Tag: Laeta Kalogridis

TERMINATOR Reboot Begins Filming – Stars Arnold Schwarzenegger

arnoldschwarzenegger

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions announced today that principal photography is officially underway on the TERMINATOR reboot, directed by Alan Taylor (“THOR: THE DARK WORLD,” “Game of Thrones”).

The film is shooting in New Orleans and Paramount will distribute the film worldwide on July 1, 2015.

TERMINATOR stars Arnold Schwarzenegger (“THE EXPENDABLES 1 & 2,” “TERMINATOR 1, 2 & 3”), Jason Clarke (“THE GREAT GATSBY,”“ZERO DARK THIRTY”), Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”), Jai Courtney (“DIVERGENT,” “JACK REACHER”), J.K. Simmons (“MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN,” “UP IN THE AIR”), Dayo Okeniyi (“THE HUNGER GAMES,” “THE SPECTACULAR NOW”), and Byung Hun Lee (“RED 2,” “G.I. JOE: RETALIATION”).

The new film is written by Laeta Kalogridis (“AVATAR,” “SHUTTER ISLAND”) and Patrick Lussier (“DRIVE ANGRY”). David Ellison and Dana Goldberg (“WORLD WAR Z,” “STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS”) of Skydance Productions are producing. Executive producers are Skydance’s Paul Schwake (“WORLD WAR Z,” “STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS”), Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison (“AMERICAN HUSTLE,” “HER”), Kalogridis and Lussier.

The TERMINATOR franchise launched in 1984 with Schwarzenegger as the title character and spanned three subsequent films, which have earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

Discuss: Who Should Direct the Live Action GHOST IN THE SHELL?

ghost in the shell

Recently Variety reported that Laeta Kalogridis was hired to adapt the famous manga/anime GHOST IN THE SHELL (GITS) for DreamWorks Pictures. Kalogridis certainly understands the idea of a mechanically altered agent, since she was one of the producers and writers on the short lived remake of THE BIONIC WOMAN for Universal/NBC. Her grasp of female heroines is strong as seen with her writing for The WB’s BIRDS OF PREY. Her biggest job to date was the upcoming SHUTTER ISLAND. She’s taking over the job of writer on this project from Jamie Moss, who originally was pulled on to write.

The live action feature is going to be produced by Avi Arad and shot in 3D. No director has been hired yet, but in a back and forth twitter conversation with Duncan Jones, I discovered he has a love for the characters and material. Jones stated “If I was ever going to act, I would want to play Batou (One of the characters from the series)… lol,” He continued with “(GHOST IN THE SHELL) is one of the few sci-fi things I haven’t written myself that I would love to do.” Personally after seeing MOON I think he’s the right man for the job.

GHOST IN THE SHELL is the extremely popular series from Japan which tells the story of special police agent Motoko Kusanagi. Kusanagi was hurt very badly as a little girl and had to have her body replaced with a completely synthetic one. She later became a member of an elite squad of special agents called Section 9. By her side at all times is Batou, another synthetic cop who got his own film in GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE.

GHOST IN THE SHELL’ was created by Masamune Shirow, in 1989 and still holds up today. It’s first anime film hit theaters in 1995 in Japan and later that year in America. It’s spawned multiple games and another anime TV series that broke away from the regular story line to tell a new one about cyber terrorism. GITS is almost directly responsible for influencing a lot of cyber-punk media including THE MATRIX.

I personally can’t wait for this film to hit, but some of Kalogridis’ work is a little shaky and corny. I’d like a more established set of hands on the project, otherwise we may end up with another DRAGON BALL: EVOLUTION.

Screenwriter Tapped for GHOST IN THE SHELL Reworking

ghost in the shell

Being one of only a handful of Japanese anime feature films I have seen (and one of even fewer that I even halfway liked), GHOST IN THE SHELL is a brilliant film.  Under the direction of Mamoru Oshii, it features stunning visuals and a complex narrative that, unlike a lot of anime, doesn’t lose you halfway through if you aren’t taking notes.  So, it pains me to hear that DreamWorks is moving forward with their proposed, live action remake.

Variety is reporting the studio has brought in Laeta Kalogridis to adapt the animated film into a live-action, 3-D feature.  It was announced back in April of 2008 that DreamWorks had picked up the rights to the property, and Jamie Moss had been brought in to pen the screenplay.  There is no word what happened with Moss’ involvement on the project or how far into the screenwriting of the film he got.

Kalogridis previously worked on the screenplays for ALEXANDER, Timur Bekmambetov’s NIGHT WATCH, PATHFINDER, and SHUTTER ISLAND.  A timetable for production or release of GHOST IN THE SHELL has not been announced.

‘Demonkeeper’ Scares up a Director

demonkeeper Fox 2000 purchased the rights to ‘Demonkeeper’ even before Puffin published the book. The studio is developing a live-action feature film adaptation of Royce Buckingham’s novel ‘Demonkeeper’. Sam Fell, whose work includes the animated films ‘The Tale of Despereaux’ and ‘Flushed Away’, has been selected to direct the movie.

Story follows a Seattle teen who inherits responsibility for a house filled with demons. When the youth finally breaks free of his charges to go on a date, he returns to discover that kids have broken into the house, unleashing its most vicious demon, the Beast, Killer of Lost Children. — Variety

While this is yet another crossover movie for an animated director to take on a live-action film, it does have a good side… Laeta Kalogridis (Pathfinder) is writing the screenplay. His best work is possibly yet to come, having written ‘Shutter Island’ for Martin Scorsese and ‘Battle Angel’ for James Cameron. The story sounds cool and while it could make a neat dark movie for kids both young and old, the concern with these kinds of movies is always one of whether the studio will dumb it down and lighten it up, maintaining the false belief that kid’s can’t handle darker subject matter.

[source: Variety]