roland emmerich
MIDWAY: The Official Trailer For Roland Emmerich’s Explosive WWII Epic Hits Online Shores
If there’s anyone who can possibly take the helm for a sprawling war epic (one that doesn’t necessarily have to involve Earth-shattering events and overzealous alien conquests), Roland Emmerich may certainly be that guy, and he’s working at proving so with a November release set for his ensemble-cast dramatic period thriller, Midway.
Bona To Lead Investment In WWII Epic, MIDWAY; Roland Emmerich To Direct
Fresh out of Cannes Bona Film Group will lead the investment on renowned director Roland Emmerich’s new World War II epic, Midway for The Mark Gordon Company. Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012, 10,000 B.C., Independence Day: Resurgence) will direct the film from a script by Wes Tooke, inspired by the true story of the Battle of Midway – a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II in June of 1942.
As the logline reads: “The story follows the real soldiers and aviators who pulled off the unbelievable to turn the tide of the war.” Bona will also release the film in China and has retained worldwide distribution rights excluding the U.S.. Bona founder, chairman and CEO Yu Dong will produce the film with Emmerich, as will MGC’s own Mark Gordon and Matt Jackson, and producer Harald Kloser. MGC’s Josh Clay Phillips will oversee on behalf of the company.
The film marks another partnership for Emmerich and the Mark Gordon Company following Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, and also adds another notch to Bona’s purview for international business development; Dong himself has amassed notoriety as one of China’s foremost senior filmmakers and has overseen the production of two of Emmerich’s aforementioned titles, as well as over 260 others including The Martian, X-Men: Apocalypse, Alien Covenant and Matt Reeves’s upcoming War For The Planet Of The Apes.
Emmerich and Kloser are represented by CAA and Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman.
Tooke, whose credits include serving as a writer and producer on USA Network’s Colony and Amazon’s upcoming series Jean-Claude Van Johnson, is represented by WME, Rain Management Group and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols & Adler.
CAA brokered the deal and will represent Midway‘s U.S. distribution rights.
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 Gets A Greenlight
The 1996 release of director Roland Emmerich‘s summer blockbuster, Independence Day, has to be one of the most memorable movie going experiences I’ve ever shared. It had all the trimmings for the hit that it would become, with actor Will Smith headlining alongside the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman in an action adventure packed with dogfight among fighter jets and alien crafts, coupled with perfectly-timed humor and drama, and an explosive ending that would ultimately garner what many have hoped would be an immediate sequel.
Well, it’s finally happening. It only took about eighteen years to make happen with plenty of stops and starts, but a new report from Deadline confirms a sequel has been officially greenlit for production to begin next May without Smith’s reprisal. A June 24, 2016 date has been clocked for the film, which has since been resigned to one movie with a potential third, from what was announced earlier on as a twofer by 2016. Emmerich is likely to finalize his deal and return to the director’s chair, with a script by Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods, and a rewrite of an earlier draft from writer Carter Blanchard.
The news also comes just six months after Emmerich was announced to return for the first of a fresh new trilogy reboot of his 1994 blockbuster, Stargate, which should be some delightful news for sci-fi fans. Updates are still pending though, so we’ll learn more in due time what awaits moviegoers of the sci-fi kind in the next few years.
STARGATE Gets A Trilogy Reboot
Ever have a moment in your life when you realize a mistake has just come back to haunt you? Well, for me, it was never seeing Stargate when it came out back in 1994, with Kurt Russell and James Spader…well, at least not from start to finish anyway. But indeed, the film became a huge hit racking up nearly $200 million at the box office worldwide, spawning several TV shows, games, toys and much more in the years that followed.
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