[UPDATED] New Line delays It reboot indefinitely

Just a day after the announcement that director Cary Fukunaga had departed the reboot of It, the new adaptation of the Stephen King novel, has been shelved indefinitely.

The reboot was originally in production over at Warner Bros. before making the move to New Line Cinema and was intended by Fukunaga to be a two-part film event. Production was set to begin in June with Will Poulter starring as Pennywise the Clown, but it does not seem that it will happen at all. Fukunaga exited the project over the weekend citing scheduling along with rumors that he clashed with the studio over their desire to slash the budget.


Oh well. I didn't want this to happen anyway, so I can't say I'm upset. 




LOL/JK: It appears that in order to avoid an indefinite delay, the project is headed back over to Warner Bros. With this move the budget will remain intact and the setting will return to New York City and the two-script adaptation will also remain... so they say. Oh well. We can't win them all.

Cary Fukunaga exits the It reboot

Director Cary Fukunaga is apparently out of the It reboot according to sources close to New Line. A couple reasons are being cited including poor box office performance for Poltergeist as well as budget cuts at New Line. Also, the film shifting studios from Warner Bros. to New Line Cinema has also been mentioned.

This comes just a week or so after confirmation that Will Poulter was on board to portray Pennywise the Clown. The biggest thing up for conversation here is whether New Line will keep the film split into two parts as Fukunaga wanted. I would assume if they are experiencing budget issues they will try and keep production under wraps and only have one film.

To me, this just shows that this is yet another movie that shouldn't be happening. It doesn't need a reboot at all.

Will Poulter is the new Pennywise the Clown

We are in the midst of the new reboot of the Stephen King novel, It. The original television mini-series, starring Tim Curry, aired back in 1991 and sparked a fear of clowns within my age bracket. We now have confirmation that Will Poulter (We Are the Millers) has been cast as Pennywise, the role that Curry made iconic in the original miniseries.

It is coming to us in a two-part film adaptation and will be directed by Cary Fukunaga. Originally casting was leaning towards Ben Mendelsohn, but he was cast in Star Wars: Rogue One and it created a scheduling conflict that couldn't be rectified. Filming is set to begin this summer, so I'm sure we'll get a glimpse at the costume and makeup before too long. I don't hate this choice, but I don't know if he would have been the first actor to come to mind.

Matthew McConaughey sought after for The Stand

Warner Bros. is moving forward on a theatrical adaptation of the Stephen King novel, The Stand, and they apparently have their Randall Flagg picked out. The studio is perusing Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey for the main villain of the story.

The Stand was made into a four part, television mini-series back in 1994 and starred Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Shawnee Smith, Laura San Giacomo, and Jamey Sheridan. The role of Randall Flagg was portrayed by Jamey Sheridan.
The kicker with the potential casting of McConaughey is that director Josh Boone is evidently pushing for him to be cast in the role of Stu Redman, previously played by Gary Sinise. If McConaughey is interested and it fits into his schedule it looks like he will have a pretty tough choice to make.

This film adaptation of The Stand is sure to be on a fairly grand scale. Boone has already said he is planning on the film being 3 hours long and being R-rated. He also wants to put together an "A-list" cast, so it seems like Warner Bros. also has some decisions to make. Usually studios don't blow major money for R-rated horror films, but I think The Stand would be a good one to spend money on. It's a great story and it has a lot of potential to be a great film, although I do think this would be a great one to split into two films. I'm usually not a fan of the two-part movies, but this story is so complex that it really needs it. 

If you're unfamiliar with The Stand, it follows a group of survivors after a plague wipes out 99% of the population. An Antichrist-like figure, Randall Flagg, rises to power among the survivors as he attempts to lure them to Las Vegas so he can create his own version of a perfect civilization. The survivors are faced with the choice of following Flagg's path of darkness or the path of light led by a 108-year old woman named Mother Abigail. 

Mark Romanek to direct prequel to The Shining

Warner Bros. has hired Mark Romanek to direct Overlook Hotel. It will serve as a prequel to the horror classic, The Shining.

The prequel has been drafted by former Walking Dead showrunner Glenn Mazzarra and apparently his script is adapted from the original prologue written by Stephen King.King's prologue was cut from his novel just before it was published. It focuses on Bob T. Watson, a robber who was the hotel's first owner.
Romanek is no stranger to this sort of genre. His films include Never Let Me Go and One Hour Photo. However, he has mostly directed music videos and shorts. He's worked with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Madonna, Iggy Pop, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Fiona Apple, Linkin Park, and Coldplay. His music videos have always been considered visionary and very detailed. That includes setting a Guinness World Record alongside Michael Jackson for the most expensive music video ever made with "Scream." The video carried a $7 million price tag and was less than 5min long.
The first and most notable adaptation of King's novel was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1980 and starred Jack Nicholson. It followed a struggling writer who brought his family to the Overlook Hotel during the off-season. An evil presence in the hotel takes hold of him and he attacks his wife and his psychic son. One of the most celebrated aspects of The Shining is the mystery and the fact that the audience never quite has anything laid out for them. You are left guessing which makes everything very unsettling.

