sony pictures
[UPDATED] WB & Sony Currently Bidding For Rights To THE FOREVER WAR, Channing Tatum To Star
The 1974 novel of a young man conscripted into a military task force in a war against an alien species named the Taurans. Through many battles, the man rises up the ranks of the military but travelling through space has time-warping effects, causing him to age normally but Earth to spin centuries.
James Wan Is In Talks To Direct ROBOTECH For Sony
It wasn’t until February this year, eight years after sitting in limbo, that Warner Bros. decided to pick up the base on adapting the 1985 Harmony Gold USA/Tatsunuko Productions hybrid animated series, Robotech, for a live-action production via their Hollywood Gang banner. While the production has since switched hands over to Sony Pictures last month, a director was still being sought for with Mama helmer Andy Muschietti in talks at the time, but the prospects have only been greater as at least one director has shot his way to several commercial and critical milestones in the last four weeks, ultimately getting the studio’s attention.
With this, we now pan over to Furious Seven director James Wan, better known for his principle work on the horror genre with the 2004 thriller, Saw as well as Insidious 1 and 2, The Conjuring and its forthcoming sequel, with a noteworthy mention of his 2007 revenge pic, Death Sentence. Of course, its the former that has gotten Sony’s attention making certain to bring Wan to the table now with the hopes that he’ll take to task with Robotech, according to Deadline. Producers Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari are on board with a script by 300 scribe Michael Gordon centered on two young pilots who, with the help of giant robots crafted from crash-landed alien technology, become Earth’s last hope against waves of attacks from intergalactic warriors looking to retrieve their flagships energy source, “the protoculture”. Sony Pictures Entertainment Group President Doug Belgrad, Columbia Pictures Production Chief Michael De Luca, and Sony Pictures Vice President of Creative Production Matthew Milam are overseeing.
Wan‘s success rides on a wave of support from fans this Spring with the turnout for Furious Seven to the tune of well-over a billion dollars, breaking box-office records in the U.S. and abroad, and even beating out Disney’s animated feature, Frozen within its first few weeks, and for this, Wan has plenty of options on the table.
The director is currently attached to the development of a live-action graphic novel adaptation of Malignant Man for Fox as of last year, and as of earlier this month, is in the running for Warner Bros.’s DC property, Aquaman for which Jason Momoa is expected to star. Of course, another option is to return to Universal Pictures for the pending follow-up, the tentatively-titled Furious 8, which made headlines this month at CinemaCon where franchise star, actor Vin Diesel announced its release date for April 14, 2017.
Stay tuned for more info!
OPINION: Too Many Robins Spoil The Soup
What do Warner Bros., Sony, Disney, and Lionsgate have in common nowadays?
Sony Announces Development For A GHOSTBUSTERS Movieverse For Channing Tatum And Chris Pratt To Star
It took a bit of evolving in the course of a few hours, but the word is that actor Chris Pratt is possibly on deck to join Channing Tatum in their own all-male Ghostbusters film for Tatum to produce for Captain America: The Winter Soldier helmers Anthony and Joe Russo on board to direct with a script by Iron Man 3-scribe Drew Pearce. That film is being reported as one of four universal films conjoined by Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters movie which is releasing in July of next year as both will tie in to a third followed by a fourth in the form a prequel.
These efforts come courtesy of the respective director and co-star of the original, Ivan Reitman and Dan Ackroyd who are now heading what THR cites as a “Ghost Corps” to help write and develop these films over at Sony while they plot a course for all four films. It’s actually funny to be honest; Hours earlier on Monday I was just speaking with my friend Keith Hayward about who the folks at DMG and Valiant would line-up to direct some of their films following their most recent announcement on Sunday night and I threw in the Russos’ as an option not knowing they would make more headlines this week. Silly me.
