Sony Pictures has acquired the Engligh-language remake rights to the 2010 French crime film A Prophet.  Directed by Jacques Audiard, the original film tells the story of a young man imprisoned for petty crime who rises to power in a prison crime syndicate after he is mentored by the boss.  A Prophet was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2010 and picked up considerable critical acclaim during its theatrical and festival run.  Neal H. Moritz is onboard to produce the English remake, and he’s a bit of an interesting choice given that his previous credits are more action-oriented tentpoles including the Fast & Furious franchise, 21 Jump Street, and I Am Legend.  It’ll be interesting to see what kind of take on the material this remake involves.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer for Audiard’s film and to read the full press release.

As the director of the film with the second highest grossing opening weekend of all time, Iron Man 3 co-writer and helmer Shane Black has likely been inundated with a number of offers over the past few days.  However, it appears that the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director will be making his next project a property that he’s already been developing for some time.  Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that Black will co-write and direct Doc Savage as his next film.  The pic is a feature film adaptation of a popular character from the 1930s and 40s.  Doc Savage has been described as “a mix of Sherlock Holmes’ deductive abilities, Tarzan’s outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy’s scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln’s goodness,” and so it provides a nice adventure avenue for which Black to imbue with his distinctive sensibilities.

Black recently told Steve that he was still planning on making Doc Savage and seemed to hint that it could be his next film, and this press announcement from Sony confirms that the director is eyeing Savage as his follow-up to Iron Man 3.  Hit the jump to read the full press release.

Over the past few days, we’ve been sharing a number of updates from Neal Moritz that were gleaned in Steve’s recent lengthy interview with the producer.  Moritz talked extensively about Fast & Furious 6, 7, and the future of the franchise, he provided revealing updates on the 21 Jump Street sequel, he talked quite a bit about the upcoming supernatural actioner R.I.P.D., and he also provided a promising update on director Shane Black’s developing Doc Savage movie.

While we’ll be providing the full interview here on Collider soon, we wanted to share one last batch of updates on a number of projects.  Hit the jump for news concerning the Battle: Los Angeles sequel, the graphic novel adaptations of Preacher and The Boys, and director D.J. Caruso’s disaster film Invertigo.

While we’ve already seen some marketing materials and debut trailers for the majority of this summer’s offerings, we only recently got our first look at director Robert Schwentke’s supernatural actioner R.I.P.D.  The film is based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name and stars Ryan Reynolds as a newly deceased cop who joins a group of undead officers in the “Rest In Peace Department” to help combat a rising force of nefarious corpses.  The film’s debut trailer showcases a tone similar to that of Men in Black, as Reynolds and Jeff Bridges put a supernatural spin on the buddy cop format.

Steve recently sat down with producer Neal Moritz for an extended interview, and during their wide-ranging conversation Moritz talked a bit about R.I.P.D., speaking to the film’s tough development process, the difficulty in finding the right tone, and how the film compares to the comic source material.  Hit the jump to read on.

While Shane Black’s skills as a screenwriter have been more than proven with films like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Monster Squad, he also showed himself to be an immensely talented director with the fantastic 2005 gem Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.  A few years ago he signed on to write and direct a feature film iteration of the 1930s and 40s pul fiction hero Doc Savage, but his plans for that film were deterred a bit when Marvel sought Black out to come on and helm the highly anticipated Iron Man 3.

Steve recently spoke with Black at the Iron Man 3 junket and also with producer Neal Moritz in a separate, extended interview, and both provided some very promising updates on Doc Savage, saying the film is back on track with the goal of making it Black’s next film.  Hit the jump for more.

One of the most pleasant surprises of 2012 was Sony’s 21 Jump Street adaptation.  While remakes and reboots are usually developed with an eye towards appealing to the widest possible audience, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller crafted a wonderfully peculiar and hilarious comedy that benefitted from some excellent chemistry between stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.  As the R-rated film grossed over $200 million worldwide, both fans and Sony were keen on moving forward with a sequel.  Screenwriter Michael Bacall has been working on the script for the follow-up alongside Hill, and Sony recently announced that they’re planning the film for a 2014 release.

Steve recently sat down for a lengthy interview with producer Neal Moritz, and during their wide-ranging conversation Moritz talked quite a bit about 21 Jump Street 2.  He confirmed that the story finds Tatum and Hill infiltrating a college campus, Ice Cube is set to return as Captain Dickson, and he also noted that Lord and Miller are attached to direct with an eye towards a summer 2014 release date.  Hit the jump to read on.

As we approach the release of the sixth film in the Fast and Furious franchise, it’s a bit crazy to think that the series is actually at the top of its game this far in.  The worldwide box office total of 2011’s Fast Five doubled that of the second-highest grossing entry in the series, Fast & Furious, and now director Justin Lin’s Fast & Furious 6 is poised to be one of the biggest films of a very crowded summer.

Steve recently spoke with producer Neal Moritz for an extended interview, and during their conversation he talked extensively about what fans can expect from Fast & Furious 6 as well as the progress on the very fast-moving Fast & Furious 7, which was recently announced for a summer 2014 release.  Moritz confirmed that James Wan will be directing the next installment and talked about why they chose the Saw director to step into the franchise, and he also assured us that Dwayne Johnson will indeed be returning.  Hit the jump for much, much more.

In acquisition news today, Universal landed a hot property while Sony is in talks to pick up another.  Here’s the info at a glance:

• Universal Pictures picks up Black Box, a script from Safe House scribe, David Guggenheim.  The picture, centering on the black box aboard Air Force One, is pitched as Enemy of the State-meets-Three Days of the Condor.
• Sony Pictures is in negotiations to pick up Rockets’ Red Glare, a spec script from Ken Nolan with Neal Moritz (both of Black Hawk Down) set to produce.  The picture follows a border patrol agent protecting a high-ranking Mexican drug cartel member from assassination in order to earn an $8 billion payday.

