J.J. Abrams' SUPER 8 trailer mysteriously appears

From ComingSoon.net:

"The teaser for J.J. Abrams' secret project Super 8, which is now playing in theaters with Iron Man 2, [is now online]. An official website for the Steven Spielberg-produced film is also now online at Super8-movie.com. The project starts shooting this fall for a summer 2011 release."



Gives off great vibes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

UPDATE:

From The Hollywood Reporter:

"What if Stephen King and J.K. Rowling brainstormed an idea together? Just how big would the potential audience be? Cosmic. Well, moviemaking heavyweights J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg began collaborating on a hush-hush project a year ago called Super 8 that they concocted from discussions of their own early filmmaking experiences. Despite Bad Robot's Cheney-level secrecy, bits and pieces about the project (some right, some wrong) started bubbling up last week. Abrams has written the original script and will direct the film this fall for a summer 2011 release through Paramount, where Bad Robot resides. Spielberg is producing the project, along with Abrams and his producing partner Bryan Burk. The film will be in the $45 million-$50 million range. It has nothing to do with Cloverfield and will be shot traditionally (i.e. not hand-held). It's potentially a huge movie for Paramount, despite its midrange budget, which is why it's got a slot during Paramount's already crowded 2011 summer slate.

The studio will have to fit it in with Thor, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom, Transformers III, [Captain America: The First Avenger].... And [Star Trek: Untitled Sequel] isn't expected until June 29, 2012, with an as-yet-unfinished screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof, so Abrams could still direct that after Super 8 if he chose (which, technically, he hasn't yet).

[The trailer is] 90 seconds long and plays out with utter simplicity. I'll leave it to others to ruin the surprises for the multitudes flocking to see it run in front of Iron Man 2's midnight screenings tonight (the trailer is not actually attached to the IM2 reels, though they are locked away together in combo-locked canisters as they're delivered this morning to theaters at 8 a.m.).
But it's straightforward, effective and very, very enticing. Abrams shot it independently of the actual film shoot about a month ago, and the Bad Robot team cut together the teaser while putting together his new NBC series 'Undercovers' and the trailer for their November release Morning Glory over the past month. In terms of tweaking audience appetite for absolutely having to see the movie, Abrams and Spielberg are masters. This quick, visceral and creepy tease of Super 8 certainly does the trick.

What it doesn't let anyone in on is the plot of the movie or the rest of the context that we had heard actually generated the idea. Namely, the possibility that a group of kids in 1979 are playing around making movies with their Super 8 cameras (as Abrams and Spielberg did as kids) and accidentally capture something ... sinister, on film.

Now, despite all our requests, Abrams and camp have refused to confirm anything about the plot. Abrams has said he doesn't want to comment on this -- he'd rather maintain the mystery and let the images speak for themselves. Fair enough, and certainly expected. So take all these plot descriptions you're reading around the web with a giant heap of salt. But the project is being produced by Amblin along with Bad Robot. So if you can imagine the supernatural styles of current BR and early '80s Spielberg combined, you should have a pretty good idea of where all this is going.

Bad Robot's first feature project, Cloverfield, was rolled out in a similarly out-of-nowhere fashion, its teaser also filmed and cut together independent of the movie shoot. That teaser was thrown on the front of Transformers when it hit theaters in the summer of 2007. That monster movie ultimately grossed $168 million worldwide for Paramount when it opened in January 2008. But again, Super 8 has nothing to do with Cloverfield. And Super 8 is a solo J.J. Abrams movie, something we've never seen before and something sure to play much bigger.

For added pleasure, if you want to get an explanation from Abrams himself about why he handles his creative life with such passionate protectiveness, check out this TED speech [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpjVgF5JDq8] he gave two years ago about the Mystery Box. As for Super 8, we're all gonna have to wait another year until that mysterious train pulls into the station."

I do highly encourage people to watch that TED speech (it's 18:03) - he's enormously funny (this guy needs a comedy), informative and has fantastic opinions on great movies.

Spielberg saddles up with WAR HORSE

From ComingSoon.net:

"Steven Spielberg has chosen to next direct War Horse. DreamWorks Pictures acquired the rights to Michael Morpurgo's World War I novel of the same name in December.

