Sunday, August 2, 2009

Thor and HP casting, WoW movie, etc.

My last assorted entertainment news post was three weeks ago. What's been happening since then? Lots! A few selected tidbits.

Natalie Portman has been cast as Jane Foster in Thor, starring opposite Chris Hemsworth's Thor (Variety). I adore Natalie Portman, and I've already expressed my, uh, enthusiasm for Chris Hemsworth. I have high hopes for this film. Please don't let me down.

Bill Nighy has finally gotten a spot in the Harry Potter roster as Scrimgeour in The Deathly Hallows (IMDb). The extensive character list throughout the series has turned the movies into a who's who of British film actors. Bill Nighy is great, and I think he'll be perfect for the part.

Here's some big news: Sam Raimi has signed on to direct a World of Warcraft movie (Variety). A WoW movie? Sounds like a terrible idea. But Sam Raimi? He's generally pretty great, giving some hope to the project. I'm kind of fascinated to see where they go with this. How do you structure a movie around an MMO? We shall see what becomes of it.

The third Christian Bale Batman movie will begin shooting next year (IMDb). Considering the money The Dark Knight made, the studio wasn't going to let a sequel go unmade. But there are a lot of busy people involved with other things to do, so it's taken a little while to get everyone to coordinate, I guess. I don't know how this upcoming movie can live up to the last one, but I hope it'll be good.

Dominic Monaghan has been revealed as a cast member of ABC's new fall drama FlashForward (Variety). Yes, it really seems that this is the fall substitute for Lost. But I'm happy to see him again. I love my hobbits!

Speaking of hobbits, some unsettling news: Peter Jackson has reminded us that the Hobbit prequels people are so excited about are not a sure thing. They have yet to deliver a script, so they have yet to get the green light (IMDb). Eek. We're all excited about seeing Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis again, but we might be getting ahead of ourselves. Hope it works out.

SyFy (ugh--the name) has set a date for the series premiere of Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica. It's January 22, 2010 (Variety). The network has ordered 20 hours in addition to the two hour pilot. Things are looking good. Can't wait.

That's all for now! Photos and Hawaii stuff to come!

2 comments:

Sebastian Anthony said...

I think it's more a 'Warcraft' movie -- they've been working on a script for AGES (years and years), and I guess it's finally going to go ahead.

But knowing Blizzard, it won't happen quickly... (I assume it'll be CGI also, but live action would be neat...)

Mega-excited for Caprica!

Eleni said...

The Variety article says "live-action film adaptation"! They could be wrong, of course, but it certainly sounds like there's a good chance it'll be live action. Could be interesting.