Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a friend and she asked me why do directors commit to more projects than they will ever actually realize. I explained that they have several projects in development at once because factors outside the director’s control – i.e., the purse string holders who run the studios – are really the ones who make the decision as to what gets made, and not everything that they initially express an interest in gets the greenlight. Directors are just stacking the deck in their favor to ensure that they have a potential stream of steady work.

Director Brian Singer certainly seems to following that career plan, as Variety reports that he has just signed to produce and possibly direct a remake of John Boorman’s 1981 King Arthur epic Excalibur. I’m not sure why Variety states that “WB and Legendary Pictures have labored for months to pull together the rights to the film” when the story of King Arthur, most famously told by Thomas Malory in Le Morte d’Arthur, is most assuredly in the public domain.No writer has been hired for the project yet.

This news comes quickly on the heels of last week’s announcement that Singer had signed a deal with Universal to produce and possibly direct a big screen adaptation of the science-fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The Variety story also notes that Singer is also eying both Jack The Giant Killer, with a script from Darren Lemke and Mark Bombac, and X-Men: First Class, being written by The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, as possible directorial vehicles as well. Variety fails to mention that Singer is also attached to produce Capeshooters and Freedom Formula, both comic book adaptations.

Of all these projects, it looks like Jack is closer to becoming a reality.Variety states that Jack’s story “revolves around a young farmer who leads an expedition into the land of the giants to recover a kidnapped princess.” I have to admit, that sounds like an interesting, proactive spin on the traditional fairytale. And given Singer’s propensity for adding interesting subtext to his films (The gay civil rights underpinnings of his two X-Men films, completing the Christ allegory in Superman Returns started by Richard Donner in Superman: The Movie), I see potential there for commentary on the last presidential administrations conduct as well.

No matter what project Singer goes forward with next, they all have the potential to be fairly interesting films. A return by Singer to the cinematic X-Men universe would indeed be welcome and I am certainly anxious to see what new direction he may have on the Battlestar Galactica material. Capeshooters and Freedom Formula are both based on lesser known comic book properties, and perhaps either or both films would show people that there are comic titles out there beyond the ones from the Big Two publishers – Marvel and DC – that they are familiar with.

Unfortunately, though, experience has taught us that Singer will probably not get to all of these. Which films would you like to see Bryan Singer do?

1. Inglorious Basterds (Universal, 3,165 Theaters, 153 Minutes, Rated R): The criticism aimed at Quentin Tarantino’s last effort–”Death Proof” in Grindhouse–was that he played up to his own excesses, that it was too much of a Quentin Tarantino movie.

I wonder what those critics will say about this one. They’ll probably not have to go any farther than the plot, which focuses on a battalion of WWII Jewish-American soldiers who land behind enemy lines, killing and scalping (yes, I said scalping) any German soldier they see.

Granted, this time he is not trying to ape the “grindhouse” style of film, but if anything is a QT film, this one is.

Could it be too over the top? Could the fact that it came together so quickly be to its detriment? Does any of this matter? Because good or bad, there is no other film in theaters quite as interesting as this one.

2. Shorts (Warner Brothers, 3,105 Theaters, 89 Minutes, Rated PG): If you follow either Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez, you know they are friends and frequent collaborators. That means that usually if there is a weekend with a film with each of their names attached, it’s one where they are working on it together.

Not so this week, as they are going head to head with the two films with the biggest theater counts. But even this competition isn’t really competition, as Rodriguez returns to the realm of the kid-friendly flick that he had so much success with doing the Spy Kids franchise. So I doubt people who want to see Inglorious Basterds will go see Shorts instead and I doubt there will be many kids getting into Inglorious Basterds.

The plot for this one is rather simple. A group of kids find a rock that grants wishes. This causes problems not only with the wishes they get, but also with adults who want to steal the rock for themselves.

3. Post Grad (FOX, 1,958 Theaters, 89 Minutes, Rated Pg-13): I wonder if the studios got together to come up with a schedule for this weekend that would entertain the heck out of me, because if they did, it worked. I am amused the heck out of.

This film stars Alexis Bledel, who was one of the stars of Sin City, which was directed by Robert Rodriguez and, you guessed it, Quentin Tarantino. If Frank Miller is in anyway involved with that X-Games Movie, I might just faint.

As for the plot, it is a silly little piffle about a girl who is forced to return home and live with her crazy family after graduating college. I doubt that this will be Hamlet, but with Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett, and JK Simmons in the cast, it can’t be all bad. And if you are catching a flick while your kids or younger siblings are watching Shorts, this film is exactly the same length, so you will be out at the same time if both films start at the same time.

