News is spreading like wildfire that The Office’s John Krasinski may be up for the title role in Marvel’s Captain America, so says THR. Set to be directed by The Wolfman’s Joe Johnston, the lead role apparently has to be cast very soon, like next week soon.

Other contenders are Chace Crawford, Michael Cassidy, Patrick Flueger, Scott Porter and Mike Vogel. These names have all been thrown around, but many people seem to agree that Krasinski is the most likely choice. This would, of course, also set him up to star in The Avengers, Marvel’s planned mega-crossover.

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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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Earlier today Collider sat down with director Joe Johnston regarding his new film Wolfman, due out this week. Of course the interview eventually led to questions regarding Johnston’s film Captain America: The First Avenger. Here are the highlights Collider posted: Read the full story

Today we have new information on the casting of two upcoming projects. The first comes from Joe Johnston’s Captain America. In an interview with SCI FI Wire, Johnston talked about how we will know the actors for the film soon:

“We need to cast it soon,” Johnston said. “We have a very short list, but we’re still juggling actors here. I’d say within the next couple of weeks we’ll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope.”

Production will start in the UK this June for a July 22, 2011 release date.

The next story comes from the Hugh Jackman project, Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum). The sci-fi sports film is budgeted around a modestly $80 million. Check out the press release from Dreamworks below, regarding the open casting call.

DreamWorks Studios has launched a nationwide casting search to fill a lead role in its upcoming movie “Real Steel,” it was announced today by DreamWorks Studios.

Actors interested in the role have two ways to audition. Beginning immediately, individuals can submit a videotaped audition through RealSteelcasting.com. Complete instructions are available on the website.

Additionally, two open call auditions will be held starting on Sunday, February 14, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois and then on Saturday, February 20, 2010 in New York, New York. No acting experience is necessary for interested actors, nor are they required to prepare anything for the audition.

Role to be cast is ‘Max’: Male, 10-14 years old. He’s a street-smart, tough, charming kid with a hard, untrusting outer shell which hides a warm enthusiastic spirit beneath. He is a complicated, strong-willed and resourceful boy.

Details on the open call auditions are as follows:

CHICAGO
Sunday, February 14, 2010
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Chicago Academy of the Arts
1010 W Chicago Street
Chicago, IL 60642-5490
(Parking behind building)

NEW YORK
Saturday, February 20, 2010
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Shetler Studios
244 West 54th Street
12th Floor
New York, NY 10019-5515

Complete details on the auditions are available at RealSteelcasting.com. All videotape submissions will become the property of Dreamworks Studios and will not be returned.

The new sport of robot-boxing is the backdrop for the sports drama “Real Steel” about a former boxer (Hugh Jackman) who gets one last shot at the title when he teams up with his long-lost son (‘Max’) to train a unique robot for the upcoming Real Steel World Championship. Film is being directed by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum”) and produced by Don Murphy, Susan Montford and Shawn Levy. Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, Josh McLaglen, and Mary McLaglen are all executive producing. John Gatins has written the script.

Are you excited for these projects? Who would you like to see cast?

Director Joe Johnston updated Film Journal about the progress of The First Avenger: Captain America while discussing The Wolfman:

“We’re in prep,” Johnston says. “Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we’re set up down in Manhattan Beach [California]. It’s the part of the process that I love the most,” he enthuses. “We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this?’ It’s that phase of the production where money doesn’t matter: ‘Let’s put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.’” The film, he says at this early stage, will begin “in 1942, 1943″ during World War II. “The stuff in the ’60s and ’70s [comic books] we’re sort of avoiding. We’re going back to the ’40s, and then forward to what they’re doing with Captain America now.”

I am unfamiliar with the comics themselves, but I find their approach interesting.  Addressing it on from a different time period will certainly provide room for more artistic interpretations.

What do you think of the Captain America project?  How will it compare to the comic books?

It’s hard to gauge how excited/worried on should get reading news like this. Director Joe Johnston, doing the PR thing for The Wolfman, talked to Box Office Magazine a bit about his upcoming Captain America film and the long-gestating Jurassic Park IV.

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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

What must the guy in the photo above thinking? He’s got a studio hit (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) on his hands and a license to make whatever he wants; as long as it’s also what the studio wants.

Stephen Sommers has built his career on the backs of BIG Hollywood movie studios, reaching career heights few others can/will ever attain. His directing quote is surely in the millions and millions of people pay to see his work, a surefire dream for any and every artist.

Writing this now, it almost seems petty to suggest the life of the studio director might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Now, before we delve into this, let’s get the term “studio director” clear. There are those director who employ the studios when necessary (Todd Haynes, for example, or David Cronenberg), those who tend to avoid studios at all costs (Todd Solondz for the most part), those who rise above the studios and get money to do anything (Spielberg, Scorcese, Tarantino) and those who are employed by the studio.

The latter group is the “studio director” in the context of this piece. People like Walt Becker, the young auteur who gave us the smash hit Wild Hogs a few years back and will soon provide another low-brow Travolta fest with Old Dogs. People like John Moore, the man responsible for Max Payne and two stock remakes, Flight of the Phoenix and The Omen. People like Sommers.

Of course, the perfect example is Brett Ratner, but that’s like beating a dead horse. Living this life of success must be like being handcuffed to a never-ending gravy train. A dream you never wake up from.

What a hell it must be.

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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 >>

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?