Scarlett Johansson Confirmed As The Major In Rupert Sanders' GHOST IN THE SHELL Movie

Variety is confirming that Scarlett Johansson has indeed has taken the lead role of The Major in Rupert Sanders' (Snow White And The Huntsman) Ghost In The Shell adaptation. The film is based on the wildly popular anime film and series, which was adapted from a manga. A new first-person-shooter game is also in development, so the franchise has been hinting all media market points. Steven Spielberg who originally obtained the film rights is still listed as a producer, which is good news.

The story revolves on a futuristic Japanese secret police unit of augmented humans and cyborgs. Who are tasked to fight technology based crimes and terrorism with extreme force. Scarlett's character The Major, is a key team leader in the unit.

The actress isn't a stranger to Japan or Asia, as her first breakout role was in Sophia Coppola's Tokyo-set Lost In Translation opposite Bill Murray. Also recently, shooting in Taiwan for Lucy (speaking Korean in the film) and shot in South Korea for Age of Ultron. The understanding is that the film should and will be still set in Japan. As we haven't heard otherwise, considering Scarlett's history with shooting in Asian countries. The assumption is they will be shooting on location in Japan. I have zero doubts we could even see her speaking Japanese in the film.

However, Hollywood has whitewashed and Americanized manga/anime properties before. Warner Bros. famously tried to limit the Japanese influence in their Akira film, looking at all white actors for the leads. Along with moving the setting to Manhattan and not Neo Tokyo. I'm sure this sort of information will be released once the film is officially greenlit.

Scarlett's rise is in-part thanks to her widely beloved role as Marvel's Black Widow in Iron Man 2, Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. Over the summer her breakout French-produced action hit Lucy made $458.8M on a budget of $40M. Proving the actress has international awareness, not to menion beating Dwayne Johnson's Hercules (a film budgeted over $100M) it's opening weekend (the two films opened the same weekend). The international take in Russia, China and other Asian markets prove that audiences can handle an American actress in a foreign setting.

It's been reported by Deadline the actress was offered $10M for the role. Which would she her acting quote sky-rocket for future film contacts. It's doubtful the notoriously stingy Marvel Studios would be willing to pay her $10M a film, if she only has a supporting role in the cinematic universe. Robert Downey Jr. has figured-out a way to get paid $50M an appearance, but Scarlett isn't as essential to the MCU as Robert is at the moment.

Kevin Feige has since axed all talk about developing a Black Widow spin-off movie, and has confirmed her place is as a supporting character. I'm still unsure if Widow will come out of Age of Ultron alive, as this sort of talk gives the impression they could kill her off before having to draw-up a new and very expensive contract. This looks to be a smart power move on the part of Scarlett who is quickly becoming equally known for her action hero status as her dramatic and indie projects.








SOURCE: VARIETY

AVATAR Actor Matt Gerald Joins The Male-Heavy Cast Of Edgar Wright's ANT-MAN

Deadline reports that character actor Matt Gerald (Avatar, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Escape Plan) has taken a villainous role in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man. This isn't Matt's first Marvel role, as he took the part of White Power Dave in the Marvel One-Shot All Hail The King. It's unknown if he'll be reprising the role of Dave in new film.

The rest of the cast includes Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit, Real Steel, Hurt Locker), Michael Douglas (The Game, Black Rain, Wall Street), Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, A-Team, Insidious 1-2, The Conjuring), Michael Pena (End of Watch, Crash) and Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Non-Stop, Midnight In Paris). Production is set to being at Pinewoods Studios in Atlanta, the first Marvel film to be shot that facility. It's release date is the old Batman Vs Superman spot, which is slated for July , 2015

I'm loving the cast Edgar is putting together, but it's a giant sausage-fest at the moment. Currently, there are six-seven male cast members (Clifton Collins Jr. might be the seventh actor), while only one woman has been cast in the film. You'd think after The Winter Soldier having five female characters in the film, Marvel would be adding more ladies among the Ant-Man cast. Here's hoping that we end-up seeing more women join the Marvel film, because it's a bit shameful if they don't.


