"Prometheus" Scribe Rebooting 'The Mummy'

Jason Spaihts, who co-wrote Prometheus with Damon Lindelof, has been tapped by Universal to write the screenplay for a rebooting of The Mummy franchise. In spite of often confused plots and cheesy computer effects the three modern Mummy movies were remarkably consistent with each earning over $400 million.

Spaihts told Variety, “I see it as the kind of opportunity I had with Prometheus to go back to a franchise’s roots in dark, scary source material and simultaneously open it up to an epic scale we haven’t seen before.”

Given the success of the three modern Mummy movies that debut in 1999, 2001, and 2008 respectively, the chances of another Mummy movie getting made are pretty good.

Alan Horn to Head Disney Studios

The Walt Disney Company announced today that Alan Horn has been named Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, where he will oversee worldwide operations for the studio as well as production, distribution, and marketing for live-action and animated films from Disney, Pixar, and Marvel, as well as distribution and marketing for DreamWorks Studios films.

It appears that in Horn Disney has found someone with a wealth of studio experience. Horn, who was head of Warner Bros. for 12 years. Films released under Horn’s regime at Warner Bros. include the Harry Potter films, The Dark Knight, The Departed, Sherlock Holmes, Batman Begins, and the Oceans Eleven trilogy

The position of head of the Disney Studios has been vacant since Rich Ross was pushed out in mid-April in the wake of the box office failure of Disney’s John Carter, which forced the studio into an embarrassing $200 million write-off and upset former Marvel owner Ike Perlmutter.  There was some speculation that Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige would take the job, but position of Disney studio chief, which involves dealing with and placating the company’s various sacrosanct fiefdoms (Pixar, Marvel, and distributing for DreamWorks), is not exactly one of the prize jobs in Hollywood , though the Disney Studio does have the potential to contend for global box office domination if all the company's units are performing at peak levels.

It certainly hasn't  taken long for Horn to make some changes at Disney. The first acts of the new regime have been schedule changes. The studio has shifted the debut of Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, which stars Johnny Depp from May 31st of 2013 to July 3rd, 2013, and it also moved Thor 2 from November 15th, 2013 to November 8th. While these scheduling tweaks appear minor, Horn appears to have definite opinions on how to get the most out of the studio’s slate of films. The move of Thor 2 makes a lot of sense in that it will give the movie a full two weeks at the box office before the debut of The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire on November 22nd.

Fox Sets Date for 'X-Men: First Class' Sequel and 'POTA' Sequel

Twentieth Century Fox has announced that the sequel to X-Men: First Class, which for scheduling purposes is now known simply as “X-Men,” will debut on July 18th, 2014.  The X-Men: First Class sequel, which Matthew Vaughn will direct, will begin production early next year. The cast of X-Men: First Class, which includes The Hunger Games’ Jennifer Lawrence, is set to reprise their roles in the sequel.

Vaughn’s X-Men film will actually be Fox’s third summer tentpole for 2014. It will be preceded by Dawn of Planet of the Apes, the sequel to the highly successful Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which earned $483 million worldwide in 2011. As was the case with Matthew Vaughn and the X-Men: First Class sequel, the director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rupert Wyatt, will return to direct the encore movie.

The first Fox blockbuster to unspool in 2014 will be Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse, which the studio is producing along with Dreamworks and Disney. It will debut worldwide on April 25th, 2014. Robopocalypse is based on the bestselling science fiction novel by Daniel H. Wilson.


Fox also announced that it would be re-releasing Roland Emmerich’s 1996 blockbuster Independence Day in re-processed 3-D on July 3rd, 2013, though adding “depth” to the cardboard characters in this overripe exercise in mind-numbing silliness will take more than all the computing power of Silicon Valley put together.

Toonami Has Two New Anime: Plus Four Returnees

Two anime new to broadcast in the U.S. were included in the Toonami block on Adult Swim that premiered last weekend. Deadman Wonderland aired at 12:30 a.m. ET and 3:30 ET Saturday. The U.S. anime rights are controlled by FUNimation ; home video has not yet been released. Tokyopop published five volumes of the manga.
Casshern Sins aired at 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. ET. The series was released by FUNimation in a complete set,  and in two parts.

Other shows airing in the block are Bleach; Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG; and Cowboy Bebop.

G. I. Joe Toys Interrupted : Some Shipped, Others Delayed

 

Hasbro will delay the release of the rest of its toys for G.I. Joe: Retaliation to early next year to tie into the revised release date for the movie , the company announced late last week. Some retailers have already put products from the first wave on sale; they were already being shipped when the move release date delay was announced. But any products not already on sale will be returned , and the remainder of the first wave and future waves will ship in 2013.

This presents an interesting situation, with G.I. Joe collectors chasing the limited amounts of product that has already been released, with the knowledge that larger quantities will eventually be available early next year. No elevated prices were noted on eBay as of Tuesday.

'G.I. Joe' Needed Work : the Real Reason for the Delay

G.I. Joe: Retaliation was testing poorly and needed reshoots, according to Deadline,  which is why the release date was pushed back from June to 2013 . Channing Tatum, who’s gotten hot since the first film, was going to be killed off early in the sequel, but was one of the few things testing audiences liked. Reshoots will help expand his role and keep him alive. And the 3D move was essential, given how the dollars on the summer blockbusters have flowed.
 

The delay of the movie at this late stage, when theaters were booked and licensed merchandise had started to flow, was a radical move, reflecting the degree of risk Paramount perceived in releasing the movie as it was and the size of the opportunity in fixing it

Universal Moves 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' to March, 2013

Paramount has moved G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which was slated to debut on June 29th, to March 29th, 2013 in order to add 3-D in an attempt to bolster foreign sales. Paramount is giving up one of the prime dates of the summer and Universal quickly stepped in to help fill the late June void with the buzz-generating Ted, an "R" rated comedy by Seth MacFarlane about a foul-mouthed Teddy Bear that stars Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg.

Paramount has already spent quite a bit promoting the $125 million G.I. Joe sequel including a pricy Super Bowl ad and several trailers. Based on the Hasbro property, G.I. Joe: Retaliation was directed by Jon M. Chu and adds Bruce Willis and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to a solid ensemble cast.

As Deadline points out, Paramount has had some luck in the past changing release dates. The studio delayed the release of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and managed to give the director his box office best.

Paramount isn’t the only studio that has delayed a studio tentpole that was supposed to debut in 2012 in order to add TV. Already smarting from what appears to be a considerable loss with Battleship, Universal has moved the Keanu Reeves-starring 47 Ronin to 2013 and is citing 3-D as the reason. However Hollywood rumor has it that the studio is afraid the $200 million plus samurai epic is too risky to open in the same year in which Battleship has already put a major dent in the Universal’s bottom line.