Could Russell Crowe star in another Master and Commander movie?

This might be the best news I've heard all day. The Associated Press announced that Russell Crowe is in the early stages of negotiations to play sea captain Jack Aubrey in a new Master and Commander film.

According to Crowe there are still negotiations taking place over the rights of the novels and the script will be based mainly on the eleventh book of the late Patrick O'Brian's 20 novel series - The Reverse of the Medal. All 20 books are set during the Napoleonic Wars. Apparently, the script has already been penned, but discussions are still at an early stage. The Reverse of the Medal, which was published in 1986, is partially set in the Caribbean (fingers crossed that they shoot somewhere near where I live).

I really loved the original Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and I've sort of been expecting (or maybe hoping for) another film. I admittedly didn't love it the first time I saw it in theaters, but I fell in love with it after I got to see it again. I've probably seen it six times by now, and hopefully Paul Bettany is cast because he was the best thing about the film. It has become one of my favorite films of 2003, and I think it's about time they made another one.

There is no word on when shooting begins.

Tudors creator to adapt Agincourt for the big screen

According to Empire, Michael Hirst, creator of The Tudors has signed on to adapt Bernard Cornwell's novel, Agincourt. The novel sold about 200,000 hardcover copies in the UK in its first three months of release and was on the New York Times beststeller list for four weeks.

The story focuses on young Nicholas Hook, an archer who fights beside Henry V in 1415 during the battle of Agincourt. The film is set to shoot the spring of 2011.

Considering that the budget is just $35 million I doubt they'll be able to cast a huge name for the lead role.

Links for you: Inception in London and what to do in a post-Potter era

The international trailer for Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is now online. Holmes purists beware. [The Movie Blog]

After nearly 8 years, we now only have two Harry Potter films left to go. What fantasy/kid friendly franchise could possibly take over and fill the void? [Obsessed with Film]

The WGA pays its respects to African-American trailblazer, writer, and TV legend, Judi Ann Mason. [Nikki Finke]

Christopher Nolan's Inception was shooting at University College London and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page were on set. [Nolan Fans]

The 61st Primetime Emmy nominations were announced today, and unlike some of the nominees who pretended not to know the announcements were today, I genuinely forget. I'd devote a whole post to them, but my television analysis is pretty bad.
Here's the good: love for The Flight of the Conchords, lots of nods for Mad Men, a nod for Dexter for Outstanding Series, a Lead Actress nod for Toni Collette, both Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange are nominated for Lead Actress for Grey Gardens, and a nod for Kristin Chenoweth (rest in peace, Pushing Daisies). And here's the downright criminal: an Outstanding Comedy nod for Family Guy, no Jeremy Piven nomination, not one nomination for True Blood, and there are no lead acting nominations for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Booo. [Awards Daily]

First photos of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow

There had been some very blurry images of Johansson in Iron Man 2 last night, but now we can all look at the high rez versions (via IESB and FirstShowing). Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke are featured on the front cover of Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con preview issue, but who gives a damn about those two when you can drool over Scarlett in a skin-tight outfit? Hotness aside, I still think she was woefully miscast.

More Iron Man 2 details from EW: On one side is Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a fast-talking weapons manufacturer who fancies himself the next Tony Stark; on the other, Vanko, who, while incarcerated in a Russian prison, creates his own battle-suit, which shoots devastating, whip-like beams. Hammer and Whiplash join forces to take down Downey’s character, Tony Stark. Rourke, for his part, wanted to instill some lightness into the role of the heavy. "I told Favreau, 'I don't want to just play him as a one-dimensional pussy,'" he says. "He let me have a cockatoo, who I talk to and get drunk with while I’m making my suit."[via FirstShowing]

You can check out more of the Entertainment Weekly Iron Man 2 exclusive at EW.

Is this The Year of Matt Damon?

David Poland over at MCN (via In Contention) has written a column about the effect 10 best picture nominees might have on the Oscar race. Because the field will be so large, it'll be much harder to figure out what voter trends are this year. One of the trends he does give us could be the Matt Damon trend:

It could, I guess, be The Year of Matt Damon, who has Invictus, The Informer!, the animated Miyazaki film, Ponyo, and maybe even Green Zone coming out.

I think most film buffs knew that Damon had at least two films that were set for release this year. But when you combine the above mentioned titles with the news from back in March that Margaret might also be released (or not) in 2009, then we get a total of 5 Matt Damon films in one year (well, 6 if you count Che: Part 2). And they'll all be crammed in the second half of the year. So, how promising are these films anyway?


