Gerard Butler, Mike Worthington, Matthew McConaughey Team for Iraq War Pic 'Thunder Run'

Getty Images Lather in the beefcake! Gerard Butler, Mike Worthington and Matthew McConaughey are joining up for Thunder Run, an exciting-CG three dimensional action thriller being produced by Freedom Films. Simon West is placed to direct, based on Freedom Films, while Hyde Park Worldwide is handling worldwide sales and starting the title at AFM. The film is adapting the novel Thunder Run- The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad, by Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent David Zucchino. Robert Port, who won an Oscar in 2003 for the best short documentary, and Ken Nolan, who co-authored Black Hawk Lower, composed the script. PHOTOS: Hollywood's A-List Changed The project aims to recount the capture of Baghdad by American forces at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. The 3-day assault was known like a "lightning strike" or "thunder run." The producers wish to fresh paint "the harrowing picture from the soldiers around the front lines and also the facts of contemporary warfare." The Graphic Film Company continues to be drawn on to make use of proprietary facial-capture technology it utilized on West's approaching Evening from the Living Dead: Roots three dimensional movie together with the motion capture technology utilized in Avatar, stated Freedom Films. Creating are Freedom Films' John Presley, together with the business's Carissa Buffel and Kevin Matusow in addition to Jib Polhemus from the Graphic Film Company. The trio's work will consist mostly of voicework but you will see eco-friendly-screen aspects too. "What we should capture within our cameras is going to be them," Presley told The Hollywood Reporter. "It has a stylized effect into it but we're shooting them. We are not ageing them lower like Shaun Bridges in Tron Legacy, it will be them for 2 hrs inside a highly intense tank fight. "The scope from the movie will feel huge and thegoal would be to attract the Cod world. It will not possess a gaming world feel but to possess a stylized turn to it. "We are locked and loaded and can shoot the coming year.Inch Thunder Run is repped by Gersh with CAA also developing board to repetition the film. Gersh also reps Freedom Films. Butler is repped by CAA and Alan Siegel Entertainment, Worthington by CAA and Anonymous Content, McConaughey by CAA and attorney Kevin Morris. West can also be repped by CAA. Gerard Butler Matthew McConaughey Mike Worthington

Hollywood wins U.K. piracy battle

LONDON -- The Hollywood studios have won a landmark legal victory in the U.K. against online pirates. Blighty's top telco BT has been ordered by Hon. Justice Arnold in the Royal Courts of Justice in London to shut down access to file-sharing website Newzbin2, which he deemed guilty of copyright infringements. BT, which is the U.K.'s biggest Internet service provider with 6 million customers, has 14 days to comply with the order. Wednesday's judgment confirmed a ruling made by the same judge on July 28. The case, which was brought by 20th Century Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, Disney and Columbia Pictures, is the first of its kind in Blighty. It creates a precedent, which will allow the studios to move against similar sites. The film biz reacted with overwhelming praise for the court's decision. David Puttnam, prexy of the Film Distributors' Assn., said: "This is a very significant day for the U.K.'s creative industries. The law is clear. Industrial online piracy is illegal and can be stopped." Chris Marcich, prexy and m.d. for Europe, Middle East and Africa for the Motion Picture Assn., said: "This is a win for the creative sector. Securing the intervention of the ISPs was the only way to put the commercial pirates out of reach for the majority of consumers. This move means that we can invest more in our own digital offerings delivering higher quality and more variety of products to the consumer." BT will be liable for all costs associated with the action, and has also been instructed to block any new website that Newzbin2 sets up. Contact Leo Barraclough at leo.barraclough@variety.com

Quiet House Searching For March 9, 2012 Bow

Quiet House will probably be released by Open Road Films and Liddell Entertainment on March 9, 2012, the companies introduced today. This really is really the horror thriller that was part of newcomer Elizabeth Olsen’s coming-out doubleheader as of this year’s Sundance Film Festival many other film there's the critical darling Martha Marcy May Marlene. It absolutely was in Park City where Liddell made the sale for Quiet House, that's co-directed by Open Water helmers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau Open Road showed up inside the summer season to help distribute it. The film concentrates on a girl (Olsen) who finds herself sealed inside her family’s secluded lake house. With no contact for the outdoors world, and no chance out, stress turns to terror as occasions become progressively ominous round her.