Hit the jump for more on both acquisitions.

Coming off the failed franchise-starter I Am Number Four, director D.J. Caruso is looking to take another stab at sci-fi. The director is now in final negotiations to direct the sci-fi disaster film Invertigo. The story concerns a long-lost NASA space probe under the influence of “dark energy” that mysteriously crashes on earth and proceeds to disrupt and reverse the pull of gravity. Skyscrapers and bridges are ripped from the ground and rivers “rain from the sky” as a team mounts a mission into upside-down Manhattan to avert the planet’s destruction. Hit the jump for more on this ludicrous premise.

I generally don’t like to check out extended clips of footage from films ahead of their release. Call me old fashioned but, similar to how I try and avoid cherry picking music singles before listening to the entire album, I like to think of records and movies as complete bodies of work. Of course, I say all of this only to preface breaking my own general rule. I implore you to watch the first 12 minutes of writer/director/actress Brit Marling’s Sound of My Voice. I did, I don’t regret a single moment of it, and now I can’t wait to check out the entire film as soon as possible.

All self-contradiction aside, in this week’s “Top 5″ installment you’ll find Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance interviews with talent like Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Johnny Whitworth, and directors Neveldine/Taylor, a recap of our 21 Jump Street set visit, trailers and a featurette for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Transformers 4 news, and Avengers, Star Wars, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation toy images from the 2012 Toy Fair. Check out a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

Neal Moritz is the go-to producer for action movies these days. In just the first half of 2011, he released The Green Hornet, Battle: Los Angeles, and Fast Five, which together grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. In remaking the 1980s TV show 21 Jump Street, Moritz lends so much credibility to the action side of this action-comedy.

A group of us movie bloggers had the chance to interview Moritz on set in New Orleans near the end of the shoot. He talked about the approach to adapting the show, the promise he saw in directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (this is their first live-action feature), how he got “25% more on the screen” by shooting in New Orleans, plus what Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill brought to the project as actor/producers. Read what he had to say after the jump.

Director José Padilha said that when he signed on to remake RoboCop, he didn’t read any drafts left over from the Darren Aronofsky era because he “wanted to focus on my own thing and do my take.”  To create that vision, Padilha has turned to Gran Torino writer Nick Schenk.  Heat Vision makes no mention of Josh Zetumer’s reported involvement with the script, but MGM was initially looking at a February or March start date, so I don’t imagine Schenk will have to start over from page one.  Yet despite the hubbub over Michael Fassbender‘s candidacy to play the cyborg police officer, no cast is locked in.  So Schenk should have some time to craft a solid shooting script in time for a production later in the year.

Hit the jump for details on the pitch Oren Uziel (Mortal Kombat: Rebirth) sold to Neal Moritz (Fast Five).

In 1997, Robert A. Heinlein‘s arguably-fascist novel Starship Troopers was adapted into a brilliant satire by director Paul Verhoeven.  The movie has amassed a die-hard cult over the years.  It’s also amassed two direct-to-DVD sequels nobody saw.  But now it looks like the Bugs will be headed back to the big screen as Vulture reports that Fast Five producer Neal Moritz and Thor screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz are working on a remake.  All I’ll say is that they have their work cut out for them.  Hopefully that work doesn’t turn out to be a brain-dead action movie where soldiers fight CGI but all the subtext has been removed.

Verhoeven’s RoboCop and Total Recall are also getting remakes.  I have faith in RoboCop since director Jose Padilha A) directed the celebrated Elite Squad movies; and B) he seems to understand the original material.  Total Recall seems like it will be polished down to the point where it will lose the mind-bending first half and the delightful lunacy of the second half.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer for Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers.

Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace are set to star in the mob drama Dead Man Down. Director Niels Arden Oplev, who helmed the Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films, is onboard to direct the project (per THR) which centers on a mobster’s hitman (Farrell) who falls for a disfigured former beauty (Rapace). Bent on revenge, the two subsequently go on a violent killing spree. The script was written by J.H. Wyman (Fringe), who is also producing alongside Neal Moritz (Fast Five).

The pic will reunite Oplev with his Dragon Tattoo star Rapace. The actress turned heads with her bold performance in the Swedish films, landing roles in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows as a result. Farrell recently wrapped the Total Recall reboot, and is set to reteam with his In Bruges director Martin McDonagh for Seven Psychopaths. Production on Dead Man Down is poised to begin in early 2012.

Those of you concerned about the amount of remakes currently circling Hollywood now have one less project to worry about. The long-gestating remake of John Carpenter’s 1981 Escape from New York has been dropped by New Line. Over the course of its development, the remake had names such as Gerard Butler and Jeremy Renner reportedly interested in taking on the role of Snake Plissken made famous by Kurt Russell. From a directorial perspective, Breck Eisner (The Crazies) was most recently attached to the project with a script co-written by Allan Loeb (The Switch) and set up at producer Neal Moritz’s Original Films banner.

For those unfamiliar with the film, Escape from New York is set in a post-apocalyptic New York City that has been downgraded (or upgraded depending on how you feel about NYC) to a maximum-security prison. As the story goes, the eyepatch-wielding/convicted felon Plissken takes on the challenging task of rescuing the President (Donald Pleasence) from the prison kingpin (Isaac Hayes). The stakes? If he succeeds, he is pardoned of his crimes. If he fails, a device he’s wearing will kill him. While those hoping to live in an Escape from New York remake-free world can breathe a sigh of relief for now, Deadline does well to point out that New Line’s dropping of the property also means that the film is back up for grabs. In other words, we aren’t out of the woods just yet.