Seth Gordon to Direct 'Queen of Hearts'; Marc Forster Helms Sci-Fi Flick 'Red Rising'

* Seth Gordon may have decided not to direct Horrible Bosses 2, but he's found more than enough ways to keep busy. Last night he was tapped to helm long-developing video game adaptation, Uncharted, and now he's agreed to direct Queen of Hearts, based on a Black List script by Stephanie Shannon. The story centers on author Lewis Carroll, and how a broken heart prompted him to write Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Expect this one to get some serious buzz as Disney develops the Alice In Wonderland sequel. This will likely be Gordon's next project after he wraps up Uncharted. [Deadline]

* Production troubles be damned, Marc Forster's World War Z defied the odds and banked more than $500M. And while he may not be coming back for the sequel (can't really blame him), Forster has landed another big-money gig. He'll direct Red Rising, a sci-fi thriller based on the first book in Pierce Brown's trilogy. Adapted by Brown himself, the story "takes place on desolate Mars, where the protagonist is caught in a class system that thrives on oppression and secrecy. He is a Red, the lowest member of society, born to toil in the bowels of the planet in service to the sovereign Golds. When Darrow suffers a devastating loss and betrayal he becomes a revolutionary, out to bring about social justice. Questions of fate, duality, and loyalty, evolve in a cruel test of war between the sons and daughters of the ruling elite." This one's still pretty early on as it's still looking for studio support, but Forster will develop it as his next project.

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New Clip from 'World War Z' Has Brad Pitt Fleeing the Undead

It's not often that Brad Pitt goes the blockbuster route, with only the Ocean's Eleven trilogy really fitting into that category. After all of the troubles he's had on World War Z, it may be awhile before he takes on another. Calling it the most expensive zombie movie of all time isn't just hyperbole, with some saying the film needs to earn north of $350M-$400M to earn a profit, and of course there are all of the rewrites, delays, and various production hang-ups that made this look like a cursed production. Early reviews have been relatively positive, though, and now a new clip has been released to show off more of the zombie action.

Pitt plays U.N. official Gerry Lane, who is called out of retirement to find a cure for the zombie outbreak that threatens the entire world. Mireille Enos (Gangster Squad) plays his wife, who is left behind to protect their children as Gerry sets off to save humanity. Before they can reach that point, they have to escape the undead right on their tail, and this clip shows them making a break for the nearest helicopter. It's an intense sequence, better than the badly staged action Marc Forster gave us in Quantum of Solace.

World War Z opens on June 21st.

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Zombies want Brad Pitt's brains in the first 'World War Z' trailer

Perhaps the best thing about Max Brooks' novel World War Z was that it wasn't a traditional zombie story in the least. In fact, the zombies don't appear all that often. The story takes place after the global war is long over, with a government rep traveling the world talking to the people crucial to humanity's ultimate survival. That meant most of the book was interviews with politicians, soldiers, doctors, and scientists, along the way making a bold and clear statement about our own willingness to put aside differences to defeat a singular threat. So when the zombies do appear, it's a pretty big deal. Sometimes the threat is extremely intimate, but other times they come in massive city-destroying floods.

After a troubling production process that saw massive delays, reshoots, and rewrites, the trailer for Marc Forster's adaptation of World War Z has been released, and it definitely has the look of a world-spanning, thrilling action flick. That's not exactly the tone of the book, though, so I'm preparing myself for the disappointment of watching Brad Pitt run away from messy CGI hordes of zombies. He plays beaurucrat Gerry Lane who must put an end to the zombie apocalypse in an attempt to not only save his family(including his wife played by Mireille Enos) but the world.

Not what I was hoping for, but there's something to be said about the epic scale the trailer presents. Co-starring Matthew Fox, Bryan Cranston, James Badge Dale and more, World War Z opens on June 21st 2013.....

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*UPDATE* It's Brad Pitt vs. zombies in the first 'World War Z' footage

*UPDATE* I've included the newly released teaser poster, which is basically just a logo. Kinda lame, really. *

"Brad Pitt vs. an army of zombies! Only one man can save the world"! Sometimes I think Entertainment Tonight has absolutely zero interest in the movies they hype, just the people starring in them. Anyone who has read Max Brooks' incredible novel, World War Z, knows that the central character Pitt plays is not trying to save the world, nor is he fighting an army of the undead. But who cares about that you can have the host breathlessly claiming the opposite?

