The poster for “Carlos,” Olivier Assayas’ epic biopic on famed terrorist Carlos The Jackal has landed and it’s…..okay. It doesn’t change our anticipation for the film, which is fairly high. “Carlos” will premiere at Cannes in a little over a week in its full five-and-a-half-hour cut. The full version will hit Sundance Channel in a mini-series format (as it’s originally intended) and a shorter theatrical cut will make the arthouse rounds later this year.
Jason Statham has joined the thriller “Safe” that is set to be directed by Boaz Yakin. No plot details are available yet. Yakin made a splash with his gritty urban drama “Fresh,” but quickly fell into directing stuff like “Remember The Titans” and “Uptown Girls” so expectations are low on this one.
Variance Films has picked up the North American theatrical rights to the Magnetic Fields documentary “Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields.” We saw the film at SXSW and called it a disappointing film that is “blandly and typically laudatory” with no real insight to the man and his work. That said, as big fans of Merritt and the Magnetic Fields we may be too close the subject material so give it a whirl yourself when it begins its limited rollout on October 27th.
Whatever this is, it’s not the model being used for the upcoming “Godzilla” reboot from Warner Bros.
Yet another “Ice Age” movie is on the way. Tentatively titled “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” Fox has scheduled the film for a July 13, 2012 release date and yes, it will be in 3D.
In yet another blow to Roman Polanski’s ongoing legal battle, prosecutors are opposing the director’s request that recent secret testimony by Roger Gunson, the original prosecutor on the case, be unsealed. Polanski’s lawyers claim that the testimony details the plan by the case’s original judge, Judge Laurence J. Rittenband, where he was planning to use Polanski’s term under psychiatric evaluation as punishment for the crime. A hearing is set for Monday.
Kevin Durand, best known as the freakishly tall assassin-for-hire Martin Keamy on “Lost,” has joined Hugh Jackman’s “Real Steel.” Directed by Shawn Levy, the film follows a father-son team training an unusual robot to win a boxing championship after Jackman’s fall from glory as an actual human boxer. Durand will play a Texan boxing promoter. Filming is set to begin next month.
Avi Arad will be attending the Electronic Entertainment Expo where he plans to “offer insight into the worldwide premiere of his newest Pac-Man project.” Will it be a movie? God, we fucking hope not. [via /Film]
Elizabeth Perkins (“Weeds”) has joined the cast of the live action/CGI hybrid “Hop.” Directed by Tim Hill (“Alvin And The Chipmunks”::shudder::), the film follows “an out-of-work slacker (James Marsden) who accidentally injures the son of the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) and must take him in as he recovers.” Perkins will play Marsden’s mother.
–Written by Kevin Jagernauth