Screen Gems

Screen Gems Picks up and Sets Release Date for THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS Starring Lily Collins

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 4th, 2012 at 8:21 am

Sony Pictures’ genre arm Screen Gems has acquired the Harold Zwart‘s adaptation of The Mortal Instruments starring Lily Collins.  Based on the first book in Cassandra Clare‘s young adult novel series, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Collins will play Clary Fray, “a young woman who discovers she is the descendant of a line of secret cadre of half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect the world from demons.”  Sony had been circling Mortal Instruments back in February, but decided to pass.  According to Deadline, Constantin Film has come on board to partner on the movie, so it now has the financing to move forward.  We previously reported that filming was set to begin August 15th in Toronto.

According to Box Office Mojo, Screen Gems will release the film on August 23, 2013.  The movie currently has no competition on that date.  Hit the jump for the official synopsis.

Full Schedule for WonderCon Announced; Presentations for RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, BATTLESHIP, COMMUNITY, and More

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 28th, 2012 at 8:52 am

WonderCon 2012 has announced its programming schedule and attendees are in for some good stuff.  In addition to the wide variety of panels devoted to comic artists and writers, beloved genre figures, and career tips, there are some exciting movie and TV presentations lined up.  On the film side, there will be presentations for Resident Evil: Retribution (along with other Screen Gems films) Sound of My Voice (very cool that a Sundance indie flick is making an appearance), Battleship, Snow White and the Huntsman, Lockout, plus surprise presentations for upcoming films from 20th Century Fox (if there’s a sneak peek of Prometheus, the price of your WonderCon pass was worth it).

On the TV side, there will be presentations for Community, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest, The Secret Circle, Once Upon a Time, and more.  WonderCon, you had me at “Community”.  Hit the jump for the dates and times of the convention’s major highlights.  WonderCon 2012 will be at the Anaheim Convention Center and runs from March 16 – 18th.

BOYS DON’T CRY Director Tapped to Helm Remake of Stephen King’s CARRIE

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 4th, 2012 at 1:18 pm

While it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the planned remake of Carrie, the project seems to be moving forward as MGM and Screen Gems have settled on a director. Deadline reports that Boys Don’t Cry helmer Kimberly Peirce is in talks to get behind the camera on the Stephen King adaptation. Brian De Palma famously adapted the material in 1976 with Sissy Spacek in the career-defining lead role. This new version is said to be more faithful to King’s source material, though I’m assuming a fair amount of telekinetic carnage will still ensue.

Playwright/screenwriter/comic-book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Big Love, Glee, The Stand comic) penned the screenplay, and with Peirce now onboard the project seems to be moving toward casting. The critically acclaimed Boys Don’t Cry marked Peirce’s directorial debut in 1999, and the 2008 Iraq War drama Stop-Loss acted as her follow-up feature. The director’s experience with off-kilter coming-of-age stories should bode well for her work on Carrie, and I’m intrigued to see what her take entails. Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the novel.

Screen Gems Acquires Remake Rights for Gareth Evans’ Indonesian Action Movie THE RAID

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: November 9th, 2011 at 7:13 pm

There was a lot of buzz for The Raid at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, eventually earning it the Cadillac People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award. The original Indonesian film by director Gareth Evans (Merantau) has had its domestic distribution rights picked up by Sony Pictures Worldwide. It was assumed that sister company Screen Gems would pursue the rights to the remake and, for once, assumptions have proven correct.

Screen Gems has officially acquired the remake rights for The Raid, an action movie that tells the story of an elite SWAT team that gets pinned down in a tenement building controlled by a dangerous drug lord. On his side are two vicious martial arts experts, his own personal militia and a vast assortment of weapons. The SWAT team has only their wits, their weapons and the will to survive The Raid. Hit the jump to check out the original trailer.

Screen Gems Wants to Remake Indonesian Action Movie/TIFF Favorite THE RAID

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: September 20th, 2011 at 7:42 pm

The Indonesian action movie The Raid was a big hit at the Toronto International Film Festival, and writer/director Gareth Evans has the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award to prove it.  You can sample the crazy action in the trailer, and see why Sony Pictures Worldwide picked up the North American distribution rights months ago.  Despite the universal appeal of SWAT teams and martial arts, The Raid still has one major commercial hindrance: it’s pretty Indonesian.  Now that The Raid is in the Sony family, the logical move is for sister label Screen Gems to pursue a remake.  The Americanization process will be interesting, and perhaps doomed—the original relies on the Indonesian martial art silat to flavor the action.  It will be difficult to return the lightning to the bottle, especially since Evans has preemptively declined the job to focus on a shooting a sequel next February.  It is not yet clear what Screen Gems has planned, though Heat Vision reassures the studio is “aware the unique fighting style is one of the movie’s strengths.”  Awareness!  That’s not not encouraging.  Screen Gems is currently on the lookout for a director.

