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Report: Writers hired for big-screen Tomb Raider reboot
The writing duo behind such films as Iron Man and the forthcoming Cowboys & Aliens have signed on to help pen the next Tomb Raider film, reports Deadline. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are the two gentlemen who allegedly will be helping refresh Lara's life on the silver screen, with the piece noting that "a new adventure storyline" will be created for the film. As previously reported, the rebooted film franchise is expected to launch in 2013, though no details have been provided as to the film's content, or whether franchise star Angelina Jolie will be reprising the role of Lara Croft. Fergus and Ostby's talent agency, CAA, had yet to respond to request for comment as of publishing.
YouTube seals deals with major studios to compete with iTunes
Google-owned YouTube plans to expand the premium on-demand video rental services offered through its website. Earlier this week, Google and YouTube reportedly closed deals with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Universal and Lionsgate to offer filmed content from these studios as streaming rentals -- including access to new releases the same day as competing movie-on-demand services. YouTube's new service is expected to compete with market leaders in the online video rental market: Apple and Amazon. In an effort to generate revenue with professionally produced content, YouTube began offering premium video rentals on its website about a year ago, starting with a limited number of films from the Sundance Film Festival, Weinstein Co. and MGM. But the Google subsidiary has struggled to transform its 130 million monthly users into a sizable audience for its paid and ad-supported feature films. This week's licensing agreements that expand YouTube's library of rental titles may help more customers see value in paying the website for access to Hollywood films and make it a more competitive rival to Apple's iTunes and Amazon's Instant Video services. Google isn't the only big brand making big moves in the streaming video business. According to The Hollywood Reporter, both DirecTV and Dish Network are exploring subscription streaming service businesses to challenge Netflix and iTunes. Meanwhile, cable television provider Comcast is trying to negotiate deals to offer premium video-on-demand options that would allow cable subscribers to enjoy new movies only 6–8 weeks after their theatrical release dates.
Don't hold your breath for an Apple video streaming service
Flickr image by tpholland I'm pretty convinced every time an analyst opens his or her mouth about Apple and we post it, a kitten is eaten by a bear somewhere*. This week's "Wacky Analyst Random Rumormongering" comes from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek who claims that Apple is about to launch "a new far reaching cloud-based service" based on video. Oh, really? Let's examine the reasons why we are visiting fantasyland, shall we? At least Business Insider was so bold as to say this is "informed speculation," although that's pretty much what these analysts do, isn't it? Unfortunately, the speculation appears to have happened in a brushed-aluminum vacuum chamber, where Apple is capable of setting terms with media companies and ISPs at-will, and everyone works in a completely ego-free marketplace -- but none of those things are true in reality. Besides, the "streaming media" speculation has been around ever since this data center had a concrete foundation. Misek claims the data center is going live soon and that Apple will build others around the world. Plus, he says this data center is "too big" for mere music. Well, we knew the data center would go online this spring, since Apple told us all this in a quarterly earnings call. The part about building more around the world is pure speculation. Apple uses Akamai for caching, so why bother with more data centers so soon? It's possible, but I see no evidence considering how long it took to build this data center. Then again, Apple Retail has had a meteoric rise... As for the thing being "too big" for video, what about software services? This isn't just about storing petabytes of data, this is also about uptime, scaling and keeping monstrous amounts of data intact. You know, like email and calendars and possibly office documents.
James Cameron ponders 48 or 60fps shooting of future Avatar films, because he's trendy like that
Oh, Jameson. You trendy, trendy trendsetter. After coercing the entire world of cinema to bow down and worship the art of 3D, it looks as if James Cameron will soon be spearheading the effort to back away from the tried-and-true 24fps shooting method in favor of far faster options. The Hollywood Reporter is claiming that Cameron copped to the idea of shooting Avatar 2 and 3 at higher frame rates, likely 48fps or 60fps. The reason? It'll provide an "added sense of reality," and it'll probably create a wave of new camcorders, software and plug-ins to handle the dirty work. Onward and upward, we suppose.
Paramount Pictures, BitTorrent team up to distribute feature film (video)
In case you haven't heard, there are websites out there that will let you download movies and software using a little something called the BitTorrent protocol. And while the majority of cinematic fare available is of a non-DMCA-approved nature, filmmakers and organizations are increasingly turning to torrent sites to get the word out. For instance, in 2009 a filmmaker named Hanna Sköld worked with the folks at The Pirate Bay to distribute her film Nasty Old People. And indeed, there seem to be as many zany ways to get your work out to audiences these days as there are filmmakers. One scheme that recently piqued our interest was concocted by the folks at Distracted Media. The Australian company is crowdsourcing its latest production, The Tunnel (not to be confused with Chunnel: 32 Miles of Danger) by selling individual frames for a buck a pop. Of course, "owning" a frame gives you nothing more than the opportunity to say that you helped an indie filmmaker out, but it's a worthwhile cause. And at 135,000 frames that's a lot of dollars! When the film is done, it will be distributed via BitTorrent for free -- alongside an actual DVD release by Paramount Pictures which, when you think about how reluctant Hollywood has been to embrace the internet, is pretty wild. Check out the (NSFW) trailer after the break, and then hit the links below for more info. Tunnel should make its premiere this May.
