Johnny Depp Alice in Wonderland photo

The Johnny Depp photos show him clad in Victorian clothes, with a pale white face, shadowed eyes, and a hat with some kind of feathers stuck in it. He is seen clutching a rabbit to his chest and has a bandaged left
thumb.

The image is definitely that of Johnny Depp but seems more like an illustration.

Cinematical has said that it is likely that either the Alice in Wonderland photo is a fake or its a concept picture or painting that may be present in the background.

I would go with Cinematical on this. It is very likely that a good illustrator has pulled a fast one on everyone.

The Johnny Depp fansite, johnny-depp.org, though, has taken off the photo from its site.

A message on the site says, “The new Photo of Johnny from the Set of Alice (the new Tim Burton, Disney Film) was released to this site through an insider on the set. After the posting took place with that persons
permission, a call was made asking us to in good faith pull down the photo. Out of respect for Johnny, Mr.
Burton and Disney alike; we have agreed to do this. The image was leaked off the set without permission and we were unaware of this fact. No one is to blame for the leak, but at JDorg we will respect the wishes of the film company individuals.”

Right! Since when do insiders “release” - a respectable word for leak - photos of a movie from the sets with
permission?

Mia Wasikowaska on the sets of Alice in Wonderland

The first photos of Alice came out when, in September 2008, Cinematical posted spy photos, from INF, of Mia Wasikowaska, from the sets of Alice in Wonderland.

Mia Wasikowaska as Alice in Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is in production right now and is set to be released on March 5, 2010.

The movie stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee will be played by Matt Lucas who stars in the sketch comedy series Little Britain USA.

Beowolf actor Crispin Glover will play the Knave of Hearts, in Alice in Wonderland.

Previously, Mia Wasikowaska has appeared in HBO’s In Treatment.

Alice in Wonderland is said to be a mix of performance-capture CGI in 3-D and live action.

Alice in Wonderland has been scripted by Linda Woolverton, the writer of The Lion King, Homeward Bound,
and the 1991 Beauty and the Beast.

Tim Burton is the acclaimed director of the recent The Dark Knight, Batman, and Batman Returns. He has
directed Johnny Depp, previously, in Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and
Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Barber Street.

Johnny Depp will be next seen in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Shantaram, and Public Enemies in 2009.

He is also slated to play Tonto in The Lone Stranger, and star in The Pirates of the Caribbean 4. The Lone Ranger will be released in 2012.

Disney's The Beauty and the Beast

The first of the Disney IMAX movies will be A Christmas Carol, that will be released during the holiday season, in 2009. A Christmas Carol will be directed by Robert Zemeckis, director of The Polar Express. The movie will star Jim Carrey as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. Colin Firth will play his nephew and Gary Oldman will play Scrooge’s loyal clerk.

Disney has not said what the other four IMAX movies will be, but the movies are expected to have directors like Tim Burton attached to them.

Meanwhile, Disney has already begun re-rendering Beauty and the Beast in 3D, which will take nine months to complete.

The 3D version will be released in 2010.

The original team of The Beauty and the Beast (1991) - producer Don Hahn, and directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale - will work on the movie, along with Sara Duran-Singer, senior vice president of Worldwide Post Production, who will head the technical expert team.

The Beauty and the Best was a huge hit at the box office and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It won the Oscar for Best Song and Best Original Score.

The movie won the Golden Globe award in the Best Comedy/Musical category.

Disney plans to release 11 3D films, including Beauty and the Beast, by 2010. One of these is the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert movie that will be released in February 2009. The movie will have Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift as guest stars who perform a song with the band.

Next on its slate is Disney Pixar’s UP that will be released in May 2009. This quirky movie is directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, and written by Bob Peterson.

Disney will also release G-Force in July 2009. The movie will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Holy Yeatman. G-Force revolves around guinea pigs who are trained to take on a billionaire set to take over the world. Actors Nicholas Cage, Bill Nighy, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi, Kelli Garner will lend their voices to the movie.

