Rupert Wyatt back Atop Shortlist to Direct 'Star Trek 3'

Paramount has found themselves in a bind in their efforts to find a Star Trek 3 director. The 50th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry's iconic sci-fi franchise is right around the corner in 2016 and right now nobody has taken the helm of this ship. Series co-writer Roberto Orci was going to make his directorial debut on the film and that questionable decision was rectified when he stepped down just days ago. But they still need a director, and now a shortlist of candidates has emerged, including one who was at the top of it some months ago.

According to Deadline, Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt is the frontrunner to direct Star Trek 3, a job he was up for back when the search first began.  Also on the Paramount's wishlist are Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), Justin Lin (Fast Five), and Daniel Espinosa (Safe House). They were also targeting Duncan Jones (Source Code) but he's since taken his name out of the running...

Very flattering being on short list for Star Trek, but won't be doing it. Absolutely MUST make my own thing next, or I'll die of old age!
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) December 15, 2014

Wyatt seems like a pretty good fit for a couple of reason. He's already had big franchise success, and his current film The Gambler is set up at Paramount. Makes sense. One name not on the list is Edgar Wright, who was rumored recently but appears to be out of the running.

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Ben Foster Spills Details On His 'Warcraft' Role

Video game movies used to be the armpit of Hollywood, but there was also a time when the same could be said of comic book films. With Need for Speed unlikely to have changed minds about adapting games for the screen it may be up to Duncan Jones' Warcraft to make an impression. The film certainly has the director to do it, and an impressive cast led by Ben Foster who spoke to IGN about his role in the sweeping fantasy epic...

Foster: "The character in Warcraft that I play is named Medivh. He’s a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer. He came up in a time protecting an area, and the way he protected this area was through magic. As peace returned to this land he took a break. He hung up his staff, so to speak, or let his guns get dusty. We meet him as his friends are returning asking for his help in a battle."

Worlds of Warcraft is a whole series of strategy RPG games without a straight-through narrative to follow. So figuring out a story angle was paramount, and Foster spoke about Jones' approach to doing just that...

Foster: "What's exciting about Duncan Jones' take on this video game is that it shows both sides of the war. It shows both sides of a conflict, which is exciting to me. It's not just a video game turned into a movie. It's asking, hopefully, an important question of, where do we limit our compassion for what we consider to be the bad guys?"

Although Foster's performance wasn't motion-capture, he still had very high praise for the visual effects done by ILM....

Foster: "The way that they're pushing motion-capture -- I just saw some of the test footage -- it's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's performance-capture. It pushes it to the next level. It's going to be one helluva 3D event."

Paula Patton, Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Dominic Cooper, Dennis Haysbert, Felicity Jones, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Clancy Brown, and Rob Kazinsky will star in Warcraft when it opens March 11th 2016.

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Colin Farrell and Paula Patton Eying Leads In Duncan Jones' 'Warcraft'

Long in development, with Sam Raimi once at the helm, the big screen version of best-selling video game Warcraft moved forward tremendously earlier this year when Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) took over directing duties. It fell out of view for months until Jones' big reveal of some "mood footage" at Comic-Con, and now with production set to finally begin in January, casting is getting underway.

Deadline reports that Paula Patton is negotiating for a lead role, while Colin Farrell is said to be "50/50" on whether he'll sign for another. There are others Jones will have testing out for the major parts in the sword 'n sorcery flick, which will be penned by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond). He has the unenviable task of turning the franchise's many different worlds and tones into a cohesive film combining medieval action, fantasy, and science fiction.

While there are no concrete character details, our friends at Bleeding Cool think Patton is up for a character named Lady Taria, described as the "King's Lady". Johnny Depp has been linked to a role since Jones came aboard, and that part may be that of Medivh, a wizard and defender of humankind against demons. Hopefully Depp would do more than just give us Jack Sparrow meets Gandalf. Or perhaps not, because audiences would likely eat that up with a spoon.

Right now it sounds like Patton is the surest thing, and we'll see about Farrell and Depp. Look for Warcraft to arrive during the crowded 2015.

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Duncan Jones meeting to discuss The Wolverine directing job?

Last week During the story regarding Hugh Jackman possibly replacing Viggo Mortensen in Snow White and the Huntress came a quick blurb about Jackman's delayed sequel, The Wolverine. He and Fox have been looking for a new director ever since Darren Aronofsky stepped down due to the heavy travel schedule. One of the names that was mentioned as a replacement was Source Code and Moon director, Duncan Jones.


Well now there's been some movement on it, as AICN received a message about a London Q & A Jones held where he mentions going to meet with Fox about the Wolverine gig. Now Jones has been developing his own original sic-fi film, described as being Blade Runner-esque, and Indications are that he's leaning towards that rather than taking on such a big studio gig, but he's taking the meeting basically to explore his options.

You never know what can happen, though. Personally I'm digging everything Jones is putting out there right now, and am far more interested in seeing what he can come up with next rather than doing a superhero film where his creativity could be minimized.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Trailer Time: Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhall and directed by Duncan Jones

A futuristic, high tech Groundhog Day? Sign me up. I give Jake  Gyllenhall a lot of shit for his puppy dog face and ill-fitting attempts at being a ladies man(all of which you'll see in abundance in Love and Other Drugs). In Source Code he's in pure action mode, as a soldier sent back in time in a continual 10 minute loop to try and figure out the source of a terrorist attack.

This is Duncan Jones's follow-up to Moon, last year's old school sci-fi flick that has made him an instant favorite. The script was written by Ben Ripley, but I'm expecting big things from this mainly because Billy Ray(State of Play, Breach, Shattered Glass) did some punching up on it. The guy hasn't written a bad flick in years. I wonder, since he's also adapting 24 for the big screen, if Billy Ray didn't toy with the idea of a Jack Bauer cameo. He seems like a natural fit.

Source Code stars Gyllenhall, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright, and Vera Farmiga. Look for it in theaters on April 15th, 2011. Check out the trailer below!

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes with a jolt to find himself on a commuter train heading into Chicago. Although the other passengers all seem to know him, he has absolutely no idea where – or even who – he is. The last thing Colter remembers is flying a helicopter mission in Iraq, but here he is in someone else’s life going through someone else’s morning commute. Before he can do anything an express train zooms by on the opposite track and a bomb explodes, seemingly killing Colter and all the other passengers. Colter comes to in an isolation chamber, strapped to a seat, and wearing his military flight suit. He still has no idea what’s happening, except that he’s being spoken to by mission controller Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who calmly recites a series of memory questions to which Colter is shocked to realize he knows the answers.


He learns he’s part of an operation called “Beleaguered Castle,” but before he can progress any further, Goodwin starts up the machinery and suddenly Colter is back on the train, at exactly the same time he first appeared there, once again speeding through Chicago with the same group of commuters. Colter figures he’s in some kind of simulation exercise, with his task being to find the bomber on board the train before it goes off again. Living the explosion over and over, Colter must uncover the identity of the bomber, while also figuring out what the alternative universe of “Beleaguered Castle” is. Adding to the puzzle, Colter uses the second chance opportunities to make peace with his father, and to find romance with a fellow passenger on the train.

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