Brendan Fraser has been struggling on the big screen in the last few years after The Mummy dried up and Dwayne Johnson muscled him out of the Journey franchise.  That being said, Fraser has a slew of projects lined up for the next few years; count the action-thriller Split-Decision among them.  Starring as a father who must protect his children from killer brothers after witnessing a murder, Split-Decision doesn’t sound like the typical light-hearted fantasy fare we’re used to seeing in Fraser’s family films.  Hit the jump to see who’ll be filling in the roles of Split-Decision.

In the climate of budget conscious studios hesitant to gamble money on anything that doesn’t have a “2” in the title, more and more ambitious projects are having trouble crossing the finish line. Universal passed on Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are struggling to get their blended, multi-part film/TV adaptation of The Dark Tower off the ground, and most recently we saw Warner Bros. put their fantasy pic Arthur & Lancelot on hold in order to work out budget issues.

Now you can add Paradise Lost to the list of blue balled titles, as Legendary has pulled the plug. The ambitious adaptation of John Milton’s classic epic poem was to begin shooting in January, but Legendary decided in December to push production back in order to reduce the budget. Now the studio has scrapped the project all together. Hit the jump for more, including why Legendary backed out.

In what is shaping up to be an epic cast (which is good since it’s an epic poem), Paradise Lost has added yet another minion to the legions of dark angels. Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) will play Jerahmeel, an angel who is rechristened as Moloch when he falls in step with Lucifer’s rebellion against Heaven.  Alex Proyas (I, Robot) is directing the Warner Bros.’ project as an action-oriented adaptation of John Milton’s classic poem. The Legendary Pictures production also stars Bradley Cooper as Lucifer, Benjamin Walker as Michael and Casey Affleck as Gabriel. Since this tale has a lot of moving parts and a lot more cast, hit the jump for a break down.

At some point in the script stage, Killer Elite had the potential to be a good movie.  It takes two opposing characters that have equally valid, noble motives and pits them against each other.  Unfortunately, that interesting premise is drowned by paper-thin characters, idiotic writing, action movie clichés, and dull set pieces.  Even as a generic action movie, it falls far short of its low bar.

Remaking a well-known film can leave you with many problems. If you stick too closely to the original, the audience will call you on it and more than anything, the film’s twists and turns can become predictable bores. Luckily for director Rod Lurie, he chose to remake a film that has a strong cinemaphile profile but never caught on with the mainstream crowd back in 1971: Straw Dogs. Sam Peckinpah’s controversial little film on violence and the nature of man starred Dustin Hoffman, yet never caught on, only raking in $11 million worldwide. What this means is that despite only changing the setting from England to the redneck South of the United States, Lurie’s tale can exist as a wholly new experience for the average filmgoer. However, your appreciation for that may be tempered by the controversial parts largely being in tact. Hit the jump for my full review.

Four clips from the action flick Killer Elite have gone online.  The convoluted plot centers on a retired special-ops agent (Jason Statham) who must leave his peaceful life and do some more murdering in order to free his mentor (Robert De Niro).  Meanwhile, he’s being tracked by former SAS operative (Clive Owen) who works for a shadowy organization known as The Feathermen.  If these clips give you the impression that the film isn’t very good, then these clips honestly represent the movie.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  Killer Elite opens September 23rd.

Open Road Films has released new images and the first trailer for the Jason Statham actioner Killer Elite.  It has everything a man could want: guns, explosions, a bikini butt closeup, “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” Clive Owen’s mustache… the list goes on.  I kid, mostly — the trailer is a blast.  Killer Elite looks like a treat for fans of pure action.

Statham plays an ex-special ops agent lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor, played by Robert De Niro: “To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Owen).”  Yvonne Strahovski and Dominic Purcell also star.  Directed by Gary McKendry, Killer Elite hits theaters on September 23.  Hit the jump for the trailer and images.

The trailer for Rod Lurie’s remake of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs has gone online.  The remake transplants the story from rural England to the deep South where a screenwriter (James Marsden) and his wife (Kate Bosworth) relocate to her hometown.  Like in the original, they encounter hostility from the locals and matters get increasingly worse for the couple from there. I’m not familiar with Lurie’s original but I’m liking the Southern setting in the trailer, and Skarsgård is positively creepy as the antagonist.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Alexander Skarsgård, Dominic Purcell, Laz Alonso, Walton Goggins, and James Woods.  Straw Dogs opens September 16th.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this evening. First up, Adam Brody, William Peterson and Rob Corddry are in talks to join Steve Carell and Keira Knightley in Seeking a Friend at the End of the World. The film, written by and marking the directorial debut of Lorene Scafaria, the writer of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, centers on the events surrounding an asteroid spiraling towards Earth, threatening to end all life. Variety reports that Carell will play a man whose wife leaves him once the news of the world’s end hits, prompting him to seek out his high school sweetheart. Knightley stars as his neighbor and adventure companion.

Additionally, Bones star David Boreanaz is set the indie Officer Down. The flick stars Stephen Dorff, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) and AnnaLynne McCord (90210), with Brian A. Miller making his directorial debut. Deadline reports that the story centers on a doctor and security guard who live out each other’s daytime lives in their dreams at night. The security guard murders his wife, and then is hit by a car sending him to the hospital where the doctor works. I’d say things get a little interesting from there. Boreanaz will play a rival detective oppposite the cop played by Dorff.