Morgan Creek Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Daniel Craig may have his own limited edition popsicle, but he's having a tough time choosing his next film role. After branching away from Bond with Defiance (a lot less 007 than most people give it credit for) and Munich, his next effort at ducking typecasting might be Jim Sheridan's Dream House. Might.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Craig is in early talks to star in Sheridan's psychological thriller, which would steer him clear of "Whatever, all he plays are vigilantes" talk. House centers on a family man who moves the wife and kids to an idyllic small town, and obviously the perfect house of the film's title. But you know what happens when you move to those dreamy small towns and those perfect Victorian houses ... they're haunted! Our hapless hero finds himself contending with the former occupants of the house, who hang around thanks to being brutally murdered.

As Craig decides whether Sheridan and Dream House is a proper departure from 007 territory, he'll be appearing on Broadway in A Steady Rain and is rumored to be interested in Kevin MacDonald's Eagle of the Ninth. (Would he be replacing Channing Tatum?) Should any one of these ventures fail, perhaps Craig will sigh, shrug, and just play Steve McQueen already.

With tales of Grand Theft Auto IV breaking sales records, and cartoon Russian Mob bosses plastered on billboards everywhere you look, it is the perfect time to give the Bratva more screen time (and it's probably about time we gave the Italians a break). The Hollywood Reporter announced that Morgan Creek, in partnership with Universal, have purchased Rand Ravich's Russian mob script, Gregory Burns. Ravich's script centers on an undercover cop from Arizona who re-locates to L.A. to take down a Russian crime family.

Ravich has a mixed bag of credits to his name, including video games (Crime Lords), TV (Life), and feature films. His last feature was the sci-fi ode to Rosemary's Baby, The Astronaut's Wife. Sure, Wife might have been bad, but it was definitely a step up from his other foray into screenwriting.

According to THR, Burns has been floating around the studio for a long time and has been at the top of many a studio exec's wish list. After a series of false starts, the profitable indie studio has finally put the film into production. There is no word on casting yet, but if Morgan Creek is half as eager as they appear to get this film into the can, it shouldn't take long.

You know how, when franchises die out, studios always think it's a really good idea to bring them back with a focus on the main character's wacky kid (or, in the case of The Nutty Professor, grandkid)? And how it never works, and the movies are poorly reviewed and hated by audiences? Well the people at Morgan Creek surely know all this just as well as we do. The problem, however, is that they also know how much money Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls made (several truckloads), and they secretly hope that, even if when it turns out to be crap, people will still go see anything with the words "Ace" and "Ventura" in the title. And they're probably right, damn them. So, the studio is going ahead with Ace Ventura 3: Jeff Sank and Jason and Justin Heimberg (yes, it takes three people to write something this high-concept) have been hired to write the screenplay, which is "expected to center on the eccentric detective's son, who steps into his father's shoes to take over the family business." I hear your groans of dismay all the way over here.

It's not known yet who will direct the film, or if Morgan Creek will come up with enough millions to get Jim Carrey to show up for five minutes and do something stupid (I'm betting the answer to the latter will be yes).

Erik reported a few days ago about Lindsay Lohan's "heat exhaustion," and how things were so bad that the poor thing had to be taken from the set of Georgia Rule to the hospital. Though her publicists insisted that Lohan's problems had nothing whatsoever to do with her off-set habits, one of the film's producers is having none of it, and wrote her a letter voicing his feelings. And, thanks to The Smoking Gun, the whole world now knows what Mr. James Robinson said.

In addition to showing up late or not at all for work, Robinson's letter accused Lohan of acting "like a spoiled child and in doing so ... [alienated] many of [her] coworkers and endangered the quality of this picture." Plus, the tough old dude (Robinson is 70, and clearly has no time for some spoiled kid's BS) is not buying any of her "Oh, I don't feel well" crap: "We are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so called 'exhaustion'. We refuse to accept bogus excuses for your behavior." Daaaaang!

By Monday, this is either going to spun like crazy by Lohan's flacks (who should be earning at least six figures for the gig), or she'll be off the movie.

Apparently untroubled by how deeply annoying the once-adorable Lindsay Lohan has become, Hollywood is casting her right and left. Just off her work with the legendary Robert Altman in A Prairie Home Companion, in which Oscar winner Meryl Streep plays her mother, La Lohan has scored herself another award-winning mom in the form of Felicity Huffman. The two have signed on to costar in Georgia Rule, which Garry Marshall will write, direct and produce for Morgan Creek. In the film, Lohan plays a rebellious young woman (a role that will be a true test of her acting chops) who so exasperates momma Huffman that she's sent off to spend the summer with grandma, who will be played by none other than officially back-in-the-game Jane Fonda.

Very little about this project is yet official, but if financing falls into place and all the personnel work out as expected, there are hopes for a summer shoot.

Remember Peggy Sue Got Married? And how Kathleen Turner got to go back and live her high school life over again, making those changes she thought she wanted? (And how Francis Ford Coppola cast both nephew Nicolas Cage and daughter Sofia in it? Sneaky devil.) Well, it's now been all of 20 years since that particular flashback flick (the last good one, if nothing else), so Hollywood has decided it's time to hit us with another - and this one's for the fellas.

Entitled Touchback, the film tells the story of a 20-something ex-high school football star whose career was ended by a "shattered" leg during his senior season. (And if this movie is going to try to make us feel sympathy for the pathetic adults who can talk about nothing but their high school sports careers, I might turn violent. Just so you know.) Since this is a movie about impossible second chances, he hits his head and "find[s] himself back in time, a week before the big game."

Don Handfield's screenplay has been picked up by Morgan Creek, who have hired TV veteran David Nutter to direct. No word yet on who will play the football stud - I guess Dennis Quaid is finally too old for this sort of thing, huh?