Sci-Fi Storm

Move over MacGruber, even your grandma Betty White knows the real thing…Jason Richman (Bad Company, Bangkok Dangerous) has been tapped to work on a MacGyver feature film for New Line, to run under Raffaella De Laurentiis’ Raffaella Productions, with Martha De Laurentiis and Lee Zlotoff also producing and Dino De Laurentiis as exec.

Despite a lot of excitement that he was in discussions with producers Jon Landau and James Cameron on a remake of Fantastic Voyage, Bourne trilogy director Paul Greengrass has opted to focus on a Treasure Island project for Lionel Wigram (Sherlock Holmes) instead.

Speaking of David Fincher’s future plans, apparently Disney is reviving it’s plans for a new 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea version and is negotiating with Fincher set to direct. Just 7 months ago Disney scuttled plans for the movie when McG was the director, after Rich Ross took over the studio. Also negotiating to pen the screenplay is Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum).

Update: Apparently Fox wants their own high-octane version of the story, announcing their own edition with Tony and Ridley Scott producing, and Travis Beacham (Clash Of The Titans writing). The story has long been in the public domain so anyone is free to make their own version.

With David Fincher taking a further step away from the long-smoldering Rendezvous With Rama epic, SCI FI Wire has come up with a list of the 10 most awesome sci-fi movies that never were … so far. Along with Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama and Childhood’s End, there are some other long-awaited classics (The Stars My Destination), but also more recent and questionable entries – apparently Ghostbusters 3 isn’t as sure as we were led to believe – and “most awesome” would really have to wait until we know the story, I’d think…what are some of the other announced epics that seem to have vanished? Ringworld? Has Foundation entered production yet? What other sagas are you waiting for (or at least, still waiting for a good adaptation)?

Update: thanks to decipher_saint for pointing out that the link was completely botched…

The Roller Coaster Tycoon computer game franchise by Chris Sawyer could be the next game to become a movie. David Ronn and Jay Scherick (The Smurfs) are tagged for the script, with Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid) producing/directing. Other than it being planned for a mixed live-action/CGI, nothing else is known.

It looks like Judge Dredd will be returning to the big screen and bring law to the lawless. The script comes from Alex Garland (28 Days Later) and directed by Pete Travis (Endgame), with Garland, Andrew Macdonald of DNA Films, and Allon Reich, who teamed up before for 28 Weeks Later). And – surprise! – it will be in 3D. I may be in the minority, but I actually enjoyed the 1995 movie which starred Sylvester Stallone, for what it was at least…campy, much like Demolition Man.

Iron Man 2 took an impressive estimated $133.6 million this weekend – although the buzz about it overtaking the opening-weekend record holder The Dark Knight ($158.4m) was unwarranted, and in fact fell just short of the number two spot, held by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($135.6m).

I thought I mentioned this before, but can’t find it…Fox is planning on a prequel to Planet Of The Apes, now called Rise Of The Apes, and has now given it a release date of June 24th, 2011. This has been simmering for a couple of years, and it seems to not be connected to the Tim Burton 2001 film, dealing with the chimpanzee named Caesar and his leading of a revolt against the humans. Perhaps this is more of a remake of the original films but more in chronological order, skipping or glossing over the time loop? This time around the apes will be CGI and not costumed actors, which could be good or bad (I think the costuming of the Burton film was decent).

There is a lot of buzz about Iron Man 2 potentially beating out The Dark Knight for the opening weekend gross receipts weekend record, and it is getting a good start with $7.5 million from midnight showings on more than 2500 screens in the U.S., but it is well short of the target record of $18.5 million. Batman did have the advantage of almost 2000 more screens at the time, and Iron Man will gain around that today, so we have yet to see what the ultimate results will be.

Omnilab Media and The Jim Henson Co. announced a sequel (PDF) to the 1982 cult classic The Dark Crystal entitled The Power Of The Dark Crystal, and like the original will blend live action and visual effects, but this time will also incorporate 3D. Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig (Daybreakers, Undead) will direct from a screenplay written by Craig Pearce (Moulin Rouge).