Mel Brooks hopes next delivery is Pizzaman
Mel Brooks isn’t going anywhere. The renowned funnyman says he’s not closing down his production shingle Brooksfilms, contrary to a New York gossip page report, and is developing a horror film “I’m not quitting,” Brooks, 81, told The Hollywood Reporter. “Brooksfilms is still here and will be going on for a while. I’m not at all slowing down, and nobody has told me to stop.”
The latest project, Pizzaman, is a serious horror film that marks Brooksfilms’ return to the genre. The company produced the successful The Fly and its not-so-successful sequel, The Fly II. Brooks said the project is in the script and rewrite stage and that he’s yet to shop it to the studios. He is writing it with Rudy De Luca and Steve Haberman, who previously worked with him on Life Stinks and Dracula: Dead And Loving It.
Brooks formed Brooksfilms in 1980 when he became interested in producing the drama The Elephant Man and believed audiences would think the film was a comedy if it was labeled A Mel Brooks Film. The Culver Studios-based shingle has gone on to produce several dramas, including Frances and 84 Charing Cross Road, as well as comedies. Brooks continues to work on the animated Spaceballs series for cable channel G4, lending his voice to the characters President Skroob and Yoghurt, as well as on the Broadway stage version of Young Frankenstein.
Bruce Willis game for Kane & Lynch thriller
Bruce Willis is in negotiations to play a death row inmate in Kane & Lynch, a thriller based on a video game. Willis’ character, Kane, and a schizophrenic killer named Lynch, are sprung by Kane’s former team so that he can retrieve a stolen fortune. Kane travels to Los Angeles, Japan and Cuba, with Lynch acting as the team’s watchdog in order to save his wife and daughter. The Lionsgate project is eyeing a fall start, with a hunt now on to find an actor to play Lynch. Veteran stunt coordinator Simon Crane will make his feature directing debut on the film. The game was published last year by Eidos Interactive. Willis is shooting The Surrogates, which Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) is directing for Disney. Crane is the stunt coordinator and second unit director on the sci-fi movie.
Strike fears lead to change Terminator cast
Bryce Dallas Howard is in negotiations to replace Charlotte Gainsbourg in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Gainsbourg was originally set to play Kate Connor, the wife of human resistance hero John Connor, played by Christian Bale. The actress had to bow out because of scheduling conflicts with another film, a French comedy. Production on the fourth entry in the Terminator franchise, directed by Charlie’s Angels filmmaker McG, is already underway in New Mexico. If an actors strike were to happen after the Screen Actors Guild expires on June 30, shooting would stop and then restart at a later date, potentially butting heads with the French film. Gainsbourg was last seen in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, while Howard last starred as Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3.