Cloverfield and director Matt Reeves has just signed on to adapt the Ray Nelson short story Eight O’Clock in the Morning for Universal Studios. We previously saw Reeves adapt the wonderfully styled Let Me In, and this new feature will involve Matt writing and directing. The story served the basis for the John Carpenter film They Live, a movie about aliens having secretly infiltrated our world and are only visible through special glasses. However, it sounds like this film is going to be a stark departure from the over-the-top alien conspiracy we got in that feature. From the details in his interview, we’re going to be getting a cross of The Manchurian Candidate and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. As you may be aware, we are huge fans of Matt Reeves at Fanboyz.net, and have examined his last venture thoroughly. He has shown he can adapt a film and give the source material justice, so I cannot wait to see where he goes with this movie. Read more details about the new film below.

According to the interview, Matt explains that while the original film They Live explores aliens and crazy sunglasses, we won’t be getting any of that in his new work. “I saw an opportunity to do a movie that was very point-of-view driven, a psychological science fiction thriller that explores this guy’s nightmare,” he states. If I had to guess, we’re going to be seeing the film focus on the subliminal messaging used by the aliens in They Live, possibly by nefarious political cohorts. In the John Carpenter movie, the aliens have been hiding in plain sight, posting messages like “Conform” and “Obey” and the human population is either oblivious and effected or collaborating with the evil entities. He likens it to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, so I’m sure we’ll get some sequences of the antagonists coming after the hero, and he doesn’t know who to trust. After blowing onto the Hollywood scene with Cloverfield and following up with the underrated vampire flick Let Me In, I am excited to see where he’s going to go with this new project.

Anyone else a fan of Matt Reeves’ work? Let us know if this project interests you, or if you are a fan of the John Carpenter movie.

Source: Deadline

The term “Western” doesn’t come to mind when I think of Quentin Tarantino, but neither did “World War II” film. Rumblings around the web earlier this week were that the Inglourious Basterds director had his mind set on making his next film a western. Well, Deadline was able to to speak with Tarantino for a few minutes at a post-Oscar party where the man himself actually confirmed said rumblings.

Not only did he confirm the western, but he also let on that the script will be done in as early as two months. This is very fast for a director who has been known to take large amounts of time in preparation of a script. No title has been given yet, but it is being rumored that Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Green Hornet) will be a part of the project. I am a Tarantino fan to the bone and the idea of him making a western gives me goose bumps. I can’t wait to hear the casting announcements and see how Samuel L. Jackson could fit into this piece.

What do you think of a Quentin Tarantino Western? Post comments below.

Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy has been selected to direct the remake of Fantastic Voyage in which James Cameron is producing. Deadline is reporting that Levy will direct the remake of the 1966 classic film about a team of scientists who are shrunk into a ship in an attempt to save their colleague’s life. This high profile, big budget film has been in talks for sometime now with multiple directors interested in taking on the project. Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass were two directors once interested in taking on directing the film.

Fox is looking for a director with commercial appeal for this movie which I am assuming will be very family friendly seeing that Levy is the director behind Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen, and most recently Reel Steel.

The original Fantastic Voyage was released in 1966 and starred Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O’Brien, and was directed by Richard Fleischer.

Here is the plot synopsis for the original film:

Scientist Jan Benes, who knows the secret to keeping soldiers shrunken for an indefinite period, escapes from behind the Iron Curtain with the help of CIA agent Grant. While being transferred, their motorcade is attacked. Benes strikes his head, causing a blood clot to form in his brain. Grant is ordered to accompany a group of scientists as they are miniaturized. The crew has one hour to get in Benes’s brain, remove the clot and get out.

Oh, Kevin Smith. You just burned some major bridges this evening. News coming tonight from the Sundance Film Festival in Park CIty, Utah is that director Kevin Smith has opted not to distribute his new film Red State, and has instead chosen to take the film on a cross country style road trip and screen it to people who are willing to pay big bucks. Why is this newsworthy you may ask?

Here is the backstory:

For sometime now Smith has been tweeting, talking, and ultimately bullshitting everyone that he intended to auction off his new film Red State after he screened the movie at Sundance 2011. This evening he screened the film to a packed house of industry insiders, bloggers, and every media outlet you could possibly think of. After the film wrapped Smith held a Q&A sessions where he discussed the distribution of the film. Apparently Smith lied to everyone as the director had no intention to sell his movie. Instead he “auctioned” it off to himself for $20 and made the following announcement:

Smith has planned (obviously, for sometime now) to take the film on a cross country trip screening it in various cities and ultimately releasing the film under his own distribution company on October 19th 2011. This has angered many people and for good reason. Smith had promised that this film would be a major release and that whoever was willing to pay would win the rights to distribute the movie. Turns out he never planned on auctioning off the film and instead wants to screen it across the country charging fans $60-70 per ticket. That is a major burn to fans if you ask me.

In related news Smith has also announced that his next film titled Hit Somebody will be his last, as he plans to retire from film making.

So, why all the fuss about Kevin Smith opting to distribute his own movie? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is that Smith completely played everyone in attendance, and generally speaking, most audiences do not enjoy being duped. Also, Smith has taken the term egomaniac to new levels as this spectacle was clearly an act of self indulgence as he decided to “hype” his film in a manner that was rather unsettling to many. If you go check out various other movie websites you will read a range of reactions on this subject, but at this point it appears most writers are swearing off Smith, a director who once had alot of promise to be the next big thing. He was a fantastic writer who created interesting characters and dialogue. A guy who had passion for the craft of movie making. I guess all I want to know is….where did that guy go?

What do you think about Fincher taking on this project?

