Summit Entertainment and OddLot Entertainment announced today that production has begun on director Ivan Reitman’s sports dramedy Draft Day.  The film takes place within the span of one day, the day of the NFL Draft, as Kevin Costner plays a general manger who has the opportunity to save football in Cleveland when he trades for the number one pick.  As the day’s events unfold, “he must quickly decide what he’s willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with dreams of playing in the NFL.”

Filming is underway in New York, where the production will shoot some scenes at the actual 2013 NFL Draft.  Once that is complete, filming will move to Cleveland.  The ensemble includes Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Ellen Burstyn, Frank Langella, Josh Pence, Rosanna Arquette, Timothy Simons and 42 star Chadwick Boseman, and the start-of-production press release notes that Terry Crews and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs have also joined the cast.  Hit the jump to read the full press release, which includes the entire cast listing.

Back in October, Paramount Pictures decided to put Ivan Reitman‘s Draft Day into turnaround.  The film was set to star Kevin Costner as Buffalo Bills General Manager Sonny Weaver, who has the chance to save his team when he trades for the number one pick in the draft.  However, he’s forced to decide what he’s willing to sacrifice both personally and professionally in order to achieve success.  From the premise, it sounds like Moneyball meets football, which seems like an easy sell since you have a critically acclaimed drama crossed with the most popular sport in America.

The project looked like it was destined for production hell, but then it landed on top of The Black List, and now Lionsgate is after Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman‘s spec script.  According to Vulture, Lionsgate is currently in negotiations with Reitman and Costner to get the film going again.  I dig the premise, so hopefully Lionsgate can get the project off the ground.

It looks as if that Twins sequel is moving forward.  Deadline reports that The Book of Mormon star Josh Gad and Ryan Dixon have been tapped to pen the treatment for Triplets, with Dixon handling the script.  The follow-up has Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito reprising their roles from the 1988 comedy as mismatched siblings.  As previously reported, the follow-up will find them getting in touch with a third brother played by Eddie Murphy.  Hit the jump to see what Schwarzenegger told us about the sequel when we spoke to him on the set of the upcoming actioner The Last Stand.

Surprise!  Those still crossing their fingers for the very long in-development Ghostbusters 3 were granted a glimmer of hope when we recently learned that the sequel could start filming next summer, but that hope has now swiftly been dashed out.  Due to some financial uneasiness, Sony Pictures Entertainment is currently reassessing all of their projects in the pipeline.  Per THR, any decision on Ghostbusters 3 has been postponed until the end of March, which means that the hoped-for Summer 2013 start date is no longer a possibility.  Should Sony ultimately decide to move forward with the sequel, filming likely wouldn’t be able to get underway until next fall at the earliest.

The most recent draft of the script was written by Etan Cohen, and Ghostbusters I and II director Ivan Reitman had been set to return.  I’m not sure we really need another Ghostbusters movie (especially now that Bill Murray is out), and I remain skeptical as to whether Ghostbusters 3 will actually come to fruition.

Ivan Reitman‘s Ghostbusters 3 has been in development hell for years, but we’re always hearing that it’s right around the corner.  That may now be the case since we learned in August that the production had given up the ghost of getting Bill Murray to return (even if his character would have been a ghost).  In July, Etan Cohen (Men in Black III) was tapped to re-write the script.  The pieces seem to be falling into place, and now Deadline is reporting that Reitman is planning to shoot the sequel next summer.

If Ghostbusters 3 is going to happen, this is probably when.  We don’t know if the sequel will still function as a reboot where a new, younger team of Ghostbusters are brought in to carry the franchise.  That would probably be the preferred direction for Sony, but perhaps it’s best to focus on one film at a time considering how long it’s taken for the third movie to get in front of cameras.

Just a day after reporting that Tom Cruise was circling the T.S. Nowlin sci-fi spec script, Our Name is Adam, Paramount appears to be in exclusive negotiations for the property.  Sure to fetch a high price tag, the project could likely be another win for the studio and Cruise, who currently collaborate on the Mission: Impossible franchise and the upcoming film, Jack Reacher.  Another recent winner for Paramount was the acquisition of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  The studio plans to release the film in late 2013 to qualify for the awards season.  But where there are winners, there must be losers.  Hit the jump to read up on the status of Paramount’s Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner and directed by Ivan Reitman. 

Just in time for the presidential election, the hit romantic comedy Dave, from director Ivan Reitman and screenwriter Gary Ross, debuts on Blu-ray on September 25^th, for the first time since its 1993 theatrical release.  The film tells the story about what happens when the U.S. President goes into a coma and a mild-mannered office manager, named Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline), with an uncanny resemblance is hired to impersonate him and fool not only an entire country, but also an increasingly suspicious First Lady (Sigourney Weaver).

