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Simon Pegg, whose writing work includes
Shawn of the Dead and
Hot Fuzz, will team with
Dark Blue co-creator Doug Jung on the project, which needed new writers when Roberto Orci — who was also slated to direct — departed in December. Justin Lin is set to helm the third film in the rebooted franchise. Pegg played engineer Mr. Scott in the first two films.
(THR)
After Hardy dropped out because of conflicts with the Alejandro González Iñárittu film
The Revenant, which he is currently shooting, word was that director David Ayer and studio Warner Bros. wanted Jake Gyllenhaal — who worked with Ayer on
End Of Watch — to take over the part of Rick Flagg, but the actor has now passed on the part.
(EMP)
The
Nightcrawler star’s next outing, the boxing movie directed by Antoine Fuqua and co-starring Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, and Naomie Harris, will now hit theaters on July 31st. In the process Sony moved the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy
Grimsby off that date and pushed it to February 26th, 2016.
(COL)
Boston-born Evans, who is a diehard New England Patriots fan, got into a taunting Twitter battle with Pratt, who grew up in Seattle and is a huge Seahawks fan, and the two then publicly agreed to a bet in which the loser will visit children at a hospital in the winner’s city, in costume, Evans as Captain America, Pratt as Star Lord.
(UR)
With the acquisition, the company has formed Cantinas Distribution as a wholly owned subsidiary. Mission Pictures co-founder Cindy Bond will assume oversight of Cantinas Distribution, which seeks to acquire positive, life-affirming films for North American theatrical release. Bond and her team plan to have a major presence in film markets including this week’s Sundance fest.
(VAR)
Prior reports had Disney testing Rooney Mara and Tatiana Maslany for the unspecified role, but now comes word that Mara’s older sister and the Oscar-nominated Jones are also in the running. The movie will be directed by
Godzilla helmer Gareth Edwards, and is scheduled for release on December 16th, 2016.
(SF)
The Showtime drama, which just finished its second season in the fall, will reunite McShane with his
Deadwood co-star Paula Malcomson for the third season, which will premiere later this year. McShane will play a prominent movie producer and billionaire who hires Ray (Liev Schreiber) to get his family out of a potentially catastrophic situation.
(TVL)
The first extended trailer from Alex Winter’s documentary about the 2013 arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the 30-year-old entrepreneur alleged to be “Dread Pirate Roberts” — founder of Silk Road, the notorious online black market best known for drug trafficking. The film will premiere on EPIX in the spring.
(DH)
The latest trailer from the upcoming expressionistic British teen horror film, which was a major hit on the 2014 film festival circuit. Starring Maika Monroe and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the RADiUS-TWC film hits theaters March 27th.
(IW)
Producer, consultant and regular Script Magazine columnist Barri Evans weighs in on how to cut down on overwriting, and how to get right to the point. “All too often, I read scripts that beg for their writers to ‘cut straight to the slap.’”
(SM)
