Liev Schreiber, Sally Hawkins And Romola Garai Join Sci-Fi Thriller 'THE LAST DAYS ON MARS'

It looks like Ruairi Robinson's science fiction thriller The Last Days On Mars is finally moving forward. TheDailyMail (via ThePlaylist) reports on the first casting additions that include Liev Schreiber (Scream 1-3, Repo Men, Ransom) , Sally Hawkins (Layer Cake, Submarine) and Romola Garai (Atonement). The film that has WETA (Avatar, Hobbit, LOTR, King Kong) handling the effects centers on a crew of astronauts on Mars who discover evidence of bacterial life, only for them to start to being killed off when things go horribly wrong. I assume this film will end up something similar to Mission To Mars/Red Planet meets Alien/Prometheus.

Ruairi Robinson To Direct The Last Days On Mars

ComingSoon reports that Ruairi Robinson will finally make a big studio film. After being attached to direct Akira for Warner Bros. and leaving the project. The sci-fi horror thriller film The Last Days On Mars will be Ruairi's first full big movie after making some impressive short films. They also report that WETA Digital will handle the special effects. Hopefully this means WETA Workshop will also handle the props for the film too. WETA's credits include Avatar, King Kong, District 9 and Rise of The Planet of The Apes.

"As their last day on Mars draws to a close, the astronaut crew is on the verge of a major breakthrough – collected rock specimens reveal microscopic evidence of life. Meanwhile, communication is underway with AURORA, the approaching spacecraft that will relieve the crew of their operations. In their last hours on the planet, two astronauts go back to SITE 9, a cavernous valley on the surface of Mars, to collect further evidence of their discovery. But a routine excavation turns deadly when one of them falls to his death and his body taken host and re-animated by the very life form they sought to discover."

Director Albert Hughes Leaves WB's Akira

Deadline reports that Albert Hughes (From Hell, Book of Eli) has exited the terrible sounding Akira adaptation. They say the director and studio have creative differences. It's unknown if the all the white casting candidates or deviation from important Japanese setting from the source material was the reason. Warners is pushing forward and looking for a replacement director. Giving the impression production is likely to start within the year. This is the second director to leave the project the first being Oscar nominated Ruairi Robinson.

Keanu Reeves recently turned down the lead role of Kaneda which seems to be yet another kink in the works for the film. It also doesn't help Akira isn't getting much backing from the source material's fanbase. Changing many of elements from the original story along with the characters' ages, Japanese setting and tone (going from R to PG-13). There is also a rather large online campaign to stop the "white-washing" casting. I'm a really big fan of Warner Bros. but I'm starting to really dislike this whole project. It would be smart on their part to retool the script and fix the issues fans have.