Given the delays in getting producer Peter Jackson’s planned two film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit into active production, it almost comes as no surprise that director Guillermo Del Toro has announced that he is leaving the project.

Del Toro announced his departure late yesterday on a post at Tolkien/Lord Of The Rings fansite The One Ring -

In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director.

The continuing delay in getting The Hobbit up and running has been distributor MGM’s ongoing financial problems. Currently the studio is looking for a buyer. MGM’s current financial limbo has also been sited as the reason for production of the upcoming James Bond film was placed on hiatus last month.

Jackson added-

We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave The Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control, has compromised his commitment to other long term projects. The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years… New Line and Warner Bros will sit down with us this week, to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for The Hobbit. We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work.

Guillermo has always struck me as one of those directors who aren’t happy unless they are actually in production on a project. He constantly has several potential projects in development, so he’ll always have something ready to go in front of the cameras. The last film he completed was Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which came out in the summer of 2008 but was filmed in late 2007. Although del Toro has been working on The Hobbit most of the time since then, he has several other projects on the backburner. Having already delayed them once before so he could do The Hobbit films, I can see where he would be loath to delay them any further.

But Guillermo isn’t hoping on a plane out of  just yet. As Jackson states-

Guillermo is co-writing the Hobbit screenplays with Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh and myself, and happily our writing partnership will continue for several more months, until the scripts are fine tuned and polished. New Line and Warner Bros will sit down with us this week, to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for the Hobbit. We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work.

So the question remains, who will ultimately slide back into the director’s chair? Sam Raimi lobbied hard for the position when it was first open and although he is developing a movie based on the online game World Of Warcraft, he has no firm commitment as to what his next project will be. He could still be a good fit for The Hobbit. The necessity of moving to New Zealand for possibly up to three years to oversee the films may cause family man Raimi to hesitate. But that may be any potential director’s biggest hesitation. We’ll see how things shake out over the coming weeks and months.

Given their rather poor track record, I would guess that saying Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time is a pretty good film adaptation of a video game would be damning it with the faintest of praise. I suppose I could say that it is a perfectly adequate summer movie if your criteria is to have something to point your eyeballs at for two hours while you munch your popcorn. That may not be much better, but while entertaining in the moment, Prince Of Persia is a trifle that evaporates with the end credits, leaving one with the feeling that the have just spent some time watching something vaguely movie-ish without being able to recall many salient details.

Things start out promisingly enough. A voiced-over prologue fills in the background of 8-year-old street urchin Dastan, who, after apparently spontaneously inventing parkour, captures the eye of the Persian Kingdom’s kindly ruler Sharaman (Ronald Pickup), who adopts him, taking him to the palace to be raised alongside his own two sons. Fifteen years later and Dastan has grown up in to a buff Jake Gyllenhaal. The three brothers are riding out at the head of the Persian army, when word arrives that the normally peaceful city of Alamut is secretly making weapons for Persia’s enemies. The King’s brother Nizam (Ben Kingsley) presses for an attack on the city and Dastan’s brothers agree.

It is here where the movie is at its best, as Dastan and the ragtag group of soldiers under his command disobey orders and storm a side entrance to the fortified city. Director Mike Newell does a good job of laying out the geography of the town and the attack by the Persian forces. The action is well-staged and edited, making for an exhilarating sequence. Newell also cuts back and forth between the concerns of the city’s rulers over protecting a mystical dagger from the invading hordes.

It doesn’t take much of a leap to conclude that Nizam is after the dagger and faked the evidence of weapon manufacture. In a series of obviously constructed plot moments in the aftermath of the battle, Dastan comes in to possession of the dagger, is framed for the death of his father who had come to claim the city and with the dagger’s protector Tamina (Gemma Arterton) flees into the desert with Nizam’s troops in hot pursuit.

What follows is some fairly standard adventure movie plotting. Dastan and Tamina argue at first, but slowly fall for each other. They encounter various dangers, meet the pre-requesite comic relief supporting character (played ably here by Alfred Molina) before heading back to the city to stop Nizam in a big CGI showdown. If this plot is inspired by the video game, than makers of the video game must have been influenced by The Thief Of Baghdad and the various Sinbad movies of the 50s and 60s.

Unfortunately, the film’s biggest problem is a fairly obvious one – the magic dagger. By pressing a jewel on the end of its hilt, the dagger’s possessor can move backwards in time to relive the last few minutes with hopefully a better outcome. As an adaptation of a videogame, it makes a certain meta-textual sense that the narrative comes with its own reset button. But with such a device rattling around the story, there is no way that one can be concerned with any of the character’s survival when their death can be so easily reversed.