4. X Games 3D The Movie (Disney, 1,399 Theaters, 92 Minutes, Rated PG): I really had no problem ignoring the recent X-Games while they were on my ESPN, but you got to hand it to Disney (ESPN’s parent company, by the way) for giving me the opportunity to ignore it one more time.

Yeah, I know that people who participate or watch these “X-Sports” wish they were respected as the athletic competition they are. I just see them as an extreme versions of those skateboarders who knock down old ladies at the mall. It is a sport in a way that NASCAR and Hockey are sports. People watch NASCAR for the crashes, Hockey for the fights, and X-Games for the wipe-outs. Yeah, I know I probably got it wrong, but that’s my opinion.

The question is: how do you get people to come out an buy a ticket for a movie containing events they saw practically for free just a few weeks before? Disney answers by showing the film for one week only (which means I get to ignore it for only one week. Aw shucks!) and in 3-D. I wonder if this will pay off.

And according to IMDB, Frank Miller has nothing to do with this film. So, the string of movie connections ends here.

Robert Zemeckis is planning a trip to Pepperland. Using the same motion-capture animation techniques that he used for Beowulf and the upcoming A Christmas Carol, Zemeckis is gearing up to remake Yellow Submarine, the classic animated film featuring the Beatles. Variety is reporting that Disney lawyers have been working for the last several months to clear up rights issues surrounding the possible project, which could also spawn Broadway and Cirque du Soleil stage productions.

In the original 1968 animated film, the Fab Four are recruited to help defend the undersea world of Pepperland from the invading Blue Meanies. Featuring numerous Beatles songs and some rather trippy design and animation, the film was a definite hit with audiences, who sometimes brought along their own recreational pharmaceuticals to further enhance the experience.

Normally, the type of motion capture technology Zemeckis uses for his films helps to make the three-dimensional, computer generated animation move more realistically and life like. Is Zemeckis planning on mapping the original film’s psychedelic character design on to realistic, motion-captured movement? Definitely an intriguing thought, especially since Zemeckis is planning on doing the film in 3D.

With Paul McCartney in the midst of a sold out tour and anticipation building for next month’s release of the Beatles  supplement for the Rock Band video game, there certainly is a boom in interest in the Fab Four. But will that interest still be there in 2012, when Zemeckis hopes to premier the film in conjunction with the Summer Olympics?

Well, it’s not even what would normally be considered “awards season,” but the World Soundtrack Academy has announced the nominees for their World Soundtrack Awards. And in an unsurprising echo of last year’s awards season, Slumdog Millionaire leads the pack with three nominations- Best Original Score and two noms for Best Original Song. (The WSA’s nominating year stretches from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.)

While most of the awards are voted on by the composers who are academy members, the World Soundtrack Awards does have a Public Choice Award that can be voted on here.

The awards will be presented on October 17 at the Ghent International Film Festival in Belgium.

The nominees are-

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

• Carter Burwell (Burn After Reading, Twilight)
• Aleandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Coco Avant Chanel, Largo Winch, Cheri)
• Danny Elfman (Milk, Taking Woodstock, Notorious)
• Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Up, Land of the Lost)
• Hans Zimmer (Frost/Nixon, Angels & Demons, The Dark Knight)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OF THE YEAR

• Burn After Reading by Carter Burwell
• The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button by Alexandre Desplat
• Frost/Nixon by Hans Zimmer
• The International by Reinhold Heil, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek
• Slumdog Millionaire by A.R. Rahman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR A FILM

• “Gran Torino” from Gran Torino. Music & Lyrics by Jamie Cullum, Clint Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens. Performed by Jamie Cullum & Don Runner.
• “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyrics by Gulzar and Tanvi Shah, Performed by A.R. Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaksmi Iyver, Vijay Prakash.
• “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire. Music & Lyrics by A.R. Rahman and Mathangi Arulpragasam. Performed by M.I.A. & A.R. Rahman.
• “Run & Hide” from Je l’aimais. Music & lyrics by Anna Chalon. Performed by Anna Chalon.
• “The Wrestler” from The Wrestler. Music & lyrics by Bruce Springsteen. Performed by Bruce Springsteen.

Warner Brothers has hired Michael Davis to helm a remake of the 1981 science-fiction film Outland.

The original featured Sean Connery as a marshal investigating a series of mysterious deaths at a mining colony on the Jupiter moon of Io. Written and directed Peter Hyams, who would return to Jupiter and its moons in 1984′s 2010, Outland drew comparisons with director Fred Zinnemann’s classic 1952 western High Noon for its protagonist’s dogged determination to bring those behind the miners deaths to justice, even at the cost of his own marriage.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Chad St. John’s screenplay for the new version will stick close to the original’s storyline, but will beef it up to summer blockbuster proportions.