Anyway, ET has dropped the first footage from the troubled, long-delayed film from Marc Forster(Machine Gun Preacher) that underwent a ton of reshoots and rewrites. It was originally intended to open next month, but all of the issues got it bumped down to June 21st 2013. Pitt stars as Gerry Lane, a U.N. bureaucrat who in the wake of a global zombie war travels the world interviewing key figures in the battle. As you'll see in the footage, he runs into a lot of trouble along the way, and the zombies are of the speedster 28 Days Later variety. No "walkers" in this bunch.

The book as it was written is so massive and features so many characters that some significant changes had to be made for the adaptation. Judging by the look it, we'll be getting more action and less analysis of the world's response to an extinction-level threat.

The full trailer lands on Thursday, but the below clip is pretty incredible. Check it out for yourself....

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Sure Shots: Marc Forster; '21 Jump Street'; Tom Hiddleston

*Universal apparently hasn't learned a thing about mashing up genres after the disastrous Cowboys & Aliens. The studio has pegged Marc Forster to direct Cowboy Ninja Viking, based on the comic by A.J. Lieberman Riley Rossmo. Written by Zombieland scribe Rhett Rheese and Paul Wernick, the story centers on a secret government program using multiple personality disorder patients as powered field agents. The story follows Duncan, who has a cowboy, viking, and ninja's attributes to draw from. Forster has gone from being the guy behind prestige films like Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, and Stranger than Fiction, to being a guy who gave us the terrible Quantum of Solace and awful Machine Gun Preacher. What the hell happened? [Deadline]

* Even though 21 Jump Street doesn't open until March 16th, the early buzz has been so good that Sony is already down for another helping. Jonah Hill revealed over the weekend that the sequel has gotten the greenlight and is being written right now. Presumably it'll be by him and Michael Bacall(Project X) again, but that hasn't been verified yet. That the studio has this much confidence is a good sign. [E!]

* Tom Hiddleston, Bella Heathcoate(In Time), Benjamin Walker(Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Lily Collins, and Jessica Brown Findlay(Downtown Abbey) are all circling the lead roles in Winter's Tale, the directorial debut by Hollywood super scribe Akiva Goldsman(The Da Vinci Code). Based on the fantasy novel by Mark Helprin, the story follows Irish immigrant Peter Blake, who falls in love with the terminally ill Beverly Penn while breaking into her home. Did I mention Peter has a guardian angel in the form of a flying white horse? There's even more craziness to be found, but the book was favorably received when it was published in 1983. Earlier this month we learned that Goldsman had called in a few old markers and got his buddies Will Smith and Russell Crowe to make appearances in the film.

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World War Z finally confirmed; Brad Pitt to star

It seems like World War Z has been through enough battles already to last a lifetime, starting with the somewhat contentious bidding war between Brad Pitt and Leondardo Dicaprio's production houses for the rights to adapt Max Brook's 2006 novel. Pitt won out, and further problems cropped up, mostly revolving around the script by J. Michael Straczynski(Babylon 5), and director Marc Forster(The Kite Runner). Straczynski's script was re-written by Matthew Carnahan, Forster was rumored to be out of a job. It's all been a big war of attrition, so to speak. Don't even get me started on the budgetary issues. That could  be another article in itself.

Now we're getting word straight from Comic-Con that production on the massively scaled zombie war flick is pushing ahead finally, with Brad Pitt set to star.  Hey, he bought it for a reason!

World War Z was a 2006 post-apocalyptic war novel, chronicling a massive global battle between humans and zombies. The story is told through a series of personal accounts, detailing individuals attempts to survive the zombie outbreak as well as the destruction that followed. The novel was praised for redefining and expanding on the work of George Romero and the zombie genre as a whole.

It's about friggin' time. At this point I'm just tired of hearing about the film, and want to see this huge project finally getting some feet under it. While the stuff I've heard about the original script made it sound like Straczynski had found a way to connect all these stories into a singular narrative, I haven't heard anything about Carnahan's take. So we'll just have to wait and see. This is still very good news.

You can read more of MTV's coverage of the story here.

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