This smells like divine intervention to us. Will Smith and Steven Spielberg’s unnecessary and unwarranted adaptation of Park Chan-Wook’s classic revenge film, “Oldboy” is reportedly on the rocks after legal problems with remake rights between the comic book company and the production company that dealt with Universal Pictures. There is a god. [First Showing]
After playing the ‘Governator’ in a biopic and being his body double in “Terminator Salvation,” fellow Austrian Roland Kickinger is evidently set to again live under Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shadow. Kickinger has reportedly been cast as the new “Conan” in Marcus Nispel reboot of the franchise. Nispel is a hack though which puzzles us to why people care about this, but then again, geeks love reboots of their “classics,” as much as they slightly pretend to feign worry. [RiskyBizBlog]
There’s is also another god (or the same one with the same good taste) out there trying to help us smite out more bad remakes, sequels and other misguided ideas. Neve Campbell has reportedly turned on the chance to return to the “Scream” franchise. Her potential role is apparently substantial enough to warrant this twitter from Kevin Williamson: “Trying to figure out a Sid-less scenario. She won’t do it. This sucks.” Even has-been Campbell knows better than to jump on board that lame-duck to be. When was the last time Williamson did anything of interest? Yeah, go back to the well when they’re desperate. Stay far away from this one if it ever hits. [BloodyDisgusting]
Common has signed on to star along side Queen Latifah in “Just Wright.” Filming for the Sanna Hamri film could potentially clash with Joe Carnahan’s “The A-Team” remake though – where Common has been linked to the role of B.A. Baracus. ‘Wright’ begins shooting mid-July while Carnahan’s ‘A-Team’ is set to begin late-August. [Variety/IESB]
Producer Brian Grazer hopes that the title character in the upcoming “Bride Of Frankstein” remake will have “great power and sex appeal” and be someone “along the lines of Scarlett Johansson or Anne Hathaway.” [NY Post]
Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Elijah Wood and Cam Gigandet are set to star in “The Experiment,” a remake of the German psychological thriller “Das Experiment.” The film will center on a group of ordinary men recruited to take on the roles of guards and prisoners as part of a research study. Both films are based on actual events that occurred in the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. [Variety]