After her short stint as director of Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke is aiming for the film adaptation of another young adult book series, Maximum Ride. Currently, she is in talks with Columbia Pictures to take the director’s seat in the fantasy flick. The books, which spans five volumes and is written by James Patterson, revolves around six teens—known as the Flock—who are genetically modified to have both human and bird features. They escape the laboratory where they are housed when they learn to fly, and the Erasers—a group also genetically modified to become half-human and half-wolf—chase after them. A script is currently being penned by Don Payne, who worked on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. -Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist Source: The Hollywood Reporter (Image courtesy of AP)
It won’t be Drew Barrymore, and it won’t be a sibling act with Paul Weitz. Summit Entertainment has decided to go for a different director with the third film in the Twilight series, Eclipse, by taking in Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona to oversee production. There’s no official statement from the studio yet, and they have refused to comment, but it is expected that they will confirm this news soon. Bayona is considered a protégé of fellow director Guillermo del Toro; the two met while the former worked as a journalist. He first directed music videos for Spanish music groups, before transitioning to short films. His breakout hit was The Orphanage, a horror flick about a family who is bothered by their adopted child claiming to be seeing a masked friend who he is supposed to run away with—before he disappears. The film was co-produced by del Toro, and debuted in the 2007 Cannes Film Festival; it later received critical acclaim in Spain, winning seven Goya Awards.
After weeks of rumors that Drew Barrymore would be directing the third Twilight movie Eclipse, new reports have come out that Paul Weitz has gotten the job. His brother, Chris Weitz is currently about to start filming New Moon. Move over Coen Brothers, the Weitz Brothers are taking over. The pair have already directed American Pie and About a Boy together and although they won’t technically be collaborating on their respective Twilight films, I imagine they’ll be working very closely.
Finally, it’s been confirmed that Dakota Fanning will be appearing in the Twilight sequel New Moon. I wonder if anybody still remembers when this bit spilled out a couple of months ago. Well, those two months felt like a very long time, hasn’t it? As New Moon hurtled towards production—already a little notorious since Catherine Hardwicke left the director’s seat, with Chris Weitz taking over—we were being bombarded with a lot of rumors regarding who will appear as the new characters. Remember when you shuddered at the thought of Vanessa Hudgens becoming a vampire? Or perhaps Madonna?
Kristen Stewart’s recent interview with Nylon Magazine obviously got a lot of flak. A looot of it. Her statements—about the “f—ing psychotic situations” she and her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson got into during promotions—have earned a lot of flak from fans. And then it slowly escalated to people saying Stewart isn’t grateful for the break she got, that she was a nobody before Twilight landed on her lap. Plus, the people who are willing to give the actress a chance, arguing about how much more vitriolic reactions were with her statement as opposed to those made by Pattinson, and it goes on, and on… …about time Kristen gave her piece.
Dakota Fanning is in talks to take the lead role in The Runaways, a biopic chronicling the career of the pioneering all-girl band during the 1970s. If this sound familiar, then yes, this is the film that currently has Twilight’s Kristen Stewart for the role. Before I get to the funnily trivial thought bubbles, here go the details: Fanning, who recently provided her voice to the animated film Coraline, is set to appear as Cheri Currie, the lead singer of the rock band. Currie was 15 when she made her debut with the band, the same age as Fanning. Stewart, as we all know, is already on board as guitarist Joan Jett.
