Allen Hughes

Fox Sets January 18 Release Date for BROKEN CITY Starring Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg, and Catherine Zeta-Jones

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: October 27th, 2011 at 1:41 pm

20th Century Fox has dated Allen Hughes’ noir drama Broken City for a January 18th, 2013 release date (per THR). The film stars Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and centers on a private detective (Wahlberg) who is hired by the mayor of New York (Crowe) to find out the identity of the mayor’s wife’s lover. The lover turns up dead, and the detective finds himself deep into a much wider conspiracy. Zeta-Jones plays the mayor’s wife. The film will square off in January against a trio of big films: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comeback The Last Stand, the magician heist film Now You See Me starring Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, and Woody Harrelson, and the 3D re-release of Monsters Inc. Production on Broken City begins in November in New York.

Catherine Zeta-Jones Joins Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe in BROKEN CITY

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: October 20th, 2011 at 3:17 pm

Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining the cast of Allen Hughes’ (From Hell) noir drama Broken City. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, and centers on a private detective (Wahlberg) who is hired by the mayor of New York (Crowe) to uncover the identity of the mayor’s wife’s lover. When the lover turns up dead, the detective sets out to expose a much wider conspiracy. Deadline reports that Zeta-Jones will play the less-than-faithful wife of Crowe’s character. This is Hughes’ first solo feature directorial effort, as he previously co-directed all of his films with his brother Albert. The script for Broken City was written by Brian Tucker, and will be produced by Randall Emmett, Stephen Levinson, and Wahlberg himself. Production begins in November in New York.

Zeta-Jones just wrapped Adam Shankman’s 80’s centered musical Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise, as well as the comedy Playing the Field featuring Gerard Butler. She’ll also be seen in Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favorite alongside Bruce Willis and Vince Vaughn. Crowe is currently filming Man of Steel and is set to shoot the musical Les Miserables early next year.

Russell Crowe Joins Mark Wahlberg in Allen Hughes’ BROKEN CITY

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: August 8th, 2011 at 11:43 am

Russell Crowe will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in Allen Hughes’ noir drama Broken City.  As we previously reported, Wahlberg is playing an ex-cop turned private detective who is hired by the mayor (Wahlberg) to see if the mayor’s wife is cheating on him. When the wife’s lover ends up dead, the private detective becomes embroiled in the mayor’s scandalous affairs.  Deadline reports the “scandalous affairs” involves the mayor and some shady real-estate dealings.  I don’t know why crimes involving real estate make great noir tales, but they do.  I guess it goes to a corruption of the American dream of owning property.

Wahlberg recently wrapped shooting on Contraband, which is set to open on January 13, 2012.  Crowe is playing Jor-El in Man of Steel and recently shot RZA’s kung-fu flick The Man with the Iron Fists.  No start date has been announced for Broken City.  The film is budgeted at $60 million and comes from a 2008 Black List script by Brian Tucker.

Mark Wahlberg and Allen Hughes’ BROKEN CITY Moves Forward

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 27th, 2011 at 12:50 pm

Back in November, we reported that Mark Wahlberg expressed interest in doing a film with Allen Hughes called Broken City. He said that it was “an amazing piece of material” and he hoped to shoot the project towards the end of 2011. Well now Deadline reports that Wahlberg and Hughes are in talks to actually get the film made. Emmett/Furla Films will be financing a $60 million budget for the drama. Wahlberg will play an ex-cop turned private detective who is hired by the mayor to see if the mayor’s wife is cheating on him. When the wife’s lover ends up dead, the private detective becomes embroiled in the mayor’s scandalous affairs.

The script by Brian Tucker landed on the 2008 Black List, so it’s been in the works for a while. However, that 2011 start-date may not be the plan anymore, as the report states that both Wahlberg and Hughes’ reps stress that “this is early going.” Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that things are moving along for what sounds like an intriguing project.