Scholastic describes the title as follows:

'In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey´s courage touches the soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the farmer's son he left behind. Will he ever see his true master again?'

The studio has set an August 10, 2011 release for the film."

This sounds interesting - almost Black Stallion in WWI. As long as we don't hear the horse's thoughts.

But in picking up War Horse, what has Spielberg dropped:

From MTV Movies Blog:

"Harvey
Spielberg was set to direct Harvey, a remake of the classic 1950 film starring Jimmy Stewart as a man with an invisible 6-foot-tall rabbit for his best friend. But in December, Spielberg backed away from the project after a year and a half of development. [He also almost cast Robert Downey Jr.]

Indiana Jones 5
From producer Frank Marshall to actor Shia LaBeouf, several Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull participants are expecting Spielberg to swing back into the adventure franchise — but Harrison Ford is still waiting on the script.

Lincoln
How could we forget Spielberg's proposed Abraham Lincoln biopic that would have seen Liam Neeson starring as the 16th President of the United States? The film has still not come to fruition, with the last update coming nearly two years ago.

Matt Helm
Last July, Spielberg's name was dropped in connection with Matt Helm, a spy thriller based on the secret agent novel series from Donald Hamilton. The project was always in doubt, however, due to tricky ties between Spielberg's DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures.

Pirate Latitudes
DreamWorks announced development of Pirate Latitudes last year, though it was unclear at the time whether or not Spielberg himself would direct the film. The movie is an adaptation of the late Michael Crichton's novel about piracy in the 17th century.

Robopocalypse
Cloverfield screenwriter Drew Goddard is adapting Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse about... well, just read the title and you'll have a good sense for the plot. Spielberg was mentioned as a possible director for the project just last month.

Untitled Gershwin Biopic
Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto was mentioned as a candidate to headline an untitled Gershwin biopic for Spielberg back in February. For all of you artless barbarians out there, George Gershwin is the man responsible for some of the most memorable Broadway shows of all time. Believe it."

Abrams & Spielberg team up!

From ComingSoon.net:

"Vulture reports that J.J. Abrams will next direct a project that will be 'both a tribute to and a collaboration with Steven Spielberg'. According to the site, the script is a 'a tip of the hat to [Spielberg's] movies of the 70's and early 80's'.


If the project moves forward, Abrams would direct from his own script starting early fall for Paramount Pictures.

The project reportedly 'will deal with everyday people whose personal relationships are tested when they are thrown up against extraordinarily fantastic - and possibly other-worldly - events.'

The movie is expected to have a low budget, but won't have shaky cam like Cloverfield."

Sounds great. Sounds wonderful. Especially if it reflects '70s-'80s Spielberg which combined mystery and wonder with a little bit of humor.


DON'T GIVE UP STAR TREK!!!!!

Shawn Levy talks more on REAL STEEL

From ComingSoon.net:

"While speaking exclusively to Shawn Levy about his new comedy Date Night, which stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey, the director told ComingSoon.net about his next project, Real Steel, the futuristic action movie he's directing for DreamWorks, scheduled for release on November 2011.

Based on a short story by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), it stars Hugh Jackman as an ex-fighter who becomes a promoter in a new form of Robot Boxing involving 2,000 pound cyborgs, but we haven't really learned too many other details for the look or feel of the movie. In our exclusive interview, we learned that the robots would be motion-captured, that boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard would be involved in the fight choreography and more.

ComingSoon.net: 'What's the vibe of the movie going to be? Will it be like the original Rollerball?'
Shawn Levy: It's like Rocky. It's basically a father/son drama set in the future. Hugh Jackman is a boxer, but in the 2020s, people have gotten bored with watching human fighters fight each other so they built robots to basically whale on each other for human spectacle. Hugh is a boxer. He can't do the only thing he was ever good at anymore. So he travels the United States buying and selling these robots looking for fights. Into his life comes the son he walked out on at birth. It's about a return to grace. It's about father, son and this robot they find in the junkyard getting a shot at redemption. It's my first non-comedy. It's big special effects. We're creating this pantheon of robots not based on toys, not based on comic books--based on nothing but our own animation. Steven Spielberg is executive producer, me directing and producing and it's really cool doing my first drama. It's very different. It's with Hugh Jackman who is an awesome guy.'

