Joel Silver Talks Speed's Wachowski Brothers

Uber-producer Joel Silver, who worked with writing and directing team Andy and Larry Wachowski on the Matrix trilogy and the upcoming Speed Racer, told SCI FI Wire that the famously reclusive brothers aren't as enigmatic as the media makes them out to be.

"The only part they don't want to engage in is [promotion]," Silver said in an interview. "That's the only part. ... But, you know, they are the greatest guys I've ever worked with. They're funny. They're smart. They know what they want. They plan everything out to perfection, and everybody here--Susan [Sarandon], Emile [Hirsch], John [Goodman], Christina [Ricci]--they'll tell you the same thing, that they're the greatest, fun guys."

Silver said the Wachowski brothers did publicity for the first Matrix movie. "They did everything," he said. "They did the junkets and the tours and the one-on-one [interviews], and they did everything. And they just said, 'We just don't like this, and if you make us do this, we aren't going to make any more movies.' And I said, 'OK.'"

Silver is happy to speak for the Wachowskis, whom he credits with changing the process of filmmaking with the Matrix trilogy. He went on to say that their new film, Speed Racer, is just as groundbreaking.

"They've changed the system again on how to make pictures," Silver said. "The camera loses its physical self. ... So you have a scene where the camera zooms into Speed's face, and then zooms past him to Trixie. and then past her to Rex. Where is the camera? What is the camera? The camera can't do that, but the computer can. We put our people on gimbals, in a cockpit, on a green stage, and once we get that, capture that image, then we can manipulate it any way we want and make the camera see what you want it to see, which I think is going to change the way we make movies."

The next collaboration between Silver and the Wachowskis will be Ninja Assassin, a martial-arts film being directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta). As for when the brothers will return to directing themselves, even Silver doesn't know that yet.

"If this movie works, they may want to do a sequel," Silver said. "They may not. When they immerse themselves in a movie, they work literally seven days a week for, like, seven months to finish this movie. It's really grueling. These guys don't phone anything in. There's a book coming out, I think coming out in a few weeks, which is called The Art of Speed Racer. You can actually see in that book how the drawings became [pre-visusalization and] became finished shots. You're realizing, I mean, this is created from nothing. I mean, you're not shooting anything. It's all in their heads. And it's a really grueling thing to do. And they take time off, and then they go back to work. And when they want to, they call me--I hope they call me--and say, 'We want to do something.'" Speed Racer opens May 9. --Cindy White

"Descent" Sequel In The Works

The independent British production company Celador Films is reuniting with French-owned and U.K.-based Pathe on a sequel to Neil Marshall's low-budget SF horror hit The Descent, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The first movie claimed $57 million at the box office, a sizable return on the original investment on a movie budgeted at less than $10 million, the trade paper reported.

Produced by Marshall and Christian Colson, Descent 2 marks the directorial debut for its predecessor's editor, Jon Harris.

Based on a script by James Watkins (My Little Eye), the $10 million sequel will shoot more than eight weeks on location in Scotland and at London's Ealing Studios.

The stars of the original film, Shauna MacDonald and Natalie Mendoza, will reprise their roles, alongside Gavan O'Herlihy, Joshua Dallas, Anna Skellern, Douglas Hodge and Krysten Cummings.

The script sees the survivor forced back into the system of caves she battled her way out of in the first film in a bid to locate the rest of her group, who were assailed by blind man-eating mutant cave dwellers.

The Black Panther Lives!

Marvel Comics has signed a deal to turn one of its superheroes, the Black Panther, into a prime-time animated series for BET, starting early next year, Variety reported. Details to follow.

First Bleach Film to Run in U.S. Theaters June 11-12

National CineMedia's NCM Fathom, a digital theater distributor, has revealed that the animated Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody will run in American theaters on June 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. The movie is the first theatrical spinoff from the Bleach television series, which itself is an adaptation of Kubotite's Bleach manga. Subscribers of the email newsletter for Viz Media's Shonen Jump magazine can purchase advance tickets from May 2 to May 8, and the general public can purchase tickets starting on May 9. The screenings will include a behind-the-scenes feature and a interview with the director Noriyuki Abe, who is also directing the television series. Viz Media has used NCM Fathom's high-definition digital presentation system for last year's Naruto movie screenings and the upcoming live-action Death Note screenings.

Viz Media announced its license of this movie in March. Like the ongoing Bleach manga and anime series, the movie centers on the Soul Reapers (Shinigami or Gods of Death) who protect humans from the "Hollow" spirits that prey on them. However, like the first Naruto movie, Memories of Nobody is an original story not seen in the earlier Bleach television series or manga. It ran in Japan in December of 2006, and a second movie, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion - Mō Hitotsu no Hyōrinmaru, has since opened in Japan last December. Memories of Nobody introduces the previously unseen "Blank" entities that also threaten mankind.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THIRD LIBRARIAN IN THE WORKS.

