Brett Ratner To Produce ‘Edgy’ Snow White

It seems that fairy tales are all the rage in Hollywood right now and it’s a safe bet that it’s all down to Tim Burton’s success with Alice In Wonderland.

X-Men 3 director, Brett Ratner, has revealed to Deadline Hollywood that one of his many upcoming projects is going to a new take on the classic Brother’s Grimm story Snow White with a script penned by Melissa Wallack.

And of course it’ll be in 3D. Shocking.

Wallack doesn’t have much under her belt but must be impressing the right people as she’s reported to be getting a low seven-figure paycheck for Snow White. A smart move by Wallack to write a fairytale script since Disney have also jumped on a new Cinderella script by Devil Wears Prada writer Aline Brosh McKenna.

They’re not the only ones: a live-action Maleficent movie is still in the works with Alice scribe Linda Woolverton and Emily Browning is still set to star in a dark updated version of Sleeping Beauty.

There’s also Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood project with Amanda Seyfried and Disney’s classical take on Rapunzel.

Ratner told Deadline Hollywood about the project.

“This is not your grandfather’s Snow White. Melissa went back to the 500-year-old folk tale and put in some of the things that were missing from Walt Disney’s film. His dwarves were miners, and here they are robbers.

There is also a dragon that was in the original folk tale. Walt made one of the great movies of all time, but ours is edgy and there is more comedy. The original, made for its time, was soft compared to what we’re going to do.”

Kicks Review: Own Goal

KICKS: On Limited Release From Friday 4th June

We’ve all had teenage crushes and at some point thought to ourselves that if we could only meet the object of our misplaced affection, we could make them love us.

After much crying and angsty journal writing, we all grew up and realised how childish our desires were. Kicks is a darker take on teenage fantasies and acts out what might really happen if two girls got their hands on the one man they’ve spent their youth obsessing over.

Nicole (Kerrie Hayes) is a lonely, awkward teenager who finds a friend in Jasmine, a wannabe WAG who shares Nicole’s obsession with Liverpool footballer, Lee Cassidy (Jamie Doyle). The pair spend their time mildly stalking Lee at nightclubs but are devastated when they hear that he’s transferring overseas to another team. Do It!

Guess Who I Interviewed…The Stars Of Kicks!

Kerrie Hayes and Nichola BurleyAfter seeing Lindy Heymann’s directorial debut, Kicks, I sat down with the film’s leading ladies for a bit of a chinwag.

Nichola Burley plays Jasmine, a wannabe WAG who befriends Kerrie Hayes’ Nicole, a lonely Liverpool fan who’s hopelessly devoted to star footballer Lee Cassidy (Jamie Doyle).

When Lee announces that he’s being transferred to Real Madrid, the girls wind up kidnapping him and trying to convince him to stay.

Your characters are so different, what do you think really brings them together?

Nichola: I think they’re both kind of outcasts in their society. Even though Jasmine’s a WAG, she’s not a stereotypical WAG. They just have this drive and this passion for the same thing just in very different ways and that kind of forces their friendship.

You spend almost the entire movie together, did you end up bonding in rehearsals?

Nichola: It was kind of in the auditions when we met, then it was rehearsals the week after then we started filming and living together. So got on anyway, straight away, and the more we lived with each other the more we got to know each other.

Kerrie: I can’t imagine what it would be like if we hated each other. We were really fortunate. It allows us to bounce off of each other as well. Do It!

London MCM Expo

If you were around the Docklands area over the weekend then you may have seen a few strange characters milling about the place. Some may have even been familiar to you: Darth Vader, Captain Jack Sparrow and a Mad Hatter or two.

That’s because it was the weekend of the MCM Expo – Movies, Comics and Media. Filled with a record breaking 41, 000 people, the ExCel centre played host to the best in all things geek including gaming demonstrations, panels of TV stars and thousands of fans in brilliant home made costumes.

In amongst all the hardcore fans, my trusty sidekick John Makepeace and I made the rounds, taking photos and chatting to the stars. We ran into a few familiar faces – Captain Jack and the Joker were kind enough to pose for us and made us dream of the fantasic crossover movie they’d make together. Do It!

Rachel McAdams Will Return For Sherlock Sequel

We’re all looking forward to the sequel to the hugely popular Sherlock Holmes movie and a big part of that is most definitely not Rachel McAdams.

The usually reliable McAdams was sleepwalking through her part as Holmes’ lady love but, in all fairness, the script didn’t give her the best material. Anywho, after a recent conversation with movie producer extraordinaire, Joel Silver, SciFiWire are reporting that she will return for the sequel.

Thankfully, all Silver had to say on her appearance was, “She’ll be present.”

This indicates that someone was listening to the fans that didn’t warm to her that much, meaning either she’ll be killed off early on or she’s not the leading lady this time. Both are welcome suggestions.

