Warner Brothers has tapped writer/director Christopher McQuarrie to head up their planned new adaptation of Alistair McLean‘s Cold War thriller Ice Station Zebra.

This would throw McQuarie’s rumored participation in the in-development Mission: Impossible 5 into question, depending how soon the two studios want to have their respective projects in theaters. Yesterday it was announced that Mission: Impossible franchise star Tom Cruise had re-upped for the fifth installment.

McLean’s novel was previously brought to the screen in 1968 by MGM with Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown starring in the story of US submarine racing the Soviets to retrieve sensitive information gathered by a crashed spy satellite. Their mission is complicated by saboteurs and double-agents. The trailer for the original film is below.

It is not known what take McQuarrie will go with the material, but I suspect that he will keep the film in its original Cold War setting. I don’t think that the geopolitical landscape of today can really offer an advesary as formidable as the Soviet Union of old.

Via Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision.

In the wake of the rousing success of the Veronica Mars kickstarter campaign, many Hollywood types have been looking at the crowdsourcing website as a way to secure the financing for projects that the studios seem unwilling to pony up the money for. Writer/producer Bryan Fuller is one of those who are and is looking at Kickstarter to fund a possible film revival of his fan favorite, but shortlived, series Pushing Daisies.

Pushing Daisies premiered in the fall of 2007 to strong ratings and positive critical notices and centered around a pie-maker, Ned (Lee Pace) who discovered that he could raise the dead with just a single touch. The drawback to his power was that if the resurrected person stayed alive for more than one minute, someone else in the vicinity would die. A second touch from Ned would end their resurrection and make their death permanent. Understandably, this lead to complications when Ned brought back to life his childhood crush, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), and then the two began to fall for each other.

Unfortunately, the show’s first season was interrupted by the writer’s strike and when it returned in the fall of 2008 it failed to bring its audience back with it, leading ABC To cancel the show. Although Fuller tried to wrap up the show’s many storylines in a short epilogue at the end of its final episode, fans were looking for more.

But speaking to Den of Geek, Fuller stated that if he were to go the Kickstarter route to bring the show back in the form of a feature film, he already has a story idea -

On the subject of reanimation, what can you tell us about your Kickstarter plan to resurrect Pushing Daisies as a zombie movie?

If we were able to pull off the Kickstarter, there’s a very fun zombie film that starts with a flash-flood in a cemetery and basically is about those denizens of that cemetery having to kill Ned before he can kill them, so it’s a different kind of zombie movie.

Fast or slow zombies?

I think fast, I think because it’s the Pushing Daisies rules so Chuck is, you know, alive. Are you a fast zombie or a slow zombie person?

Fans might find that story idea to be a bit similar to what was glimpsed of a planned comic book/graphic novel extension that was in development for a time but was placed in limbo after its publisher, Wildstorm, was absorbed into DC Comics. The first two pages of that project were released in a black and white art and lettered form with the first page also being released in full color but no lettering.

Personally, I would love to see a return of the show in a big screen story. But I have to think that to realize the show’s highly stylized look, partly achieved through CGI, would cost more than the $2 million that Veronica Mars looked to raise. Now granted that project ultimately pulled in close to $6 million, so there is a precedence for that kind of money being generated.

If this goes through, expect a lot of rabid Fantastic Four fans to begin sounding racist. And also a lot of racists to start sounding like Fantastic Four  fans.

The Wrap is reporting that Michael B. Jordan has had numerous meetings with Fox to reunite with his Chronicle director Josh Trank on the director’s reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. He is in talks for the role of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, a role originated by Chris Evans in the first set of films. The website says that the only thing standing in Jordan’s way is that the studio wants to be sure he can build chemistry with the other cast members, whoever they turn out to be.

As you can see, Jordan is African-American, and Johnny Storm is portrayed in the comics as being white. This has cause a fair bit of outrage in the comic fan community already and he hasn’t even been cast yet (the project hasn’t even been officially greenlit yet for that matter). And if fans made a stink because Idris Elba, one of the best actors on the planet, played the formerly white Heimdall, one of the most minor characters in Marvel’s interpretation of Norse mythology, in Thor, you can expect this rumbling to continue and intensify if Jordan actually gets cast.