So what does that leave us with to recommend? Gyllenhall’s faux-British accent isn’t too distracting. Arterton makes a better impression here than she did a few months ago in Clash Of The Titans, though I suspect that is the fault of the latter movie more so than a success of this one.

1. Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time (Disney, 3,646 Theaters, 116 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Films based on video games do not do all that well at the box office. Granted, many of them are directed by Uwe Boll, so that might have something to do with it, but video game movies are a hard sell.

However, this particular video game adaptation has something going for it that others do not. It from the same producer and studio that gave us Pirates of the Caribbean. That hat was  film that was based on a amusement park ride. I think that would be a harder sell than a video game any way you look at it and that franchise has grossed beaucoup dinero.

Of course, it goes without saying that Jake Gyllenhaal is no Johnny Depp and the last two installments of PotC weren’t all that well receive by the critics. And the last time Ben Kingsley was in a video game adaptation, it was BloodRayne. Enough said. So there is no guarantees.

The plot involves a young prince who acquires a magical blade that allows him to control time. He must keep it from an evil warlord who wants to use it to rule the world.  

Almost immediately after Sony Pictures squeezed Sam Raimi out of the Spider-Man franchise that the director launched for the studio at the beginning of the year, speculation began as to whom would replace star Toby Maguire in the title roll of a mild-mannered high school student who must learn to handle great responsibility after he receives great power from a radioactive spider bite.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the studio and incoming director Marc Webb have been meeting with many candidates. None of them have advanced to the screen test stage yet, but there certainly seem to be some front- runners in the pack. They are -

Jamie Bell – The British-born actor first burst on to screens at the age of 14 as the titular Billy Elliot in 2000. Since then, he has appeared in such indie fare as The Chumscruber (2005) and more Hollywood projects like Jumper (2008). Next year, he’ll be starring in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s motion-capture CG animated The Adventures Of Tintin.

Alden Ehrenreich – According to the IMDb, Ehrenreich was “discovered” by Spielberg when he saw the young actor in a comedy video playing at his daughter’s friend bat mitzvah. Ehrenreich has parlayed that in to a couple of television appearances and a lead role in last year’s Frances Ford Coppola film Tetro.

Frank Dillane – This 19 year old actor has just two film credits on his resume – 1997′s Welcome To Sarajevo and last year’s Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince in which he played a young Tom Riddle.

Andrew Garfield – Garfield made a good impression on me earlier this year in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus. But he has been steadily building up an impressive resume over the last few years with appearances in the British television series Sugar Rush, the British Red Riding crime trilogy and landing a part in Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming movie about Facebook, The Social Network.

Josh Hutcherson – Although barely 18 years old, Hutcherson has the most impressive resume of this bunch with lead roles in Zathura, Bridge To Terabithia, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, the much buzzed about Sundance  film The Kids Are Alright and the upcoming Red Dawn remake.

Out of these five, I would say that Hutcherson and Ehrenreich are the two strongest contenders in my book. Being in their mid-20s, Bell and Garfield are both a bit old to fit in to the studio’s mandate that this new Spider-Man film moves the character back to his high school student roots. While Dillane fits the age range for the character, I just don’t remember him making much of an impression in his Harry Potter role. Ehrenreich doesn’t have much more of a profile, but he has the cache of Spielberg and Coppola behind him. Hutcherson has the most experience out of the group. While he is signed to do the upcoming Journey To The Center Of The Earth sequel, I am sure that the two productions can work out a schedule to allow him to appear in both.

Currently Webb is readying the Spider-Man reboot to start shooting by the end of the year. Writer Alvin Sargent is currently putting a polish on the screenplay.

There’s another director for Warner’s perpetually in development Logan’s Run remake. This time it is a commercials director Carl Erik Rinsch, who had been previously tapped to relaunch 20th Century Fox’s Aliens franchise before being pushed out by the studio in favor of Ridley Scott.

Based a bit loosely on the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, the 1976 film depicted a future world where it was considered the height of community service, and somewhat mandatory, to commit a form of ritual suicide on one’s 30th birthday. Those who refuse are hunted by the police-like Sandmen. But as one Sandman’s (Michael York) own thirtieth birthday approaches, he begins to reconsider the rules of society and decides to run for a rumored place of safety called Sanctuary.

Rinsch has cut his teeth in commercials and received a bit of buzz last spring with the release of his short film The Gift, embedded below. There was even brief talk about the short being expanded to feature length. Rinsch was briefly in contention to film X-Men: First Class for Fox before the studio went with Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn. Rinsch finally landed a feature directing gig at Universal with a remake of the Japanese samurai film 47 Ronin, which is currently in pre-production. Rinsch is expected to move over to Logan’s Run following that film’s wrap.

