Fox may tell story of Moses, 300-style
Variety reports that 20th Century Fox has acquired a pitch to tell the story of Moses and the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, “300″-style.
“300″ is the graphic novel by Frank Miller that became a film by Zack Snyder (”Watchmen”) and was a surprise hit, making more than $210 million domestically.
According to Variety, Peter Chernin will produce with Dylan Clark. The script will be written by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who are also adapting “Moby Dick” with a “graphic novel feel,” Variety reports.
The Moses movie would, like “300,” be made using extensive green screen.
- Matt Price
Singer may return to X-Men
Empire Online reports that Bryan Singer has met with Fox about possibly returning to the X-Men franchise.
“I’m still looking to possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it,” said Singer. “I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.”
That indicates that Singer may be more likely to return to an “X-Men 4″ with the original film X-Men versus taking the helm of a reboot or an “X-Men First Class” set in the early days of Xavier’s school.
Click past the cut to vote on whether you think Singer should return to the X-Men.
Monday movie quote challenge #48
“Don’t you realize? The next time you see sky, it’ll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it’ll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what’s right for them. Because it’s their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it’s our time. It’s our time down here.”
Identify who said the above quote in what film in the comments!
Venom writer named
The Hollywood Reporter indicates Gary Ross will write “Venom,” a Spider-Man spinoff for Columbia, and that he may also direct the film. Ross last directed 2003’s “Seabiscuit.” Ross wrote “Pleasantville” and the upcoming “Spider-Man 4.”
As fans of the comics know, Venom was Eddie Brock, a photographer for the Daily Bugle, who bonded with an alien parasite that used to be Spider-Man’s costume. (In the comics currently, that symbiote has bonded with the former villain the Scorpion, Mac Gargan, who is the new Venom.)
Topher Grace played Eddie Brock/Venom in Spider-Man 3. It’s not known at this time whether Grace would return to the role.
My take? Venom is OK in small doses, but do I want to watch a 2-hour movie focusing on him, without Spider-Man? I don’t, anyway, though some may. The best way to seemingly do a Venom movie is as some kind of crazy serial killer thing, and if you don’t have Spider-Man to stop him, what’s the point of that? But I’ve always found Venom (and Carnage for that matter) best in moderation, brought out every few years to jolt the Spider-Man titles. Still, his visual is pretty sweet.
Venom’s co-creator, Todd McFarlane, said something similar in an August interview with Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers.
“I don’t know if you can have a movie about a guy who goes out there and maims everybody and wins all the time,” McFarlane said. “I don’t know what their mindset is and how they can get there other than adding too much niceness to him, but we’ll see.”
- Matt Price
Michael Jackson’s This is It enters top pre-sales list
With three weeks to go before its release, “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” has entered MovieTickets.com’s all time Top 25 Advance Ticket Sellers list.
“This Is It” knocks “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” from the list.
Looking at the same point in the sales cycle, 17 days from release, MovieTickets.com reports “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” is on the heels of “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds,” the highest grossing concert film of all-time, which sits at No. 7 on the all-time pre-sales list.
See the full list after the break.
Monday movie quote challenge #47
“Come on. Do I look like the mother of the future? I mean, am I tough, organized? I can’t even balance my checkbook!”
Identify who said the above quote in what film in the comments!
Transformers 3 release date set
According to Deadline Hollywood, Michael Bay officially signed on to Transformers 3 today, and confirmed the film’s release date of July 1, 2011. 
Michael Bay even got in a small dig at one of his stars, Megan Fox, in his announcement on his site about the film.
“Megan Fox, welcome back,” Bay wrote. “I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture.”
Click past the cut for some recent pictures of Megan Fox promoting her recent film, “Jennifer’s Body.”
- Matt Price
Zombieland provides rules for surviving zombie attack
SAN DIEGO — The horror-comedy “Zombieland” looks at the world after a zombie invasion and two men who are doing everything they can to survive the aftermath.
The cast of “Zombieland” talked about the project at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
“It was high time I got offered a zombie movie,” said Woody Harrelson, who plays gun-toting zombie battler Tallahassee.
“I thought, this is probably going to be a silly movie, ‘Zombieland’? What?” he said. “And then reading it, I found it absolutely riveting. … Anyway, they wrote an amazing script, it’s a page-turner.”
“Zombieland” was conceived as a television pilot but was adapted to a feature film when it seemed it would be too expensive to realize on TV.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Tallahassee’s nerdy partner, Columbus. Columbus is a bit of a wimp with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
This prompts him to create a list — 47 rules of how to survive in Zombieland.
Along the way, Tallahassee and Columbus meet up with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).
“I was not as put off by the idea of it being a zombie movie, because I thought it would be kind of cool,” Stone said. “And then it was wonderful, and I learned I would get to shoot a gun. I went to a gun range a couple times and learned how to shoot a pump shotgun, so that was kind of nice.”
The shoot took place over 42 days in Georgia. While that’s not a long shoot, director Ruben Fleischer said it seemed long enough to him.
“I come from a low-budget, music video and short film background, so for me it seemed like a really long amount of time,” he told the Comic-Con crowd.
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Fans clamoring for Michael Jackson film
Michael Jackson fans arrive to buy tickets for the " Michael Jackson's This Is It" film, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. The film was produced from hundreds of hours of backstage footage of rehearsals last June. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Both MovieTickets.com and Fandango.com are reporting strong sales for Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” concert film, four weeks prior to its release on Oct. 28.
MovieTickets.com reports 550 sold-out performances, and reports that “This Is It” accounts for 69 percent of ticket sales on the site. Sixty-seven percent of poll respondents at MovieTickets.com said they were ready to see Michael Jackson on the big screen.
At Fandango, “This Is It” is outpacing the Hannah Montana 3D concert film by a factor of 3 to 1 at the same point in the sales cycle.
“Michael Jackson’s This Is It” was responsible for Fandango’s biggest Sunday pre-sales a full month prior to a film’s release date, according to a release from the site.
- Matt Price
Trailer for Nightmare on Elm Street remake
The trailer for the remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street,” with Jackie Earle Haley (”Watchmen,” “Bad News Bears”) as Freddy Krueger. Feel free to share your thoughts about the remake in the comments!
