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Drucker wrote:Biopic of the Kinks in the works, directed by Julien Temple.

No reason to think this will be good, right?

I'd say "Absolute Beginners" (not to mention Ray Davies' scene in that movie) would be one good reason.

Steve James (director of Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself) is shooting a documentary in my high school about race relations and the achievement gap. It's filming all year and he's turning it into a miniseries with no network signed on yet.

In Search of Fellini, a coming of age drama about a Fellini fan, co-written by Nancy Cartwright (best known as the voice of Bart Simpson).

Roland Joffe to helm The Archbishop and the Antichrist, with Forest Whitaker and Vince Vaughn

Mostly I'm surprised to learn that Roland Joffe is apparently still making movies.

Leo Carax is making his english language debut with an untitled film starring Rooney Mara and Adam Driver. Cannes 2017?

J.C. Chandor has two projects in the pipeline now. First is Triple Frontier, which previously had Kathryn Bigelow at the helm but didn't come together. He's also set to remake German crime drama The Robber

Lasse Halstrom's "A Dog's Purpose" is about a dog who realizes the meaning of his own existence through his own re-incarnation that puts him into the lives of many owners. The family film stars Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton, Britt Robertson, K.J. Apa, Juilet Rylance, Luke Kirby, John Ortiz and Pooch Hall. Releasing in January next year.

Something tells me this will not be very similar to My Life as a Dog.

Slightly off topic, but speaking of Hallsröm movies with the word 'Dog' in the title: I was looking through the imdb top 250 a while back, and there's a fairly recent Hallsröm/Richard Gere collaboration I'd never heard of called Haichi: A Dog's Tale on the list. I can't remember hearing about this when it came out (2009), but it must have made an impression on the imdb crowd. It's a remake of a Kaneto Shindô film, no less.

It's been in the IMDb Top 250 for a while.

Haichi: A Dog's Tale never received a theatrical release in the US, so it's easy to understand why anyone might not have heard of it. I've always been curious given that the story is excellent material for a weepie. Halstrom is also a directed I someone I want to like more. His filmography is wildly inconsistent but does contain a few very fine films (I think Once Around and The Hoax are very underrated).

Ribs wrote:Pooch Hall.

talk about being typecast.

I heard about Hachi in China, where it's probably more well-known than it is in the U.S. and where it's even among the top 20 on the local IMDb equivalents (Douban and Mtime). I won't claim to know what that proves about the Chinese filmgoing audience, other than that they don't hold Richard Gere's politics too strongly against him.

Michael B. Jordan to appear in new remake of The Thomas Crown Affair

Brilliant analysis by THR there:

The move is an example of Hollywood's new diversity thinking in action as the potential new movie would go from having white actors in its incarnations to non-white.

Good God, why does that movie keep getting remade. Am I the only one that finds it something that has no hope of being anything better than largely mediocre?

MGM studios really needs to get a stake in its heart already; their entire MO for existing is to remake their old properties.

cdnchris wrote:Good God, why does that movie keep getting remade. Am I the only one that finds it something that has no hope of being anything better than largely mediocre?

I like the McTiernan remake quite a bit, and would much rather see the sequel he penned while he was in prison than this remake. They were developing a sequel a few years earlier too, which was also a remake of Dassin's Topkapi, with Verhoeven in talks of directing.

An updated A Christmas Carol, a Freddie Mercury/Queen bio pic and Beetlejuice 2....The creativity is flowing.

domino harvey wrote:Tim Burton confirms Beetlejuice 2 has been greenlit with Keaton and Ryder starring

I can't think of any other sequel that has had as many announcements regarding its impending production as this one. As far back as 1990, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian was supposed to start filming with a Jonathan Gems screenplay. I'm guessing we're stuck with whatever Seth Grahame-Smith wrote, which, given his awful track record, is probably going to be an embarrassment for all involved.

FrauBlucher wrote:An updated A Christmas Carol, a Freddie Mercury/Queen bio pic and Beetlejuice 2....The creativity is flowing.

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FrauBlucher wrote:An updated A Christmas Carol, a Freddie Mercury/Queen bio pic and Beetlejuice 2....The creativity is flowing.

Yep. Even with Tom Stoppard writing, I fail to see the need for another retelling of A Christmas Carol. I think the Muppets and Richard Williams' animated versions are pretty much the definitive takes.

Actually, scratch Beetlejuice 2