Thursday Rushes, Chapter Two – Nazi War Monsters, Angelic Dogfights And… Walter

Hellboy co-writer Peter Briggs is working on Panzer 88, a “cabin thriller” set mainly in a tank and with a supernatural twist. The FX are being carried out by Weta, which should sell a few tickets to we geeks at least. io9 have spoken to Briggs and published some concept art (sample above). Best quote:

The Nazis in Hellboy and Raiders are comic book characters: in this movie, the Reich’s portrayed with absolute realism, as they would be in Das Boot. There’s one line, about a Special Order coming down from on-high in Berlin, but it’s not elaborated on

Judy Blume has confirmed Production Weekly‘s story that an adaptation of her book Tiger Eyes is in preproduction. The author’s son Lawrence is to direct.

Carey Mulligan is stopping by cinemas screening Never Let Me Go to speak to the audience before the film. It’s only on in NY and LA, but Just Jared have the times and places of where Carey will be popping up.

Nicholas Stoller has seen the design of the new Muppet for the new Muppet movie he’s co-written. He wouldn’t name him in the Movieline interview, but I will: Walter. And, technically, he won’t be a Muppet at the start of the movie…

As well as a stage musical about Cher (who the hell are they going to cast in that? Cher?), Andy Fickman is developing the two feature films: Boy Scouts vs. Zombies and TMI, which apparently stands for Too Much Information and will star Anna Faris.

MGM’s two on-the-shelve films, Red Dawn and Cabin in the Woods, have been postponed yet again. This is likely a sign of health, and the impending fix-up of MGM’s woes with the two films being put on hold for the new overlords to decide how they’ll position them.

Here’s the first release trailer for Casino Jack, as opposed to the sales one that was knocking about a few months ago. It stars Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff.

Here’s a few stories from The Hollywood Reporter:

Deadwood‘s Molly Parker is to direct her first feature, an adaptation of Joan Clark’s novel An Audience of Chairs. The film has been titled The Ballad of Maura MacKenzie.

David Fincher is setting up an imprint with MRC. If the deal goes through, we’ll get at least a couple of “Fincher Presents” movies. Will this be where the moolah for The Goon is finally sourced?

Filming had been delayed on The Darkest Hour by forest fires near it’s Russian location, but shooting has now started. Moscow was suffering from some real smog, but now the skies are… light grey again? The film is a science fiction yarn produced by Timur Bekmembetov and directed by Chris Gorak, and featuring US actors Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby.

Jennifer Garner has joined the cast of Better Living Through Chemistry opposite Jeremy Renner. They’ll play a pair of pharmaceuticals abusers who plot to kill the husband of Garner’s character.

And here’s a trio from Variety:

The Crow and Dark City‘s Alex Proyas has signed on to direct a 3D adaptation of Paradise Lost. it’s being described as some kind of epic action film with aerial battles between the good and bad angels. I can’t imagine it will owe much to the original Milton at all.

Jeffrey Archer has sold the film and TV rights to ten of his “literary works”. Can’t see these being big-budget, all-star affairs.

The Weinsteins will be releasing Submarine in the US, The Conspirator has gone to a pact between Lionsgate and Roadside Pictures,Sony Pictures Classics will release Pedro Almodovar’s next film.

There are to be early preview screenings of Freakonomics next week for which the audience will be asked to pay as little or as much as they like. If you want to attend, then a) live in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Denver or Seattle and b) stop by MovieTicketsDotCom.

Guillermo del Toro has told Collider that Dennis Muren is designing the monsters for At the Mountains of Madness. This is a very good thing. Meanwhile, del Toro is developing a trilogy of video games, one due every three years or so for a decade… Interesting.