Disney will also release Disney-Pixar’s 3D version of Toy Story 2, 3D Toy Story 3, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Rapunzel, and Step Up 3D, in 2010.

Disney’s 3D flick Bolt will be released in November-end 2008.

Both Disney and IMAX need the deal to pull in more moviegoers to the theatres. Disney has been in overdrive with its  3D flicks as they are perfect for cinema viewing. IMAX too needs more 3D movies to keep going.

Other studios like Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox are also excited over the medium. Although 3D movies can shown only on 1400 screens in the US, studios are optimistic that 3D is the medium of the future.

Original High and Low poster

The remake will be directed by Mike Nichols and the movie will be scripted by David Mamet. High and Low will be produced by Scot Rudin and co-produced by Scorsese.

Kurosawa’s High and Low was loosely based on a novel by Ed McBain.

High and Low revolves around Kingo Gondo, an executive who mortgages all he owns to raise money for a the takeover of a company that he thinks he can turn around.

When Gondo’s son is kidnapped, he is prepared to pay the ransom, but he faces a moral dilemma when he finds out that his driver’s son has been kidnapped by mistake, instead of his son.

Should he rescue the boy or use the money for the deal on which he has staked everything?

Akiro Kurosawa's High and Low poster

High and Low is also a fascinating thriller, as a cop hunts down the kidnapper.

High and Low has been on Scorsese’s drawing board since 1999.

Should he touch a masterpiece like High and Low, or rather can the movie be adapted to recent times? And even if it can’t, does it matter? If one doesn’t take it all too seriously, this would be an interesting movie to watch, depending on the casting, of course.

So who is it going to be? Leo, because Scorsese loves Leo? For me, it’s Leo, Leo, Leo because the guy can act and I can easily imagine him as someone who is conflicted over the moralities of a situation.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese

Maybe, I am biased but I can’t think of anyone else, except maybe Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis
or Guy Pierce, for the lead role. As for the cop, I would like to see Don Cheadle as the one who hunts down the kidnapper.

Superman remake as a superhero with dark shades

Considering the last Superman movie, Superman Returns, was as flat and unidimensional as they come, a more flesh-and-blood characterisation would be welcome, provided the potrayal of “darkness” does not degenerate into a sob story a la Spiderman 3 where one is disgusted at the sight of a sniveling Spiderman. As a Spiderman fan, I clearly remember him as a sarcastic, sometimes flippant character operating with wits as much as muscle. Does trying to understand how superheroes are made and what defines their personalities mean martyrish soliloquies?

Do we want to see a picture featuring a weepy Superman? Or an angsty one?

The other point I want to make is why does the plumbing of a character necessarily mean that it would be dark? Do superheroes have to be angsty to turn into beings with great power and responsibility? I would love to see a movie that presents Superman as a person, not a cardboard character. What shapes Superman’s morality? How does Superman reconcile it with the unconscious destruction his immense strength can cause? I don’t think Superman has too much angst about that in the first place. I don’t think he even realises it.

Yes, Superman loses his home in Krypton and his father, and is lonely on earth despite having a wife and family because he is different. How on earth are there going to present this as dark? I can understand that Spiderman has reason to be angsty (Spiderman 3 still sucks) and  Batman has issues to resolves, but Superman? On the main, Superman is a good boy. He is a pretty upbeat dude. Superman does not waste too much time being sorry for himself. If there is work to be to be done, dark or not, he does it. Sorted!

I am not saying that there cannot be a realistic, gritty interpretation of the comic; heaven knows, Superman Returns could have done with some reality and less special effects that go nowhere.

Superman does have many characters that can be explored, some dark, some grey, but to decide it’s going to be a dark, broody take just because The Dark Knight, and before that Batman Begins, works is just formulaic cinema.

