Charlie Hunnam to star in Escape From New York remake?

We haven’t heard anything about the proposed Escape From New York remake for a little while, but that could be about to change in the wake of some new casting rumours.



According to Starlog, Silver Pictures and StudioCanal are looking to secure a leading man to play Snake Plissken, with Charlie Hunnam currently sitting pretty at the top of their list.



Hunnam is reportedly the number one choice, although Jon Bernthal and Dan Stevens are also being considered as alternatives, given that Hunnam’s schedule could potentially pose a problem.



Meanwhile, the report claims that this new version of the film will see Snake accompanied by a gang of criminals in his attempts to save the President – they help him break the main man out of prison, and they get to keep their freedom into the bargain.



A director has yet to be appointed to the project, although with the casting process about to kick into gear, expect that to change within the coming weeks…

via Total Film

Guardians Of The Galaxy Stays Atop US Box Office

As Above, So Below is fourth on a sluggish holiday weekend

This summer is being labelled a disappointment at the American box office, down 15% from last year’s record breaker. Yet there remain some bright spots, including Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, which saw off new competition from a horror movie and Pierce Brosnan back in action, with Rocket Raccoon and the rest handily spending another weekend at the top of the charts.

Guardians, which is now officially the top grossing film in the US domestic charts, added $16.3 million this four-day Labor Day weekend for a $274.6 million running total. It’s also among the top movies worldwide, currently sitting in second after Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes for films still currently on release (Transformers: Age Of Extinction still rules the roost for the year so far.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles clung to second place, earning $11.7 million this weekend, with YA romance If I Stay sticking around in third for $9.2 million and a $29.82 million total in the States to date. They forced the first of the week’s new arrivals, subterranean thriller As Above, So Below to launch in a disappointing third place, with middling reviews not helping its chances. It made $8.3 million. Jake Johnson/Damon Wayans Jr. comedy Let’s Be Cops continues to be a surprising success, slipping just one place to fifth and adding $8.2 Million for a running total of $57.3 million from a $17 million budget.

Pierce Brosnan couldn’t drum up much excitement with his Bourne-style new action thriller The November Man. Despite the production company already talking up a sequel, the film arrived sixth for $7.6 million. Inspirational drama When The Game Stands Tall fell to seventh with $5.6 million, while The Giver was eighth, taking in $5.2 million. Finally, we have The Hundred-Foot Journey at ninth cooking up $4.6 million and The Expendables 3 sliding rapidly down the charts to 10th for $3.5 million. Sly and co. have earned $33.1 million so far in the US.

To see a group of space-going misfits take on all challengers in the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.

from Empire News

Lars Von Trier Plans The House That Jack Built

The Nymphomaniac director's headed back to TV

It has been 20 years since controversial Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier first haunted television with the spooky supernatural fantasy series The Kingdom, which ran between 1994 and 1997. Now, according to production company TrustNordisk, he has a new idea in the works called The House The Jack Built.

Originally announced by producer Louise Vesh at a Nymphomaniac screening/press conference at the Venice Film Festival (where the writer/director was briefly present, but only via computer screen), the series is being kept a secret for now, but will, according to Vesh, be quite something to see. “I’m happy to announce that the next Lars von Trier project will be a TV series in the English language,” Vesh told the press. “He has a really, really good idea which I cannot tell more about right now. He wants a huge cast and from what I heard I’m sure that it will be something that you have never seen before and you will definitely never see it again.”

TrustNordisk’s statement added that the mysterious series is something von Trier plans to start writing soon and aims to shoot in late 2016. So we’ll have to wait for his latest televisual baby, but if it’s in any way as weird and entertaining as The Kingdom, it’ll be worth it.

from Empire News

Michael Bay Drives To Cosmic Motors

Kyle Ward to adapt Daniel Simon's book

Whether or not Michael Bay ends up directing Transformers 5, high-concept sci-fi vehicles are clearly still a part of his future. He's currently in the process of setting up Cosmic Motors at Warner Bros.: a film based on Daniel Simon's book of lavish concept art. Kyle Ward, who wrote Machete Kills and the new Hitman movie Agent 47, has been tasked with creating the screenplay.{Cosmic Motors Book}

He'll also need to come up with a narrative on which to hang it, since Cosmic Motors in book form is more about concept than story. Simon has worked as a car designer for Lamborghini and Bugatti, as well as on projects like Tron: Uprising, Captain America: The First Avenger and Oblivion. His book imagines "spaceships, pods, race cars, giant trains, warships and balloons from various planets of the Galaxion system... from concept to completion" via sketches and 3D modelling.

