paramount pictures Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• The biggest news of the weekend was a story that hit Variety late Friday night: Stephen Chow has landed the role of Kato in The Green Hornet and the director's chair. Rumors and Seth Rogen's wishes have attached him for some time, but now it's official, and definitely shows that the project is going to be heavy on the comedy. (Incidentally, I never realized before now what huge Green Hornet fans my geek parents were -- let's just say Rogen's ears must be burning.) The movie is scheduled to be released June 25th, 2010.
  

• Tintin has run into some major financial problems. According to the LA Times, Universal has passed on the film, leaving Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to scramble for a new studio to financially back them. It's as embarrassing as you can imagine -- not only because its two of the biggest names in the business, but because Spielberg may have to make nice with Paramount (who's financing half the film) just as he and David Geffen are trying to extricate themselves from it. It also leaves Spielberg without a project to direct, as Tintin was supposed to be next in line, and it delays the whole thing even longer. But hey, at least struggling directors the world over can now do something they never thought possible -- feel just like Spielberg!
  

A couple of weeks ago, there was a story ping-ponging its way around the Web that went something like this: Paramount had cut a deal with the major cable providers to launch their tentpole Transformers on television the same week it landed in theaters. The idea was that it would be available as a premium pay per view choice for somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 and assuming the experiment turned out to be a rousing success -- and it would have -- the vaunted 'window' would be good and smashed for all time. There were some outlets that were convinced the story was going to turn out to be true, but my Paramount contacts told me it was complete crap, and they were right -- no such plans were afoot, obviously. The interesting thing about all of this is that most of the people I talked to who believed the story was going to turn out to be true were not outraged by it in the least -- and neither was I. I've come to believe that 'smashing the window' is an idea whose time has truly come, mainly because of the ever-deteriorating movie theater experience.

Take it from someone who chose his first apartment based on its proximity to two movie theaters -- this is not a stance I take lightly. I don't think there's anything in the world that beats a really good experience at the movies, but I've also noticed that over the past few years, the onus has been more and more on me to make that experience happen. Going to the movies on Friday night became a non-starter a long time ago, since it's kind of hard for me to follow a film when the guy to my right is breaking up with his girlfriend via cellphone and the guy to my left is playing his portable video game at full volume through the second and third acts. The matinees used to provide an escape from that kind of behavior, but no more. Last week I ended up walking out of an early show of Knocked Up because, honest to God, I couldn't follow what was going on thanks to the non-stop jabbering of a gang of high-school girls in front of me.

You may have noticed that, about an hour ago, prominent movie website IESB.net came back to life after being down for an extended period of time. Here's what happened in a nutshell: After IESB posted some spy video and images of Iron Monger on the set of Iron Man, Paramount Pictures went ballistic and sent a legal letter to the IESB host demanding the site be shut down for copyright infrigement. That much was pretty much common knowledge, but I got a more detailed account today from IESB's Stephanie Sanchez. "We were not notified in any way, or asked to take it down," Stephanie says. "We were literally in the middle of posting a story and all of a sudden our server was gone. We called our hosting company, they transferred us to legal and we were forwarded the letter that was sent from Paramount on Friday that demanded the shut down. Note, this is a letter we were never sent and weren't given any warning about."

Stephanie continues: "Here's the kicker. The video and pictures that were in question were in no way property of Paramount. Both were shot from a parking lot of a 24 hour fitness center across the street from the Iron Man shoot that was taking place on a public street in Long Beach, CA. There was no violation of copyright whatsoever. After hours on the phone yesterday with Paramount reps (who had no clue about it) they completely apologized and said this should have never happened. It was the idiots in the Paramount legal department who did this." Stephanie also notes that after this ordeal, IESB has "lost respect for the studio, we lost out financially and most importantly it was just really a blow to our reputation." She also says IESB will be posting a letter to readers today giving more details, and thanks the online community for their support.

Don't you hate road-rage drivers? Well, look on the bright side -- at least when you're driving down the highway towards the video store, you don't have to contend with Bonecrusher going on a mad rampage in the next lane over. The above pic is the first of fourteen that Paramount Pictures has released to us, as their Summer 2007 Preview. There are more images from Michael Bay's Transformers, as well as a handful of pics from Shrek the Third, the Sienna Miller fairy tale Stardust, and the Andy Samberg action-comedy Hot Rod. Oddly, despite the blockbuster punching-power of Transformers and Shrek the Third, the one I'm looking forward to most is Stardust, by far. I don't know much about it, except that it has Sienna Miller and it's got some hippy-dippy Princess Bride kind of vibe, and the first trailer popped up on some Russian website a few weeks ago. That's enough for me! After the pics, check out Paramount's press notes for each film.

