Kevin Tancharoen Directs 'The Guns of Christmas Past', Yaron Zilberman Adapts 'Sonata', and More

* Kevin Tancharoen's big claim to fame was in 2010 when he directed the awesome short film, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which led to the hit web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. But he's also directed some features including the Glee 3D concert movie and that terrible Fame remake from 2009. Remember that? Anyway, he's heading back to the big screen with a project that sounds kind of awesome. He'll direct The Guns of Christmas Past, which you might have figured is based very loosely on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The script by Andrew Hilton centers on a hitman on a mission to avenge a dead friend, but must defeat adversaries from his past, present, and future to do it.

* So things didn't quite work out for the last adaptation of an Orson Scott Card book with Ender's Game barely breaking even at the box office. But maybe the next time will work out better as Yaron Zilberman is set to adapt and direct Card's short story, Unaccompanied Sonata. Zilberman last directed the surprisingly good musical drama, A Late Quartet (review of that here if you missed it), and this film too will have a musical angle to it. Retitled simply Sonata, the film centers on a musical prodigy who is raised in isolation to prevent any outside influences on his compositions. Later in life he discovers the works of Bach, only to be caught by a "watcher" and forbidden from ever making music again. Sounds kind of creepy.

* Karyn Kusama has basically struck out on two her three major directorial efforts. Girlfight put her and Michelle Rodriguez on the map, but when she went big with Aeon Flux and Jennifer's Body things didn't turn out so well. Her next film sounds much smaller and perhaps more in her wheelhouse. Kusama has completed production on The Invitation, which stars Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere), Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones), Tammy Blanchard (Moneyball), Lindsay Burdge, and John Carroll Lynch. The script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Ride Along) centers on "Will, a haunted man attending a dinner party at the house he once called home who becomes gripped with paranoia that his ex-wife and her new husband are harboring an insidious agenda." [Deadline]

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Hugo's Asa Butterfield offered the lead role in Ender's Game

More than 25 years after Orson Scott Card released his seminal sci-fi novel, Ender's Game, the long gestating film adaptation is finally rounding into shape. In the works for nearly a decade, the project floundered under the guidance of Wolfgang Peterson. Multiple scripts, and Card's rigid view of how the film should go proved to be road blocks for awhile, but with the addition of Gavin Hood(Tsotsi) earlier this year to both write and direct, things appear to moving full steam ahead. So much so that it appears Hood has made his choice for the critical role of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin.

Deadline notes that an offer has been made to fast rising talent, Asa Butterfield, the star of Martin Scorsese's 3D adventure film, Hugo. After a small part in 2007's momentary hit, Son of Rambow, Butterfield has since shown his ability to work with some pretty heavy material as star of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. He'll need to bring his A-game if he's going to please fans who have helped keep Ender's Game so popular for the last two decades. Card's novel has led to multiple sequels, a video game, and a highly acclaimed series of Marvel comics.

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman(Star Trek) are producing, and the plan is clearly to turn this into another huge franchise that can compete with the similar(at least on the surface) The Hunger Games. Ender's Game is set in a future Earth where an intergalactic war with an invading alien force rages. Child soldiers are recruited and trained to become military commanders in the fight. The first novel in the series follows Ender's training in Battle School through the use of simulations and anti-gravity scenarios. Children being drafted to fight and kill must be in style now. How soon before somebody starts plotting to remake Battle Royale again?

Ender's Game has been set for a March 15th 2013 release.

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