Warners have been trying to get their Logan’s Run redo off the ground since in the mid-1990s. it wasn’t until 2004 that the project got any real traction when Bryan Singer came on board, though his involvement ceased due to his work on Superman Returns. Joseph Kosinski was the next to occupy the position before being distracted by his Tron: Legacy duties over at Disney. Both Flightplan director Robert Schwentke and James McTeigue were also briefly attached.

Via the Hollywood Reporter.

1. Sex And The City 2 (Warner Brothers/New Line, 3,445 Theaters, 146 Minutes, Rated R): I have to be honest, I don’t see the appeal of this concept. I watched a handful of episodes back when it was on, and I never got into it. Granted, I have the wrong chromosomal make-up to be in it’s target audience, but usually in other cases I can see what the appeal is. I just can’t be interested in the sex lives of rich fashionistas who relationship mistakes are all their fault.

But I am obviously in the minority here. The concept has not only made for a successful TV show, but it made a successful leap to the big screen and was enough of a hit to garner a sequel. And here it is.

The girls head to the Middle East (not the bad section, the rich section) on an exotic adventure. There Carrie runs into an old flame, and a love triangle develops (which would be much more to my liking if Carrie wasn’t , oh, I don’t know, married? Yeah, adultery. So romantic).

Another thing I don’t understand is why this film is being released on a Thursday. Usually, when a film is released during the week, it’s on Wednesday. And I don’t understand why a concept that made its name in 44 minute episodes would put out a movie that is almost two and a half hours long. What could they possibly have to say that would take them that long?

It’s been a week since Megan Fox departed the upcoming Transformers 3 and it appears as if director Michael Bay has a replacement already locked down. Deadline is reporting that Victoria’s Secret and Agent Provocateur model Rosie Huntington-Whitley has been offered the role and that negotiations are currently in process.

Huntington-Whitley has beaten out numerous others reportedly up for the role including Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jessica Lowndes, Zoe Saldana, Hayden Penetierre, Camilla Belle, Ashley Greene, Amber Heard, Julianne Hough, Vanessa Hudgens and models Bar Rafaeli, Miranda Kerr and Brooklyn Decker.

A quick check of the IMDb shows that Huntington-Whitley has absolutely no acting credits on her resume. Conversely, Fox had at least a handful of small television and film parts prior to Transformers catapulting her career.

But then again, this is a Michael Bay film. Does it really matter what kind of acting chops the cast has? So far, the Transformers franchise has proved that humans are a distant second to all the CGI action that Bay throws on the screen. If anything, her casting gives numerous webmasters to post pictures of a sexy model in her underwear on their site.

If you’ve read the last volume of the Harry Potter novel series, or just looked up how it ends online, you know that Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows ended with a coda looking at the survivors of the series several years after the end of their adventures. With the two part film adaptation being readied for a release later this fall and then next summer, some set photos of the cast shooting that segment have surfaced. Needless to say, spoilers follow -

Via Oclumencia.

Brendan Fraser will be staying above ground for the foreseeable future as the actor has passed on appearing in a follow-up to his 2008 family adventure film Journey To The Center Of The Earth.

Fraser had been heavily pushing for studios New Line and Walden Media to bring the original film’s director Eric Brevig back to direct the sequel, hinting strongly that his own participation would depend on it. Brevig is currently deep in production on the live action-CGI hybrid Yogi Bear and New Line, Walden and Journey‘s distributor Warner Brothers all want Journey 2 as quickly as possible and aren’t willing to wait for Brevig to finish his current duties. Like the first Journey To The Center Of The Earth, the follow up will be produced in 3D.

Sliding behind the camera for this second installment is Brad Peyton, whom Warners is reportedly excited over how his upcoming Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore turned out.

With Fraser out, the script will need to be overhauled to move Josh Hutcherson’s character Sean, nephew of Fraser’s Prof. Trevor Anderson character, to the lead of the film. It sounds like a major rewrite will be needed, and that it will need to be rushed in order to meet the production demands of getting the effects heavy film in to theaters by next summer. This does not bode well.

Via Deadline.

Orlando Bloom is the latest addition to the cast of Paul W. S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers. But instead of taking a dashing heroic role, the Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The Caribbean star will be playing the villainous Duke of Buckingham. Bloom joins Christoph Waltz as Cardinal Richelieu, Logan Lerman as D’Artagnan, Matthew MacFadyen as Athos, Ray Stevenson as Porthos, Luke Evans as Aramis, Milla Jovovich as M’lady De Winter and Mads Mikkelsen as Rochefort.

The Summit Entertainment is set for a 3D release next summer. Warner Brothers is also working on their own adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic (and public domain) adventure novel with director Doug Liman.

Via Hollywood Reporter.