Newsbites: The science-fiction edition!

Newsbites: The science-fiction edition! February 12, 2009

1. Will Chris Nolan make another Batman movie? Maybe, maybe not, but for now, Warner Brothers is staying on his good side by producing his next film, a sci-fi flick called Inception; the film is described as “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” So will it be sort of like Nolan’s second film, Memento (2000), but with more special effects and chase scenes? — Variety, Hollywood Reporter

2. Terminator: Salvation director McG may or may not be using Benjamin Button-style effects to put a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in his robot movie. McG says he is also talking to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke about contributing to the movie’s soundtrack — but a Radiohead publicist says Yorke’s involvement in the film is nothing more than a rumour at this point. — MTV Movies Blog (x2), Entertainment Weekly

3. In a similar vein, Curtis Hanson is in talks to direct Gemini Man, which concerns an aging assassin who wants to retire, but whose bosses won’t let him; instead, they send a younger clone of the assassin to bump off his older self. “The concept allows for some techno-wizardry whereby an older actor with a long career would be cast, and his younger likeness would be digitally grafted onto a stuntman’s body.” — Hollywood Reporter

4. The Day the Earth Stood Still is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray April 7 — and while it will have an audio commentary by screenwriter David Scarpa, it will not have one by director Scott Derrickson. That’s a shame, as Derrickson’s commentary on the DVD for his previous film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), is one of the more intelligent and articulate commentary tracks out there. — ComingSoon.net, IGN.com

5. The physicists at CERN would like to assure us that Angels & Demons, the sequel to The Da Vinci Code (2006), is a work of fiction. They would like to assure us of this because the film concerns a secret society that tries to destroy the Vatican with antimatter stolen from CERN’s laboratory. “The basic problem is the concept of antimatter,” says CERN spokesman James Gillies. “You cannot make that much.” The physicists at CERN are also keen to note that antimatter may have its positive uses, like treating cancer. — Reuters

6. Disney has hired Justin Marks (He-Man, Voltron, Street Fighter) to rewrite the script for their Jules Verne prequel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo. Marks has been brought on as a “world builder” to expand upon the deep-sea universe created in the screenplay’s previous draft, which was written by Bill Marsilii (Deja Vu). — Variety, Hollywood Reporter

7. The Day of the Triffids is upon us again. The BBC will air a brand new British-Canadian adaptation of John Wyndham’s novel later this year, starring Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson, Brian Cox, Eddie Izzard, Jason Priestley and Vanessa Redgrave. The book, a post-apocalyptic thriller about flesh-eating plants, was previously adapted for the big screen in 1962 and for TV in 1981. — Variety, Hollywood Reporter

8. Gwyneth Paltrow, aka Pepper Potts, has not yet seen a script for Iron Man 2. — MTV Splash Page

9. A trailer for the documentary The People Vs. George Lucas is out now; the film includes interviews with former collaborators of Lucas’s such as Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, Darth Vader actor David Prowse and Skywalking author Dale Pollock, among others. — Nikki Finke, Joe Leydon

10. German and Finnish filmmakers are teaming up to make Iron Sky, a “dark sci-fi romp about moon-based Nazis who invade Earth” in the year 2018. — Variety, Hollywood Reporter

11. How’s this for scraping the bottom of the ideas barrel? Universal has hired Bruce Almighty co-writer Steve Oedekerk to write a movie based on … the Hasbro toy Stretch Armstrong. Universal and Hasbro are also developing movies based on Monopoly, Candyland and the Ouija board. — Variety


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