Technical issues prevented the Weekly Ketchup from appearing on the site last week (2/27/09), so here it is for your reading enjoyment:
This week's top headlines include three remakes, two biopics, one each of the obligatory sequels and comic book properties and an astounding nine movies costarring Samuel L. Jackson.
#1 TOTAL RECALL TO GET TOTALLY REMADE
Hollywood's remake frenzy is starting to run out of 1980s movies, and so the trend is inching its way into the 1990s, with 1990's Total Recall being one of the highest-profile and successful movies ($261 million worldwide gross) to be announced this year as getting a redo. Columbia Pictures and producer Neil H. Moritz are developing the new Total Recall, which is also based upon the story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," by the late Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly). Moritz is the producer behind a few other remakes as well, like I Am Legend, Prom Night and the upcoming 21 Jump Street and Flash Gordon projects. Total Recall is the story of a man in 2084 who buys memories of a vacation on Mars, in which he is a spy trying to overthrow the government, but things get all jumbled up, basically, as he has to figure out what is real or fantasy: his new life or his old one? Columbia is touting the new special effects that are possible nearly 20 years later, which is especially interesting because at the time Total Recall was the most expensively budgeted movie ever, so Columbia has to be thinking about how CGI can perhaps keep the budget a bit trimmer this time around. In other Philip K. Dick news, another movie based on one of his stories, The Adjustment Bureau (based on The Adjustment Team), is being shopped around Hollywood (
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000550.html ), with Matt Damon attached to star, and screenwriter George Nolfi (Ocean's Twelve, The Sentinel) expected to make his directorial debut from his own script. The Adjustment Bureau is described as a sci-fi romance about a man who discovers that Earth is one big soundstage controlled by strange outside forces, and Nolfi hopes to start filming by late summer, 2009.
#2 JIM CARREY AND JAKE GYLLENHAAL DOING THE SONG AND DANCE THING IN DAMN YANKEES
Sunday night at the Oscars (and seven years after Chicago was a big Oscar winner), Hugh Jackman proclaimed that the musical is back. Apparently New Line Cinema, which produced Hairspray is eager to continue the comeback, as this week, Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal signed on (
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000631.html ) to star in a movie revival of Damn Yankees, the 1955 Broadway hit about baseball fandom that was made into a 1958 movie starring Tab Hunter, Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon. Damn Yankees is about a fan (Gyllenhaal) of a baseball team (the Washington Senators, which no longer exist, in the 1950s versions) who makes a deal with the Devil (Carrey), who transforms him into a great player so that his team can win. This new version of Damn Yankees is being written by the comedy team of Lowel Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, whose filmography includes two previous baseball comedies: Fever Pitch and A League of Their Own.
#3 THE NEVERENDING STORY STILL NEVERENDING
Warner Bros is teaming up (
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...6ab15e86a4f615 ) with The Kennedy/Marshall Co (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way to develop a modern take on the 1984 children's fantasy movie, The NeverEnding Story, based upon the German novel (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverending_story ) by Michael Ende, about a boy who finds himself in a magical world. Although there is no script yet, this new version is expected to "examine the more nuanced details of the book that were glossed over in the first pic." Although I often cast a skeptical eye towards remakes, I think this is an example of one that actually makes a lot of sense, as the original movie is not universally regarded as being entirely perfect (though I'm sure its fans will disagree with me there), and the special effects that are possible 25 years later could be used to greatly enhance the experience.
#4 SAMUEL L. JACKSON SIGNS UNPRECEDENTED DEAL WITH MARVEL STUDIOS
The casting process for Iron Man 2 has been somewhat rocky, first with Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard, then with Emily Blunt dropping out to play Natasha/Black Widow, and continuing question marks about whether Mickey Rourke will or will not be costarring as one of the villains. One of those issues was resolved in a huge way this week, however, as Samuel L. Jackson signed on (
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...79d4a806b64e68 ) for what I am pretty sure is an unprecedented nine movie deal with Marvel Studios, ending concerns that he might have to drop out of playing Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in future Marvel movies. The nine movies include Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers, and a sequel for each of those four movies, plus a ninth possible movie in the form of a previously unannounced S.H.I.E.L.D. movie. Something else that makes this deal particularly interesting is the scoop at CHUD (
http://chud.com/articles/articles/18...ING/Page1.html ) that suggests that Jackson's nine picture deal will be used as a model for other roles, which gives Marvel the latitude to use an increasingly large stable of characters in their movies, truly recreating the Marvel Universe on the big screen.
