Newsarama: September 16th

Newsarama: September 16th

It's Sunday, which means it's time for a look back at the last seven days in movieland. Here are 10 interesting nuggets of movie news from the last week.

10. James Cameron nearly directed Jurassic Park.

Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron has revealed what could have been his vision for Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park movies. He described his story as "much nastier" than the final product, and also noted how he felt after he saw the released version. 

“When I saw the film,” said Cameron, “I realised that I was not the right person to make the film, Spielberg was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been fair."

9. Joss Whedon talks The Avengers 2 and his upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D TV show.

Work has already begun on the script for the sequel to Marvel's The Avengers, and writer/director Joss Whedon has described the more complex direction he would like the superhero team up to move in.

"The creation of the team is not the happy ending," he said. "It is the beginning of something that is complex and difficult, and now I get to dig a little deeper. And maybe, while I'm digging, just twist that knife. And that's exciting for me."

Meanwhile, Whedon is also overseeing all of Marvel's Phase 2 projects (including Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3 and Ant-Man) whilst developing a spin-off TV show called S.H.I.E.L.D, based on the organization spearheaded by Nick Fury in The Avengers. However, fans hoping for cameos from Captain America and the rest of the gang may be disappointed.

“It’s new characters," Whedon confirms. "It needs to be its own thing. It needs to be adjacent to the movies, but you don’t want to do a show where you’re constantly going, ‘Iron Man just left, but he was totally here a minute ago.’ You want them to do their own thing.”

8. Sequels planned for Ted and The Bourne Legacy. 

 

Universal have confirmed that sequels are on the way for The Bourne Legacy and Seth Macfarlane's Ted. Despite mixed reviews for Legacy, producer Frank Marshall has discussed the direction they want to take the fresh Bourne franchise.

"We're gonna follow Jeremy Renner's new character," he revealed. "Everything else is wide open. That's the great thing about this now. The table is set to go any direction we want to. But we will, I'm sure, follow Jeremy and see what happens. Jeremy and Rachel Weisz."

Ted has racked up close to $400 million worldwide, having amassed a raft of solid reviews, and Universal is looking to fast-track a sequel to capitalise on the character's popularity. According to Universal CEO Steve Burke, the studio will move on a sequel, "as soon as we can".

7. Justice League movie and Batman reboot may be completely unconnected.

Yet more confusing news from DC headquarters, as according to Batman-on-Film, DC and Warner Bros. are "considering the possibility" of having multiple Batmen on our cinema screens at once.

The studio already has Will Arnett voicing an animated lego version of the caped crusader in their LEGO movie, however the implication here is that the actor portraying Bruce Wayne in Justice League (2015) will be a completely different actor than the one in the as-yet-untitled Batman reboot.

So if this news is true, then the chances are high that Henry Cavill's portrayal of Superman in next year's Man of Steel will also differ from the version of the character that will appear in Justice League.

Blimey.

6.  Dreamworks Animation reveals all upcoming movies until 2016.

Looks like Dreamworks have their hands full for the next 4 years, as they have announced all of their animated flicks in production up until 2016.

After this year's Rise of the Guardians, sequels will include Kung Fu Panda 3 and How To Train Your Dragon 2 and 3, as well as The Penguins of Madagascar, a spin-off of Madagascar.

Among the more original flicks heading our way, The Croods, Turbo and Mr Peabody & Sherman will all reach us by 2013, while Me and My Shadow and Happy Smekday! will be released in 2014. Trolls, B.O.O and Mumbai Musical are slated for 2015 while the aforementioned conclusions to the Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon trilogies will reach us in 2016.

Dreamworks are showing no signs of quantity over quality either, as the stars signing up to these flicks include the likes of Seth Rogen, Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Jason Segel, Robert De Niro, Ryan Reynolds and Snoop Dogg. Even Jim Parsons (Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory) will be starring in the lead role opposite Rihanna in Happy Smekday!, a casting event which nobody saw coming.