SOURCE: DEADLINE

Zoe Saldana In Talks To Play Gamora In Marvel's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

THR reports that actress Zoe Saldana is in talks to take the female lead in Guardians of The Galaxy. She would take the role of Gamora the deadliest woman in the universe and adopted daughter of Thanos. Gamora eventually sets her sights on taking down Thanos and joins the Guardians. She already has two massive sci-fi franchises under her belt with Avatar and Avatar 2-3 expected to shoot in the near future along with playing Uhura in the rebooted Star Trek franchise. Zoe would be the third cast member added to the cosmic project which previously cast Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Starlord and Dave Bautista as Drax The Destroyer.

Laeta Kalogridis And Patrick Lussier Hired To Write TERMINATOR 5

Deadline reports that Annapurna Pictures and Skydance Productions have finally hired writers for their new Terminator film. They picked Laeta Kalogridis the co-writer of Avatar and Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine, Drive Angry). Laeta's credits also includes Shutter Island, Alexander, Pathfinder along with in-development projects like James Cameron's Battle Angel and Ghost In The Shell live-action movie. The project currently is without a director but it is interesting to see a two-time James Cameron collaborator has been brought on to work on the script. No word on if Arnold Schwarzenegger or Christian Bale will actually be coming back.

Stallone Hints He Wants To Cast Sigourney Weaver, Gina Carano And Michelle Rodriguez In EXPENDABLES 3

During an interview with BestMovie (via BleedingCool) Sly Stallone gave some hints to where Expendables 3 could be going. He gives the impression that they could be looking for new replacements which ends up with them training them. Basically a team made up of hotshots like Liam Hemsworth's character from the last film. The next film could even include female characters as he drops hints he would be interested in bringing in Sigourney Weaver, Gina Carano and Michelle Rodriguez. Previously, it's been mentioned Sly and producers are trying to cast Nicolas Cage (not confirmed yet!), Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes as well.

The Expendables… they’re broken up, they’re shot, they’ve had it, they’re done. We have to hire new us, we have to find new Expendables, but there are none! They don’t make people like us anymore; they are all like robots. So I can go out and hire five young guys, but they’re the new army, they got drones and technology, but they’re not like us. Remember in Tropic Thunder? Just like those guys!

There’s another combination, and it involves girlfriends. Say I got divorced, say I am married to Sigourney Weaver, then she gets half the Expendables, she gets what I call The Expendabelles. So I need help and I have to go to her. And I’d like to have like Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano. It’ll be something like that, very different… The main thing is it can’t be about us! We’re done. We need to bring in new blood. And you bring in geeks and girls and women, people who are different.

Those are three names synonymous with ass-kicking female characters. Weaver playing the iconic Ripley and Rodriguez being the go-to-lady for action flicks such as Avatar, Resident Evil, Machete 1-2 and the Fast And Furious franchise. Carano had been a fan favorite when Stallone was casting Expendables 2 but ultimately didn't get the role. Rodriguez and Carano recently worked together on Fast And Furious 6. Weaver starred in a action heavy role alongside Bruce Willis in The Cold Light of Day. So I assume these projects have peeked Sly's interest in casting them.

We know that Carano is leading her own Expendables-like project with female members that include Zoe Bell (Death Proof, Gamer) and Katee Sackhoff (Riddick, Battlestar Galactica). Perhaps, that team could be included in Expendables 3 leading to their own franchise? I wouldn't be shocked to hear Bell and Sackhoff's names also included if that's indeed what the aim is.

Has Zoe Saldana Joined 'MACHETE KILLS'?

MovieHole has word from Machete himself Danny Trejo that Machete Kills has yet another lady joining the cast. He states that Zoe Saldana has joined the cast and he's going to have a bit of love scene with her. It's not hard to imagine Zoe joining the action junkie flick with roles in Colombiana, The Losers, Avatar and Star Trek 1-2.

