STARDUST's Jane Goldman Rewriting FABLES Movie

Fables producer David Heyman (Harry Potter, Paddington) confirmed to Comic Book Resources that director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) and screenwriter Jane Goldman are currently rewriting the script originally penned by Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four).

Jane Goldman is working on a draft as we speak. Nik Arcel is attached [to direct]. He did a draft, and now he’s supervising Jane, who’s doing a draft. Hoping that it’ll come in and we’ll be able to move to the next stage. All these things always take longer than you want. And “Fables” is not easy, by any means, but I think it’ll be pretty great.

You might remember Arcel had been in the mix to direct Marvel's Doctor Strange but the gig went to Scott Derrickson instead. This is the first time he'll be working with Goldman.

The prolific screenwriter's credits include Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Woman In Black, X-Men First Class, X-Men Days of Future Past, and The Debut. Her work on Stardust easily stands outs as a strong reason why her involvement could greatly help the fairy tale inspired film.

Warner Bros. originally attempted to have the comic book film adaption made by the Jim Henson Company back in 2004 but it didn't get to the writing stage.

I'm curious if we'll see the Henson Company getting involved like they did with Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are.

Relocating to Earth, the likes of King Cole, Snow White, Cinderella and the rest have, over the years, settled into their own secret community in New York, which they informally call Fabletown, hidden among us normal folk (unless they look like monsters or weird creatures, in which case they live at 'the Farm'). Cole claims to run the place, but Snow White is the power behind the throne, sick of people bringing up her dwarf-filled history and long since divorced from Prince Charming (who, in a fun touch, went on to marry and lose both Cinders and Sleeping Beauty in turn).

Here's a bit of a rundown of Jane's upcoming projects or ones she could involved with in the future.

Jane is working on two Tim Burton projects with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Pinocchio writing/rewriting those scripts. It seems that Goldman has a real knack for genre and fantasy material.

Miss Peregrine involves a child finding an abandoned school for children with supernatural powers who may not have actually vacated the premises.

Robert Downey Jr. was attached to play the role of Gepetto in Burton's Pinocchio.

Interesting to note that in first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron the famous song "I Got No Strings" from the Disney film is playing in the background. Ultron, seemingly comparing himself to Pinocchio and Stark possibly the Gepetto in that comparison.

She penned Warner Bros' adaptation of Nate Simpson's Nonplayer where a young woman who escapes from her drab life into an online fantasy world.

Another project sees her adapting another macabre novel similar to her work on The Woman In Black. Set in Victorian London, Dan Leno and The Limehouse Golem focuses on a Jack The Ripper-style serial killer case woven into the story of a star in vaudeville.

Painless director Juan Carlos Medina is attached for the film which could be extremely dark and chilling.

Jane and Matthew on the set of Kick-Ass.

Goldman is a frequent collaborator with writer-director Matthew Vaughn. The two could end-up working together on adapting comic book films such as Superior, Bloodshot, Golden Age and film adaptations together. Her husband Jonathan Ross wrote the the last two comics mentioned.

Superior is a bit of hybrid of Superman meets Shazam, with a young boy given the abilities of his favorite superhero only to find-out he also has brought his destructive alien nemesis to life as well. There is some speculation the film setup at Fox could be next for Vaughn but nothing has been made official.

Golden Age focuses on a group of retired elderly superheroes who have to team-up with their grandkids to save the parents.

Turf is a oddball genre comic focusing on gangsters, vampires and aliens squaring-off during the Prohibition era.

Turf begins in Prohibition-era New York as a vengeful gang war erupts between booze-smuggling mobsters and the blood thirsty Dragonmir Family. As an ancient prophecy unfolds amidst the maelstrom of violence, the entire city is up for grabs and it's anyone's guess who will come out on top. The only glimmer of hope is an unlikely alliance between tough guy Eddie Falco and a stranger from another world.

Blooshot had been toted as one of Matthew Vaughn's next projects but we haven't had much updates since 2010.

The corpse of Angelo Mortalli has been reanimated and remade into the ultimate killing machine—an engine of destruction code named: Bloodshot. But, in the process, his memories were lost…and maybe his soul. His makers meant to use him as a weapon—an unstoppable assassin. But they made him too well. Too powerful to be contained, he breaks free and escapes.

