News Week in Review 4th June – 10th June 2007

Hello Everyone.

What I am going to do for you all (as I am so nice) is cut through all the BS and bring you the news stories coming out of the industry that matter to folks like us. So in this column you won't hear about the latest period piece that Keira has signed up for, but you may hear about the latest Rob Zombie gorefest. I'll keep it cult and on the edge and present it here for you every week so that you don't have to check your usual film news sites everyday at work and get into trouble for slacking off on company time.

* Christophe Gans the director of the brilliant Brotherhood of the Wolf and last years underrated Silent Hill, has signed up to adapt another console game adaptation, Onimusha. The game concerns Samurai warriors battling demons in ancient Japan and was one of the biggest hits when the PS2 first came out. The film starts shooting early 2008 with a 70 million budget and Gans has said that he wants Japanese heart throb Takeshi Kaneshiro to play the lead.  70 million for a Japanese lead actor I cant see this coming to the screen this way, although it sounds like it could be great if Gans gets left alone to do what he wants with it.

* Brian Helgeland the writer and director of A Knights Tale and the awesome new cut of Payback has signed up to re-write Ridley Scott's revisionist Robin Hood tale Nottingham. The story is told from the Sheriff of Nottingham's point of view with Robin Hood as a dangerous criminal. Russell Crowe has signed up to play the Sheriff. This sounds like it could either be one of the worst ideas in history or a work of genius.

* Jim Carrey has been a bit down on his luck of late. The Number 23 flopped and the ace sounding Ripley's Believe it or Not and Used Guys both got canned due to spiraling budgets. He has signed on for indie project I Love You Phillip Morris. The story from the writers of Bad Santa concerns a married father who ends up in jail and falls in love with his cell mate. When the cell mate is set free he repeatedly tries to escape to be with him. I don't know if this is a comedy or some kind of Brokeback Mountain crossed with Shawshank Redemption hybrid. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

* Ring director Hideo Nakata has signed up to direct a film with 20th Century Fox. The story is based loosely on a real life Japanese murder case apparently and is written by Eric Heisserer. When he's got the right material Nakata can conjure up a real creepy atmosphere and sense of dread. Lets hope this turns out better than his other Hollywood feature Ring 2.

* Transformers hasn't even been released yet and Warner Bros have optioned a script for a live action Thundercats movie. The plot concerns humanoid cats who flee their ravaged planet and land on a desolate planet to encounter the evil sorcerer Mumm-Ra. This could be great if done properly or could turn out like stage musical Cats. It has not been confirmed whether Lion-O will still shout HO! whilst waving his rapidly extending sword in the air.

* The documentary The King of Kong concerns the quest of certain individuals to beat the world record for high score on Donkey Kong. The film has been a huge hit at film festival's with many proclaiming it film of the year. Now New Line cinema have decided to make a feature version of the story of the rivalry between two hardened Kong players as seen in the documentary. The original's director Seth Gordon is due to direct the feature version. This sounds like its going to be great and a future comedy classic. The documentary has no firm UK release date yet.

* The long in development Wolverine movie has had two possible directors attached to it this week. DJ Caruso the director of recent hit Disturbia and the underrated The Salton Sea, and Len Wiseman director of the average Underworld movies and Die Hard 4.0. If I had to pick between these two I would go for Caruso as the more interesting choice. Wiseman can direct an action scene sure,but lacks the stuff to handle character that a Wolverine movie really needs. Its unclear if they still intend to use the script by David Benioff (Troy, The 25th Hour).

* Sean Connery officially announced this week that he would not be back as Henry Jones father to Indiana, in Indiana Jones 4 due for release next summer. He is apparently enjoying retirement too much. John Hurt was announced as an addition to the cast which also includes Ray Winstone, Cate Blanchett and Shia LeBouef. If Sir Sean doesn't intend to ever make another movie its a crying shame that he has The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as his last on screen credit.

That's it for this week. If you have any interesting little tidbits for us on any happenings in cult cinema then please do get in touch.