Category: Films

Ghost House Pictures announced that Kristen Stewart (PANIC ROOM), Dylan McDermott (TVs THE PRACTICE), Penelope Ann Miller (THE RELIC, CARLITO'S WAY) and John Corbett (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, TVs SEX AND THE CITY) have joined the Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project, which started shooting recently in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Collision Ent. and Firm Films have teamed up to turn videogame MAX PAYNE into a feature film for 20th Century Fox, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Collision Scott Faye and Firm Films topper Julie Yorn are producing with Abandon Ent.s Karen Lauder serving as exec produce. Fox exec Robbie Brenner will shepherd the film for the studio.

Twentieth Century Fox and Canal Plus will co-finance BABYLON A.D., a big-budget futuristic thriller to be directed and written by GOTHIKA helmer Mathieu Kassovitz, reports VARIETY.

Inspired by Maurice Dantec novel BABYLON BABIES, tale is set in the near future where genetic manipulation occurs. In the book, a mercenary charged with bringing a young woman from Russia to Canada learns that she has been infected with a synthetic virus, which could wipe out all humans on Earth.

BUFFY star Sarah Michelle Gellar and director Marcus Nispel (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake) have signed on for the film adaptation of American McGees videogame ALICE for Universal Pictures, reports VARIETY. Collision Ent. originally secured the rights to the game, which then when to joint venture partner Dimension after their partnership was ended. Dimension shopped the project, which landed at Universal. Electronic Arts is the publisher of the game.

Warner Bros. has landed the film rights to turn Kathryn Lasky's children's fantasy series GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE into a CG feature, reports VARIETY. This will be the first project for producer Donald De Line under his new three-year first-look deal with the studio. Lasky will adapt her books as well as exec produce.

Lasky's seven-book series is set in a parallel universe where owls can perform magical transformations. The first book follows a young barn owl who joins a mysterious school for orphaned owls after being pushed out of his family's nest by his older brother.

Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films have started development on NATIONAL TREASURE 2, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Jon Turteltaub will return as direct from a script by Gregory Poirier (forthcoming SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON remake). The studios are keeping the plot on the down low and as of yet none of the original cast has been resigned. Jason Reed shepherd the project for Disney with Chad Oman, Mike Stenson, Aviv and Segars are exec producing.

Columbia Pictures is hammering out deals with Ray Winstone (KING ARTHUR), Anthony Hopkins (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), Brendan Gleeson (TROY) and Robin Wright Penn (FORREST GUMP) to star in director Robert Zemeckis' BEOWULF, reports VARIETY. Steve Bing's Shangri-La Ent. is producing the performance capture feature.

Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman have adapted the Old English epic poem about a knight who slays the monster Grendel and becomes king. Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke are producing. Martin Shafer will exec produce with the trio writers.