Noah Wyle is set to return as the brilliant adventure-seeking Flynn
Carsen in Electric Entertainment's third installment of TNT's hugely
successful Librarian franchise with THE LIBRARIAN: THE CURSE OF THE
JUDAS CHALICE.

Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin will also reprise their roles, with Bruce
Davison (X-Men, KNIGHT RIDER) and Stana Katic (FEAST OF LOVE) joining
the cast.

Jonathan Frakes (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION), who directed the
second LIBRARIAN installment, THE LIBRARIAN: RETURN TO KING SOLOMON'S
MINES, will once again take the helm.

Electric Entertainment's Dean Devlin, Kearie Peak and Marc Roskin are
executive producing. Wyle and Electric's Phil Goldfarb are producing,
with the company's Rachel Olschan co-producing.

The project began shooting in New Orleans this week.

THE LIBRARIAN: THE CURSE OF THE JUDAS CHALICE opens with a restless
Flynn attempting to assimilate back into his career as the Librarian at
the New York Metropolitan Library after many adventures abroad.

Led to New Orleans by strange dreams, he finds himself in the midst of
uncovering a conspiracy that involves the notorious vampire, Prince Vlad
Dracula. Once again, Flynn must overcome his fears and protect one of the
world's most sacred artifacts, The Judas Chalice, or face the
consequences of it falling into the wrong hands.

Newhart returns as Judson, who once having been the Librarian, now
serves as head of the library. He is always concerned about the fate of
the world, and as a former Marine is pretty handy to have around in a
fight against good and evil.

Curtin comes back as Charlene, the extremely serious-minded, no-nonsense
personnel director for the Library. She is beyond strict and is a huge
stickler for receipts.

Katic plays Simone Renoir, a gorgeous young New Orleans jazz club singer
who uses her hypnotic performances to charm an off-guard Flynn. She has
made it her mission to protect a pendant that could unlock the secret to
the whereabouts of the famous Judas Chalice.

Turned into a vampire by the infamous Vlad Dracula 400 years ago, Simone
has been on a life-long hunt to find the man who condemned her soul to
walk the night forever. She teams up with Flynn to outwit those hoping
to find the Chalice and use it for their evil agenda.

Davison plays Professor Lazlo, an elderly, crippled man who is a
brilliant professor at the University of Bucharest. Seemingly harmless,
he is taken hostage by the villainous Kubichek, who wants Lazlo to lead
him to the Judas Chalice.

TNT's LIBRARIAN franchise of movies has proved enormously successful for
the network. The first installment, THE LIBRARIAN: QUEST FOR THE SPEAR,
ranked as ad-supported cable's No. 1 movie of 2004.

The second installment, THE LIBRARIAN: RETURN TO KING SOLOMON'S MINES,
ranks as ad-supported cable's No. 1 original movie sequel of all time
and placed among the top five movie telecasts of 2006.

OVERRIPE FOR A REDO: KILLER TOMATOES ATTACK AGAIN.

Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine are writing an adaptation of the 1978
cult monster movie ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES!, according to THE
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Sarine and Nichols created the hit Web series ASK A NINJA; and TOMATOES
will be Nichols' directorial debut.

Killer Tomato Entertainment sold the rights to the remake to M. Dal
Walton III (who remade DAY OF THE DEAD and TERROR TRAIN), who is
producing along with co-producer Emmett/Furla Films.

"ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES! is the masterwork of a generation,"
Nichols told the REPORTER. "We can only aspire to recapture that magic."

Details of the script haven't been released, but it is still expected to
be about, yes, killer tomatoes.

The original's sequel, RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES, helped launch
George Clooney's career and spawned the Fox Kids Network's ATV cartoon
series.

The ASK A NINJA shorts have 80 million Web views and won for Best Series
at the 2006 YouTube Video Awards.

GRAPHIC NOVEL SNAKED OPTIONED

On the heels of the success of the motion picture adaptation of the
graphic novel 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, IDW Publishing, a division of IDT
Internet Mobile Group, announced that another of its graphic novels has
been optioned by a major feature film producer.

Producer Richard Saperstein, former President of Production of Dimension
Films, who has overseen such films as 1408, Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN, THE
MIST, JOHN Q, THE PUNISHER, FREQUENCY, and SE7EN, has optioned IDW's
hot, new comic series, SNAKED.

IDW Publishing president and founder Ted Adams and SNAKED author
Clifford Meth are exec producers. Shara Kay will co-produce and Mr. Meth
will write the screenplay.

An instant horror sensation upon its release in December 2007, the first
SNAKED comic sold out at stores across the country.

The third book in the series was released on February 13. Based on an
original story by Mr. Meth, SNAKED is a horror-noir that follows the
personal and political exploits of a government employee with
supernatural, snake-like abilities.

First illustrated by Dave Cockrum (co-creator of X-MEN), SNAKED has