The Raid rode a wave of TIFF buzz to sell remaining worldwide distribution rights to Celluloid Nightmares, so you should be able to see the silat for yourself soon enough, no matter where you live.  Hit the jump for the trailer and official synopsis.

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING, SEVENTH SON, THE POSSESSION, and THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT Get Release Dates

by Bill Graham    Posted: July 13th, 2011 at 9:03 pm

As Frosty loves to say, when it has a release date, it’s going to be made. For Sony’s Underworld: Awakening, Warner Bros. Seventh Son, Lionsgate’s The Possession, and Universal’s The Five-Year Engagement, things are looking bright. Briefly, Kate Beckinsale will return for the fourth film in the Underworld franchise, this time in 3D. Seventh Son is an adaptation of a popular young adult wizardry novel series that stars Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, and Julianne Moore. Sam Raimi’s upcoming horror film The Possession (formerly known as Dibbuk Box) stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick. Finally, we have The Five-Year Engagement, which reunites Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller from their great partnership on Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Here is when you can pencil (release dates shift… a lot) each of these films into your calendar:

• Underworld: Awakening – 1/20/12 – Stars Kate Beckinsale and Michael Ealy
• Seventh Son - 02/15/13 – Stars Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, and Ben Barnes
• The Possession – 1/6/12 – Stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick
• The Five-Year Engagement - 4/27/12 – Stars Jason Segel and Emily Blunt

For more on the pics, hit the jump.

ATTACK THE BLOCK to Be Released in the U.S. on July 29th

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 10th, 2011 at 3:18 pm

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you know that Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block has some serious, serious buzz. The flick premiered at SXSW to wildly enthusiastic reviews, then a couple of LA screenings had those in attendance gushing about the imaginative action-thriller. Steve saw the film and loved it, and Matt’s a fan as well. And now, audiences all over the country will finally get a chance to see the film everyone’s talking about, and soon! Sony/Screen Gems has just announced (via Box Office Mojo) that Attack the Block will open in limited release on July 29^th.

Written and directed by Cornish, and co-produced by Edgar Wright, the film stars Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard, Luke Treadaway, Jumayn Hunter, and Nick Frost. After hearing for months how fantastic it is, I personally cannot wait to see this thing.

Screen Gems to Distribute Joe Cornish’s ATTACK THE BLOCK

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 6th, 2011 at 11:57 am

Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block received rave reviews coming out of this year’s SXSW Film Festival and went on the hunt for a U.S. distributor.  Screen Gems has now sent out a press release announcing they will distribute the film.  For those unfamiliar with the flick, it’s about a group of street tough kids who fight off alien invaders.

Hit the jump to check out the press release.  Click here for Scott’s positive review from SXSW and click here for all of our Attack the Block coverage.  A U.S. release date hasn’t been announced yet, but the film opens in the UK on May 11th.

RESIDENT EVIL 5 Set to Be Released in 3D on September 14, 2012

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 3rd, 2011 at 1:52 pm

As audiences continue to disagree with my wishes and see Resident Evil movies, it only makes sense that Screen Gems will continue to make new ones.  The fourth installment in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife grossed almost $300 million worldwide and last September, star Milla Jovovich said they were seeking fan input, which is always a good idea because producers need to know that @RE5NotRacist thinks the series needs “mur bewbs”.

Whether or not the film will in fact have “mur bewbs”, Exhibitor Relations’ Facebook page reports that Resident Evil 5 (tentative title) will be released in “eye-gouging 3D” on September 14, 2012.  The September box office has been kind to the Resident Evil franchise and clearly Screen Gems sees no reason to mess with a “good” thing.  There are currently no other films set for release that weekend.

Screen Gems Acquires Film Rights for Video Game DEVIL MAY CRY

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: February 28th, 2011 at 9:35 pm

The Resident Evil series has been good to Screen Gems.  The four films have collectively grossed more than $580 million.  Resident Evil: Afterlife is the studio’s highest grossing production at $296 million worldwide.  There are plans for another sequel (obviously).  And if things go according to plan, the Resident Evil universe will have inspired another lucrative franchise at Screen Gems.

Capcom initially developed video game Devil May Cry as the third Resident Evil game.  But Devil May Cry wound up bearing no particular resemblance to Resident Evil, so Capcom launched the former as an original property.  Now the five Devil May Cry games have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.  Variety reports Screen Gems has picked up the feature film rights to Devil May Cry.  Kyle Ward, who also adapted the video game Kane & Lynch, will write the script.

