All posts by Stephen Sanchez

Movie News & Opinions

Ed Norton Up For Villain Role In ‘The Bourne Legacy’

Leave a comment

The cast for The Bourne Legacy continues to grow, and it just got better. After the additions of Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz, now comes word from IGN, that Ed Norton is in talks to play the role of villain in the Bourne ‘spin off’:

Edward Norton is up for the villain role opposite Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz in The Bourne Legacy.

As Variety reports, “Plot details are being kept under wraps but what is known is that Jason Bourne will not be featured in this film and that Renner will play another assassin trained in the same program that Bourne was trained who goes out to find his true identity. Universal had no comment on Norton’s negotiation.”

Cast is shaping up, what do you think? Are you down for a Bourne movie with no Damon?

Movie News & Opinions

Akira Changes…Again

Leave a comment

I’m just going to come out and say it: will everyone involved in this project please just pack it up and walk away from the whole thing? From the inability to cast two lead roles even from the likes of Keanu Reeves to the switching of directors, now there is the announcement of a budget cut of about 50 million bucks. Not that budgets make a movie, but with all of the problems combined this project is heading for nothing but trouble if it ever indeed gets off the ground.

Here’s the latest from IGN:

 Variety has the report, adding that the project has been reconfigured as a $90 million tent pole. That’s down quite a bit from the previously reported $140 million budget.

But that’s part of why Collet-Serra has been brought in, as he apparently has a reputation for turning in money-makers on tight budgets (see also his House of Wax remake and the recent Liam Neeson thriller Unknown).

As for Collet-Serra being the new director, I didn’t mind Orphan and House of Wax, but I have yet to see Unknown. This movie would definitely be his big break after Unknown, but quite frankly I wouldn’t care if they cast this movie into the destroying hands of Uwe Boll. As I discussed with a colleague the other day, I think Akira might be better as a CG movie instead of animated. And at the rate the live-action movie is going that may be coming true sooner than we think.

Movie News & Opinions

‘The Stand’ Movie Coming Soon?

3 Comments

I don’t know why they have to make a Stand movie at all when the old six-hour mini series is so blatantly awesome. My favorite scene is when a ‘super flu’ infected guy confronts Gary Sinise’s character in a stairwell and says “come down and eat chicken with me beautiful, it’s so dark!” I laughed exceptionally hard, but it wasn’t over because Gary Sinise proceeds to kick him in the face area with a scream of rage. Effin’ classic.

Continue reading ‘The Stand’ Movie Coming Soon? →

Movie News & Opinions

The Dark Tower Falls – Movie/TV Project on Hold

Leave a comment

I’m sure many of you, like myself saw this coming just as soon as the production of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower project was pushed back a number of months. Yes, unfortunately Universal has chosen to bail out of the huge undertaking of three Dark Tower movies and two seasons of a TV show to bridge the gap between movies. Universal reps have not stated as of yet why but I have a safe assumption: money. Because we all know how much capital it would take to nurture a project that surpasses the gamble was The Lord of the Rings.

Continue reading The Dark Tower Falls – Movie/TV Project on Hold →

Movie News & Opinions

Tom Hardy To Play Capone In ‘Cicero’

2 Comments

It seems like Al Capone is making quite a comeback these days. With the famous gangster known the world round as “Scarface” already featuring more and more prominently in the hit HBO show Boardwalk Empire, it would seem that Harry Potter director David Yates may be the next one to tackle him in the movie Cicero. And who to play the famous Alphonse Gabriel Capone? Well who better than Tom Hardy, fresh off his venom injected stint as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises?

According to IGN, the Inception alum, and soon to be Mad Max, will star in the biopic following Capone’s rise to power – and also his fall… into syphilis. Check it out from IGN below:

Dark Knight Rises actor Tom Hardy is reportedly going to play infamous Chicago mob boss Al Capone in Cicero, a biopic that Harry Potter helmer David Yates may direct.

Vulture has the scoop: “Hardy has attached himself to the project, which was originally written in the seventies as a TV pilot by Walon Green (the screenwriter of Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece, The Wild Bunch) but is now being readapted as a film. And possibly more than one: There is talk that, like The Stand, it could be stretched out, with a first film only tracking the gangster up to his rise to the top of the Chicago criminal food chain; his reign and downfall would be in a subsequent film(s).”

I like the idea of any movie involving Al Capone, I can’t get enough of the character on Boardwalk Empire where he is played marvelously by Stephen Graham. But I do have some misgivings about subsequent movies about the guy unless they are some of the best crime-drama’s ever made. I’m thinking they would have to be Godfather caliber to merit two or even three movies about the life of Al Capone. But then again, Tom Hardy seems to have all the makings of an up and coming star to help make something like that happen. So hats off to whomever gets the directing job on Cicero and make it good! What do all of you fools think?

Does Tom Hardy have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of the great Robert Deniro in portraying Capone?

Movie News & Opinions

Johnny Depp To Revive ‘The Night Stalker’

Leave a comment

As a child, there were a lot of shows that my mom watched that I had to suffer through whilst being in the same room: Columbo, Perry Mason, In the Heat of the Night and a whole slew of others. Normally I would have tried to understand what was going on in the court room during Perry Mason or wondered why Columbo always played dumb, but I would quickly lose interest and continue playing with my Transformers and He-man action figures. But one show that always caught my interest, and I still watch whenever it is on SyFy channel was Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Sure it looks cheesy as hell now, but some of the shit on that show used to scare me as a kid. I always thought about how cool it would be to be Carl Kolchak as he investigated cases that would run him afoul of creatures such as Zombies and Vampires. Plus he had a really awesome camera he always carried with him. (Even though with the shoulder strap it always looked like he was carrying a purse.)

johnny-depp1

Now, the late Darren McGavin (The dad from ‘A Christmas Story’) will pass the torch posthumously to none other than Johnny Depp. According to IGN, Depp will show more love to the 70’s by taking on the role of my favorite tabloid-supernatural-investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. Check out more below:

Deadline reports that Depp is reteaming with Disney (the studio behind his billion-dollar blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland) to bring the ABC series The Night Stalker to the big screen. The site claims “The Night Stalker will push the boundaries of the family film formula that Disney is following (under current management).”

Depp will produce via his Infinitum Nihil company and will star as tabloid reporter Carl Kolchak, a role first made famous by the late Darren McGavin. Kolchak’s intrepid investigations often entangled him with various ghouls and creatures of the night.

 

Now there might be those of you out there who are just plain sick and tired of seeing Depp in movies, but if that’s the case just ignore certain movies you know will suck such as The Tourist and Alice in Wonderland.

I think Depp will play the role of Carl Kolchak pretty well, which will be sort of a hybrid of his characters from the Secret Window and The Ninth Gate. Then again they may go a whole different direction with the story and the era it is set in, but personally I would like to see it take place in the 70’s when the TV show was released.

So are there any other fellow Night Stalkers out there who can’t wait for this movie to get underway? (Unfortunately there was no tentative release date) Anyone not liking Depp in the role?