Silver said of a shooting date that, “We’ll start shooting in the fall and coming out maybe the following year.”

The villain of the piece, as we all know by now, is the classic Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarty. Here’s what Joel said in terms of upping the stakes for the movie. “We want it to be really bold and strong, and Moriarty has got to be a really incredible character. We spent a movie setting up a character, and now we can make the next movie where we pay that character off.”

National Movie Award Winners

The stars were out last night for the National Movie Awards as voted for by the fans.

But by fans we mean Twi-hards as Twilight came up trumps, winning everything it was nominated for. I had to laugh when the fans got all excited over Robert Pattinson winning an award and then getting pissed off when he accepted via video message.

He shot the message from the set of his next movie Water For Elephants sporting a slightly less teen-vamp haircut. At least Peter Facinelli AKA Carlisle Cullen turned up joking that his secret is out that he’s ‘really a bottle blonde‘. Hilarious, Pete.

At least the Potter stars bothered to turn up – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Bonnie Wright rocked the red carpet and picked up the gong for best fantasy movie, apologising for Rupert Grint’s absence as he was feeling a bit poorly.

Here’s a full list of winners from last night’s celebrations:

Best Action/Thriller:
Sherlock Holmes

Best Family Film:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Best Fantasy:
The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Most Anticipated Movie Of The Year:
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Breakthrough Movie:
The Time Traveler’s Wife

Performance of the Year:
Robert Pattinson

Special Recognition:
Harry Potter

Screen Icon Award:
Tom Cruise

Logan’s Run Reboot Gets Director

I know that the recycling of movie material is inevitable but we all occasionally struggle with the process. Surely if you’re going to remake a movie you should pick a bad movie and remake it into a great one.

Well until we the people get our own movie studio, we’re just going to have to put up remakes and reboots like the latest one that’s been jump started into production – Logan’s Run. A remake of the 70s sci-fi classic, starring Michael York and Farrah Fawcett, has been on Hollywood’s minds since the mid-90s but only now does it seem like it might actually be going somewhere. A 13-episode TV was made with Gregory Harrison but the less said about that the better.

Skip Woods, Bryan Singer and James McTeigue have all been involved or approached for the project over the past decade but after multiple script problems the movie just couldn’t get off the ground.

Now, according to The Playlist, power producers Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman are on board and the film has enough meat on its bones to secure a director – Carl Rinsch. His CV may be short but don’t let that fool you. Though he has limited experience, he must be doing something right in Hollywood as he’s also going to be helming the Creature From The Black Lagoon remake too.

Rinsch was also in the running to director the Alien prequel before Ridley Scott decided to take on the duties himself and you don’t get considered for that job without a few tricks up your sleeve.

Could this be the start of a beautiful friendship? Are you excited about a Logan’s Run reboot? Drop a comment down below.

Three Ladies In Line To Be Megan Fox’s Replacement

Michael Bay’s magical formula of ‘bots, boobs and bombs is currently missing the boob aspect because he hasn’t replaced Megan Fox in Transformers 3 yet.

Since Fox was let go/kicked off of the next movie, there has been a lot of wild speculation over who will fill her bra- I mean shoes!

The first name that entered the ring was Gemma Arterton, star of Disappearance of Alice Creed and Prince of Persia. She’s a big name with big assets and would have definitely leant credibility to the franchise but sadly it doesn’t look like that deal would ever happen because Arterton wants to actually have a career.

There are now three names in the running to replace Fox and shockingly enough they’re all models. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (pictured), Brooklyn Decker and Sarah Wright are all being considered for the part of eye-candy and chances are they’ll end up being better actresses than Fox anyway.

Whiteley is a Victoria’s Secret model so she’s used to being exploited – I mean appreciated, plus she won’t mind being put in those denim cut-offs that Fox was sporting in Transformers 2.

Decker and Wright are the ones with the most experience acting so the smart money’s on them but in the crazy world of the Bayhem, you never know what’s going to happen.

Jackie Brown Prequel In Talks Sans Tarantino

Does making a sequel or prequel of a movie that was released over a decade ago work? Well, I don’t have the time to debate that point because I’m very busy and important.

What I will say is that when a prequel/sequel doesn’t have the original creative team behind it, I get a little worried. Jackie Brown, the hit crime drama with Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson, is getting a prequel and though Quentin ‘my head is a weird shape’ Tarantino isn’t directing this time, he has given it his blessing.

The news comes from the kindly folks over at JoBlo who also report that the prequel will be called The Switch – not to be confused with the Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman comedy of the same name.

The script has been adapted by Dan Schechter from the book by Elmore Leonard who will also serve as the executive producer on the project. The cast, director and studio are yet to be confirmed.