Captain Jack Sparrow will return for a fourth Pirates of the Carribean film, but it will cost Disney dearly.

The 44 year old actor is said to have accepted to return to the franchise for a whopping $38 million dollars. 

Neither Keira Knightly or Orlando Bloom are said to be returning (Disney probably can’t afford them now) although Geoffrey Rush is back to play Sparrow’s pseudo-nemesis Captain Barbossa.  Penelope Cruz is reported to be in talks to join as the new female lead.   No word yet on the un-dead monkey.

Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides should hit theatres in the summer of 2011

Tweet This Post

Did you see Conan last night? Shatner killed it.  It’s all in the delivery.  Perched on a stool with two jazz musicians behind him on bongo and bass, the Montreal native recited Levi Johnston’s Twitter musings on a variety of topics. The result?  Pure.  Comedy.  Gold.

“Maybe I’m a genius and not even know it.  Maybe I don’t exist and it only seems like I do.  Maybe this is a parallel universe where I don’t.  Anybody know where I can get some good weed?”

“What’s the deal with taxi drivers…  Not speaking English… is there a law against it?”

“Is it true that fat kids… never get kidnapped?”

“You know you’re a celebrity when strangers want to see your penis… L. M… A. O.”

Also great?  The camera cutting to Conan trying desperately not to lose it while this was all going down. This isn’t the first time the actor has done this either.  Sarah Palin’s tweets have gotten the full Shatner treatment on two seperate occasions.

Tweet This Post

Shocker!  A post about a vampire movie that isn’t about The Twilight Saga. Word’s out today that production has begun in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Let Me In, a remake based on the Swedish vampire film Latden Ratte Komma In (Let the Right One In).  Based on the best selling novel of the same name, the story revolves around an alienated young boy that befriends a mysterious girl who turns out to be a vampire.

Hammer Films acquired the rights to the original film which was shown to high acclaim at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.  Simon Oakes, President and CEO of Hammer Films released a statement in which he said ,  ”The brilliance of that story deserves to be seen by audiences on a wide scale and we are excited that the pieces are in place to make that a reality.”

The Americanized version will transplant the story from Sweden to New Mexico, and stars Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) as Owen (the boy), and Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer) as the vampire, Abby.  Rounding out the cast are Elias Koteas (Inglorious Basterds), Cara Bruno (The Sopranos), Sasha Barrese (The Hangover) and Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under).  The film is being directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and is scheduled for a late 2010 release.

It’s interesting to note that the original was only made last year, often, foreign films need to create a bit of word of mouth and “buzz” before someone decides to “Americanize” them for domestic audiences.  Maybe the producers decided to cash in while the current craze for all things vampire was still in full swing and before backlash by purists of the original film could gain momentum.

Tweet This Post

Embracing my not-so inner geek and fanboy (yet again) on this post, and have been looking for an excuse to post a picture of Taylor Lautner.  Spike TV threw their annual “Scream Awards” last night at the Geek Greek Theatre in LA, which celebrates the best in Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy and Comic based entertainment.  Awards shaped like stakes in a variety of categories were handed out to winners that fans had the opportunity to vote for online.  Naturally, some of the choices weren’t all that surprising, like Lautner, the 17 year old “Breakout Performance – Male”, from last year’s Twilight (and the upcoming New Moon), which went on to win another three awards in the “Fantasy” categories. The night’s other big winner was the Alan Ball vampire series True Blood, which got awards for Best TV Show, Best Horror Actor Male (Stephen Moyer), Best Horror Actor Female (Anna Paquin) and Best Villain (Alexander Skarsgard). 

Johnny Depp presented Keith Richards with the “Rock Immortal Award” to a standing ovation, and Quentin Tarantino paid tribute to Night of the Living Dead creator George A. Romero with the “Scream Mastermind Lifetime Achievement Award”.  Morgan Freeman presented the “Ultimate Scream Award” to Star Trek, which was accepted by William Shatner. “JJ, I’ll handle this, “ he told the director who won for helming the Star Trek reboot and was seated in the audience. “This movie was BIG.  Imagine how much big it could have been with me in it? I’ll be waiting for your call”.

The awards show will be edited to a 2 hour special to be shown on Oct 27th.

Tweet This Post

File this one under wishful thinking.  Bryan Singer, is rumoured to be in “talks” to helm the 4th X-menmovie.  Singer, who garnered attention with The Ususual Suspects in 1995 before going on to helm X-Men (2000) and X2:X-Men United (2003), caused an uproar when he bowed out of directing the third movie in favor of the visually  stunning but ultimately boring Superman Returns(Lex and his insane real estate plot again? Really?).  X3- The Last Stand which took on the Dark Phoenix story from the comics ended up being directed by Brett Ratner and was a colossal fluke.   It made money but was slammed by both fans of the film series and critics alike.  Now, after a summer that brought us X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a hot mess that was basically unnecessary (X2 covered Logan’s background or alluded to it, plenty), looks like Twentieth Century Fox wants someone behind the wheel that can deliver both a commercial and critical success.  Don’t know what form story-wise the next movie will take, a Magneto orgin story is rumoured (again, unnecessary) to be in the works, as is the Hellfire Club.  Personally, I’d like the Apocalypse story tackled on the big screen.  I think it has a lot of potential, provided the right cast and writers are involved.  More on this story as it develops.

Tweet This Post