Keanu Reeves in Talks for AKIRA? [UPDATED]

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: May 6th, 2011 at 11:04 am

The live-action version of Akira may actually be happening. After Warner Bros. secured a co-financer for the $230 million pricetag (Legendary Pictures, who just recently backed out of the deal), and Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves turned in a rewrite of the script that had everyone eager to get going, producers began searching for their cast. Directors the Hughes brothers have been searching for an A-lister with global appeal to star in the flick (you don’t gamble that amount of money without ensuring that you’re gonna rake in serious international revenue), but for a while it seemed like they were searching in vain.

Now, Vulture reports that Keanu Reeves is in very early talks to take on the starring role in the film. Based upon the manga and the 1988 anime adaptation, Akira centers on teenager Shōtarō Kaneda and his quest to stop his friend Tetsuo from destroying Neo-Tokyo. Hit the jump for more on the project.

[Update: Heat Vision reports that Reeves is in talks for the role of Kaneda, the gang leader.]

HARRY POTTER Screenwriter Steve Kloves to Work on AKIRA Script

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 18th, 2011 at 11:05 am

Warner Bros. has hired Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to do a polish on the script for the Hughes Brothers’ adaptation of the Japanese manga Akira.  For those unfamiliar with the manga and the 1988 anime adaptation, the story centers on teenager Shōtarō Kaneda and his quest to stop his friend Tetsuo from destroying Neo-Tokyo.  Per Variety, “the latest version of the script was penned by Albert Torres (Henry Poole Is Here), with earlier drafts by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and Gary Whitta.”  The problem is that “polish” is a very flexible word when it comes to script work and there aren’t any details on what Kloves’ polish will entail.  However, since Kloves has done strong work on the Harry Potter films (he wrote all of them except for Order of the Phoenix), he seems like the right guy to take a crack at helping to condense the six-volume manga into a live-action feature film.

As we reported yesterday, Warner Bros. won’t greenlight the film until they can attach a major star to play Kaneda.  Strangely, Vulture’s story said that Warners was courting Brad Pitt for Kaneda (he passed on the role), which could mean that the script has re-tooled the character to be significantly older.

Mark Wahlberg May Star in Director Allen Hughes BROKEN CITY

by Ben Brown    Posted: November 29th, 2010 at 3:56 pm

Funny thing about being a movie star–one year, you can earn nothing but complete critical and commercial success for your work, and then another…well, you don’t. Perhaps not an actor working today has ridden the ladder of ascension and descent quite as drastically as Mark Wahlberg; 2006 saw such well-regarded turns in Invincible and The Departed, the latter of which he managed to snag a Best Supporting Actor nod out of. Of course, as we all know, Wahlberg followed up his newfound success with such cinematic delights as Max Payne, The Lovely Bones, Shooter, and the grandturkey of them all, The Happening (a project he himself came to bash).

Thankfully for Wahlberg, 2010 is looking a bit more like 2006 than 2007, 2008, or 2009– aside from turning in nice comedy work in hits such as Date Night and The Other Guys, Wahlberg’s also been stirring up a bit of Oscar talk for his turn in David O. Russell’s upcoming The Fighter. And now, just to keep things interesting, it looks as if Wahlberg is eyeing a return to the land of action: in an interview with MTV, Wahlberg re-expressed his interest in the Allen Hughes-helmed Broken City. Hit the jump for more of Wahlberg’s quotes, as well as some of my brief thoughts.

Collider Goes to the Set of THE BOOK OF ELI

by Todd Gilchrist    Posted: December 31st, 2009 at 11:02 am

“It’s a man on a mission with something that everybody wants,” Allen Hughes said of the story for The Book of Eli, his forthcoming action film starring Denzel Washington. “It’s pretty simple. One man is trying to get something somewhere.”

In late March of 2009, Collider visited the New Mexico set of the film, and we were met by torrential waves of dust and debris that filled every last nook and cranny in about five minutes. Unfortunately, we were there for about ten hours.

