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

Deadline is reporting that Benicio Del Toro has signed on to play Jack Garcia (pictured right) in Making Jack Falcone. Del Toro will reunite with Che director Steven Soderbergh and writer Peter Buchman for the film that follows the Cuban-born agent as he pretends to be Italian and take down 39 members of New York’s Gambino Crime family. Buchman has written the script while Soderbergh will strictly produce. No director has been attached yet. Deadline has a good look at the chameleon efforts Del Toro will have to accomplish below. Read the full story

Sofia Coppola, the Oscar-winning writer/director of Lost in Translation, has bought out the option to her next project. As The Playlist has reported, it comes in the form of Francis Prose‘s (is there any better last name for a writer?) acclaimed 2008 novel “Goldengrove“, which follows the 13-year-old Nico as she deals with the drowning of her sister, Margaret, and her growing relationship with Margaret’s boyfriend, Aaron. Coppola‘s specific involvement with this project is still unknown, however. Whether she will write, direct, or produce will wait to be seen. Read the full story

If you’re one of the many who fell in love with monster classics like The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Bride of Frankenstein and even The Creature from the Black Lagoon, then you’ll be less than happy to know that this revamp of the horror tale is somewhat of an underwhelming experience. There’s greatness here, but it never comes together to make for a particularly good film but simply a watchable one.

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With Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller, Shutter Island less than two weeks away from its release, the next thing everybody wants to know from the Scorsese camp is, what’s next? Read the full story

Thanks to a tweet by the official Universal Pictures twitter it’s confirmed that the upcoming horror remake The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving and Emily Blunt, has been rated R.

It reads: “... this just in: THE WOLFMAN has been rated ‘R’ for bloody horror, violence and gore. Get ready: February 12, 2010“

This announcement comes after much debate over the film’s rating, along with many other things, most commonly the string of push backs the film’s release date has gotten and the recent hiring of industry editors Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) and Mark Goldblatt (True Lies) to recut the film.

And while no one is saying the film is automatically going to be good because it is R, the fact that the studio has faith in a harder version of the film suggests something worth taking a risk on. Or perhaps they hope to milk the gore audience for all their worth? The Wolfman opens  February 12th, 2010.

What do you think about The Wolfman getting an R rating?

Joe Johnston‘s The Wolfman has been plagued by many production problems and it’s success is crucial for Universal (check out The Playlist for a great write-up highlighting these points). Variety has recently reported deep inside an article that top editors Walter Murch and Mark Goldblatt have been hired to recut the film. Murch is one of the finest editors in the world, behind such films as Apocalypse Now, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and most recently Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro. Goldblatt was behind James Cameron‘s Terminator films and True Lies. He also has had experience with other big blockbusters while editing Armageddon, Bad Boys II, and Starship Troopers.  It looks like Warner Brothers had a test screening of this recent cut last night at their studio. I’ve managed to uncover a few tweets regarding the screening and confirmation that Walter Murch was there. Check them out below. Read the full story

Yahoo has released the first trailer for the  remake to the 1941 classic The Wolfman. The film stars Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, Geraldine Chaplin, and Gene Simmons and is directed by Joe Johnston. Check it out after the jump.

Check out the trailer below >>

The Boston Globe is reporting today that Paul Giamatti has signed on as Larry in the upcoming film The Three Stooges. This comes a few months after it was announced that Sean Penn was leaving the role citing “personal reasons.” In addition to Giamatti joining the cast The Globe is also reporting that funny man Jim Carrey will not be playing the role of Curly. Benicio Del Toro is still attached to play Moe as are the Farrelly Brothers still at the helm.

This project has been hitting road block after road block with no end in sight. If the Farrelly Brothers have any hopes to get the film out by 2010 as they planned they need to get the cast down now and start production. Otherwise we will not see Three Stooges until at least 2011.

Who do you think should play the stooges?

Universal Pictures recently announced that two of their films scheduled for release this fall have been pushed back to 2010.  The two movies in question are The Wolfman and Green Zone.  The first is the Benicio del Toro starring, Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) directed remake of the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. horror movie.  The second is the Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum) Iraq War film, starring Matt Damon and based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekarian.  Wolfman was pushed from November 6 to February 12, 2010.  Green Zone had no set release date, but it was expected to be released sometime this year, most likely for Oscar contention.  No release date has yet been set for the movie.

The Wolfman follows the same plot as the original, about a man named Lawrence Talbot who goes searching for his brother, and tracks down his muredeer, who is a werewolf, and passes it down to him.  Green Zone is the nonfiction account of the reconstruction project in Iraq, and with the transfer of power to the Iraqis.

To me this is a sign of only bad things.  The Wolfman has constantly been pushed around, originally set to come out February 13 this year, then April 3, to November 6, and now February 12, almost a year since it’s original release.  News of reshoots don’t indicate for the best, and this feels like another nail in the coffin.  Green Zone, however, seemed like a lock.  Test screening reports were good, and Damon and Greengrass have proven they can work well together.  The fact that the release is being pushed out of Oscar season doesn’t give the best indication to me.  The book on which it’s based is highly acclaimed, so I don’t see how this movie could have gotten screwed up, but this is never an indication of the best.  Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong on both accounts, but I guess now we have to wait a little longer to find out.

What do you think of this news and does it dampen your expectations for The Wolfman and Green Zone?