Tintin 3-D trilogy

The cast of The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn has now been firmed up. Jamie Bell will play Tintin, Andy Serkis will play Captain Haddock, while Daniel Craig will be seen as Red Rackham, the villainous pirate, and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thomson and Thomson. The movie will also have Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook although their roles have not been divulged as yet.

Jamie Bell will play Tintin in The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig have worked together in the recently released Defiance.

The Adventures of Tintin, Spielberg’s pet project, was planned as a 3D trilogy. The first part of the movie will be directed by Steven Spielberg, while Peter Jackson will direct the second part. As of now it is not clear if there will be a third part; one assumes it depends on the fate of the first two installments of The Adventures of Tintin.

Daniel Craig will star in The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn as Red Rackham, the evil pirate

The first movie in the Tintin trilogy was supposed to release in 2010, but with the funding issues that the Tintin movie ran into, the release of the first part has been postponed to 2011.

The writers on board for The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn are Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is a 3-D movie using performance capture technology that combines animation with real characters.

The production of Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn has begun in Los Angeles.

Andy Serkis will play Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

The movie will be adapted from two books in The Adventures of Tintin series, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure. In the books, Tintin finds a scroll in the boat of a sailing ship captained by his pal Captain Haddock’s forefather.

The story revolves around Captain Haddock’s ancestor and his battle with an evil pirate, Red Rackam. Tintin and Captain Haddock go looking for the treasure that is now lying on the bottom of the ocean, and get involved in a full-fledged adventure on the high seas.

Steven Spielberg has been planning to make a 3D movie adaptation of Tintin since 1983. In September 2008, when Spielberg and Peter Jackson got together to make the movie, it ran into trouble, with Universal Pictures backing out of a deal with Paramount Pictures to fund the $130 million project.

By this time, Steven Spielberg had already directed bits of the 3D adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin, and Peter Jackson had also been developing performance-capture technology at a cost of $30 million funded by Paramount.

The project was back on track, when Sony stepped in to co-finance the movie with Paramount Pictures, in October 2008.

There are 23 books based on Tintin comics created by Georges Remi under his pen name Hergé.

The Tintin books have been translated into 70 languages, and nearly 200 million copies of the books have been sold worldwide.

Amrish Puri as Mogambo in Mr. India 2

I really don’t know what to think because the saga of Mr. India’s sequel has been on for three years now, occasionally rearing its head with a chirp and subsiding again. In 1996, I heard that Anil Kapoor would produce Mr. India 2, Boney Kapoor would write the script, Nikhil Advani (king of big-budget disasters, the latest being Chandni Chowk to China) would direct, and Sonam Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor would get top billing. Anil Kapoor and Sridevi would play a mature couple in the movie (I am assuming older versions of their characters in Mr. India).

The last chirp, that surfaced in 2008, said that Anil Kapoor would produce, Boney Kapoor would write, Shekhar Kapoor would direct, and Anil Kapoor and Sridevi would play a mature couple in Mr India 2. This time, it was also said that there would be a lot of high-end special effects.
The latest rumor says that Shahrukh Khan is likely to play the role of Mogambo in Mr. India 2. What I don’t understand is that if the sequel is being made, and if it follows from Mr. India, which it is said to do, then there should be no Mogambo.

Because, at the end of Mr. India, Mogambo dies in a fire, pretty unequivocally, saying Hail Mogambo. Unless, in Mr. India 2, Boney Kapoor springs a byblow of Mogambo or a cryonic preservation of his body for later use.

Shahrukh Khan is said to play the role of Mogambo in Mr. India 2

Whatever be the deal, and much as I appreciate Shahrukh Khan, I cannot imagine him play Mogambo’s lost child or his resurrected body. If you remember late actor Amrish Puri, of the bulging eyes and the even more bulging muscles, who played the role of Mogambo in Mr. India, you will know what I am talking about.

So based on the sheer ridiculousness of this rumor, I think this is just another chirp about a Mr. India sequel, that will go nowhere.

Shahrukh Khan is currently involved with his home production Billu Barber that will be released on February 13, 2009. The movie will be directed by Priyadarshan, and will star Irfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan, and Lara Dutta.

Shahrukh is also shooting for Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan, along with co-stars Kajol, Shabana Azmi, and Jimmy Shergill.

Mr. India, directed by Shekhar Kapoor (Masoom, Elizabeth, Bandit Queen, Elizabeth:The Golden Age), was released in 1987. The movie was a super hit, and is a classic Indian fantasy adventure film. The film starred Anil Kapoor, an orphan moonlighting as Mr. India, and Sridevi as a journalist.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins poster

Helmer McG, director of Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, will direct the fifth Terminator.

Halycon Company’s Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek will produce. Anderson and Kubicek bought the rights for the Terminator franchise in 2007, and decided to make a trilogy, the first being Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. All the three Terminator movies will have Christian Bale in the role of John Connor, played by John Schwarznegger in the first three Terminator movies: The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will be released by Warner Bros. in North America. Sony will release the movie overseas, except the Middle East.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins has been written by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Shawn Ryan, and Paul Haggis. McG has been quoted as saying that the movie will be in the spirit of what Nolan did with Batman. He also said that Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will not require viewers to watch the previous Terminator flicks.

Unlike the older Terminator movies, there will be no time travel in the new Terminator trilogy.

Terminator Salvation, the fourth Terminator movie

In Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, John Connor (Christian Bale) will have a more sketched out role. Connor is the leader of the resistance in war with Skynet. The movie also stars Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, and Helena Bonham Carter as baddie Serena Kogen.

The movie is set a few years after Judgment Day.

Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins photo

McG has said in his Terminator Salvation blog that in the post-apocalyptic world, “there are Hydrobots that patrol the water, Transports that move human prisoners around, Harvesters that collect human beings as lab rats for Skynet and Aerostats that survey all that is going on with the resistance the world over.”

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins was shot in New Mexico, and is now in post-production.

A Terminator Salvation video game will be released, when the movie hits the marquee.

Variety has said that Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek are also planning to remake Susanne Bier’s After the Wedding in English, to be directed by Micahel Caton-Jones. The movies revolves around a Western social worker who works in the slums of Mumbai, and receives a huge donation from a Western businessman.

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda  made $560 million (£299 million) in global ticket sales, overtaking the Shrek movies.

Kung Fu Panda, for those who have not watched the movie, is the story of a clumsy but endearing panda, Po, who works in his family’s noodle shop and dreams of being a Kung Fu master. Po has to fulfill an ancient prophecy and gets to learn Kung Fu under Master Shifu, along with his idols, Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. Po gets a chance to face his fears and be a real Kung Fu master when he has to take on the dangerous snow leopard Tai Lung.

The voiceovers in Kung Fu Panda are provided by Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan, Wayne Knight, and James Hong.

Kung Fu Panda was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Apart from Kung Fu Panda 2, Dreamworks plans to make two more Madagascar sequels after Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which will be released in November 2008 in the US and December 2008 in the UK. All the Madagascar sequels will be made in 3-D.