Category: Films

Once viewed as a sequel to Columbia's JUMANJI, ZATHURA, also written by novelist Chris Van Allsburg, is now being produced as a stand alone film with Tim Robbins as star. Lensing will begin in August with ELF helmer Jon Favreau in the director's chair. David Koepp, John Kamps and Eric Fogel wrote the screenplay. Michael De Luca and Bill Teitler will produce.

The story follows two brothers whose house is transported into space and wrapped up into an intergalactic adventure Robbins will play the boys' father.

Warner Bros. Pictures, along with Atmosphere Ent. MM and Hollywood Gang Prods., will bring Frank Miller's graphic novel 300, which chronicles the legendary Battle of Thermopylae and the origins of democracy, to the big screen, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The trio of production houses has hired DAWN OF THE DEAD director Zach Snyder to the direct and do a rewrite with Kurt Johnstad. Michael Gordon wrote the first draft of the screenplay. Atmosphere's Mark Canton and Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari will produce.

French f/x house BUF Compagnie is in final negotiations to create the futuristic cityscapes and environments for Paramount's live-action version of AEON FLUX, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The Paris-based firm would handle the previs, on-set supervision and more than a hundred CG shots. The original animated series created by Peter Chung followed a female assassin who lives in the future where disease has wiped out all humans except for one protected city.

Atlanta-based Fathom Studios has signed with new management/production group Key Creatives to represent the animation house's services and to sell worldwide rights to its first CGI feature, DELGO, reports VARIETY.

"The timing for an independently produced CG feature couldn't be better. The filmmakers sought and secured their own funding, created and wrote their own story, built their own studio and made the picture happen," said Key Creatives' Ken Kamins.

Director Bryan Singer's upcoming remake of MGM's 1976 science fiction drama, LOGAN'S RUN, is scheduled to start production in Vancouver in September, reports HOLLYWOOD NORTH REPORT. The production will be one of the first to shoot in the Canadian Motion Picture Park, a new 64,000-square-foot, four-stage complex in South Burnaby. Singer's production has booked studio space through September 2005. Ethan Gross and Paul Tadisco are writing the script based on William Nolan's novel. The story follows a police officer in a futuristic utopia, which kills its citizen at age 21.

Spain-based Filmax Animation's long-in-the-works PK3: PINOCCHIO 3000 feature will feature a Hollywood flare with voice provide by Whoopi Goldberg, Malcolm McDowell and Howie Mandel, reports VARIETY. The futuristic spin on Carlo Collodi's classic tale is also being produced by Canada's CineGroupe, and France's Animakids.

Mandel will voice Spencer, a cyber-penguin who helps tinkering inventor Geppetto. Goldberg voices Cyberina, a big-mamma holographic fairy. McDowell will voice Scamboli, the low-life mayor of the high-tech city of Scamboville.

In an effort to appeal to local audiences, DreamWorks will have the voice of underwater TV journalist Katie Current, voiced differently Down Under, reports VARIETY. In the States, the character's inspiration TODAY host Katie Couric will provide her voice; with Australian TODAY host Tracy Grimshaw, voicing the character for Aussie audiences. DreamWorks hasn't announced whether other regions of the world will feature their own journalist celebs in the role. The film opens in Australia Sept. 30, 2004 and in the U.S. on Oct. 1.

Viggo Mortensen has been tapped to star in the New Line Cinema adaptation of graphic novel, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, reports VARIETY. David Cronenberg is set to direct from a script by Josh Olson (INFESTED). The film set to go before cameras in the fall.

Based on the Paradox Press graphic novel by John Wagner, Mortensen will play a small town diner owner who lives peacefully with his lawyer wife and children, until a random act of violence propels him to hero status in press and brings him to the unwanted attention of thugs who believe he is a former colleague on the lam.

When talking with CATWOMAN producer Denise Di Novi, IGN Filmforce discovered that her next project will be a live-action adaptation of the classic cartoon, THE JETSONS. Di Novi said they will be working off a script by Sam Harper (CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, JUST MARRIED, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR). Adam Shankman (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE) is set to direct the film for Warner Bros.