First Look: Rose McGowan, Patrick John Flueger in 'The Tell-Tale Heart' (Photos)

"True!-nervous-very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" opens Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Tell Tale Heart. The haunting tale of a man who murders an old man, and then hides his body under his floorboards only to be driven insane by the sound of his still-beating heart has been adapted into an upcoming film starring Patrick John Flueger, Rose McGowan and Peter Bogdanovich.our editor recommendsRose McGowan to Star in Romantic Thriller 'Napa'Scream Awards: Stars Celebrate the Scary (Videos) Flueger, most recently seen in Paramount's Footloose, is playing the lead role, and joining him as the female lead is McGowan, known for her roles in Grindhouse, Scream, Jawbreaker, The Black Dahlia and Charmed. A tale of romance has been added to Poe's dark story for the film adaptation. Bogdanovich (director of Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show) will play the one-eyed old man. VIDEOS: Scream Awards: Stars Celebrate the Scary Director John La Tier's adaptation is currently filming in New Orleans. Also joining the cast is Jacob Vargas (Devil, Traffic, Jarhead), Damon Whitaker (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai), and Kirk Fox (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). The film is being produced by Daniel Zirilli through Popart Film Factory & Leverage Entertainment. Flueger is represented by UTA & Nancy Kremer Management, McGowan by The Gersh Agency & MPE, Bogdanovich by Abrams Artists Agency & MPE, and Zirilli is managed by Zero Gravity. View more exclusive first look photos below: Above: Patrick John Flueger. Below: Patrick John Flueger and Rose McGowan. Related Topics Rose McGowan

X-Men Writers On for Top Gun Sequel

Miller & Stentz buzz the towerIt's been a while since any news about a possible Top Gun sequel hit our news radar, but now it looks like there has finally been a solid development as X-Men: First Class contributors Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz have been hired to work on a script for the film. Last we heard, Tony Scott was definitely involved and has been driving the development in the direction of today's airborne tech, with a focus on the pilots who fly drones and other vehicles via high-tech equipment. We doubt that'll be the total focus (there's not as much danger zone involved when the plane doesn't have an actual pilot to get shot down), but now it'll be Miller and Stentz's job to find the drama.There's no clear word on what that will actually be, but given that Christopher McQuarrie reportedly came up with some story ideas, they should at least have a firm basis from which to start.It now remains to be seen when (or even if) the film itself will actually jump off the deck and head into the production danger zone, but take this as a sign that it's creeping closer to really happening. Whether we need it or not...

Mutual funds embrace Comcast

Universal Pictures may not be winning the box office race, but shares of parent Comcast Corp. top the mutual fund charts. According to figures compiled by fund tracker Morningstar, 1,980 mutual funds hold shares in the cable, broadcast and film company.Walt Disney comes in second among parent companies of film majors with 1,605 portfolios owning DIS.Morningstar complied the figures by searching 6,983 domestic funds that reported owning U.S. stocks in 2011.Dead last is Sony. To be fair, Sony is usually considered an electronics company -- only about 15% of revenues come from film and music. In addition, the Tokyo-based firm has faced a rising yen and the lingering effects of the earthquake and tsunami.Moreover, mutual funds tend to have a "home country" bias. Even so, only 84 U.S. funds out of close to 7,000 own the stock. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Prince Harry Arrives In America

First Published: October 7, 2011 10:02 AM EDT Credit: Crown Copyright/MOD 2011 Caption Prince Harry arrives in El Centro, Calif., on September 6, 2011LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- British Royalty is in The Golden State, once again. On Thursday, Prince Harry touched down at an Air Force base in El Centro, Calif., where he will spend a month taking part in Exercise Crimson Eagle. The 27-year-old, who is known as Captain Harry Wales while training, will take part in the final part of his Apache helicopter training. According to Britains The Telegraph, Harry will train at the same location which was used in Tom Cruises Top Gun, before heading to Arizona for more training at Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field. After this, he will be pretty much completed with his Apache training, a palace source told People. [Then] he will be assigned to an Apache squadron and the issue of deployment will rest with the Ministry of Defense. One local El Centro resident, Jesus Gonzalez, told The Telegraph that Prince Harry might not love the local sights. We dont have places for him to cruise around. Hes going to get bored. I would recommend the mall, Jesus told the British paper. The Telegraph noted that San Diego and Las Vegas are close to where the Prince is stationed. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hugh Jackman talks The Wolverine script

