Remember this image (to the left) that was released last year with the expectations high about the new movie, Paradise Lost starring Bradley Cooper as Lucifer? Well, news from Deadline is that the movie has now been completely scrapped by its makers, Legendary Pictures.

Kenji last did an update on the movie which was to be postponed but it now seems to the movie has been completely scrapped. The last time I remember a project as big as this being dumped so far down the line was Newt from Pixar and more recently Disney / Bruckheimer’s The Lone Ranger (although this is now back in production).

According to Deadline, the movie has been having trouble for a long time with the visual effects and the money in which it would cost to make them look as good as they needed to. It now looks like they’ve decided to cut their losses and cancel it rather than making a movie which wouldn’t be as good as they’d want it to be. To be honest, fair play to them. I guess all we’re left with now is this image above.

More info on Deadline.

Talk of a second sequel to complete what will become The Hangover trilogy has been circling ever since the second film, The Hangover Part II, took the box office by storm last May and did even better business for Warner Bros. than the first film.

THR are now reporting that the second sequel’s leads, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis, are close to finalising their contracts, and it’s expected that they’ll be seeing a dramatic increase in their wages.

The first film saw the leads taking under $1m. each, which is to be expected, when it was a pretty low-budget film that no one could really predict beforehand would do as well as it did. Following that success, turning a $35m. budget into north of $450m. worldwide, the principals’ salary increased for the sequel, taking $5m. up front and a portion off the profits, which saw their final earnings in the mid-teens, after the sequel took more than $580m., surpassing the half-billion mark and then some.

And now it looks like they’re getting a hike once more, with such good business expected for the finale, with their paycheques looking to be about $15m. apiece, plus the extra off the backend again after the film gets released, which, if all things go well, could easily see them with north of $20m. each. The trio are said to be presenting a united front in their negotiations, and clearly they’re being taken seriously, which is excellent. (I remember watching Galifianakis back in the day on that little-known show Tru Calling, and wouldn’t have guessed in a million years that he’d be taking a $15m.-plus contract in a matter of years.)

As Cooper updated last month, the third film is set to take place in Los Angeles, and is expected to deviate from the formula of the original two:

“I hope we’ll start shooting next September. I know (director) Todd Phillips is working on the script. We stuck to the formula in the second one but the third would need to close the trilogy. I think it’ll take place in L.A. and not adhere to the structure.”

And it looks like they could be going into production slightly earlier than anticipated, with the studio hoping for shooting to begin this summer, eyeing a release on Memorial Day 2013, which is the last weekend of May, giving it the same slot it opened in last year.

Incidentally, Fast & Furious 6 is scheduled to be released that weekend too, and whilst the target audiences are a bit different, it will be interesting to see how the box office results look that week (the figures would no doubt be huge), if they do both end up opening on the same weekend.

Co-writer Craig Mazin was hired to work on the script pretty much as soon as the sequel came out, and Cooper’s quote above suggests that Phillips has been working with him on it too, having co-written the second with Mazin as well.

The plot is understandably being kept under wraps, though Collider note that there are rumours circling that it will involve Alan (Galifianakis) escaping from a mental hospital.

The studio have recently had to put one of their expected blockbusters, Akira, on hold, as well as taking Arthur & Lancelot off the calendar completely, so it’s looking likely that they’ll want to push on and fast-track The Hangover Part III as quickly as possible. More as we get it.

This is a film I’m really, really looking forward to. Last year, we got to see Bradley Cooper take a very impressive turn leading what became a stellar box office success in Limitless, and this year should be another great one for the rising star.

He’ll be starring opposite Ryan Gosling in Derek Cianfrance’s generational crime drama The Place Beyond The Pines (you just know that’s going to be immense), David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook along with his Limitless star Robert De Niro, and before all that, his latest film The Words will be going to Sundance Film Festival later this month.

EW have just got the first poster for the film, and Collider have a nice new set of images, and they’re all looking excellent. The film has a fantastic cast starring alongside Cooper, including Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Ben Barnes, Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, and J.K. Simmons. It’s been co-written and -directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, writers on TRON: Legacy (which of course also starred Olivia Wilde), who wrote the script more than a decade ago. It’s been a long time coming for the pair, and it’s great to see that they’ve lined up such a fantastic cast for what should be a brilliant film. Here’s what the official synopsis looks like:

Rory Jansen, a struggling writer, aspires to be the next great literary voice. When he discovers a lost manuscript in a weathered attaché case, he realizes he possesses something extraordinary that he desperately wishes he had created. Rory decides to pass the work off as his own and finally receives the recognition he desperately craves. However, he soon learns that living with his choice will not be as easy as he thought as he faces a moral dilemma that will make him take a hard look at the man he has become.

