Rumor has it, Christopher Nolan wants to film the third “Batman” film totally in the IMAX format he toyed with in “The Dark Knight.” As good as those certain scenes looked, we hate to admit the idea of having to watch long features on that wide screen doesn’t sound too appealing. Also, something tells us these “rumors” are premature as Nolan clearly has something else on his plate at the moment. [AICN] There’s also these new painfully retarded rumors that say Cher has been replaced as the Cat Woman in “Batman 3” because now Megan Fox has the role. Genius! Let’s divert your attention to this funny Movieline piece which cheekily tells you why this — and 95% of all other British tabloid stories — are total bullshit. But many people will print this garbage in full with attention-grabbing headlines and whatnot because ‘Dark Knight’-related news is good hit-bait (we mean the Fox story, the IMAX one doesn’t smell like total bullshit, just too early to probably to determine right now).
The Museum of Modern Art will holding a tribute to Spike Jonze that will be held October 8th thru 18th at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Included in the program will be a 5-minute exhibition of clips from his upcoming “Where The Wild Things Are” and most movies and video clips he’s directed or been involved with. [/Film]
IFC Films has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to Marco Bellocchio’s “Vincere,” which stars Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Mussolini’s first wife, Ida Dalser and Filippo Timi in a dual role as both Mussolini and his illegitimate son. “Vincere” will be playing at both the Toronto and New York film festivals and screened earlier this year in Cannes. It’s not a bad picture at at all and Mezzogiorno in particular puts in a great performance as the tormented wife. This is the 6th Cannes film IFC has picked up in what feels like the last three weeks on top of already acquiring, “Antichrist.” [THR]
Emile Hirsch has discussed Catherine Hardwicke’s upcoming “Haml3t” which he describes as “a modern-day younger adaptation of ‘Hamlet,’ in verse, molded to be almost like this supernatural horror movie. Where it’s not a horror-slasher movie, it’s like a suspense-horror. It’s almost like mixing ‘Hamlet’ with ‘The Shining’ a little bit and making this kind of scary/cool vision of the play.” Shooting will begin in October. [Collider]
Malcolm Spellman has been tapped by Warner Brothers to scribe a feature based on the classic TV show “Soul Train.” The adaptation will be set in the 1980’s when, a Spellman explains, “all of the hip-hop street dances you see today were born” and “remember doing all of them when I was a kid.” [Variety]
(Spoiler!) Despite getting a bullet in the head in the first film, Angelina Jolie is set to return in the potential sequel to “Wanted.” Director Timur Bekmambetov revealed that “there has to be a reason for her to come back and we know the reason.” Would that reason be that Universal desperately needs another hit? Apparently the conceit will involve that wax recovery bath featured in the first film. Talk about gimmicky. [MTV]
French filmmaker Luc Besson continues to frustrate those who want to see him direct and instead continues the role of producer and conceptualist (i.e., come up with a great idea for film, hand it off to someone else to realize). His Europcorp company has hired Michael Caleo to write “Volcano,” a cocaine-cartel film that centers on Pablo Escobar’s right hand man, perhaps because no one has seemed to be able to pull off a movie about Escobar himself so far despite many attempts. [Variety]
Award season buzz has unexpectedly grown for Michelle Monaghan after the trailer for “Trucker” was released. Seriously? Looks run-of-the-mill to us. Also, as Anne Thompson points out, the small indie behind it is really in no position to launch a proper Oscar campaign. [AwardsDaily]
If you want to see a new film directed by Luc Besson, you should know that he has just started filming an adaptation of the french comic series "Adèle Blanc-Sec" (so it should be released next year)…
I think its obvious that the Batman 3 rumors are just fodder. Christopher Nolan cares way too much about that franchise to compromise it in any way. That being said, I think no matter who the cast is, I trust Nolan to make another great Batman movie. As a die-hard fan of the comics I am very protective of the characters, but at the same time I know Nolan is probably twice as protective. Hopefully the studios will give him a lot of liberties and there won't be any disputes that result in a crappy movie, like spidey-3.
The IMAX thing I actually believe, because in a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff Nolan goes on and on about how much he loves it. Although, that could have just been shameless self-promotion to get people to buy the more expensive tickets.