This one already comes with its own heartthrob in the form of Brad Pitt.
The company has picked up "Vlad," a script by actor Charlie Hunnam, and is in negotiations with music video and photographer Anthony Mandler to direct the project. Pitt is producing, not acting, with Dede Gardner via the duo's Plan B Entertainment production shingle.
"Vlad" centers on Dracula as a young prince; he is known to history as Vlad the Impaler, the man behind the Dracula myth.
Summit picked up "Vlad" awhile ago, developing it quietly, but when execs saw Mandler's reel, the project got a shot in the arm.
Mandler is a music-video director who has worked with Rhianna (helming 10 of her videos), the Killers and Eminem. Execs were wowed by the reel he prepared, which drew comparisons to Zack Snyder and his work on "300"; Summit tried to land the latter project before it ultimately was made at Warner Bros.
With "Vlad," Summit hopes to make a visually edgy and radical period movie that also will break a new talent.
Mandler will oversee a polish of the script.
Summit president of production Erik Feig and vp production Meredith Milton are overseeing the project. Jeremy Kleiner will oversee for Plan B.
Hunnam stars in FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” recently picked up for a third season, and is shooting “The Ledge,” which Matthew Chapman is directing and stars Peter Sarsgaard, Evan Rachel Wood and Terrence Howard. He is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Mandler, repped by UTA and Management 360, is also developing "Allegra" with Gregory David Roberts, the author of "Shantaram."
Activision Publishing, maker of the hit videogame "Band Hero," is standing up to the band No Doubt with a new countersuit alleging breach of contract.
In an answer and counterclaim filed last week, Activision accuses the band of failing to do its due diligence on the videogame before signing away its digital likeness, breaching a contract to provide marketing and promotion to the game, and being unjustly enriched by their inclusion in the game.
Last month, No Doubt set the stage for a very interesting court fight with Activision.
The band was unhappy that "Band Hero" allowed game-players to manipulate avatars to engage in unapproved acts, from having a Gwen Stefani virtual character perform the Rolling Stone's "Honky Tonk Woman" in a male voice to making band members do unrealistic dance moves. In a claim in federal court, the band asserted that its agreement with Activision granting publicity rights didn't cover these unanticipated features.
The game publisher admits that "Band Hero" allows players to "unlock" in-game characters in a variety of ways, but it says these features have been "publicly known" since the "Guitar Hero" franchise first appeared in 2005. The band participated in the motion-capture production process for the game, says Activision.
So who is breaching the contract?
Activision says it's No Doubt, by failing to live up to contractual obligations to promote the game. Since the band is allegedly failing in that regard, Activision believes that No Doubt has "obtained benefits from its inclusion" in the game and wants the band to disgorge all payments and pay damages.
Warner Bros. will release the next two "Harry Potter" films in 3D, a move underscoring the post-"Avatar" rush for extra-dimensional boxoffice.
Studio executives on lots around town have been scrutinizing film slates for opportunities to expand forays into 3D releasing. Warners has been testing footage from its upcoming "Clash of the Titans" -- converted into 3D by an outside vendor -- and the tests have gone so well that execs have decided to release not only "Titans" but also the two-part "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 3D.
Warners refused to confirm the decisions Tuesday, but an announcement on "Titans" -- a co-production with Legendary Pictures -- is expected by week's end. Official word on the "Potter" pics also is awaited.
Conversion expenses have been coming down, so each film will cost just $5 million to change into 3D. Warners also will absorb an additional $5 million expense per pic to pay for 3D glasses for exhibitors handling the movies.
In a related move, Warners will push back the release of "Titans" one week to April 2. "Deathly Hallows: Part I" is set to unspool Nov. 19, and "Part II" is slotted for July 15, 2011.
The only previous "Potter" pic to dabble in 3D was last year's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which included brief footage viewable in 3D in Imax venues. It was unclear whether "Potter" author J.K. Rowling had to OK the move into the third dimension.
As for the impact on boxoffice prospects for the final two "Potter" sequels, consider the more imminent situation with "Titans."
A remake of a 1981 film starring Laurence Olivier, "Titans" previously might have been expected to fetch no more than $200 million domestically, and even that was an aggressive projection. Released in 3D, Warners figures to reap well north of $200 million, with 2007's $211 million domestic grosser "300" considered a beatable benchmark.
"Titans" in 3D also is considered a safe bet to best the $245 million in foreign coin that Warners fetched with "300."
The "Titans" move is not without risk. The installed base of 3D movie screens has been growing rapidly, but it's not sufficient to release the film entirely in 3D.
That should be less of a concern by the time the next "Potter" hits multiplexes. But execs also are quietly confident of getting enough 3D playdates for "Titans."
"I would not think it would be an issue to establish ourselves in the 3D marketplace with 'Titans,' " a studio insider said. "By sliding it back a week, we should at least have enough screens in the major markets."
Warners should secure upward of 1,000 playdates for "Titans," which will unspool a week after Paramount bows DreamWorks Animation's spring tentpole "How to Train Your Dragon."
The "Titans" move might spur further reshuffling in the spring release calendar, as its new date makes for a fifth wide opener set for Easter weekend, which historically is a solid boxoffice session but hardly one to support that many big pics.