#5 EDDIE MURPHY TO PAY THE ULTIMATE HOMAGE TO RICHARD PRYOR
Writer/director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters) is shopping to studios (
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/...ondon-sho.html ) a biopic of the great groundbreaking comedians, Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?, with Eddie Murphy attached to star. Fox Searchlight is reportedly particularly interested in the project. Richard Pryor himself actually made a movie that was inspired by his life story, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling in 1986. However, this project has a lot of promise to be something really special, as it is brilliant casting for Eddie Murphy to portray Richard Pryor, who in many ways paved the way for Murphy's pre-kiddie-movie career as a stand up comic. I'd even go so far as to say that this just might be Murphy's chance to get another shot at Oscar recognition, considering that it was Condon's Dreamgirls that did the job of getting him nominated his first time.
#6 WILL FERRELL AND MARK WAHLBERG'S PLANS COME TOGETHER IN THE B TEAM
With 20th Century Fox's The A-Team finally coming to theaters next summer, Sony Pictures has picked up (
http://www.variety.com/VR1118000606.html ) a buddy cop action comedy pitch called The B Team, which will star Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Frequent Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay (Step Brothers, Talladega Nights, Anchorman) will be directing from a script he is cowriting with Chris Henchy, cowriter of this summer's Land of the Lost, which also stars Will Ferrell. There's no start date yet for the movie, but it is expected to be scheduled as soon as all of the elements (like the script and scheduling of the actors) can be put together.
#7 WB ROOTING FOR THE BAD GUYS WITH SUICIDE SQUAD
In 1986, DC Comics revived an old team name, Suicide Squad (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Squad ), as sort of a take on the classic WWII movie, The Dirty Dozen: a team of supervillains is recruited by the U.S. government to take on the wet work that no one else can do, as a way to pay off the sins of their crimes. As the name suggests, some of the villains often didn't survive their missions, often after somewhat redeeming their darker natures. And now, the basic concept is returning to the big screen, as Warner Bros is developing (
http://www.variety.com/VR1118000590.html ) a Suicide Squad movie. Justin Marks (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li), who is becoming something of a golden boy of action movie scripts (Masters of the Universe, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo) is writing. In particular, a Justin Marks script for WB that has to be seen as a sister project to Suicide Squad is Super Max, which is the movie about Green Arrow being wrongly imprisoned at a special high security prison for super villains. Suicide Squad is expected to feature a mix of well-known villains and some that will be more obscure to the average non-comics fan.
#8 NAOMI WATTS: VALERIE PLAME AND WOODY ALLEN'S NEXT-AFTER-NEXT
Australian actress Naomi Watts had a busy week, signing on to star in both Fair Game (
http://www.variety.com/VR1118000481.html ), the movie about exposed C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_plame ), and in Woody Allen's next movie (
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000471.html ) after Whatever Works, starring Larry David. Likely to also star in Fair Game is Sean Penn as Plame's husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, in what will be his first landed job (if negotiations are successful) after winning his second Oscar Sunday night. Fair Game is the story of the events of what happened after Wilson wrote pieces critical of the Bush administration's justification for the invasion of Iraq, as his wife's identity as a C.I.A. operative was revealed, and Plame and Wilson subsequently sued high ranking officials including Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. Fair Game will be directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith). As for Naomi Watts' other new project, not much is known about Woody Allen's next-after-next movie, except that it will start filming in London this summer, and the cast also includes Josh Brolin, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Slumdog Millionaire star Friedo Pinto.
#9 FRIDAY THE 13TH SEQUEL: SATURDAY THE 14TH ALREADY DONE
After making $43 million in its opening weekend, it should come as no surprise that the Friday the 13th remake is getting a sequel (
http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/200...the-works.html ). New Line Cinema has hired that film's writers, Damion Shannon and Mark Swift (who also wrote Freddy Vs Jason together) to work on the next film, which in confusing Hollywood double speak is said to be "expected to be not a sequel so much as a follow-up." What they seem to mean is that the movie will continue the story from the remake, and not be a remake of sequels from the original line of Friday the 13th movies.
#10 ELIZA DUSHKU PRODUCING THE PERFECT MOMENT
Actress Eliza Dushku (Bring It On) got into the producer business with her new FOX show, Dollhouse, and is now taking on her first movie (
http://www.variety.com/VR1118000588.html ) with what will unquestionably a controversial subject matter: the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mapplethorpe ). Robert Mapplethorpe was an artist whose startling images of naked men, often within a homosexual context (such as his self portrait of a bullwhip emerging from his behind), made regular headlines during his life and after his death. Titled The Perfect Moment, after a posthumous travelling exhibit of Mapplethorpe's works, the dramatic movie will be directed by documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner, who has won Sundance awards with both DiG! and We Live in Public. Robert Mapplethorpe died of complications from AIDS in 1989 at the age of 42.