summit entertainment Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Good news, Twilight fans. You have the first official news for the fourth Twilight installment, courtesy of our own Jen Yamato, FearNet and the New Moon junket.* The magically-coiffed Robert Pattinson has confirmed that Breaking Dawn will begin filming in Fall 2010, and that it's penciled into his schedule for next year.

Of course, Dawn remains unconfirmed by Summit. The most controversial installment of the Twilight series, rumors swirl that the studio is hesitant to take it to the big screen. If it is made, it seems likely that it could be split into two films a'la Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Personally, I don't see Summit risking the money they'd make on #4, and they'll find a way to steer around the gorier aspects of the book. But now you know when to look for it, though you still have the madness of Eclipse pre-production to get through.

Pattinson also dished on the movie I want to mark on my calender (Sorry, I dig boots and spurs more than vampires), a Western called Unbound Captives. The directorial debut of Madeleine Stowe, it stars Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, and Pattinson. The young heartthrob revealed that it's tenatively scheduled to begin shooting in early 2010, and he sounds enthusiastic for a role that'll be miles away from Edward Cullen. "I'm playing a kid who is kidnapped by Comanches when he was four years old, and he is brought up by them. His mother spends her entire life trying to find me and my sister. When she finds us, we can't remember who she is and can't remember anything about the Western culture she grew up in. I speak Comanche the whole movie. You can't really speak more differently from Edward."

[Special thanks also goes to Collider who apparently pried the Breaking Dawn date out of Mr. Pattinson]

When Warren Ellis' Red was first optioned, I wasn't particularly excited. As readers have pointed out, Ellis has many books that would be more exciting to see on the big screen. The initial casting of Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman didn't inspire a lot of excitement, either. (I love both, but Willis as an ex-assassin? Hardly inspired.) But as Robert Schwentke has filled out his cast, things have gotten a lot more interesting. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mary-Louise Parker and John C. Reilly are in talks to join Red alongside Freeman, Willis, and Helen Mirren.

Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Willis' predicament will naturally prove him right, and it's the frantic, nervous role that Reilly specializes in. Again, it's not the most inspired casting, but it's exciting to see Reilly finally land a comic book role. I like to see actors drawn into this world, even if it is in a more "standard" storyline.

Parker will play Willis' love interest, an ordinary employee of the federal pension office who becomes embroiled in his struggle to stay alive. As if relationships aren't hard enough, it's "Honey! My former employers are trying to kill me! Get your passport, we have to hide in Bruges." She is a talented actress, so I sincerely hope she gets a little more to do than run around and be frightened. Perhaps she can be trained in the arts of action by Mirren's character.

It's a really good cast so far, and there's undoubtedly more to come as Willis' opponents are lined up. This could be something a little more in the mold of A History of Violence, which would be a refreshing change from the flashy adaptation attempts like Wanted. Red is officially on my radar.

I have a major girl crush on Helen Mirren. I want to be her, and I simultaneously want her to take me under her wing, and turn me posh. Now she's set to make me geek out even more, because Screen Daily and The Hollywood Reporter report that she's just signed on to Red, Summit Entertainment's adaptation of Warren Ellis' bloody miniseries. Robert Schwentke is set to direct.

Mirren joins Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in this cheerful tale of assassins. Willis plays black ops CIA Agent Paul Moses, who is enjoying the peace and quiet of retirement. But when there's a change of guard at the CIA, it's decided that Moses is too much of a liability. While Ellis' book pitted Moses against a single assassin, the movie will put Moses against a host of younger and more technologically adept opponents. It'll be the old school versus the new school -- and we all know who will probably win. I believe Freeman is playing the new CIA boss who decides Moses has seen and done too much to be anything but a liability, but nothing has been specified.

In her first comic book adaptation, Mirren will be playing an old associate of Willis, who has her own lethal set of skills. (Shades of Taken!) Don't be surprised if they're sexy skills. But you know what? It's Helen Mirren. If she wants to use her looks in order to dispatch a dictator or arms dealer, she can. Filming is set to kick off in January, and I count the days until I can see Mirren actually kick some ass onscreen.

Back in August, we reported that the Terminator franchise was in some serious legal and financial trouble. The rights are currently owned by the Halcyon Company, who have managed to make more court appearances than they have films. They were in danger of losing the rights to their hedge fund, Pacificor, who was poised to claim them if Halcyon defaulted on their loan.