CS: 'Who else besides Hugh Jackman is in the film?'
Levy: 'Right now it's just Hugh and this kid we discovered out of Toronto named Dakota Goyo.'

CS: 'So the story is mostly centered on Hugh, Dakota and the robots?'
Levy: 'That's right. It's in the landscape of America and it's in the fight venues some of which are gritty underground robot fight clubs others are Madison Square Garden. It literally shows the journey from underground --no rules, everything is allowed vicious fights--and as they rise through the ranks they get a shot at a big time fight at a major venue.'

CS: 'Have you brought anyone in to consult or appear in the movie from the boxing world?'
Levy: 'Sugar Ray Leonard is our boxing consultant and he's done a lot with the choreography so I've been working a lot with Ray on these fights. It's been incredible because you work all day and then at lunch he tells you awesome stories of the glory years. Me and all the fighters are around the lunch table with our jaws on the table just listening to this legend share his stories.'

CS: 'What's the look of the movie going to be like?'
Levy: 'The look is gritty naturalistic. The robots are motion-captured, but the look of the movie is Training Day. It's gritty, natural, beautiful, but unvarnished.'

CS: 'You have such an extensive background in comedy so what's it like for you to transition into a movie like this?'
Levy: 'Honestly, I've kinda been loving it. I will be right back [in comedy]. I'm just stepping away from the table for a second. In all my movies, there's always a kind of heartfelt element, to be able to do a drama and to be able to spend more time in the emotional stuff with no pressure to get back to the funny that's very liberating for me. I'm also giving the movie a much grittier edgier look than I could ever give a comedy so I'm finding it really interesting. It's using muscles I haven't used ever as a professional. I'm finding it very, very stimulating.'

CS: 'Since Hugh Jackman is playing a boxer, does that mean he's getting into shape for the part?'
Levy: 'Yes, he's not in Wolverine shape because in the movie he hasn't boxed in 10 years. Hugh got super-shredded two months ago and we took a bunch of black and white vintage looking pictures of him fighting other fighters and those will be like vintage newspapers showing a sport that no longer exists. In the movie, he'll still be awesome looking and big, but not quite his Wolverine six pack and not quite in the shape he could be because this is a guy who lives out of his truck traveling the American landscape working out a living.'"

Steven Spielberg rises up through a ROBOPOCALYPSE

From ComingSoon.net:

"...Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, upcoming The Cabin in the Woods) has been hired to write the script for the adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse, which explores the fate of the human race following a robot uprising. The project is a serious candidate for Steven Spielberg's next directing job."

That's funny. He does a "good robot" movie, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and produces both Transformers films and now he's doing a movie where the robots are the clear bad guys? Maybe he'll make a better movie than Terminator Salvation.

Indy himself confirms story 5 is set!

From ComingSoon.net;

"Harrison Ford tells the BBC that there's a storyline for the fifth Indiana Jones film. The actor, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have come up with a rough outline for the follow-up to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

'Steven and George and I are sort of agreed on a germ of an idea and we're seeing what comes of it.'

He added that, despite coming up with an idea for the movie, people won't see the movie for some time.

'The process works like this,' he said. 'We come to some basic agreement and then George goes away for a long time and works on it. Then Steven and I get it in some form, some embryonic form. Then if we like it we start working with George on it and at some point down the line it's ready and we do it.'

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earned $786.6 million worldwide."

Steven Spielberg updates on TINTIN

From HeroComplex:

"Steven Spielberg says there was only one reason to make his new The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn with the cutting-edge performance-capture technology that James Cameron used on Avatar.

'It was based on my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could,' says the director, referring to Tintin’s author-illustrator, who created the international blockbuster graphic novel series (200 million copies in print) starring intrepid cub reporter Tintin, and his irrepressible canine companion, Snowy, as they venture through the pre-WWII world.

'Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe,' Spielberg said. 'It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You’d have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one.'

Tintin stars Jamie Bell (King Kong) as the title character, Andy Serkis (Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) as his buddy Captain Haddock, and Daniel Craig ('Bond. James Bond.') as the evil Red Rackham. Produced by Peter Jackson, with the animation done by Jackson’s Weta Workshop, the film is due in theaters in 2011.