I think Romanek will do just fine, but he has a history of just walking away from projects. He was hired to direct The Wolfman and he suddenly left right before filming and he also departed from Disney's new adaptation of Cinderella due to creative differences. He is also no longer attached to Boston Strangler starring Casey Affleck. It's all good if he manages to stick around.

It returning to New Line Cinema

Warner Bros. has been in the process of developing a new adaptation of Stephen King's It for quite a few years now. The studio previously hired Cary Fukunaga, Seth Grahame-Smith, Dan Lin, and Roy Lee to create this adaptation. Fukunaga is coming off a very successful series for HBO (aka, True Detective) and as a result the adaptation of It is shifting studios... kind of.

New Line Cinema recently announced that they are moving from West Hollywood to Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and are trying to make it clear that each division will be releasing specific kinds of films. With films like The Conjuring it is becoming apparent that the money maker these days, other than superhero films, are horror films. It will apparently follow suit and focus more on thrills and psychological horror rather than the classic slasher film.
The semi-tricky part about this one is they are apparently writing this adaptation into two films. The first film will focus on the children who have to defeat a creature called It. The second film will focus on the kids as adults who have to come together once again despite not remembering the initial events.

It was adapted into a television mini-series back in 1990. It starred Tim Curry in the title role along with Seth Green, John Ritter, and Emily Perkins. It has become somewhat of a cult classic among the horror community and many, including myself, are pretty skeptical of redoing it.

Carrie - Review

In this revamp of the horror classic, a social outcast teenager is pushed to unleash her telekinetic powers onto her peers and her overbearing mother after being tricked for the last time at her senior prom in Carrie.


I wouldn't say that I was necessarily excited for Carrie, but I was looking forward to seeing it. First of all, the 1976 Carrie is by far one of my favorite movies. Not to mention the fact that I love the original book by Stephen King. I will admit that after seeing the first teaser I was a bit concerned and even after seeing the full trailer I wasn't too pro on this remake. However, I did say I would see it. Now that I have seen it I wouldn't say it was completely atrocious, but it was pretty darn bad.

I want to start off by saying something that I said a long time ago: Chloe Moretz is too pretty to be Carrie White. Seriously, she is a really cute girl and appears to be very lively. Carrie is not lively and is supposed to be fairly plain and not necessarily pretty. This was an issue for me throughout the entire movie. Even when they attempted to make Moretz appear plain and a little ragged it didn't work. If they were determined to put her in this movie I would have given her the role of Sue Snell. But she was Carrie and I wouldn't say she did a terrible job but she wasn't on par with what she has done in the past. I have a fairly high expectation from Chloe Moretz because she is that good. In this movie I think she was held back and it was an unfortunate case of bad direction and a poor script. Her sweetness is believable and even the creepiness, but for some reason it didn't all come together. She was definitely just out of her element.
Julianne Moore did a fantastic job, though. She played Margaret White wonderfully. Not the same as Piper Laurie, obviously, but she did it good. As for the rest of the cast I wouldn't compliment any of them, especially Judy Greer. I really like Greer and I think she is a great comic actress, but she was so bland and flat in this movie. Comparing her to the original gym teacher played by Betty Buckley it was borderline insulting. Billy Nolan was a waste of a character in this one, too. Alex Russell probably has a grand total of 5min of screentime.
As far as direction goes, I think Kimberly Peirce really missed the mark here. She was coming off a great movie with Boys Don't Cry, but I have to remind myself that was 14 years ago already. Peirce hasn't directed since 2008 with the military drama Stop-Loss and I'm beginning to think there is a reason she only has three major films under her belt.
One thing that I thought would bother me that surprisingly didn't was bringing the story into the present day. Yes, the kids had cell phones and video cameras and the cliques were a lot more pronounced but I wouldn't say it didn't work. I thought it worked pretty well. The beginning "plug it up" scene played into the whole movie due to the fact that Chris Hargensen recorded everything on her cell phone and posted it online. It brought it up to the times and it was believable.

Now I must mention what really irked me and unfortunately there are spoilers, so if you haven't seen Carrie yet and don't want to know... go away and come back after you've seen it!








Last chance.

