Hugh Jackman eyeing adaptation of Richard Matheson’s sci-fi tale Real Steel

Variety reports that Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in the Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) film adaptation of I Am Legend writer Richard Matheson’s short story Real Steel, for DreamWorks. Real Steel is described as a Rocky-type story of a fighter who has to reinvent himself when human boxing becomes obsolete, replaced ….

Smallville creators set to adapt sci-fi novel for the the big screen

DreamWorks has set Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, whose writing credits include Spider-Man 2 and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, to adapt the James Frey and Jobie Hughes novel I Am Number Four to the big screen, according to Variety. Transformers director Michael Bay will produce and possibly direct the eventual ….

Robert Redford to direct historical crime drama The Conspirator

Robert Redford is developing and will direct a film titled The Conspirator, a historical crime drama about Mary Suratt, according to THR. Suratt was one of the conspirators convicted of plotting President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. James Solomon (The Bronx is Burning) wrote the script. According to official history, widow and boarding house owner Mary Suratt ….

Kubrick’s family seeks to have his Holocaust film The Aryan Papers finally made

Director Stanley Kubrick‘s family recently expressed a desire to see one of the director’s final in-development projects, The Aryan Papers, finally realized, according to the London paper The Times. The movie was to be based on a novel by Louis Begley (writer of About Schmidt) titled Wartime Lies, about a fleeing Polish Jew named Tania ….

Star Trek scribes’ Cowboys and Aliens script finished – still unknown if Robert Downey Jr. will star

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the team who wrote the latest Star Trek film) have completed a new script for the long-in-development Cowboys and Aliens adaptation, and recently discussed the project with reporters, including Sci-Fi Wire. “We literally handed it in yesterday,” Kurtzman told reporters on August 6, adding that they’re hoping for feedback ….

Spielberg to direct feature version of Pulitzer Prize-winning play next

Steven Spielberg has committed to his next film – an adaptation of the Mary Chase Pulitzer Prize-winning play Harvey, which will be a co-production between Fox and DreamWorks, according to Variety. First-time screenwriter and bestselling novelist Jonathan Tropper penned the script. Harvey is the story of an amiable eccentric and his friendship with a six ….

Leonardo DiCaprio’s new Twilight Zone film gets new writer

Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way have taken a step closer to creating a film based on the cult classic TV show The Twilight Zone, by contracting TV series Life show creator Rand Ravich to write a screenplay for the project. Aside from creating Life, Ravich directed The Astronaut’s Wife and produced ….

Old Boy legal issue won’t affect Hollywood remake, says Japanese publisher

A legal dispute between the publisher of the Japanese manga comic book Old Boy and the South Korean filmmakers who produced a film version of the story should not interfere with plans for a new Hollywood version, says Japanese publisher Futabasha. On June 15, 2009, Futabasha filed a legal action against Show East, the South ….

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The IMAX Experience posts biggest opening in IMAX history

IMAX announced that the Paramount Pictures release Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The IMAX Experience, directed by Michael Bay and featuring scenes filmed with IMAX cameras, posted exceptionally strong opening results, with an estimated $14.4 million coming from 169 IMAX theatres domestically, for a per screen average of over $85,000 during the five-day opening from ….

Martin Luther King Jr. biopic headed to big screen

DreamWorks is developing a biopic on civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. for the big screen, according to Variety. Steven Spielberg, Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones will produce. The DreamWorks project marks the first film to be authorized by the King estate and gives producers the right to utilize King’s intellectual property – ….

World Without Us being adapted to big budget tentpole

Man’s disappearance from the planet Earth is set to become big box office. Fox has nabbed film rights to an environmental non-fiction book titled The World Without Us, and intend to turn it into a tentpole feature for Mark Protosevich (The Cell, Poseidon) to write and Francis Lawrence (Constantine, I Am Legend) to direct, according ….