Like Cameron, Spielberg shot the actors on a special performance-capture stage. The performers donned lycra suits, covered in reflective markers, and their every movement was tracked by more than 100 cameras. They also wore a head-rigging with a camera near their jawline that recorded intensely detailed data of their faces -- enough detail to avoid the 'dead eye' faces that had an unsettling lack of movement or emotion in many previous motion-capture films. Ultimately, all the camera data was fed into a computer to create a 3D replica of the actor. The digital document of the actor and the performance is so all-enveloping that the director, in this case Spielberg, can go back and change the 'camera' movement and orientation long after the actor has left the set.

For the director of such films as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List, the new experience was transporting.

'I just adored it,' he says. 'It made me more like a painter than ever before. I got a chance to do so many jobs that I don’t often do as a director. You get to paint with this device that puts you into a virtual world, and allows you to make your shots and block all the actors with a small hand-held device only three times as large as an Xbox game controller.'

With that small monitor, Spielberg could look down and watch what the actors were doing -- in real time -- on a screen that showed them in the film universe. Working on the motion-capture stage -- which is called the volume -- Spielberg was routinely dazzled by the liberating artistic value of the new science.

'When Captain Haddock runs across the volume, the cameras capture all the information of his physical and emotional moves,' the director said. 'So as Andy Serkis runs across the stage, there’s Captain Haddock on the monitor, in full anime, running along the streets of Belgium. Not only are the actors represented in real time, they enter into a three-dimensional world.'

So though Jamie Bell will be digitally made to look exactly like Hergé's classic renderings of Tintin, 'it will be Jamie Bell’s complete physical and emotional performance,' Spielberg said. He added: 'If Tintin makes you feel something, it’s Jamie Bell’s soul you’re sensing.'"

Can't wait!!

When Spielberg met Spock

From ComingSoon.net:

"Star Trek and 'Heroes' star Zachary Quinto will play famed composer and pianist George Gershwin in a biopic at DreamWorks Pictures, says Deadline Hollywood, which adds that it is one of three projects that Steven Spielberg is looking at to direct next.

The site says that the studio is supplying accent and dialogue coaches for Quinto, and shooting could begin as soon as April. Doug Wright wrote the script, and Marc Platt and singer/pianist Michael Feinstein are producing.

Gershwin, who passed away at the age of 38 in 1937, composed music for both Broadway and the classical concert hall, as well as popular songs. His compositions have been used in numerous films and on television."

One of those numerous films was Disney's Fantasia 2000.

Steven Spielberg no longer sees HARVEY

From ComingSoon.net:

"Steven Spielberg will no longer direct the Harvey remake at 20th Century Fox, reports Variety.

The studio was preparing an early 2010 start for the film, an adaptation of Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a man who befriends a six and a half foot tall invisible rabbit.

The trade says the project has been a challenge to pull together since Spielberg committed last August. One of the biggest challenges has been setting a star to play Elwood P. Dowd, the character played by James Stewart in the 1950 film. Spielberg's first choice was Tom Hanks, but he didn't want to take over a role played by Stewart. Spielberg and Fox also courted Robert Downey Jr. who never committed but did make suggestions on rewrites.

It it unknown what Spielberg may direct instead."

Well, here's a few options -

Interstellar (A space travel story about a group of explorers who travel through a wormhole into another dimension.)
Abraham Lincoln (a biopic of the 16th President of the United States, played by Liam Neeson)
The 39 Clues (The story revolves around the Cahills - the most powerful family the world has ever known - the source of whose power is a mystery that can only be unraveled by assembling 39 clues hidden around the world throughout history.)
The Adventures of Tintin 3 (somebody please convince Spielberg and Peter Jackson to do this movie TOGETHER!)
Indiana Jones V (the fifth adventure of the most famous adventurer in film history)
Jurassic Park IV (anything's possible, right?)

Hugh Jackman gets some STEEL

From ComingSoon.net:

"DreamWorks Pictures principals Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider have greenlit the Rocky-esque robot tale Real Steel starring Hugh Jackman. Filming will start in June.

