Thursday 25 November 2010

Morning News Bulletin

Good morning all.

The Morning News Bulletin is a daily roundup of film news that happened over the last couple of hours while we were fast asleep here in SA. Today is one of those relatively slow days on the news front so all I've got for you is Jeremy Renner confirming that he will be Tom Cruise's replacement for future Mission: Impossible movies, Emma Stone (Zombieland) talking about her role in the Spiderman reboot and Mark Wahlberg announcing that he will star as Nathan Drake in a film adaptation of the best-selling video game Drake's Uncharted. See the details on these stories after the jump.



Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) is one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood and it seems like his star is about to shine a whole lot brighter. At the moment he is busy filming the fourth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise which will be called Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. This is the live action directorial debut of Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) and besides Renner it will also star series regulars Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg. Renner recently spoke with MTV and he had quite a few things to say about the film. First this is what he said about potentially replacing Tom Cruise in future Mission: Impossible movies:

It’s a franchise to potentially take over… I can’t predict the future and what they want, but that’s certainly the idea.

Then about the film's plot:

I can’t really go into the details of the script, because that’s still evolving… It’s Tom’s baby. He’s the engine behind the thing. What happens after that, we’ll see.

And then about working with the really, really crazy Mr. Cruise:

I haven’t gotten to work too much in terms of acting stuff, but the stunts have been insane… Tom has been doing loads. He’s crazy, that guy. It’s unbelievable. He’s fearless. He’s great to watch. He inspires me to want to be better. I’m training in the gym and working out and fighting and doing everything I can to try and keep up. I’m doing hand-to-hand combat, Muay Thai and kung fu and learning how to take someone out quickly.

Ever since Renner was announced as a co-star for Tom Cruise it has been rumoured that he is being set up to potentially take over the franchise from Tom who is no longer the box office draw he used to be. After the underwhelming Knight And Day, Paramount's Executives rightfully started having serious doubts about the future of what is one of their most bankable franchises and so convinced Tom Cruise to share the next film with an actor who can potentially take over from him. This where the decision to cast Jeremy Renner doesn't quite add up because, although he has proven himself to be a really good actor in The Hurt Locker and the upcoming The Town, he is definitely not a box office draw and the franchise would be better off sticking with Tom Cruise despite all the baggage that he comes with. The most likely scenario at play here is that Paramount are hoping that Jeremy Renner will be a big box office draw after the next Mission: Impossible movie. Hopefully that plan works out for them.

Empire Online has reported that Superbad and Easy A actress, Emma Stone, will not co-star with also-Superbad actor Jonah Hill in a film based on police TV series 21 Jump Street. The show had Johnny Depp as one the main star so I'm not quite sure how Jonah Hill is going to replace him! Anyways, Ms Stone told MTV that:

“I don't think I'm going to be part of that, but Jonah is one of my favourite people in the entire world,"


What she is going to be part of is the new Spiderman reboot directed by Marc Webb. Andrew Garfield of The Social Network fame stars as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Stone is going to be his first love interest, Gwen Stacey. Stone said she wanted to keep things grounded but for one area.

“The way I have to approach it, and I think Andrew would agree, is just like any other movie. You're going to put the same amount of focus into this that you would with anything. It just happens to be an exponentially bigger budget. So there's that. It'll probably feel different when we start to do press, but we won't have to deal with that for another year and a half. And there are harnesses I'm going to have to use in this one. That's the only difference. Just the harnesses.”

Stone said she would also need time to prepare for the physical side of the role and to look like Stacey.

“ I went and did hair tests, because I have blonde hair now since Gwen has blonde hair. My natural hair is blonde, so it's kind of nice. I looked in the mirror and said, ‘Oh my god, it's me again, it's been so long!’ We're finalizing the visual stuff. And I think we'll start actually rehearsing, because we start shooting in two weeks. Andrew and I went and learned about science yesterday. Gwen really likes science, so we learned about science. I was home-schooled, so I never went to chemistry class in a traditional setting like Gwen is into. That was really beneficial.”

The new Spiderman film is coming out in July 2012.

In short bit of casting news, director David O. Russell has gotten his wish and Mark Wahlberg has been cast as Nathan Drake in the Drake's Uncharted film adaptation. Mark WahlbergMTV's Russ Frushtick to say what he has to stay about the Drake's Uncharted film:




Moving on from that, he also talks about O. Russell's desire to re-unite Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in the Drake's Uncharted film:

"I'm obviously in whatever David wants to do but the idea of it is so off the charts: De Niro being my father, Pesci being my uncle. It's not going to be the watered-down version, that's for sure."

We close off today with a look at Marky Mark in what looks like one of his better performances in the upcoming film The Fighter (also directed by David O. Russell):




That's the end of today's news bulletin. See you again tomorrow morning.







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