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Weekend Newsreel:
March 17, 2006
Compiled by The FilmBuffOnLine.com
Staff
Kelly Gang
Set For Restoration:
The Story Of The Kelly Gang,
believed to be the earliest feature-length film ever made, has been
announced as being in the process of being restored by Australia’s
National Film and Sound Archive. The film, which chronicles the
story of an Australian bushranger whose criminal exploits earned him
the nickname of “The Billy the Kid of Australia,” originally ran
approximately 70 minutes, though it had been previously thought only
approximately 10 to 12 minutes of footage has survived. The restored
film will be screened to celebrate the centenary of its world
premier on December 26, 1906.
No
Replacement Oscars:
For most Academy Award winners, the experience is an
once-in-a-lifetime moment, and as such, they should hold on to their
Oscar statue tightly because if it is lost, the Academy is not
likely to replace it. Case in point- Hattie McDaniel’s Best
Supporting Actress Oscar. McDaniel, who was the first
African-American to win an Academy Award, willed her Oscar statue to
Howard University upon her death in 1952. However, the statue
disappeared from the school sometime in the mid-1960s. Recently,
McDaniel biographer Jill Watts approached the Academy about securing
for the school a replacement. The Academy declined in a letter from
executive director Bruce Davis, stating that it is has “never
replaced a statuette that has fallen out of the care of an
inheriting individual or institution.” The letter did promise to use
all “available legal means” to return the Oscar to Howard
University, should the statue ever resurface.
Hollywood Wax
Museum Wares Auctioned:
The Movieland Wax Museum opened its doors one last time this past
Saturday, not to visitors but to bidders who came to buy pieces of
the famed museum’s exhibits. Approximately 500 pieces of the
museum’s exhibits were on the auction block before 400 bidders.
Sighted in the crowd were actor/writer Daniel Roebuck, screenwriter
Scott Alexander and George Krikorian, owner of the Southern
California Krikorian Theater chain.
Hollywood To
Broadway:
While during Hollywood’s Golden Age studios made a habit of
plundering Broadway stage shows to adapt to film, recent years have
seen a reverse of the trend with musical adaptations of films like
The Producers, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The
Lion King and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels playing to packed
houses. Now, studio moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein have announced
another film that will be making the transition to the Great White
Way- Ang Lee’s 2001 martial arts romance Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon. Although concrete details were forthcoming as to who
would be writing the show’s book, lyrics and music, Harvey Weinstein
has promised that the show will combine showstopping, traditional
Broadway-style songs with Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics.
Deja View:
Remake rights to the 2004 Japanese horror film Infection – in
which the staff of an isolated hospital try to find a cure for a
deadly, supernatural disease – have been purchased by New line
Cinema. Chaning Gibson, who wrote the 2004 remake of Walking Tall,
is set to adapt the screenplay. . . Universal Pictures has
announced a new version of the classic horror film The Wolf Man
with Benicio Del Toro taking the title role of an Englishman who
is bitten by a wolf and cursed to change into one on the night of a
full moon. Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) is scripting with the
production scheduled to begin rolling cameras in early 2007. . .
Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures will join forces to
produce a remake of the 1967 action classic The Dirty Dozen.
The film’s story about twelve condemned soldier-prisoners offered
their freedom if they survive a dangerous mission deep into enemy
territory will be updated from its original World War II setting to
contemporary times by writers Scott Rosenberg (Con Air) and
Alias television series writer/producers Andre Nemic and Josh
Appelbaum. . . The big screen adaptation of perennial 1980s
nighttime soap opera Dallas is set to start filming this
October. John Travolta is currently tipped to be taking over Larry
Hagman’s trademark Stetson in the role of manipulative oil baron J.
R. Ewing with Jennifer Lopez as his alcoholic wife Sue Ellen. Also
slated for the cast are Shirley MacLaine as the Ewing family
matriarch Miss Ellie and Luke Wilson as J. R.’s brother Bobby.
Robert Luketic (Monster-In-Law) is set to direct. . . Ice
Cube is set to produce a star in an adaptation of the 1970s sitcom
Welcome Back Kotter, with Cube taking the title role of a
high school teacher who returns to tough, inner-city alma mater to
teach students who are as unmotivated as he used to be. The Hot
Chick director Tom Brady is in final negotiations to write and
direct.
In
Remembrance
Maureen Stapleton-
The
actress who won an Academy Award for Reds
(1981), has passed away at age 80.
Opening This
Week
March 17
-
The Amateurs (limited)
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Beyond Honor (NY)-
website
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Church Ball (Utah)-
website
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The Devil's Miner (NY)-
website
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Don't Come Knocking (NY,
LA)- website
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Don't Tell (NY, LA, SF)-
website
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Duck Season (Top 10
Markets)
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Find Me Guilty (NY, LA)-
website
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Steve Harvey's Don't
Trip... He Ain't Through With Me Yet! (limited)-
website
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Thank You For Smoking
(limited)
-
V For Vendetta
-
The Zodiac (limited)-
website
March
22
March
23
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