Of course, it’s easy to think that comic fans are upset over a black actor being cast as what is known as a white character because, well, they don’t want a black actor playing what is known as a white character. And I’m not so naive that I believe there are no racists in comic book fandom, but comic book fans are awfully fickle and finicky about how their comics are adapted to the big screen. If you do a quick Google search, you’ll find a lot of outrage over the fact that Superman isn’t wearing red pants in The Man of Steel. You’ll also find a lot of complaints about Superman’s hair style in the film and the fact that Lois is now a redhead. So all the rumblings over Jordan’s casting isn’t exclusively an act of racism, they’re more an act of fans being really, really anal.

As for me, I can’t say that I am familiar with Jordan’s body of work, but the fact that he has The Wire  and Friday Night Lights on his resume tells me he can bring a lot to the role. If I would admit to any concerns about Jordan’s rumored casting is that it appears that they are looking at white actresses for the role of Johnny’s sister, Sue. This would mean that one of the siblings would be adopted. This would put an interesting twist on the family dynamic the characters represent, and could be worthy of being examined on film. However, in these types of films, these kinds of issues are barely addressed, let alone investigated in any meaningful way. If you are not going to use this casting to raise understanding or awareness of this kind of modern family dynamic, it becomes an arbitrary publicity grab and therefore superfluous.

It looks as if that adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s horror novel mashup Pride And Prejuidice And Zombies is not as dead as it appeared. The Hollywood Reporter is stating that a new director and star have been found for the project which had seen numerous names previously cycling through both of those positions.

Getting behind the camera will be Burr Steers, whose filmography includes Charlie St. Cloud and the Zac Efron-starring comedy 17 Again. Heading up the cast of the film will be Mirror, Mirror‘s Lily Collins.

That’s if all of this comes to pass. Previously, the project has had a number of directors attached including David O. Russell, Mike White and Craig Gillespie. Natalie Portman was the first actress pegged to star in the film – she still remains a producer – and since then Scarlett Johansson, Mia Wasikowska and Anne Hathaway have all circled it.

Time will tell if this will be the winning combination that will get the film into production. Panorama is set to finance the picture and they are heading to Cannes to try and sell it to international distributors.

These days, an actor or actress starring in two or more comic book movies is becoming more and more common. Everyone from Scarlet Johansson to Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Evans to Idris Elba has more than one comic book film on their resume. Now, we might just have to add Tom Hiddleston to that list.

The English actor, who made such a memorable performance as Loki in Thor  and The Avengers, might be taking the lead in one of the most iconic heroes from the world of independent comics–The Crow.

The Wrap is reporting that the actor is in talks with producers of the remake of the 1994 Brandon Lee film, which in itself was an adaptation of James O’Barr’s 1988 graphic novel. The website even states that Hiddleston sent in a make-up test he did on his own in order to show his interest in the part.

Hiddleston follows Bradley Cooper, Mark Wahlberg and James McAvoy, among others, who were rumored to be considered for the part.

Let me just say that I consider pretty much all remakes to be pointless. And second to the RoboCop remake, I consider The Crow remake to be the most pointless. But that being said, the idea of Tom Hiddleston in the lead role excites me. He’s a great actor, and one I think would bring a lot to the role. Hopefully, these talks go well and he gets the part.

Even though Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter was only in a little bit of Captain America: The First Avenger, she seems to have made an impression fans. And thanks to those fans, we’ll be seeing a little bit more of her.

Atwell was interviewed by The Age about her possible involvement in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, involvement she is reticent to confirm or deny even though she is included in a cast list in an official press release from Marvel. However, she did reveal that footage featuring her would be shown and a certain comic book convention:

“There’s been an online campaign for Peggy to be featured. People really liked her. So Marvel have made sure that as part of Comicon there will be a little kind of snapshot as to what Peggy’s actually really capable of, which was finished here and which was great fun. Hopefully, it will lead to other things.”