In their directorial debut, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal have crafted a subtle tale that examines how overwhelming desire can lead to unforeseen and unwanted consequences. Bolstered by a strong cast, led by Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Irons, The Words adeptly assembles multiple narratives that reveal how one man’s lost legacy holds the life of another man captive.

Speaking to EW, Sternthal and Klugman said,

“We started by talking about writers and their lost work. What if you lost all your work? How long would it take you to move on?” says Sternthal.

“That led us to a question, what if you found the work?” Klugman adds.

Olivia Wilde co-stars as “someone who wants to be a great writer, and also wants to know the truth about what happened with this book,” Sternthal says.

The Words will be going to Sundance out in the States for its premiere, playing at four screenings between 27th and 29th January, including the closing day of the festival. With a bit of luck, it will be received with rapturous applause, and get picked up for distribution both across the Atlantic and here at home. And with a bit more luck, it’ll be one of the films selected for our own Sundance festival, coming to London in April for the first time. More news as we get it. For now, the first poster and the new images to enjoy. As usual, click to enlarge.

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2012/01/12/great-first-poster-and-images-for-sundance-film-the-words-with-bradley-cooper-and-olivia-wilde/feed/ 0 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/12/13/legendary-pictures-postpones-production-of-paradise-lost-with-bradley-cooper/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/12/13/legendary-pictures-postpones-production-of-paradise-lost-with-bradley-cooper/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:00:45 +0000 Kenji Lloyd http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=119296

With all the brilliant casting news we’ve been hearing for Alex Proyas’ upcoming adaptation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, it’s fair to say that a lot of people have been getting excited for it already. Bradley Cooper was set to take on one of English literature’s most notorious figures in the form of Lucifer, with Casey Affleck, Djimon Hounsou, Dominic Purcell, Diego Boneta, Camilla Belle, and Benjamin Walker heading up the supporting cast.

The film was originally to go into production next month, but it seems that that’s no longer going to be happening, with Deadline now reporting that Legendary Pictures are postponing the start date in order to cut back on the budget.

Initially set at $120m., the projected costs are thought to have been increasing by 10-15%, which is of course a significant amount of money, and a substantial rise from the original budget, so it’s understandable that the studio would want to put a hold on things and rework the costs.

Disney’s The Lone Ranger saw a similar thing happening over the summer (you can see our coverage of those events here), and whilst it was initially feared that the project might be scrapped entirely, the budget was able to be brought down to an acceptable figure for Disney, and the same thing is expected to happen here with Paradise Lost.

We got a first look at some concept art for the film way back in July, and it was easy to see then that they were going for a pretty damn visually impressive look for the film with its motion capture technology, consisting of a lot of green-screening and visual effects. Naturally, that doesn’t come cheap, and so the producers will be looking at ways to cut down on those costs to bring the budget back down.

Like The Lone Ranger, the project isn’t planned to be scrapped entirely, and production will hopefully get underway by late spring or early summer next year instead. Whether the current principals will be able to fit it into their schedules with the revised dates is of course a different question, but I’m really hoping that they will, because the current cast is looking so good under the direction of Proyas, whose credits include Dark City and I, Robot.

Cooper, at least, has a number of films in post-production and is currently filming David O. Russell’s next film, The Silver Linings Playbook. Beyond that, nothing is set in stone, so hopefully he’ll be able to keep his schedule clear for the middle of next year to stay on as Lucifer, because that’s a role that I was so looking forward to seeing him take on. More news as we get it.

Bradley Cooper has been a huge rising star in the past few years, becoming one of the best known faces in comedy at the moment after The Hangover found huge success at the box office back in 2009, taking more than $450m. at the international box office from a $35m. budget.

He also proved himself more than capable of leading a film of his own earlier this year with the brilliant Limitless, which gained success from the critics, especially regarding his performance, as well as impressively taking more than $150m. at the box office, making it something of a sleeper hit.

He and his fellow hungover co-stars repeated their successes this year and then some, breaking the rule of sequels not out-earning their originals, with The Hangover Part II taking more than $580m. across the globe. Naturally, rumours have been circulating that a third film would soon be on its way, and The National Ledger report, via MovieHole, that Cooper has confirmed that he and his co-stars will be returning once more for The Hangover Part III.

The first film found the friends waking up in a hotel room in Vegas, the second shifted gears and moved the location to Thailand, and it seems that the third – and potentially final – film will be bringing the franchise Stateside again, to be set in Los Angeles. Speaking to Graham Norton, Cooper said,

“I hope we’ll start shooting next September. I know (director) Todd Phillips is working on the script. We stuck to the formula in the second one but the third would need to close the trilogy. I think it’ll take place in L.A. and not adhere to the structure.”

