Rumors emerging from Bloody-Disgusting suggest that 20th Century Fox’s Planet of the Apes prequel/reboot/origin story, Rise of the Apes, may pick up two new cast members, with offers made to both Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2, Brooklyn’s Finest) and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire). Read the full story

Cameron Crowe is hopefully making up for lost time. The director hasn’t made a film since 2005 when his film Elizabethtown bombed at both the box office and with critics. We already revealed that the director is planning a Marvin Gaye biopic with Terrence Howard but now /Film is reporting that Crowe is on board to direct an adaptation of the memoir We Bought A Zoo as well. Read the full story

Sweden’s Snabba Cash helmer, Daniel Espinosa seems to have his hands full lately. According to THR, Espsinosa has his eye on several projects, including some involving the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Bryan Singer and Benicio Del Toro. Universal, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and others have all been involved in a bidding war over said projects. Among these is Safe House, a David Guggenheim scripted, Scott Stuber produced thriller for Universal. Read the full story

20th Century Fox | USA | 162 min

Bursting with the energy of invention, James Cameron’s technological epic Avatar shows us how stories will be told in the future, in turn giving us a story to tell the moment we see it. To tell our friends what they missed or have yet to witness – computer-generated beings sweating in fear and crying in heartbreak and cursing in tongues that don’t exist on this planet, or in this solar system.

For a film built on discovery, it only seems appropriate that the plot should echo that of legendary John Smith and his exploration of the New World, which resulted in his love for it and for Pocahontas, its first daughter. Read the full story

At the red, and by red I mean blue, carpet premiere of James Cameron‘s Avatar tonight (which was streamed live via UStream), writer/director Bryan Singer confirmed that he has inked a deal with 20th Century Fox to direct a new X-Men film. Which one you ask? He has signed on to do the prequel film X-Men: First Class. So no, he won’t be redeeming Wolverine but he will be saving the rest of the team from a similar fate.

In case you were wondering about the legitimacy of this, there were multiple eye witnesses watching the live stream (one being Flickchart on twitter).

How happy are you that Singer will be returning to the series?

As if the world needed more trailers/featurettes/gossip/financial projections concerning this impending theatrical great disaster/great success, here is another Avatar featurette, courtesy of 20th Century Fox, located on Taiwanese Yahoo. [via /Film] Check out the embed below.
Read the full story

The day has finally come. James Cameron has returned to science fiction with Avatar. After months of hearing exciting praise from tremendous filmmakers (Ridley Scott) and hearing the notable reaction from Comic Con, general audiences have been able to enter the world of Pandora. 20th Century Fox just unveiled sixteen minutes of 3D footage across the world in IMAX theaters. If you got the chance to check out the footage then you surely know that watching the trailer on a computer screen doesn’t do the film justice.

My hopes and expectations for Avatar were quite grounded while walking into theater. It was a fact that the footage would be undoubtedly impressive, but I wasn’t expecting anything to be mind blowing. That expectation was met. This may not be the revolutionary film that many were/are hoping for, but it is a huge step forward. There are many tremendous aspects such as the non-gimmicky use of 3D.  It’s not distracting and objects are not constantly being thrown at you. This is definitely the first film to fully use 3D to enhance and add detail to the film. Cameron also seems to have taken motion capture to a whole new level.

Read the rest of this article below >>

Following the debut of the first official trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar earlier this morning and on the eve of Fox’s first major marketing push (affectionately dubbed “Avatar Day”), FilmStage contributor Miles Trahan weighs in on the hype and hysteria surrounding Cameron’s sci-fi epic.

Hyperbole is a dangerous thing. As per Wikipedia, one could (and should) define hyperbole as “a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is rarely meant to be taken literally.” With the advent of the sites such as Twitter and Facebook and a scourge of web forums at one’s disposal, it’s easy these days to see dozens of folks rushing home from a screening to wax that the film they have just seen “totally rocks!”, is “the best thing ever!” or “#$*&ing sucks, don’t waste your money!” This should, of course, be expected; it’s human nature to want to shout our opinions to the world as loud and as fast as we can, to exaggerate in hopes of separating ourselves from the pack and getting the attention we so fiendishly desire. It’s why star ratings and user reviews are so popular on sites like IMDB; it’s why critics like Armond White (professional contrarian) get so much attention despite the fact that they by and large contribute nothing to the public consensus despite finger-waging and empty rhetoric. We take these things in stride; surely there’s bound to be some give-and-take between what others say and what we take from a film ourselves — we make room for the rhetoric. We acknowledge the hyperbole and temper our expectations just so.

Sometimes the hyperbole and rhetoric surrounding a film becomes overbearing; sometimes it strikes a rational person as overblown, inflammatory, unwarranted or any combination of the three. This can certainly be said of James Cameron’s Avatar.

Read the full story

Remember late last year when 20th Century Fox’s PR department hilariously went into overdrive before the opening of Australia to assure the world that Hugh Jackman was, in fact, a slab of total man-beef but in a completely 100% heterosexual way?

Well now that both Australia and X-Men Origins: Wolverine have opened, who cares?!

Variety is reporting that Fox has inked a deal for Jackman to star in The Greatest Showman on Earth, an original musical based on the life of entertainer and entrepreneur P.T. Barnum. The film is scripted by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) and produced by Laurence Mark (Dreamgirls), both of whom previously worked with Jackman on the 2009 Oscars. Pop singer Mika is in negotiations to write the music and the filmmakers are writing the female lead with Anne Hathaway in mind.

This is the second musical Jackman is hoping to recruit Hathaway for. His big screen version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, a sure contender for world’s most depressing musical, is being set up at Fox 2000.

Are you ready to see Tony-award winning Jackman take his singing to the silver screen?

/Film reported today that 20th Century Fox has hired director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) to direct a made-for-TV documentary about The Simpsons.

Spurlock was quoted saying: “When they first called me about this, I thought it was a prank and I hung up. And then my agent called back and said, ‘No, no, this is for real,’ at which point I fainted. Then when I woke up, I called everyone I knew because it was the coolest thing I could ever get to do in my career.” Spurlock will also be on hand at this year’s Comicon, looking for fans to cast in the film.

Although Fox has been dropping the ball over the last few years film-wise, if there’s one thing they know how to do is television. Most of the top-rated shows on broadcast and cable are produced by Fox. I would really like to see a documentary about The Simpsons and how they have existed for so long. The fact that Morgan Spurlock is directing it only adds to my excitement.

What do you all think of this doc? Will it be worth the hype? And worth Spurlock’s involvement?