Ubisoft survey gauges interest in Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon films
A survey floating around seems to suggest Ubisoft is entertaining the idea of bringing some of its franchises over to the big screen -- specifically, Assassin's Creed and Ghost Recon. The above image was submitted to Evil Avatar, which says the survey is geared the toward finding out what would most make those taking it want to see movies based on the franchises -- Ezio, Subject 16 and the like. While we feel the world would probably be just fine without another war flick, we'd be all for an Assassin's Creed movie, granted that the project wasn't entirely about making money but also making a good movie. We're probably being a bit naive, though.
Fifth Resident Evil movie in the works, scheduled for 2012
Like the zombies it's based off of, the Resident Evil movie franchise will not die. Although the fifth film has yet to be subtitled, it does have a date. "Resident Evil 5" will be in theaters -- in 3D, of course -- on September 14, 2012. There's good reason for the hastened production schedule for yet another sequel. According to Box Office Mojo, last year's Resident Evil film, Afterlife, was the highest grossing in the series, generating over $236 million, which is "about as much as the first three movies combined," the site notes. Afterlife enjoyed success in international markets and generated additional revenue through its 3D presentations. According to the report, about 80 percent of Afterlife's domestic revenue came from its extra-dimensional screenings. With the success of Resident Evil on the silver screen, it's no surprise Capcom and Sony Pictures are trying to strike gold again. In addition to Resident Evil, a Devil May Cry film is also in the works.
Devil May Cry movie rights acquired by Screen Gems
Screen Gems' last partnership with Capcom was a resounding success: the Resident Evil films have grossed over $580 million worldwide. It is undoubtedly looking to replicate that success with its latest acquisition, Devil May Cry. Kyle Ward has been hired to write the script. Ward is currently unproven; his first feature-length script, Fiasco Heights, will debut later this year. In addition to Devil May Cry, Ward is also signed for another video game adaptation: Kane & Lynch. According to Variety, the film will feature Dante on a quest to "avenge his mother's murder by killing off demons." Given the early status of the project, it's unclear if the film will be based on the classic games, or on Ninja Theory's upcoming reboot. Given Paul Anderson's creative freedom on the Resident Evil franchise, it's entirely possible that the Hollywood Dante will be an entirely original one, as well. [Image credit: Jo Chen]
Shocker! Apple product placements dominate Hollywood
Something you already knew to be true has just been confirmed by Omnicom's Interbrand brand consultancy division: Apple reigns supreme in Hollywood films. Interbrand's Brandchannel website dug deep into the fetid bowels of product placement to reveal Hollywood's preferences (paid or personal) in the 33 films that hit the US box office number one slot in 2010. Brandchannel identified 591 total brand or product appearances for an average of 17.9 placements per film, with Apple appearing in ten of the top films for a 30 percent share -- Nike, Chevrolet, and Ford each appeared in eight. Incidentally, Iron Man 2 won the dubious distinction of being cluttered with the most identifiable brands (64) in 2010. Apple is actually off from its peak of 50 percent of number one films in 2008 and 44 percent in 2009 as demonstrated in the chart after the break. But it's not for a lack of trying. Brandchannel contends that the competition for brand placement has simply intensified resulting in fewer appearances of Janoff's U+F8FF.
David O. Russell responds to Uncharted movie fan concerns
David O. Russell is currently making headlines as the Academy Award-nominated director of The Fighter. But gamers are probably more interested in one of his next projects: a silver screen adaptation of the Uncharted series. The numerous changes made to the core story have some fans concerned that Russell simply doesn't get it. Responding to those accusations, Russell told SlashFilm that he's "played the game a bunch of times" and has even met Naughty Dog's Amy Hennig. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm very respectful as far as the core content and spirit of the game." Russell argues that "there's not a bunch of movies you can point to that are made from games that are amazing movies, that stand up to time as a franchise or as [individual films]." By focusing on "what I think is going to be an amazing movie," Russell says that "it's going to be real, it's going to be raw, it's going to be intense, it's going to be original, and it's going to be propulsive." (And he apparently doesn't know who Nathan Fillion is.)
