Asteroids

Evan Spiliotopoulos to Pen ASTEROIDS Script for Universal

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: November 9th, 2011 at 7:55 pm

Fresh off of his work on the fantasy tale Snow White and the Huntsman, screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos will have to shift gears towards sci-fi. Universal Pictures has hired him to adapt the 1970s Atari video game property, Asteroids. The script, originally concerning two estranged brothers who must work together to save the world from an alien invasion, was previously worked on by Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice). Though Roland Emmerich was previously offered the director’s chair, the project is currently moving ahead without anyone at the helm. However, Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) is producing. Hit the jump for more.

Director Roland Emmerich Talks ANONYMOUS, ASTEROIDS and SINGULARITY

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 24th, 2011 at 6:35 pm

With Roland Emmerich’s period drama Anonymous opening this weekend, I recently got to speak with the high profile director about making the film. Best known for his big-budget disaster movies like 2012 and Independence Day, Anonymous is quite a departure, as the story centers on a conspiracy to cover up the true author of William Shakespeare’s plays.  There are no monsters or aliens.  Instead, Emmerich has made a really entertaining political thriller wrapped in a conspiracy theory that stars Jamie Campbell Bower, Rhys Ifans, David Thewlis, Joely Richardson, Rafe Spall, Xavier Samuel and Vanessa Redgrave.

During the interview, Emmerich talked about where the idea for Anonymous came from, how much is fact and how much was “Hollywoodized,” editing, deleted scenes, extended cuts on home video, and he gave me updates on Asteroids and Singularity - which he’s working on now and will be his next movie.  Hit the jump to watch.

Exclusive: Roland Emmerich Talks SINGULARITY, Says He’s Not Doing ASTEROIDS

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: September 12th, 2011 at 10:31 am

Steve and Matt are currently basking in the awesomeness of the Toronto Film Festival, and earlier today Steve got the chance to sit down with director Roland Emmerich to talk about his new drama Anonymous.  We’ll have the full interview up for you soon, but Emmerich also spoke a bit about his rumored involvement with Asteroids and his next film Singularity.  During the interview, Emmerich stated why he turned down the chance to direct Asteroids and spoke about his sci-fi flick Singularity, which he said should start filming in March.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Roland Emmerich Offered Director’s Chair for ASTEROIDS

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 8th, 2011 at 8:00 am

Roland Emmerich has a period drama set for this fall with Anonymous and that’s a welcome change of pace from his usual fare which tends to involve destroying everything.  I predict that eventually he will make a movie simply called Explosions and Tearful Goodbyes.  But until that film comes, we’ll have to settle for him finding new ways to destroy our planet.  He’s done it with aliens and cataclysm and now he may be doing it with giant rocks from outer space.

Vulture reports that Emmerich has been offered the chair for Universal’s adaptation of the classic arcade game Asteroids.  And technically, Matt Lopez’ (who previously wrote the remake of The Race to Witch Mountain) script doesn’t involve destroying the Earth because Vulture’s sources say that the film is set after the Earth has already been destroyed.  Loophole! Hit the jump for more details on the plot.  We’ll see how many explosions Anonymous has when it opens on September 30th.

Exclusive: Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura talks G.I. JOE, Jack Ryan, Red and ASTEROIDS

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

A few days ago I attended the New York City press junket for “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”. While there, I got to speak with some of the cast, director Stephen Sommers and producer Lorenzo de Bonaventura. While I’ve already spoken to Lorenzo a lot about “G.I. Joe” and “Transformers“, you can never go wrong asking a few more questions as he producers a lot of other movies.

So after the first few questions on “G.I. Joe” and “Giant Robots That Like to Punch Each Other in the Face”, I asked him about some of his upcoming projects and he told me the status on Jack Ryan, “Red”, and also why he wanted to make an “Asteroids” movie. Take a look after the jump:

Universal Adapting ASTEROIDS Video Game into Movie

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Continuing its commitment to making a movie out of anything a child can play with, Universal is adapting the old, old school game video game “Asteroids” according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Why, “Asteroids”, I’m not exactly sure.  Was “Pong” taken?*  And furthermore, why not grab something with a little more creative room?  I think if you got someone creative and insane enough, you could make an interesting “Pac-Man” movie (this t-shirt is probably more creative and has more story than the inevitable film).

Back to “Asteroids” wasn’t this movie already made as “Armageddon”?  And if “Armageddon” taught us anything (and I’m almost 100% sure it didn’t), you can’t shoot asteroids in order to blow them up.  You have to land on them and implant them with a nuclear bomb.  And after Jason Isaacs sold us on why you have to do that using his firecracker analogy, audiences will refuse to accept an isosceles triangle destroying asteroids without the help of the world’s best deep-core drilling team and a nuclear weapon.

*As an aside, my friend and current kick-ass film editor David Solomon wrote the world’s first “Pong” fan-fic in 2001.  You can read it here.

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