The writers of Ali and Nixon have been hired to write an “origin story” about Bruce Lee. Well, sort of. It actually sounds more like the origin of a story where Bruce Lee becomes some kind of crime-fighting Van Helsing, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

QED International and banner Groundswell Productions are aiming to tell a Bruce Lee origin story with Birth of the Dragon, tapping scribed Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele to pen the tale.
Birth of a Dragon, according to QED and Groundswell, is inspired by the true-life duel between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man, who was China’s most famous Kung Fu Master. The no-rules fight took place in San Francisco in 1965, when the city’s Chinatown was controlled by Hong Kong Triads.

Okay, so far so good… They already did a version of that in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, based on Linda Lee’s book, but I’d love to see a less biased version…

The writers are using this true event as a jumping off point for a wider canvas action movie in which Wong and Lee team up to battle a band of Chinatown gangsters.
“Stephen Rivele and Chris Wilkinson have taken a little known chapter in the life of Bruce Lee and used it as a jumping off point for a bold, exciting story about the making of an international legend,” said QED CEO Michael London in a statement. [THR]

Well sure, why depict a real, unique story with interesting characters and inherent drama when you can just slap the names on a Bruckheimer movie that everyone’s already seen? A movie about Bruce Lee? Pf, no one’s going to want to see that! Not unless you can turn it into a Chinese Gangster Squad with Kung Fu. It’s got the blandness people love, with the meaningless name recognition they demand.

Studio thinking at its finest.

[banner image via]

When they’re not riding around town on a bicycle built for two, pulling each other in little red wagons, or drinking milkshakes with two straws, writer/producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are printing money on projects like Eagle Eye, The Proposal, Fringe, Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens, Etc.. Most recently, they sold a pitch to Fox for a film about Wyatt Earp, a subject Hollywood hasn’t touched in nearly six weeks.

Written by The Shield alum John Hlavin, the project is described as a Western that tells the origins of Wyatt Earp, chronicling both the well-known incidents in his life such as the Gunfight at the OK Corral and lesser-known details of Earp and his brothers bringing order to a lawless frontier. [Deadline]

So… would that be “lesser-known” to people who haven’t seen Wyatt Earp, or people who haven’t seen Tombstone? Of course, this isn’t the only Wyatt Earp project in town. Back in March, I told you about The First Ride of Wyatt Earp, in which Val Kilmer plays the lead. Then in April, I told you about a spec script Warner Bros bought called Wild Guns. What was that one about again?

Described as having shades of Tombstone and Sherlock Holmes, the story is  set shortly after the Civil War and follows legendary gunslingers Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. The duo team-up to rescue the daughter of Sitting Bull, who has been kidnapped by a powerful Shaman with mysterious powers who is terrorizing the Western plains. [THR]

So look out Kurtzman and Orci, all I’m saying is that you’ve got competition. I just hope you know a good velociraptor guy.

Channing Tatum, the hardest twerkin’ man in show bizna$$, is set to star in yet another film incantation of the classic story of Peter Pan. The project, tentatively titled Peter Pan Begins *nudges Chris Nolan, rolls eyes* will be produced by Joe Roth and written by Billy Ray, whose name got that terrible “Are You Jimmy Ray” song stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, jerk.

This is Tatum’s first foray into the fantasy genre, but Roth is no stranger. He seems to be quite the expert at taking old ideas and turning them into new versions that destroy our innocence a little more each day.

Roth produced last year’s billion-dollar grossing adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, is in the casting stages of Oz, the Great and Powerful, which is set up at Disney with James Franco and Mila Kunis starring, and has Snow White and the Huntsman set up at Universal with Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron in the leads.

While no one has made any bids, the Peter Pan package is attractive. (Via Hollywood Reporter)

Added Jenna Dewan, “Attractive, but burnt.”

As always, my good friend C-Tates was more than happy to give us a little insight into his latest project…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m about to kick my computer’s ass right now for the spellcheck drawing a red line underneath both “Aronofsky” and “Robocop”, but that’s beside the point.  Point is, the proposed Darren Aronofsky-directed Robocop (the last rumor about which was that it was on hold because Aronofsky wouldn’t agree to make it in 3D) is still on. That’s according to screenwriter David Self. (Though writers, it should be noted, are generally the last to know).

“I’m still involved with it and Darren Aronofsky’s still involved with it,” says Self. “He’s making another movie right now (Black Swan), but we’re waiting for MGM, to sort things out since they’re a large corporation and it’s a situation where we have to be practical. We’re waiting to continue with them, we hope that it happens soon.”
When asked if they were approaching the new Robocop as an unofficial sequel or a remake, Self explained, “It’s definitely not a sequel. It’s an origin story, it’s an origin to the original Robocop. So, it’s basically a ‘reboot’.” [ShockTillYouDrop]

Stupid origin stories.  With Aronofsky onboard, I was hoping to see an aging, down-on-his-luck Robocop forced to work a grocery deli like my favorite scene in The Wrestler.  Or maybe Robocop at a Taco Bell, where they give him one of those guns that squirt sour cream.  I always wanted one of those. Bang bang, you’re fat.

(“And stay away from my Japanese Sexbot!”)

(Pictured: How most Fox execs dress to board meetings.)

You’d think that after they got a respected director like Tim Burton and an all-star cast to remake Planet of the Apes once already and it still ending up kinda sucking, that they’d be content to let sleeping classics lie.  But this is Hollywood, so Fox is digging up its corpse for sexy time, as per usual.

The Apes have been handed to none other than Peter Chernin, who last summer exited his post as top banana of News Corporation (*throws poop*) to become a producer at Fox.
Fox has hired writer Jamie Moss (Street Kings) to rework Scott Frank’s version and the original writers, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (The Relic, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle), were recently brought back to polish the dialogue.
Frank’s Apes script, code-named Caesar, showed how genetic experiments on apes led to their evolutionary eclipse of humans. “Caesar” refers to the genetically altered leader of the simian rebellion, so dubbed because the ape was capable of grand strategic thinking on par with Julius Caesar (whose own surname means “hairy” in Latin). The “Caesar” code name also foreshadowed the script’s plot: Just as the actual Julius Caesar set Rome on the path to the Roman Empire, the experimental ape’s escape sets in motion his fellow hirsute hominids’ (wait for it … ) guerrilla war and subsequent dominance. [via Vulture's Exclusive]

I suppose that doesn’t sound too bad, as far as remakes go.  But then, it’s Fox, so they’ll probably cast a Black Eyed Pea or two in it.  Reached for comment, original Apes star Charleton Heston shouted, “A reboot?!?  OVER MY COLD, DEAD HAN– oh right, carry on then.”