Big 2006+ Movies

Update 2003-02-07: Latest reports have MI3 dropping back a year although Comingsoon still shows 2004.

Update 2005-01-28: Despite the huge success of the original TV series and two very profitable movies, this has been a very difficult project for Paramount Pictures; production has slipped time and again as high profile writers like Frank Darabont and Robert Townes tried and failed to come up with an acceptable script.

Several directors (David Fincher, Joe Carnahan, Brett Rattner) have also come and gone; JJ Abrams (Alias and Lost) will make his feature debut with this picture and his selection lead to the last delay, as he needed to finish this season’s TV commitment, though that also allowed Cruise to squeeze in Speilberg’s War of the Worlds first. Abrams also brought in his Alias writing partners Alex Kurtman and Robert Orci to put his stamp on the script.

Some big names have been added to the cast as well: Scarlett Johanson gets her first weapons training to play a former Special Ops commando; Kenneth Branagh takes a break from Shakespeare; Carrie-Anne Moss plays Tom’s lady friend; and, Ricky Gervais (creator and star of BBC comedy hit The Office), Justin Kirk (critically acclaimed for his featured role in HBO’s Angels in America) and Dame Eileen Atkins will take so-far unspecified roles.

Update 2003-10-03: John Lasseter will be directing the flick. The same John Lasseter who was responsible for the little-known animations Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and A Bug’s Life.

Update 2004-01-27: Some news on the voice talent: veteran race car drivers Paul Newman and Richard Petty plus Owen Wilson and Bonnie Hunt.

Basic storyline: a high octane adventure comedy that features a wide assortment of cars as characters who get their kicks on Route 66.

Update 2005-01-01: Pixar dropped the date to June, 2006, and this is the last film Steve Jobs’ crew will be releasing through Disney under the current contract though no news on Pixar’s plans for future films.

Update 2002-10-29: Anthony Hopkins confirmed for Jor-El by Rattner but no one for the title role yet.

Update 2003-03-20: Ratner, unable to agree with the studio on casting for the title role and unable to control a budget zooming past $200 million, has dropped out of the project; one can only think that finding a new director will likely push the release of this project out and may cause another round of script changes when the new man comes onboard.

Update 2003-10-21: Dropped release to 2005 as film is still not close to production, lead not cast, director not set.

Update 2004-02-07: Latest rumors have production starting in January, 2005, in Sydney with McG (both Charlie’s Angels films) directing. Also potential: Beyonce Knowles as Lois Lane and Johnny Depp as Lex Luthor. Release now looking no earlier than Summer 2006.

Update 2005-01-13: More of the cast is set: little-known Brandon Routh as the Big S, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, Kate Bosworth as the sweet Lois Lane, James Marsden as Lois’ fiance (and Luthor’s son?). Bryan Singer is finalized as the director and has brought X2: X-Men 2 scribes Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty with him.

Update 2005-01-31: Some casting news: Chun Yow Fat will be sporting a thick mustache and a goatee to play the famous 15th century Chinese pirate Cheung Po Tsai. Stellan Skarsgard, Naomie Harris, Alex Norton (British TV’s Taggart) are in as well. Location shooting will happen in June and July of 2005.

Update 2005-02-03: Some plot info: Johnny Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones, ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman, and if Jack can’t figure a way out he’ll be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation, according to ComingSoon.net.

Update 2004-02-05: Expect the release date to be pushed back significantly since George Lucas has rejected the latest draft of the script as written by Frank Darabont; scheduling problems, especially for Spielberg, are likely to delay production until at least well into 2005. Harrison, buddy, tick tock you’re not getting any younger!

Update 2005-01-01: Still no news on production or shooting script, not to mention whether or not Brosnan will return for one last go; lots of rumors about who may replace him but the most recent (and my favorite) is Colin Salmon, who is (very) English but not the same pale skin color as all past 007s.

Update 2005-02-02: It’s official. Pierce Brosnan will not return for a fifth performance; he himself posted the news to his personal website. He will, instead, be making a quite unnecessary sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair. British bookies are all but declaring that Dougray Scott will replace Brosnan as 007. The producers will almost surely continue the recent style of ultra-modern, hugely expensive and not nearly as good Bond films, though in this Movie Blog thread we discuss some very different and interesting rebirths for the franchise.

Update 2005-02-04: The film’s title–but not plot–has just been announced and though it should be familiar to you, I do not expect this to be similar in anyway to the first Bond film with this title. Though getting Woody Allen to play a (small) role would be great. Director will be Martin Campbell; he directed 1995’s GoldenEye, the one with Sean Beane and Famke Johnsson, the nasty Cossacks and climax at the Cuban telescope. The team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade will handle the script for the third consecutive time (Die Another Day, The World is Not Enough). Guess we can rule out any huge rethink of the franchise.

Update 2003-10-21: Production won’t start until mid-2004, release will not be until mid-2005.

Update 2005-01-01: Not a lot of news on the film actually getting casted, a scripted approved or a production start date. Who knows when, but I’ve changed the release year to 2006.

Update 2003-05-05: Release date sliding to 2006.

Update 2003-01-02: The mention of a release year is gone from the website, which is now just exposing a webified Powerpoint with 11 slides. Fincher’s own website has an April ’02 article claiming the film is in rewrites but he also has Mission: Impossible 3 to do first, and possible a sequel to Se7en.

Update 2003-05-05: Release date sliding to 2006.

Update 2005-01-13: David Duchovny had an interview the other day in which he said that this film is on track for release sometime in 2006, that Gillian Anderson will co-star, and the plot will be a standalone horror story that doesn’t tie into the alien invasion mythology.

Update 2005-02-03: Jack Nicholson has signed on to play an Irish gang boss, Damon will play a gangster who has infiltrated the Boston police department as part of its cadet class and has been steadily rising through the ranks, and DiCaprio will play a cop who’s been deep undercover inside the mob and is starting to come unglued. Each side works feverishly to flush the mole out, with deadly consequences.

Update 2005-03-22: Thomas Haden Church, who was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in Sideways, has been cast as Spidey’s new archenemy in the next chapter of the Spider-Man franchise but the name of his character hasn’t been revealed. Better than playing another Zen doofus like Lowell from Wings I’m sure.

No plot details yet though of course their may be some connection to Ludlum novel of the same name 😉 One wonders how much connection is possible, however, since the novel depicts a “final battle” between Bourne and Carlos the Jackal, his terrorist arch-rival, but this relationship hasn’t been mentioned at all in the previous movies. More likely, I think, is that the connection will be limited to the way Bourne is drawn out from a settled life lived under a new name with a family who know nothing of his past.

Update 2006-01-14: I expect this title to change before release. Don’t you? Bee Movie is too generic but then again this is Jerry Seinfeld.

Update 2005-01-01: Jamie Foxx is hotter than ever but this film no longer shows up in IMDB or other likely places, so I’m not sure when or if it’ll be made. Changing release year to 2007.