Margaret
Cast: Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo
Synopsis: A young woman (Paquin) witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives. [IMDb]

Margaret is looking like it might never be released, though there was finally some news about it this year. Originally wrapped in 2005, there haven't been major announcements on this film in years. I was a teenager when this thing was completed. Word is that the project was incredibly long and director Kenneth Lonergan couldn't get a cut he liked that was under 150 minutes. Then there was the court drama. Earlier in the year Nico Muhly was hired to score the film which means that someone out there gives a damn about it. And we're still talking about it, which I guess, is good for any actor.


The Informant!
Cast: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale
Release Date: October 9, 2009
Synopsis: Based on a true story, The Informant! focuses on Mark Whitacre (Damon), the vice president of Archer Daniels Midland, who blows the whistle on his company's price-fixing.

It seems easy to predict how this might turn out, at least commercially. Steven Soderbergh films (unless they are of the Ocean's variety) don't exactly set the box office on fire. Neither do dark comedies based on true stories. Critically we'll know how good this is by September once it screens at the Toronto International Film Festival.


Invictus
Cast: Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman
Release Date: December 11, 2009
Synopsis: A look at life for Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa during his first term as president when campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen. [IMDb]

This is by far the most blatant piece of Oscar-bait of 2009. If it doesn't deliver in a big way, then it's doomed. Even though I have my own personal doubts - especially given how Hollywood has portrayed Africa in the past - I'm still looking forward to this project mostly because I'm interested in watching Damon's performance. Just how good or bad will his accent be?


Ponyo
Cast: Matt Damon, Tina Fey
Release Date: August 14, 2009
Synopsis: Ponyo, is about a 5-year-old boy and a goldfish princess in a world gone awry. [The New York Times]

Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated film will likely be his most commercially successful one in the United States. Disney, which owns the distribution rights, is trying to get the film into 800 theaters and promote it on the Disney Channel.


Green Zone
Cast: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson
Release Date: sometime in the fall
Synopsis: Based on the 2006 non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Green Zone is a thriller that takes place in Iraq's Green Zone prior to the US surge.

There is still no official release date, but most people are banking on a fall release since director Paul Greengrass completed the film earlier this year. It would be really great though, if Universal gave us a release date. Based on the track record of Iraq War films I expect this to do badly at the box office. Most Iraq War films are pretty awful with the exception of The Hurt Locker which I liked, but didn't love. A lot of people claim Iraq War films do badly because nobody wants to deal with the subject matter. I think they do badly because they're either badly made or boring (yes, even war films have to be engaging). If there's a team that can change that track record it's Damon and Greengrass.


It looks like Matt Damon may have a great year. Maybe even the best one of his career. He could get an Oscar nomination for Invictus or Green Zone, or hell, maybe for both. And since Oscar doesn't do comedy, maybe there will be a Golden Globe nomination for The Informant!.

Or, he could have a supremely shitty year. Like the kind Jude Law had in 2004. It looked like it would turn out great, at first. Even though some of the films weren't that good (Alfie, I'm looking at you) at least the worst of them was visually stunning (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). I Heart Huckabees, The Aviator, and Closer were all critical successes, but the praise and the awards nominations all went to Law's co-stars. He over saturated the market and it backfired. Has anybody cared about his films post-2004? Can you name a single film he's been in since 2004? Here's a hint: he's been in 5. Matt Damon could face a similar fate even if his films are good.

We'll just have to wait and see if this turns into a good year or bad year. Or if anyone notices or cares at all. In September we will get our first real clues.

More films added to the TIFF 2009 lineup

This is sort of old news by now, but I can't not discuss it. Creation will open the 34th Toronto Film Festival on September 10. The Charles Darwin biopic stars Paul Bettany and his real-life wife Jennifer Connelly. This will be the first time that a non-Canadian film will open the festival.

"We have traditionally opened with a Canadian film, but this year we chose to go a different route. We fell in love with this movie and this is the one, we felt, really sets the tone for the kinds of conversations we hope will happen around the films at the festival," TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey told reporters on Tuesday. [CBC News]

Aside from Creation, there are a few films set to screen in Toronto that I've been looking forward to:

Jane Campion's Bright Star with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw.
Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! starring Matt Damon. The trailer was released about a two weeks ago.
Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass starring Edward Norton as twin brothers. I've been waiting ages for this film to see the light of day.
Neil Jordan's Ondine starring Colin Farrell.
Niki Caro's The Vintner's Luck starring Gaspard Ulliel.
Lee Daniels' Sundance winner Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. This film goes without saying at this point.

