Andres Muschietti Directing 'Shadow of the Colossus', David Frankel Takes 'The Priority List', Morten Tyldum Helms 'Pattern Recognition'

Sony has been building an adaptation of their hit video game, Shadow of the Colossus, for the last five years and had Josh Trank (Chronicle, Fantastic Four) on board to direct since 2012. But he's far too busy for that now, and so Andres Muschietti (Mama) will take over. The classic Playstation game centers on a young man who must defeat 16 monstrous colossi to bring his dead lover back from the dead. [Deadline]

David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) has come aboard to direct The Priority List, with Jonathan Tropper (This is Where I Leave You) on board to write the script. Steve Carell is headlining the adaptation of David Menasche's life-affirming memoir about a cancer-stricken English professor who goes on a cross country journey reconnecting with all of the students he taught over 15 years. [Variety]

And Morten Tyldum, riding high on the positive festival reviews for The Imitation Game, has lined up his next project. The Scandinavian director is set to helm Pattern Recognition, based on sci-fi author William Gibson's book about a woman with a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols reacting to events following the 9/11 attacks. Consider me intrigued and this book added to my Kindle.

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'Snow White and the Huntsman' Sequel Director Shortlist Includes Gavin O'Connor, Frank Darabont, & Andy Muschietti

Despite the first moving only being memorable for the scandalous tryst between Kristen Stewart and director Rupert Sanders, Universal long ago decided to push forward on a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel. $400M worldwide apparently buys sequels to forgettable movies nowadays, and with Sanders definitely out (what's he been doing lately?) a handful of new contenders are being sought to replace him.

Deadline reports Gavin O'Connor, Frank Darabont, and Andres "Andy" Muschietti are on the short list to helm the fairy tale sequel, which will miss its proposed 2015 date and target 2016 instead. O'Connor last directed MMA flick Warrior and rode to the rescue on Jane Got a Gun, while Darabont pitched in on the Godzilla screenplay. The last film he directed was Stephen King adaptation, The Mist, which is campy and awful in all the best ways. Muschietti is the relatively new guy who made a splash with last year's surprise horror, Mama. He recently dropped out of directing The Mummy reboot so he may be looking for something to take its place.

Nobody's really begging for this movie to happen at all so don't be surprised if Universal takes their time trying to get it right. Besides, they'll have to wait until Chris Hemsworth is done swinging a hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron before he ever picks up his axe.

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Andres Muschietti Departs 'The Mummy' Reboot

So what's going on with people leaving unnecessary remakes lately? Yesterday came word that Gerard Butler had surfed out of the Point Break remake, and now today Universal's relaunch of The Mummy has lost director Andres Muschietti.

Muschietti, who directed the horror Mama starring Jessica Chastain, came aboard last year when Len Wiseman originally left the project. So what's the deal? Creative differences, apparently. as Universal wants it to be more of a family-friendly film while Muschietti aimed for something darker. When he signed on  it came at the expense of another film, Bird Box, and it's possible Muschietti will go back to directing that.

Producers Alex Kurtzman, Bob Orci, and writer Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) will presumably move ahead on The Mummy after a new director is found.  Personally, what little interest I had in this just took a nose dive. [TheWrap]

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Possible "Masters of the Universe' Directors Includes Rian Johnson and Joe Cornish

Michael Bay's Transformers movies have earned well over $2B at the box office, and the G.I. Joe films haven't done too shabby, either. So of course it makes sense that another popular 1980s toy property like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe would be a top studio priority. Jon Chu had been attached to direct a feature film for quite awhile before dropping out to focus on G.I. Joe 3, but now an even more interesting crop of directors have emerged as candidates.

According to the guys at Schmoes Know, that shortlist of directors includes Rian Johnson (Looper), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), Andy Muschietti (Mama), Kirk DeMicco & Chris Sanders (The Croods) and Phil Lord and Chris Miller of 21 Jump Street fame. Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean) is writing the script, and production is said to be "close to happening", although with a list this of directors this long that doesn't seem to be the case.

Obviously Johnson and Cornish are the two pearls here, and bring a sci-fi/fantasy background that should mesh well with Masters of the Universe. Although considering what Lord and Miller have been able to do with The Lego Movie, perhaps they've got an edge? Maybe they can scrap the whole live-action thing and do it all with action figures?

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'Mama' Director Andres Muschietti to Revive 'The Mummy'

If your hope was that Universal's reboot of The Mummy had gone to the sarcophagus in the sky after Len Wiseman bailed on it, then chances are you're going to pretty upset. Rather than letting it die, the studio has found a way to bring it back from an early grave, hiring Andres Muschietti to direct it.

Muschietti is coming off the $140M-grossing horror, Mama, which starred Jessica Chastain and did so well that franchise talk began almost immediately. He'll be taking on a much bigger project now, featuring a script by Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts that will bring the Mummy into a contemporary setting. Considering the last franchise managed to reel in over $1B with D-lister Brendan Fraser in the lead, Universal has good cause to put a lot of muscle behind this fresher take.

No casting has been revealed yet but expect that to change soon now that a director is in place. [THR]

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Four new clips from supernatural horror 'Mama' with Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain has proven herself to be above all else quite the cinematic chameleon. Although she's one of the more ubiquitous actresses working today, she's never come close to playing the same thing twice. The Debt is as different from The Tree of Life which is as far from Zero Dark Thirty as possible. With the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror, Mama, she takes another turn into unfamiliar territory.

Four new clips have arrived from the film, directed by Andrés Muschietti and co-starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau(Headhunters), which follows a couple who take in two extremely disturbed sisters  who had been abandoned by their mother five years prior. Their attempt to acclimate them to a new life goes awry with the arrival of a dark supernatural presence.

Will Mama unseat Texas Chainsaw as the top horror film of the month? We'll find out when it arrives on January 18th. [Collider]

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Jessica Chastain in talks to star in Guillermo Del Toro produced horror, Mama

Jessica Chastain, fresh off her luminous performance in The Tree of Life, is on quite a roll. In a couple of weeks she'll be one of the featured characters in The Help, the southern set drama starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis. She's great in that, by the way. Her indie apocalypse thriller, Take Shelter, has been generating a lot of buzz, and let's not forget her role in John Hillcoat's adaptation of The Wettest County in the World. There might not be a hotter actress right now, and to think a year ago I don't think I could've identified her in a police line-up. Her streak isn't quite over yet, it appears, as Variety reports she's entered talks to star in Mama, a genre film to be produced by Guillermo Del Toro(Hellboy).

Spanish filmmaker Andres Muschietti will write and direct, based on his own short story. It follows two young girls who are fleeing a ghost they believe to be their dead mother. No word on a start date for this one, but I'm sure more will follow soon.

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