ripleys believe it or not Tagged Articles at Cinematical
'Ripley's' Back on Track with Chris Columbus?
Filed under: Deals », Paramount », Scripts »
It's been a long, arduous trek for Paramount's planned pseudo-biopic of connoisseur of the bizarre Robert Ripley. The movie was supposed to start filming in 2007 with Tim Burton at the helm. Then Burton ran for the hills. Michel Gondry was briefly rumored to take over, but that notion faded into the ether. Now, Variety reports that Chris Columbus is in negotiations to take over the project, with the plot and screenplay to be reworked based on a new Columbus-authored pitch. Jim Carrey is still attached to play Ripley, but Columbus has another project ahead of this one: the family fantasy Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.Winding up in the hands of Chris Columbus -- one of the most stubbornly pedestrian of the studio directors -- would a bit of an anti-climactic ending for this project, which really had the potential to be something wonderful and strange. With Columbus, I fear it'll resemble the corporate mediocrity of the Ripley's Believe It or Not "museum" franchise. And if Columbus gets a story-by credit too, forget it. The man who wrote Gremlins seems to be long gone.
But then I still haven't forgiven Columbus for the travesty that was Rent -- I know others liked it more. His Harry Potters actually weren't bad, though probably by virtue of the fact that he didn't mess with great material. He's just such a straightforward filmmaker. I don't think Ripley is for him.
News Bites: Singleton Ditches 'A-Team', Glover in 'Wonderland', and 'Perrier's Bounty'
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Thrillers », Casting », Deals », Scripts »
You might have noticed that The A-Team news front has been pretty quiet lately. Back in March, the film got a June 12, 2009 release date, but that was it -- no cast, no news, no nothing. Now Variety reports that the film's release has been pushed back to June 2010 and that director John Singleton has left the project due to the studio wanting more rewrites on the script. I guess this gives them more time to figure out who, exactly, will make up this cast. Mr. T's pretty handy with computers, hacking into WOW and the like. Maybe he could save the day and get this beast moving forward!When it comes to finding the right actors for a project Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, one should look no further than Mr. Crispin Glover. And yup, The Hollywood Reporter tells us Glover has indeed signed on to play the freaky Knave of Hearts. Seeing as the film will be a cross between live action and performance-capture -- with the Wonderland stuff most likely dabbling in the latter -- it would appear Glover is heading back to familiar territory following his work in the performance-capture flick Beowulf.
Finally, a British film has scored one heck of a sweet cast. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent, and Brendan Gleeson are starring in the comedy thriller Perrier's Bounty, which focuses on "three unlikely fugitives on the run from a gangster kingpin." Unfortunately it doesn't look like these three are the exact trio (which is unfortunate). Murphy will play the lead, Broadbent will play his long-lost father, and Gleeson will play Perrier.
Carrey and Oedekerk Together Again? I Believe It.
Filed under: Drama », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Paramount »
When screenwriter Steve Oedekerk and comedian Jim Carrey get together, very profitable things happen. True that they only worked on two movies together (Ace Ventura 2 and Bruce Almighty), but they were pretty solid moneymakers. So I suppose it's pretty good news that Paramount has hired Oedekerk to give a facelift to the screenplay for Ripley's Believe It or Not, which was originally penned by the writing team of Alexander & Karaszewski.Obviously this bodes fairly well for the project as a whole, because when Paramount back-burnered the thing a few months back, nobody really knew if the project would wither away or come storming back. With Variety reporting an intended late-2008 production date, and the pretty-much-guaranteed involvement of director Tim Burton and leading man Jim Carrey, it looks like Ripley will live once Sweeney Todd gets wrapped.
Gotta love that nutty Tim Burton stuff. (That's not sarcasm; aside from his misguided Apes remake, Burton's a pretty admirable filmmaker, and a consistently good one at that.) And anything that keeps Oedekerk distracted from his intended Kung Pow: Enter the Fist sequel, well, that makes me very happy indeed.
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