Life isn’t a fairy tale.  Life requires life beyond loss and according to writer-director-producer Akiva Goldsman, that’s why we need fairy tales for adults like his new movie, Winter’s Tale.  The book-to-film adaptation stars Colin Farrell as a thief named Peter Lake.  Peter’s perfectly fine stealing to get by, but after crossing paths with Jessica Brown Findlay’s Beverly Penn, he abandons everything he’s known for something he’s experiencing for the very first time – true love.

Just ahead of the film’s Valentine’s Day debut, Goldsman, Farrell and Brown Findlay as well as co-stars Jennifer Connelly who portrays Virginia, a mother with an ailing daughter whose fate becomes intertwined with Peter Lake’s, and Eva Marie Saint who steps in as the older version of Beverly’s younger sister, all sat down for a press conference in New York City.  Check out what the gang had to say about the challenge of enticing an audience to suspend disbelief, their personal experiences with miracles, the ups and downs of shooting the film’s most intimate scene and more. Hit the jump for more. 

Even though he’s a prolific writer and producer, having won an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind and produced acclaimed features including Lone Survivor and I Am Legend, Akiva Goldsman decided it was time to give directing a go.  However, it wasn’t because Goldsman had dreamed of eventually directing a feature, but rather because he found material that struck such a chord that directing the piece himself became the only option.  Come Valentine’s Day, we’ll get the chance to check out Goldsman’s directorial debut, an adaptation of Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel, Winter’s Tale. The film focuses on Colin Farrell’s Peter Lake, an expert thief who walks into a home intending to steal and winds up having something stolen from him – his heart.  (Come on; Valentine’s Day is on the way!)

Now, in addition to Goldsman’s The Dark Tower update, you can catch what he told us about bringing Winter’s Tale to screen including how the loss of a loved one made him particularly passionate about the narrative, what happened when their visual effects company shut down prior to filming, the decision to cast Will Smith as well as what we can expect from his script for the Divergent sequel, Insurgent, and loads more in the full video interview below.

We’ve been talking about a film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower for quite some time now, but after Ron Howard announced that the folks involved took “a vow of silence” about its progress, they did just that and we hadn’t heard anything about it since.  However, that all changed just a few weeks ago when Aaron Paul said that he’s sat down with Howard to discuss playing Eddie Dean in the film.  The thing is, Paul dubbed this meeting a “general sit down,” which in no way means he was offered a role in the film and the Dark Tower producer, Akiva Goldsman, just confirmed it.  Hit the jump for more.

With the recent news that Neil Burger – the director for Summit’s upcoming Divergent adaptation – would not be returning to helm the sequel, the search is still on for a new director.  On the screenwriting front, however, Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) has been tapped to work on the follow-up film, Insurgent.  The first draft of the film was written by Brian Duffield (Jane Got a Gun).  Shooting on the adaptation of the second book in Veronica Roth’s YA trilogy is scheduled to begin this spring.  Hit the jump for more.

Director Guy Ritchie is looking to kick off another franchise at Warner Bros., and this is one that the studio has been trying to get off the ground for years.  If you’ll remember, Warner Bros. developed a take on the King Arthur legend called Arthur & Lancelot a couple of years ago with David Dobkin (The Change-Up) attached to direct.  The project went so far as to cast Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) and Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop) in the lead roles, but WB pulled the plug when the budget got two high.  It looked as if things might pick up when Colin Farrell then entered talks to take on a lead role, but that casting didn’t work out and Dobkin went on to direct Robert Downey Jr. in the upcoming drama The Judge.

Now Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie is looking to revive a King Arthur film at the studio, this time as part of an ambitious six-film franchise.  Hit the jump to read on.

Here’s some news on the latest TV adaptations:

• Paramount is recreating Jerry Zucker’s 1990 film, Ghost, as a TV series.  The film starred Patrick Swayze as a murdered man who attempted to avenge his death after becoming a ghost.  Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner will write the pilot.
• The CW is looking to reboot Tales from the Darkside, the 1980s horror/fantasy/thriller anthology series by George A. Romero.  Joe Hill will write the half-hour series and will produce alongside Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci.

Hit the jump for more on both projects. 

The first trailer for writer-director Akiva Goldsman’s Winter’s Tale adaptation.  Based on the Mark Helprin novel, Goldsman’s directorial debut centers on a a thief (Colin Farrell) who breaks into the home of a bed-ridden young woman (Jessica Brown Findlay) and ends up falling in love with her.  Russell Crowe stars as Pearly Soames, a violent crime lord and leader of the Short Tail gang who is after the thieving protagonist. In charge of tracking him down is Romeo Tan (Kevin Corrigan), Soames’ ruthless right-hand man who acts as his boss’s enforcer in 1916 New York.

Also starring Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Eva Marie Saint, Ripley Sobo and Mckayla Twiggs, Winter’s Tale opens February 14th.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

The lengthy and drama-filled development of The Dark Tower will make for a damn fine book one day.  A feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s book series has been in the works for years, and most recently director Ron Howard has been working with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to get the project to the screen.  There have been plenty of ups, downs, and exciting possibilities along the way, with the duo floating a three-film adaptation that would be bridged by two TV miniseries seasons.  The last we heard on the project was that Warner Bros. had passed but MRC might be looking to pick up the rights.  That was over a year ago.

Now Ron Howard has given a public update on the adaptation, confirming that it is indeed still alive and kicking.  However, after the media whirlwind that surrounded the first go of development, he and Goldsman have agreed to go on radio silence about the pic’s progress.  Hit the jump for more.