But according to The Financial Times, Halcyon has now filed for bankruptcy after their lawsuit with Pacificor, and is selling off the rights to Terminator. It would appear that filing for Chapter 11 afforded their precious franchise some protection from the hedge fund, and they can now sell it to bail themselves out. The sale will be conducted by FTI Capital Advisors, and does not cover rights to the earlier Terminator films.

The Times notes that this auction is coming at a particularly tough time for Hollywood, who is feeling the economic crunch just like everyone else. But it notes that Terminator is one of the rare "blockbuster brands" not controlled by a big studio, and that alone has may drooling at the chance to control future properties. Summit is said to be particularly interested (they can probably pay for it just out of Twilight proceeds), as is Sony and Media Rights Capital. But remember, this is America! Everyone has a chance at destroying mankind, and if you have millions (estimates put the sale beyond $60 million, the benchmark set by the sale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), you can buy them for yourself. I would have faith in something other than John Connor if a Cinematical reader took the reins of this franchise.

When I first saw Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I thought "Well, he's cute." I never thought about him again. (When it comes to Potter crushes, mine will always be the dude with the long blonde mane.) Who could imagine that his would be the face that would launch a thousand shrieks? Still, Pattinson's story isn't that unusual and girls have screamed and cried over plenty of handsome lads, and will probably do so until the end of time. But is it really worth filming a documentary about?

Someone thought so. According to Screen Daily, UK distributor Revolver has snapped up Robsessed, a feature length documentary that studies the "the teenage phenomenon known as being Rob-sessed" (also known as puberty). It'll follow Pattinson's career from a relative nobody to being Edward Cullen and a man who gets hit by a cab while running from fans. Hopefully it will take some time and examine all his likes, dislikes, solve what's going on with his hair, or reveal just what he was doing at my downtown Denver fish-and-chips place. (I'm not kidding. There's a signed photo of him at the restaurant that thanks them personally for "the best fish and chips!")

The documentary will be released in the US and the UK in November to coincide with the release of New Moon. They're also planning to release a boxed set that includes Pattinson's little seen (we wonder why) 2006 film Haunted Airmen. So much Pattinson in one month might just inspire someone to film Robsessed 2: The Reckoning.

You're this small company, and one day, after MTV Films* and other studios pass on this little young adult vampire romance series, you pick it up. You spend roughly $40 million to make the feature, slip it onto the big screen, and suddenly, you've fostered a phenomenon. Your opening weekend alone pays for the film and then some. You score $191 million domestic, and another $192 million from the foreign box office. You find yourself at the heart of a film and marketing goldmine.

So what do you do with the money? You've blown off Lionsgate. You've given your stars sweet pay raises. But there's still a whole lot left over. Nikki Finke has thrown up an in-house memo that discusses talks with Morgan Stanley and how it's time to "look beyond the initial goals we have achieved and plan the next chapter in the studio's journey." Finke's sources say that means "looking mostly for libraries to acquire." Not to mention rumors of a Weinstein takeover.

Between my must-save nature and the number of studios that grabbed big success only to fall into oblivion a short time later, I'm hoping they take it easy and don't go on a Gimme! Gimme! shopping spree. But even then, there will be decisions to make. Stick with books? Youth fare? Stretch the boundaries? Continue to score the projects everyone else leaves behind? If it were up to you, what would you do?

*Gotta love a company that passes up a property, then becomes its most fervent supporter.

Only a few days after Bob Weinstein announced a whole slew of upcoming projects based on existing franchises (including a new Scream trilogy, Spy Kids IV 3D, Halloween 3D, Scanners and Hellraiser), there's now talk that Summit Entertainment (aka Home of the Twilight Saga) may be interested in acquiring either The Weinstein Co. or MGM (both of which are currently trying to dodge buckets full of money woes). Not only that, but Deadline Hollywood also reports that the Weinstein boys have decided to shelve Halloween 3D for now since they felt the production schedule (one that had them shooting in November for an August release) was too rushed, though perhaps these talks of a merger also played a part in that decision. DH claims, however, that Weinstein plans to start Halloween 3D once director Patrick Lussier is free to shoot it (he's working on another film in January, so chances are H3D won't start until sometime in the middle of next year if it happens at all).

Instead of Halloween 3D, though, The Weinstein Co. will be re-releasing Halloween 2 on Halloween -- a move that's left most fans scratching their heads, wondering why they never released a film called Halloween on Halloween to begin with. Part of that reasoning was due to not wanting to compete with the Saw franchise, and when the first Halloween killed (no pun intended) at the box office in August, it was pretty obvious the Weinstein boys would once again try their luck then instead of at the end of October. I'd be curious to see if the re-release decision pays off, and kids looking for a theme and some uneven scares will crowd the multiplex instead of spray shaving cream all over their neighbor's brand new Mercedes. What do you think?