EA hosts Need for Speed Hot Pursuit launch party in Hollywood
EA hosted a launch party for its new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit game last night at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood. Among the celebrities and performers Chiddy Bang, we found Criterion Games' creative director Craig Sullivan right before he introduced the game to the audience. "It's been amazing," he said of the response to the game so far. "We're really really happy with it." Sullivan's been a fan of Need for Speed since the original 3DO game, and along with the rest of Criterion, he says he was thrilled to get the chance to make an official title. "When we got our shot at the title, everybody was really up for it and we just kind of went crazy." We asked about DLC for the game, but Sullivan was still mum. "Given the fact that Criterion Games did a year of downloadable content for Burnout Paradise," he admitted, "I would be very surprised if we didn't do any followups or downloadable content for Need for Speed." But when pressed on what that DLC might be, he declined to comment until later on. Still, the party was a good time -- EA invited about 5,000 members of the public to come enjoy the game in a club that only held about 2,000 people. You can see pictures of the event in the gallery below. %Gallery-107597%
Levine: Game industry 'star-struck' by Hollywood
You wouldn't blame Ken Levine for having a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Hollywood. After all, as Develop recounts, the respected game designer "failed spectacularly" in his first career as a scriptwriter. So, when Levine was offered an opportunity to make a game with, in his words, "a very talented film director," it's not much of a stretch to imagine he experienced more than a little satisfaction in turning down the offer. "My feeling is why?" Levine questioned. "Why would any game designer want to do that?" Aside from any personal justice he might have enjoyed, Levine answers his own question with another: "Why would I want a film director to help me make a game, any more than they would want me to help out with their films?" And he takes it further: "I think there's a sense in the entertainment fields that video games are seen as the junior varsity," he said. "There's this feeling of 'oh one day you can come up to our league.'" "In our industry there's too many people star-struck of the movie world, jumping into deals with some big movie director just because they're big film directors." No, Levine isn't taunting del Toro, he's just reflecting on the obvious clash between how great games have been made (hint: rather anonymously) and the looming cult of celebrity eager to pervade the game industry. But hey, Ken, at least they asked you to work with a movie director -- just about anything passes as a star these days. Who would you rather (make your game with): Bristol Palin or The Situation?
Just Cause film optioned, screenwriter attached
Eric Eisner's L+E Productions has optioned the rights to a Just Cause movie script written by Michael Ross, reports Variety. Producer Adrian Askarieh is helping the production company flesh out the project "before shopping it to the studios." L+E Productions' first project, Hamlet 2, was picked up by Focus Features for a reported $10 million in 2008, giving some hope to the possibility of Just Cause actually appearing in theaters at some point in the future. Askarieh also helped to get the Hitman film out the door, to which a sequel is currently in production. The Just Cause film will apparently focus on the story of Rico "The Scorpion" Rodriguez as he takes on "deadly missions for the US government that come in the form of creating chaos and destrabalizing rogue nations from within and turning the bad guys against each other." Sound familiar? Let's just hope the adaptation doesn't take any of that ... questionable NPC chatter along for the ride. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Sony, Warner and Disney mulling $30 at-home viewing option, we laugh and wait for the $100 option
Ah, "premium" video-on-demand. Media controllers have been fighting the inevitable forever, but now it seems they're finally coming around to the future -- letting users watch silver screen gems (or duds, for what it's worth) in their home shortly after release in the theater. Before you bust out the golf claps for these dudes and dudettes, you should know that they're planning to ding you for around $30 for the privilege, so it's only remotely of interest if you happen to have a family of eight. According to a new Bloomberg report, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Walt Disney Co. are all in talks with major cable systems to "offer films for as much as $30 per showing soon after they run in theaters." Disney's also thinking of streaming its content to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with Warner expected to begin testing an offering later this year that lets consumers watch new(ish) release material for "$20 to $30 per viewing." Of course, we guess it can't hurt to throw the option out there and see exactly who is desperate enough, but we're guessing this won't exactly be the demise of the cinema. Or Redbox.
Enslaved pitched as real-time Unreal Engine 3 movie, shot down by Hollywood
Ninja Theory has always had Hollywood ambitions. Its last game, Heavenly Sword, employed extensive use of motion capture, and had Lord of the Rings alum Andy Serkis as a pivotal contributor to the project. Before Enslaved was revealed, Ninja Theory's Nina Kristensen teased the possibility of a CG movie to accompany the game's release -- but what happened to Ninja Theory's envisioned film? "We were serious about it. We went to all the big studios in Hollywood and pitched the idea," Tameem Antoniades told Destructoid. Unfortunately, Hollywood wasn't interested in Ninja Theory's vision: to create a feature-length film using real-time graphics powered by Unreal Engine 3 (used for the game). "They don't want to do it for cheap. They want Pixar and the other higher end [studios] to do it for 100 million dollars or 60 million dollars. To do it any other way is considered a huge risk, so it just didn't wash." We can certainly understand the studios' hesitance towards the concept. While Enslaved certainly looks good, an Unreal-rendered movie probably wouldn't be pretty enough to appeal to the mass-market movie watcher used to Pixar. And with Enslaved having yet to prove itself as a valuable IP, it's no surprise that the film adaptation never came to fruition.
