Les Grossman: The Movie?

  |    by: films

Nobody would ever accuse Tom Cruise of being a comedian, let alone the best thing in a comedy starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jnr and Steve Coogan. Okay, Coogan wasn’t at his best, but the others put in fine comedic turns in Tropic Thunder.

Cruise’s ‘playa’ was a fat, bald, foul-mouthed movie tyrant (apparently based on Joel Silver…and so Swimming with Sharks) and between him and Downey Jnr, they elevated the film to beyond entertaining to memorable.

Word on the street, on the QT, on the hush-hush, on the internet via Tom Cruise’s own mouth and an E Online microphone is the Cruiser is working on a full-blown Less Grossman movie. He said thus:

“We’re working on it. Yup, we’re definitely working on it.”

Cruise clearly likes playing against type and Grossman took it to extremes. We all know on a very good day he’s a fantastic actor second to none, but could his shtick sustain an entire ninety-minute plus adventure in Hollyweird?

There’s the fear the only person who’ll end up laughing is Cruise himself. While Grossman is a fine comic creation, it’s probably best to leave it at the Tropic Thunder appearance and the recent MTV outing. That probably won’t happen. Does the world want to see a Les Grossman movie? To be or not to be, that is the question.

Marvel’s Runaways On Hold Indefinitely

  |    by: films

Last year Marvel Entertainment announced a truly original project, Runaways. Based on a comic book series by Brian K. Vaughn, Runaways tells the story of a group of teenagers who discover that their parents are part of Pride – a secret organisation of super villains. Unable to cope with, ya know, having evil parents and all, the kids band together and bail in the hope of forming their own, more heroic group.

The story gives us the classic comic book myths with a major plot twist, and it’s something I was looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately I could be waiting a while as the project has now been put on hold. Apparently Marvel have literally got too much going on at the moment what with Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers and now Iron Man 3 to consider. This from Deadline:

Marvel simply has too much going on at the moment and will take its time on the live action adaptation of the comic hatched by Lost writer Brian K. Vaughan. It’s called the Breakfast Club of superhero saga, dealing with the children of super-villains who are cursed with evil superpowers. They live in a secret lair under the La Brea tar pits, and try to use their unusual powers for heroic purposes. Director Peter Sollett, who signed up with the idea this would be his followup to Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, is still attached but has been invited to take another film first.

So this sucks, the first truly original superhero movie in the better part of a decade and it’s put on hold? At least with director Peter Sollett still attached there is some hope that Marvel might be able to kick start the project once Thor and Cap have enjoyed theatrical releases. Here’s hoping!

Source: Deadline.

Hollywood Exec Picks Up Movie Rights For Dead Island Video-game?

  |    by: films

When there’s no more room in low budget film-making the dead shall walk the mainstream. Yes, the fleshing hordes have come a long way from the days of Romero and Fulci. 2010 saw zomboids go prime time with The Walking Dead and Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster is attached to World War Z. Now it’s reported Universal exec Sean Daniel bought the film rights to a video game entitled Dead Island.

Bloody Disgusting reported, prematurely, on a film being in the works (quoting from Hitflix):

“Daniel recently established The Sean Daniel Company, and they’re the ones who bought the rights to the game. Techland, the Polish developer for the game, has got to be dancing in the streets right now. This is a game that had been delayed and that had fallen off the radar after being announced a few years ago. As soon as that trailer, created by Axis Animation, popped up online, Dead Island went from ‘troubled game that’s taken forever to come out’ to ‘game everyone will play this fall because the awareness on it is gigantic.’”

But there’s been counter-claims by video-game production Deep Silver via Playstation Universe:

“Lot of rumors have been about regarding a Dead Island movie, and we wanted to let you guys know that we haven’t signed on with anyone – yet! And rest assured, a high-quality movie is the #1 thing we’re concerned about for a film adaptation.”

The Dead Island video-game trailer was released last week and was very impressive. But is the zombie genre getting stale? The reverse action and sad piano tune hooked viewers but what beyond that? Should films these days really be dictated by hype? More than likely Hollywood smelled blood and a canny business opportunity when they gauged the online reaction. But do so at their peril. After all, the game the itself might be total shit.

Check out the trailer below. It’s pretty excellent. Expect this game to sell like hot cakes!

Source: Bloody Disgusting. & PlayStation Universe