“The sequel to Machete, Machete Kills is going to be a lot more over-the-top than Machete. We’ve got Sofia Vergara, who is a star in her own right, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, and Zoe Saldana – and guess what? I get to kiss all of ‘em.”

'AVATAR 4' A Possibility, So What Happens With 'BATTLE ANGEL'?

It's starting look like James Cameron might be putting hold Battle Angel: Alita to focus on a numerous amount of Avatar sequels. As he recently talked to NewYorkTimes revealing that he wants to make Avatar 4. He confirms that his main focus will be the Avatar franchise and won't be developing or producing any new projects. James is currently writing Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 which is expected to start production in a year or two.

"I’ve divided my time over the last 16 years over deep ocean exploration and filmmaking. I’ve made two movies in 16 years, and I’ve done eight expeditions. Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the 'Avatar' business. Period. That’s it. I’m making 'Avatar 2,' 'Avatar 3,' maybe 'Avatar 4,' and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts," Cameron said about his future plans. "And that all sounds I suppose a little bit restricted, but the point is I think within the 'Avatar' landscape I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it. And doing it in an entertaining way. And anything I can’t say in that area, I want to say through documentaries, which I’m continuing. I’ve done five documentaries in the last 10 years, and I’ll hopefully do a lot more. In fact, I’m doing one right now, which is on this, the Deep Sea Challenge project that we just completed the first expedition. So that’ll be a film that’ll get made this year and come out first quarter of next year."

Last month Cameron told MTV he still intends to direct Alita but with three time-consuming sequels to Avatar can we really believe he'll be able to fit it in? On the other hand, with Avatar 2's 2014 release date being changed could Alita (with a completed script) end up going into production first? Cameron did shoot test-footage for Alita a while back and was finishing rewrites on the script while Avatar was originally shooting (wearing a Battle Angel tee on set in the above image), so anything is possible.

Starship Troopers Is Being Remade

Producer Neal H. Moritz is known for taking on rather large projects and reboots. He currently has Total Recall and Bryan Singer's Jack The Giant Killer to be released this summer. Along with a slew of other projects that include 21 Jump Street, R.I.P.D. (Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges), RED 2, Highlander and Escape From New York. Neal is about to develop a remake of yet another film from director Paul Verhoeven this time according to Vulture it will be Starship Troopers. The 90's cult classic was a massive misstep for Sony when the $100 million film didn't make a splash at the box office when it first came out but then later made a killing in the home video market. It spawned two direct-to-DVD sequels which neither had the scale or action of the first film. However, it might be in good hands as Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz will tackle the remake's script. The pair are credited for writing both Thor and X-Men First Class which were some of the biggest success stories of the year.



As a big fan of the original I'm unsure which angle they'll be going for here. I was shocked how much they would exclude in Total Recall from the original film going as far as getting rid of the violence for a PG-13 rating along with Mars. To see a PG-13 Starship Troopers film would be an odd thing considering this a science fiction war film. Films like Saving Private Ryan and Platoon showed the realistic side to war but had to be R for this to happen. Even in science fiction the rules still apply just look at Aliens (which channeled Vietnam) for example if we didn't see the marines taken out so harshly I don't think the film would have had the same impact. Avatar for all it's stunning special effects didn't have the same urgency Aliens had because the realism was lost in it's fantasy world of CGI.

My faith in the project will also come down to casting and the director. I feel like Sony could be working the Hunger Games/Ender's Game angle here and looking to hire very young actors for the leads. Not unlike the original which had a fresh faced group of young actors put into combat. I would hope that the studio went for talent rather flavors of the month. Since I believe this reboot is likely a new franchise in the making. I don't have a lot of directors coming to mind who could do this justice but newcomer Rupert Sanders is among them. Sanders who I hope will make a name for himself with Snow White And The Huntsman also did a great job on the some of the Halo live-action commercials.