Following their brutal break-up with Paramount Pictures, Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner have reportedly cut a deal with a group of investors that includes Washington Redskins (that's an NFL football team for you non-sports fans) owner, Daniel M. Snyder.

As part of the deal, the group will finance the overhead costs (ie: staff, office expenses) of Cruise and Wagner's production company -- to the tune of less than $3 million a year -- as well as help shell out the bucks for future projects. (Yes, that's less than Paramount was offering Cruise/Wagner to re-sign with them. Desperate, are we?) Oh, and about those "mysterious hedge funds" that were "supposedly" providing Cruise/Wager with upwards of $100 million? Well, no names have been released and Cruise's lawyer claims there was never a hedge fund deal in the first place. Man, this thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder, huh?

After watching one of his fake news anchors jump ship and board an express train to super-stardom, Jon Stewart is making sure no one else loses their virginity without a little involvement on the part of The Daily Show host.

Paramount Pictures has picked up The Donor, with intentions to develop it as a starring vehicle for Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry. The deal came based off a comedy pitch by Stewart, Ben Karlin and Corddry, with Jason Mantzoukas, Brian Huskey and Corddry set to pen the script. Currently, the premise is being kept under wraps though, based on the title, I imagine it will revolve around some sort of donor. Oh, and it will probably be funny. Pic will mark the first feature film project for Stewart's Busboy Productions (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report); he'll be producing alongside Karlin.

Odds and ends from Friday:

• Though we're not even close to 2007 yet, studios are already jumping on open dates for summer 2008. While we knew Marvel's Iron Man was sniffing out a May release date, Paramount Pictures made things official and secured May 2, 2008. Directed by Jon Favreu, pic follows billionaire Tony Stark who, following an accident, must create a suit of armor to save his life. As of now, no one is attached to play Iron Man and rumors swirling around Tom Cruise have been denied.
• It's a known fact that films about weddings and the mafia usually do well with audiences. Hmm, so why not combine the two? Warner Brothers is looking to do exactly that as their in negotiations to pick up the spec script, Committed for Life. Based on an actual true story (seriously, I remember reading about this in the newspaper), pic tells of two undercover FBI agents of the opposite sex who plan this elaborate wedding all as part of a sting operation against the mob. Talk about a bizarre wedding favor, imagine leaving at the end of the night with a pair of handcuffs and a free trip to jail.
• Okay, this one is a little strange. After M. Night Shyamalan jumped the Disney ship in favor of Warners for the upcoming Lady in the Water, we knew something was off. After all, the director had made four previous films with Disney and seemed to have a strong relationship with them, only to bail giving us some disguised "Warners lets me be more independent" excuse. Well, according to a 278-page book due out the day before Lady hits theaters, M. Night dishes the real dirt on the Mouse House, calling out its top three executives as money hungry pirates against individualism. Written by Michael Bamberger (with Shyamalan's blessing) and titled The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale, the book delves into great detail regarding the fall-out between Shyamalan and Disney, even going as far as describing the bizarre nightmares M. Night suffered throughout the entire ordeal. Yeah, so look for those two not to team up again in the future. [via The Movie Blog]

The other day, Zach Braff posted on his blog how he may be adapting a foreign film and shooting his follow up to Garden State this summer. Well, it didn't take long to find out the name of that film, as the deal was wrapped up today. Looks like Braff will be producing and directing a re-make of the Danish film, Open Hearts, for Paramount Pictures, with production to start this June in New Jersey. That's right - he's going back to the Garden State baby!

Pic was originally directed by Susanne Bier and released by Newmarket Films in 2003. It tells the story of a woman who, after her husband is paralyzed in an accident, starts having an affair with his doctor whose wife caused the accident. Sheesh, talk about complex - I wonder if there's a Paul Simon song about this he can throw on the soundtrack? While we're only a couple of months away from the start of production, no one has been cast so far, though there's a chance Braff may make an appearance in the film. Anyone catch Open Hearts when it was out? How do you think Braff will do with it?