Movie Make-out

“After Avatar, I want to do something a lot smaller,” James Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter yesterday, reiterating earlier comments in an extended interview with Variety a while back.

He’s considering following the mega-budgeted sci-fi epic with The Dive, “a true story about the romance between Cuban free diver Francisco ‘Pipin’ Ferreras and Frenchwoman Audrey Mestre. Under his guidance, Mestre became a free diver who broke several world records but died in 2002 while competing.” Ferraras was previously the subject of the IMAX documentary Ocean Men: Extreme Dive.

“It’s a drama, a love story,” Cameron explained. “This will require underwater photography, which will look gorgeous in 3-D.”

HR also breaks the news that Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof, Live Free or Die Hard) has been cast as Ramona Flowers opposite Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim in the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World done-in-one adaptation of the Bryan Lee O’Malley series. (More details about this project are in the earlier, related posts, as always.)

Finally, Cinematical has a questionable scoop: A source tells the site that Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt has turned in a draft for Spider-Man 4 and that “his story arc [encompasses] two films, making Spider-Man 5 shootable at the same time. The studio saw dollar signs and is in the process of reworking his deal to snatch up the story arc.”

“Shootable at the same time” and “will be shot at the same time” are not the same thing, and keep in mind that nobody and nobody from the original trilogy is yet attached to the project (for better or for worse).

Related posts: Jim Cameron talks the shit out of 3-D filmmaking; Exclusive: Scott Pilgrim’s Life isn’t Precious — or Little, either (updated again – 3/31); Michael Cera in talks to play Scott Pilgrim

Variety breaks the news that Jonathan English, whose debut feature Minotaur failed to land US distribution and snuck onto TV sets in 2006, has signed with Mythic International Entertainment to direct the $30 medieval action pic Ironclad, the story of “a small band of knights (in 13th century England) who defended Rochester Castle against the tyrant King John.”

This in and of itself wouldn’t be of much interest, but the cast pulled together by casting director Robyn Owen is, to say the least, very impressive: legendary director and sometime-actor Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park), Pete Postlethwaite (Last of the Mohicans, The Usual Suspects), Angus Macfadyen (Braveheart) and Colm Meaney (every Irish movie ever made) are attached, and James Purefoy and Paul Giamatti are in talks to play the lead knight and King John, respectively. Not too shabby!

Variety has learned that performance artist Miranda July has signed with France’s MK2 and the UK’s Film4 to write, direct and co-star in the $8 million Satisfaction, her first since her incredibly strange but beautiful debut, whose award-winning debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know won a Sundance special jury prize and the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2005.

Satisfaction is described as a “contempo romantic comedy” about a young couple: “Jason, goes off on an ecological mission; Sophie starts an affair with an older man. Both events threaten the relationship.” The two male roles (Jason and the older man) have yet to be cast.

The film will be shot in L.A. this summer, and is being shopped around for first-run U.S. rights.

It’s been off and on for the last several years, but, according to Variety, the Fraggle Rock movie has taken a big step towards lighting up the silver screen. The Weinstein Company has announced that they’re making Jim Henson’s series into a live-action musical feature film. Fraggle Rock will be written and directed by Hoodwinked! auteur Cory Edwards, with The Jim Henson Company producing.

The television series debuted on HBO in 1983 and lasted for 5 seasons, totalling 96 episodes. The film will feature Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red, and, one would assume, the Doozers. The Weinsteins have said there won’t be many changes to the original story, and that their plan is to “feature a broad range of family-friendly franchises,” including Fraggle Rock.

For those who may be unfortunate enough to be uninformed, Fraggle Rock is about a group of creatures, called Fraggles, who live underground and ‘”entertain and amuse while seriously exploring complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, environment, and social conflict.” The Jim Henson Company appears to be filling their plate, what with the recent addition of a new Muppets film to their upcoming film lineup.

It is worth noting that Variety has pulled the article, meaning the announcement may be inaccurate or premature, so don’t get your hopes up too much just yet. Nevermind — it’s back up now.