We’ve got 18 new images today from the set of Akiva Goldsman’s Winter’s Tale.  The adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel centers on a a thief (Colin Farrell) who breaks into the home of a bed-ridden young woman (Jessica Brown Findlay) and ends up falling in love with her.  Russell Crowe stars as Pearly Soames, a violent crime lord and leader of the Short Tail gang who is after the thieving protagonist. In charge of tracking him down is Romeo Tan (Kevin Corrigan), Soames’ ruthless right-hand man who acts as his boss’s enforcer in 1916 New York.  The picture also co-stars William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Matt Bomer, Eva Marie Saint and Will Smith, who will cameo as a judge.  Hit the jump to check out the images from Winter’s Tale. 

Zac Efron is heading into fantasy territory.  Fresh off his role in Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy, Heat Vision reports that Efron is teaming up with producer Akiva Goldsman for a mystery supernatural project at Warner Bros. called The Falling.  The logline is being kept under wraps for now, but the story is said to be “an edgy thriller centering around an otherworldly being.”  Efron will star in the film and will produce alongside Goldsman, Tory Tunnell, and Joby Harold (All You Need Is Kill).

The story idea was brought to Goldman’s attention by Warner Bros., and Goldsman then hammered out a full story with Harold.  The search now begins for a screenwriter to pen the script.  Goldsman most recently wrapped his directorial debut, a fantasy pic called Winter’s Tale.  A screenwriter by trade, Goldsman won the Oscar for penning A Beautiful Mind and was also responsible for writing I Am Legend and I, Robot.

Recently seen battling the unded in Resident Evil: Retribution, Boris Kodjoe will next battle sex-addiction in the Lionsgate drama, Addicted.  Paul Hall will produce with Bille Woodruff (Honey) attached to direct.  The picture centers on a supposedly happily-married mother of three children who satisfies her sex addiction by sleeping around.  Sex addiction tales seem to be a trend on the rise (Shame, Thank You For Sharing), all paving the way to the inevitable Fifty Shades of Grey. Variety’s report shares no details as to Kodjoe’s role, so it’s unclear as to which side of the addiction he will be on.  Kodjoe can next be seen in another film that deals with infidelity in brutal ways in director Douglas Aarniokoski’s Nurse 3-D.

Hit the jump for news on the newest addition to Akiva Goldsman’s directorial debut, Winter’s Tale, starring Russell Crowe. 

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this morning.  First up, Ewan McGregor will topline the Australian heist thriller Son of a Gun.  The story centers on the relationship between a veteran thief and his young protégé, with McGregor set to play the thieving expert.  Variety’s report is short on further details, but Julius Avery will make his feature directorial debut on the project from a script that he also wrote.  The thriller is set to begin filming in Perth, Kalgoorlie, and Western Australia early next year.

McGregor is currently in Oklahoma (Boomer Sooner) filming the star-studded adaptation of the stage play August: Osage County.  Produced by George Clooney and directed by John Wells (ER, The Company Men), the pic stars Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, and many, many more.  McGregor will next be seen in the disaster drama The Impossible, opening later this year.  Hit the jump for casting news concerning the fantasy Winter’s Tale.

Academy Award-winning scribe Akiva Goldsman’s directorial debut is filling out its cast.  The A Beautiful Mind screenwriter already has Colin Farrell set as the lead in his adaptation of Mark Helprin’s novel Winter’s Tale with Russell Crowe and Will Smith taking (relatively small) supporting roles, and now Deadline reports that Matt Bomer (White Collar), Lucy Griffiths (True Blood) and legendary actress Eva Marie Saint (North By Northwest) have joined the cast.  The fantasy tale tells the story of a thief, a dying girl, and a flying white horse in 19th century and contemporary Manhattan, with Farrell playing the thief.

Bomer and Griffiths will play Farrell’s parents, but Saint’s pivotal role is being kept under wraps.  The report also adds that Hans Zimmer will perform scoring duties on the pic.  Goldsman has rounded up an impressive supporting cast, including William Hurt and Jessica Brown Findlay, with production set to begin in New York on October 27th.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

Is John Travolta about to pick up the mop and slop bucket in the leading role of The Toxic Avenger remake?  Probably not, but that’s the rumor of the day.  The original 1984 film from Troma Entertainment featured nerdy janitor Melvin (Mark Torgl) being tossed into a barrel of nuclear waste by a pack of bullies.  He then became the hideous, yet superpowered Toxic Avenger (Mitch Cohen).  The remake, directed by Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) from a script by Daniel C. Mitchell, has apparently been re-imagined as a family-friendly, pro-environment PG-13 flick (completely different from the original B-film that was filled with nudity, sex and grotesque violence).  Travolta simply does not fit as the hero of this picture, but hit the jump for what role may suit him, along with the synopsis and trailer for the original film.

It was a little more than two weeks ago that we brought you the sobering news that Imagine’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series had a go/no-go deadline looming.  That deadline has now come and gone and it looks as if Warner Bros. has passed.  This comes as yet another setback to the project, which has seen its share of woes: being let go by Universal, several budgetary concerns and difficulty landing a lead.  The latest iteration of the script from Akiva Goldsman had Russell Crowe showing an interest if the project were to be greenlit.  Sadly, that did not happen at Warner Bros.  But there may yet be hope for Roland Deschain and director/producer Ron Howard.  Hit the jump for more.

[Update: Deadline reports that Media Rights Capital is in "serious talks" to finance the project, in part because MRC executive Modi Wiczyk is apparently a big fan of the books.  The original story follows after the jump.]