***Gabriele Muccino in Talks to Direct ADALINE ***Johnny Depp Drops Out of SEVEN FRIENDS OF PANCHO VILLA; Gael Garcia Bernal and Benicio Del Toro Circling Lead Role

Johnny Depp Drops Out of SEVEN FRIENDS OF PANCHO VILLA; Gael Garcia Bernal and Benicio Del Toro Circling Lead Role

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 22nd, 2011

In December 2009, we reported that Johnny Depp was in talks to star in Emir Kusturica’s biopic Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman with Six Fingers.  Depp (who previously worked with Kusturica on 1992’s Arizona Dream) was to play Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa with Salma Hayek attached to co-star.  However, Blic Online [via Bleeding Cool] is reporting that Depp has dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts, and now Gael Garcia Bernal and Benicio Del Toro are circling the role of Villa.  Oddly, both men have played the revolutionary Che Guevara before (Bernal in The Motorcycle Diaries and Del Toro in Che) and may costar in Martin Scorsese’s Silence.  Blic reports that Kusturica will meet with both actors in Cuba and then make his decision.
Hit the jump for a brief refresher on Bernal and Del Toro’s other potential projects.
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http://collider.com/johnny-depp-pancho-villa-gael-garcia-bernal-benicio-del-toro/77265/

Gabriele Muccino in Talks to Direct ADALINE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 22nd, 2011

Director Gabriele Muccino (Seven Pounds) is in talks to helm the romance flick Adaline.  The story centers on a woman who hasn’t aged for 100 years but risks losing her immortality when she begins to fall for a man.  Last summer, Katherine Heigl was attached to star with Andy Tennant (The Bounty Hunter) set to direct, but now both have dropped off the project.  Variety reports that principal photography is scheduled to begin next January.
In the mean time, Muccino is in pre-production on Playing the Field (previously titled “Slide“) with Gerard Butler playing a father who coaches his son’s soccer team and starts getting a little too friendly with the mothers of the players.  I would only find this premise interesting if Butler’s son was in his 40s.
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http://collider.com/gabriele-muccino-adaline/77275/

**Benicio Del Toro And Gael Garcia Bernal Contending To Replace Depp As Pancho Villa **Rutger Hauer Is Van Helsing In Dracula 3D

Benicio Del Toro And Gael Garcia Bernal Contending To Replace Depp As Pancho Villa

published: 2011-02-22 01:54:12 Author: Josh Tyler
Johnny Depp was supposed to play Pancho Villa, and that seemed like a good idea. After all, if he can play a Native American then why not a notorious Mexican revolutionary general… I guess. He did play Don Juan DeMarco. Johnny Depp knows his espanol.

The movie is the awesomely titled Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman with Six Fingers which at one point was supposed to be re-titled Wild Roses, Tender Heart, which is far less awesome. It was also supposed to start shooting this month and that didn’t happen. What I’m getting at here is that the whole project has sort of turned into a mess.

So it should come as no surprise to hear that Depp has dropped out and will no longer be playing Pancho, who after his work as a general later went on to found a chain of low-rent tex-mex buffet restaurants with unlimited enchilada refills which can be procured by the raising or lowering of a flag.

Whoops, I’ve just been told that last part, about founding the restaurant Panchos, is untrue. Seriously though, don’t eat there. It’s not good.

Johnny’s out and the movie still exists, so director Emir Kusturica is looking for a new Pancho Villa. Blic reports that it’s a two horse race, with the production likely to go with either Benicio del Toro or Gael Garcia Bernal as their leading man. Meanwhile Salma Hayek, attached to the project when Depp was still on board, remains involved. The title is also going back to Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman with Six Fingers. Now that they’re getting this thing back on track, with a title like that, this has to be good.
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http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Benicio-Del-Toro-And-Gael-Garcia-Bernal-Contending-To-Replace-Depp-As-Pancho-Villa-23293.html

Rutger Hauer Is Van Helsing In Dracula 3D

published: 2011-02-22 00:57:09 Author: Josh Tyler

Somewhere around the time of his appearance on the now all but forgotten science fiction series Lexx back in 1997, though probably not because it, Rutger Hauer became a cult icon. This Hauer love is based almost entirely on his performance in Blade Runner. Or actually, it’s based almost entirely on that single dying speech his character makes at the end of the film. He’ll probably never find another role as good that one, but the actor has worked non-stop since his time being directed by Ridley Scott back in 1982, though most of his work has been almost entirely in obscurity. Now, thirty years later, that’s starting to change.

Hauer had a prominent role in The Rite, out a couple of weeks ago, and he’s got the fanboy-friendly Hobo with a Shotgun lurking around out there somewhere ready to shoot us all in the face. And now he’s playing Van Helsing. Twitch says he’s signed on to horror director Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D as the legendary vampire hunter.

Argento is a horror director of note amongst horror freaks. For the average moviegoer, if you know him at all, you probably know him as the mind behind the 1977 horror film Suspira. Or maybe you just know him as the father of this person:
That’s Dario’s daughter Asia Argento, who had a brief cup of coffee in the mainstream when she starred opposite Vin Diesel in xXx.
That was what we in the blogging biz call a tangent.

Like her father, mainstream American fame didn’t last long for Asia and, like her father, she’s now making movies which are mostly seen by horror freaks and Italians. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good, though it does perhaps mean that Dracula 3D won’t exactly be getting a wide release. You’ll probably have to work to see it. The Rutger Hauer starring Dracula 3D starts shooting in May, and now’s a good time to get interested.
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http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Rutger-Hauer-Is-Van-Helsing-In-Dracula-3D-23291.html