Universal Pictures, working on another BOURNE IDENTITY installment, will keep Matt Damon close by with a new George Nolfi sci-fi love story, according to VARIETY.
Written and directed by THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM scripter Nolfi, Universal is putting the finishing touches on a deal with Media Rights Capital for THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, to be produced by Nolfi with Chris Moore and Michael Hackett.
Alfred Molina will play evil magician Horvath in Disney's THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel and Teresa Palmer are also starring in the Jon Turteltaub-directed film with producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
In modern-day Manhattan, an average college student (Baruchel) is recruited to work for a sorcerer named Bathazar Blake (Cage), who gives him a crash course in magic to prepare him to battle the forces of darkness. Palmer will play Baruchel's love interest.
WATCHMEN director Zack Snyder is now starting to put together the cast for his next project, SUCKER PUNCH, which he wrote, will direct and is producing under his Cruel & Unusual Films banner with wife and partner Deborah Snyder (per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER).
Michael Brandt and Derek Haas have been hired by New Line Cinema to turn Richard Doetsch's upcoming novel THE THIRTEENTH HOUR into a screenplay, according to VARIETY. Michael De Luca is producing.
Brandt and Haas (WANTED, 3:10 TO YUMA), recently adapted Robert Ludlum's THE MATARESE CIRCLE for MGM and director David Cronenberg and likely will star Tom Cruise along with Denzel Washington. They are also working on a new BEVERLY HILLS COP installment for Eddie Murphy and director Brett Ratner at Paramount.
Leonardo DiCaprio is in the final negotiations to star in Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION at Warner Bros., reports VARIETY. Nolan wrote and will direct the sci-fi thriller set to begin shooting this year for a summer 2010 release date.
Nolan and Emma Thomas are producing. Script details are being kept quiet, but the studio is calling it a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.
TRANSFORMERS actress Megan Fox will star opposite Josh Brolin and John Malkovitch in Warner Bros.' JONAH HEX and is attached to star and develop FATHOM at Fox Atomic, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
In HEX, an action Western based on the DC Comics character, Fox will play Leila, Hex's love interest and a gunslinger herself. Filming is set to begin in April under Mad Chance's Andrew Lazar and Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman producing.
Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media will release THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER on December 10, 2010, according to VARIETY.
Disney partnered with Walden on the first two C.S. Lewis books-turned-films, releasing the last one, PRINCE CASPIAN, last May to a lower box office gross than the first, THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, which was a holiday release in 2005.
DAWN TREADER has that date to itself for now.
TYLER PERRY'S MADEA GOES TO JAIL's weekend gross dropped almost 60 percent, but still came in the top spot at the box office, with $16.2 million for Lionsgate, and a two-week cume of $64.5M.
Opener JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE (Disney, vfx by Furious FX and Tippett Studio) placed second with $12.5M, lower than was expected. The regular theater per-screen average was healthy, though, at almost $10,000 and the film grossed $765,000 in select IMAX 3-D screens for a per-screen average of about $15,000. The limited IMAX engagement runs through March 5.
Keira Knightley has joined the sci-fi cloning thriller NEVER LET ME GO at Fox Searchlight, according to VARIETY.
Actors Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan will also star with direction by Mark Romanek. DNA Films' Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich are producing, as well as screenwriter Alex Garland and Film 4.
London-based DNA has teamed with Fox Searchlight before on THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND and Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE and 28 DAYS LATER.
ROBOT CHICKEN co-creator Seth Green has joined MARS NEEDS MOMS, from Disney and producer Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Based on the Berkeley Breathed children's book, the story follows a boy named Milo (Green) who is a stowaway on a spaceship to rescue his mom from alien abductors. Green's AUSTIN POWERS mom Mindy Sterling will play the alien leader of Mars. Other voice cast announcements include Joan Cusack as Milo's mom and Dan Fogler as Gribble, a friend of Milo's.
Walden Media and Fox 2000's THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER will be written by Michael Petroni, according to VARIETY.
Richard LaGravanese wrote the last two installments of the C.S. Lewis series at Disney. A summer start date is being looked at by Walden to make a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label.
Intelligent Creatures created the dynamic and continuously changing inkblot concealing the face of WATCHMEN's vigilante hero, Rorschach. IC animated his inkblot movement to reflect the mood and emotion of the actor, while maintaining the integrity of this celebrated graphic novel. IC replaced the character's live action head through complex cranial and facial-motion tracking, which was seamlessly positioned between the live action scarf and fedora.