The festival will make more lineup announcements every Tuesday until August 18 with the last roundup being on August 20. The festival closes on September 19. Below is the lineup that was released this morning.

• The Boys are Back, Scott Hicks (Australia/U.K.).
• Bright Star, Jane Campion (U.K./Australia).
• City of Life and Death, Lu Chuan (China).
• Cracks, Jordan Scott (Ireland).
• Hadewijch, Bruno Dumont (France).
• The Informant, Steven Soderbergh (U.S.).
• The Invention of Lying, Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson (U.S.).
• Leaves of Grass, Tim Blake Nelson (U.S.).
• London River, Rachid Bouchareb (U.K./France/Algeria).
• Mao's Last Dance, Bruce Beresford (Australia/U.S./China).
• Moloch Tropical, Raoul Peck (Haiti/France).
• Mother, Bong Joon-ho (South Korea).
• Ondine, Neil Jordan (Ireland/U.S.).
• Partir, Catherine Corsini (France).
• Scheherazade Tell Me a Story, Yousry Nasrallah (Egypt).
• Solitary Man, Brian Koppelman and David Levien (U.S.)
• Valhalla Rising, Nicolas Vinding Refn (Denmark/U.K.).
• Vengeance, Johnnie To (Hong Kong/France).
• The Vintner's Luck, Niki Caro (New Zealand/France).

Links for you: Christian Bale looking emaciated and Denzel Washington gets the hell off Unstoppable?

Emily Blunt will join Matt Damon in sci-fi love story The Adjustment Bureau. Damon will play a congressman while Blunt will play a ballet dancer. [THR]

An Education now has a poster. It's nothing special, but Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan look flawless on it. [In Contention]

Get your first look at an incredibly thin Christian Bale on the set of The Fighter. He isn't as thin as he was for The Machinist, but he still looks downright frightening, and the thinned hair doesn't help either. It's probably good for his career, but I can't imagine this being good for his health. [Awards Daily]

Henry Cavill is the unluckiest bastard in Hollywood. He could have starred in Harry Potter, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, the post-Brosnan Bond films, and Twilight. [The Playlist]

Nathaniel gives us his 10 best films of the year so far. [Film Experience]

Yesterday, it looked like Denzel Washington left Unstoppable because of budget problems and a delayed scheduled. It looks like he might reconsider now that Fox has made a different offer. [Cinematical]

Ioan Gruffudd has been cast in Banking on Mr. Toad, as British writer Kenneth Grahame, who is best known for The Wind in the Willows. [Empire]

Kerry Washington has been doing some press for her transsexual role in Life is Hot in Cracktown. Check out some of her interviews. [TransGriot]

What the hell is Inception about anyway? [The Playlist]

TCM Summer Under the Stars 2009 schedule

TCM's Summer Under the Stars is back with its annual tribute to stars from Hollywood's Golden Era. TCM is dedicating the entire month of August to Summer Under the Stars and each day will showcase a movie star for 24 hours.

There are 17 actors who have never been featured before including James Coburn, Marion Davies, Dirk Bogarde, Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame, Ida Lupino, Yul Brynner, Gene Hackman, Red Skelton, Frederic March, James Mason, Harold Lloyd, Jean Arthur, Miriam Hopkins, and Merle Oberon.

I've posted the list (via ONTD!) of the movie stars being honored this year below:

Aug. 1 - Henry Fonda
Aug. 2 - James Mason
Aug. 3 - Marion Davies
Aug. 4 - James Coburn
Aug. 5 - Harold Lloyd
Aug. 6 - Judy Garland
Aug. 7 - Glenn Ford
Aug. 8 - Bette Davis
Aug. 9 - Cary Grant
Aug. 10 - Dirk Bogarde
Aug. 11 - Audrey Hepburn
Aug. 12 - Clark Gable
Aug. 13 - Gloria Grahame
Aug. 14 - Sidney Poitier
Aug. 15 - Deborah Kerr
Aug. 16 - Elvis Presley
Aug. 17 - Jennifer Jones
Aug. 18 - John Wayne
Aug. 19 - Red Skelton
Aug. 20 - Miriam Hopkins
Aug. 21 - Gene Hackman
Aug. 22 - Sterling Hayden
Aug. 23 - Angela Lansbury
Aug. 24 - Fredric March
Aug. 25 - Merle Oberon
Aug. 26 - Yul Brynner
Aug. 27 - Ida Lupino
Aug. 28 - Frank Sinatra
Aug. 29 - Peter Sellers
Aug. 30 - Jean Arthur
Aug. 31 - Anne Francis

Poster for It Might Get Loud documentary

For a movie that I've only mentioned in passing, I'm awfully excited about it.