Goldman hasn't been officially announced for these four films, but where Matthew Vaughn goes his writing partner seems to follow. Considering the duo have worked together on Vaughn's last five films including their script for X-Men Days of Future Past which ended-up getting directed by Bryan Singer. Jane being announced for any of these film projects wouldn't be shocking at the least.

SOURCE: COMICBOOKRESOURCES 

Henson Company Developing LABYRINTH Sequel, Will Jennifer Connelly And David Bowie Return?

There's been a bit of a revival of Henson projects lately. The Muppets have release two recent movies, and Where The Wild Things Are proved the company still is keeping to their scary kids film roots. A new report from Variety reveals a couple of projects the production company is developing. These include the Fraggle Rock movie at New Line Cinema/Warner Bros., The Dark Crystal 2 which has been kicking-around since 2006 with Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Popeye, Hotel Transylvania) attached to direct. Projects we've been hearing about for ages, but one is seemingly new to me.

Variety mentions that a sequel to 1986's Labyrinth is also in the works. The original film mixed live-action actors Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie interacting with puppets in a very dark fairytale environment. Details aren't revealed here, but it wouldn't be hard to bring back Connelly/Bowie. The two actors are still kicking-around and making movies. Considering how popular recent female-led fairytale films are with Frozen, Maleficent and Alice In Wonderland, wouldn't be hard to see how a sequel could make an impact with audiences. Again, we have zero idea what development stage the film is at the moment. It's being mentioned as a sequel, which gives the impression we could see the original actors possibly returning.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Mark Hamill Confirms Talks To Reprise Luke Skywalker In EPISODE VII, Says Luke Could Have An Obi-Wan Role

While there has been talk of the original three actors reprising their roles of Luke, Han and Leia we really haven't heard much in the way of confirmation. The only real quote was from Ford who said he'd be up for it. Harrison is usually extremely cagey about his involvement with Star Wars which seemed like a good chance he was willing to come back. However, nothing really concrete has been made official.

In a new interview with ET (via CBM) Mark Hamill has revealed that he and the others are indeed in talks with LucasFilm. Adding that contracts haven't been signed and they haven't met with production people yet. It's possible if anyone decides to exclude themselves they'll be written out rather than being replaced. Hamill also gave his theories on the plot and his possible role in the new trilogy. Along with a hope for more "old school" feel to the production and not relying to heavily on CGI effects. Rick Baker has mentioned being willing to return to the franchise and considering his Oscar winning makeup effects LucasFilm/Abrams would be crazy not to consider him. There is also the use of puppets thanks in part to the Henson Company which already has ties with Disney because of the Muppet franchise.

“They’re talking to us,” he reveals. “George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm."

“I’m assuming that these movies would be about our offspring — like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character". 

“I hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects", says Hamill. "I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings — I’m sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that’s unfortunate. … If they listen to me at all, it’ll be, ‘Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.”

'FRAGGLE ROCK' Film Gets 'RANGO' Writer

HeatVision reports New Regency is finally moving forward with the Fraggle Rock film, likely due to the success of the recent Muppets movie. The musical puppet show from the Henson Company focuses on group of young cave dwelling creatures. Writers Jim Byrkit and Alex Manugian have been hired to develop a screenplay. Byrkit was given story credit for Rango which won Best Animated Feature at the 2012 Oscars. Let's just hope they stick to puppets and don't cheapen out with CGI.

Amy Adams, Chris Cooper & Rashida Jones Might Join The Muppets

HeatVision reports Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones are in talks to take on human roles in Disney's new Muppet film. The project co-written by Jason Segal and director Nicolas Stroller looks to resurrect the Muppet franchise and pump in new comedic blood. Segal who wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall will also star in the film as the lead human character.

Guillermo del Toro presents Pinocchio

During an interview with Guillermo del Toro, Bloody Disgusting has exclusive news about a new del Toro project. The film is something different as it will be a stop-motion feature based on the classic story of Pinocchio.



The project is still in early stages so it will be awhile before production starts. Artist Cris Grimley who did illustrations for the novel that inspired the project will direct. He's been compared to Tim Burton and from his artwork it looks like he could be a million times darker than Burton. Brian Henson and the Jim Henson Company (Dark Crystal, Farscape, Labyrinth) will be involved developing the puppets for the film. The Henson Company is one of the greatest practical effects studios, they've recently come back to feature films.