Related posts: Quick Cuts: Dune, An Education, Justice League, Muppets, Hobbit (updated); Quick Cuts: Brad Bird’s 1906, Segel and Stoller take on the Muppets, Fame; Jim Henson biopic slated for summer

The legendary Joe Dante has signed onto two feature film projects after a decade largely spent directing TV. (His last feature was 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and before that it was 1998’s Small Soldiers.) Variety has reported that Dante has signed with Parallel Zide and VooDoo Productions for Bat Out of Hell, while Shock Till You Drop scored the exclusive on his signing for The Hole.

Bat Out of Hell will be shot from a script by Drew McWeeny (a.k.a. AICN’S Moriarty) and Scott Swan about “a red-eye flight from L.A. to New York during which hijackers confront the monstrous cargo.”

The Hole is from a script by Mark L. Smith (Vacancy) and centers on a family “on the run from their past, who seek shelter in a house where an ominous hole is discovered in the basement.” The film is apparently targeting a PG-13 rating.

Dante’s daunting resumé includes the Roger Corman “classic” Piranha, the werewolf classic (no quotes, because it’s awesome) The Howling, Explorers, and The ‘burbs with Tom Hanks, but he’s probably best known for the Gremlins films and Small Soldiers. (I also have a soft place in my heart for Matinee, a love letter to 50’s B-movies featuring John Goodman.)

It’s not clear which of the two projects will head into production first.

For all the Witchblade fans still out there, Platinum Studios, Top Cow Productions and Arclight Films have announced a live-action feature adaptation of the popular comic book. The property, which started as a comic book and spawned a telepic and television series, revolves around the titular Witchblade, a bejewelled gauntlet which gives powers to a different, scantilly clad woman, chosen every generation. Arclight CEO Gary Hamilton tells Variety that the film begins shooting in September and will be “the cornerstone of our upcoming production and sales slate.

The Hollywood Reporter has word of an interesting new computer-animated feature in the works at Sparx Animation in Paris and Vietnam. Cereal Heroes is the story of “cartoon cereal box-mascots who are mistakenly brought to life when a plan to replace the world’s fallen superheroes with characters from comic books goes awry. They soon find themselves on the run in an unfamiliar world that only they can save from destruction.”  Kim Possible’s Stephen Silver is designing the characters, with the film seeing release in 2010. Sparx’s first feature, Igor, will be distributed by the Weinstein Company, though Cereal Heroes’ distribution remains undetermined.

And, in news of the completely absurd, UK-based Velvet Octopus has announced that it will be launching sales in Cannes for S. Darko, the sequel to Donnie Darko. Fox has already reserved the North American rights. According to Screen Daily, the film features Daveigh Price as Donnie’s younger sister, Samantha Darko, and picks up seven years after the first movie.  Samantha and her friend Corey are “now 18 and on a roadtrip to Los Angeles when they are plagued by bizarre visions.” Chris Fisher (Nightstalker), the film’s director, has said, “I am a great admirer of Richard Kelly’s film and hope to create a similar world of blurred fantasy and reality.” Though the producer’s have spoken to Kelly, he is not yet involved in the film. Velvet Octopus’ Simon Crowe also mentions, “I think there is a new generation of cinema-goers who will be very excited to see this film,” and “Donnie’s not in [the new film] but there are meteorites and rabbits.”

The full trailer for The X-Files: I Want to Believe (a.k.a. X-Files 2) is up courtesy IGN. (It’s available in some higher quality formats there.) I was never very much into the TV series, and I get a tired “let’s get the band back together” vibe from the “I need you on this with me” scene glimpsed in the trailer, but I’m sure fans of the show will be excited anyway.

The stand-alone (non-mythology-related) sequel is directed by series creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson (of course), with Xzibit, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Callum Keith Rennie and Adam Godley along for the ride. X-Files 2 opens July 25th.