Screen Junkies » cbs films

‘Grudge’ Director Taking ‘Flight 75′

Wookie Johnson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:18:06 +0000

Grudge director Takashi Shimuzu isn’t content to just creep you out on land. Oh no, he’s got to ruin air travel for you too. CBS Films has bought his pitch for Flight 75. The claustrophobic thriller pits passengers on a transpacific flight against a supernatural force. That sucks worse than crying babies and loud Skypers combined. Shimuzu is in good company. Grudge producer Taka Ichise, The Ring‘s Roy Lee and Insidious‘ Steven Schneider are all on-board too.

Oh, great. Now we need to worry about ghosts attacking our airplanes? The TSA had better step it up. Too bad the name Soul Plane was alread taken. (Deadline)

Takashi Shimizu

CBS Films Distributing ‘Gambit’, Which Is Not About Cajun Mutants

Geoffrey Golden — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:41:55 +0000

When I first heard a movie called Gambit was coming out, my thought was: “oh no, they’re not gonna ruin my favorite X-Men character again, are they?” When I found out it was a comedy written by Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth in a remake of a 1986 British heist film. The film is about the attempted robbery of a rich man’s statue by an art curator (Firth) and a “Texas Rodeo Queen” (Diaz). Mike Hoffman (The Last Station) will direct all this glittery, Oscar-winning talent.

CBS Films has been throwing movies out there like energy-charged playing cards. So far, films like Beastly and The Mechanic haven’t really been hittin the box office that hard, but Gambit might be the new ace up their sleeve.

FYI, my mutant power is making dorky analogies. (ComingSoon)

CBS Films Has Twilight In Their Eyes For ‘Legend’

Dave Horwitz — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:36:29 +0000

CBS Films, hungry to snag the next billions-grossing tween franchise, has acquired the rights to Legend, Marie Lu’s young adult novel. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, who can be blamed credited with unleashing Twilight onto the movie going public, will produce through their Temple Hill banner. The dark, dystopian, young adult tale (which, by the way, is apparently now an entire fiction genre) hasn’t even been published yet (it’s due out in November on Penguin Group), but a film is on the way. Legend tells the story focuses on a North America at war, and a Robin Hood-esque figure named Day who is being hunted by a teen prodigy named June. Lu, who will executive produce in the scripting stage, said of the characters:

“The character of Day, a roguish teen outlaw on the run, has been in my head sinc high school. One night, I was watching an old time detective movie when the idea of Day vs. the gifted teen June came to me.”

Hmm… I wonder if these two crazy kids will ever bone each other as the world is ending around them and Death Cab For Cutie plays on the soundtrack. And the tweens will swoon, and the execs will all buy second yachts! Yay! (Deadline)

Stephen King Has Some Ideas For ‘The Stand’ Remake, Loves Cole Slaw

Wookie Johnson — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:47:27 +0000

Stephen King has worked hard to earn his status as a best-selling author and Maine’s creepiest man (which if you’ve ever been to Maine, you know the competition is fierce). That’s why producers of the upcoming remake of his end of days epic The Stand should listen to his advice. Unless he suggests adding a few killer cars to the story. That seems to be his answer for everything.

King has already been through the process of adapting The Stand for the 1994 television miniseries. With that experience under his belt, here he lists ten things he knows about the remake. He’s surprisingly mute about Pet Semetary however.

1. No one will be able to top Gary Sinise, who played Stu Redman in the original ABC miniseries. He was perfect. When he says “You don’t know nothing” to the soldiers who are putting him under mandatory quarantine, you believe his contempt completely. My runner-up pick would be Jake Gyllenhaal.

2. I didn’t know anything about the remake until I read about it on the Internet.

3. You absolutely can’t make it as a two-hour movie. If it was a trilogy of films … maybe.

4. Molly Ringwald won’t be playing Fran Goldsmith this time.

5. Rutger Hauer is a little too old to play the Walkin’ Dude, and that’s too bad.

6. People who’ve seen Kubrick’s The Shining dislike the miniseries I wrote (and my amigo Mick Garris directed) even if they haven’t seen it. That’s always annoyed me. But the wheel of karma turns! This time people will probably say, “The miniseries was lots better.” BUT…

7. …historically speaking, movie studios blow the budget on things like this, so maybe it’ll be fun to look at. The dough certainly isn’t going to me, although if it is a trilogy, and if it makes a lot of money, I might be able to buy a chicken dinner at Popeye’s. Great slaw!

8. Molly Ringwald will probably not play the Trashcan Man, either, but Billy Bob Thornton would be cool. Billy Bob’s always cool.

9. They need to write in a lot of heavy-metal for the soundtrack.

10. M-O-O-N, that spells “you probably won’t see this anytime soon.” And when you do, Woody Allen won’t be directing it. Or Molly Ringwald.

Great. There goes all my hopes of seeing Woody Allen directing. >:( (EW)

Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ Coming To Theaters, Unless It Gets The Superflu

Geoffrey Golden — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:44:58 +0000

Executives at Warner Bros. and CBS Films have been beckoned by Mother Abagail to make a movie version of The Stand. There was an ABC miniseries version in 1994 (pfft… miniseries), but Stephen King‘s story has never infected the big screen until now.

The original book is 823 pages long, and the Uncut version is 4,586,934 pages long. After 20 years, movie executives have finished reading the Uncut version and are deciding whether to make it one big movie or a Lord Of The Rings-esque series of films. Fun fact: did you know Stephen King was influenced by LOTR when writing The Stand? Another fun fact: it will be interesting to see how they film the thing where the guy gets raped with the butt of a gun.

Currently, no director or writers are attached. (Hollywood Reporter)