-Given a kick in the ass by Marvel’s recent marriage to Disney, all pre-established Marvel film franchises are being taken out for another spin, demand or no. Which explains why Sony is actively developing a sequel to “Ghost Rider.” Nicolas Cage has already championed returning to the role, but it will be shepherded to the development stage by David Goyer, who long ago wrote a horror-themed script for a “Rider” movie. Variety says he’s “supervising writers,” which probably means he gave his old script to someone and said, “Make this good.” Variety also confirms Fox is developing another “Daredevil” and a “Silver Surfer” movie, even though it’s pretty clear audiences said no already.
-Regarding the planned big-budget adaptation of the cult anime “Cowboy Bebop,” Keanu Reeves tells MTV, “There’s a draft of the script, but the writer did such a great job [that] in order to make the movie, you would need half a billion dollars.” Or a talented, thrifty director with vision, but there aren’t many of those, are there? Given the ramshackle charms of the source material and the mishmash of tonal shifts, we’re going to blindly spitball notably-thrifty, hit-hungry Steven Soderbergh for the director’s chair.
-We thought studios had at some point turned a corner as far as wasteful spending and terrible projects when “He-Man” had been turned down by Warner Bros. “You’ve overestimated us!” crowed Columbia Pictures, as they have snapped up “Masters of the Universe” with the intention of developing the Mattel property into a film from the ground up. Original director John Stevenson is no longer attached- what a missed opportunity to say so much as an artist, John.
-Mattel got plenty busy with Universal as well (whores!), assembling a producing package to bring “Barbie” to the big screen. Lawrence Mark (“Julie and Julia”) is tasked with assembling a “creative” team to bring the world’s number one toy to the big screen. I bet his parents are very proud of him.
-This just in: Despite knowing none of the plot or having a screenplay, Geoffery Rush is onboard “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” Gee, maybe he likes money.
-Rob Liefeld, creator of several X-Men characters including Deadpool, took to Twitter to discuss his meeting with producer Lauren Schuler Donner regarding the mooted film. Among his insights, he claims Ryan Reynolds is definitely still onboard the spinoff no one asked for, and that the movie would retain the “classic” sensibilities and costume of the character not showcased in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and that Donner and Co. are strongly considering future X-films featuring Liefeld creation Cable, a hilarious clusterfuck of a character with the most convoluted, retarded backstory in all of comics- (his wikipedia entry, almost 600 words longer than the one for the Liberty Bell, tells the whole story).