Carrie receives an R-rating

This isn't surprising. The upcoming reboot of Carrie starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore has received an R-rating. Carrie surprisingly is October's only wide release horror film, so it is a bit curious that it will be R-rated due to the fact that it will most likely mean lower box office numbers. However, we all saw with The Conjuring that an R-rating doesn't necessarily mean the kiss of death. But when you think of it, seeing that Carrie is the only October horror release I think people will see it regardless just because it's Halloween season. There aren't Saw movies anymore and this year won't have a new Paranormal Activity movie.
Carrie is set to hit on October 18th and is the newest adaptation of Stephen King's 1974 novel which was his first published. However, most people recognize the 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. It later brought on a 1999 sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2, and a 2002 made for television adaptation. Neither were very good, but what can you do.

Comic-Con banner for Carrie is pretty solid

From what I understand, there isn't going to be a panel for Carrie seeing that it had a presence at 2012's Comic-Con because the original release date was this past March, but it looks as though they are still going to use the promotional opportunity.

Carrie opens on October 18 and stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore.

New image for Carrie in time for Comic-Con

Thanks to Comic-Con we are getting tons of new images from movies and television. One movie that is rolling out some new stuff is Carrie starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore.

Carrie is due out on October 18th and will have a panel on Saturday, July 20th at San Diego Comic-Con.

[Updated with trailer] Carrie trailer to screen before Evil Dead

Keep your eyes open!

The Carrie trailer is also supposed to debut online sometime today so when I get a chance I will update this post with a link.


[Update] - Here is the first trailer for Carrie. It debuted today on Yahoo! Movies

It doesn't look as good as I was hoping for, but it doesn't look like a total loss. They obviously modernized the shit out of it, as well. Eh... what can you do. I'll still see it. 

First teaser trailer for Carrie debuts

I am excited for Carrie but this isn't a very good teaser, imo. The teaser for Evil Dead beat this one and I didn't think I would have ever said that. Here's to hoping the full length trailer is more exciting.

First images of Carrie via EW

Entertainment Weekly is set to release the first images of the Carrie reboot starring Chloe Moretz in their upcoming issue, but they have kindly posted the photos online first. I'm happy with this so far so hopefully it isn't disappointing.

First set photo from Carrie feat. Chloe Moretz

Production for the upcoming reboot of Carrie has begun in Toronto, Canada and we already have our first set photo of Chloe Moretz.

Judy Greer confirmed for role in Carrie

It was rumored a while back that Judy Greer was in talks to play the gym teacher, Miss Desjardin, in the upcoming reboot of Carrie but it wasn't confirmed. We now have confirmation that Greer has indeed landed the role. It was also confirmed that Portia Doubleday (I know her from Youth in Revolt) will play Carrie's main rival Chris Hargensen. Other casting confirmations we have so far are Chloe Moretz, Julianne Moore, Alex Russell, and Ansel Elgort.

I think the casting is shaping up nicely. I really like Judy Greer and have seen her in numerous things. This might be good.

Julianne Moore confirmed for Carrie

Julianne Moore has been confirmed for the upcoming reboot of Carrie and will indeed be playing the role of Carrie's mother, Mrs. White. Chloe Moretz has been cast as the title role of Carrie.

I touched on this back in April (http://fort-kick-ass.blogspot.com/2012/04/julianne-moore-in-talks-for-carrie.html) and I said that casting Julianne Moore as Carrie's mother confused me. I kind of am retracting that statement. I think this will be a good thing. I really love Julianne Moore and I remembered that she is fully capable of playing a crazy bitch and doing it quite well. Yes, Jodie Foster would have been great but oh well.
They are also trying to cast the role of Sue Snell and an actress named Gabrielle Wilde. I personally don't know who she is so I will have to look her up if she is cast.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3142385/carrie-remake-confirms-julianne-moore-gets-close-to-gabriella-wilde/

Carrie reboot could be filmed found footage style

MGM CEO Roger Birnbaum dropped some hints at University of Denver this week (about 25 min from me ffs) about upcoming MGM projects including the Carrie reboot starring Chloe Moretz in the title role. Apparently the reboot might be filmed in a found footage style either fully or partially.
If you don't know what found footage is, it basically is the element of a found home movie. Most scenes are done in one cut and have more of a documentary feel to them. Many recent movies have used the format such as Chronicle, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, Quarantine, REC, The Last Exorcism, Apollo 18, Project X, etc..

Um... the fuck? I understand they are trying to modernize it but I don't really see how this is possible. Unless by modernizing they are going to use the element of cell phone cameras during the prom scene, or something. I don't know if I like this.


http://collider.com/carrie-remake-found-footage-poltergeist-sam-raimi/162451/

Carrie release date set

We will have the newest reboot of Carrie in less than a year. The release date for the remake is set for March 15, 2013. As I have previously posted the lead role will be played by Chloe Moretz and it will be directed by Kimberly Peirce.

One thing I want to know about as casting begins to role out... cameos? I would love that.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/224625/carrie-burns-down-theaters-march-15-2013/