If shooting does indeed commence at the start of autumn next year, it’s probably likely that we can look forward to Part III being one of the bigger comedy films of the summer in 2013. With writer-director Todd Phillips working on the script, having co-written the last film and directed both the first films, fans of the series can be sure that the third film is in safe hands. Clearly, with the second film out-performing the original at the box office, there’s still a huge market for their blend of comedy, especially since Part II passed the half a billion mark.

Naturally, to keep fans entertained, Phillips will probably need to mix things up a bit for what Cooper predicts will be the last film, and it sounds like that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing. It’s still early days yet, to it may well be a while before we start hearing about new casting additions, but it’s probably a safe bet that we can expect Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha all to reprise their roles, no doubt along with the somewhat ridiculous Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow.

Before then, we can look forward to seeing Cooper in some pretty awesome upcoming films, including Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines, David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook, and Alex Proyas’ adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost, all of which should be immense.

The Hangover Part II has just just come out on DVD/Blu-Ray, and you can check out our exclusive clip that we put up earlier today right here.

The Hangover Part II is now available to buy in UK stores! Hoorah I hear you cry, you can either order your copy here or click here to enter our competition to win a copy. To celebrate, Warner Home Video have given us this exclusive clip from the movie which we think you’ll love!

The sequel sees all your favourite characters back including Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha and is directed by Todd Phillips.

In the clip, we get to see Alan (Galifianakis) delivering his speech at the rehearsal dinner for Stu’s wedding only to say a little too much before being shut down!

Synopsis: A strip club, a finger, a drug lord, a tattoo parlor and a monkey are the keys to solving the mystery of the missing wedding guest at the latest bachelor party.  The Wolfpack is back as “The Hangover Part II” arrives onto Blu-ray Triple Play, DVD and Digital Download on 5 December from Warner Home Video.
In “The Hangover Part II,” Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zack Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) travel to Thailand for Stu’s wedding. Determined not to risk his own wedding by repeating the destructive antics of Doug’s bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu opts for a subdued, pre-wedding brunch…with no alcohol. However, things don’t go as planned, and a night of wild partying leaves the Wolfpack with no memory of the night before and no idea how to find the bride’s missing brother.

This is the follow-up to Todd Phillip’s 2009 smash hit “The Hangover,” which became the highest-grossing comedy of all time and also won the Golden Globe® for Best Film – Comedy or Musical. The film also stars Ken Jeong and Jeffrey Tambor, returning from the first film, and Mason Lee, Jamie Chung and Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti, who join the ensemble.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in Bangkok can’t even be imagined…

To mark the release of The Hangover Part II on DVD, Blu-ray™ Triple Play and Digital Download on 5th December, Warner Home Video have given us three copies of the Blu-ray Triple Play to give away to our readers.

A strip club, a finger, a drug lord, a tattoo parlor and a monkey are the keys to solving the mystery of the missing wedding guest at the latest bachelor party.  The Wolfpack is back as “The Hangover Part II” arrives onto Blu-ray Triple Play, DVD and Digital Download on 5 December from Warner Home Video.

In “The Hangover Part II,” Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zack Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) travel to Thailand for Stu’s wedding. Determined not to risk his own wedding by repeating the destructive antics of Doug’s bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu opts for a subdued, pre-wedding brunch…with no alcohol. However, things don’t go as planned, and a night of wild partying leaves the Wolfpack with no memory of the night before and no idea how to find the bride’s missing brother.

This is the follow-up to Todd Phillip’s 2009 smash hit “The Hangover,” which became the highest-grossing comedy of all time and also won the Golden Globe® for Best Film – Comedy or Musical. The film also stars Ken Jeong and Jeffrey Tambor, returning from the first film, and Mason Lee, Jamie Chung and Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti, who join the ensemble.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in Bangkok can’t even be imagined…

To be in with a chance of winning this great prize, simply answer the following question uising the form below:

In The Hangover Part II, this actor reprises his role as Phil. He recently starred in The A-Team and  Valentine’s Day. Name the actor.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

To celebrate the release of THE HANGOVER PART II on Blu-ray™ Triple Play, DVD and Digital Download from 5th December, THE HANGOVER PART II TUK TUK is here to help.

It’s simple – we will be visiting Manchester, Birmingham and London dispensing hot bacon sandwiches and coffee for those who are in dire need between the hours of 8.30am and 11.30am.  And yes, a vegetarian alternative is available!

