Four stories that didn't necessarily merit their own headlines popped up on the trades tonight, including the latest developments on the new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" feature. Hit the jump to find out more on that bit of news as well as what's next for Uma Thurman, Charlize Theron and the director of "Lesbian Vampire Killers"...
Producers have hired writer John Fusco to script the planned big screen re-launch of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". As we told you back in April, producers Scott Mednick ("300") and Galen Walker are using the 25th anniversary of TMNT (the "Shellabration" will wrap up this week at Comic-Con) to launch the latest big screen version in the franchise. Fusco is an interesting choice for the project (which has yet to secure studio backing) - last year he wrote the scripts for "The Forbidden Kingdom" and "Hidalgo" and he recently completed the update of "The Seven Samurai" for The Weinstein Company.
Uma Thurman has signed to play a nun in the real-life drama "Girl Soldier" for the independent Caspian Pictures. The actress will play Sister Caroline, a woman who helped 140 kidnapped schoolgirls escape their captors in Uganda.
Phil Claydon, director of the British cult-hit "Lesbian Vampire Killers", has been tapped by New Line to helm their new comedy "Dan Minter: Badass for Hire". Conceived in homage to 1980s action thrillers such as "Cobra" and "Missing in Action," "Badass" centers on a "tight-jeans-wearing, matchstick-chewing" man stuck in a '80s frame of mind in the modern world. The mind reels...
Finally, THR has an odd story that links Charlize Theron to the latest attempt to bring Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" to the big screen. Though the article claims that the actress has been "driving development" on the project for months, it also contains a quote from her reps that says Theron is "not moving forward with the project." Producers are still hoping to shoot "Shrugged", set up at Lionsgate, by sometime next year - right around the time that the rights to Rand's novel expire.