If, like us, you got all excited at the idea of Darren Aronofsky directing a Wolverine movie, don't be too downhearted yet that he pulled out.If what Hugh Jackman says is true, the majority of the script that excited him remains."We had a script that was under Darren Aronofsky's directorial - it's 85 per cent the same. Darren took it in a Darren Aronofsky way and it's a version I know fans would have liked to have seen - I would have loved to have seen it," Jackman told Collider.Even though James Mangold (Walk The Line, Knight & Day) is now helming and Mark Bomback (Live Free Or Die Hard, Unstoppable) has been tinkering with those words, Jackman still feels it's a strong movie."This is the best script we have had, which is precisely why Darren signed on. I tried to get Darren to do X3 and Wolverine and he was always like, 'It's not really for me.' I knew he was looking for a comic-book movie and he read this one and he goes, 'Hey, this is the best one I've ever read.' So there is a lot of meat on the bone there. Now, Mark and Jim have taken it and I think that it is as strong, if not stronger, than what we would have had with Darren."

Paul W.S. Anderson talks Resident Evil 5

Director Paul W.S. Anderson starts shooting Resident Evil: Retribution in a week's time so he had plenty to say about the project during an interview with Collider. "We're bringing in the Las Plagas parasite, which I love because it allows the undead to basically run around, ride motorbikes and shoot machine guns, which no one's done before," he said.Anderson also explained how one action sequence would be lifted from the game, albeit with a change of vehicle."There's a great action sequence which we've been inspired by from the fifth game, which is where the characters are driving in a Hummer through the desert and they're being chased by zombies shooting machine guns on motorbikes. We've taken that and we've kind of run with it. We're not gonna use a Hummer this time we're gonna use a Rolls Royce Phantom, cause no one's ever done a car chase with a Rolls Royce Phantom before. And I've discovered why, because it's really, really expensive."He also explained the thinking behind the introduction of new characters from the games into the film."[The new characters] is something that's kind of come out of Milla [Jovovich] and I talking to fans, feeling the characters that people wanted to come in. [We chose] three of those that seem to be the fan-favourites that we'd never touched on: Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, and Barry Burton," Anderson said."We really went out of our way to get people who looked as much like their characters as possible from the game. This actor Johann Urb, who I'm very excited to be working with, not only is he a really good actor but he looks like Leon Kennedy. I mean you put photographs of them side-by-side, it's almost like he was manufactured by Capcom."Check out the full interview below...

Curtis 50 Cent Jackson Looking For The Pursuit

La, CA October 4, 2011 It had been introduced today that Emmett / Furla Films and Cheetah Vision Films are joining up to create the experience thriller The Pursuit, that will star Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. The announcement is made today by Randall Emmett, who co-runs Cheetah Vision with Jackson and it is joined with George Furla in Emmett / Furla Films. Director Jessy Terrero (Soul Plane Gun) has signed a 3 picture pointing cope with the producers, that will start with him pointing The Pursuit. Principle photography is slated to start Feb 15th 2012 in Louisiana. The film is going to be written by Lionsgate through Cheetah Visions existing 10 picture output cope with the key independent studio. Within The Pursuit a cop and criminal unintentionally synergy to find an steered clear of bank thief as each one has their own personal vendetta from the guy. Meanwhile, a determined US Marshall tracks the males to avoid them from killing the convict and rather ensure that he's introduced to justice the right way. The script is compiled by Matt Manley (In to the Blue, Torque, the approaching Afterburn). Producers are Randall Emmett, George Furla and Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. Additional casting bulletins is going to be produced in the approaching days. With nine films in production this season alone, Emmett / Furla Films, the La based film production and financial institution, has rapidly emerged among the industrys most prolific production companies using the ability to develop, package, finance and convey an extensive variety of films for wide theatrical release. Emmett / Furla is presently in pre-production on Damaged City starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe and Frozen Ground starring John Cusak, Nicolas Cage and Vanessa Hudgens. Both films will start shooting this fall. The organization also offers several major films presently in publish production such as the Stephen Frears directed comedy Lay the favourite starring Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta Johnson, Rebecca Hall and Vince Vaughn the drama Fire with Fire starring Josh Duhamel, Bruce Willis and Rosario Dawson the experience / thriller Self employed starring Robert DeNiro, Forest Whitaker and Curtis 50 Cent Jackson and also the mystery crime thriller Finish of Watch starring Mike Gyllanhall and Anna Kendrick. Emmett / Furla Films lately introduced a brand new $250 million film fund with Picture Entertainment to invest in a brand new slate of high-finish, star-driven commercial movies.