To call us to your aid, Tweet @hangover_helper or use #hangover_helper and ensure your location is turned on and you may be one of the lucky few who we deliver a hot bacon sandwich and coffee to.

See below for the dates of when THE HANGOVER HELPER TUK TUK will be in operation:

• Thursday 1^st December – Manchester
• Friday 2^nd December – Birmingham
• Monday 5^th December – London

Head on over to the Hangover UK Facebook page to follow the Tuk Tuk!

www.facebook.com/hangoveruk

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 12th December at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received
• No cash alternative is available

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

© 2011 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved.

After the Vegas-set shenanigans of a few years ago, Stu (Ed Helms) is set to marry Lauren in Thailand. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) all come along and after a supposedly innocent beer by a fire on the beach, wake up in a squalid Bangkok hotel room with no memory of the night before. Doug is missing again, as is Lauren’s 16 year old brother, who must be found and returned before anyone finds out what has gone wrong. As with Vegas, the Wolfpack must try to retrace their steps, find out what has happened and put everything right in time for the wedding, which is likely to be a problem, what with Stu now sporting a tattoo across half his face and Lauren’s brother’s finger sitting in a glass of water….

*****

The Hangover made north of $400m at the box office, making a sequel a virtual certainty. What wasn’t so certain, but nonetheless proves so disappointing, is how by the numbers and lacking in imagination this sequel proves to be. Despite director and co-writer Todd Phillips suggesting that the “Part II” thing is intended to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the incomparably more epic and high-brow Godfather films, it still comes across as ridiculous. In any event, “Part I” would be the better title, given how flagrant a retread this is of the key points of the undoubtedly superior original.

Telephone call prologue, background fill-in, thrashed hotel room wake-up, search for clues, physical injury, Mr Chow, strippers, sudden realisation, race to the wedding, Mike Tyson, photo montage over the credits. It is all so very lazy and predictable. Even worse, in place of the humour and inventive escalation of the original, there is a genuinely troubling lack of laughs, replaced with lewdness, grime and casual racism. The ante is upped from the original, but only in terms of the language being worse, the damage to Stu being more horrifying and the long term injury suffered by the lost member of the party being more enduring. There are elements that are played for laughs that come across as disturbing instead.

If there are positives to be found, they would be in Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper, who suit their roles well and at least give a convincing depiction of desperation, confusion and panic. The Wolfpack get caught up with some interesting characters along the way, but Galifianakis’ man-child shtick has worn well and truly thin and the efforts to beef up his role simply result in clichéd and predictable awkwardness and embarrassment. In the end though, none of this goes anywhere inventive, creative or funny with the abiding fear that the film’s box office haul of upwards of $560m can only mean that there is more to come.

You can rent or buy The Hangover Part II here from 2nd January 2012 or 5th December respectively and least if you watch it at home you can have a shower afterwards.

*~~~~ (1/5)

Extras: A mock-doc pretending to try to dig behind the scenes of what the director and principals got up to in Thailand and the devastation they left behind is an interesting idea, enjoying contributions from JJ Abrams among others. But it outstays its welcome and quickly becomes laughable in a bad way. Other than that, there is a gag reel, a behind the scenes look at how Todd Phillips shoots the comedic scenes, a woefully unfunny tour of Bangkok with Mr Chow and a look at the monkey that for the most part steals the show. Very poor.

*~~~~ (1/5)

Bradley Cooper has had a brilliant run in the past few years, and has seen his star rising pretty immensely, with leading roles in The Hangover, The A-Team, Limitless, and most recently in the sequel to his break-out film, The Hangover Part II.

The range of films he’s starred in has been pretty diverse, with comedies, thrillers, and rom-coms all running one after the other, and it looks like Cooper will be returning to the last of these genres, with The Playlist reporting that he’s joining the rom-com Fight Before Christmas.

The script comes from Adam Sztykiel, co-writer of last year’s excellent comedy Due Date, with Anne Fletcher, director of 27 Dresses, Step Up, and The Proposal, taking the helm. Fletcher’s next film, My Mother’s Curse, is likely to go pretty big at the end of next year, with a leading cast that includes Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand, which should be able to pull quite a wide audience if it’s done well.

Details of Fight Before Christmas’ plot are being kept under wraps for now, but here’s to hoping that it will be a great holiday film full of fun festivities. I can imagine that it will be turning into an ensemble rom-com (probably not quite to the scale of Cooper’s previous hits, Valentine’s Day and He’s Just Not That Into You), so I think we’ll be hearing further casting news and a plot synopsis in the coming months that might give us a good idea of what we can expect. As always, more news when we get it.