It took some effort as some of the headlines that were breaking had mildly misrepresented the facts by not mentioning there was a whole cinematic universe in the works a la Avengers, a fact Collider helped make clear via Badass Digest on Monday. Well, aside from last year’s e-mail leaks, at least we now have an update that confirms just what it is we’ll be in for, although I’m personally waiting for what lies ahead for Pratt and the Russos’, including their future with the MCU through 2019, in addition to Tatum’s Marvel debut as Gambit.
As for Sony’s Ghostbusters plans, let’s hope they don’t fall apart like their plans did for Amazing Spider-Man. So many moving pieces… *sigh*
Sony To Head Female Superhero Movie Development For 'Spider-Man' Franchise
Sony Pictures’s current success of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise has played a major role in branching into its own universe with the forthcoming production of The Sinister Six, with at least two more movies featuring the classic wall-crawling character. That said, with the prominence of female characters and overall impact of women in comic book and movie lore, it appears Sony Pictures has heard the call to take its creativity in another direction.
Sony has officially undergone efforts to revamp the Spider-Man film franchise to work on a female superheroine to the big screen, according to a new report from Deadline. The report says Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, the producers behind director Drew Goddard’s spin-off project, The Sinister Six, are producing the female-centered film which is being written by Lisa Joy Nolan. Details are yet to determine which character the new film will focus on, although the listed contenders are Spider-Woman, Black Cat, Sable, Stunner and Firestar, among others. Ironically, a report arrived earlier this year that Marvel was supposedly developing a Spider-Woman film franchise with actress Vanessa Hudgens attached. This could be the very same project as these development periods span pretty lengthily, but nothing has since been confirmed.
Sony has dated the film for a 2017 release, placing the film after its November 11, 2016 date for the currently-developing Sinister Six film. In the meantine, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has since been moved back to a to-be-announced 2018 date, with the fourth still awaiting further updates.
Goddard is also producing the new 2015 Daredevil series for Netflix with Steven DeKnight as the series’ showrunner.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Is Zooming To The Big Screen!
Anyone here grow up playing Sonic The Hedgehog on SEGA back in the 1990’s? I did, and loved every minute of my childhood because of it. As for the animated television shows that were popular at the time, I wasn’t too keen on those. But, I was always curious as to what a live-action project would look like.
I suppose that would take a bit more effort than an animation would, which is..well.. sort of the route that Sony Pictures seems to be going with its latest press release announcing the development of a feature film.
Check out the info below, and expect some casting surprises in the coming months!
CULVER CITY, Calif., June 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marza Animation Planet, a CG animation film production company of the SEGA SAMMY Group, today announced a partnership to develop a film based on the acclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. A hybrid CG-animated/live-action feature, the movie will be written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux and produced by Neal H. Moritz through his Original Film banner, along with Marza’s Takeshi Ito and Mie Onishi. Toby Ascher will serve as an executive producer
The film will look to capture Sonic’s irreverent tone and spirit, reuniting him with some of the most revered and infamous characters of the franchise, including the evil Dr. Eggman. Playful, mischievous, and quick on his feet in more ways than one, the world’s fastest hedgehog is known for his ability to move at supersonic speed to protect his friends from their enemies. For more than two decades, Sonic has been one of the world’s biggest gaming icons and a $1 billion franchise with more than 140 million games sold
Commenting on the announcement, Hannah Minghella, Columbia Pictures’ president of Production said, “There are limitless stories to tell with a character like Sonic the Hedgehog, and a built-in international fan base. Along with our wonderful creative partners at Marza, we’re looking to capture everything that generations of fans know and love about Sonic while also growing his audience wider than ever before.”
Marza Animation Planet CEO Masanao Maeda added, “Sonic has had dozens of adventures on the console and the small screen, and we’re thrilled that he’s now coming to the big screen. Sony Pictures has had great success with hybrid animated and live-action features, and we’re confident that this collaboration will bring a fresh take to Sonic, while still capturing everything that the fans love about him.”
Marza is a leading CG animation production company with the vision to create films to the global market from Japan, by combining global storytelling and Japanese creativity. It plans to release one feature-length film each year.
Hannah Minghella and Andrea Giannetti will oversee for Sony Pictures Entertainment.