Since it’s Friday afternoon, we are really fucking tired and today is an annoyingly slow news day we threw these stories into a shortcuts piece, so live with it.
Fresh off his Oscar win, “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle has already turned down two directorial offers. One was for “Texas Killing Fields,” an uber-dark script penned by an ex-cop from Galveston, Texas and “Ponte Tower,” which is based on a novel about apartheid South Africa. According to Boyle he still has no idea what he is going to do in his post-Oscar career. [MTV]
The new vulgar n’ vile “Friday The 13th” reboot produced by huckster Michael Bay has already made a whopping $70 million so far. With the low overhead of this new one, suffice to say that probably means there’s more torture-porn style Jason to come. [THR]
Boner Christmas for cinephile nerds. Remember Stanley Kubrick‘s legendary and abandoned “Napoleon” project that he wrestled with for over twenty years after finally tossing up his hands in the air and saying, “fuck this? it’s unfilmable?” (or he could just never find a script he loved). Well the tastemaking photobook company Taschen has put together an amazing coffee-table book called “Stanley Kubrick: The Napoleon Film.” It should only run you around $500 and it’s 1,900 pages long. Fitting for a picture once called “the greatest film that Kubrick never made.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]
Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” has scored cinematographer Bill Pope. His work has been featured in kinetically charged films like “Army Of Darkness,” “The Matrix” trilogy, and “Spider-Man 2,” and his fast-moving camera is probably perfect for the cartoonish and wire-fu fight sequences we’ll see in the film.[/Film]
Michael Clarke Duncan says if “Sin City 2” ever happens and his character were to somehow live, be resurrected or be featured in a prequel style film, he’d be game to do it again. Too bad “Sin City 2″ is never going to happen. All one needs to do is look at what happened with”The Spirit” and have a vague idea of what was supposed to come next to know that. That’s a hint, btw. [Splashpage]
Anne Thompson just saw “Watchmen” and she says that it is going huge among the virgin-nerd contingent, but may leave something to be desired in the eyes of everyone else. Thomas said the film “will play like gangbusters for fans of the legendary Alan Moore graphic novel, but will likely leave everyone else on the outside looking in.” We have a feeling Mrs. Thompson is exactly right. [Variety]
Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts and Freida Pinto have joined the cast of Woody Allen’s U.K set next film (after “Whatever Works”), yes? Well, it seems to be gathering an international flavor, a Yank (Brolin), a Brit (Hopkins) an Aussie (Watts), an Western Indian (Pinto) and now a Spaniard in Antonio Banderas who has just joined the cast. Wait, Banderas is the worst, and terrible for comedy, no? Absolutely not. Check the old Pedro Almodovar films like, “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,” he’s stellar in those films. Maybe Allen can bring him back to former glory much like he did with Penelope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”? Here’s to hoping. [Variety]
Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, in a last ditch-effort to somehow convince a studio to let them do “Goodfellas 3” (lets face it, “Casino,” was essentially the sequel) are rumored to be in talks with Leonardo DiCaprio, attempting to talk him into starring in an Italian version of the ‘Ocean’ pick-a-number heist films. [Cinematical]
The Coen Brothers apparently took a break from shooting their latest black-comedy “A Serious Man,” to go subversive with a new, hilarious Public Service announcement debunking the “clean” coal campaign. Click through to watch the video. [Cinema Blend]
In an attempt to mine some money in this bleak economic climate, Pixar Studios is rumored to have set 2013 as the date when they will release a sequel to the immensely popular “Monsters Inc.” We can’t blame them, animated films seem to be the way to pull in much needed profits for film studios. [Firstshowing.net]