subsequently confirmed as much on his blog. The role is Pine's if he wants it, so why is he not signing on the dotted line? The reason, as I understand it, is that he's pretty much being forced to choose between a major, potentially star-making role in White Jazz or a very minor role as Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams new Star Trek film. In today's Variety, we learn that Simon Pegg has landed the role of Scotty in that film and that Pine has been officially offered the captain's chair, but hasn't yet taken it. I can see how this would be a tough choice. Even though it's well known that the new Star Trek film is practically sans-Kirk, the prestige of getting to play Kirk could open all kinds of doors for this kid, and who knows -- White Jazz may not turn out as well as everyone hopes. He's between a rock and a hard place. In other Star Trek XI casting news, The Hollywood Reporter tells us that John Cho, of Harold and Kumar fame, has landed the role of Sulu.

In other White Jazz news, Smokin' Joe has put up some more awesome concept art on his blog. This time it's not quite as cool as the panoramic view of 1958 Los Angeles, but it does have a ring of high-class sleaze to it that's reminiscent of L.A. Confidential. The large piece of art has the story's anti-hero Dave Klein walking away, with head down, from some swank Hollywood home that looks like where Pierce Patchett would live. If Joe has any heart at all, he's going to let me onto the set of this movie!

You aren't anybody unless you're famous enough for rival biopics. I hope you all celebrated the holiday yesterday by watching both Gérard Depardieu and Georges Corraface in their respective, rival Columbus films. Coming in the future, we may also get competing movies about Harvey Milk, Philip K. Dick, Sammy Davis, Jr. and now Pablo Escobar. We've long followed news regarding Joe Carnahan's movie about the Colombian drug lord, who will be played there by Javier Bardem, but now Variety reports another Escobar pic in the works. This one will be produced by Oliver Stone, directed by Antoine Fuqua and is simply titled Escobar. It's based on the book "Mi Hermano Pablo", written by the cocaine king's brother, Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who worked as accountant and confidant to Pablo.

So, this looks like it will be more of a life-encompassing biopic. It also appears to be going into production ahead of Carnahan's film, Killing Pablo, since Carnahan is first working on White Jazz while Escobar is fully financed and ready to begin shooting in Colombia and Puerto Rico in early 2008. All that needs finishing is the script rewrite, which is being done by David McKenna, who already wrote a bit about Escobar in his screenplay for Blow (he was played by Cliff Curtis). Variety doesn't mention who Stone and Fuqua have or are casting in the title role of their film, which means it may not be secure. I'm sure some people would like to see Adrian Grenier play the part, as he does via his character Vinnie Chase on the show Entourage, but that would actually be a terrible idea. Personally, I'd like them to go back to Curtis, but for a long-term biopic they'll likely want someone younger, as well as someone more familiar to audiences.

I also wish that Stone was directing this himself -- even if he really annoyed the heck out of me recently -- because he seems to know the territory. And because he thanked "Ari Gold" (Jeremy Piven's character on Entourage) when talking to Variety about the project. But he should do just fine overseeing Fuqua's direction, a job he's sharing with former Malcolm in the Middle older brother Justin Berfield, Jason Felts and James Reach.

I'm probably one of the biggest Doug Liman supporters -- even if I do get crap for loving Mr. & Mrs. Smith -- so I get excited about every new project announced with his name attached. I'm even looking forward to a new Knight Rider TV movie (possibly pilot) I just read about that Liman will helm for NBC. He says that it will have a tone somewhere between The Bourne Identity and Smith, and will featuring a morphing KITT. Even if I didn't like Liman's work, I'd be curious. Liman also called the original Knight Rider "the Shakespeare of our generation." But I hope he was joking.

According to Variety, the director has another movie on the fast-track at Dreamworks that will star Jake Gyllenhaal. The untitled project (being called "Untitled Moon Project"), will be Liman's first attempt at outer-space science fiction, and its plot will focus on a private expedition to the moon to set up a Lunar colony. As much as I can tell, this will also be Gyllenhaal's first time costumed in a space suit, which should bring him back to his glory days as the Bubble Boy.

Liman co-wrote the original script for the project, along with his cousin, writer-director John Hamburg (Along Came Polly). However, it's now being re-written by author Mark Bowden, who wrote the source material for Black Hawk Down and Joe Carnahan's in-development Pablo Escobar movie, Killing Pablo. Liman, Alli Shearmur and Simon Kinberg will produce the film, which will presumably begin shooting as soon as Gyllenhaal is done with Brothers.

