Film News 12 04 09

After a six-year hiatus, we may finally be getting more of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this time as a feature film. According to reports from Showbizspy.com, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the teenaged vampire hunter for seven years on television, is in talks to reprise her role as Buffy Ann Summers in a film sequel to the series.

Insider reports say that the idea for the script has the story picking up with an older Buffy, who might even be a mother. The report further says that while Gellar is currently busy with other projects, she is excited about the idea. "Buffy still has a huge fan-base," the insider says "So this is a movie that already has an audience." It is further pointed out that "Michelle is a shrewd businesswoman so the chances are this will happen at some point." If a Buffy movie does happen, it would mark the second time that one of Joss Whedon's shows has lived on in film form, the first happening with Serenity.

(Of course there was the orginal film starring Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry, but this will a feature-lengh film based on the series.)

 

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In a story from The Hollywood Reporter, Al Pacino will be playing Napoleon in the adaptation of Staton Rabin's children's book "Betsy and the Emperor." GC Corp. picked up rights to the project that had been originally owned by the Bob Yari Co.John Curran (The Painted Veil) will direct the movie from a screenplay by Brian Edgar. Production on the film will begin in late autumn.

 

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Sony are planning to make a film focusing on Venom- Spider-Man bad guy and fanboy favourite. While all plot details are so far under wraps, screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have turned in a first draft of the script for Venom, so things are moving.

"We have turned in a draft and are waiting to hear back, so it's early in the process," said Reese. "But it's a thrill to be writing 'Venom' for obvious reasons. "Obviously, with a character like Venom there's a ton of stuff to draw from. Then they had specific rules about the villain and the backstory and stuff like that, so there were certain parameters they gave us. So with Marvel and Sony and us it's definitely very, very collaborative."

 

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Exciting news for fans of kids books: Mike Newell is set to direct a film version of classic 1930s children's fantasy story The Box of Delights, last seen (by readers of a certain age anyway) in a mid-1980s BBC TV adaptation.

The story follows schoolboy Kay Harker who, on returning from boarding school for the Christmas holidays, meets an old Punch & Judy man called Cole Hawlings. Hawlings is being chased by a wizard called Abner Brown and his gang, and entrusts the treasure that the gang is after, the titular box, to Kay for safekeeping. The box, it emerges, allows its owner to shrink, fly and travel into the past (amongst other things).

The book was a sequel to another Kay Harker story by author John Masefield, The Midnight Folk, and both books are reportedly due to be serialised by the BBC again this Christmas, which means you wait 25 years for a Box Of Delights adaptation to come along, and two of them arrive at once.

Still, this one sounds very promising, what with Frank Cottrell Boyce of Millions fame writing the script and Mike "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" Newell directing.

 

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A new Sam Rockwell movie is about to hit the big screen over in the US and the trailer is flicking awesome! Moon stars Rockwell as a lone spaceman on the moon mining for essential resources, and with two weeks left, things start to get weird. Is he hallucinating or are weird things actually happened? Kevin Spacey is the voice of his computer- his only companion, but Rockwell is to steal the show with a stonking performance. Check out the trailer at www.empireonline.com

 

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Also, reviews are coming in for Star Trek from people catching sneak previews and dodgy copies, and they are all good!

  “Odd-number curse be gone. The most exhilarating Trek to date marks a new future for Kirk and co. If this can boldly go on to seek out ideas to match its speed and style, a franchise is reborn.” – Empire Mag 4 stars.