Longtime VFX Supervisor Eric Brevig has been hired by Warner Bros. to direct the 3-D CG/live action YOGI BEAR film, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
The classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon was originally set to be a 2-D film and had SURF'S UP director Ash Brannon attached. Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia will write the screenplay. Donald De Line and Karen Rosenfelt will produce with Jon Berg overseeing for WB.
Warner Bros. has set up DC Comics' SUICIDE SQUAD for Dan Lin to produce as a potential franchise, according to VARIETY. The series is about a group of jailed supervillians and started life as a DC Comic in 1959 and got its own series in 1987.
Lin (SHERLOCK HOLMES) will produce with Stephen Gilchrist at Lin Pictures. Justin Marks, working now on 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, will write the script.
Columbia Pictures and Neal Moritz's Original Films are in final discussions for a contemporary version of TOTAL RECALL, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
The 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi action film was directed by Paul Verhoeven and based on Philip K. Dick's story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," which explores Dick's favorite topic of reality vs. delusion.
The Kennedy/Marshall Co. and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way are discussing with Warner Bros. the possibility of a fourth NEVERENDING STORY film, according to the trades.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER says the studio recently bought the rights to the property and is looking at a new film in the 25-year-old franchise.
Original producer Dieter Geissler is set to produce the reboot with Sarah Schechter and Jesse Ehrman overseeing at WB in what is said to be a more nuanced take on the source material.
Gore Verbinski is attached to develop a feature film adaptation of the board game CLUE at Universal, according to VARIETY. He will produce under his Universal-based Blink Wink banner with Hasbro's Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir, who have an overall deal at the studio.
Cate Blanchett will be the Maid Marian to Russell Crowe's Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's epic for Universal Pictures, according to VARIETY. Originally called NOTTINGHAM, the film will have a new title and is set to begin production in early April in the U.K.
Producers include Brian Grazer (Imagine Ent.) with Scott under his Scott Free banner. The film was originally written by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, then rewritten by Brian Helgeland as the project morphed into a GLADIATOR-like version of the Medieval legend.
Summit Ent.'s ECLIPSE, the third film in the TWILIGHT saga, will be released theatrically in North America on Wednesday, June 30, 2010.
Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote the scripts for both TWILIGHT and NEW MOON, is currently writing the script for ECLIPSE and continues to consult with TWILIGHT book series author Stephenie Meyer.
Warner Bros. is turning a book of paintings done by artist Ivan Clarke into a CG-animated film, according to VARIETY. Clarke, a Queenstown artist, made a series of paintings of his dog in clothes that caught the attention of Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor (Oscar winner for THE LORD OF THE RINGS and KING KONG).
Clarke and Taylor made up a story for the woebegone-looking dog, and created a limited-edition oversized book that sold for as much as $6,000. Only 90 were published.
Warner Bros. announced release dates for several tentpole films on Wednesday, including a Dec. 17, 2010 unspooling of GREEN LANTERN and the eighth and final HARRY POTTER film for July 15, 2011, according to multiple news sources.
According to ERCBoxOffice.com, that same weekend is the home of Marvel's THE AVENGERS. Summer 2010 will also see the debuts of Marvel's IRON MAN 2, THOR and THE GREEN HORNET.
Samuel L. Jackson and Marvel Ent. have come to a deal for the actor to play Nick Fury in IRON MAN 2 and up to nine more future Marvel superhero releases, reports VARIETY.
Marvel reportedly upset Jackson when he was offered pittance to reprise his role in future films, which has also been the root of problems in offers to talent like Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell, according to sources, despite a gross of upwards of $600 million for IRON MAN.
Michel Gondry is in negotiations to direct Columbia Pictures' THE GREEN HORNET, starring Seth Rogen and Stephen Chow. The screenplay is by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, who will also executive produce. Neal H. Moritz will produce the film through his Original Film production company. The film will begin shooting this summer and is set for release June 25, 2010. The film will also be exec produced by Michael Grillo.
Chow dropped out as director in December, but is still a part of the project, playing sidekick Kato.
Elisabeth Harnois has been added to the cast of Robert Zemeckis' MARS NEEDS MOMS under direction from Simon Wells, per VARIETY.
The motion-capture film is at Disney was written by Berkeley Breathed and has a tentative 2010 release date.
With a take of $41.03M, TYLER PERRY'S MADEA GOES TO JAIL far and away won the weekend box office for Lionsgate in its opening frame.
Focus Features' stop-motion CORALINE (animation from Laika) continues to do well, coming in second with $11.43M and a three-week gross of $53.8M.
Fox's actioner TAKEN is also showing staying power, getting $11.28M, placing third and in four weeks has grossed $95.03M.