The story takes place in an orbiting city around the moon, where a cop uncovers a murderous conspiracy endangering the entire city. With a week before his retirement back to Earth, our hero has to choose between walking away with his wife, or taking on a private army with his overachieving ex-partner and wife’s former boyfriend.

The original version received mixed reviews, though some critics pointed out that the transplanting of Zinnemann’s High Noon to a western setting was a fairly effective invention.

The thing is, both High Noon and by extension Outland, were very much about their characters and the moral implications of the situations they found themselves in rather than any kind of extended action sequences that one expects from a tentpole-sized film that the Hollywood Reporter claims Warners wants this to be. I have reservations that Davis has the ability to effectively handle this material. He has shown that he has a flair for energetic action sequences, as Shoot ‘Em Up is essentially one long series of such set piecess that paid the barest attention to the characters involved. As a bit of mindless escapism, it works just fine. But as a precursor to a remake of a reimagining of a film described as an “existential Western,” I’m left with some doubts.

No cast or start date for the feature has been announced.

Christopher Nolan is not a number, he’s a free man! Free, at least, from his obligation of directing a big screen version of the cult classic 60s television series The Prisoner.

The Australian site CineFools caught up with Prisoner producer Barry Mendel, who confirmed that Nolan had left the project, but that they were still working on developing a screenplay with 12 Monkeys scripters David and Janet Peoples.

This could be good news for those of us waiting for Nolan to return to the Batman franchise to deliver a follow up to last summer’s The Dark Knight. While the director is currently in the midst of shooting Inception, a science-fiction thriller, he has no other commitments once the film is finished, leaving him free to begin work on a new Batman film. Warners is anxious for him to start work on it. Fans are anxious for him to start work on it. So here’s hoping Nolan is equally anxious to dive it.

Sammy Petrillo, the nightclub comic who bore an uncanny resembelance to Jerry Lewis and co-starred in the 1952 cult film Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla, died August 15 in New York City. He was 74.

Paired with crooner Duke Mitchell, the two formed a nightclub act that was meant to draw comparisons with Lewis and his partner, Dean Martin. Ironically, when their act reached its climax with an announced impersonation of Martin and Lewis, Petrillo would actually impersonate Martin and Mitchell would take the more manic Lewis role. Their act was seen by Realart Pictures president Jack Broder, who cast the duo opposite aging screen legend Bela Lugosi for the low-budget comedy Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla. The film was made in just nine days on a budget of $50,000.00.  Not surprisingly, it wasn’t very good – director William Beaudine would only shoot one take of each shot, moving on to the next set up even if an actor flubbed a line or some other technical error occurred – but it would go on to become a cult favorite years later.

After the film, Petrillo and Mitchell tried top return to the nightclub circuit, but found that Lewis wasn’t so enamored with the similarities between Petrillo and himself and began pressuring many venues to not hire the duo. They eventually split in 1956.

Born in The Bronx, New York City on October 24, 1934, Petrillo discovered his resemblance to Lewis as a teenager when a barber remarked on the similarity. Following his separation from Mitchell, he continued in show business, appearing in a small handful of extremely low-budget exploitation films including Shangri-La (1961), The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) and Keyholes Are For Peeping (1972). He also wrote lyrics for the Isley Brothers’ hit “Angels Cried.”

It has always struck me as odd that Hollywood has not investigated the idea of turning rock and roll concept albums into film. As potential film projects, they certainly seem like attractive prospects- They already have a built in storyline, score and fan base. But with the exception of director Ken Russell’s Tommy, based on The Who’s classic album, and the short film Kilroy Was Here, which the rock band Styx screened on tour in 1983 to promote the same-titled album which yielded the hit “Mr. Roboto,” I am at a loss to think of when Hollywood looked to a pre-existing rock and roll album  as the source for a film.*

Perhaps comic-turned-director Bobcat Goldthwait will change all that if his planned rock musical film, an adaptation of the Kinks’ 1975 concept album Schoolboys In Disgrace, comes to fruition.  During an interview with CHUD to promote his upcoming film World’s Greatest Dad, Goldthwait stated that he is currently developing storyboards for the film to help him convince potential investors of the project’s viability.

The album was released at the end of the band’s short-lived “theatrical period,” which saw Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies turning his hand from pop hits to broader, sprawling rock operas. The story of a school boy who is continually humiliated and punished by a sadistic school master until he eventually grows up to be a villain himself, serves as a prequel to two previous 1973 albums, Preservation: Act 1 and Preservation: Act 2, which kick started the theatrical period.