Meanwhile, we'll be keeping a real close eye on this Summit thing ...

We all know nothing is immune to the clanking, grinding, perpetual remake machine that is Hollywood, but I'm actually a little shocked that it's taken this long for a studio to push along a remake of Russel Mulcahy's 1986 action-fantasy hybrid film Highlander. If much maligned '80s horror films like the House on Sorority Row can muster a remake, surely a franchise as storied as Highlander should be an easy target for a studio re-imagining. Five films, three television series and more comic books and novels than I care to count have been born from Mulcahy's film, and now we can add a new film from Summit Entertainment directed by Justin Lin and produced by Neil H. Moritz to the list.

Lin and Moritz were the same director-producer combo that brought on the money-making fourth installment of Fast & Furious earlier this year, making the duo an easy choice for Summit to entrust their hopeful franchise-restart to. And if hiring broad-appeal filmmakers like Lin and Moritz has you worrying for the state of a new Highlander, you should also know that Summit is bringing in Iron Man screenwriters Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.

And for Highlander lore purists, the studio hasn't shown any inclination of altering the plot, which the press release announcing the news still describes as, "after centuries of dueling to survive against others like him, Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his kind, a murderously brutal barbarian, who lusts for the fabled Prize."

There's no word yet on who will play Connor MacLeod, the character who famously shouts, "There can be only one!", but I think it's safe to say that an uberproducer like Neal H. Moritz, whose been involved with everything from I am Legend to the upcoming Green Hornet, will be attracting all manner of Hollywood hunks eager to don a kilt and start chopping some heads off.

Well, it's not like anyone would be mistaking Stephanie Meyers' Twilight Saga with one of English literature's greatest classics, but I guess we should have seen this coming. Lately there have been all sorts of Twilight tie-ins that you would never have thought possible, and the latest is courtesy of HarperCollins who have printed new editions of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights with Twilight-inspired cover art.

Now the Cullen-devoted probably already know that Brontë's romance was the book of choice for Edward and Bella, though one edition even goes so far as to remind you of that fact on the cover. Frankly, the Heights mention adds a whole new layer of creepy to Bella and Edward's relationship. There is some pretty messed up stuff going on in Brontë's book, and the twisted relationship between sort-of siblings Cathy and Heathcliff was the blueprint for every romantic bad boy to come after it. So if you thought Edward was screwed up, then wait till you get a glimpse of the 'corpse-defiling' Heathcliff. Although the Heights connection does explain a lot when it comes to Edward's 'stalkery' behavior and Bella's propensity for acting like a bit of a doormat in Meyer's series.

You can't help but wonder if Twilight marketing has gone overboard when its reach has extended this far. But on the upside, I guess anything that gets those darn kids reading again has got to be good, right? Plus, if you want your little girl to grow up with a thing for borderline abusive and emotionally unstable men like the rest of us, then you might as well start them off with a classic.

Well, we've all had our fun and made our jokes, but I think that the fans of the blockbusting vamp romance Twilight have had just about enough of us. At least, that seems to be the case in an editorial titled Enough with the 'Twilight' fan-bashing media antics already, over at The Examiner. The editorial was a response to a piece on The Frisky about Twilight conventions that was full of the usual cheap shots and snark that accompanies all Twilight news. But The Examiner isn't the only one defending the Twi-hards -- here's an editorial from our own Erik Davis over on Movies.com about how Twilight actually saved fandom.

I'll be the first to admit that, yeah, I was one of those people taking cracks. I made jokes about toothless sparkly vamps, and all the rest. But I've started to wonder if us writers have crossed the line of gentle teasing and into 'bullying'. So what makes Twilight jokes any different than cracks about Trekkies or a geek who lives in their mom's basement? For me, it was the idea that these girls (or women) were just silly little hormonally charged chicks looking for a glimpse of Robert Pattinson rather than honest to goodness fans of the series (however flawed it may be).

When it came to Twilight, it seemed that the general consensus was: Girls like it, so it must be stupid. Well, I've had enough conversations over my lifetime about how something is a 'dude thing', that I'm fully versed in the idea that certain stories appeal to men and women sometimes. But what has me ticked is the idea that when you pull the dude card, it's in a tone that says, "You just don't understand, it's a dude thing". Whereas when it comes to us girls, it's more along the lines of disdain as in: 'Eww, that's a chick thing".

After the jump: will I mend my Cullen-bashing ways?...