Writer-director Derek Cianfrance is reteaming with Ryan Gosling after working together on the critically acclaimed Blue Valentine, which came out here at the start of the year, and it looks like their newest project is going to be awesome. The first official image of Gosling in the film has now surfaced online over at The Playlist, with Gosling looking his natural ridiculously cool self.

The Place Beyond The Pines will see Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper in the co-leading roles, with the support cast rounded up by Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, Ray Liotta, and Bruce Greenwood, in what should be a brilliant crime drama/thriller.

“Luke (Gosling) is a professional motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, but when he crosses paths with a rookie police officer (Cooper) their violent confrontation spirals into a tense generational fued. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is a rich dramatic thriller that traces the intersecting lives of fathers and sons, cops and robbers, heroes and villain.”

Gosling has really been making a name for himself this year, with three very well-known films coming out in the past three months alone, supporting Steve Carell in Crazy, Stupid, Love.; co-leading with George Clooney in The Ides of March; and leading my personal favourite film of the year, Drive.

He’s currently at work filming Ruben Fleischer’s The Gangster Squad, due out at the end of next year, having wrapped shooting on The Place Beyond The Pines. The latter is currently still without a release date, but with shooting done, hopefully it will sneak into 2012’s releases, because I’m really looking forward to seeing what this will be like. The ‘generational’ aspect of it, in particular, has me intrigued, and I’m curious to see how Gosling and Cooper will be visually aged through the film.

Without further ado, here’s the first look at Gosling looking awesome on his motorbike. The skull-and-crossbones trousers could probably do with a miss, but the red leather jacket, the helmet, and the gloves – not to mention Gosling himself – all make up for them and then some.

Although he hasn’t signed on the dotted line yet, Bradley Cooper is now Steven Soderbergh’s new number one choice as the suave Napoleon Solo in the forthcoming Warner Bros Spy movie ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement – in case you were interested?)

This follows the news that Soderbergh’s original hot choice George Clooney has turned down the opportunity to be America’s answer to James Bond. The ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ TV series ran for 105 episodes from 1964 to 1968 and starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and British actor David McCullum as his partner Illya Kuryakin.

While Michael Caine’s  Harry Palmer was fighting the ‘Cold War’ on the big screen in the sixties, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ showed the Western World that East and West could team up to fight evil that threatened mankind. In this case the bad guys were represented by the organisation called THRUSH whose secret weapon probably left you with a nasty rash.

Granted, George Clooney has charm oozing out of every orifice but let’s face it at 50 he’s probably far too old to play the part of Solo, whereas Bradley Cooper is the same age now as Robert Vaughn was at the time. Cooper is no stranger to making that transition from a popular TV show to a full length movie as he did with ‘The A-team’.

A common mistake that many of the studios make is to set the movie version of the TV show in the modern day, as with ‘The A-Team’ and ‘Miami Vice’ for example. Both of these shows being hugely popular 25 years earlier in the 1980’s.

The rumour is that Soderbergh is planning to set U.N.C.L.E. in the sixties which is an inspired move considering the popularity of TVs ‘Mad Men’. Just think of all those cool suits and that AMT Piranha spy car and the Oldsmobile Thrushbuster. I had a Corgi toy version with a clicking push down periscope on the roof which thrust the characters out of each window holding a revolver. Ah! Good times.

Personally, I think that Cooper could pull it off quiet well. How about Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin as Kuryakin?

Source: Variety

It feels like casting for Alex Proyas’ upcoming adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, is coming in hard and fast now, which is excellent news, paving the way forward for what should be an amazing project.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we got the excellent news that Casey Affleck would be joining the cast in the form of archangel Gabriel, and just yesterday we heard that Prison Break’s awesome Dominic Purcell is coming on board too.

Now comes the news via Deadline that the project has found its Adam in Diego Boneta, cast opposite Camilla Belle as Eve, the first man and woman. Boneta’s is not a name I’m especially familiar with, but he’s landed the leading role in the upcoming film adaptation of Rock of Ages, also starring fellow young rising star Julianne Hough, as well as Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Cranston, and Tom Cruise, to name just a few names, so we’ll be getting an idea of what he’s like in a big-screen production when that comes out next summer ahead of Paradise Lost the year after.

Along with Boneta, Belle, Affleck, and Purcell, Paradise Lost will also star Bradley Cooper as the notorious Lucifer, Benjamin Walker as the archangel Michael, and Djimon Hounsou as the angel of death. Production is scheduled to begin in January next year, and this is definitely a project to keep your eye on. It should be pretty damn immense.

The more I hear about the upcoming Paradise Lost project, the more I fall in love with it. To start off with, it’s going to be helmed by Alex Proyas, the awesome director who brought us the brilliant and visually awesome I, Robot.