 5. Sequel to The Hunger Games begins shooting.

With the November 22, 2013 release date a little over a year away, Catching Fire has begun shooting in Atlanta. Based on the book by Suzanne Collins, the sequel to (the surprisingly excellent) The Hunger Games will see Katniss, played by Jennifer Lawrence, experiencing life after her horrific experience in the arena during the first film, as well as dealing with the repercussions of her refusal to kill her final opponent. President Snow, sensing that the rebellion from the lower classes is growing, prepares a twist for the 75th annual Hunger Games - a twist that will find Katniss back in the arena with all of the winners of previous tournaments.

The rest of the cast includes Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Woody Harrelson.

4. The Dark Knight Rises Blu Ray/DVD will definitely not feature a director's cut.

Backtracking on rumours that circled the web last week, sources close to Christopher Nolan have denied any such implication that The Dark Knight Rises will feature a director's cut upon its Blu Ray/DVD release.

That said, it is still unclear whether there will be any deleted scenes at all, however if there are not it should not come as a shock to anybody. Christopher Nolan has never been one to include additional material in any of his home releases. Until Warner Bros. releases an official statement regarding the release date and additional content of the Blu Ray/DVD, everything is speculation (as is always the Nolan way).

3. Godzilla and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboots given release dates.

  

May 16th, 2014 will see the release of Godzilla, a remake of the 1998 monster classic. The franchise will be given a "more gritty, realistic and terrifying actioner", according to Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. The film will be directed by Gareth Edwards, the talent behind 2010's atmospheric drama Monsters, while David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Rises) will be tackling the screenplay.

Scaly creatures cruising around Manhattan may be the norm in 2 years, as the as-yet-untitled reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will also be released on May 16th, 2014. The film will be produced by Trasnformers director Michael Bay and will reportedly focus on the origin of the mutants, however a leaked copy of the script upset many die-hard fans when it was revealed the turtles would in fact be aliens from outer space rather than the sewer-dwelling creatures as in their comic book stories.

2. 300 sequel given a new title.

The title for the follow-up to Zak Snyder's epic warrior movie 300 has finally been revealed after much speculation. Director Noam Murro has confirmed that the prequel will be called 300: Rise Of An Empire.

Meanwhile, Gerard Butler has confirmed he will not be reprising his role as King Leonidas, who died an epic death at the end of the first installment. "Oh yeah, I'm not doing it," he said. "They're filming the sequel right now. I wish them the best, but it didn't work out. It wasn't really my thing."

300: Rise Of An Empire stars Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro and Callan Mulvey, and it will be released on August 2nd, 2013.

1. Fantastic new trailers for Lincoln and Wreck-It Ralph online.

They're like chalk and cheese, but Steven Spielberg's ambitious take on the life of Abraham Lincoln has finally been given a full cinematic trailer, and the trailer for Disney's fantastic comedy about the lives of videogame baddies has also found its way online.

Spieilberg's new film charts Abraham Lincoln's final few months in office as he attempts to bring an end to the American Civil War while fighting to abolish slavery (vampires not included).

Lincoln stars Daniel Day-Lewis as America's 16th President, as well as Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, James Spader, Jared Harris and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (seriously, what isn't he in these days?). You can view the typically Spielberg-ish trailer below.

 

Meanwhile, Disney have released the brilliant new trailer for Wreck-It Ralph, an animated comedy which tells the story of a video game bad guy who is...well, sick of being the bad guy. For over 30 years, he has been attempting to destroy a building that the hero in his particular game builds to gain points. Deciding to prove he can be a good guy instead, Ralph escapes the game and enters a variety of others, including shoot-em-ups, racers and arcade classics. Fantastic stuff. 

 

Wreck-It Ralph will be released on November 2nd, 2012 and it will star John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch. You can view the trailer above, and look out for appearances from classic characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Bowser from Super Mario, Smoke from Mortal Kombat, Frogger and even Inky, Blinky and Pinky from Pac-Man.  

That's all for Newsarama this week, check back to Movies Under The Microscope for reviews of Dredd, Lawless, The Sweeney and To Rome With Love as well as the usual mix of features and articles.