breck eisner Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Radha Mitchell Joins 'The Crazies'
Filed under: Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », Remakes and Sequels »
It has been almost a year since news first hit of a remake of George A. Romero's classic, The Crazies, but after a long delay, it looks like the project is finally back on track. Shock Till You Drop is reporting that Radha Mitchell (The Surrogates) has just signed to star alongside Timothy Olyphant in the update of Romero's sci-fi horror. Breck Eisner (Sahara) will be directing Scott Kosar's update about the small town that becomes ground-zero for a mutant military virus. Originally released in 1973, The Crazies centered on a small town that is the site of a mysterious military plane crash that turns the locals into homicidal maniacs, leaving the few survivors to fight off their former neighbors. There aren't any details on Mitchell's role in the film, but the smart money has her playing wifey to Olyphant's butt-kicking sheriff -- although if you have seen Mitchell in Pitch Black, then you already know that this gal is usually no 'Mary Sue'.
The project has gone through a couple of writers already, but Kosar and Ray Wright are still being credited as the primary writers for the flick. Kosar has had some experience in horror updates before, having been behind The Amityville Horror and Texas Chainsaw updates back in early 2000's. Eisner is also no strangers to remakes having just been signed to helm updates of Creature from the Black Lagoon and Flash Gordon. But previous experience aside; I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that The Crazies won't be another cult horror that winds up with a PG-13 state of mind.
The Crazies is expected to arrive in theaters on September 25th, 2009.
'Dracula Year Zero' Writers Sign for 'Flash Gordon' Update
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Deals », Sony », Scripts », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Usually when a harebrained idea like remaking Flash Gordon starts to make the rounds, you can usually count on it being at least a few years down the line -- but I guess today I'm just not that lucky. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless have now signed to pen the update of the classic sci-fi tale with Sahara director Breck Eisner at the helm. Eisner signed to direct last May, and with the addition of the screenwriting duo, it could mean the project just entered the fast track. Sazama and Sharpless have had a busy 2008, and were already hard at work on scripting duties for Alex Proya's Dracula Year Zero and Zack Snyder's Cobalt 60 when the Flash deal finalized.For those of you out there not familiar with the Depression-era hero, Flash Gordon centered on a dashing polo player who is abducted and taken to the faraway planet Mongo. Along with his gal-pal *
This latest incarnation of the adventurer/polo player will mark the third time the classic comic strip has had a home on the big screen (including the original serial). Now that Hollywood is mining the comic book store at a furious pace, the third time could be a charm for Flash.
But it's going to be pretty hard to top Dino DeLaurentiis' psychedelic trip of a film back in 1980 -- don't ya think?
*Correction: Apologies to all the Flash fans out there; Flash's better half was Dale Arden.
'Sahara' Director to Helm New 'Flash Gordon' Flick
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Deals », Sony », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
Don't worry, I'm not going to go off on a tangent here about how things were better in my day, but I will say that watching the whacked out 80's incarnation of Flash Gordon is one of my favorite childhood memories (I can hear the strains of Queen's theme song as I type this). So you can imagine I wasn't exactly thrilled with the news that the man behind the 'swashbuckling bomb' Sahara had signed to direct an update of the classic sci-fi story. Variety reports that Sony has won the bidding war for the rights to make a live-action film based on Alex Raymond's original comic strip with Breck Eisner at the helm.In the original story, "Flash was a handsome polo player who is kidnapped and taken to the planet Mongo. He is pitted against an evil ruler named Ming the Merciless." Some of the other incarnations of Flash included making him a football player, and a hover-boarding teen in the 90's (um, OK). In 2007, the Sci-Fi channel also attempted to reboot the series with Eric Johnson in the lead, but the series was canceled shortly after.
Believe me, I know the 1980 film was a total flop, and most of it looked like it was conceived on a mushroom trip. But how you can say no to flying hawk men, Timothy Dalton dressed like Robin Hood while in a fight to the death, and Max Von Sydow in a skull cap?
'Sahara' Director Thought Film Would Spawn Indy-Like Franchise
Filed under: Action », Celebrities and Controversy »
Remember that lawsuit that Jessica Barnes posted about in February? To recap -- there was this big blockbuster film, or rather, there was this movie that filmmakers hoped would be a big hit -- Sahara. While it might have had a short rule in the box office, the movie pretty much flopped. Grossing less than $70 million, and having a budget of almost twice that, well, it leaves a bunch of people angry and disappointed. So, we've got the author of the original novel, Clive Cussler, blaming the producers, Crusader Entertainment. They, in turn, are counter-suing that the author not only badmouthed them in the press, but that he also made racial slurs during production.The trial has been underway for a while now, and jurors have heard testimony from screenwriters, executives and lawyers about the doomed film's struggles. The latest in the parade -- director Breck Eisner. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he says that he was aware that it had some problems, but knew that he could "nail this film" and had no idea how big the problems were. Not only that, but he thought that this would be the beginning of a film franchise, just like Indiana Jones! I'm not sure why Eisner would think that he could take a movie that he knew had problems, and make it into a huge, unforgettable blockbuster franchise. Youthful exuberance? Naive hope? He was replacing Rob Bowman, and had a script that went through tons of revisions and tons of screenwriters. That's not really a solid base to start from. Oh well. No big franchise for him. However, he does have the Creature from the Black Lagoon in development, but that news just makes me wish that Sahara had done well. I don't want anyone touching my beloved monster movie!
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