The Shawn Levy-directed futuristic film, budgeted at about $80 million, is based on a short story by Richard Matheson that was adapted into an original 'Twilight Zone' episode.

Jackman will play an ex-fighter who becomes a promoter when human boxing is outlawed for being too violent. The new gladiators are 2,000-pound robots with human qualities. The ex-fighter's access to sub-standard robot parts hampers his hopes for glory in Robot Boxing, until he discovers a discarded robot that always seems to win. The ex-fighter has also discovered he's the father of a 13-year old son, and they bond as the robot brawls its way toward the top.

Levy describes the film as a 'rousing sports movie' with Jackman's character 'a former boxer who can no longer do the only job he's good at, and one particular robot that may be his return to grace.'"

Shawn Levy updates on REAL STEEL

From SciFiWire.com:

"Director Shawn Levy confirmed that Wolverine star Hugh Jackman is a front-runner to star in Real Steel, a sci-fi movie based on a story by Richard Matheson, which Levy describes as 'a father/son action drama set in the near future, surrounding the sport of robot boxing.'

In a world where robot boxing has replaced the human version, Jackman would play a Rocky-esque character looking for one last shot. 'Hugh Jackman plays a former boxer who can therefore no longer do the only thing he was ever good at and has to make his way in this new world,' Levy said in an exclusive interview Tuesday in Los Angeles....'It's faithful to the story in that that story was very much about a down-on-his-luck, slightly desperate journeyman who works in this robot boxing sport and who is desperately needing redemption and one last shot. The movie is more Rocky than Transformers.'

Levy has not cast the main character's son yet but has a good idea about the robots. 'They are most definitely not Transformers, not Terminators, definitely not WALL-Es, either,' Levy said. 'Unlike a lot of these others, these are human-built, human-scale fighting machines. They are built for human spectacle. People in this movie have gotten bored with human carnage and human violence. So in the quest for more, more, more, this sport has evolved to this.'

Producer Steven Spielberg offered the project to Levy, the director of such family fantasies and comedies as Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen. Levy saw Real Steel as an opportunity to stretch his muscles.

'When I sat down with Steven, I had a very, very specific vision of this movie, one that really puts the emphasis on the story and the sports-movie aspect as much as on the machinery,' Levy said. 'Real Steel is my first non-comedy. I will likely come back to comedy. It's certainly been very, very good to me. But like anyone who does anything, freshness and new experience is what keeps you interested. So when Steven called and said, 'Hey, you want to do this thing?' I was like, '[Heck] yeah, I'm looking for a different experience.'

Real Steel is due in 2011."

WON'T THERE AT LEAST BE SOME HUMOR?! Come on, Shawn, it's what you do best!! Anyways, still sounds good. If Steven Spielberg offers you a project, you'd best take it!

Steven Spielberg scared by PARANORMAL ACTIVITY?

From LatinoReview.com:


"This [past] week [saw] the release of Paranormal Activity, the brainchild of Oren Peli, who wrote and directed the low-budget horror film in 2006. The movie is shot with a minimalistic 'found footage' style and primarily focuses on the two stars, Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston, as they use the video to try and discover who, or what, is causing disturbances in their house.

DreamWorks originally acquired the movie after it showed at 2008's Slamdance so they could remake the film with a bigger budget. They held a screening for writers trying to gauge who would be interested in re-making the film, only to discover that the [original film was already adapt at scaring audiences even making some leave during the film].

Just how scary is Paranormal Activity? It scared Steven Spielberg so bad he was convinced his screening DVD copy was haunted:

It was early 2008, and the director's DreamWorks studio was trying to decide whether it wanted to be a part of the micro-budgeted supernatural thriller. As the story goes, Spielberg had taken a Paranormal Activity DVD to his Pacific Palisades estate, and not long after he watched it, the door to his empty bedroom inexplicably locked from the inside, forcing him to summon a locksmith.

While Spielberg didn't want the Paranormal Activity disc anywhere near his home -- he brought the movie back to DreamWorks in a garbage bag, colleagues say -- he very much shared his studio's enthusiasm for director Oren Peli's haunting story about the demonic invasion of a couple's suburban tract house. [The original ending was changed at the suggestion of Spielberg.]"
Okay, this movie must be the scariest thing to come out of Hollywood since The Exorcist. I'll admit, the first trailers I saw, I was like, 'How is this scary?' Because all it was was that stupid door opening and closing by itself. Anybody can pull that stunt off!