Hughes, who is co-directing with his brother Albert, explained how the film’s postapocalyptic world came to look quite so unhospitable. “We allude to a nuclear war, he said. “We also talk about what happened environmentally; it’s a combination of a lot of things – diseases, famine, war. It started with a war and now the whole system’s collapsed.”

Albert, meanwhile, detailed the story’s origins. “[Gary Whitta] is from the video game world, and he probably liked a lot of the post-apocalyptic movies,” Hughes said. “I thought it was interesting, the kind of spiritual or religious angle he had on it. It’s not based on any particular thing that I know of, [but] I mean, it does hint towards a lot of other movies.” When asked whether the film had a Western influence, Albert indicated that they were shying away from direct references to films, much less familiar genres.  Much more after the jump:

16 Movie Clips from NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU (Almost 16 Minutes of Footage)

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: September 25th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

With the short film anthology “New York, I Love You” (a sort of sequel to “Paris, je t’aime”) set for release October 16^th, Vivendi Entertainment has released a ton of clips and I’ve posted all of them after the jump. While most film’s get four to eight clips released for promotional purposes, due to how large the cast is and how each person needs a clip when promoting the movie on a talk show, the studio has released a whopping 16 clips and it’s about sixteen minutes of the movie. So if you’ve been waiting for the film, you can see a lot of it right now. If you’re not familiar with “New York, I Love You”, the film’s got a huge cast and eleven directors telling stories about New York City and love. Take a look:

NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU Trailer

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm

The first trailer for Vivendi Entertainment’s “New York, I Love You” has been released. This is the film that’s like “Paris, je t’aime”, but while that one had no connective tissue, somehow “New York, I Love You” ties most or all of the short films together.

While a feature film made up of a lot of short films might not appeal to all of you, the cast is ridiculous and it’s something I can’t wait to see. If you’re curious, watch the trailer after the jump. I’ve also included all the director’s involved and the full cast:

First Poster for NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: July 28th, 2009 at 10:44 am

The first poster has been released for “New York, I Love You”. This is the anthology film that features many short films about love in the city that never sleeps. While many of you might not be excited about a feature film that’s made up of only shorts, take a look at this cast:

Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman, Irrfan Khan, Emilie Ohana, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thirlby, Blake Lively, Drea De Matteo, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf, Ugur Yucel, Taylor Geare, Carlos Acosta, Jacinda Barrett, Shu Qi, Burt Young, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, Eva Amurri, Eli Wallach, and Cloris Leachman

I think you just got interested. Anyway, after the jump is the poster, the synopsis, and all the directors who contributed to the project. “New York, I Love You” gets released October 16^th.

Collider Goes to the Set of THE BOOK OF ELI – Read a Preview

by Todd Gilchrist    Posted: June 4th, 2009 at 12:07 am

Given the wealth of remakes, adaptations and updates on studio release schedules these days, movies made from original screenplays have become a rare commodity, at least for folks disinterested in Alvin and the Chipmunks. The Book of Eli was written by Gary Whitta, a newcomer with only one other credit to his IMDB resume – the forthcoming live-action version of Akira – and as directed by Allen and Albert Hughes, it promises to be more than the exception that proves the rule. Starring Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman, the film follows a lone warrior (Washington) as he navigates a dusty, violent, post-apocalyptic landscape, and Collider was recently invited to check out its fantastic, futuristic, and most of all dusty landscape.

The film was shot in New Mexico, the production location for several other recent blockbusters including Observe and Report and Terminator Salvation. The set we visited was a short distance from the Albuquerque airport, but by the time we arrived at the razed landfill where shooting was to take place, virtually all remnants of civilization were forgotten: tumbleweed (seriously) and dusty plains were the only sights for miles in every direction. Except, of course, for the set itself – a dilapidated house built especially for a big action set piece, some of which we hoped to watch as it was shot.

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