Other wide openers set for April 2 include Fox's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," a likely PG-rated film adapted from a book series popular with middle-schoolers; Disney's PG-rated Miley Cyrus starrer "The Last Song," adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel; Universal's futuristic action thriller "Repo Men," starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker; and Lionsgate's latest Tyler Perry pic, "Why Did I Get Married Too?"
Meantime, the move of "Potter" into the extra dimension could prompt other high-profile moves. Could a 3D James Bond loom?
Warners' decision with its "Potter" franchise is likely at least to prompt 3D discussions between MGM and 007 producers. But unlike Warners' incremental move with the "Potter" franchise -- going with full-on 3D only after an initial foray into partial Imax 3D -- Lion execs would be starting at square one in talks on Bond.
Still, there is the siren call of those extra-dimensional dollars -- and other 3D currencies. In addition to lusting after "Avatar"-like boxoffice, industry execs have taken note of how well 3D pics play overseas.
Warners 3D horror pic "The Final Destination" overperformed internationally this summer, and Sony's 2D "Zombieland" did less than one-fourth as well overseas as domestically a few months later.
Perhaps by no coincidence, Sony might send "Spider-Man" into the third dimension with the webslinger's next pic.
In this corner is Guy Ritchie, master of visual con-game action movies that tend toward all-style-no-substance. In that corner is Sherlock Holmes, the cerebral master sleuth who solves crimes with quiet deduction, intense concentration and a seven-percent solution. It's no contest: The winner is Ritchie in a pyrotechnical knockout.
"Sherlock Holmes" goes wrong in many ways except for one -- at the boxoffice. Credit action uber-producer Joel Silver for recognizing that the only way to revive Sherlock Holmes for contemporary audiences is by turning him into Jason Bourne and hiring someone like Ritchie to overload the senses with chases, fights, effects, editing, bombastic noise and music. Warner Bros. should have a large hit this holiday season with "(Not) Sherlock Holmes."
Even the Holmes/Watson pairing is odd, but if the film concentrated at all on character, it might have worked. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law certainly don't fit previous castings, which is fine, only they're a little too much alike. Both are glib, smart, good-looking guys and fine actors of about the same age and build. If Downey would hand his pipe to Law, they could switch roles from scene to scene.
The two banter a lot with faux hostility, which adds little to what the film takes for wit and subtracts a good deal from whatever suspense the action is meant to generate. If the protagonists crack wise, what danger can they possibly be in?
Each is given a love interest of sorts: Kelly Reilly as Watson's fiancee, who doesn't much care for his pal, and Rachel McAdams as "the only woman ever to have bested Holmes." All of which might have been interesting if the women didn't disappear for chunks of the movie.
The plot? Wish you hadn't asked. One is not meant to completely understand it, of course; you never do in a Ritchie movie. McAdams' Irene Adler drops by Baker Street when Holmes is in one of his stir-crazy fits -- this happens whenever he's between cases. She pays him to find a missing midget.
Before Holmes can say, "The game's afoot," he and a reluctant Watson are ensnared with ritualistic murders, black magic, a diabolical magician (Mark Strong), a resurrection from the grave and an attack on Parliament right out of the Gunpower Plot of 1605. All that's missing is Guy Fawkes.
As is Ritchie's signature style, as fast as the movie flies by, it can abruptly freeze and backtrack to show audiences what they missed but Holmes did not: the muddy boot, a key dropped into a shirt, a blank bullet slipped into a gun chamber. Or the film can flash ahead, as in a completely gratuitous bare-knuckle fight Holmes engages in, where he imagines in slow and stop motion the next one-two-three moves that will cripple his opponent.
The sets and CGI backdrops give Ritchie a post-Industrial Revolution London of grimy backstreets, congested thoroughfares and a bustling, bridge-building riverfront that's an ancestor to the milieu for his modern gangster films. Philippe Rousselot's cinematography smoothy marries the various components, the great matte shots and CGI into a smart-looking film.
Hans Zimmer has composed better film scores but none noisier than this one. It begins with banging drums, then descends into a cacophony of sounds from furious fiddles to Irish airs. This film is never quiet.
It also doesn't operate at less than warp speed. So there is no time for Downey and Law to develop anything more than a jaunty repartee. Because this is Holmes and Watson we clearly haven't met before, one wonders: How did they meet and why is Watson's medical practice in Holmes' Baker Street flat? What binds them together other than this being a buddy movie?
Downey plays the detective as if he were -- and there are literary grounds for this -- under the influence of any number of substances. He treats the world as a reality belonging to others but not his, one where he might investigate its phenomenon but never get much involved.
Law's Watson pleads for a normal life that would include a wife and his own domicile but acts more like a confirmed bachelor. Yes, their relationship does have a latent homoerotic undertone.
McAdams and Reilly do well with thinly written roles, delivering enough energy and wit to give their few scenes a spark. Strong makes a menacing presence -- something like a Bond villain, two dimensional yet memorable -- and Eddie Marsan has fun with Holmes' long-suffering Scotland Yard counterpart, Inspector Lestrade.
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