Film at Eleven

Does Joss Whedon ever sleep?

Serenity is on the way, he’s both writing and directing Wonder Woman, and he’s talking about Spike.

And now, according to FilmStew, he’s just sold a script for a fantasy thriller that he was writing in his spare time.

Although Whedon was keeping the details of the plot close to the vest, he did let Variety know that it would center on a strong central female character whose journey brings her up against many horrors and shows off her heroics. Much like Buffy and his upcoming feature helming debut, Serenity, Goner will have a supernatural element.

FilmStew reports that Rosario Dawson has two films lined up for The Weinstein Co.

The first film is Killshot, which enters on a couple who join the witness protection program after they get into trouble with a dangerous gangster. Dawson is to play the girlfriend of the gangster’s right-hand man.

More interestingly, she’s also signed up for Kevin Smith’s follow up to Clerks, The Passion of the Clerks which picks up the story of the Quick Stop convenience store employees, Dante and Randal, ten years on.

I. Zombi is a documentary about Hayden Milligan who hosts Kentucky based cable horror show, The Witching Hour and a celebration of the man behind the make-up.

As a child, he was caught in a house fire and severely burned and he still bears the scars of this today. But he’s persevered and today, as part of the Horror Host Underground, he is striving to resurrect the TV genre of hosted horror shows – a genre that in recent years has lost out to the much cheaper alternative of “informercials.”

Not only does the film show how he has triumphed over tragedy, but it also shows how he and his fellow hosts are trying to keep a quirky part of their culture alive in an increasingly homogenised world.

And now the film is about to enjoy its New York premiere at the Two Boots Pioneer Theatre on October 7th. Click here to buy your tickets.

According to The Movie Blog, Ted Naifeh’s graphic novel, Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things is set to get a big screen outing.

Courtney Crumrin is a yong girl who’s parents are obsessed with money and their social rank. The family moves into the home of their rich uncle, Professor Aloysius Crumrin. Old man Crumrin’s huge Victorian mansion is par for the course in the well-to-do neighborhood of Hillsborough. However, as Courtney soon discovers, Uncle Aloysius has a sinister reputation throughout the district, and his home is shrouded in dark rumor. And while this new arrangement allows the greedy Mr. and Mrs. Crumrin a much-desired boost in social status, Courtney feels as though she’s landed in a nightmare. Her new school is filled with spoiled rich brats just as shallow and selfish as her parents. She quickly finds herself an outcast. And if that weren’t bad enough, the moldering old mansion seems to house even stranger creatures than Mom and Dad or Uncle Aloysius.

The expected release date is sometime in 2007 and, although I’m not familliar with this comic at all, what I’ve read about it so far does leave me with some moderately high hopes.

According to The Movie Blog, the rumour of a big screen incarnation for Spike may be more than a rumour.

In an interview with E! Online, Amy Acker mentioned that Joss Whedon has spoken with her about resurrecting her role as Illyria.

“He has mentioned it a couple of times,” she told me. “I mean, the last time, I talked to him a couple weeks ago and said that I had heard that Tim Minear was gonna write and direct the Spike movie, the Spike-Illyria movie, so he said that they want to do that still. I think he’s just overwhelmed a bit right now with the press for Serenity and everything!”

Which would be great to see.

Cinematical reports that the grand old man of exploitation films, Roger Corman, is to be honoured at the 25th Annual Hawaii International Film Festival which runs from 20th to 30th October.

Corman and his wife will both be at the festival, and organizers are putting together a panel as well in which they hope Roger Ebert will participate (How could anyone pass up a trip to Hawaii?). In addition, an as-yet-undetermined pair of Corman’s films will be screened.

From Cinematical:

A short film by Georges Méliès, the director probably best known for A Trip to the Moon, was recently discovered in France after having been lost for over a century. The film, Cleopatra, was one of over five hundred he made in his lifetime, and like many of them, it was thought to have been lost forever. Méliès was a pioneering figure in film and is still admired today.

As previously mentioned (here and here), Luc Besson has been secretly shooting a romantic comedy - titled Angel A - in Paris.

The film is slated for a December 2005 release and stars Jamel Debbouze - who you will recognise from Amelie.

And now Twitch has found a gallery of stills from the film.

Click on the thumbnails below to see the full size images.

Empire reports that Edgar Wright, the director and co-writer of Shaun of the Dead is lined up to direct Them: Adventures With Extremists.

The film is based on the book of the same name by satirical journalist Jon Ronson, and is described as a “conspiracy comedy”, with the main character (who’s set to be a woman onscreen, although it’s Ronson himself in the non-fiction book) investigating various extremists in an attempt to find the real rulers of the world. Mike White, who wrote the screenplay for School of Rock has been hired for the scripting duties.

No news, as yet, on where this will fit into Wright’s already busy schedule as he’s also down for the long-awaited British action-comedy Hot Fuzz and the romantic odyssey, Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life. There were also rumours about him being involved in the proposed big screen outing for tiny superhero, Ant-Man.

Coming Soon! reports that Quentin Tarantino has been talking to MTV about his upcoming projects.

The main news, of course, relates to Grind House, the double feature that he is making with friend and frequent collaborator Robert Rodriguez.

“His movie is called ‘Planet Terror,’ and mine is called ‘Death Proof,’ ” Tarantino revealed. “Mine is sort of a slasher film, but instead of a knife, it’s a car. … His, he’s dealing with zombies and all that stuff. I think his might end up being more violent, but I’m not finished with my [script] yet, so you never know.”

The former video-store clerk, clad in a white button-down shirt depicting a dragon attacking a tiger, said he and Rodriguez are particularly excited about shooting fake “trailers” that will enhance the “Grind House” experience. “That’s one of the things we’re looking the most forward to, shooting the phony trailers that will play in between the movies. I’m working out my blaxploitation trailer, and possibly a kung-fu trailer, a sexploitation trailer, a spaghetti-western trailer. I just need to kind of work them out a little bit. I’m just getting them down there, but I think for sure I’m going to do the sexploitation trailer, which is called ‘Cowgirls in Sweden.’ ”

Adding that the phony “Sweden” trailer will probably star some of the women already cast in “Death Proof,” Tarantino said they plan to shoot their irreverent trailer-within-a-movie-within-a-movie double feature at the beginning of next year.

The director also expressed his enthusiasm for participating in the second Sin City film, schedules permitting.

Inglorious Bastards - Tarantino’s war film - may be on the back burner, but it’s still on the burner and will probably follow Grind House. He also confirmed that Michael Madsen will be in the film.

And then there’s Kill Bill 3, this time following the story of the Bride’s daughter, B.B, as she becomes an adult and confronts the violence that surrounded her youth.

And finally, he’s still talking about the Vega Brothers - the film that would team Pulp Fiction’s Vincent Vega (John Travolta) with his brother, Reservoir Dogs‘ Vic Vega (Michael Madsen) in a prequel-ish story featuring the original actors. Frankly, I can’t see this film happening at all.