There's already a universe in place: the text alongside the pictures alludes to racing syndicates, organised crime, and disasters happening during test flights, and evironments from streets to swamplands to ice plateaus. There are also potential characters in pilots and inventors like the Redua brothers and the Alfred & Dietmer Engineering Company. Ward has the ingredients: he now has to turn them into something delicious.

There's no director attached yet, but with Bay involved we might infer the potential for some explody crash carnage. There's no start date either, but if you want to know more, Cosmic Motors is published by Titan Books.

from Empire News

The Tick TV Series Could Return

Patrick Warburton set for Amazon pilot reboot

It only lasted nine episodes on TV back in 2001 and delivered paltry ratings, but for those who enjoy their comedies on the cult side, The Tick remains a fond memory. And it appears the show – including star Patrick Warburton – could be getting a second chance at life via Amazon.

Originally created by Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for a comic shop, the character evolved into an indie comic in 1988 before graduating to bigger things with an animated series that ran for three seasons starting in 1994. From there, it spawned the live-action series that featured Warburton as the good-natured parody of superheroes. David Burke played Arthur, his put-upon sidekick, while Liz Vassey was female hero Captain Liberty and Nestor Carbonell was Batmanuel who… look, you can work it out from the name, okay? Despite great reviews, the series was soon shut down even though the character continues to be hugely popular.

According to The Wrap – which confirmed a story first floated by People Magazine – Warburton has worked out a deal with rights holders Sony television to produce a pilot for Amazon, which commissions the shows then puts them on its streaming service and lets users vote on which they want to see go to series. People mentions that Edlund will also be back to oversee the show and we can only hope that Burke, Vassey and Carbonell will have the requisite schedule freedom to fill out the cast again. SPOON!

That sound you hear is Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion cowering in anticipation of a thousand questions about whether Firefly could receive the same treatment…

from Empire News

Dan Stevens And More Rumoured For Escape From New York Reboot

Charlie Hunnam and Jon Bernthal also on the wishlist

The idea to reboot John Carpenter’s action classic Escape From New York has been rumoured as active and then shoved back into turnaround for years, and Starlog is now reporting that Joel Silver’s production company is pushing ahead, with a rumoured casting wish list for the new Snake Plissken that includes Dan Stevens, Charlie Hunnam and Jon Bernthal.

This is one that has been strolling around the development compound for ages now, snarling at the gatekeepers and crushing cigarette butts beneath its booted feet. Silver, out stumping for Non-Stop earlier this year, likened some of the thinking on the current version to DC video game Arkham City, exploring how Manhattan became the prison we see in Carpenter’s 1981 movie. The idea right now is to feed elements of Snake’s background and the history of New York’s current state into the character via brief glimpses of Snake’s PTSD.

And according to Starlog’s sources – which must still be treated as unofficial and therefore firmly in rumour territory – the new treatment has for a long time had more of a team element than ever before, with Snake joined on his endeavours to rescue the stranded US president by Mina, a warzone journalist now living as a scavenger, Cabbie the schizophrenic travel guide (played by Ernest Borgnine in the Carpenter film), Gareth, the last survivor of the President’s security and The Brain, Plissken’s former partner-in-crime (a version of whom cropped up in the original played by Harry Dean Stanton).

Hunnam is reportedly the top choice, though he’s been filling his film plate up recently with the planned Pacific Rim sequel and a potential role in Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur adventure, which may make him unavailable. Stevens is set to have more of an impact after The Guest arrives and Bernthal, still best known for The Walking Dead, is also a strong contender.

It’s still early days for this take, and none of the details are solid yet. But it appears Silver Pictures is starting to look for a director to tackle what the producer is hoping will kick off a franchise.

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from Empire News

New Releases on Netflix - Need for Speed

When street racer Tobey Marshall puts the pedal to the metal in a wild cross-country event, revenge is top of mind. Fresh out of the slammer, Tobey is determined to take down the man who framed him for manslaughter.



from New Releases This Week