Category: Uncategorized

Amazon signs Barker for ‘Zombies’

Studio has 16 feature projects in development

Fledgling Amazon Studios has signed Clive Barker to come on board its action horror project “Zombies vs. Gladiators” with a rewrite of the project.

Amazon Studios, which launched in November 2010, made the announcement Tuesday, noting that it has 16 feature projects in development at the retailing giant’s content development division. More than 9,000 movie scripts and 1,000 series pilot scripts have been submitted to the Amazon Studios site.

“Zombies vs. Galdiators” is based in ancient Rome and opens as a shaman who is about to die in the Coliseum casts a spell that unleashes the world’s first zombies — leaving it up to a gladiator to stop the spread of the zombie horde and save Rome.

“‘Zombies vs. Gladiators’ is now in the hands of someone who has written genre-defining material throughout his career,” said Roy Price, director, Amazon Studios. “We are excited to see how Clive will add his unique narrative to capture the essence of this story and propel the project into something unique and original that could one day be enjoyed by all audiences.”

Barker said he plans to interweave the narrative threads of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall along with the living dead. “My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before,” he added.

Barker, prolfiic horror author, broke into Hollywood in 1987 when he directed “Hellraiser,” based on his novella “The Hellbound Heart.” He adapted and directed “Nightbreed” from his short story Cabal, exec produced “Candyman” and “Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh,” directed “Lord of Illusions” and exec produced “Gods and Monsters.”

Amazon Studios announced last November that it had signed producers Denise Di Novi, Bill Gerber and Edward Saxon to develop three original projects. DiNovi is attached to produce “Touching Blue”; Gerber will produce “Original Soldiers” and Saxon will produce “Children of Others,” written by Barrington Smith-Seetachit, which won the Best Script Award from Amazon in August.

Barker’s literary works include “Weaveworld,” “Imajica,” “Everville,” “The Thief of Always,” “Sacrament,” “Galilee” and “Coldheart Canyon.”

He’s repped by APA and Zero Gravity Management.

Jeff Belkin Joins Zero Gravity as a Manager/Producer

Jeff will be teaming with Damon Lane in Zero Gravity’s New York office.

Jeff Belkin has joined the team of Zero Gravity Management as a manager/producer after spending five years running Foremost Films. Jeff will be teaming with Damon Lane in Zero Gravity’s New York office.

A former studio, talent and agency story analyst, Belkin got his start with Mad Hatter Entertainment before moving on to develop projects such as ‘Gran Torino’ for Double Nickel Entertainment. He brings with him clients like Christian Parkes, whose spec ‘P.O.V.’ is set up at Millennium with Ric Roman Waugh attached to direct, and the writing team of Ryan Belenzon & Jeffrey Gelber, whose 2011 Hit List spec ‘X’ is at Radar Pictures.

‘Vampire Diaries’ Star Nina Dobrev, Kellan Lutz to Join ‘Kid Cannabis’ (Exclusive)

Kellan Lutz of Twilight fame and The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev are in negotiations to join Project X breakout Jonathan Daniel Brown in Kid Cannabis.

John Stockwell is directing the movie, which is based on a 2005 Rolling Stone article telling the true tale of suburban teens from Idaho who built a multimillion-dollar marijuana empire.

Brown is playing a depressed 18-year-old who assembles his friends to smuggle drugs across the Canadian border.

Lutz will play the teen’s older best friend, who loves the thrill in the beginning but soon finds himself over his head.

Dobrev, who has scheduling issues to work out before her deal can be finalized, would play a hot-to-trot 19-year-old who has a thing for the best friend and whose father is one of the biggest pot growers in the province.

Gordon Bijelonic, Mia Chang, Bic Tran and Datari Turner will produce the indie pic, which is supposed to start production July in Canada.

The movie has been in development for several years and once almost came together with Chris Marquette and Cam Gigandet as the male leads.

Lutz, repped by Innovative Artists, Zero Gravity Entertainment and Morris Yorn, just signed on to star in Constantin Films’ 3D motion-capture adaptation of Tarzan.

Innovative-repped Dobrev most recently appeared on the big screen in last year’s The Roommate and will appear with Emma Watson in the indie The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Brown is repped by CAA and Black Box Management.

Nicolas Cage, Juno Temple And Johnny Knoxville Headed For ‘Wild Side’

EXCLUSIVE: Nicolas Cage, Juno Temple and Johnny Knoxville will star in Wild Side, a road trip drama to be directed by Jesse Baget from a script he wrote with Stefania Moscato. Zero Gravity Management’s Mark Holder and Christine Holder are producing and financing with Hollywood Media Bridge’s Phillip B. Goldfine and Oak Street Films. Arclight Films is selling international and Lionsgate is handling domestic. Shooting begins July 23 in Louisiana.

