McG and Seyfried Con The "Ivy League"

Amanda Seyfried will star in "The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League."

According to /Film: The latest project to fall into the laps of Amanda Seyfried and McG is a movie based upon Sabrina Rudin Erdely’s Rolling Stone article, "The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League."

The story follows habitual identity thief Esther Reed, who enrolled as a student at Columbia University under the name of a missing girl, Brooke Henson.

Detectives looking for the real Brooke Henson track the fake Brooke down, but before they can nab her, she hits the road and vanishes. At this point, police detective Jon Campbell takes on the hunt as easily his biggest case to date--and the chase is on.

Lorene Scafaria ("Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist") pitched the adaptation, which "Terminator Salvation" director McG will likely helm.

I had such high hopes for McG on “Terminator Salvation” and he let me down big time. I mean, I suppose I shouldn’t have had such high hopes from the director of “Charlie’s Angels,” anyway, but from the way things began, it looked as if it was going to be great. Nevertheless, I’m hoping that this film is a chance for him to redeem himself.

Look for the film to shoot later this year.

Sony and Lionsgate Duel For "Terminator" Rights

Apparently, it’s Sony vs. Lionsgate in a bidding war for the rights to the "Terminator" franchise, reports Variety.

As it has been previously reported, the Halcyon Group is putting the rights to future "Terminator" films, TV series, DVDs and merchandise on auction in Los Angeles, days before a bankruptcy court hearing.

According to Variety: A few weeks ago, it looked like the "Terminator" franchise, which has been the subject of sale talk since late last year, might go to Lionsgate after the studio put in a bid for it. There's been no comment from the studio, but Sony placed a bid last Thursday, the final day of the rights auction.

Lionsgate had previously offered $15 million plus 5 percent of future grosses to current owners The Halcyon Group. The sale plans came about in September 2009, after Halcyon filed for Chapter 11.

"Terminator Salvation," the fourth film in the franchise, was produced by Halcyon with Warner Bros. handling domestic distribution and Sony taking international. It carried a production pricetag of about $200 million and took in $371 million worldwide.

Either way, Lionsgate will walk away with something because if it doesn't win, it will receive $750,000 as a breakup fee from the winning bidder.

I’m not the most business savvy person when it comes to industry dealings, but The Halcyon Group really f*&#ed up the “Terminator” franchise, pardon my French.

When I first heard that another film was coming out, I was super excited. I am a huge fan of the first two films and I consider “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” to be one of the best action films of all time. I also am in the minority that actually liked “Terminator 3,” although I do admit it’s the weakest of the trilogy.

When Christian Bale was cast as John Connor, I was pumped. Batman is going to be John Connor, too? That’s great. And I even gave the producers the benefit of the doubt when they brought on McG to direct because it seemed like he had the right ideas in mind to bring another “Terminator” film to the screen. But it just turned out to be one big dystopian mess.

I don’t think “Terminator: Salvation” was horrible, but it fell way below my expectations and selling the franchise may be the best thing to happen to the “Terminator.” Hopefully, the next studio will learn from Hacylon’s past mistakes and the next film is a great one.

Terminator Honored

If somehow every movie in the entire world, and the film business as we know it just one day magically disappeared, and all that was left was the Library of Congress and its National Film Registry, we could see a pretty spectacular set of films. As of Tuesday morning, one of those films will be 1984's sci-fi classic, The Terminator.
And although I'm sure a good amount of humorous headlines were created due to this story, but I definitely have to agree with the decision to add the film. James Cameron's low budget film set a new standard for science fiction movies, and made the governator a star. The movie spawned a fantastic sequel, which is one of the best action movies ever made. We now know that Arnold's famous line "I'll be back," will now definitely stand the test of time.

Damaged Goods?...and Lost!

A couple of really great articles over at io9 I happened to stumble upon:

In the post "Which Summer Movies Did the Writers' Strike Hit Hardest?", they go over some of the warm season's biggest releases and if the writer's strike affected them for better, or for worse. They start off by showing how the strike affected many TV shows, for example: Lost survived unscathed, Heroes...well not so much. Star Trek, Terminator and Transformers are just a few of the movies they asses the damage of the strike for.

















The other article was a succinct, great review of the first two episodes of the new season of Lost, without giving away spoilers. Great to hear that my boy Danny Faraday will be getting some more screen time, apparently a few with Sawyer. I can't wait to hear the nicknames Sawyer will come up with in the banter between him and Jeremy Davies' brilliant but skittish physicist.

Brand New Pictures: Public Enemies, Watchmen and More

It's the new year, and that can mean only one thing: brand new photos! Entertainment Weekly has a gallery full of pictures previewing some of the biggest releases of 2009 including Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost, the Michael Mann directed Public Enemies and Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

Christian Bale geared up as the grown up John Connor in Terminator Salvation.
Another one of Bale sneaking up on an unsuspecting Terminator.
John Travolta (mutton chops and all) taking charge in the Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.
A very blue collar looking Denzel racing down the streets of NYC.
Johnny Depp looking dapper as infamous criminal John Dillinger in Public Enemies.
Christian Bale as the dashing federal agent Melvin Purvis.
Depp contemplating his next move, with a nice souvenir on his arm.
A beautiful shot of Max chasing a monster in the long awaited Where the Wild Things Are.
A tender moment with Max and his crown.
Jeffery Dean Morgan as Edward Blake, aka The Comedian, in Zack Snyder's Watchmen.
Michael Cera and Jack Black in the sure to be absolutely hilarious, Year One.
Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel watching as danger lurks above in Land of the Lost.
Hugh Jackman looking rather angry as Logan in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.