Steven Soderbergh takes on a Knockout

Director Steven Soderbergh has committed to next direct Knockout, a spy thriller that will mark the screen starring debut of Gina Carano, the mixed martial arts circuit fighter.

According to Variety this will be Soderbergh’s next film after the Warner Bros. comedy, The Informant!, made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The Matt Damon-starrer opens in the USA on 18th September.

Scripted by Lem Dobbs, “Knockout” casts Carano as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes. The film is a closer cousin to “La Femme Nikita” and “Kill Bill” than “Million Dollar Baby,” in that it doesn’t take place in the fight ring. Rather, Soderbergh considers the film as a flat out action film in the James Bond mold, and will shoot in locations around the world that include Ireland, Turkey and the U.S.

Soderbergh will surround Carano will name actors in supporting roles.

The MMA circuit is where Soderbergh discovered Carano, a lightweight division slugger with movie star good looks. The Muay Thai-trained fighter has compiled a 7-1 record. Though Carano suffered her first loss in a title fight last month, she is considered the face of the fledgling women’s mixed martial arts fighting circuit.

Soderbergh Soderbergh, who earlier this summer exited a plan to direct “Moneyball” for Columbia Pictures, most recently directed “The Girlfriend Experience,” a film that starred porn star Sasha Grey in her first performance in a mainstream film.

Carano so far has appeared as herself in the documentary “Ring Girls” and the Oxygen reality series “Fight Girls.” She was also Crush on NBC’s “American Gladiators,” and had a role in the upcoming Michael Jai White action film “Blood and Bone.”

It sounds as if Knockout could be a quite a cool film. Nikita meets James Bond with a slice of xXx. Soderbergh’s films are always worth a watch and he always brings something a little different to the screen.

Moneyball strikes out

Despite the fact that it was about to start production on Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, Columbia Pictures has halted work on Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming major league baseball project Moneyball. The film, which was to star Brad Pitt, has been placed into “limited turnaround” by Columbia Picture’s Amy Pascal. According to Variety, this gives Soderbergh a chance to set up the project at another studio. It is currently being shopped to both Warner Brothers and Paramount.

The decision to halt work on Moneyball came after Pascal read the final draft of the screenplay, written by Steve Zaillian with Soderbergh, and found it to be quite different than the original film she once championed. If another studio does not pick up the film by Monday, Columbia Pictures will look at replacing Soderbergh as the director. This could delay filming for quite sometime to come.

Moneyball is based on Michael Lewis’ bestseller of the same name, with Pitt signed on to play Billy Beane, the former Major League phenom that undermined his playing career by taking a big paycheck before he was ready. The player resurfaced as Oakland A’s general manager and found success fielding competitive teams for low cost, compared to the payrolls of league rivals like the New York Yankees. Soderbergh was set to use real ballplayers as actors. He also shot interviews with ballplayers for vignettes that were to be woven into the film.

Moneyball’s fate will be decided on Monday.

Source: MovieWeb
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The Random – Sex and the City 2, Moneyball, The Ghost, The Electric Slide, The Rum Diaries, The Oscars, The Baster, Pancho Villa, Ironclad

All four principal cast members (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) and writer-director Michael Patrick Kin have signed on for Sex and the City 2. THR has more.

Steven Soderbergh (Che) is set to make the big-screen adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game” his next directing project. Brad Pitt is set star as the main character Billy Beane. Moneyball centers on Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who used sophisticated computer analysis systems to piece together a team that regularly contended for the World Series despite possessing a payroll dramatically lower than big-market rivals like the New York Yankees.

Timothy Hutton has been cast in Roman Polanski’s The Ghost, which tells the story of a ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) who uncovers secrets while completing the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan). Hutton will play the role of the prime minister’s American lawyer. THR hs more.

Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan are in talks to star in Tristan Patterson’s The Electric Slide, about a guy who robbed more than 72 banks in the 1980’s before getting caught by the FBI. More in Variety

The Hollywood Reporter say that Amber Heard (who will star in John Carpenter’s The Ward) will star opposite Johnny Depp in Rum Diary, the adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel adapted and directed by Bruce Robinson.

Bennett Miller (Capote), Baz Luhrmann (Australia) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) are set to direct segments for the upcoming 81st Annual Academy Awards which is broadcast on February 22nd says the AP Wire. Luhrmann has created a production number featuring Oscar host Hugh Jackman, Miller will contribue a short film sequence to kick off the ceremony, and Apatow will direct a comedic tribute short film along with some live action material for that section of the show.

Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman will team up for the romantic comedy The Baster for Mandate Pictures reports the trades. Bateman and Aniston will play best friends Wally and Kassie. When neurotic and insecure Wally learns that Kassie plans to become pregnant through artificial insemination, he secretly replaces the donor’s semen with his own and must live with the secret that he is the father of her child. You can see the comedy potential in that scenario can’t you!

Serbian helmer Emir Kusturica (Black Cat, White Cat, Time of the Gypsies) will make a biopic about Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa for Fidelite says Variety. Entitled Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers, the Gordan Mihic co-penned script is based on James Carlos Blake’s novel “The Friends of Pancho Villa” about the legendary outlaw turned general and governor. Javier Bardem is being sought out by the director to play Villa, but no casting is yet confirmed.

Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) will team with The Tudors stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Peter O’Toole for Aloe Entertainment and Dune Films’ Mary, Mother of Christ reports the trades. Belle will star as the titular Biblical character, Meyers will play the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer, and Peter O’Toole will play Symeon who meets Mary and her family in the temple shortly after Jesus’ birth. Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play King Herod and Anna the Prophetess respectively.

James Purefoy, Robert Carlyle , Bob Hoskins and William Moseley (The Chronicles of Narnia) have joined the cast of medieval action thriller Ironclad for ContentFilm International says The Hollywood Reporter. Based on a legendary story, “Ironclad” is set in 13th century England and tells the story of a formidable Knight Templar (Purefoy) and his “Magnificent Seven” who defended historic Rochester Castle against the tyrant, King John (Paul Giamatti), and his mercenary army. Pete Postlethwaite, Lord Richard Attenborough, Colm Meany and Angus McFayden also star.

Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey and Ben Stiller are in talks for DreamWorks Animation’s dark superhero project Master Mind reports Reuters. Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons script concerns a brilliant superhero villain who loses his life’s purpose when he accidentally kills his good-guy nemesis. Stiller’s Red Hour Films will also produce the satire which will hit theaters on November 5th 2010.

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