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 

RUMOR: Mads Mikkelsen Being Eyed For Role In DOCTOR STRANGE?

BleedingCool is giving us an early rumor concerning the casting of Marvel's Doctor Strange. I say early, because it's only coming from one source. There also isn't a role being mentioned, but none the less the name is interesting enough to consider it. Plus, BC has had a couple of solid scoops in the past.

They have heard that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Hannibal, King Arthur, Pusher Trilogy, Clash of The Titans, Three Musketeers, Valhalla Rising) had been or is in the mix, for an unknown role in Strange. You might remember that Mads had been originally wanted for Malekith in Thor: The Dark World, but exited the project to focus on his series Hannibal (which eventually became a hit). His recent film The Hunt has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars.

I'm taking this rumor a little more serious than the previous ones. Mikkelsen has a couple connections to the people Marvel was reportedly meeting with to direct and write for the the project. Nikolaj Arcel directed Mads in the film A Royal Affair. He'll also lend his voice for Kung Fu Panda 3, the writers of that film could possibly pen the Strange script. Add that Marvel previously wanted him for main role, it sounds likely that the studio is at least interested in him.

This isn't the first actor being linked or rumored for Strange. The names we've heard over the last two years include Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Dark Knight Rises, Don Jon, Inception, Looper), Johnny Depp (old meeting with Marvel), Javier Bardem (Skyfall, No Country For Old Men, The Counselor), Jon Hamm (I can confirm has met with Marvel for unnamed project) and possibly Benedict Cumberbatch (Hobbit, Star Trek Into Darkness, Sherlock, War Horse).

SOURCE: BLEEDINGCOOL

Marvel Studios Meeting With Writers And Directors For DOCTOR STRANGE

We finally have some concrete news concerning Marvel's Doctor Strange. THR reports that the studio is meeting with directors Mark Andrews (Brave, John Carter, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars), Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies), Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and Dean Israelite (Welcome To Yesterday). The plan is that they will have double-duties, helping with the script as well. These names are mostly writer-directors which confirms my initial report, that the studio was looking for a director who could contribute to the script.

Kung Fu Panda franchise writers Jon Aibel and Glenn Berger are also in the mix to write the script. Marvel is likely tossing out the previous script from Conan The Barbarian's Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. That original draft leaked, and some of it's plot was revealed by LatinoReview. It had was reported that Marvel was possibly doing page-one rewrites, and this confirms that talk. Having both writers and a director close to deals, could mean the film might be ready to be released for 2016 or 2017. Falling inline with Kevin Feige's statements, Strange would be apart of Phase Three.

If I had to choose a front-runner or my favorite of the bunch, it would be Oscar winning director Mark Andrews. He previously co-wrote and co-directed Pixar's Brave (earning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature), film nerds champion anyone involved with the animation studio. He understands supernatural worlds writing for Star Wars: Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, and co-writing the John Carter script. Andrews also might be the type of director to give us something we won't be expecting and give audiences (including children) a fun ride. Not to mention giving us strong female characters, which is surely needed in this project. If Marvel doesn't land him, I have a feeling Lucasfilm will give him a call.





SOURCE: THR

Danish Director Nikolaj Arcel To Make FABLES Movie With A Script From Fantastic Four Reboot's Jeremy Slater

THR reports that Warner Bros. is back to making a live-action film based on the DC Comics/Vertigo comic Fables. They have a script from Jeremy Slater who was tasked to write Fox's Fantastic Four reboot and have hired Danish director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair). No word on when production is expected to begin but it sounds a little more promising than other DC based projects that are stuck in limbo (The Flash, Wonder Woman, Lobo, Sgt. Rock, Suicide Squad). Harry Potter producers David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford of Heyday Films are also involved.