'IMITATION GAME' Director In Talks For 'PASSENGERS'; Script From 'PROMETHEUS' Writer

Variety reports that Sony is currently in negotiations with Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum to helm their sci-fi flick Passengers. He's best known for the Oscar nominated film which earned him a Best Director nomination, studios will likely be knocking his door with many projects.

Another one of his films is a slick thriller Headhunters which is totally worth watching if you get the chance.

Passengers is based on a spec-script from screenwriter Jon Spahits that Sony bought on the spot.

Set on a spacecraft in the future with thousands of passengers making an interstellar voyage to a distant new planet. One passenger awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else and decides to wake up a female passenger, sparking the beginning of a love story.

Jon is best known for having his original Prometheus script rewritten by Damon Lindelof, I urge you to seek out his original draft and compare it to the film it's actually pretty damn good.

This new project is seeming taking cues from David's creepy spying on Shaw during her hyper-sleep.

He's also landed high profile screenwriting gigs with Marvel Studios penning Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange along with writing a draft of Universal's Mummy reboot.

Casting hasn't begun but a couple of names have been attached to the project in the past and they include Reese Witherspoon (Wild, Inherent Vice), Keanu Reeves (John Wick, Speed, Point Break) and Rachel McAdams (True Detective, Notebook). The actors have since moved on from the film but could be lured to return with Morten Tyldum's involvement.

The genre is hot again thanks to films like Gravity and Guardians of The Galaxy making huge box office.

I'm sure he'll be getting a bunch of offers but Sony has managed to allow some creative freedom to their sci-fi directors in the past with Neill Blomkamp being able to make wildly different movies like Elysium and the upcoming Chappie.

Other big sci-fi projects with sprawling casts coming soon include Ridley Scott's The Martian and Ben Wheatley's High-Rise.





SOURCE: VARIETY

David Fincher In Talks To Direct Thriller GONE GIRL

Variety reports that David Fincher could be returning back to his crime thriller roots with an adaptation of Gillian Lynn's Gone Girl. The director is in talks to helm the 20th Century Fox project which has Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon producing and could end up with a role. The thriller focuses on a woman who disappears on the day of her fifth wedding anniversary with evidence pointing to the husband.

It's possible that Fincher could still make 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea over at Disney but talks to get Brad Pitt in the lead role didn't workout. Fincher had also been linked to direct Star Wars but had reportedly turned it down in it's early development stages. Gone Girl would take up less of his time and could allow him to go straight into the Dragon Tattoo sequels afterwards.

An update concerning The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest is also mentioned. Currently, a script for The Girl Who Played With Fire had been ordered by Sony but hasn't been completed as Steve Zallian is busy with an HBO project. There had been expectations to cutdown production costs the two sequels would shoot back-to-back. David could be looking to make a film during the writing of the sequels. He hasn't officially confirmed he will be back to direct but Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig will be returning to their respected roles.

Cameron Crowe's Next Film A Revised Version Of DEEP TIKI?

Variety reported back in July that Cameron Crowe's next film will actually be a massively rewritten version of Deep Tiki. The Hawaiian set comedy originally had Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon in the leads. Since then the project was placed in development hell when the actors backed-out. If this new project starring Emma Stone and possibly Bradley Cooper indeed turns out to be Deep Tiki it likely won't be reconcilable from the original synopsis. It was said to be heavily influenced by the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romantic comedy Joe Vs. The Volcano and involved Hawaiian gods.

A disgraced military weapons consultant who, after being deployed to a dormant base in Hawaii to supervise the launch of a spy satellite, starts to discover himself and the relationships he left behind against the backdrop of mythical island lore and Cold War-esque diplomacy.

Actresses In The Running To Star Alongside Jason Segel In Sex Tape

Deadline reports that Sony Pictures is trying to put together a comedy project for director Nicholas Stroller with Jason Segel in mind to star. Stroller has been gathering quite a bit of success with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek and the upcoming The Five-Year Engagement. The project titled Sex Tape based on the script by Kate Angelo sounds like a raunchy version of Date Night were a couple looses their sex tape and tries to case it down. Reese Witherspoon was also mentioned as a potential actress for the lead. Variety adds names like Amy Adams (Enchanted, Leap Year, Talladega Nights), Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada, Wild Target), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, X-Men First Class) and Jennifer Garner (Aurthur, Juno).

Reese doesn't seems like a great fit but did give a decent performance in Legally Blonde and could be okay in This Means War. Emily Blunt has worked with Jason on three previous films playing his love interest in Stroller's Five-Year Engagement and Gulliver's Travels. Amy stars alongside Jason in The Muppets as the love interest,  so she seems like a solid candidate too. Rose worked with Stroller on Get Him To The Greek and while she was terrible in Bridesmaids is likely getting credit for it's success. I can't say I'd want to see Garner in the lead since I feel she has the personality of a wet paper bag in her movies.

Sam Worthington Offered Lead In This Means War

Vulture reports Fox has offered Sam Worthington a lead role in McG's (Terminator Salvation, Charile's Angels) action rom-com This Means War. The project seems to be troubled as it's been bumped to different directors, writers and many actors have passed on it (Seth Rogen, Bradley Cooper). Two best friends and veteran spies who wage black-ops warfare on each other when they both fall for the same girl. Currently Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine (Star Trek) are the only names attached to the film. It's likely Worthington will pass on it since he's been recently cast in a bunch of projects.