And every time we’re given more news about the cast, it just gets better and better. Back in May, we got the very interesting news that Bradley Cooper, best known for The Hangover (both parts) and this year’s surprise success Limitless, would be playing Lucifer, and the rising star Benjamin Walker (the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) would be playing the archangel Michael.

The brilliant Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) was then announced as playing Abdiel, the angel of death, who’ll be battling against Cooper. And most recently came the excellent news that Casey Affleck would also be given a set of wings to play the angel Gabriel, in a role I cannot wait to see.

We’ve now got the awesome news via Collider that Prison Break’s Dominic Purcell will be playing,

“Jerahmeel, an angel who is rechristened as Moloch when he falls in step with Lucifer’s rebellion against Heaven.”

Purcell has been relatively absent from both the big and small screen since Prison Break finished two years ago, but looks to be making a strong return with roles in this year’s Killer Elite alongside Jason Statham and Robert De Niro and the upcoming remake of Straw Dogs, due out here on 4^th November this year. I personally loved Purcell in Prison Break, and can’t wait to see him taking on the role of Lucifer’s right-hand man. It’ll be good to see him on the wrong side of the law again, but this time undoubtedly showing off more of his brute strength, being voluntarily on the wrong side.

Proyas has said of the film,

“Were going to make an incredible epic film about the Devil’s fall from grace and the Archangel Michael. Adam and Eve play heavily in it as well. This film couldn’t have been made a few years ago. In fact, we’re not even sure we can make it now. But we’re gonna try.”

So it sounds like it’s going to focus on some aspects of John Milton’s original epic poem and push others a little to the side, for what should be a visually brilliant film. We got a little look at some concept art for Cooper’s Lucifer at Comic Con in the summer, and it looked pretty damn awesome. And to refresh your memories, I thought it would be good to embed it below. Doesn’t it look so brilliantly evil?

Over the summer, the casting for David O. Russell’s next film, The Silver Linings Playbook, started to shape up nicely, with Jennifer Lawrence cast in the female lead and Bradley Cooper filling the male lead after Mark Wahlberg had to exit the project.

Now comes the news that Jacki Weaver, the Oscar-nominated domineering matriarch from last year’s Animal Kingdom, is in negotiations to board the project too as the (presumably much nicer) mother of Bradley Cooper’s character, THR report.

The Silver Linings Playbook is about a,

“former high school teacher (Cooper) who is institutionalized for depression and is released from a health facility determined to find the silver linings in his life. He tries to win back his ex-wife but becomes involved with an eccentric neighbor (Lawrence) with problems of her own.

Weaver will play Cooper’s mother, who takes care of him.”

I was lucky enough to catch the Australian Animal Kingdom last year whilst it was playing in cinemas here, and Weaver really was brilliant in it, and certainly deserved her nomination at the Oscars for what was a truly remarkable performance. So let’s hope negotiations go well for her, and her recognition in Hollywood should continue to rise in the years to come.

Along with Cooper, Lawrence, and now hopefully Weaver, Cooper’s Limitless co-star Robert De Niro is also a part of this project, in a currently unknown role, so the casting for this really has just been getting brilliant in the past few months. Production is set to begin this autumn, and with a little bit of luck, we might just get to see it on the big screen before the end of next year.

I was watching He’s Just Not That Into You the other night (I know, I know, I’m sorry) and at one point caught Bradley Cooper break into a genuinely menacing grin. My first thought was how very well that might work for his upcoming take on Lucifer for the cinema adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost. You can catch up on all of our posts on this developing project right here.

Alongside Cooper and possibly Djimon Hounsou, we now have a bit more meat on the previously bare bones of casting news, with Casey Affleck said to be lined up as the angel Gabriel (previously played compellingly androgynously by Tilda Swinton in Constantine). Affleck convincingly portrayed flawed integrity for Gone Baby Gone and was out and out unpleasant for The Killer Inside Me, so it will be hoped that he can bring some complex shades to what might otherwise be a very one-dimensional cipher.

Also added to the roster are Diego Boneta (possibly) as Adam, with Camilla Belle (10,000 BC, Push, Adrift) confirmed as Eve. Ben Walker (Kinsey, Flags of our Fathers, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) as Michael will get stuck into Lucifer for the whole “cast down from heaven” thing.

With Alex Proyas (Knowing, Dark City, The Crow, I Robot) directing and some genuinely intelligent casting decisions being made, this is shaping up to be a decent prospect. We’ll keep our ear to the ground for you.

Sources: Variety & Deadline.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, In America) has now joined the cast of the upcoming adaptation of Milton’s famous epic poem, Paradise Lost, Variety report.

