The big news yesterday was that MGM is thinking of making yet another film version of Ben-Hur — and that was just one week after it was reported that Brad Pitt was thinking of starring in a movie called Pontius Pilate. But there have been a few other reports over the last few days about films in development with a Greco-Roman theme. First, last Wednesday, the Hollywood Reporter said Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning director of Brokeback Mountain and Life of... Read more
Big news for Bible-movie buffs today. Deadline reports that the once-moribund MGM, now flush with cash from the billion-dollar successes of Skyfall and The Hobbit, is thinking of making a new adaptation of Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The film would be based on a script by Keith Clarke, whose only big-screen credit to date is the Peter Weir film The Way Back (2010) — and, according to Deadline, while the new film will of... Read more
We already knew that Universal was prepping a 3D re-release of the original Jurassic Park (1993) for this coming April — two months before the film’s 20th anniversary. And we already knew that Universal had hired Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the writers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), to come up with a brand new Jurassic Park sequel. But it wasn’t until today that Universal committed to an actual release date for the new film —... Read more
My friend Darrel Manson reminds me that the National Film Registry announced a few weeks ago that it will add another 25 films to its archives — and that one of the films chosen for preservation this time ’round is the 1964 short film Parable, which featured a clown as a sort of Christ-figure nearly a decade before Godspell (1973). The National Film Registry indicates that it chose the film partly because it represents a much larger and older tradition... Read more
I haven’t done this in a few years, but I did devote posts to this subject in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 — so I might as well whip one up for 2012, as well. First, a recap: 2005 marked the first time since 1996 that the Best Picture winner did not gross at least $100 million, the first time since 1985 that not one of the Best Picture nominees grossed at least $100 million, and the first time... Read more
The Academy has spoken, and it looks like Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln will be the big winner when the final envelopes are opened on February 24. All the usual indicators point in that direction, at any rate. It has the most nominations. It is one of only two Best Picture nominees whose directors were also nominated for the Directors Guild Award (the other such film being Ang Lee’s Life of Pi). It was nominated for Best Film Editing. And, perhaps just... Read more
The Jewish Journal reports that writer-director Jonathan Kesselman is looking at making a sequel to The Hebrew Hammer, the 2003 “Jewsploitation” flick that starred Adam Goldberg as an Orthodox private detective who saves Hanukkah from the evil son of Santa Claus. In the new film, that detective, whose name is Mordechai Jefferson Carver, would have to deal with a time-traveling Adolf Hitler — and since the movie’s characters will be jumping around from era to era, the film will feature... Read more
I’m sitting in a bar, waiting for the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards ceremony to begin, but I couldn’t let this news go without blogging for too long. Deadline reports that Brad Pitt is “circling” the title role in Pontius Pilate, the politically-charged historical epic that was first announced last summer. This would not be Pitt’s first ancient epic — he famously starred as Achilles in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy (2004) — but it would, as far as I know, be... Read more
Less than two weeks into its theatrical run, Django Unchained is already well on its way to becoming Quentin Tarantino’s biggest hit ever, at least in North America; it has already outgrossed all but two of his films, and could very well pass Inglourious Basterds, the current champ, by next weekend — especially if it gets a box-office boost when the Oscar nominations are announced this Thursday. I have not had a chance to review the film myself yet, but... Read more
Bad news, everyone. It looks like Nicolas Cage will not be playing the Antichrist in the upcoming Left Behind reboot. Instead, he will be playing Rayford Steele, the pilot with the absurdly masculine name who was played in the original trilogy by Brad Johnson. The news comes to us courtesy of Deadline.com, which also reports that former High School Musical co-star Ashley Tisdale will be playing Steele’s daughter Chloe, who was played in the original trilogy by Janaya Stephens. (more…) Read more
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