The story follows a small-town Southern beauty queen (Temple) who is on the run from a ruthless killer (Cage) determined to retrieve diamonds he stole during a murderous heist. Lila Belle Clyde, who walks away with the loot, is a former beauty queen who wants to get away from New Orleans. To do that, she needs to elude authorities, a dogged news reporter, and Odel, a self-described wolf determined to hunt her down and recover his swag. Baget most recently directedBreathless with Gina Gershon, Kelli Giddish, Ray Liotta and Val Kilmer. Anchor Bay will release.

Cage and Knoxville are repped by CAA (Knoxville is managed by 3 Arts), Baget and Moscato by Zero Gravity Management, and Temple by UTA and Troika.

Warners nabs ‘Brotherhoods’ for Dan Lin

Cops and mobsters drama based true-crime tome

Warner Bros. has acquired feature rights to “The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia” and set it up with Warner-based producer Dan Lin.

Studio has tapped Bill Dubuque to adapt the book based on the investigation of former New York City cops.

After a turncoat underworld boss fingered officers Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito as mob employees, William Oldham (a cop who worked alongside Caracappa and wrote the book with Guy Lawson) became a special investigator for the U.S. Attorney’s Brooklyn office after the NYPD decided not to investigate.

The office eventually found enough evidence to arrest the pair. In 2006, they were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, narcotics, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, eight counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in federal prison.

Mark Bauch at Lin Pictures brought in the book and is co-producer.

Studio is developing the project as a cop action thriller in the vein of “The Departed,” which Lin oversaw as a studio exec. He is in post-production for Warners on “Gangster Squad,” directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn.

Dubuque is currently writing “The Judge” at Warner Bros. with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star. He previously wrote “The Accountant,” which landed on the 2011 Black List.

Courtenay Valenti and Chris Gary are overseeing “The Brotherhoods” for Warner Bros.

Dick Wolf and NBCUniversal originally optioned “Brotherhoods” in 2007. At that point, three other projects based on Caracappa and Eppolito were in the works for Spring Creek, Mandalay and Columbia.

Hotchkiss and Associates negotiated the deal along with Salisbury Literary Agency on behalf of Lawson and Oldham. Paradigm and Zero Gravity rep Dubuque.

Kellan Lutz, Spencer Locke to Play Tarzan and Jane in Motion-Capture Movie

The Twilight star and Resident Evil actress will topline what will be a performance-capture 3D adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs jungle story.

Constantin Film’s Tarzan movie has been quietly been in development but is now entering the casting stage.

Kellan Lutz, co-star of the Twilight movies, has signed on to star as the title character and Spencer Locke, perhaps best known for playing K-Mart in Constantin’s Resident Evil movies, has nabbed the role of Jane Porter. The movie will be a performance-capture 3D production.

Reinhard Klooss is directing the movie with Kloos also producing with Robert Kulzer.

Klooss, Yoni Brenner and Jessica Postigo wrote the script, which updates the classicEdgar Rice Burroughs jungle hero. For example, Tarzan’s parents, billionaire adventurers, are now killed in airplane crash rather than being marooned with their child. And the movie’s villain is the CEO of Greystoke Energies, a man who took over the company from Tarzan’s deceased parents.

In the script, Jane is the daughter of an African guide and is committed to the conservation and preservation of the African jungle. She eventually works with Tarzan to defeat the mercenary army of Greystoke Energies.

Lutz plays Emmett Cullen in the Twilight franchise, the last installment of which is set for release in November.

Locke is currently starring opposite Josh Hutcherson and Dane Cook in Detention, directed by music video helmer Joseph Khan, and recently wrapped indie dramaAnatomy of the Tide.

Lutz is repped by Innovative, Zero Gravity and Morris Yorn.

Locke is repped by APA, TalentOne Management and McKuin, Frankel.

Andrew Wilson Joins Zero Gravity Management

EXCLUSIVE: Manager Andrew Wilson has joined Zero Gravity Management, Mark and Christine Holder have confirmed. Wilson spent 11 years at Evolution Entertainment and Twisted Pictures, leaving a year ago to join Prolific. His clients include author and filmmaker Clive Barker, Mother’s Day helmer Darren Lynn Bousman, Bag of Bones scribe Matt Venne, who just turned inMystery on 5th Ave for JJ Abrams at

Paramount; Jake Wade Wall, who just turned in a draft of a Jacob’s Ladder remake to Rosenzweig/Gaeta and Mickey Liddell; and Christina Welsh, whose script Mind Games has Joe Ruben attached to direct at Inferno and Anonymous Content. Wilson’s producing credits includeLottery Ticket with Ice Cube.

