The Morning News Bulletin is your daily roundup of film news that happened over the last couple of hours while we were fast asleep over here in SA.
Today its all quiet on the western front and there isn't much in the way of major news headlines. I only have a couple of short snippets which you can have a look at after the jump.
With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 coming out this Friday in the US and next week in South Africa its no surprise that the entire world seems to be gripped with Potter-mania at the moment. To help satisfy any cravings you might have for Harry Potter related news I have an interesting story for you to check out from the LA Times where Harry Potter star Emma Watson (Hermione) discusses a potentially controversial scene from the new film that isn't in the novels.
Emma Watson says there was debate on the set of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” when it came time to film an emotional interlude that did not appear in any of the J.K. Rowling novels.
In the short sequence, Harry and Hermione are on the run as fugitives in wizarding world while Ron has left in frustration — and after expressing suspicion that his two oldest friends have feelings for each other. Harry changes the station on a scratchy little radio from battlefront dispatches to a forlorn song. He holds out his hand and invites his childhood friend to dance. After a pained expression, she agrees. There are awkward glances and a crosscurrent of emotions — they are tired, scared, confused and expecting to die at any moment. The tension builds and it seems as if something is about to happen.
“That was the scene that really divided the crew,” Watson said Tuesday by phone as she headed toward the airport after the Monday premiere in New York. “People had very different feelings about whether it should be included or not. There were a lot of people on the fence about it. I think the idea was that after all these years there would be a lot of emotion there between Dan [Radcliffe] and I, and our characters and that the scene would show that in a very interesting way.”
I'll have to wait until I see the film before I can judge whether this scene pays off or not but as someone who hasn't read any of the books (shock! horror!), I believe that the last few Potter films since director David Yates took over have been the best in the series so I have faith that he won't drop the ball with the last two.
In other film news, according to Deadline Hollywood, Warner Brothers is in early talks with director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Beowulf) to do a remake of the original Wizard Of Oz. Remakes are a dime a dozen in Hollywood nowadays but whats really interesting about this one in particular is that Warners wants him to shoot using the original 1939 script. I have no idea why they don't want to commission a new screenplay because in any case most parts of the script will have to be rewritten to update it for present day film audiences. All in all this sounds like a really bad idea and I hope that they come to their senses and either do a proper remake with a new script or better yet, not tamper with the classic movie at all. When will the big wigs in Hollywood learn that they can't have their cake and eat it!
Moving swiftly along, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can) has been hired to rewrite certan portions of the Men In Black 3-D script. The third movie in the Will Smith led franchise will feature a time travel component as a major part of the story and it has been said that the movie will be set mainly in the modern day and in 1969. Distributor Sony Pictures has decided to split the films production into two parts with the modern day scenes being filmed in New York City from today with prduction wrapping up around Christmas time and then resuming in February next year to shoot the remaining scenes from 1969. The first draft of the script was written by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) and while Sony seems to be happy with modern day part of the script they have hired Jeff Nathanson to polish the 1969 parts before next year when production resumes. It is very unusual for the production of a big budget film to be split in two because the crew has to be paid during the hiatus which adds to the already high cost of the film so I assume these changes in the script are an absolute neccessity. In case this is the first time you find out that there is even going to be a Men In Black 3, then check out the short synopsis below to get clued up on what the story will be:
Synopsis: The MIB duo of Agent Jay (Will Smith) and Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) are back in action. When the world is threatened by an evil alien, Agent Jay travels back in time to 1969, where he teams up with the younger Agent Kay to stop an evil villain named Boris (Jemaine Clement) from destroying the world in the future. Emma Thompson will play take-charge MIB operative Agent Oh, who is monitoring a prison breakout. Source: The Movie Insider
To end things off with a bit of a bang I've got the latest trailer for the upcoming action flick The Mechanic. It stars Jason Statham with guest appearances from quite a large number of shootouts and loud explosions. Enjoy!
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