Cinematical spoke to brilliant Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn, who was plugging the great “Bronson,” about his upcoming studio debut on “Jekyll,” a new version of the Robert Louis Stevenson story. The film, likely to shoot in 2011, will star Keanu Reeves, a bit of casting that has raised eyebrows (although he’s capable of good work — see “Thumbsucker” or “The Gift” for two of his best performances). Refn defends the casting though. “I think Keanu is a very interesting personality. I do think that there’s a great movie within him. I think his visual look is very interesting. So I think that what makes it exciting is that he’s a non-obvious choice, but he actually adds a great sense of curiosity to the film. It’s almost like they don’t expect that, and that’s what’s good… It’s probably the most difficult role any man could play.”
Archie Comics Publications has signed with CAA in hopes of exploiting their brand for the big screen. Shia LeBeouf as Jughead! Can we get a witness! Archie Comics owns Archie & Friends, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats, Cosmo the Merry Martian, Super Duck and Dotty and Ditto and ostensibly all of these can be made into live-action films (though see, “Josie and the Pussycats” with Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson from a few years back; it didn’t exactly light up the screen).
So the Prawns (the alien race) in Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9,” are treated like shit and exploited by Nigerians in the sci-fi film, yes? Well, the Nigerian government is offended, says the film denigrates their country’s image and they’re asking that all cinemas in the country pull the film from their theaters. Guys, it’s just a movie.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the screenwriters behind two of this year’s most successful moneymakers, “Star Trek” and “Transformers 2,” are in talks to produce “Xombie,” which is penned by a cop-turned writer (Will Beall) and about a zombie who is also a policeman. As stupid projects go (and Kurtzman and Orci are generally involved in many of them), this is one of the dumber film ideas we’ve heard about this year.