At a press day for the Blu-ray release, director Ivan Reitman and producer Lauren Shuler Donner talked about how Gary Ross came to write the film, how the script was developed, what made Kevin Kline the right actor to pull off the dual role, why Sigourney Weaver was the perfect First Lady, and how they think young audiences will react to the film today.  Reitman also talked about the huge interest in sequels these days, the status of another Ghostbusters film and the Twins sequel, Triplets, and how he thinks audiences will be knocked out by the story they’re telling in Hitchcock (due out November 23^rd and starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren), which he’s producing, and Shuler Donner talked about the importance of focusing on character when you’re making superhero movies, like she’s done with the X-Men films.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Meatballs is an above average film that benefits solely from the comedic timing of Bill Murray. Playing a rehearsal version of his character form Rushmore, he’s a camp counselor who befriends a young kid (Chris Makepeace, exuding little other than fresh-facedness) who needs support to make it through the summer. Along the way there’s a small tribute to the snobs vs. slobs universe that Animal House crystallized. Our review of Meatballs on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

The Expendables 2, the Simon West-directed sequel to The Expendables, appeared at the end of the opening day of Comic-Con 2012.  They opened the panel with the previously released trailer for the film, before Sylvester Stallone himself took the stage (to a “Rocky, Rocky!” chant).  He was soon joined by other members of his cast, setting the Guinness world record for most testosterone ever on stage at one time.  The Expendables 2, also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Liam Hemsworth, Terry Crews, Jean Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Charisma Carpenter, Yu Nan and Randy Couture opens August 17th.  Hit the jump to check out the rest of the panel and make sure to click here for all of our continuing Comic-Con coverage.

Dan Aykroyd continues to be the most vocal supporter of the struggling Ghostbusters 3 project.  Last summer, Aykroyd rekindled our hopes that the film would shoot in the spring of 2012 with or without Bill Murray’s involvement (which clearly never happened).  Then, Aykroyd floated the possibility of recasting Peter Venkman and admitted to needing more time to work on the screenplay by Bad Teacher scribes, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. He more recently confirmed that Murray would have nothing to do with the project.  Now it seems as if the writing duo of Eisenberg and Stupnitsky are out as well, as Aykroyd recently commented that a new team was in place.  While I admire the man’s tenacity in bringing a suitable project to the screen, I’m beginning to wonder whether or not we should just leave well enough alone.  More from Aykroyd after the jump. 

Paramount Pictures has acquired a comedy spec script called Draft Day with Ivan Reitman attached to direct.  Per Deadline, the script by Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman “revolves around the general manager of the Buffalo Bills as he spends the day of the National Football League draft frantically trying to get the number one pick for his struggling team.”  I’m not exactly sure how this plot is sustained for a feature-length film (it sounds more like a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode), but Paramount must see some promise.  Joseph is a Pulitzer finalist and currently writes for the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, while Rothman recently sold the script Frat Boy to Warner Bros. for David Dobkin to produce.

Reitman’s resume is hit and miss, with stellar stuff like Ghostbusters and Stripes early in his career while his recent output includes My Super Ex-Girlfriend and No Strings Attached.  Reitman was recently circling journalist Alan Paul’s memoir Big in China as a possible directing vehicle, but we haven’t heard anything about that film in quite some time.  With five years between Ex-Girlfriend and No Strings Attached, who knows when/if Draft Day will come to fruition.

In a move that surprises no one, the estate of the late Michael Jackson has begun shopping a biopic to interested parties. Now that the trial of Jackson’s former caregiver Dr. Conrad Murray is over, estate executor John Branca has talked to Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock of the Montceito Picture Company regarding the feasibility of a memorial film for the King of Pop. Showblitz reports that the project would not be all-encompassing, but would cover certain portions of Jackson’s life. Pollock confirmed that the discussion has taken place, but there is no deal as of yet. Jackson’s estate has not provided a comment. Hit the jump for more.

Sony Pictures is bringing Ghostbusters back to the big screen for a limited engagement this October.  The studio has announced that the classic comedy will play in approximately 500 theaters nationwide (plus select theaters in Canada and various international markets) for one showtime on October 13th, 20th, and 27th in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound .  If someone asks you, “Are you going to see Ghostbusters on the big screen?” you say, “Yes!”  Details will be posted parkcirus.com and fans can follow Ghostbusters on Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know the details on the release.

I can only assume this is Sony’s way of gauging interest in a third Ghostbusters before finally giving the greenlight and shooting, as Dan Aykroyd recently claimed, in spring 2012.  It will be interesting to see how many people feel good from bustin’.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

This should please fans of the franchise perhaps more so than Dan Aykroyd’s insistence that the third installment will shoot Spring 2012 with or without Bill Murray. The official Ghostbusters Facebook page [via AICN] has announced that director Ivan Reitman’s 1984 classic will receive a theatrical rerelease this October. As of now, there are few other details to be found regarding the rerelease (i.e. number of theaters, whether its film or DVD projection, etc.), only that the film will return to theaters next month.

Most likely, this is an attempt to gauge audience interest in a franchise that hasn’t seen a film installment in more than two decades. Regardless of the motive, as a fan who has never had the opportunity to watch the original on the silver screen, I can only hope that Ghostbusters will receive wide distribution that finally affords me that opportunity. Moreover, even skeptics of rereleases have to at least take solace in the fact that at least it isn’t Top Gun in 3D. We’ll be sure to share the details of this rerelease as soon as more emerge. In the meantime, I’m going to try and track down some “Ecto-Cooler” Hi-C.

When we saw the trailers for Ivan Reitman’s No Strings Attached, we all had the same basic reaction:  “Oh, boy, Natalie Portman in a sex comedy!”, a thought that was immediately followed by:  “Oh, no, Ashton Kutcher.”  Yes, over the past decade, Kutcher has found more success as a “personality”, camera salesman, and a reality TV producer than he seems to have found as an actor:  despite a few middle-of-the-road successes at the box office, his filmography has left film geeks cold.  Would No Strings Attached be the first film that breaks away from that sad truth?  Or would No Strings Attached be more Killers-level crap?  Read on for our full review after the jump to find out, folks….