Disney Sets 'Ghost in the Shell' with Scarlett Johansson for 2017

Relax, everybody. It's not the end of the world that Scarlett Johansson has taken the lead role in Disney's live-action adaptation of anime Ghost in the Shell. She's playing a friggin' cyborg so just chill out with all the "white-washing" chatter, okay? Besides, who knows what will happen in the two years you've got until the film comes out. Disney has now set the Rupert Sanders-directed film for release on April 14th 2017, a week after Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim 2.

What else? Disney has also bumped Jon Favreau's visual effects-heavy version of The Jungle Book back six weeks to April 15th 2016. That will give Favreau more time for post-production, and it allows Disney to move up Coast Guard drama The Finest Hours to October 9th 2015. The film stars Casey Affleck and Chris Pine and is based on a true story.

Finally, David Lowery's non-musical remake of Pete's Dragon will spring to life on August 12th 2016. The film stars Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Michael C. Hall, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Oona Lawrence. It centers on an orphan boy who befriends a giant imaginary dragon.

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Michael C. Hall joins 'Pete's Dragon'; Aubrey Plaza meets 'Dirty Grandpa'; Bruce Willis plots 'Bandits'

A non-musical remake of Disney's live-action/animated film Pete's Dragon may not seem like one that would demand a ton of talent around it but that's exactly what it's got. David Lowery's film already stars Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard, Wes Bentley, Oakes Fegley, and Oona Lawrence, and now you can add Dexter's Michael C. Hall. The film centers on an orphan boy who befriends a giant imaginary dragon. [Variety]

Last year Aubrey Plaza starred in the extremely raunchy comedy The To Do List, so she should be a perfect fit for a film titled Dirty Grandpa. She joins Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, and Zoey Deutch in the Dan Mazer-directed comedy about "an uptight twenty-something (Efron) who embarks on a road trip before his wedding to bond with his recently widowed grandfather (De Niro) only to find that his grandpa is a foul-mouthed lunatic on a mission to get laid during Spring Break." That sounds kind of great, actually. [Deadline]

Bruce Willis is finally bringing Elmore Leonard's book Bandits to the big screen. Years ago he had optioned the rights only to have it lapse and get picked up by Quentin Tarantino along with a bunch of other Leonardo novels. He, of course, ended up adapting Rum Punch into Jackie Brown while the other books again lapsed. Now Bandits is back in Willis' control and he's hired Mitch Glazer (Passion Play) to write the script. The dark comedy's complicated plot follows "Jack Delaney, an ex-con who is struggling to stay on the straight path as he dresses up corpses as a mortician in his brother’s funeral home. Things get much more exciting for him when he meets a gorgeous lapsed nun who is just back from Nicaragua where she took care of lepers and tried to keep the contras from hacking them up with machetes. She wants to smuggle a beautiful young Nicaraguan woman – who contracted leprosy–because the woman’s ex-lover, a Somoza-type colonel, wants to kill her for possibly infecting him. That same guy is raising millions from rich Americans to take back to the contras and the bored mortician finds his own cause, stiffing the colonel and getting away with a fortune with the help of the nun and an ex-cop." [Deadline]

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Wes Bentley joins 'Pete's Dragon'; Ansel Elgort Rejoins Chloe Moretz in 'November Criminals'

Last seen in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, Wes Bentley is now joining the cast of Disney's remake of Pete's Dragon. Written and directed by David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) with a cast that includes Robert Redford, Oona Lawrence, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Oakes Fegley, the film centers on a young orphan boy who befriends an imaginary dragon named Elliott. The original 1977 film was a musical live-action/animated hybrid, but this newer version will feature CGI and leave out the musical aspect. Bentley will be seen next in Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups. [TheWrap]

After appearing together in the Carrie remake, Ansel Elgort and Chloe Grace Moretz will be reunited in November Criminals. Directed by Sacha Gervasi (Hitchcock) and penned by Steven Knight based on Sam Munson's book, the film follows two teens who delve into the Washington, D.C. underbelly to solve a friend's murder. Moretz had been previously cast as Phoebe aka "Digger", best friend to Elgort's character, Addison Schact. Addison is a bit of a jerk in the book and I hope they don't round off his edges for the film.

