Michelle Pfeiffer in Talks to Join Angelina Jolie in ‘Maleficent 2’
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- Published on Tuesday, 01 May 2018 10:45
- Written by Variety
Michelle Pfeiffer is in advanced talks to join Disney’s sequel of its hit “Maleficent,” starring Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning.Ed Skrein is also on board to join the cast, with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” helmer Joachim Ronning set to direct.If a deal closes, Pfeiffer is on board to play the queen in the movie.Joe Roth is producing the film, with Jez Butterworth and Linda Woolverton penning the latest script. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster wrote the most recent draft.It is not clear where this film will pick up following the first movie, which was based on the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty.” The original story centered on an evil fairy who cursed an infant princess to eternal sleep, only to realize the young girl was the only one who could save the kingdom from its dangerous ruler. “Maleficent” broke several box office records on its way to making $758.5 million worldwide.Production on the sequel is set to start in 2018.After taking some time off, Pfeiffer has been busy in the past year, starting with her Emmy-nominated role in the HBO movie “Wizard of Lies,” where she played Bernie Madoff’s wife, Ruth. She followed that up with scene-stealing roles in Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!” and “Murder on the Orient Express.”Pfeiffer can be seen next in Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” her first comic-book role since her famous turn as Catwoman in “Batman Returns.”She is repped by CAA and Management 360.
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Ed Skrein Lands Villain Role in ‘Maleficent’ Sequel
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- Published on Saturday, 05 May 2018 16:19
- Written by Vartiety
“Deadpool” actor Ed Skrein is in final negotiations to join Disney’s “Maleficent” sequel.Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning are returning to starring in the fantasy film, with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” helmer Joachim Ronning to direct.Exact details behind Skrein’s villain role are currently under wraps.Joe Roth is producing the film, with Jez Butterworth and Linda Woolverton penning the latest script. Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster wrote most recent draft.It is not clear where this film will pick up following the first movie, which was based on the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty.” The original story centered on an evil fairy who cursed an infant princess to eternal sleep, only to realize the young girl was the only one who could save the kingdom from its dangerous ruler. “Maleficent” broke several box office records on its way to making $758.5 million worldwide.Production on the sequel is set to start in 2018.Skrein, who broke out as Ryan Reynolds nemesis in the first “Deadpool, is also known for his role as Daario Naharis in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” His upcoming projects include Robert Rodriguez’s “Alita: Battle Angel,” which James Cameron is producing, and Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk.”He is repped by CAA and 42.
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Angelina Jolie, Frances McDormand Secret Best Friends, Planning Movie Together?
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- Published on Saturday, 31 March 2018 16:46
- Written by Gossip Cop
Angelina Jolie and Frances McDormand are secret best friends and planning to team up for a movie together? That’s the claim in one of this week’s tabloids. Although the two actresses might make a dynamic duo, the story isn’t true. A rep for McDormand tells Gossip Cop she’s not working on a project with Jolie.According to OK!, the actresses bonded at the Golden Globes earlier this year, and have since become fast friends. A so-called “source” tells the magazine, “Angie isn’t your typical girl’s girl and doesn’t have a lot of female friends, but she has really connected with Frances. They each admire how outspoken and independent the other is, and they’ve bonded over being adoptive mothers.” The outlet’s alleged insider further contends that Jolie and McDormand have been “bouncing project ideas off each other,” adding, “Angie’s saying she would produce and even star in something if Frances did it with her.” Unfortunately for those of you hoping to see a film co-starring the Oscar-winning actresses, it doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon.Gossip Cop is told by McDormand’s spokesperson that she and Jolie aren’t developing a movie together, nor are they secretly “best friends.” It’s possible this story was concocted because Jolie presented McDormand with the award for Best Actress at the Golden Globes in January. The two even gave each other a friendly high-five when McDormand took the stage to accept her statue. But following the ceremony, Jolie attended Netflix’s after-party, while McDormand hit up Fox’s after-party. Considering the two were at different events after the show, it’s unlikely they did much mingling.Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time OK! has placed Jolie into a fake friendship with another female celebrity. Gossip Cop recently busted the magazine for making up a story about Jolie and Jennifer Garner bonding over being single moms. The tabloid is also no stranger to making false claims about the actress’s career. We recently called out the publication for alleging that Jolie couldn’t land any movie roles following her split from Brad Pitt.As for McDormand, OK!’s sister outlet, Star, also published a bogus article surrounding the actress’s night at this year’s Golden Globes. Gossip Cop corrected the tabloid after it claimed that McDormand thought Kate Hudson’s dress was too “inappropriate” for the ceremony. This latest story involving Jolie is more fiction.
