Trendy Reel

 Now that the summer movie season is winding down, time to look forward to upcoming releases for the fall and winter.  The film releases for this part of the year have been changed numerous times over the past few months.  Burn After Reading staring George Clooney and Brad Pitt has been moved to Sept. 12^th. He’s Just Not That Into You staring a vary of stars like Ben Affleck and Scarlett Johansson has been changed twice already.  Originally scheduled for an August 1^st release, it was then changed to October 24^th.  Third times, the charm as it was again moved to February 6, 2009.  It will fair better there because the Dark Knight has been cancelling a lot of big budget movies out of the running and High School Musical: Senior Year set to hit theaters October 24^th wasn’t the best time either.  Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn’s Indie Management, has been removed from it’s September 19^th slot  to an unknown future date.  However, this film along with Burn After Reading may appear at the Toronto Film Festival in September.  The best selling vampire series Twilight is coming to the big screen December 12^th while the sixth installment of the wizard franchise, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince can be seen on November 21^st. See below for the film releases you can look forward to in the upcoming months.  One more thing, no more zombie (Quarantine) or hacking movies (Saw V) please.

September 5th 2008

Bangkok Dangerous~Lionsgate

September 12th 2008

Burn After Reading~Focus Features

Righteous Kill~Overture Films

Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys~Lionsgate

September 19th 2008

Ghost Town~Paramount Pictures

Igor~The Weinstein Company

September 26th 2008

Eagle Eye~Paramount Pictures

Miracle at St. Anna~Buena Vista Pictures

Blindness~Miramax Films

 October 3rd 2008

Beverly Hills Chihuahua~Touchstone Pictures

 The Express~Universal Pictures

 How to Lose Friends and Alienate People~MGM Pictures

October 10th 2008

Body of Lies~Warner Bros. Pictures

City of Ember~20th Century Fox

Quarantine~Screen Gems

October 17th 2008

Flash of Genius~Universal Pictures

Max Payne~20th Century Fox

The Secret Life of Bees~Fox Searchlight

Morning Light~Walt Disney Pictures,

October 24th 2008

Crossing Over~MGM Films

High School Musical 3: Senior Year~Buena Vista Pictures

Pride and Glory~New Line

Saw V~Lionsgate

Changeling~Warner Bros. Pictures

Passengers~Sony Pictures

Roadside Romeo~Walt Disney Pictures

October 31st 2008

Zack and Miri Make a Porno~MGM Films

November 7th 2008

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa~Paramount Pictures

Quantum of Solace~Paramount Pictures

Repo! The Genetic Opera~Lionsgate,

November 14th 2008

Australia~20th Century Fox

Nothing Like the Holidays~Overture Films

Role Models~Universal Pictures

Soul Men~Dimension Films

The Road~The Weinstein Company

November 21st 2008

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince~Warner Bros. Pictures

The Soloist~DreamWorks Pictures

November 26th 2008

Bolt~Touchstone Pictures

Four Christmases~Warner Bros. Pictures

The Transporter 3~Lionsgate,

December 5th 2008

Punisher: War Zone~Lionsgate,

Frost/Nixon~Universal Pictures

December 12th 2008

The Day the Earth Stood Still~20th Century Fox

Seven Pounds~Sony Pictures

Twilight~Summit Entertainment,

Doubt~The Weinstein Company

December 19th 2008

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button~Paramount Pictures

The Tale of Desperaux~Universal Pictures

Yes Man~Warner Bros. Pictures

December 25th 2008

Bedtime Stories~Touchstone Pictures

Hurricane Season~Universal Pictures

Marley and Me~20th Century Fox

Revolutionary Road~Paramount Vantage

“Hancock” director Peter Berg is spearheading a fresh take on Hercules for Universal.

Berg will produce and will develop to direct “Hercules: The Thracian Wars,” a co-production of Spyglass Entertainment, Berg’s Film 44 and Radical Pictures. Spyglass and Universal will co-finance the film.

Ryan Condal will write the script, based on a five-issue comicbook series by Steve Moore that debuted in May through Radical Publishing.

Spyglass’ Jonathan Glickman, Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber will produce with Berg and his Film 44 partner Sarah Aubrey, with Barry Levine producing for Radical. Jesse Berger will exec produce.

Levine said the creative partners came together because Glickman, Berg and Aubrey wanted to develop a film that stayed true to the comicbook.

“What resonated for them was that this was character driven, about a character who’s more man than god, with conflicts and redemption,” Levine said.

Radical’s the most recent company making an aggressive push for its comicbook properties in motion pictures. Radical Pictures is also teamed to produce “Caliber” with Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil and John Woo’s Lion Rock, with Woo attached to direct. The publishing company recently closed a funding deal through a privately held company called Lacho Calad, with coin coming from Singapore. The money includes a discretionary fund for script development of Radical comicbook properties.

Berg is also set to direct and produce a new version of the Frank Herbert sci-fi novel “Dune” for Paramount Pictures.