“Andrew is a manager with phenomenal taste and a fantastic work ethic,” Mark Holder said. “Christine and I are absolutely thrilled to have him as part of the ZG team and look forward to a long future together.”

Warner Bros ‘The Judge’ Collars Scribe Bill Dubuque To Script Robert Downey Jr-Starrer

By MIKE FLEMING

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and Team Downey have set Bill Dubuque to write a new draft of The Judge, a dramedy that’s planned as a star vehicle for Robert Downey Jr., with David Dobkin directing. The drama centers on a big-city lawyer who returns home after the death of his mother to learn that his estranged father, a judge, is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before. Downey Jr. and Susan Downey are producing with Dobkin. The script was written first by Nick Schenk.

Dubuque takes the job after scripting The Headhunter’s Calling, a drama about a corporate headhunter who struggles to juggle his work and family life, and The Accountant, an action/thriller which was on the 2011 Blacklist. Bill is represented by Paradigm and Zero Gravity Management.

Downey has The Avengers coming and will next make Iron Man 3 and has also been rumored as possible for a team-up with Tim Burton on Pinocchio at Warner Bros, while Dobkin’s Arthur & Lancelot has regained steam at the studio and is casting up.

“Britgeek says HARD BOILED SWEETS is the best British crime film in years in his world first review!!

These days, British crime films are ten a penny. As oversaturated as the video horror market is in the States, the same can be said for gangster pictures in the UK. And let’s face it, the vast majority are inept, creatively bankrupt cash-ins on an appetite for guns and drugs with a generous slice of Cockney, as kick-started by Guy Richie with LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS nearly fifteen years ago. TRIADS, YARDEES AND ONION BHAJEES, THE BIG I AM and CASH AND CURRY are just three examples of the home-grown genre dross we’ve had to endure over the last couple of years.

As film fans, one thing that keeps up going when it comes to said genre dross is the pursuit of the light at the end of the cinematic tunnel. We dig through plenty of mud in the hope that we uncover a fat truffle, and long for that blue moon to rise and drop a highly enjoyable, very entertaining movie into our laps.

Thanks to writer/director David L.G. Hughes and his cast and crew, we have HARD BOILED SWEETS, a low-budget crime indie distributed by Universal Pictures that packs a punch like a mint humbug dipped in chilli sauce.

Welcome to the dark side of Southend-on-Sea, where silver crosses the palms of prostitutes rather than clinks into slot machines, men go for an evening swim chained to a weight with the pier as their diving board, and a motley crew of gangsters is about to come in contact with £1,000,000.

Southend is the backyard of Shrewd Eddie, the most feared and influential criminal to reign over the area, but he proves to be a little fish in a big pond when his boss, Jimmy the Gent, makes his way to the seaside town to collect £250,000 worth of dirty money. A huge amount of cash to most, but not to the Gent (a contrarian nickname if there ever was one), who carries a briefcase with him at all times, no matter what, that contains £750,000. It’s no secret that these two authority figures of the local underworld are about to meet and there are people who intend on getting in on the action, from crooks who simply want to get rich quick, to those who want an escape from their unlawful existences.

The characters are given non-diegetic nicknames by way of intertitles and actual hard boiled sweets represent the different personalities of the characters. Although they bear no impact on the narrative and it’s more or less a gimmick, the sugarcoated nicknames serve as an inventive way to ramp up the film’s style. There may not be much sweetness harboured by these characters, but hard boiled they certainly are, whether it’s from a life of crime or the result of being subjected to living with a notorious villain.

It was the intention of Hughes to write a story for the screen that folks like Elmore Leonard would conjure up for a novel if they found themselves somewhere in Southend with a pen and a spiral notebook. A long shot perhaps, but Hughes has managed to pull it off. The story is simple in itself, leaving enough breathing space for the characters to bloom, ensuring the twists and turns remain unpredictable throughout in this treacherous tale of blood and money.

HARD BOILED SWEETS is the best British crime film I’ve seen in years. It’s BRIGHTON ROCK by way of Guy Richie and Quentin Tarantino, and ultimately the stylish realisation of a sharp, darkly humorous script from a fresh film-maker with bright ideas and a brighter future.

The film opens theatrically on limited release on March 9.

A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment presentation of a Lakeshore Entertainment production in association with Sketch Films. Produced by Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Len Wiseman, Richard Wright. Executive producers, David Kern, James McQuaide, David Coatsworth, Eric Reid, Skip Williamson, Henry Winterstern. Directed by Marlind & Stein. Screenplay, Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, J. Michael Straczynski, Allison Burnett; story, Wiseman, Hlavin, based on characters created by Ken Grevioux, Wiseman, Danny McBride.

