Surf’s Up – Jay Moriarty biopic in the works. Sean Penn may be Mentor

Production Weekly had a little Tweet:

Curtis Hanson to direct “Jay Moriarity” based on the true adventures of the surfing wonderboy – Sean Penn in talks to play his mentor Frosty

Hanson is the guy who directed L.A. Confidential which is a very cool film.

I’m not to up on my surfers, but do like the whole concept and spiritual side of it all (go watch Big Wednesday for an excellent surfing movie).

A quick look up on the life of Moriarty is quite sad as it turns out he died the day before his 23rd birthday in a free diving accident.

SURFLINE.com have a bio on him:

Born in Georgia, James Michael Moriarty soon relocated to Santa Cruz. His father Doug, and Airborne Ranger, instilled in the young lad a sense for adventure and introduced him to surfing as an 11-year-old tike at Sewer Peak. According to Jay, “When I started I didn’t have a wetsuit. I just had shorts and a t-shirt that I wore. And I had a 7’0″ Haut, a little pintail, like a three-inch-thick ’70s board. I was unequipped and clueless but I didn’t give a shit. It was just so much fun.”

The following year, Moriarty discovered his calling during, of all things, an NSSA shortboard contest at Pleasure Point. In double-overhead surf, the 12-year-old was the only kid to make it out, winning the event and realizing his affinity for big surf. Shortly thereafter, he chanced across a wizened elder local named Rick “Frosty” Hesson in the midst of a rant about the newly-ordained jewel of California surfing, Maverick’s. After much prodding from the indomitable young Moriarty, the former lifeguard and collegiate swimmer agreed to prepare him for his future. Jay was determined to conquer Maverick’s, but not before Hesson engaged him in a program of intense mental and physical training.

Moriarty planned on a future as a firefighter, having completed his EMT training at Cabrillo College, but he would get no closer toward his goal. The day before his 23rd birthday, Jay drowned while free-diving alone off the Lohifushi Island resort in the Maldives, where he was visiting for a photo shoot. He had planned to meet his wife of less than one year, Kim, and begin his fourth season, this time as head instructor, for the O’Neill Academy through Europe.

Sean Penn could be playing Frosty then. Sounds like it could be a nice little movie.

Water For Elephants – It’s a Bingo! Christoph Waltz to play paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer

Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, The Green Hornet) is currently in talks to join Water for Elephants. This is adaptation of the Sara Gruen novel to be directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend).

If Waltz gets the role he will star alongside Robert Pattinson (Twilight) and Reese Witherspoon.

Deadline Hollywood says “Waltz will play the heavy in the Depression Era romantic triangle involving a veterinary medicine student (Pattinson) who joins a 2nd-rate travelling circus and falls for the star performer (Witherspoon). Waltz will play her husband, a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer who is as mean to his wife as he is to the circus creatures.”

This role was originally down for Sean Penn to play, but as often happens looks as if he is no longer attached.

Certainly sounds like an interesting role and we all know Waltz can flip from calm to manic to just plain scary mad at the flip of a strudel!

Source: Coming Soon

The Random – Robert Pattinson & Sean Penn, Promised Land, The Graveyard Book, Martin Scorsese to direct Hugo Cabret, Burke and Hare

- Sean Penn and Robert Pattinson are considering joining Water for Elephants at Fox 2000 reports Variety. Based on the best-selling historical novel by Sara Gruen, the story centers on a 90-year-old man (Pattinson) reminiscing about his life and is set during the Depression. At the time the man found work at a B-level circus taking care of the animals. He sees the brutality of circus life while falling for the wife of an abusive animal trainer (Penn). Reese Witherspoon is already attached to play the wife.

- Michael Winterbottom (“Nine Songs”) is next set to direct the $5 million indie Promised Land for Revolution Studios reports Variety. The story deals with the events that lead up to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. Jim Sturgess (“Across the Universe,” “21″) will star as a British officer hunting down the extremist Jewish factions.

- Neil Gaiman says the film adaptation of his The Graveyard Book is still on the cards. Speaking to The Los Angeles Times Gaiman said “It was all put together over at Miramax Films. The people there had a long, great relationship with Neil Jordan and it was all set up and ready to go, and then Miramax was more or less erased from existence. It became a filing cabinet in somebody’s desk, more or less… But it looks like almost all the pieces are on the table again. They have a studio, they have a distributor and they are putting stuff together and I’m not allowed to say anything else.”

- Martin Scorsese is in talks to direct a live-action adaptation of Brian Selznick’s children’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret reports Variety. The 2008 novel centers on an orphaned boy who secretly lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station and looks after the clocks. He gets caught up in a mystery adventure when he attempts to repair a mechanical man.

- Isla Fisher (“Wedding Crashers,” “Confessions of a Shopaholic”) and Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Clayton,” “Duplicity”) have joined the horror comedy Burke and Hare says Heat Vision Blog.
The film is based on the true story a pair of the U.K.’s earliest serial killers, William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis), gravediggers who lucratively sold the corpses of their victims to a medical college for dissection. Fisher will play Pegg’s girlfriend, an actress looking for a patron who might or might not be an accomplice to the murders. Wilkinson will play Dr. Robert Knox, an anatomy lecturer looking for fresh corpses. John Landis directs.

- John and Drew Dowdle (“Quarantine”) are set to direct an adaptation of Jack Kilborn’s gory novel Afraid reports Production Weekly. Larry Malkin and Chad Thumann will adapt the script about five government-sponsored lethal torturers wrongly sent on a mission to a small, sleepy Wisconsin town. The military sends in a bunch of Green Berets, Special Forces, SEALs and marines to take down this killing force. However it’s the townsfolk who band together to save their home that will make the critical difference.

