What's Next
By Michael Lynderey
March 1, 2010
Transformers 3 (scheduled for July 1, 2011) - Wait a minute here, they're really making anoth... Well, to be fair, this one doesn't really surprise me as much. That one-star rating from Roger Ebert aside, the show must go on here. And indeed it is, with location scouting actively underway and Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and even Tyrese Gibson all evidently pegged to be back, although I think the franchise could use a little less talking robots and a little more Penelope Cruz.
Zoolander 2 - Ben Stiller will be back, with Jonah Hill potentially around as his nemesis. April Fool's!
Hey, what do you mean today's March first?!? That doesn't mean this project is really real, does it? Does it?
More tales from summer 2011
This is the time of year where the big summer 2011 movies really get underway. Aside from some of the titles mentioned above, there's the obligatory Harry Potter sequel, the already-filming Thor, and the probably-soon-to-be-filming Hangover 2, Green Lantern, and Captain America. Not to be outdone, Columbia has just scheduled their big-screen version of '80s stalwart TV show 21 Jump Street for August 5, 2011. This one will be directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the helmers of CGI's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and will star the apparently inimitable Jonah Hill (and hopefully a few other actors, too, unannounced as of yet). Hill will also headline that remake of Adventures in Babysitting (1987), leaving one to marvel at the range of an actor who is able to take over from not only Johnny Depp, but Elisabeth Shue, too.
Elsewhere on the August '11 radar, Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence will team for Skank Robbers (scheduled for August 19th), in which they will both play female characters (well, duh). More need not be said about this film, except that it will probably make a whole lot of money, and that now is about the time when Jonah Hill playing Elisabeth Shue starts sounding like a pretty good deal.
Oscarwatch
I'm always on the hunt for announcements of films that seem like prime Oscar bait, and the most obvious such recent candidate is Water for Elephants, scheduled for filming in June and to-be-helmed by Francis Lawrence (previously known for flashier fare like Constantine and I Am Legend). How do we know Water for Elephant will be an Oscar movie? Let's see:
- It's adapted from a popular book (and not one of those R.L. Stine-type books - but a real book, begorrah!)
- It's a period piece, set in a circus during the Great Depression
- It will feature an older version of the main character flashing back to his awards bait-ready life (Okay, this one is obviously the most telling Oscar sign out of all of these)
- It will star Robert Pattinson, an actor who seems increasingly out of place in movies set after the invention of the television set
- It will co-star Reese Witherspoon and that excellent Austrian character actor Christoph Waltz, who's taking over from Sean Penn in the role of a "paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer" (well, someone has to do it)
Waltz, by the way, is looking more and more like Inglourious Basterds' definitive breakout star, and the go-to man for European-accented villains (we could always use more of those). And while I hate to typecast anyone, that Captain America movie is going to need a Red Skull pretty soon, especially one with some experience playing, uh, paranoid schizophrenic animal trainers.
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