With "Bond 24" slated to hit theaters in eighteen months, it looks like the script to the movie is getting one last polish. John Logan has been working on it for a while now, but some veterans of the series are once again coming back to "punch up" the screenplay and add more jokes. Hmm….
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade — who found their work on "Skyfall" rewritten by Logan — will now do the same to his on "Bond 24." The pair have penned "The World Is Not Enough," "Die Another Day," "Casino Royale," and "Quantum Of Solace," so they know the world of Bond backward and forward, but the latest hire is causing some minor problems behind the scenes. "Let’s call it polite turmoil. People are getting on with their work, but we have to wait for the script, so filming won’t begin till December, a few months later than they wanted," a source said. Hmm. That would mean ten months from production start to October 23, 2015 when the movie is supposed to be in theaters. Not an impossible timeline, but a very tight one. Will that release date (and the November 5, 2015 date for the U.S.) hold? [Daily Mail]
In other sequel news, the brewing "Karate Kid 2" has brought in Jeremiah Friedman and Nick Palmer to work on the script, making them the fourth and fifth writers on the followup so far following Zak Penn and duo Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The pair are known inside Hollywood circles for their action-comedy scripts, and have a few set up at a handful of studios, hence their hire there. Meanwhile, Breck Eisner has dropped out of directing the gig due to scheduling, so someone else will have to be found. [THR]
And from sequels we go to remakes, with "About A Boy" pair Paul and Chris Weitz set to write the Steven Spielberg-produced remake of Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s aching and beautiful "Like Father Like Son." We shudder to think what an American redo would bring to the tender story about a father who learns his grade-school-age son was accidentally switched at birth, and now must reckon with the true meaning of love and family. Please track down the original before you see this if/when it happens. [Variety]