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Why The Original Tomb Raider Director Had Trouble Casting Angelina Jolie
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- Published on Wednesday, 14 March 2018 06:51
- Written by Cinema blend
Tomb Raider is only days away from returning to the big screen, this time with Alicia Vikander playing Lara Croft. Vikander inherited the role from Angelia Jolie, who first brought the character to life in 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and reprised the skilled archaeologist in 2003's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life. At the time, Jolie had made a name for herself through movies like Hackers, Girl, Interrupted and Gone in 60 Seconds, but when she auditioned for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, director Simon West had trouble convincing others that she was the right woman for the job due to her unique personality. West recalled: [She] had a great, dark reputation about her. She lived quite an alternative lifestyle and didn't hold back her words. She spoke her mind, and she had a notorious reputation. It was quite hard for me to get her through the approval process at the studio, because I wanted an actress who was going to bring something to the part, and she brought this great Angelina Jolie mythology with her as this dark, crazy, wicked woman with a very particular and interesting personality. I wanted that mythology of Angelina Jolie to fuse with Lara Croft.While Angelina Jolie is still a household Hollywood name, like many other actors, there was a time when she wasn't famous, so she faced an uphill battle scoring the Lara Croft role. As Simon West explained to EW, at the time Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was casting, there hadn't been an actress who'd carried her own action-adventure movie in a while, so Paramount Pictures was initially looking at more established performers. Some of the names thrown out by the studio included Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ashley Judd and Jennifer Lopez, but West only saw Jolie for the Lara Croft part. It undoubtedly helped that Jolie had won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for her turn as Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted, and but when combined with her natural personality, West knew Jolie was up to the task and subsequently altered Lara Croft and the movie's script to suit the actress' strengths.
While Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was met with mostly negative reviews (it ranks at 19% on Rotten Tomatoes), it performed decently at the box office, making over $274 million worldwide. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life's critical reception was a little better than its predecessor, and it made over $156 million worldwide, but when Angelina Jolie announced that she wouldn't play Lara Croft again, a second sequel was scrapped. More than a decade later, Tomb Raider is now being rebooted, and in contrast with the previous movies, this new entry will serve as an origin story for Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft.Angelina Jolie's time as Lara Croft has long since concluded, but you can see what Alicia Vikander does with the character when the Tomb Raider reboot hits theaters this Friday, March 16. To learn what else will be released this year, head to our 2018 premiere guide.
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Neil Burger, Angelina Jolie Teaming for Biopic about Major Mary Jennings Hegar
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- Published on Saturday, 03 March 2018 13:29
- Written by Traciking Board
Director Neil Burger (Divergent) is going to direct an untitled film based on the 2017 memoir SHOOT LIKE A GIRL, written by Purple Heart veteran Major Mary Jennings Hegar, and no less than Angelina Jolie is looking to play the military hero.514QzAwRLPLProduced by the Gotham Group, the current draft of the screenplay was co-written by Alice O’Neill with Burger over previous versions by Frank Baldwin and Jason Hall.Hegar earned the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross after doing three tours of duty in Afghanistan as a rescue pilot, searching and rescuing hundreds of men and women from the battlefield. She also fought against the Department of Defense’s exclusion of women from combat duty calling it unconstitutional.Nicole Brown brought Hegar’s memoir Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front to the Gotham Group, and she will oversee the project with Hannah Minghella.This sounds like a great project and role for Jolie, if she chooses to come on board, because Hegar is an amazing hero that could give Jolie the proper impetus to give another Oscar-winning performance. Jolie won the Oscar for her early role in James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted in 2000, then was nominated a second time for Clint Eastwood’s The Changeling. She was also awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award a few years back. In recent years, Jolie has gone behind the camera to direct a number of films including the film First They Killed My Father.O’Neill and Burger previously collaborated on the Showtime series Billions, on which O’Neill is a story editor and Burger is exec. producer on the show after directing the first two episodes. They also co-wrote the screenplay Tara Delaney, which Burger also intends to direct.Most recently, Burger directed the Kevin Hart-Bryan Cranston comedy The Upside, which is a remake of the hit French film The Intouchables. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was going to be released by the Weinstein Company next month, but the film is now caught up in the bankruptcy faced by the company following the assault charges leveled against founder Harvey Weinstein.Other films in Burger’s filmography include the acclaimed The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton, and the Bradley Cooper sci-fi drama Limitless, which led to the CBS drama of the same name. More importantly, Burger directed the military drama The Lucky Ones, starring Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Peña in 2008, which is more in line with what is needed for the Hegar story. Burger is represented by CAA and Anonymous Content.Repped by ICM Partners and the Gotham Group, O’Neill also wrote the Black List script Buttercup.This project was initially reported on by Variety.
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