Film at Eleven

The Movie Blog reports that Eduardo Sánchez - one half of the writer/director team behind The Blair Witch Project - is to make Altered for Rogue Pictures.

The movie, which follows a group of men living a night of terror after their lives were changed 15 years earlier by a strange occurrence, begins filming next month in Florida.

It sounds intriguing and it will be interesting to see how Sanchez - who is reunited with the production team from Blair Witch - will make the transition to the Hollywood mainstream (Rogue Pictures is the genre arm of Focus Features which is wholly owned by Univarsal).

And for the record, I thought that The Blair Witch Project was a damn good film.

Reuters reports that Jennifer Connelly is currebtly in negotiations to join Kate Winslet in Little Children for New Line Cinema. The film is an adaptaion of a novel by Tom Perrotta and is due to be released later this year.

The novel revolves around a group of weird, suburban characters and their relationships with children. There’s a bisexual feminist addicted to Internet porn (Winslet), a stay-at-home dad who resists his wife’s ambitious plans for him, an uptight “supermom” who schedules sex with her husband and a paedophile fresh out of prison.

This is from the forums.

BiFF JUGGERNAUT Productions is now accepting short film and animation submissions for “LovecraCked! The Movie”, a feature length DVD anthology dedicated to the life & work of influential horror author H.P. Lovecraft.

There is no fee for submission. The goal of this project is to offer all shorts included on the DVD an opportunity to reach a greater audience than would normally be afforded to any individual short film.

The submission deadline is June 30th. For more information, click here.

Here’s another rumour that might actually come true, according to The Guardian.

A spokeswoman for Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow Productions has said that plans for an Alan Partridge film are in their “early stages” but “the will is there”.

On the downside, Alan Partridge co-writer, Armando Iannucci is not involved.

… well, it’s a nice thought, but the truth is a little more depressing.

According to The Guardian, Michael Bay - the producer responsible for the recent mangling of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is planning to inflict the same treatment on the classic 1986 Rutger Hauer film.

According to The Guardian, Mel Gibson wants to make a film about dead pope, John Paul II.

On the basis of Gibson’s past form, we can probably expect something with the same attention to accuracy as Churchill: The Hollywood Years.

If there is anyone out there in or near Japan, you might be interested in this…

Following on from the When Masters Were Young event at Easter, I’ve just heard that the Japan Foundation are planning their next event from 24th to 26th June.

The films will include Akira Kurosawa’s Waga seishun ni kuinashi (No Regrets for My Youth) There will also be a lecture from Rey Chow and a The symposium by Oshii Mamoru.

The poster for the North American release of 3-Iron is now out, and tantalisingly provacative it is, too.

You can check out the synopsis and trailer here.

How can you not love a title like Frankenstein Vs. The Creature From Blood Cove, a title that evokes all those monster movies from the 1940s and 1950’s.

Apparently…

In a remote laboratory near the California coast, Frankenstein’s monster has been resurrected in a misguided attempt to use his colossal strength for good. As part of the same diabolical experiment, a half-human amphibian abomination has also been unleashed. Both creatures are determined to destroy one another, wreaking havoc throughout the isolated coastal community. That’s part of the plot behind “William Winckler’s Frankenstein Vs. The Creature From Blood Cove,” producer/director William Winckler’s modern-day homage to the classic Universal-style horror films of the 1940s. Principal photography on the old-fashioned “creature feature” was completed earlier this month. The movie — shot entirely in black and white — is presently being edited, with a gala release planned for later this year.

And if these first photos from the film are anything to go by, Frankenstein Vs. The Creature From Blood Cove could be a whole heap of fun…

Dr. Ula Fortani (Alison Lees-Taylor), Salisbury (Rich Knight) and Dr. Monroe Lazaroff (Larry Butler) resurrect Frankenstein’s monster

Salisbury, Dr. Ula Foranti and Dr, Monroe Lazaroff hear a strange cry from a nearby graveyard

A deadly werewolf ambushes Dr. Monroe Lazaroff

The Guardian reports that Courtney Love is to play Linda Lovelace in a biopic of the legendary porn star cum feminist.

The movie, tentatively titled Lovelace, will trace the porn star’s life from the age of 17, through her brief adult film career and her subsequent life as a militant feminist, until her death in 2002 at the age of 53..