Goldthwaite has already met with Davies about the project and has received the singer’s blessing.

Due to numerous reasons, the Kinks’ “theatrical period” is probably the least familiar to modern listeners and casual fans, myself included. While this might not be ideal from the standpoint of the project already having a built-in audience, it does give Goldthwaite some latitude to develop the film’s plotline without having to worry that any deviation from the source material will put him under fire from fans. Goldthwaite has been very quietly building a decent resume as a director, starting with 1991′s cult classic Shakes The Clown, described by one critic as “the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.” While a musical would be new territory for Goldthwaite to navigate as a director, I am sure that it will still carry his distinct darkly comic sensibilities.

And who knows, if the film hits, maybe it will give me the incentive to dig out my half-completed screenplay Celluloid Heroes out of my desk drawer.

*I am, of course, throwing out many of the rock and roll movies that featured rock acts as characters, oft times playing versions of themselves, or which draw some of their plot from a single song title like the Herman’s Hermits film Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter.

Cameras aren’t scheduled to begin rolling on the fourth installment of Sony Pictures’s Spider-Man comic-book franchise, but the studio has already hired a writer to begin working on a fifth and sixth installment of the series.

James Vanderbilt, who wrote the initial drafts for Spider-Man 4, has been tapped by the studio to pen the next two installments of the series, which the studio intends to have interconnecting storylines and possibly be shot back to back. When talks began about a fourth installment for the franchise, the idea of filming a fourth and fifth film back-to-back was briefly entertained.

I’ll have to admit that it is nice to see a studio looking to more than just the most recent upcoming installment of a franchise.there are a couple of ways that things could play out for the studio with the Spider-Man franchise, but getting a writer on board now for the next two installments gives them some flexibility.

Getting director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst back on board for the upcoming fourth installment took some work, which each of them saying that they weren’t interested in coming back if the other two weren’t going to be involved. It is quite possible that by the end of production they will decide that four films are enough and that they don’t want to commit to another two. If that were the case, Sony could have a new director already working at casting and pre-production on 5 & 6, while Raimi and crew are still finishing off Spidey 4, thus cutting down the number of summers between installments. (Previously, there was a two year wait between the first and second Spider-Man films and a three year wait for the third. By the time Spider-Man 4 reaches theaters in May 2011, four years will have passed.)

Raimi’s participation may also hinge on other commitments. He signed to helm an adaptation of the online role-playing game “World Of Warcraft” shortly after he joined Spider-Man 4, so he may contractually have that obligation to take care of first before being free to direct any more Spider-Man films. And it is possible that Sony would want to get a start sooner than Raimi would be available.

Conversely, Raimi, Maguire and Dunst had all voiced doubts about returning to the series after completing the third film, so it is possible that they may be game to return for a big, two-part finale to wrap up their participation in the franchise. If that were the case, Sony would already have the scripts ready to go. Even if Raimi would want some rewrites – he has already had writers David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross take passes through Vanderbilt’s Part 4 screenplay – they would still be ahead of the game than if they were starting from scratch.

Of course, there is the question of whether the public has had enough of Spider-Man. I don’t think they have. Even though it received mixed reviews from the critics (earning a 62% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) with the strongest negative words coming from the geek sector, Spider-Man 3 still managed to pull nearly $337 million at the US box office. Spider-Man 4 will do good box office, especially as it will kick off a summer of superhero flicks that is scheduled to include Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America. But  even if Spider-Man 5 & 6 were to feature new actors in the lead roles of Peter Parker and love interest Mary Jane Watson, a mammoth, two-part film event could conceivably generate enough interest to get folks lining up for tickets.

Via Variety.

If The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills isn’t giving you enough pale, barely facially expressive, fake blondes, than today is your lucky day! Shawn, Marlon and Keenan Ivory Wayans are reported to be developing a sequel to their 2004 comedy White Chicks.

The original film was lambasted by the critics and was the recipient of five Golden Raspberry Awards nominations, including “Worst Picture.” However, the film made back twice its $35 million budget at the US box office alone,so it makes sense that Sony would at least look into the possibility of seeing if there was any more milk to be gotten from this particular cow.

In the original film, two black FBI agents (Shawn and Marlon Wayans) must disguise themselves as two young, rich, white heiresses for… You know what? The original movie was such a mess that I can’t remember exactly why they were going through the masquerade. Here’s hoping that the three of them can come up with a plotline that isn’t overwhelmed by the film’s gimmick.

Via Hollywood Reporter.