So it looks like the Chinese remake of Karate Kid, which everyone pointed out should probably be called Kung Fu Kid, since Karate is Japanese and Kung Fu is Chinese, but was still called Karate Kid for a long time, will be called Kung Fu Kid again after all. God I hate this story.
The co-production between the state-run China Film Group and Columbia Pictures started shooting Saturday in Beijing, Weng said. “Kung Fu Kid” is being directed by Harald Zwart, who also directed “One Night at McCool’s” and “The Pink Panther 2.”
Will Smith — one of the film’s producers — Chan, Zwart and others symbolically removed a piece of red cloth covering a movie camera, after which Smith gave Chan a hug, according to video posted on Sina.com. His hair done in a huge Afro and wearing a bright red track jacket and blue pants, Jaden Smith stood and waved when he was introduced. His father ruffled his hair when he sat down. [AP]
OMG, did they also breathe oxygen while their hearts continued beating?? This just in: WILL SMITH IS SO GD BORING THAT HE’S CONTAGIOUS! HE CAN EVEN INFECT PEOPLE WRITING ABOUT HIM THROUGH THE COMPUTER! (*throws laptop in river, cuts off hands*)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a children’s book from the seventies about a town called Chewandswallow where it rained food, written by someone who was probably really high. Sony made a movie out of it, and as you can see from the trailer below, they turned it into an origin story about how it came to be that this town rains meatballs. Pixar seems to be the only animation studio that can do kids’ movies without babytalking, so to speak, and since I don’t have any kids that I know of, I have hard time giving a crap about a movie like this. I’ll let FirstShowing handle it:
In comparison to Planet 51 [I'll have that trailer up later today -ed.], I actually want to see this one just a bit more. Something about all that food and the comedy, it just gets me. Though I’m worried that like Sony Animation’s last movie, Surf’s Up, it won’t be as good as the trailers make it seem.
Yes, you see, the food and the comedy, it really gets him. Fascinating, right?
Now that they’ve literally greenlit a gum wrapper from the 50s, there isn’t much they could make into a movie that would surprise me. Today’s news is that Sony’s 3D, Alvin and the Chipmunks-style Smurfs movie (which everyone had forgotten about and that’s why this is news) has a release date.
Smurfs 3D is scheduled for a December 17, 2010 release. The Colin Brady-directed film was written by David Stem and David Weiss. [ComingSoon]
Hey, remember how Smurf Village only had one chick? That’s probably why the Smurfs always had BLUE BALLS! Hey, and what’s the deal with airline food?
Sony head Amy Pascal reportedly pulled the plug on Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball (starring Brad Pitt) three days before filming was set to start. That allowed the filmmakers to court other studios. Long story short, everyone passed.
Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, which were offered a chance to pick up the project from Sony, have also passed because of concerns about its high budget [$57 million] and limited commercial appeal. “Moneyball” is now back in Sony’s hands, where the director will either have to make changes or the project will die and the studio will absorb nearly $10 million it already spent on development and pre-production.
According to a person close to the situation, Pascal met with Soderbergh to see if he was willing to revise his take, but the two couldn’t agree on a vision for the film. They also disagreed over Soderbergh’s plan to shoot the film in a more improvisational documentary style. She allowed “Moneyball’s” creative team to pitch the movie to Paramount and Warner Bros., where Pitt and Soderbergh have close ties. [LA Times via Playlist]
Meanwhile, some people are saying it was actually Pitt who didn’t like the script and Pascal just covered for him.
You’d think if you’re Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh, you’d have earned a bit creative freedom by now. Which is why it’s surprising that Sony has pulled the plug on their adaptation of Moneyball just a few days before it was supposed to begin filming.
On Friday, Columbia Pictures [owned by Sony] topper Amy Pascal placed the picture into “limited turnaround,” giving the filmmaker the chance to set it up at another studio. The move came after Pascal read a rewrite that Soderbergh did to Steven Zaillian’s script and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how the vision had changed that she applied the brakes. [Variety]
It seems like a strange decision given that Brad Pitt movies almost always do well. David Poland has a nice breakdown of the math involved, including:
Sony eats $15 million to $20 million on the movie if they shut it down. It will never come back to life, most likely, but if it does, not a dollar they spent aside from the book buy will go towards the film itself.
(Variety again) Even in the climate of heightened studio caution, the turnaround news on “Moneyball” is surprising given that the project had reached the equivalent of third base [fingering Amy Pascal's vagina]. It was just 96 hours before the participants were ready to take the field, following three months of prep and with camera tests completed and cast and budget in place.
Sony is still nervous about Taking of Pelham 123 and Year One earning out, so if you ask me, this is probably just a case of closing the gate after the horse is gone or some other folksy expression.
