Paul Haggis rewriting Casino Royale
     Do you like your James Bond films convoluted and self-important?  Would you like a lot of melodrama between Bond and Vesper Lynd (the book's token "Bond girl")?  I hope so, because with Paul Haggis doing a new draft of the next 007 picture, there's a good chance of some mushy, conceited nonsense.

Recycled Idea: Notorious D.A.D.
      Without even going into the horrible title, I can say that this movie was due to happen sooner or later: Lions Gate has bought a pitch for a family comedy about a rapper who loses heat and has to become a nanny to his accountant’s kids. (Variety)

Book Adaptation: Last Lap
      Adam Shankman, the director battling Shawn Levy for title of worst family filmmaker of the decade (which one will direct Notorious D.A.D.?), has been assigned Michael Leonard’s book Last Lap, which tells of the Today Show reporter’s cross-country road trip with his elderly parents. In case the story sounds good to you, I recommend instead checking out Andrew Wagner’s The Talent Given Us, which was one of the underrated delights of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.  (Variety) 

Book Adaptation: A Walk in the Woods
       As much as we’d all like to see Robert Redford and Paul Newman together on screen one more time, A Walk in the Woods might not be the most intriguing idea to make it happen. Based on the book by Bill Bryson about the author’s walk in the woods with a friend, the film could be a geriatric bore for the aging actors. Redford did enough walking in the woods in The Clearing and Newman, despite being 80, has been better in roles that don’t treat him like an old man (Road to Perdition vs. Empire Falls).
         In other news, Redford is still talking about making a sequel to The Candidate, his political comedy from more than 30 years ago. After Bullworth, Primary Colors, Election and this fall’s remake of All the King’s Men, not to mention a heightened cynicism toward politics, the urgency of the wishful project seems lost.  (Reuters)

Novel Adaptation: Killshot
        John Madden’s new film Proof is supposedly pretty good, or at least good in the way that his Shakespeare in Love was good, which isn’t very good at all but is critically well received. Just as he followed the Oscar-winner with an awful adaptation (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), his follow-up to the new Oscar-fodder will be an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Killshot, because Hollywood is so unintelligent that they will keep remaking all of the crime-novelist’s books on name recognition so they can actually read as few books as possible. If anyone had actually read Get Shorty, well, it still would have been made, but maybe someone would have agreed that it was a bad idea.  (Production Weekly)

Remake: The Invisible
David Goyer, writer (Batman Begins; Blade; Ghost Rider) and director (Blade: Trinity; The Flash) of comic book movies, will remake the Swedish non-comic-based thriller The Invisible. The film, which will star Justin Chatwin as a murdered kid stuck in limbo who seeks revenge on his killer, sounds a bit too close to The Crow, the sequel of which was also written by Goyer. (Variety)

Sequel: Bruce Almighty 2
A sequel to the Jim Carrey hit Bruce Almighty is going ahead despite the actor’s decline to return. Morgan Freeman will, however, reprise his role as God, and Steve Carrell, currently dueling Vince Vaughn for the esteem of hottest newly marketable comedy star, is back as Evan Baxter. In fact, Carrell’s character will be taking the lead in the probably redundant sequel, titled Evan Almighty. Despite Carrell being worth more than a “Too” type follow-up (sorry, Jason Bateman), at least they aren’t continuing with Jennifer Aniston receiving the heavenly gift. Imagine how depressing the world would be if she had special powers.  (Variety)

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