Friday 22 October 2010

Official: Spielberg's next film will be...


Very exciting news broke from Deadline Hollywood today - Steven Spielberg has chosen his next film.

Deadline's Mike Fleming had the scoop that Spielberg will start shooting screenwriter Drew Goddard's adaptation of the Daniel H. Wilson's epic sci-fi novel Robopocalpse in January 2012. Disney's Touchstone will release the film in 2013 (I'm guessing in a prime summer slot).

According to the report, Spielberg has been tempted to film the novel since March last year, but due to the fact that the novel wasn't finished he put it on the backburner and concentrated his efforts on War Horse. That said, "Spielberg was so excited about it that it was already being storyboarded and designed as Wilson was turning in pages of the book and Goddard was translating them into the screenplay" Fleming reports.

Dreamworks have now confirmed the news with a press release:

Los Angeles, CASteven Spielberg is set to direct “Robopocalypse,” it was announced today by Mark Sourian and Holly Bario, Co-Presidents of Production for DreamWorks Studios. Based on the novel of the same name by Daniel H. Wilson, Spielberg will begin principal photography on the futuristic tale in January 2012. Disney’s Touchstone will distribute the film in 2013.

Exploring the fate of the human race following a robot uprising, “Robopocalypse” has been adapted for the screen by Drew Goddard.

DreamWorks acquired the rights to Wilson’s unpublished manuscript back in November 2009. Publishing rights were acquired by Doubleday and they plan to release the book in June 2011.

“’Robopocalypse’ embodies an imaginative story of a robot rebellion unleashed against the human race," said Mark Sourian. “This is a project we immediately sparked to and with Steven directing it we knew it was in the best possible hands to bring it to worldwide audiences.”

Robopocalypse has been a project that's been mentioned as a possible Spielberg directing gig since March last year and late last month the rumours started up again.

As far as Robopocalypse the novel is concerned, Deadline has this to say:
Doubleday will publish the book June, 2011. Wilson is hot stuff, in the kind of hi-tech sci-fi terrain that was the domain of Michael Crichton. His rep, Justin Manask, is preparing to shop his next book, AMP, which is a near-future science fiction thriller set in a world where the technology to make the disabled whole, turns them into supermen. That book will also be published by Doubleday, with 120 pages done so far. This one is being eyed for summer, 2012.

Robots are certainly terrain Spielberg has covered in the past with AI, but since that was a project originated by Stanley Kubrick and one Spielberg designed around production art that Kubrick created, I can't even imagine what he has in store.

Bring on summer 2013!

Keep checking back for updates as I get them...

Read Michael Fleming's full story here

Monday 18 October 2010

Spielberg + Bee Gees = Total BS



I don't quite know why I'm reporting this, but it's almost so crazy a rumour it's actually funny.
The UK's Daily Mail - easily one of the most disreputable tabloids in Britain - is reporting that Steven Spielberg is going to be making a movie based on the life story of The Bee Gees.

The only problem is, when you read the article it contains absolutely no facts to back up that statement.

The report, which is written as though the journalist has a source within the Spielberg camp ("The Oscar-winning director of ET believes the group’s journey from unknowns in Manchester to worldwide fame will prove box-office gold...") does have a quote from Bee Gee Robin Gibb, but even that has zero mention of Steven Spielberg.

"The movie is going to be done by some very important people," he says. "It will be our life story. Barry and I will be involved in the technical side."

So how the Daily Mail made the leap to Spielberg is anybody's guess.

Over the years Steven Spielberg has expressed an interest in doing a musical (before Hook, Spielberg's take on the Peter Pan story was to be a musical collaboration with Michael Jackson), but if this bizarre rumour ever comes true I will happily listen to the Bee Gees' back catalogue on repeat for 48 hours while being waterboarded.

Thursday 14 October 2010

War Horse pushed from August to December 2011

In a move that puts War Horse firmly in the race for Oscars, Dreamworks has decided to shift the Steven Spielberg-directed film's release date from August 12 to December 28, 2011.

What this means for moviegoers, in the USA at least, is that they'll be treated to TWO new Spielberg-directed films within the space of a week. That's because Tintin, the top secret motion-capture collaboration between Spielberg and Peter Jackson, is due for release in North America on December 23.

The decision came after Disney and Dreamworks executives were shown footage from the World War One epic,which is currently being shot in England, according to a report by Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

Dreamworks' Stacey Snider said: “The movie feels like a holiday movie. {Steven Spielberg) feels great about it. We feel great about it.”

Snider also goes on to say that War Horse, which is expected to be rated PG-13, shouldn't conflict too much with Sony/Paramount's Tintin. “We think there’s room for a couple of holiday movies during that season,” said Snider. “It’s a big market at that time of year.”

For Spielberg fans in Europe, Latin America and India they'll see The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn first, in late October and November 2011.