Variety

News hit today that The Exchange/Changeling directed by Clint Eastwood and staring Angelina Jolie has now an official release date of October 24th. Now what other movie is being released that same day? Oh yeah that’s right a little movie call High School Musical and *gasp* He’s Not That Into You staring Angelina’s arch gossip fodder rival Jennifer Aniston along with Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Jennifer Connelly among others. How smart is that of Universal to drum up some publicity for their film that to through more wood to the already big fire that is Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie. Maybe, just maybe, Warner Bros. who is now commendering the movie since they bought and dissolved it’s original distributor, got together to try to knock out that Disney juggernaut? So now all eyes are on which film will fare better on the box office charts. Us Weekly even has a poll asking. Who cares. Niether will be number uno that week as High School Musical 3: Senior Year hits theaters that same weekend. Disney will just laugh their way all the way to the bank. “What team? Wildcats!”

Below is the trailer He’s Just Not That Into You and a clip from The Exchange. HSM3 and The Exchange does not have trailers yet. All movies opening October 24, 2008.

HJNTIY

The Exchange

So what if there may be an actor’s strike in a few weeks, that is not stopping anyone from securing work. Condense list below:

Richard Dreyfuss is on his way to the White House via Oliver Stone.

Daniel Day-Lewis goes Musical. No not High School Musical.

Highlander is being remade to present time…somewhat.

Dreamworks Americanizes Japanese film Yomigaeri

Jake Gyllenhaal is the Prince of Persia.

On newsstands tomorrow, Entertainment Weekly is providing the first photos of Oliver Stone’s “W” staring Josh Brolin as George W. Bush and Elizibeth Banks as his wife Laura. This is Stone’s third film about a president. Remember the controversy of his JFK movie back in the 90s? I am sure this one will cause a stir. Can’t wait. You can catch “W” in theaters next year.

Let’s daydream back to 2003 when Captain America was announced to become a film and “Golden Boy” Brad Pitt was rumored to star? Ok snap out it. It’s 2008. Yes Captain America is still becoming a film, ( look for it in 2011. Yeah I know ) but with a new “Golden Boy”. Rumors are running rampant that Matthew McCounaghy (Fool’s Gold) is set to star as Mr. Captain America. I couldn’t see Brad in the role but I can see Matthew. It will be utterly entertaining to see any actor in the CA getup.

Here is the official movie poster.  HighSchool Musical 3:Senior Year is in theaters October 24th.

Both sides have decided to continue talks today and take the talks on a day to day basis until Tuesday, excluding Sunday. In other words, they will come together today, Saturday, and Monday. Time is running out as June 30th is approaching. Read more about it here.

However, actors/actresses are finding work. Mel Gibson is set to star in Edge of Darkness which would mark his return to the big screen. Also Renee Zwellger is set to produce the Lifetime movie Living Proof set to air on the network in October.

Lastly, Film excs. have let SAG know how they feel.

In a major step forward on “The Hobbit,” Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct the New Line-MGM tentpole and its sequel.

The widely expected announcement came Thursday afternoon jointly from exec producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich and Mary Parent, the newly named chief of MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and WETA production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel which will deal with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both pics are being co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM, with Warner Bros. distributing domestically and MGM handling international.

Variety

Monday and Tuesday saw the ax of a few hundred New Line employs in both New York and Los Angeles. What started as the small film studio being leafed under the bigger Warner Bros., ends as the total dissolvement of the studio. Not surprised. Warner Bros. will be in charge of all films that are scheduled to release this year. This concerns me as there were alot of promising films set to hit theaters from New Line and I wonder if Warner Bros. will care for these films as much as they do with their own original projects or will they just do whatever with them to get them out of the way. He’s Not That Into You is already feeling the affects. Life and Style is reporting that the August release date has been changed to October. Good sign or Bad sign?

Asked if it’s true that the release date of Jen’s film has been pushed back from Aug. 1 to Oct. 24, a New Line rep confirms to Life & Style, “That is the tentative new release date, though I don’t believe its 100 percent official yet. It’s definitely no longer August 1.”

Life and Style

Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants 2(Warner Bros.) is set to release August 8th and can’t have these two female audience driven films competing against each other can we. Seventeen Again staring Matthew Perry/Zac Efron went from a 2009 release date to an August 15, 2008 date a few months ago before the official announcement. Keep in mind the movie basically just wrapped. Also there were talks of changing Journey To the Center of the Earth starring Brendan Frasier from it’s July 11th release date because Bros. were thinking about it conflicting with their big budget movie The Dark Night. I am not even mentioning the numerous films New Line has in production or pre-production status. The fate of those films have yet to be seen including the much anticipated The Hobbit.

List of other New Line Releases for 2008

Four Christmases~ Vince Vaughn Reese Witherspoon 11/26

Sex and the City ~Sarah Jessica Parker Cynthia Nixon 5/30

The Time Traveler’s Wife ~Eric Bana Rachel McAdams 9/19

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay ~John Cho Kal Penn 4/25