We don’t get to see Hounsou on the big screen that frequently, but he is an absolutely terrific actor, and I can’t wait to see him portraying the character of Abdiel, the angel of death.

Though I can’t say that I’ve read Milton’s poem in its entirety, and the parts I have read I did so further back than I can remember, it is of course well known for its epic nature, both in length and subject matter, and this is a project that’s becoming more and more promising with each bit of information we get from it.

“Synopsis: Lucifer and Michael, God’s greatest archangels, share the bond of extraordinary friendship until God produces his greatest creation: Man. Unable to remain subservient to God if it means bowing down to humanity, Lucifer begins his dark descent and is cast out – only to plot his revenge.”

Bradley Cooper, who’s seeing his star soar of late, is attached to take the role of Lucifer, which I’m also really looking forward to seeing, and Benjamin Walker will be playing the role of Michael. Alex Proyas will be taking the helm for this project.

We got our first look at some concept art of Cooper as Lucifer last month coming out of Comic-Con, and it looked pretty damn awesome. Proyas will be using motion capture to help bring the story to life, and things are definitely looking good so far. I’ll be really interested to see our first proper look at the angels from head to toe, to see exactly how they’ll be depicted.

Playing Abdiel, the angel of death, Hounsou’s main part in the original poem comes in the centre of the poem’s twelve books, so in theory he’ll have an awesome part to look forward to half-way through the film. Whilst I can’t remember much about Abdiel, I think he stays on heaven’s side and battles in the war against the defecting angels, which sounds like a role perfect for Hounsou.

He was brilliant alongside Cam Gigandet, Sean Faris, and Amber Heard a few years back in Never Back Down, and was of course exceptional opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in Blood Diamond and Gladiator, respectively. Though he has been nominated twice at the Oscars, it really isn’t often that we get to see Hounsou in many films, and even less frequent in big films like this, so his attachment to Paradise Lost is definitely good news in my books. No firm release date has been scheduled yet, but we probably have to wait until 2013 to see this finalised. But from the look and sound of things so far, it will be worth it.

It appears that Relativity’s remake of the 1989 comic The Crow is has come to a standstill. Up until now, Limitless’ Bradley Cooper was slated to play Eric Draven, a rock and roll guitarist who is brought back to life by a mysterious crow in order to avenge the brutal deaths of himself and his girlfriend Shelly Webster. However Cooper has a busy schedule as of late, and his prior commitments to Silver Linings Playboy and the poetic epic Paradise Lost, have rendered him unavailable for the role of Draven.

In my opinion this is more of a gain than a loss. Bradley Cooper may have put out some good films as of late, but I hardly think that he has the chops to pull off the semi-psychopathic role of Draven. But even with Cooper gone, things still don’t bode well for The Crow. It appears that Relativity is now considering actors Mark Wahlberg and Channing Tatum for the roles, both of which I believe to be some of the most ridiculous choices! Last time I checked, Eric Draven was about half the age of Mark Whalberg and unless they want a terrible franchise like GI Joe or Step Up, Channing Tatum isn’t their man either.

The role of Draven is a hard one to cast and even Brandon Lee couldn’t pull it off without coming off a little hokey at times. Have any of these people in Hollywood actually ever been to a concert? Unless you count Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, lead guitarists don’t have that Tatum or Wahlberg build. They need to be less muscular and a little more crazy. Just imagine Queen of the Damned’s Stuart Townsend but with a little more chops when it comes to acting. It seems that Relativity is trying to make this film more of a vehicle for a good looking buff guy instead of making something that holds to the integrity of the comic. And I know everybody seems to think this, but I tend to agree.. Johnny Depp would kill it as The Crow, as long as Tim isn’t there to ruin it.

However one thing the people over at Relativity did get right, is the choice of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo for the Director’s chair. Carlos already has had his fair share of good films with Intacto and 28 Weeks later, and his proclivity towards the horror genre makes him a perfect guy to bring Devil’s Night to life. Fresnadillo’s new horror flick Intruders is just finishing up with post and undoubtedly will give us an even closer look at the man’s capable hands. Hopefully Relativity gets their act together and surrounds him with the tools he needs to make The Crow succeed!

Mark Wahlberg, whose last outing The Fighter earned him his second Academy Award nomination, is currently in talks to star in an adaptation of Steven Grant’s graphic novel, 2 Guns, Variety report.

The Fighter’s director, David O. Russell, was originally to helm the project, but has recently exited to focus on his next film, The Silver Linings Playbook, which Wahlberg himself has left due to scheduling conflicts, to be replaced by Bradley Cooper.