It Might Get Loud is a "documentary on the electric guitar from the point of view of three significant rock musicians: the Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White." This rad doc first showed up in Toronto last year and is finally looking to hit theaters starting in August. "I've gone through things where I go onstage and the sound guy at sound check comes over and he'll hold the decibel meter and show it to me while we're playing — and it's 127 decibels,” White told Rolling Stone, where this poster debuted today. "That's not good. And I can't even tell. If it's not right there, it feels wimpy, it feels uninspiring...

The trailer for this debuted on Yahoo a few months back and is also pretty cool - watch that right here!

Sony Pictures Classics is bringing It Might Get Loud to theaters on August 14th this year. [FirstShowing]

Ryan Reynolds to play the Green Lantern

YES! THR announced the casting a little while ago. I was rooting for Bradley Cooper the most out of the three actors Warner Bros. had narrowed it down to (Cooper, Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake), but I'm so relieved that Justin Timberlake wasn't chosen.

If the deal goes through Ryan Reynolds will be the only actor to have played heroes for both Marvel and DC. He played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but this makes me wonder about the Deadpool spin-off movie he is supposed to do. Does this mean Deadpool is officially dead? Production for The Green Lantern is scheduled to start in January 2010 so Deadpool will have to wait even if it really is still in the works.

If Reynolds does eventually do a Deadpool spin-off along with The Green Lantern, I wonder if the audience will be able to accept Reynolds as both Deadpool and Hal Jordan. What do you think? Is he the right actor for The Green Lantern?

First look: Cemetery Junction teaser

Cemetery Junction, which opens next year, is "a 1970s-set comedy centered on three upstart professional men working at an insurance company (IMDb)." It's written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and though admittedly, I never got into Extras which they wrote together, I am always excited to see Ralph Fiennes in anything.




Teaser via Awards Daily

Karl Urban to star in graphic novel adaptation?

Karl Urban gave an interview in Sydney a little over a week ago and revealed a few things that I either didn't know, or didn't remember that I knew. I'm not exactly sure what Urban was promoting since the press tour for Star Trek has basically wound down, but he seems like a cool dude for giving the interview.

Anyway, here's what I learned: he's signed on for at least two Star Trek sequels, he had been in talks to play James Bond but couldn't get screen tested because he was shooting a movie, and he's in serious negotiations to star in the movie adaptation of a relatively well known/well received graphic novel, but he can't reveal what it could be. The interview is over a week old and he revealed that news of the graphic novel movie would be out around now. Actually, it sounds like it should have been out a few days ago.

Since I'm bored, and movie news has been either slow or about remakes lately, I figured I'd do some detective work to figure out what it could be. Someone over at ONTD! suggested The Green Lantern, which will be shooting in Sydney and should start production this September. While I like the idea of Karl Urban as Hal Jordan (hey, looks pretty nice in writing), back in March, Warner Bros. was rumored to have wanted an under 30 actor. Karl Urban is 37. If the under 30 rumor turns out to be true, Urban's age would probably be a huge sticking point. Also I don't know if the Green Lantern counts as being relatively well known. Hal Jordan is more than just a relatively well known character, but I don't know how well received his graphic novels were in comparison to say, Batman's. I think we can rule out Green Lantern, which is sad, because that Justin Timberlake rumor is still bugging me.

Daredevil has quite a few graphic novels, and Frank Miller, who did at least two, has become Hollywood's obsession (and rightly so to some extent if you consider The Dark Knight). But considering that it might be a Marvel reboot that heavily features Typhoid Mary, I'm not sure that it would be a Frank Miller graphic novel anyway.

What else could it be? Sin City 2, The First Avenger: Captain America (would people accept a non-American actor?), The Green Arrow (doubtful because I haven't heard jack about this in a while), Ant-Man, American Reaper, Magneto, The Shadow, Sleeper (Tom Cruise will probably be in that one), Venom? Those are all the ones I can think of and I'm probably way off anyway. Guess, we'll just have to sit tight for a few more days.

Update: Well, it's definitely not The Green Lantern. Warner Bros. in on the verge of choosing an actor, and it looks like they've narrowed it down to Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, and (gulp) Justin Timberlake. So much for under 30.