Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman in Talks to Join STOKER
by Matt Goldberg Posted: February 11th, 2011
Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and likely-Oscar-winner Colin Firth are in negotiations to star in Stoker. The film is the English-language debut of Oldboy director Chan Wook-Park. As we reported a couple weeks ago, Mia Wasikowska has signed on to play the lead role of India Stoker, “an eccentric teen whose enigmatic and estranged uncle returns to the family after the death of the girl’s father.” Jodie Foster was set to play the girl’s mother, but dropped out. Now it looks like Kidman will play the mom while Firth will play the uncle.
The way the shooting schedule is shaking out, it looks like Stoker will be Firth’s first film (say that five times fast) since The King’s Speech became the Oscar front-runner and scored at the box office. While he’s also signed on to star in the remake of Gambit, 24 Frames reports that Stoker is likely to go in front of cameras first. As for Kidman, she’ll next be seen in the hostage drama Trespass with Nicolas Cage.
..................... http://collider.com/colin-firth-nicole-kidman-stoker/75788/
Anne Hathaway May Join ROCK OF AGES
by Matt Goldberg Posted: February 11th, 2011
Earlier today, we reported that Tom Cruise was in final talks to star in Adam Shankman’s adaptation of the hit musical Rock of Ages. Other actors reportedly circling the film include Mary J. Blige, Gwyneth Paltrow, Russell Brand, and Alec Baldwin. You can now add Anne Hathaway to their ranks as Deadline reports that the Oscar host is in talks to costar. According to Deadline, Hathaway is up for the role “the uptight journalist who intends to eviscerate Cruise’s decadent rock star Stacee Jax with an expose. Instead, she falls for the charms of the rocker, and after they duet to the Foreigner song ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’, they engage in a wild, passionate bedroom romp.” Hathaway showed she had singing chops when she sang with Hugh Jackman on stage at the 2009 Oscars. She’s also planning to play Judy Garland in a biopic about the singer/actress.
Deadline reports that the question of whether Hathaway signs or not is if the Rock of Ages schedule will work with The Dark Knight Rises (Hathaway is playing Selina Kyle/Catwoman). Hit the jump for her other potential projects.
.................... http://collider.com/anne-hathaway-rock-of-ages/75792/
Gerard Butler to Star in Curtis Hanson’s MAVERICKS
by Matt Goldberg Posted: February 11th, 2011
Gerard Butler has signed on to play surfer Rick “Frosty” Hesson in Curtis Hanson’s Mavericks. We first reported on the film about a year ago when we learned that Hanson was developing a movie based on the late legendary surfer Jay Moriarty and that Sean Penn was considering the Hesson role. According to Variety, the story will center on Moriarty’s “quest to ride the iconic Northern California break known as Mavericks, where winter swells bring in treacherous waves the size of five-story buildings. Moriarity trained for more than a year under Hesson, forging a relationship that transformed both their lives.” Hanson, whose last film was 2007’s Lucky You, will direct from a script by Kario Salem and Brandon Hooper.
While Lucky You was a misfire, Hanson tends to deliver solid movies and I’m interested to see what he’ll do with this story. I’m also thrilled to see Gerard Butler in a movie that isn’t a disposable, lowest-common-denominator, get-a-new-agent rom-com.
................... http://collider.com/gerard-butler-mavericks-curtis-hanson/75796/
Christopher Nolan Plans to Direct Howard Hughes Biopic after THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
by Matt Goldberg Posted: February 11th, 2011
Christopher Nolan has previously said that The Dark Knight Rises will be his last Batman film, so what comes next? According to Vulture, Nolan will pursue a biopic about billionaire-filmmaker-engineer-nutjob Howard Hughes that he shelved when Martin Scorsese came out with The Aviator in 2004. However, while Scorsese’s film drew heavily from Charles Higham’s biography Howard Hughes: The Secret Life and focused on the first half of Hughes’ life, it didn’t really embrace how batshit-loony Hughes went in the latter half of his life. Nolan’s film, will ride Hughes’ crazy-pants way-of-the-future and pull from Michael Drosnin’s Citizen Hughes: The Power, the Money and the Madness. Drosnin, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporter, pulled from over 3,000 pages of Hughes’s own handwritten memoranda, which leaked after the billionaire’s office was burglarized in 1975. I hope the burglars were specifically after the memoranda because as we all know, rich guy madness scribblings are worth their weight in gold.
Hit the jump for more on this exciting project.
