The Hollywood Universe – 5/28/08

1) Website Cracked.com offers a look at five movies that took a conceptual hit in the final editing process – Live Free or Die Hard, Blade Runner, Superman II, Dawn of the Dead, and in particular, a change in the ending of recent remake I Am Legend, from one closer to the ending of Richard Matheson's original SF novel and which the movie was building towards, to one that was more standard horror. http://www.cracked.com/article_16258_5-awesome-movies-ruined-by-last-minute-changes.html

2) Speaking of Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero’s satirical horror movie will be returning to theaters yet again in a new stereoscopic 3-D re-release, set for 2009. See zombies really, really up close and loud!

3) Summit Entertainment will “re-imagine” the original 1986 movie Highlander. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, who did pretty well on the recent hit comics film Iron Man, will adapt the script, somewhat changing the mythology of the story about immortals who duel to seize each other’s power in death, with the destiny that one day, only one of them will be left as the most powerful. The movie spawned several sequel films and a syndicated television series. Peter Davis, who worked on the original movie, will be a producer on the new version.

4) Jake Gyllenhaal will star in Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, a fantasy adventure epic based on the video game franchise. Gyllenhaal will play Dastan, a young prince of 6th Century Persia, who pairs up with Tamina, a princess played by Gemma Arterton, to prevent a nobleman from acquiring the Sands of Time -- a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. Director Mike Newell will helm, with shooting to start soon if there’s not an actors’ strike.

5) The trouble-plagued live-action film of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit has hit yet another hitch. Christopher Tolkien, the author’s son and executor of his estate, is trying to halt production of the film and claim back the rights to the property, due to his long running court battle with New Line Cinema. The studio produced the three Lord of the Rings movies and holds the rights to their prequel novel, The Hobbit. The studio has since been bought by Warner Brothers and dismantled and reassigned within Warner. After a lawsuit with director-producer Peter Jackson over profits from the Rings movies was settled, the production of The Hobbit was green-lit, with Jackson executive producing. Tolkien has been suing New Line for 80 million pounds in profits from the Rings movies he claims are owed, under the terms of a 1978 sales agreement that promised the Tolkien estate 7.5% of the film profits. New Line has had a history of lawsuits with filmmakers and rights holders over unpaid profits.

6) Dreamworks’ Transformers 2 will see the return not only of its CGI vehicle-morphing robots but human actors Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro, and director Michael Bay. Rainn Wilson, best known for his work on the television satire The Office (U.S. version,) will also be appearing in the sequel in a small role, but actor Jonah Hill will not. Filming on the movie is currently underway.

7) Speaking of Michael Bay, his Platinum Dunes production company will be the ones to put together a supernatural adventure movie based on toy-maker Hasbro’s famous Ouija Board game. The movie is part of a deal between Hasbro and Universal Studios to use classic Hasbro toys as the basis for films. Hasbro’s version of the Ouija or spirit-board has sold in the millions since it was first produced in 1966.

8) Warner Brothers and director McG have leaked plot details of the fourth Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, which is currently in production. The new movie, which stars Christian Bale as messiah character John Connor, takes place in the future, when the nuclear apocalypse has occurred and humans must fight to survive against the AI Skynet and its deadly robots. In the movie, John Connor finds that the destiny he’s been taught would occur and has fought unsuccessfully to stop has been somewhat altered by the appearance of a man named Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington, whose last memory is being in prison on death row. Worthington may have been sent from the future or rescued from the past, and he and Connor must penetrate the operations of Skynet to find the answers and avert the final destruction of the human race. The film also stars Anton Yelchin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Moon Bloodgood, Common and Jadagrace, and is scheduled for release in May 2009. A production blog has been started at: http://rss.warnerbros.com/terminatorsalvation/

9) The comics series Runaways will be one of the next projects Marvel Comics is bringing to the big-screen. The series’ co-creator, Brian K. Vaughan, will write the adaptation. Runaways launched in 2002 and won a Harvey Award for best series in 2006. It tells the story of a group of teenagers who discover their parents are actually supervillains, and who run away from home in an attempt to right the wrongs their families have done.

10) Young British actor Rob Knox, who played a small role in the up-coming movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was tragically killed outside a London bar. A disturbed patron of the bar, who was kicked out, apparently returned armed with knives and began attacking customers who were leaving the place, several of whom were stabbed. Knox died protecting his brother Jamie, after being stabbed in the head. He was 18-years-old. The attacker was wrestled to the ground and arrested for suspicion of murder.