When Smokin' Joe Carnahan says he's gonna get someone for a part, you can usually take his word for it. Back in April, he spoke with Cinematical about prepping his two upcoming passion projects: an adaptation of White Jazz and a telling of the Pablo Escobar story, and during that interview he gave us the following dream casting choices. He said he wanted Javier Bardem to play Escobar, and we recently found out that's a done deal, and he said he wanted Charlize Theron to play Glenda Bledsoe, the female lead in White Jazz. He also said he was interested in having Ray Liotta play either Pete Bondurant or Welles Noonan in that film. Now, after half a year of waiting, Carnahan has let it be known to readers of his blog that the role of Bledsoe has been cast, although he's being coy about the name. He's also cast the role of Junior Stemmons, a young and crazy cop character. The Stemmons name came up during our interview, but he didn't have his sights set on anyone yet. The rumor mill tonight is saying that Chris Pine may have the role, but Joe isn't saying yay or nay.

Meanwhile, Joe is also fuming at the LA Times for writing that his movie Smokin' Aces was a turkey -- $150 worldwide from a $20 million budget -- and blogging about the fact that he just submitted the script for Smokin' Aces: Blowback to Universal Pictures. He says that with the anticipated strike on the horizon, Universal is anxious to ramp that one into production as soon as possible and he expects more news to develop as early as next week. Stay tuned for more.

The Pablo Escobar biopic Killing Pablo has been in the works for ages. Way back in 2003, Joe Carnahan was tapped to adapt Mark Bowden's Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, and to direct as well. A few years have passed, and now it looks like things are getting a move on. In April, the director told Cinematical that he was "constantly battling" with Javier Bardem to get him to play the big drug man. In June, Bardem talked with Ryan Stewart and seemed a bit apprehensive: "We are still ... he sent me the script. It's something that is in the back of our heads." But now Variety reports that producer Bob Yari is fast-tracking the project, and that Bardem and Christian Bale are set to star.

However, the site describes Bardem as only "slated" to appear. Has he actually, 100% signed on, or do they only expect him to? If he has, Carnahan must have worked through those battles and apprehension. To further confuse things, they also say that Bale is only in talks to play the guy who leads the hunt against the infamous drug cartel leader -- Major Steve Jacoby. At least as far back as July, IMDb has listen the actor as the production's only attached cast.

Whatever the case may be, while Yari is said to be fast-tracking the project now, he's not going crazy. The plan is to shoot next June if SAG agrees on a contract. If not, they'll wait until the strike is over. He says: "This has been a passion project of mine for years, and it will be a tentpole for our company [Yari Film Group]. I have been patient to get this done because I wanted the ideal director and cast. It was worth the wait." Now we'll just have to wait for the strike to determine when the early '90s hunt for Escobar hits the big screen.

It became obvious that I wasn't a total car buff when I read Joe Carnahan's latest blog title for Thursday -- "Tonight. Downtown. The '08 Caddy." Immediately, I thought: "Poor David Lynch. He does some great marketing with a cow, and now is getting competition from guys driving golf caddies around the streets of L.A." Half of me wishes that this was the case, even if golf caddies probably have nothing to do with Carnahan's upcoming film, White Jazz. But really, new Cadillacs are a great alternative.

In the blog, the director says that they're closing "a big chunk of downtown LA and running wild in the streets with the new Cadillac CTS. I'm personally hoping they let me wrap one of these beautiful f*ckers around a pole at some point." Hmm, I doubt it. Why are they doing all of this, especially since the film hasn't gone into production yet? According to Carnahan, it is a "wonderful opportunity to hone a look for White Jazz that [I] hope will allow us to shoot a lot of the traveling shots of Klein (and there's a FEW) in a manner that will save us the cost of having to dress block after block in period cars, etc." Why new Cadillacs were needed for this test, I can only assume for advertising and car fanboy dreams. Earlier this month, the first artwork for the movie was released, and I'm hoping everything works out, because it's looking shnazzy so far. If things continue on schedule, the film will head into production this December. Oh, and if any of you fine readers caught the wild Cadillac driving, pipe in and give us the run-down.