Busan: Fest maps new future

'Always'It's been a tough year for the folks running the Busan Intl. Film Festival. Since the retirement of former director Kim Dong-ho, they've had to battle critics from both the domestic film industry and the international community that the fest might seriously decline without Kim's leadership. But the 16th edition of Asia's largest film festival is ready to leap forward into a new era, with a new name and new headquarters.Festival director Lee Yong-kwan, taking over from Mr. Kim, as he is affectionately known, gets to play in the completed Busan Cinema Center -- planned since 2004, finally breaking ground in 2008. Despite worries over the $137 million construction, the completion was spurred by the city government this year. The festival re-branded itself with the city's English name Busan (from Pusan) and also renamed its project market, the Pusan Promotion Plan, the Asian Project Market.The festival geography has shifted from Haeundae and Nampodong to Centum City, which is located three subway stops away from Haeundae. "We have a total five new screens in the center. The theaters in Nampodong are a bit backward to use as screening venues," says Lee.The Centum City has been developed as an infrastructure for film industry. Department stores, hotels and production outfits pepper the center along with the Busan Cinema Center and Bexco, the city's convention center. Asian Film Market, Bifcom and Asian Film Policy will also occupy Bexco, given the little breathing room in the hotel rooms in Haeundae, where they were held in previous years.Opening with Korean helmer Song Il-gon's "Always," 307 films from 70 countries have been invited including 71 features making world premieres. In terms of Asian films, the festival offers a mix of veteran helmers and new talents."At a Window on Asian Cinema section, you'll get to see many new names transfusing fresh blood into the world cinema, such as Philippines' Adolfo Alix Jr. and Japan's Ishii Yuya," says the executive programmer Kim Ji-seok."For New Currents, the Asian film competition section, we also tried to broaden our selection scope toward various counties in West Asia and South Asia, with a sense of balance" Kim adds. However, observers note that the selection shows the festival's preference for Japanese films over other countries, and doesn't include enough Chinese films, considering the output and economic might of that country.Nevertheless, the festival has extended itself by launching events and enlarging support programs. There are festival awards, a cash prize for the non-Asian film competition section Flash Forward, and the Asian Cinema Fund. Also new is the Busan Cinema Forum, an academic conference, and World Documentary Exchange (WDE), a documentary network between Europe, America and Asia to open up the possibilities of multinational co-production.The changes aim to build Busan into a heavyweight cinema center. Waiting for the relocation of the Korean Film Council to Busan in 2013, the festival has started to strengthen collaborations with Kofic. Their aim is to continue the reputation as the representative Asian film festival in the world, as well as to become a gateway for Korean films toward international market.HIGHLIGHTSSHIFT IN FOCUSThe Busan Cinema Center will host most screenings and events, shifting the fest's center from Haeundae and Nampodong to the just-finished $137 million headquarters.REGIONAL SPOTLIGHTKorean film "Always" opens the fest while Japanese pic "Chronicle of My Mother," from Harada Masato, closes the event.ON THE RED CARPETLee Jeong-hyang's "A Reason to Live," Luc Besson's "The Lady," Peter Chan's "Wu xia," Amir Naderi's "Cut" and Johnnie To's "Life Without Principle" are among the gala screenings.EXTRA DIMENSIONBong Joon-ho's monster classic "The Host" gets a 3D conversion and a gala screening slot.TEACHABLE MOMENTSMaster classes scheduled include Isabelle Huppert, who is also the subject of a photo exhibition, Yonfan, Luc Besson and Hirokazu Kore-eda. Huppert, Besson, Yonfan and Kim Ki-duk will also participate in the fest's hand-printing ceremony, reserved for special honorees.SCHOOL'S IN SESSIONThe BIFF Academy will host various seminars ranging from piracy to 3D to extreme Portuguese cinema.ASIA FOCUSAs always, BIFF's programs A Window on Asian Cinema, Korean Cinema Today and New Currents highlight the best of the region's film fare.FEST TRAVELER: BUSAN INTL. FILM FESTIVAL Fest maps new future | Regional leader | Hark made Hong Kong a global force | Q&A: Lee Yong-kwan Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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