But seeing this trailer made me believe this thing may have some credible scares in it.

Shawn Levy is the man of STEEL

From ComingSoon.net:

"Action director Peter Berg, who had been talking with DreamWorks about taking on the studio's futuristic robot boxing movie Real Steel, has moved on, opening up the gig to Shawn Levy.

Levy is known for directing and producing broad, hit comedies such as the two Night at the Museum movies, which have grossed nearly $1 billion in worldwide box office. But the Steel story line takes place in a near future where human boxing has been outlawed, and heavy, humanoid robots slug it out in the ring instead. Into this world step a father and his estranged teenage son, who train an extraordinary fighter.

Levy's participation could mean a change in tone for the adventure project and/or a stretching of the creative muscles for the director, who has signed on with DreamWorks to take a swing at it.

'I'm thrilled to be working with Shawn on this project,' DreamWorks CEO and co-chair Stacey Snider said. 'He's a master of combining heart and human stories with fantastic visuals. I'm sure that in his capable hands, Real Steel will be a film that touches and excites all audiences."

John Gatins (Dreamer) is writing the most recent draft of the Real Steel screenplay.

Angry Films' Don Murphy and Susan Montford are producing. Steven Spielberg will exec produce along with ImageMovers' Jack Rapke, Robert Zemeckis and Steve Starkey. Levy also will serve in a producing capacity.

DreamWorks originally purchased the Dan Gilroy-penned spec in 2003 for ImageMovers to produce, and new Paramount Film Group president Adam Goodman developed it there as production president. Screenwriters Jeremy Leven (The Notebook) and Les Bohem (The Alamo) worked on the script as well.

The project was then among those that DreamWorks purchased from Paramount when it split from the studio last fall. In recent months, DreamWorks has been bustling with activity as it completed its multistrand financing deals with India's Reliance ADA and a syndication of banks.

Steel would be distributed by Disney.

The project began generating heat this summer when Berg (Hancock) started circling it. The director ultimately decided to concentrate on two Universal projects -- an adaptation of the Hasbro game Battleship and the Afghan war story Lone Survivor -- so Spielberg called Levy last week to ask if he were interested.

'Steven's passion for this project was absolutely infectious and I'm so excited to bring this story to life,' Levy said. 'In a movie filled with these mechanical warriors, at its core Real Steel is an incredibly human story.'

Levy is finishing up his latest comedy, Date Night, which Fox will release in April. He has a dozen other projects in development as a director and producer through his 21 Laps Entertainment banner."

Awesome!! The first major Disney movie from both Steven Spielberg and Shawn Levy, two of my directing heroes!! YAY!!

So is this like Rocky but with robots?

Robert Downey Jr. sees HARVEY?

From ComingSoon.net:

"In an article at Variety talking about how Steven Spielberg still wants to make his Abraham Lincoln biopic now that Robert Redford is starting The Conspirator, the trade mentions who may be Spielberg's choice to topline his Harvey remake:

Spielberg is presently focusing on his 'reimagining' of Harvey with Robert Downey Jr. possibly playing the man who sees an invisible rabbit.

Regarding the two Lincoln films, Redford's movie focuses on a young woman charged with conspiring to kill Lincoln, while Spielberg's project will focus on the president's anguish over the length and toll of the Civil War."

Wow! I really don't see Robert Downey Jr. as the next Jimmy Stewart but that doesn't mean I won't go see the movie!

As for Lincoln, is Liam Neeson still attached to play the 16th President?

From Jackson to Spielberg

From ComingSoon.net:

"IESB has posted an interesting scoop saying that Steven Spielberg is in talks to produce Halo: The Fall of Reach, screenwriter Stuart Beattie's adaptation of the Eric Nylund novel that is based on the series of video games. Here's an excerpt from their article:

'IESB has learned exclusively (believe me this is solid and I've confirmed it three times over with studio executives and our close ties to CAA) that one of the biggest producers in Hollywood history is currently in active negotiations to develop the feature film adaptation and no it's not Jerry Bruckheimer or Peter Jackson. It's the man behind Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones and Transformers, Mr. Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg is blown away by writer Stuart Beattie's take on the game in his script entitled Halo: The Fall of Reach. This coupled with the fact that his Dreamworks umbrella is looking for a big tent pole to help launch their newly independant studio with distribution over at Walt Disney Pictures after losing Transformers to Paramount in the separation, it's the perfect combination.'