As such, the film will hopefully have its lead in Wahlberg, but is now searching for a director. If talks with Wahlberg are successful, having his name attached to the project should  help it move forward and find Russell’s replacement.

Taken from Amazon’s US site, here’s a great description of the original graphic novel, which likely won’t change much in its adaptation:

“A pulp story about cops and thieves and the men that are something in between. Trench has targeted a local bank to rob, and asked Steadman in on the job. Trench figures it’s a great way to score — considering it’s a cover for mob money. They’ll be thieves ripping off thieves. But what Steadman doesn’t know is that Trench is a DEA agent. And what Trench doesn’t know is that Steadman’s a Naval Intelligence officer. They’re both cops! And neither one knows that they’re not robbing the mob, they’ve been set up to steal $50 million from the CIA! A light-hearted crime romp in the vein of Ocean’s Thirteen and The Italian Job from comics legend, Steven Grant!”

The remake of The Italian Job gets a lot of flack, but I personally thought that Wahlberg was great leading the film, and look forward to seeing him in a role with a similar feel. The script is being written by Blake Masters, who created and wrote TV’s Brotherhood and has recently been writing for Law & Order: Los Angeles, with Marc Platt producing, whose credits include Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the upcoming Ryan Gosling-starrer, Drive.

Even though I would have loved Russell and Wahlberg to work on this project together, I’m glad it looks to still be moving ahead with the latter now in talks to star, and most likely produce alongside Platt. He’ll next be seen in Contraband, due out in March next year, opposite Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and Giovanni Ribisi, and will then be leading Seth MacFarlane’s live-action feature debut, Ted, with Ribisi again, MacFarlane, and Mila Kunis.

Emmy-nominated actress Rose Byrne (Insidious) has signed on to co-star in crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines.

Bryne, who replaces Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), will star opposite Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) and Bradley Cooper (Limitless). Gerwig was forced to drop out due to a scheduling conflict.

A motorcycle stunt rider (Gosling) considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician (Cooper).

The film, which is Derek Cianfrance’s follow-up to Blue Valentine, began production two weeks ago in Schenectady.

Byrne can currently be seen in the smash-hit R-rated comedy Bridesmaids.

Source: Vulture

Bradley Cooper really seems to be absolutely on top of his game in recent years, going from movie to movie with great success and no sign of slowing down. Now, Deadline report he’ll be replacing Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming adaptation of Matthew Quick’s first novel, The Silver Linings Playbook.

Wahlberg was to re-team with director David O. Russell for it, but scheduling conflicts mean he’s had to withdraw, and now Cooper is in talks to fill what’s shaping up to be another great role for him.

Like most people will know by now, Cooper really took off on the big screen back in 2009 starring in The Hangover. He played Face in last year’s The A-Team film, and has starred this year in two very successful films, Limitless and The Hangover: Part II, the former being really well received, especially concerning Cooper’s performance, and the latter being one of the year’s highest grossing films so far.

He’s been working recently on The Words, opposite Olivia Wilde, Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, and John Hannah, and is currently filming The Place Beyond The Pines with Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, which is a film to look forward to in 2013. And on top of that, he’s also going to be taking on one of literature’s most epic anti-heroes in Paradise Lost, based on Milton’s poem, playing Lucifer. We saw the first image for the film last week at Comic-Con, and it looked pretty sweet.

With 2011 being such a great year for Cooper, it looks like he’s going to have another few great years lined up for himself, which is excellent to see. As we heard at the end of last month, fellow young rising star Jennifer Lawrence, who played Mystique in this year’s X-Men: First Class and will be leading the upcoming adaptation of The Hunger Games, will be joining the cast of The Silver Linings Playbook as the female lead. And there’s also now talk of Robert De Niro, who worked with Cooper on Limitless, starring in the film as well.

“The Silver Linings Playbook revolves around a former high school teacher (Cooper) who was institutionalized for depression and then released into the care of his mother. He tries to win back his ex-wife but becomes involved with an eccentric neighbor (Lawrence) with problems of her own.”

Having such a great cast, with as brilliant a director as Russell attached, can only mean great things for this project. I must admit, I was looking forward to seeing Wahlberg and Russell working together again after their brilliant partnership on The Fighter, but I’m nonetheless really looking forward to this film. I’m a big fan of what Cooper’s worked on so far, and I’m interested to see the roles he’ll be taking on next. Both he and The Silver Linings Playbook definitely have a lot of potential working in their favour. We were able to get a great interview with Cooper for the release of Limitless on DVD/Blu-Ray this week, and it’s a really interesting read; you can just tell that this man is destined for even greater things.