YouTube courting Hollywood for pay-per-view movie service by end of 2010, says Financial Times
For all the stupid pet tricks, first-person confessionals, and clips from Conan O'Brien's formative years that form YouTube's content, the one territory it doesn't really venture is pay-per-view à la Apple, Amazon, and others. Well, it'll be a Brave New World for the service -- and parent company Google -- if this Financial Times report is worth its weight in 3mm. According to the publication, the G-Men have been in talks with "Hollywood's leading movie studios" for several months, touting its reach as one of the main draws for the players involved, for the launch of an international pay-per-view service by the end of this year. Some prices are also thrown around here, to the tune of about $5 for new titles (streaming, not download) available the same time as the DVD releases. The video site has been doing rentals on a trial basis since early this year, with just a smattering of indie titles. The thought of paying to watch Blockbuster titles in the same window we watched three dozen (if not more) remixes of Keyboard Cat is still a bit of a new concept, but hey, that's the future for you.
Blockbuster filing for bankruptcy next month? Probably.
It's not official, but rumor that Blockbuster is preparing to file for bankruptcy in September is certainly believable. Expected even. According to several sources speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Blockbuster chief executive Jim Keyes along with representation from Blockbuster's senior debt holders met last week with the six major movie studios to announce the company's intention to enter a mid-September bankruptcy. Meetings that no doubt hoped to secure an uninterrupted flow of new content from Hollywood as Blockbuster restructures its $920 million in debt and closes another 500 of its 3,425 US stores. In its fight to remain relevant in the age of digital downloads / streaming, Blockbuster has lost $1.1 billion since early 2008. It's expected that Blockbuster's debt holders will likely own a substantial portion of the company when all is said and done. We call dibs on those Archos 10 netbooks.
Angry Birds dev working with Hollywood advisors for possible movie pitch
Movie adaptations of console games are no surprise. But when was the last time you heard of a movie based on an iPhone game? Angry Birds, a Boom Blox-esque 2D puzzle game, may be the first App Store title to find a Hollywood adaptation, according to a new report in Variety. At first, the idea may seem ludicrous, but developer Rovio sees opportunity to transform the title into an "evergreen" franchise. With over six million sales, the game has already generated more than $5 million in revenue for the Finnish developer. And with more than five million views of the game's animated trailer on YouTube, it's clear that there is certainly a demand for resentful winged vertebrates. Rovio has enlisted the help of various "Hollywood advisors," including Peter Levin and Russell Binder, with the hopes of an adaptation with the appearance of claymation (a la Aardman Animation). While a deal is being secured, Rovio's challenge is to bring the game to "every possible place," including consoles like the PS3, PSP and DS. With Hollywood deals taking years to complete, Rovio knows that it will be difficult "to make sure the brand is relevant when the movie comes out."
Rollercoaster Tycoon movie rights picked up by Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures has been rather successful with its Resident Evil movie franchise, so it only makes sense that the company has acquired the rights for the next big video game movie: Heavy Rain God of War Rollercoaster Tycoon. According to a report by Reuters, the project is being developed as a live-action/CGI hybrid at Sony Pictures Animation, with Harald Zwart, director of the upcoming Karate Kid remake, taking an executive producer role. Heat Vision adds that David Ronn and Jay Scherick are attached as writers, tasked with adapting the PC game into a marketable movie. Perhaps that should be an easier task than their current project: writing The Smurfs reboot. Considering the original games had no story whatsoever, the writers will have a lot of creative freedom -- as long as they remember to put rollercoasters in it. [Thanks, Joshua!]
Producer hopes to start filming Silent Hill 2 in 'late spring'
Anxious to check out the sequel to 2006's big screen adaptation of Silent Hill? Producer Don Carmody -- who is also working on the upcoming Paul W.S. Anderson film, Resident Evil: Afterlife -- told Fearnet that he's "hoping to start [filming] it in late spring in Toronto." Carmody also reveals in the interview that the first film generated a lot of hate mail. Here's hoping the second go-round invokes a bit less vitriol. The sequel will once again feature actress Radha Mitchell, but, as we reported last year, director Christophe Gans does not appear to be returning. Is that a good or bad thing? We'll let you decide.