The Indian media has reported that Patel claims Jennifer Aniston has been roped in to play the female lead. In the next breath, the reports say that Jennifer Anistion, who was “moved to tears” when she heard the story, wants to see the script. I assume when you say an actor has been roped in to play a role, he or she has accepted the role instead of wanting to look at the script for the first time. That too a script that is not ready yet. Patel has been quoted as saying, “Now she wants me to give her the full script which we’re working on.” So, the script is not in place but Jennifer Aniston has been roped in. Nice.

Patel then asserts that he is “considering” Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves for the two male lead roles. I don’t want to snigger but Patel is considering Brad Pitt for a role, which is not even there on paper, when even top directors in Hollywood say they would like to work with Pitt, and consider themselves lucky to get him to sign on the dotted line.

Note: There is no mention of any directors that are being considered. I have this terrible feeling that Patel would probably produce, write, and direct the movie, that is if it ever takes off.

This is not to take away from Khamoshi in any way. It is a wonderfully sensitive and subtle movie, and I hate to think of what would happen to it in Patel’s hands. He is already talking about major changes. God save us from enthusiastic, amateur wannabe filmmakers with deep pockets.

The first movie version of The Wolfman, based on the classic of the same name, was also called The Wolfman.

The Wolfman is set in the late nineteeth century, and tells the story of Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), who has been long estranged from his father (Anthony

Hopkins). Lawrence leaves home to forget the horrors of his childhood, but comes back to the family estate in Blackmoor after the disappearance of his brother. His brother’s sweetheart Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) enlists Lawrence’s help to find his brother.

During the hunt, Lawrence finds that he is hunting a murderer who turns out to be a werewolf. Larry, who has by now developed a tendre for Gwen, is bitten by a werewolf while saving a village girl from a gypsy who is also a werewolf. His tells his father about his plight, who refuses to believe. In the meantime, A detective Aberline (Hugo Weaving) turns up to investigate the murders that are commited by the lupine Lawrence Talbot.

The Wolfman has been in the pipelines for ages. The movie was announced in 2006, to be directed by Mark Romanek. Romanek bowed out in January 2008 citing creative differences.  In January 2008, Joe Johnston came on board to direct The Wolfman.

A film adaption of Brideshead Revisited, based on Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 classic Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder will be released on July 25, 2008. Brideshead Revisited is directed by Julian Jarrold, and will star Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw.

The plot of Brideshead Revisited revolves around Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) who makes friends with the rich aristocrat Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw), in rather unpleasant circumstances. On Flyte’s invitation, Ryder visits the Flyte family’s family seat Brideshead castle. Here, Ryder meets the formidable, exceedingly devout Catholic Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), Sebastian’s mother, and Julia Flyte (Hayley Atwell), Sebastian sister.

Ryder loses touch with the Flyte family after Sebastian drifts away from the family largely due Lady Marchmain’s rigid Catholic views and tendencies towards conversion and enforcement of Catholic tenets through subtle manipulation.

Later, when Ryder, who is now an army officer, is posted at Brideshead, he gets into a relationship with Julia who is now in an unhappy marriage.

In the book, Catholicism is a running thread. The behavior of each character in the book is governed by Catholicism, either explicitly or indirectly, and the concept of free will and the Lord shepherding his flock home.

Brideshead Revisited is said to deviate from the book and focus more on the relationship between Julia and Ryder, which may be a pity, because the inherent conflicts in Catholicism and its subtle tyrannies would have been interesting to watch.

Brideshead Revisited will be produced and distributed by  Warner Independent and Miramax Films.

In 1981, Brideshead Revisited was adapted for a TV series of the same, starring Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder, Anthony Andrews as Sebastian Flyte, Laurence Olivier as Lord Marchmain, Claire Bloom as Lady Marchmain, and Diana Quick as Lady Julia Flyte. The series was extremely popular and critically acclaimed.