Source: LA Times – Hero Complex

Oh how news can completely change from one day to the next! We are hearing reports via The Playlist that Darren Aronofsky is eyeing ‘The Tiger’ as his next project with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the film. This is all new reports, as just two days ago we were reporting that the director of Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler would be taking on Wolverine 2 for Fox. There has been so much speculation as to what movie Aronofsky will direct next that I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything until we hear some confirmed reports.

What is The Tiger you may be asking? It is a non-fiction book by John Vaillant about the hunt for a man-eating tiger in Russia. The story takes place in 1997 and follows an animal activist who is forced to protect a small Siberian town from a tiger which is attacking its citizens. Guillermo Arriaga (Babel) has announced he will adapt the book for the screen with both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in mind for the lead roles.

If Aronofsky does take on The Tiger that would most likely mean Wolverine 2 is not going to happen under his direction. That also means Warner Brothers’ Tales from the Gangster Squad would need to find another director as both Aronofsky and Ben Affleck would have turned down the job. Supposedly The Tiger is aiming for a start date early next year but we will have to wait and see what other details emerge for this upcoming project. Stay tuned.

It has been quite the week for director news as we have reported that Zack Snyder will be directing the new Superman movie from producer Christopher Nolan and today we have news on Wolverine 2. Turn out that Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky has been offered to direct the next Wolverine movie according to Vulture. Aronofsky was also in the running for Superman but as we reported in August it looked like the Wolverine gig was between him and Twilight Eclipse director David Slade.

We have also learned that Warner Brothers has offered Aronofsky the chance to direct Tales from the Gangster Squad, a new crime drama that Ben Affleck was offered, but reportedly turned down the opportunity to direct. We have learned that Aronofsky was very interested in directing Man of Steel, but now that job has been filled, it looks like he may take on Wolverine 2. No word yet as to what film the director will take on next. But sources say Wolverine is the one he will most likely roll with.

What do you think about a director like Darren Aronofsky taking on a superhero film? My opinion: I wish he would have done the first Wolverine so we wouldn’t have had to endure that mess of a film. I like the direction that superhero movies are going lately with high profile directors making them bigger than life movies.

Stay tuned for more on this breaking news.

The Bourne franchise will live on even if it doesn’t have the original components that made it one of the best action franchises ever. Deadline is reporting that Tony Gilroy will replace Paul Greengrass as director of the fourth Bourne movie which is tentatively titled The Bourne Legacy. The kicker is that Matt Damon has already stated he will not return for the fourth movie, however Universal still plans to move ahead with the film.

Tony Gilroy isn’t a bad a choice to take on the fourth film in the popular franchise. He most recently directed Duplicity and Michael Clayton and he served as a writer on the first three Bourne movies. Without Greengrass and Damon this just doesn’t work as a Bourne movie for me. The Bourne Ultimatum from 2007 was one of the best action movies I have seen in many years.

What do you think about Gilroy taking over as director for the a fourth Bourne movie? Good, bad, or they should have just left it as a trilogy?

Source: Heat Vision

When it comes to M. Night Shyamalan, there are two things that run through people’s mind: what sort of crazy story/twist is he coming up with next, and “is that how you spell his name?” A lot of his haters tend to knock him on his original stories and endings, like LADY IN THE WATER and THE VILLAGE. However, he may win over some critics with this summer’s THE LAST AIRBENDER, the adaptation of the action cartoon he wrote and directed. Looking towards his next project, he has gone back to his usual secrecy. There’s a bit of news though, and some of it might excite fans of one of Shyamalan’s best movies, UNBREAKABLE.

The news is that Shyamalan has a script completed and shopping it around to top studio executives. While the details of the script are being kept secret, there are a few actors loosely attached to the movie, including Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow and Bruce Willis. While we do not know what the story is exactly, Willis said in an interview with MTV during promotion for COP OUT that he had spoken to Shyamalan over the holiday season and that they had an idea about having Willis’ character face Sam Jackson’s villainous Mr. Glass. He said they thought about taking the story further into the action genre since they set up the dramatic origin in the first film. Bruce also added he would be on board as long as Jackson is. With THE LAST AIRBENDER coming out in two weeks, Shyamalan may be feeling a bit generous to shed some light on the secret film. Does anyone out there want to see a sequel to UNBREAKABLE?

The directing duo that brought us such films as CRANK, CRANK 2 HIGH VOLTAGE and GAMER, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, are reportedly in early talks with Columbia Pictures to direct the new Ghost Rider project. This could be a sequel to the 2007  GHOST RIDER film, but there has been serious talk about rebooting the entire franchise altogether. Nic Cage still wants to be a part of the story and has been in tapped to reprise the role of Johnny Blaze. Right now, the working title for the film is GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGANCE and to me, that sounds like a reboot name.

Read more after the jump.

Anyone else think that this is a terrible idea? Me too. Sorry to the fans of the CRANK movies, but they were awful. I understand that they are not meant to be these amazing, well thought out stories, but the idea of a good Ghost Rider film needs to be. I hope that Columbia Pictures has some sense and has a good script in mind though, if they did than the first film would have been great. I know that it made a descent amount of money and the effects looked pretty good, but I’m going to need more bang for my buck if I’m going to watch another Ghost Rider pic. There is some fun action in the duo’s previous features, though I’m not so convinced of there ability to bring a good script to life. I wonder if someone at Columbia Pictures saw the end of CRANK 2 and was like “Wow! Jason Statham’s head caught on fire at the end! We should totally get these guys to direct our next Ghost Rider movie!”. I don’t know what a new Ghost Rider picture needs, but I’m not sure we need these guys. The details of the plot are being kept quiet, so stay tuned as we will bring you more news as it hits the web.

Am I being to hard? I’m just one fan, post comments below.

Source: Heat Vision