Alan Taylor, who hasn’t directed anything for the big screen since 2003’s indie drama “Kill The Poor,” will helm Marvel’s big-budget actioner “Thor 2,” according to Deadline Hollywood.
 
Taylor is likely best known as an HBO director, having lensed episodes of everything from “Oz,” “Sex and the City,” “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” “Big Love,” “In Treatment” and “Bored To Death” to period dramas like “Rome,” “Deadwood,” “Carnivale,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “Game Of Thrones.”
 
So he has a lot of experience with both contemporary and non-contemporary settings. His work blending CGI with live action on the period series has been splendid.
 
Away from HBO he’s directed installments of “Homicide: Life On The Street,” “Now and Again,” “The West Wing,” “Keen Eddie,” “Lost,” “Law & Order,” “Mad Men,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Rubicon” and “The Playboy Club.”
 
Before now, Taylor’s best-known big-screen work was likely the 2001 switched-identities Napoleon comedy “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” starring Ian Holm. (Maybe it’s the feature experience that got him the job over Timothy Van Patton?)  His first feature was 1995's "Palookaville."
 
Taylor replaces Patty Jenkins (director of the Charlize Theron serial killer vehicle "Monster" ), who apparently fell out of the project following creative differences with Marvel execs.
 
Actor Chris Hemsworth ("Star Trek," "Cabin in the Woods" ) and screenwriter Don Payne ("My Super Ex-Girlfriend," "Rise of the Silver Surfer" ) are both returning from Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor.”

This is a case of what seems completely obvious to the fanbase may not be so obvious to the studio - Warner Brothers is shutting down production of AKIRA at this time, according to the Hollywood Reporter. With Jaume Collet-Serra at the helm, it looks like he just couldn't make the movie at $90 million.  Sources say it's budgetary concerns, with the studio trying to bring it down to $70 million, and at least one source says it's the script, by Steve Kloves, that just isn't ready.
 
This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who's ever seen the anime - AKIRA is huge spectacle and the last half-hour practically goes to the edge of the universe and back.  If they were sticking close to the cartoon, they would have to contend with a vast city being destroyed, a giant amoeba-like god in the middle of a stadium, satellites shooting lasers from the sky, and that's just the tip of the tentacle.  According to insiders, if they can't get these issues squared away the project could be shut down entirely.
 
I really did want to see an American take on the subject matter, but if they can't do it right, there's no point in doing it at all.  AKIRA is beloved by anime fans the world over, and a live-action film from America might not have held up to the incredible scrutiny that would have been plaed upon it.  Add to that a director who just did not seem right for a project of this scale, and I think this could very well have been a recipe for disaster

Plot:
 
“In the upcoming third installment of the popular sci-fi franchise, Riddick get’s betrayed by the Necromonger army and is left for dead on a desolate planet. He has to fight for survival against alien predators and must deal with two squads of bounty hunters, who are coming after him to collect the bounty for the most wanted man in the galaxy.”

THE WOLVERINE's Release Date Is Set...

 
THE WOLVERINE, the sequel to 2009's X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, has set a release date - 26 July, 2013.  
 
Hugh Jackman returns to the Logan/"Wolverine" role he assumed in the first three X-MEN films, with James Mangold (COP LAND, KNIGHT AND DAY, 3:10 TO YUMA, and WALK THE LINE) directing.  Christopher McQuarrie (WAY OF THE GUN, THE USUAL SUSPECTS) is scripting - LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD's Mark Bomback also worked the screenplay.  Bomback is also a scripter on Len Wiseman's forthcoming TOTAL RECALL reinterpretation.  
 
THE WOLVERINE is finds Logan in something of a forbidden love, and squaring off against Silver Samurai.

Michael Bay Teases ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Origin Change for Reboot

The live-action ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ franchise reboot will tweak the reptilian characters’ origin story, according to producer Michael Bay. Read on for the details.
Before continuing on, we ought to clarify: Michael Bay is only producing the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series reboot through his Platinum Dunes, not directing. Helming duties (for better or for worse) on the project look to instead be given to Jonathan Liebesman, who previously worked on the Bay-produced Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and last year’s alien invasion thriller Battle: Los Angeles.
 
Bay talked about the TMNT reboot at the 2012 Nickelodeon Upfront in New York – promising a cinematic return-to-form for the sewer-dwelling masked vigilantes, while also casually dropping a bombshell (turtleshell?) about how the characters’ traditional origin story will be altered for the new movie.
 
 
On the topic of how convincing the famous anthropomorphic reptilian stars of TMNT will be, Bay said:
 
“When you see this movie, kids will believe one day that these turtles do exist, when we’re done with this movie.”
 
With Bay backing the project and Liebesman – who looks to better establish himself as an effects-savvy director with this month’s Wrath of the Titans – mostly likely directing, the TMNT reboot should easily fulfill on that promise. A hybrid approach that combines animatronics with motion-capture digital effects (similar to that in Real Steel) in order to bring Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael to life, seems like the best way to go.
 
However, Bay’s next comment on the subject is bound to not go over so well (the first part, that is):
 

Now, before anyone metaphorically (or semi-literally) explodes over Bay’s statement, don’t forget: going back to their comic book roots, the traditional backstory for the Turtles is that they were regular… well, turtles, who changed after being exposed to a radioactive substance. It’s a pretty ridiculous setup for even a comics series that started out as a satirical imitation of Frank Miller’s brutally grim and violent Ronin/Elektra comics – but eventually gave rise to a beloved property that stands on its own.
 
So, here’s the million dollar question: does having the Turtles instead simply be aliens (even “Mutant” ones) sound like a good idea, an inconsequential change – or a terrible decision?