Word is that the latest Robin Hood on the block, Nottingham, is a different spin on the original. Told from the point of the Sheriff of Nottingham, the movie will take Robin Hood down a peg or two.

The movie brings together the merry Gladiator men: Russell Crowe as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Ridley Scott as director, and Brian Helgeland as the writer.  Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott had earlier worked together on the Oscar-winning Gladiator (2000). Brian Helgeland had co-written LA Confidential, which also starred Russell Crowe.

Playing Maid Marian will be actress Sienna Miller, who is over the moon at the prospect of working with Crowe and Ridley. Working with Crowe and Ridley is “as good as it gets,” Miller has been quoted as saying.

The first Robin Hood movie The Adventures of Robin Hood was released in 1938 and starred Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.

The mushy Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, came next, in 1991.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a satirical comedy, was released in 1993.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to remake My Fair Lady? Columbia Pictures is planning just that but will retain the musical score and setting of the original.

I was quite taken aback when I read that Columbia Pictures is all set to remake the 1964 cult classic My Fair Lady, and that Keira Knightley will play the cockney waif Eliza Doolittle, simply because I didn’t think anyone would be brave enough to touch the Oscar-winning movie.

Apparently, producers Duncan Kenworthy who has previously produced hits like Notting Hill, Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Sir Cameron Mackintosh producer of successful Broadway musicals, do not share my view.

The grapewine has it that Knightley has been signed on for My Fair Lady and Daniel Day-Lewis is being wooed to reprise the role of snooty professor Henry Higgins.

The rags-to-riches transformation of impetuous waifs aided by upper crust gentlemen is old hat for the movies, a classic example being Pretty Woman.

Wisely, the latest production of My Fair Lady will stick to the original storyline but will draw heavily from the original Pygmalion. It will also keep the 1912 setting and the original music score featuring  I Could Have Danced All Night, Wouldn’t it Be Lovely and Get Me to the Church on Time.

The 1956 Broadway production of My Fair Lady, a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, starring Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Higgins was a huge hit. The 1965 movie version of My Fair Lady that won eight Oscars starred Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. Duncan Kenworthy, Cameron Mackintosh, and CBS Films have a lot to live up to.

Can they pull it off? According to the filmmakers, the My Fair Lady remake will attempt to flesh out the characters, especially that of Eliza Doolittle, and shoot on actual locations to recreate 1912 London in an authentic manner. If they are able to lend more depth to Eliza Doolittle’s character (which was not very well etched out in the original), the remake would be very interesting to watch.

Successful musicals are tough to beat but Mackintosh has produced two stage revivals of My Fair Lady, one in 1979 and the other in 2001, which is a distinct advantage. Mackintosh has also produced many of the West End’s and Broadway’s successful musicals, such as “Cats,” “Les Miserables” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”

The next question is who should be cast as Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins?

Keira Knightley, said to be already on board,  looks like an utterly luvverly waif, no doubt, but can she top Audrey Hepburn’s gamine minx? Personally, she lacks the vividity and verve of Audrey Hepburn and is likely to end up as a pale imitation. On the plus side, she can sing (Audrey Hepburn’s vocals were dubbed.)

Conversely, Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will be Blood and Last of the Mohicans) is too vivid to play the stuffy, but sharp-tongued, Henry Higgins. Sadly, there are not too many alternatives. Orlando Bloom, Jude Law, James McAvoy  - too young. Colin Firth  - too Mr. Darcy. Daniel Craig is, well, too Bond. That leaves only Rupert Everett and Liam Neeson. I would definitely refer Neeson over Daniel Day-Lewis.

Keira Knightley, who was first noticed in the small-budget Bend it Like Beckam, made it big with Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and the Pirates of the Caribbean. Knightley is on a roll as far as period films are concerned with movies like The Edge Of Love, The Duchess, and King Lear in the pipeline.

So will the remake work? There is a good chance that it will. If nothing else, the curiosity value should pull in the crowds.