As Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, perhaps? Apparently, the discussion is on the table, as the producers are already readying a sequel to the upcoming Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law actioner Sherlock Holmes. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the cast – and possibly director Guy Ritchie – will most likely all be on board, and now they’ve have asked Pitt if he’d be interested in playing the criminal mastermind. Hmmm, I could see some symmetry to that. Let’s just see how much money Holmes makes when it opens Christmas Day (I’m kinda betting it’ll be a hit).
In other movie news: Will Archie, Veronica and Jughead get their big-screen debut? According to Variety, the Archie Comics Publications and CAA two companies have signed a deal in the hopes of creating film and television franchises. I actually wondered out loud awhile ago why they hadn’t done a live-action version of the Archie comics yet. I mean, if they can do Scooby-Doo movie, an Archie and the gang movie shouldn’t be that difficult.
Bryan Singer is going to direct an updated Jack and the Beanstalk adaptation INSTEAD of doing an Excalibur remake. Whew. The story centers on a young farmer named Jack, who is given the task to lead an expedition to the giants’ kingdom in the hopes of rescuing a kidnapped princess. Variety reports Singer is taking over after D.J. Caruso’s departure and will give it a more mature rendering, a la Lord of the Rings.
Vampire love isn’t the only thing Stephanie Meyer is interested in. Oh no. She also has a thing for body-snatching aliens. Along with the Twilight series, the best-selling author also has created The Host, which tells the story of an alien race whose souls have taken over the planet, inserting themselves into their human hosts by erasing their minds and taking over. There’s one stubborn girl, however, who isn’t relinquishing her mind so easily and actually infuses her thoughts into her alien snatcher, thus driving her “Wanderer” into searching for “the last pocket of surviving humans on Earth.” Variety reports the screen rights to Meyer’s novel have been bought, and Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) has been enlisted to write and direct the feature. Color me intrigued.
Diane Lane, Dylan Walsh, John Malkovich and Scott Glenn are riding Secretariat to the movie theaters. Yes, it’ll be a movie about THE horse that won the 1973 Triple Crown and the people surrounding the animal who made it happen, including: Lane as the horse’s owner Penny Tweedy, the housewife who became one of the first women to enter into the male-dominated world of horse racing; Walsh as Penny’s husband, a lawyer who didn’t like his wife’s newfound power; Malkovich as the charismatic trainer who underestimated the power of Secretariat; and Glenn as a southern-bred aristocrat who loses the horse in a coin toss. Well thank goodness we have another horse movie; it’s been awhile since Seabiscuit.