Four quick news blurbs, all courtesy of Variety magazine.
1. George Miller — director of Happy Feet (2006), Babe: Pig in the City (1998), The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and the Mad Max trilogy (1979-1985) — will direct that upcoming Justice League movie. One slight complication is that the Batman franchise is currently going strong on its own with Chris Nolan and Christian Bale. The Superman franchise, on the other hand, seems to have been put on hold for now. The Justice League movie is also expected to feature Wonder Woman, the Flash and Aquaman.
2. Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green have joined the cast of Franklyn:
The pic is set in contemporary London and a future metropolis dominated by faith and weaves the tale of four lost souls divided by two parallel worlds on course for an explosive collision when a single bullet will decide all their fates.
It was said at one point that Ewan McGregor would star in the film, but his name does not come up anywhere in the Variety article.
3. Here is another story on the havoc that is being wreaked on the Canadian film industry by the falling American dollar:
Now there is no advantage to shooting in Canada in terms of exchange rate or tax credits, as many U.S. states and countries have similar or even more lucrative tax breaks.
“I think it’s a nightmare,” said Paul Bronfman, who runs the Toronto-based Comweb Group, one of the country’s leading production services and equipment rental companies. Comweb is also an investor in Filmport, the massive film studio being built in Toronto.
“I think it’s going to make it extremely difficult to attract more American work,” he added. “We have a lot of variety of locations but the bottomline is that the economics are getting skinnier and skinnier to shoot in Canada. Right now, we have to find new ways to attract business here.”
Canada is actually doing okay in terms of American shoots this year, but most believe that’s only because the studios are stockpiling pics in case there is labor strife in Hollywood next year.
4. Young Cleopatra begins shooting in Cairo in November. When I mentioned the film four months ago, it had a reported budget of $5 million; now, its reported budget is $3 million.
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