20th Century Fox and Universal's previous attempt at bringing the game to the big screen fell apart. District 9 producer Peter Jackson and director Neill Blomkamp were attached to that version."

This sounds awesome!! Can't wait to see what Spielberg will bring to the project!! Spielberg is a self-professed fan of video games.

For more info on the book, visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_The_Fall_of_Reach

Steven Spielberg sees invisible rabbits!

From ComingSoon.net:

"Steven Spielberg will direct as his next film a contemporary adaptation of Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize winning play 'Harvey', a co-production between Twentieth Century Fox and DreamWorks Studios. The announcement was made today by Fox Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman and DreamWorks partners Stacey Snider and Spielberg.

Harvey is the first screenplay by the best-selling novelist Jonathan Tropper.

The film will be produced by Spielberg and Don Gregory, with Elizabeth Gabler and Carla Hacken overseeing the project for Fox 2000, which acquired the rights to the original play in 2008.

'I am very happy to be working again with my friend Tom Rothman who shepherded us through Minority Report, and with Elizabeth and Carla, who I'm looking forward to collaborating with,' said Spielberg. 'DreamWorks has experienced a creative and profitable relationship with Twentieth Century Fox in the past, and I look forward to renewing that time together.'

'Don Gregory entrusted us with these precious rights, Beth Gabler and Carla Hacken developed an exceptional screenplay and Jim and I had the easy part: Deciding to go first, before anyone else, to a filmmaker who combines the mastery of craft, tone, wit and insight that Harvey embodies," said Rothman. 'Steven Spielberg is film's greatest humanist. And we feel blessed as Elwood himself to be collaborating with him, Stacey, and everyone at DreamWorks.'

Harvey is the story of an amiable eccentric, Elwood P. Dowd, and his friendship with a six and a half feet tall invisible rabbit and how this affects every member of his family and his community. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, and played on Broadway for 1,775 performances between 1944 and 1949. It later was adapted for the 1950 Universal film that starred Jimmy Stewart and Josephine Hull.

Added Stacey Snider: 'This is a story relevant for all times, perhaps more so than ever before. We are so pleased to be able, with Fox, to be bringing this to today's audiences.'

Casting and pre-production will begin immediately with cameras turning right after the first of the year as a joint venture between the two studios."

Never thought I'd see the day when Steven Spielberg would do a remake. But I'm not worried. My big question is, who's gonna play the Jimmy Stewart role?

Here's the trailer to the Jimmy Stewart version:

HELM... MATT HELM

From ComingSoon.net:

"Variety is reporting that Steven Spielberg is seriously considering directing a movie about fictional secret agent Matt Helm, created by author Donald Hamilton. The film was developed for serveral years at DreamWorks before the studio left it behind at Paramount Pictures, which own the rights.

Spielberg's representatives told the trade that he is attached to produce, but it's unclear if he's going to direct. Spielberg is reportedly excited about he project again after the rewrite that Paul Attanasio delivered last week.

As Spielberg and Stacey Snider near the closing of their financing through Reliance and their new deal with Disney, they would like nothing more than to have those partners be a part of Spielberg's next picture. But Paramount isn't obligated to make that deal, and it's unclear whether the studio will step up to Spielberg's traditionally rich terms.

Matt Helm is based on a series of 27 novels about a government agent whose mission is to take down enemy agents. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing."