The games center around Dante, a man who slaughters demons to avenge his mother’s death.  Watch a trailer for one of the more recent installments to get a sense of the visuals at play.

Alex Pettyfer Addresses the MORTAL INSTRUMENTS Rumors

by Christina Radish    Posted: January 23rd, 2011 at 6:35 pm

A few days ago, Vulture reported that an offer went out to 20-year-old British actor Alex Pettyfer, star of the upcoming I Am Number Four and Beastly, for the role of Jace Wayland, the male lead in the film adaptation of the Mortal Instruments book series. Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper apparently even said that he feels so strongly about the actor that he only wants to greenlight the film, if he signs on.

At this weekend’s press day for I Am Number Four, we got the opportunity to ask the actor (who was paired with director D.J. Caruso for the interview) if he is, indeed, interested in signing on for the fantasy film, based on the best-selling novel City of Bones (the first book in the series) by author Cassandra Clare. For what he had to say, hit the jump:

EASY A Director Will Gluck Is Producing a Remake of ABOUT LAST NIGHT for Screen Gems

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: January 20th, 2011 at 9:37 pm

Writer/director Will Gluck solidified his stature as a comedic voice to watch with last year’s Easy A, one of 2010′s funniest true comedies.  So you can be sure I’m watching closely as Variety reports Gluck is attached to produce a remake of the 1986 Brat Pack romantic comedy About Last Night… The original threw Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi, and Elizabeth Perkins together for an adaptation of the 1974 David Mamet play Sexual Perversity, about “a couple who start a romantic affair despite their friends’ disapproval.”

For now, Gluck is only on board as producer, though he’ll help Screen Gems select a writer and director for the project.  As a director, Gluck has the Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis comedy Friends with Benefits due July 22, and will reunite with Easy A star Emma Stone for an untitled comedy.  Hit the jump for a trailer and synopsis for the original About Last Night.

8 Movie Clips from COUNTRY STRONG; Hear Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund Sing

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 13th, 2010 at 9:37 am

With Country Strong opening in limited release  December 22 and everywhere Friday, January 7th, Screen Gems has released 8 clips which showcase the characters and the music.  If you haven’t heard of Country Strong (watch the trailer here), it was written and directed by Shana Feste and it stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Leighton Meester, and Garrett Hedlund. Here’s the synopsis:

Soon after a rising young singer-songwriter (Hedlund) gets involved with a fallen, emotionally unstable country star (Paltrow), the pair embarks on a career resurrection tour helmed by her husband/manager (McGraw) and featuring a beauty-queen-turned-singer (Meester).  Between concerts, romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all.

Something that surprised me about the film is that everyone who sings is really singing.  Meaning when Paltrow, Hedlund and Meester are on stage, you’re really hearing their voices  And they’re all pretty good.  Hit the jump for more – including 8 clips:

Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein to Helm UNDERWORLD 4

by Jason Barr    Posted: November 12th, 2010 at 11:09 pm

Underworld 4 has found its director(s).  Heat Vision reports that the Swedish team-up of Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein will take on directorial duties for the film.  Underworld 4 will mark the second English-language feature for the pair who also co-directed the 2009 UK thriller Shelter starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Showtime’s The Tudors).  Marlind and Stein will helm the project for Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment from a script by John Hlavin.  Multi-platform scribe J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling & one of my personal favorite comics, Rising Stars) performed rewrite duties for the film.

With the news of Marlind and Stein’s hiring in the bag, the fourth installment of the Underworld franchise continues to take shape.  Almost two months ago, we confirmed that Kate Beckinsale would return to her rightful place as the unequivocally bad-ass vampire warrior, Selene.   At that time we also reported that the film would begin production in Vancouver during March 2011, with a January 20th, 2012 release in mind.

EASY A Director Will Gluck, Emma Stone Reunited for Untitled Screen Gems Comedy

by Bill Graham    Posted: November 12th, 2010 at 5:39 pm

Fans of the well-received teen comedy Easy A have much to celebrate today. That’s because Deadline is reporting that director/writer/producer Will Gluck has signed a deal with Screen Gems that will have him fill all three roles for an upcoming, untitled comedy starring Emma Stone. The idea is to have the film in production by next summer. While the deal will reunite Gluck and Stone from their time on Easy A, there is an interesting omission that is never mentioned in the article. Hit the jump to find out what that unsecured but key element is and how Gluck and Stone will manage to work this film into their busy schedules.

Copyright ©2005 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. California web design