New showrunner for Moonlight
The CBS freshman drama Moonlight has had its share of difficulties. Add to it one more as the showrunner and executive producer Chip Johannessen has decided to depart the series.
The show’s writing team and executive producer Joel Silver will collectively run the show until a replacement for Mr. Johannessen has been found. Four additional episodes of the show have been ordered for this season.
Moonlight has shown some promise for CBS and was kept on the air during the writer’s strike. The premise involves a vampire detective who falls for a mortal woman.
Despite behind-the-scenes drama, CBS president Les Moonves has stated the show will likely be picked up for a second season. I suppose that’s a good thing, but I remember this show when it was called Angel. I’m not the first person to notice this. The creators obviously did when they hired Angel co-creator David Greenwalt to run the show and he subsequently left it.
Guy Ritchie Attached to Direct Sgt. Rock for Joel Silver
Fresh off working with Guy Ritchie on Rocknrolla (due this October), mega-producer Joel Silver says he’s tapped the British director/major Madonna fan to see through his long gestating comic book adaptation of Sgt. Rock. AICN got the succinct scoop…
Moriarty: But you do that with properties. You stick by them, like SGT. ROCK. You have developed that for a long time now…
Joel: I’m going to make that. I’m going to make that very soon. With Guy Ritchie, I think.
Moreover, Sgt. Rock screenwriter John Cox, who also adapted Virgin Comics’ wartime-set Virulents due in 2009, has posted Silver’s statement on his MySpace. Years ago, Sgt. Rock was planned as a big budget Schwarzenegger vehicle, and last year Cox briefly threw around Kiefer Sutherland’s name for the title role, but no actor has been set. What’s cool about the film is that it will apparently keep the comics’ gruff World War II setting instead of going the Iraq-update route, and rather than an origins story, Cox has said it will focus on Rock after he’s seen considerable combat/bloodshed.
Not sure what I think of Ritchie’s involvement. He’s never tackled a project this large and multi-faceted, but his early films have cockney flare for days. What do you think?
New 1-18-08/Cloverfield Trailer and Title, Christmas Speed Racer Trailer
I’ve been hearing in the past couple weeks from a number of sources that a new 1-18-08/Cloverfield movie trailer will premiere in front of Beowulf on November 16th. Our friends at ComingSoon seem to be pretty sure that this is actually true. I mean, it does makes sense as it’s Paramount big film before the release of the JJ Abrams-produced monster movie. Will the movie be called 1-18-08? Cloverfield? Overnight? We might find out on November 16th.
SciFi has also learned that a Speed Racer trailer will be released sometime around Christmas.
“…it’s pretty spectacular. So you’ll see it pretty soon,” said producer Joel Silver.
I’m guessing that the trailer will be attached to National Treasure: Book of Secrets or Sweeney Todd. The Disney sequel seems more likely as Speed Racer is rated G.
Chimpanzee Gone Wild on Speed Racer set
As you probably know, while most of the sets might be computer generated, Speed Racer’s pet chimpanzee Chim-Chim is being played by an actual real monkey in the Wachowski Brothers big screen adaptation. There are now allegations that the chimp was beaten after biting one of the human actors. PETA is pissed:
“We are in receipt of information that may upset you,” PETA wrote to producer Joel Silver. “We’ve received several troubling complaints from people who have been on the ‘Speed Racer’ set and report that the main chimpanzee ‘actor’ has been beaten and has bitten one of the human actors.”
“We appreciate the concerns of your organization,” came back the letter from movie company Warner Bros. “We also respect the vision and choices of the filmmakers with which we work. Every option on a film is carefully weighed, and for this production, the decision was made to use live animals.”
However, a spokesperson for the film told msnbc that “a chimp did chomp on a young actor, but said that the actor was treated and the animal was given a rest.” The spokesperson aksi sent along assurances from the American Humane Society that no animals were being abused. The movie studio would never lie, right? PETA has suggested that Silver stop using the live animal and switch to animatronics. An animatronic Chim-Chim? They can’t be serious, can they?