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Matt Smith Joins 'Patient Zero'; Bryce Dallas Howard Eyes 'Pete's Dragon'; Martin Freeman does 'The Taliban Shuffle'

 Ex-Doctor Who star Matt Smith, who will be seen next year in Terminator: Genisys, is in talks to join Natalie Dormer in Patient Zero. Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky (Deadfall), the film takes place after a global pandemic creates a new species driven by violence. One human survivor immune to the disease and able to communicate with the infected must locate patient zero and find a cure to save his wife and all of humanity. [Deadline]

Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help) may join the Pete's Dragon remake written and directed by David Lowery (Ain't them Bodies Saints). The non-musical live-action/animated hybrid centers on an abused orphan who befriends an invisible dragon. Robert Redford, Oona Lawrence, and Oakes Fegley star, with Howard in talks to play a skeptical forest ranger. [THR]

Bilbo Baggins...er, Martin Freeman, will do The Taliban Shuffle with Tina Fey. Margot Robbie is also aboard the comedy film based on Kim Barker's memoir about her stint "as a fish-out-of-water in Kabul, filing stories about militants, being a woman in wartime Iraq and Pakistan, dealing with boredom interspersed with dashes of violence and the promiscuous war correspondent culture." Freeman would play Fey's love interest, a Scottish photojournalist. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (Crazy Stupid Love) are directing.

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Scarlett Johansson Offered 'Ghost in the Shell' Lead; Robert Redford Circles 'Pete's Dragon' Remake

With The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie looking more likely to join DC's Suicide Squad film, one other project she had been attached to has fallen by the wayside. She had been in talks to star in Dreamworks' live-action adaptation of the hit manga/anime, Ghost in the Shell, but now she's out and a reported $10M offer has been sent to Scarlett Johansson. The Avengers and Lucy star would make for a natural fit for the futuristic action flick in which she would play cybernetically-upgraded cop Motoko Kusanagi as she tries to stop a technological villain known as the Puppet Master. No word on if Johansson is interested of her busy Marvel schedule will stand in the way. Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is on board to direct.  [Deadline]

Meanwhile, Johansson's Captain America: The Winter Soldier co-star Robert Redford may tell some tall tales in Pete's Dragon. The veteran actor is in talks to join Disney's remake of the 1977 musical live-action/animation hybrid, which will be directed by Ain't Them Bodies Saints' David Lowery. This new version will drop the musical elements but maintain the basic story of a young boy named Pete (Oakes Fegley) who has an imaginary best friend named Elliot, who happens to be a giant dragon. Oona Lawrence will play Pete's human friend Natalie, while Redford would play a local who tells fantastical stories about dragons that nobody believes. [THR]

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David Lowery In Talks to Direct 'Pete's Dragon' Remake

David Lowery has been pretty busy since making a splash with his poetic crime drama, Ain't Them Bodies Saints. He's lined up a handful of writing and directing gigs, from sci-fi film To Be Two starring Casey Affleck; The Old Man and the Gun with Robert Redford; an adaptation of The Yellow Birds; and taking over David Fincher's Torso. But he also took on another project totally out of left field, as Disney hired him to co-write a remake of Pete's Dragon.

That job has only gotten bigger as Lowery is in talks to direct the film, according to The Wrap. Toby Halbrooks will co-write the story of a boy who flees his abusive foster parents with an invisible dragon. The original 1977 film was a live-action/animated musical, but the musical elements are expected to be dropped for this newer edition.

No word on where Lowery will slot Pete's Dragon in his busy schedule, but it'll be interesting to see how he performs on a much larger stage.

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'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' director to help remake 'Pete's Dragon'

You can count on there being at least one star-making turn out of Sundance where a filmmaker or actor proves their diversity. This year that breakout belonged to David Lowery, who directed one of the most well-received films of the festival with his Malick-esque western, Ain't Them Bodies Saints. He also edited Shane Carruth's Upstream Color and wrote a film that was part of Slamdance. So he was everywhere, and seems to have a bright future ahead of him. Disney must think so, too, as they've hired him to pen a new version of their 1977 family film, Pete's Dragon.

Lowery and writing partner Toby Halbrooks will reinvent the original, a live-action/animation hybrid about a boy who flees his abusive hillbilly parents with the magical dragon only he can see. Disney plans to drop the musical aspect, but that's all we know about it at this stage. Lowery doesn't look to be directing it, either, at least not at this point. Things could always change, and it wouldn't be surprising if Disney went that route. They recently hired unknown indie director Colin Trevorrow for a Flight of the Navigator remake.


Truth: As a child I learned to read largely thanks to Pete's Dragon. Besides watching the movie until the VHS tape wore out, there was a book version that came with a narrative album, so kids like me could follow along. So this is an important part of my childhood, and I'm curious to see where Lowery takes it.  As for Ain't Them Bodies Saints, it hits theaters in August, and you can check out my review of it here. [Deadline]

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