Last night director Michael Bay appeared on Starz’s In The House. In the program he addressed a few things. The first was the decision regarding fast tracking Transformers 3 for a 2011 release and putting his small film Pain & Gain on hold:

“The true story is we went to Vegas to celebrate ['Revenge of the Fallen'] crossing the $400 million mark domestic. I said I’m excited to do my small little movie. They said, well we’re here to talk about that. I’ve become friends with these guys that run Paramount and they [told me,] ‘We’re going to get fired if we don’t have a 2011 franchise,’ so I’m like you can’t let these guys down. “The economy’s been so rough, it’s kind of important. When you say yes to movie like this you automatically give 3000 people jobs. 1000 for the toys. 2000 for the filmmaking. I’m going to put [the small film] on hold and do it right after ['Transformers 3'].”

This sounds sincere to me and hopefully puts an end to the constant bickering that Bay decided to do TF3 first for the money. We also reported yesterday that Bay announced that two of Transformers 3’s action scenes will be in Chicago and Moscow. He gave a bit more updates on the show in regards to the story:

“You can’t just rehash the old,” he explained. “We’re adding a lot of new elements. We’re adding new characters. We’re adding a lot of twists.”

He sounds very confident, but unlike the last time we heard this song and dance from Bay, he actually has the time to devote to these “twists” and “new characters.” The final (and perhaps most important) update from Bay was in regards to the constant debate over whether or not the film will be in 3D:

“It’s a process we’re testing with some ‘Transformers’ scenes,” he said. “How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I’ve seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage.”

Bay is probably the biggest name in Hollywood right now that has been 100% against using 3D in films. Bay has constantly referred to himself as an “old school film maker.” I will let you interpret that how you wish (I personally agree with that) but, I think a 3D environment is too jarring for the types of films Bay makes. The way Bay moves his camera, or rather the speed at which he moves the camera, is too fast for anyone watching in 3D to comprehend. Though I was not one of the people who had a problem with the action in Revenge of The Fallen, I can only imagine that 3D would only make things worse. We sit 3 months away from the start of production so hopefully we will have a final answer between now and then.

Should Transformers 3 be shot in 3D? Do you think Bay will pull of a story with a lot of twists this time around?

Variety is reporting that Paramount Pictures has picked up George Gallo’s crime/drama/comedy Middle Men for U.S. distribution. The film recently premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and stars Luke Wilson, James Caan, Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht. Check out the trailer below. Read the full story

Never say Martin Scorsese wasn’t willing to try something new. Much like Spielberg or Coppola, the auteur jumps at the opportunity to tackle subject matter not immediate to the modus operandi that developed his reputation: tough-talking New York City Italians with a penchant for violence.

So it is with Shutter Island, the closest thing we’ll get to a Hitchcock film these days: a fresh experiment in fear and psychoanalysis. And not an Italian in sight. But violence personified.

Read the full story

Paramount has hired writer Chase Palmer to further adapt Pierre Morel’s forthcoming Dune film. Josh Zetumer’s (Quantun of Solace) draft will be tweaked more towards Morel’s vision, which he claims is close to Frank Herbert’s epic civilization novel. “Kevin Misher and Richard Rubinstein are producing the new Paramount version, which they hope will spark a franchise.” [THR]

It feels like years since Peter Berg dropped off the project and Morel was hired to start over again, the whole project itself a re-do of the 1984 David Lynch/Universal disaster. Or re-imagining. Sorry.

And despite the significant under-performance of Morel’s recent John Travolta-led From Paris With Love, Paramount appears to determined to move forward with this huge undertaking.

Is it a sign of confidence, or desperation?

What do you think about this constantly new Dune?

Rumors are swirling about one of the most talked about films at Sundance, a on the fly social media documentary following the real life story of two filmmakers and how one of their brothers becomes entranced in an online romance called ‘Catfish‘. The buzz this documentary has received from Sundance has probably been the best of any film to come out of this year’s festival, with many audience members consensus that this might have the most mainstream potential of most of the Sundance flock. Yesterday it was reported by First Showing, that the film was being screened at a Paramount lot where that attendees should “have seen and enjoyed” films like Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, Slumdog Millionaire or An Inconvenient Truth. Seems like Paramount could be potentially positioning this film to be their next big indie hit. To add fire to these allegations, additional mumblings about Paramount heavyweights J.J Abrams and Jason Blum are also said to be pushing for the film to be released through their studio. However at 1am, Deadline reported that Brett Ratner has made an offer for ‘Catfish‘ with no need for test screenings. The race for the film is heating up and I’m sure filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost are enjoying their options.

Do you want to see “Catfish“?

Now this is a fun battle I can get behind. Two films that show zero promise are going head to head on October 22nd, 2010. Paramount had hired Saw VI director Kevin Greutert to direct the sequel to last year’s insanely profitable Paranormal Activity. Deadline Hollywood reports that Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate have “just exercised a contractual option and installed Saw VI director as director of Saw 3D.” This means Lionsgate has taken back Greutert to direct the upcoming 7th Saw film. This gets rid of David Hackl, director of Saw V, who was supposed to take on Saw 3D. Deadline’s sources say he will be assigned to another project soon. Read the full story

Further supporting the hope that this could very well be a return to form for the slumping M. Night Shyamalan, here are two lush, contrasting posters for the director’s next film, The Last Airbender, adapted from the critically-acclaimed animated series.

One reveals the evil Prince Zuko (Slumdog Millionaire Dev Patel) looking down on his “fire nation;” the other shows hero Aang (Noah Ringer) and his “air nation.” [/Film]

Check out the posters below:

Read the full story

A recent report out of Deadline Hollywood states that the next chapter in the Transformers franchise it set to begin production this May.

That puts it on right on schedule with already announced July 1st, 2011 release date. As previously reported this installment will not include writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci but instead will solely be written by Ehren Kurger, the other writer on the Transformers sequel.

The players still stand at Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. No other news regarding plot details or other characters are known at this time. Keep checking back with The Film Stage for more new on the upcoming sequel.

Are you excited for Transformers 3?

A week after the release of G.I. Joe, we reported that Paramount had green lit a sequel to the film based on its box office success. Well, 5 months later, according to Collider, the project has a writer on board who has yet to be named.

Collider also failed to clarify what the original reports stated: while all the actors are signed on for another film, director Stephen Sommers is not. Expect more news in the coming weeks.

I liked the first G.I. Joe film. I thought it was full of campy fun and left the theater completely happy. I recently had the opportunity to watch it again on Blu-ray and the film does hold up on that same campy level. I will be extremely sad if Sommers does gets removed from the project since his passion for the property clearly came through in the film. Hopefully we will know more soon.

What would you like to see from the next Joe film?

This according to EW. The most recent news on the remake (until now of course) being that director Peter Berg had officially dropped out.

As written in EW: “Paramount is currently looking for a new writer to incorporate Morel’s vision of the project into the original draft by Quantum of Solace scribe Josh Zetumer. Morel plans to make a very faithful adaptation of the 1965 book by Frank Herbert. The movie is a high priority for Paramount’s production chief Adam Goodman. Kevin Misher and Richard Rubinstein are producing.”

This is great news, both that Morel is on board but, more importantly, that someone is on board and that Paramount has the film as a “high priority.” The world deserves a better, newer vision of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece. Hell, even director David Lynch didn’t want to take credit for that one.

Let’s hope Morel doesn’t have the same problem.

What do you think of this news? Is Morel a good fit for Dune?