Thursday, September 30, 2010

News - From Around The Web

The biggest news of the week so far is that Robert "motion capture" Zemeckis is getting back into live action filmmaking!  Hurray!  Even better, he's doing it with a time travel movie!  Back To The Future is easily in my Top 5 of all time so this is, like, thrilling news.  If you want to jump in the Scriptshadow time machine, you can take a look at the original Back To The Future 2 script, which I reviewed a few months ago. Warner Brothers has picked the project up for high six figures, I believe, as a pitch.  Mike Thompson (Dragonfly) is writing it.  Warner Brothers must have robbed a casino recently since, as you know, they bought two specs last week, a big sci-fi script and a spy thriller. I'm loving it.

Proving that connections are awesome, Collider is reporting that Chris Pine, who, let's be honest, nailed the part of Captain Kirk in Star Trek, is running back into Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's arms, as he looks to have accepted the lead in "Welcome To People," Kurtzman's directing debut.  The script is not typical Kurtzman and Orci fare and looks to be more of a passion project.  It's about a guy who comes home to his father's funeral, only to learn that he has a sister he never knew existed.  I'm still looking for this script so if you have it, please send it my way!

Deadline Hollywood's reporting that the video game Myst and its sequels are finally being turned into movies.  On the one hand, I think Myst is one of the most cinematic video games ever and would probably make one of the best video-game adaptations in history.  Certainly a better choice than turning board games into movies.  But I seem to remember this being purchased for a film adaptation numerous times.  It's one of the highest selling video games ever and I remember loving the first one back in 1993, but there's obviously something preventing this from getting to the big screen.

Slash Film has brought up the title change to "I'm Mortal," Andrew Niccol's latest sci-fi escapade.  I reviewed his script "The Cross" a while back and must admit I didn't like it.  Niccol is sort of plagued by creating such a brilliant first film in Gattaca, and is still looking to recapture that greatness in my opinion.  I do have this script but I haven't mustered up enough excitement to read it because Niccol's work is so uneven.  Have you guys read it?  If so, what did you think?  Apparently it's about a future society where time is rationed, which sounds kinda neat if done right.  On the plus side, the film has some Mad Men love going for it, casting Vincent Kartheiser.

Finally, it's sort of a bittersweet moment here at Scriptshadow.  My review of The Social Network script a year ago doubled Scriptshadow's traffic in a single day, so it's going to be sad having to take it down from The Top 25.  The film is opening tomorrow. I don't know about you but I will be watching it this weekend AND reviewing it for you next week.  So go see it!  Also there's good news for The Social Network as I'm hearing the soundtrack is number one over at Amazon.  Really hope this movie does well.