Tag: Imagine

On The Set of Favreau’s COWBOYS & ALIENS

Director Jon Favreau tweeted this peek at the set of his new film COWBOYS & ALIENS, Dreamworks’ and Universal Pictures’ upcoming adaptation of Platinum Studios cross-genre comic. A source on the set told me it’s filled deep with a lot of extras and that shooting began on Thursday, June 10th in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Even one of the film’s stars, Olivia Wilde, tweeted “Its the coolest set ever.”

Favreau is directing Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Noah Ringer, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach, and Ana De La Reguera in a film that crosses the classic Western with the alien-invasion movie in a blazingly original way. Joined by Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Denis L. Stewart, and Dan Forcey, COWBOYS & ALIENS will be an action thriller that will take audiences into the Old West, where a lone cowboy leads an uprising against a terror beyond our world.

The film’s synopsis:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move onto its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). Its a town that lives in fear…But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one-by-one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents’ townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors, all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

You can follow the movie’s progress on Twitter or Facebook. From DreamworksSKG and Universal Pictures, COWBOYS & ALIENS will be in theaters next summer on July 29, 2011.

Universal and Imagine nab rights to ‘H.P. Lovecraft’ Graphic Novel

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Love horror? Love graphic novels? Love movies? It’s been a while since we’ve had a new movie based off the twisted works of H.P. Lovecraft, but that time is soon coming to a close, maybe. Lovecraft was one of the most influential writers of horror and his material is extremely dark and sinister, having spawned movies like ‘From Beyond’, ‘Re-Animator’ and ‘The Dunwich Horror’… not to mention countless others.

Universal and Imagine are developing an adaptation of the graphic novel ‘The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft’ which will hit bookstores on April 8, 2009. The book is published by Image Comics and was created by Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz. Carter will also write the script.

…book borrows elements from Lovecraft’s life, such as his family’s struggle with mental illness and his own bouts with writer’s block, and transforms the young writer’s darkest nightmares into reality when he comes across a book that puts a curse on him and lets the evils he conjures up loose on the world. — Variety

Sounds really cool and I may even consider picking up the graphic novel. What I’m concerned about though is that the studio picked up the project as a potential directing gig for Ron Howard. Don’t get me wrong, Howard is a decent filmmaker, but this doesn’t seem like the right project for him.

[source: Variety]

Brian Grazer is fishing for his ‘Merman’

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Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment have picked up writer Jennifer Abu Hollander’s script for ‘Merman’. Brian Grazer (Splash) will produce the romantic comedy for Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment.

Story follows a merman who comes to land so he can win back his mermaid fiancee, who has left him for a real man. — Variety

No cast or director has been attached yet. There’s no direct indication that the story is any kind of a direct follow up to the 1984 film ‘Splash’ which was produced by Brian Grazer and directed by Ron Howard, but it does seem to hint in that direction.

[source: Variety]