Behind The Films

Today saw the death of Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s Miramax Films, owned by Walt Disney. It’s been a slow process with Disney saying they were downsizing a while back. Now 80 people will lose their jobs and 6 films that were waiting for release will be shelved. That is unless they get a tepid release.

Harvey Weinstein told TheWrap how he is feeling:

“I’m feeling very nostalgic right now. I know the movies made on my and my brother Bob’s watch will live on as well as the fantastic films made under the direction of Daniel Battsek. Miramax has some brilliant people working within the organization and I know they will go on to do great things in the industry.”

Miramax is known for a number of films including My Left Foot, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Chicago and many more.

Source: TheWrap

You may remember recently we told you that both The Hobbit films will begin filming in June of this year. Well, we were under the impression that they were still on target for their original release dates of 2011 and 2012, but in a recent article it appears as if their release dates have been changed.

Once the script for the second film is in — Jackson and his longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are working on it with Del Toro — New Line will work up a budget for both films and start casting. New Line exec Michael Disco, who was once Emmerich’s assistant, will oversee for the studio.

Horn won’t predict when the first of the two “Hobbit” films will be out, but says the most probable scenario would be a release in the fourth quarter of 2012.

“It’s a big bet for us. But it’s one we think will pay off given the success of ‘Lord of the Rings,’” says Emmerich. “This is one of the few movies it feels like people are waiting for.”

So it appears as if the first film in the two-part series has been pushed back all the way to the fourth quarter of 2012.

Source: Variety

WorstPreviews reported the other day that Ghostbusters 3 will be filmed in 3D, like many films nowadays because of the success of Avatar.

“Ghostbusters 3″ will be in 3D. This news comes from a source at ILM, a visual effects company behind such films as “Avatar”, “Iron Man” and “Transformers”.

Source: WorstPreviews

ShockTillYouDrop.com is reporting that Oren Peli’s producing team for Paranormal Activity will be producing The Further. James Wan will be directing the horror.

The report includes a plot, which is about a young family that makes the terrifying discovery that the body of their comatose boy has become a magnet for malevolent entities, while his consciousness lies trapped in the dark and insidious realm known as “The Further.”

Oren Peli’s producing team includes himself, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider.

Source: ShockTillYouDrop

AccessHollywood is reporting that Thomas Lennon, who co-wrote the first two films, has said that the third movie in the Night at the Museum franchise is currently being written.

“How could you not? I think it’s a really outstanding idea to do ‘Night at the Museum 3,’ in fact,”

“I wonder if someone’s not even already working on a script for that,” he added with a raised eyebrow. “I cannot confirm that for a fact, but I cannot deny it for a fact either… It might be in the works.”

“Here’s a little bit, [a] real quick spoiler alert – ‘Night at the Museum 3’ is set in the Liberace Museum,” he said with a smile.

Source: AccessHollywood

BoxOffice.com have an interview with Joe Johnston that they put online yesterday, where he talks about his upcoming projects. He talks about Captain America and the possibility of Jurassic Park 4. Yes, time to get excited.

The internet is freaking out that there might be a Jurassic Park IV.

Wow, when did that happen?

November—you mentioned to Ain’t It Cool that there might be a good script.

Did I tell him? Was it me?

You said that there was no way to get people back on the island for a fourth time and have it make sense, but that 2001 was the last installment and we’re due.

Well, there is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen. It breaks away from the first three—it’s essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It’s going to be done in a completely different way. That’s pretty much all I can tell you.

A second trilogy?

If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy.

How fantastic is that? I supported the idea of a second trilogy and now it appears to actually be happening. Ok, so it’s not greenlit yet, but we know for a fact that Universal are on the ball ready to greenlight it.

Joe Johnston went on to say how, unlike other franchises nowadays, they don’t want to just release film after film without a decent story.

That’s big. So not to lock you in, but there’s a possibility there might be a total of six films?

Well, you never know. If they keep working—and if audiences keep going to them—there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don’t want to make sequel after sequel just because there’s a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories. You don’t want to just sell hamburger.

You can of course keep checking back for more news about this as the website will be putting the full interview up in due time.

Source: BoxOffice.com

You may remember a week or so ago now, Harold Ramis confirmed that Ghostbusters 3 is set for a 2011 release. This is indeed true and now in a recent interview, director Ivan Reitman has said he will be directing Ghostbusters 3!

Asked if he would be returning to direct “Ghostbusters III,” Reitman answered with a simple and unequivocal “Yes.”

He said he hope’s to start shooting “in this next year”, which is fantastic news for all Ghostbusters fans! He was not able to comment on Sigourney Weaver’s statement about Bill Murray being a ghost, but he did say that there are some cool things in the new draft.

We’ll have all the latest Ghostbusters 3 news as soon as we find it, so keep checking back!

Source: MTV

Vin Diesel has announced on his Facebook page that the next installement in the ‘Fast and Furious’ series will be not one, but possibly two movies, and will be chapters.

“If 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’ was chapter one, what writer Chris Morgan just delivered is Chapter 2 and chapter 3.”

So it is expected that these two sequels will be filmed at the same time but released at seperate times. Vin Diesel promises that they will be authentic stories:

“Excited about the sexy locations the filming of this sag…a would take us… this novel like story, that has twists and unexpected turns that is authentic, truthful and challenging to the characters.”

We may receive more information on these upcoming ‘Fast & Furious’ sequels so keep checking back!

According to Collider, a sequel to the 2009 film ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’ is happening. Writers have been hired – Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the people who wrote Zombieland, and we can only assume they’re hoping to get this movie into production as quickly as possible.

Source: Collider

In a recent Q&A with James Cameron, he was asked if Avatar would get a sequel. He said yes. He also said that he had planned a trilogy of Avatar films.

A second film will be easier, as the technology now exists, thanks to the movie. The moderator asked if there *would* be an Avatar sequel. To which Cameron answered that the plan had always been to make a trilogy of films. Finally, Cameron actually said it: “Yes, there’ll be another.”

No word on when this’ll happen as we know James Cameron is currently exploring other projects, but if we hear anything new we’ll be sure to pass it on!

Source: AICN