Source: Dark Horizons

Into the Wild / Where the Wild Things Are poster mashup

Source: We Love You So

‘Three Stooges’ cast changes again…

The Boston Globe is reporting that the cast of the upcoming Farrelly brothers comedy has undergone another change. Paul Giamatti will take on the role of Larry after Sean Penn dropped out earlier this year. Jim Carrey, who was set to play Curley, has also dropped out. Benicio Del Toro is still on board as Moe, but all these changes beg the question – will this movie ever get made?

How about Tom Cruise as the Third Stooge?

With the recent news that Sean Penn was taking a year off from acting this means there is a place within the the Farrelly Brothers Three Stooges film. Penn was playing Larry opposite Jim Carrey as Curly (he is apparantly going to pile on the pounds for the role) and Benicio Del Toro as Moe.

Who could join Carrey and Del Toro? Names such as Paul Giamatti, Zach Galifianakis, Matt Damon, Larry David, Ben Stiller, Jack Nicholson and Simon Pegg have been mentioned.

However, another name put forward is Tom Cruise and out of all of them I think I like that idea the most – although the whole idea of the Three Stooges film leaves me feeling a little cold. He was great in Tropic Thunder when he played quite a slapstick character so he has the skills.

How do you feel about the Stooges film? Who would be the best person to fill Sean Penn’s shoes?

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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How about Tom Cruise as the Third Stooge?

With the recent news that Sean Penn was taking a year off from acting this means there is a place within the the Farrelly Brothers Three Stooges film. Penn was playing Larry opposite Jim Carrey as Curly (he is apparantly going to pile on the pounds for the role) and Benicio Del Toro as Moe.

Who could join Carrey and Del Toro? Names such as Paul Giamatti, Zach Galifianakis, Matt Damon, Larry David, Ben Stiller, Jack Nicholson and Simon Pegg have been mentioned.

However, another name put forward is Tom Cruise and out of all of them I think I like that idea the most – although the whole idea of the Three Stooges film leaves me feeling a little cold. He was great in Tropic Thunder when he played quite a slapstick character so he has the skills.

How do you feel about the Stooges film? Who would be the best person to fill Sean Penn’s shoes?

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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The Random – No Nolan on Batman 3? 9, Star Trek 2, Jurassic Park 4, Neverending Story, Bourne 4, Red Dawn, Sean Penn

Batman-On-Film have the news that Christopher Nolan still has yet to commit to a third Batman film, and at this point he still isn’t interested in making another installment in the Batman series. Who would be a good director to take his place?

Focus Features has launched a viral site at 9experiment.com for Shane Acker’s 9.

SciFi Wire talked with the writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci recently about how they’re planning to tackle the sequel to J J Abrams Star Trek. “I think the major lesson we learned is that fans were willing to accept differences and surprises, provided that they were somehow echoes or inspired by canon,” Orci said in an exclusive interview earlier this month. He added: “We still have to be true to Star Trek the next time around, but we’ve also been blessed with being able to be unpredictable. And that doesn’t mean we can just be shocking for no good reason and just throw everything away… It still has to echo everything that Star Trek has been.”

Producer Frank Marshall talked with Coming Soon about the future of various projects and franchises he’s involved in.

Bourne 4 “We’d like to shoot next year. It’s trying to get everybody’s schedules in the right place and getting the script right. We’ve done pretty well with these scripts that are pretty loosely put together, but I’d like the script to be really solid this time before we go forward. We’re spending a lot of time on this story” says Marshall.

The Neverending Story – It sounds like the remake will be more faithful to the original book – “We love the book and we’ve always thought there was an opportunity (because) there were a lot of elements in the book that weren’t in the movie. It’s another one where we’re still working on the rights and it’s a huge thing to get it. Once we get it, we’ll bring on a writer, but that’s kind of off in the distance. But it’s a great story.”

Jurassic Park IV – It’s still quite a long way away – “We just have to see if they can come up with a story. We don’t have a story.”

Marshall also is looking into an adaption of the New Yorker article The Last of the Metrozoids about art historian Kirk Vanedoe and his decision to coach a football team before he died of cancer shortly afterwards, and a film adaptation of Warren St. John’s book “Outcasts United” about immigrants on a soccer team in Georgia.

Josh Peck (The Wackness, Special) and Adrianne Palicki have joined the cast of the remake of Red Dawn for MGM/UA says The Hollywood Reporter. The story follows a group of teenagers who form an impromptu insurgency when their town is invaded by Chinese and Russian soldiers. Peck will play Matt Eckert, the hotheaded younger brother of Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth – Star Trek, Thor) and star quarterback of their Spokane high school football team. Palicki will play Tonim a tough fighter the brothers encounter who develops romantic feelings for Jed, a Marine home on leave and the group’s unofficial leader. John Milius directed the original 1984 Cold War-era actioneer, the new one will be handled by “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Quantum of Solace” second-unit director Dan Bradley. Filming kicks off in September.

Sean Penn has dropped out of Universal’s action movie Cartel as well as MGM’s Three Stooges, according to several sources in Hollywood, including Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood. Word is that he’s had private conversations where he’s said that he doesn’t want to work “right away” and wants to “regroup” and “just needs personal time.”

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Witch Hunt – Second Trailer

A documentary produced and narrated by Sean Penn, regarding a series of false child molestation convictions in Kern County, California in the early 1980s.

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Witch Hunt – Documentary Trailer

The trailer for Witch Hunt which chronicles the unraveling of a small town’s justice system.

The main characters in this film were working class mothers and fathers who all were wrongly convicted of child molestation.

They served lengthy prison time and were ultimately exonerated.

All of the convicted were recklessly pursued by the same District Attorney who remains in office today.

The documentary is narrated by Sean Penn.

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