Brendon Connelly over at  Bleeding Cool seems to think that Peggy Carter will be making an appearance in a Marvel One-Shot, a line of short subjects that began with The Consultant on the Thor Blu-Ray, continued with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer on the Captain America: The First Avenger Blu-Ray and  Item 47, a short that was attached to The Avengers Blu-Ray. Even though the last two had at best a transitory connection to the Marvel Film Universe, using these One-Shots to flesh out supporting characters who might not be able to support their own film is a great idea.

However, the way it sounds is that footage being shown will not be as long as the shorts typically run. So what this footage might be might be scenes from Winter Soldier featuring Peggy.

I guess we’ll see in a couple months when Comic-Con rolls around.

In just a few short weeks, a new season of episodes of the comedy Arrested Development will debut you Netflix. Given that they are part of a new, high profile initiative from the streaming service to develop new content, fans are pretty excited at being able to spend more time with the dysfunctional Bluths. But series creator Mitchell Hurwitz has always been open that these new episodes were just a set-up for a hoped for feature film.

And now that the new season is a reality, star Jason Bateman has indicated when we should possibly expect the film. Speaking with iamROGUE.com, Bateman said, “there’s probably gonna be about a year, maybe a year-and-a-half gap between the [season and movie].” The actor states that the studio is just starting to work on the deal for the film.

Although a critical darling during its original three year run on FOX, Arrested Development never grew much of an audience outside of a small, devoted following. To see the franchise continue on like this has been one of the more interesting ongoing entertainment stories.

Who needs X-Men: Days of Future Past spoilers when Bryan Singer has a Twitter account?

The director is at it again, this time tweeting an image of everyone’s favorite furry scientist, the Beast.

As we can see above, we can tell this is an older version of the Beast by the patches of white and grey mixed in with the blue fur. But it looks like he is still part of the team (as we can see by the snatch of yellow on his shoulder) and it appears that it is Nicholas Hoult playing him. Well, it’s hard to tell with the make-up, but the shape of the face looks like Hoult’s.

It certainly doesn’t look like Kelsey Grammer. As we know, Grammer played the older Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, and while Ellen Page made the jump from that film to Singer’s latest, perhaps this means that the Fraiser actor won’t.

Or this could just be a work up of some potential make-up and I am reading far too much into it.

Zoe Saldana is in talks to appear in Marvel Studio’s The Guardians Of The Galaxy. She would appear as Gamora, one of the titular intergalactic superheroes. A skilled assassin, the green-skinned Gamora is the last of a species that was exterminated by a race known as the Badoon.

Saldana’s casting comes as a bit of a surprise as she was not named on a reported shortlist of actresses under consideration by the studio back in January. She is joining Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista who have already signed onto the comic book adaptation.

This will make Saldana’s third space-set franchise, after having appeared in James Cameron’s Avatar and J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

With director James Gunn looking to start production on the film in June, expect more casting notices in the weeks to come. Guardians Of The Galaxy is scheduled for an August 1, 2014 release.

Via Hollywood Reporter.

With the release of Iron Man 3 just a few weeks away, let’s start to turn our attention towards some of the other films that will be making up Marvel Studio’s “Phase Two” that leads into 2015′s The Avengers 2. Specifically, the two films that the studio has scheduled for 2014 – Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Guardians Of The Galaxy. Some production art for the two films has just popped up in the wilds of the internet that are pretty stunning. I’m not sure if they have been officially released by Marvel, so best to enjoy them while you can.

First up is a piece from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, showing the two titular characters going at it in battle. Note that Steve Rogers is out of his usual Captain America uniform.

Then we have three pieces from The Guardians Of The Galaxy, and they definitaly promise something pretty new in terms of look for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It definitely looks as if director James Gunn is going for a Star Wars-like space opera vibe here, especially in that last one.

Via Geek Zenith.