Selene – Kate Beckinsale

Dr. Jacob Lane – Stephen Rea

Detective Sebastian – Michael Ealy

David – Theo James

Eve – India Eisley

Lida – Sandrine Holt

Thomas – Charles Dance

Back in black and cutting no slack, Kate Beckinsale returns as Selene, the kickass vampire warrioress who always shoots first and never bothers to ask questions afterward, in “Underworld Awakening,” the fourth entry in the enduringly popular action-horror franchise launched by Len Wiseman’s “Underworld” back in 2003. Although the directorial chores have been turned over to Swedish co-helmers Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein (billed jointly as Marlind & Stein), this latest episode extends the mythos and sustains the excitement of its predecessors with sufficient fealty to ensure another killing at the box office and a long afterlife on homevid.

After being conspicuously absent (except for a fleeting cameo) from “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” (2009), a swashbuckling prequel to “Underworld” and “Underworld: Evolution” (2006), Beckinsale slips back into the latex suit to resume Selene’s crusade as Death Dealer extraordinaire in the secret, centuries-long battle between vampires and werewolves (aka Lycans).

The big difference here is that humankind finally has caught on to the fact that, well, vampires and Lycans have been battling each other for centuries, and homo sapiens have frequently sustained collateral damage. “Awakening” kicks off with a briskly effective sequence that details the decimation of bloodsuckers and shape-shifters with ruthlessly efficient purges, leaving both species near the point of extinction — and Selene herself captured and cryogenically frozen by Antigen, a biotech firm developing a vaccine against viruses thought responsible for monster making.

More than a decade later, Selene reawakens from her enforced slumber in an Antigen lab. Fortunately, her captors have conveniently stowed her iconic outfit within easy reach — a wink-wink touch sure to please series devotees — so she’s able to suit up before cutting a bloody swath through hopelessly outmatched security guards and making her escape.

Outside in the brave new post-purge world, Selene finds once-powerful vampire potentates such as the autocratic Thomas (Charles Dance) have literally gone underground with their covens, and the few remains Lycans seem little more than malnourished nuisances who travel in dwindling packs.

The good news: Selena discovers that, while she was sleeping, she gave birth to Eve (India Eisley), a feral vampire-werewolf hybrid fathered by the presumed-dead Michael (a hybrid played in the first two pics by Scott Speedman). The bad news: Eve is actively pursued by powerful Antigen chief Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea), who plans to use the girl as a very unwilling DNA donor.

Once again, Beckinsale brings an impressive physicality and subzero cool to her portrayal of Selene, only occasionally revealing a flash of vulnerability when the Death Dealer isn’t blasting fierce Lycans or dispatching inconvenient humans. It can be argued that what she offers is more presence than performance, but that doubtless will suffice to inflame genre fanboys of all ages.

Working from a script by series co-producer Wiseman and a small army of collaborators, the helmers sustain a suitably rapid-fire pace — without extended closing credits, pic would clock in at under 80 minutes — while noticeably elevating the level of graphic slice-and-dice, run-and-gun mayhem. The action setpieces — including acrobatically choreographed faceoffs, and a basement-set battle royale pitting Selene against a humongous uber-werewolf — are neatly balanced mash-ups of slo-mo posturing and breakneck thrills. And lenser Scott Kevan takes pains to give the Vancouver-lensed pic the distinctively icy blue-gray look that is this franchise’s trademark.

Supporting perfs — including those by Michael Ealy as a sympathetic cop and Theo James as a hunky vampire eager to kick Lycan butt — are everything they need be, and the overall tech package indicates that, this time out, producers have raised the budget a few notches (though the use of 3D doesn’t add much). Their investment should pay off handsomely.

Camera (Deluxe color, 3D), Scott Kevan; editor, Jeff McEvoy; music, Paul Haslinger; production designer, Claude Pare; art directors, Gary Myers, Martina Javorova; set designers, Douglas Higgins, Jay Mitchell, Megan Poss, David Clarke; set decorator, Shane Vieau; costume designer, Monique Prudhomme; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS), Chris Duesterdiek; re-recording mixers, Michael Babcock, Tim Leblanc; special effects coordinator, Joel Whist; prosthetics and creature FX, Mastersfx; assistant director, Paul Barry; second unit director, stunt coordinator, Brad Martin; casting, Tricia Wood, Deborah Aquila. Reviewed at AMC Studio 30, Houston, Jan. 19, 2012. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 89 MIN.