Could this be the sign of Steven Spielberg's version of James Bond that he's been wanting to do for years? In fact, in 1980, while George Lucas and he were sitting on a beach in Hawaii (trying to get away from the releases of their films) while waiting for the grosses to come in. Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind ended up with $303.79 million. Lucas's Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope ended up with $775,398,007. However, Lucas entered into a wager with long-time friend Steven Spielberg during the production of Close Encounters. Lucas was sure Close Encounters would outperform the yet-to-be-released Star Wars at the box office and bet 2.5% of the proceeds of each film against each other. Lucas lost the bet and to this day Spielberg is still receiving proceeds from the first of the Star Wars movies. After they both learned the early grosses, they changed the subject to their next projects. Spielberg confessed he was gonna try one more time to ask Albert Broccoli for permission to direct a James Bond film (he had constantly refused because no American has ever directed an official James Bond film). Lucas said that he had a character who was better than James Bond. The character was: Indiana Jones.

But, Spielberg - finish The Adventures of Tintin trilogy! We all want to see a movie directed by you and Peter Jackson!!

UPDATE: It seems as though Spielberg will not direct the film. For more info go to http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/07/30/spielberg-will-produce-not-direct-matt-helm/

TINTIN sets sail in 2011

From ComingSoon.net:

"Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced their release plans for the long awaited 3-D motion capture feature film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Kathleen Kennedy. The highly anticipated film will be released by Paramount in the U.S. on December 23, 2011.... Starring Jamie Bell (King Kong) as Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure, and Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace) as the nefarious Red Rackham, the international cast also includes Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures production from a screenplay by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, and is produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy. The film, which began production in late January 2009, is the first of a planned series of 3D motion capture films based on the iconic character created by Georges Remi, better known to the world by his pen name 'Herge.' Executive producers are Nick Rodwell, Stephane Sperry and Ken Kamins. The second feature in the series is scheduled to be directed by Jackson, with a potential for a third film as well.Eighty years ago, Herge introduced the world to a unique cast of characters who have been embraced by readers of all ages. 'The Adventures of Tintin' - a series of 24 books, the final unfinished adventure was published after Herge's death, became Herge's life's work. The first adventure was published in 1929. Over 200 million copies have been sold worldwide. The popular series has been translated into 70 languages and still attracts thousands of new fans each year. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will bring Herge's stories to life employing state-of-the-art performance capture technology developed by Jackson's Weta Digital."

2011? That's way too long for me!! I hope they put out official pictures or behind-the-scenes videos soon!

Steven Spielberg has a dream...

From IMDB.com:

"Steven Spielberg is to fulfil his longtime dream to bring the life of legendary civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. to the big screen - he has been granted permission to make a biopic by the King estate.

King, who was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 39, was a leading campaigner over equality for African-American citizens.

Spielberg's production company DreamWorks has won a long running battle to acquire the rights to the late activist's intellectual property - meaning the director will be able to use King's speeches, books and famous works which were copyrighted during his life.

The project is the first film to be authorised by the estate, which is controlled by King's son Dexter.

And Spielberg is delighted he will finally be able to bring the story to cinema audiences.

He tells Variety.com, 'We are all honoured that the King Estate is giving us the opportunity to tell the story of these defining, historic events. It is our hope that the creative power of film and the impact of Dr. King's life can combine to present a story of undeniable power that we can all be proud of.'"

PLEASE COME TO MEMPHIS, STEVEN! PLEASE!!

Maybe this is his next Color Purple.

Spielberg: "TRANSFORMERS 2 is awesome!"

From ComingSoon.net:

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen director Michael Bay says the film's executive producer, Steven Spielberg, thinks Bay's cut is "awesome" and that the new trailer will be released with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Bay posted the following on his message board:

'Steven Spielberg sat next to me in a big 100 person theater at Sony today. There were 98 empty seats. The lights came up after we just watched my cut of Revenge of the Fallen. He turned to me and said, 'It's awesome'. He felt this movie was better then the first - and probably my best, who knows - at this point in a movie you start to lose your objectivity. I just hope the fans like it. I'm going to start putting it in front of audiences in a few weeks - no you are not invited, yet.

We have 60 days left. Let me tell you it will be a race to finish. It's 12 at night and we are still working here in the edit room. Everyone at ILM and DD are killing themselves right now, they are doing a stellar job on the effects. We also just finished our trailer which is coming out with Wolverine. Talk to you soon.'"

"In related Spielberg news..." actually, the Tintin picture came first. I'm going down ComingSoon's archives for things I've missed.

Besides, how can Spielberg be wrong? (Don't mention 1941)