The two projects that I mentioned above our now expected to be rewritten with the hiring of their respective writers. First, we’ve got Age of Conan. We’re picking up that the new installment is starting where Conan the Barbarian left us in 1982 and will forget sequels like Conan the Destroyer (1984) and Conan (2011). Andrea Berloff has only one feature film to her name (the 2006 Oliver Stone/Nick Cage drama World Trade Center) but she’ll be adding this potential smash-hit to her lost of upcoming projects alongside Will Smith’s directorial debut The Legend of Cain. Chris Morgan, who maybe off the project due to commitments to Fast and Furious 7, made a statement about the plot that suggests that an un-rejuvenated Arnold Schwarzenegger will be reprising his third, maybe fourth, best known role (behind The Terminator, Predator and possibly Commando.
“It’s a catch-up with Conan,” Morgan informs us, “He’s not going out and fighting battles, but he ends up getting drawn into something, and has to access the barbarian he was in his youth.” There’s a small rumour that the film, following the footsteps of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, will shoot in New Zealand however little production details have been given away. It’s either titled Age of Conan or The Legend of Conan depending on where you look on the internet. I’m going to go with The Legend.
The other project that’s got a new writer is Fox’s The Fantastic Four. Josh Trank (director of Chronicle) will direct Marvel superhero epic. It’s not a part of the Disney Marvel Universe (home of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Agents of SHIELD, Hawkeye, Loki, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans and others) but is from the same studio as X-Men. Director Bryan Singer hinted that, after next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, he would be making a “Marvel mash-up”. I’m guessing that this is a team up of the X-Men and Fantastic Four but that’ll likely be in 2017 once FF has been established.
Trank’s 2015 installment, The Fantastic Four, has been tipped to star Chronicle’s Michael B Jordan as the fiery lead Human Torch but today’s news is concerning the writing team. Simon Kinberg (writer of Sherlock Holmes, X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, Mr and Mrs Smith and the upcoming sci-fi animation series Star Wars Rebels) has been brought in to give the draft of The Fantastic Four a decent rewrite. He’s also got a producing credit alongside the British director who got X-Men back on track with First Class: Matthew Vaughn. The ever reliable Hollywood Reporter reported that Kinberg was supervising the writing stages for the production that we should be able to see in early 2015.
Elsewhere in Marvel, Peter Dinklage has given us more on his character in the seventh X-Men film Days of Future Past. The Elf, Penelope and Game of Thrones star will play Bolivar Trask, the head of Trask industries who’s mechanical monsters The Sentinels are murdering mutants.
“I didn’t want to play the villain,” Dinklage told The EW. “He’s a man of science. He’s a man of invention. He actually sees what he’s doing as a good thing – his ambition is definitely blind and he’s quite arrogant. He’s strove all his life for a certain respect and attention.” It’s not just the X-Men he’s got to get past in his evil schemes. “He’s up against Richard Nixon,” Dinklage says. “He’s got some hurdles.”
The Narnia film franchise has been a sticky one. The Oscar winning original The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was a great fantasy adventure but it’s sequel, Prince Caspian, was poor. Will Poulter poured freshness into the series with his portrayal of Eustace in the third of the CS Lewis adaptation series The Voyage of the Dawn Trader but, despite box-office success all round (the series total gross is a remarkable $1.6 billion), the it seemed the franchise ended there.
However, it’s now apparent that the series could return with The Silver Chair. It’s the sixth book in the seven parted anthology and sees Eustace going to Narnia, on a mission from Aslan (originally voiced by Liam Neeson), to find King Caspian (formally played by Ben Barnes) who’s now an old man in search of his missing son.
“Like many readers, both young and old, I am a huge fan of C.S. Lewis’s beautiful and allegorical world of Narnia,” Mark Gordon (producer of Source Code, Saving Private Ryan and the massively popular thriller mystery Criminal Minds) says in a story reported by The Wrap. “These fantasy stories inspire real-world passion among millions of devoted fans around the world. As we prepare to bring the next book to life, we are humbled and excited to contribute to the outstanding legacy of Narnia.”
We’re saddened to tell you that the celebrated author Tom Clancy died yesterday. The brilliant author inspired some of the best of thrilling action film (The Hunt For Red October, Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games were all part of his Jack Ryan novels) and games (Splinter Cell, Hawks). His legacy continues with Kenneth Branagh carrying on the flame with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit which will surely be in his memory.
The Legend of Conan – 2016?
The Fantastic Four – March 6th 2015
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair – 2016?
X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 23rd 2014
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – December 26th
tuorhothmovies 