Everyone’s favorite movie star (not mine, but he’s pretty solid), Brad Pitt is set to star in the upcoming sci-fi zombie movie, World War Z.  The World War Z book author Max Brooks confirmed the news to MTV at Comic-Con, which is the first significant news to hit thus far from the annual event.  Brooks additionally has two other books that were optioned to become films, with Pitt likely to star in them as well (or so it seems, today).  Both Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide and Recorded Attacks, other books in a series of zombie-related graphic novels have been snatched up by Paramount.  From MTV:

Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment first secured the rights to “World War Z” back in 2007 after a bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio’s company, Appian Way. The actor has long been rumored as a potential lead for the film, but Brooks received the call confirming Pitt’s attachment (and the other “Survival Guide” deals) while signing copies of the books at the Avatar booth tonight (Wednesday, July 21) during Preview Night at Comic-Con.

“I can’t believe how cool Paramount has been to me and these projects, and how cool Plan B has been,” said Brooks when asked for his reaction to the news.

According to Brooks, the studio is currently targeting a Summer 2012 release for the film.

If you have Leo and Pitt in a bidding war for your projects, you know you have a hot commodity.  It would be cool if they were to BOTH star in them.  Just a thought.  Still, with Pitt, almost everything is intriguing and the thought of a possible trio of films with him in the lead only adds to the intrigue.

As for World War Z, the book (and film purportedly) is about survivors accounts of a worldwide zombie outbreak.  Simple enough.  This comes on the heels of last years fun film, Zombieland and a classic IMO from years back, 28 Days Later.  Zombies don’t die, they just multiply.  Movies, that is.  Share your thoughts below.

Fan-boy favorite writer-director Quentin Tarantino, who has made what is arguably one of the greatest films of all-time in Pulp Fiction, reveals his passion project to the world with Inglourious Basterds; a WWII fantasy revenge movie that is several years in the making.  This is a world where a man nicknamed the “Jew Hunter” seeks to instill fear in any Jew (or those aiding them, as the first scene coolly reveals), during the war.  But this is a Tarantino work, so a polarizing opposition has to be evident to present obstacles to the Nazi Reign. That opposition is found in a group of rag-tag hooligans called the “Inglourious Basterds.”

The plot, fairly straight forward in theory, though it gets a bit more convoluted in execution, is about a group of Nazi hunters who seek to assassinate Hitler (not unlike Valkyrie) and his chief men in charge in order to bring an end to the war. Heading up this underground operation, much to Hitler’s consternation (a great performance from Martin Wuttke) is Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of the titular “Basterds.”  Aldo and his band of renegades have made a name for themselves becoming Nazi bulletin-board fodder, with tales of murder by any cruel means necessary hoping to make any Nazi sleep with one eye open in fear at night.  Their success in this endeavor has been enough to cause heighten anxiety for the Fuhrer and his crew.  Truthfully, getting too much deeper into the plot might be fruitless at this juncture but I’ll give a bit more.

If you want to kill him, you too can be a "Basterd."

Diane Kruger makes her mark as Bridget von Hammersmark, a German actress of the highest order, who with her own crew of troops (including a strong Michael Fassbender) is trying to also get to Hitler during a film screening.  That screening is to be held at the cinema of a former escaped Jew (hunted by the aforementioned “Jew Hunter,” Col. Hans Landa), who is the object of desire of the film’s star, a Nazi war-hero who gunned down nearly 300 men from a sniper tower, Private Fredrick Zoller.  Eventually, various teams of Nazi haters and hunters are all individually hatching their own schemes to get at Adolf.  Which team is able to survive and succeed becomes the fun of the film.

Tarantino virtually acknowledges that his characters are participating in a film, as some of the film takes place within a cinema with a packed house watching along on the big screen.  Irony drips.  Several of Quentin’s elements translate this as well.  Eli Roth’s Sgt. Donny Donowitz, “The Jew Bear” that bludgeons Nazi’s to death with his baseball bat, is the man who Aldo claims “watching him work is the closest thing we ever get to seeing a movie in a theater.”  There are graphic close-ups of Nazi’s being scalped, since Aldo “wants his scalps!”  Overall, QT places a great deal of trust in his actors and creates tension in the deception of the story throughout.

The scene-stealer in the film is Christoph Waltz as Landa and make no mistake, while Pitt gets the marquee, it is Waltz’ Landa that is the real star in the film.  He exhibits all sorts of range here, clearly embracing the devilish delight with which he has the opportunity to portray.  His storyline is the one that singularly resonates throughout.  This will undoubtedly garner him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars (unless he receives a push in the Best Actor category).

Might I be able to exchange my phone - for an Oscar?

Inglourious Basterds is a slow paced, dialogue heavy film, with spurts of violence mixed in.  This is what has become typical of Tarantino’s works of late as he seems more enamored with the dialogue that his characters regurgitate than telling the story in a timely manner.  It is interspersed with Quentin’s trademark humor, most of it coming in the form awkward silences in situations of trepidation (for all the characters).  While the film is solid and above average, it fails to wow you.  I was entertained but not moved. I was interested but never blown away at any point.

Still, you can’t deny QT as an auteur.  He clearly made the movie that he wanted to make.  It’s deliberate pace and prosaic dialogue allows his actors (primarily Pitt and Waltz) to chew their scenery to the hilt.  The movie itself though doesn’t really result in much. It’s fun but not overly so; it doesn’t have the cool cache of his best films, nor does it have an incredibly layered story.  In the end, you watch rather than deeply experience, and move on.  In that regard, I don’t think Quentin achieved the ultimate result that he was hoping for.  However, all of that being said, Basterds is one of the best movies I have seen so far this year, which feels more of an indictment on the movies that I have seen thus far though, rather than the greatness of this film.

The esteemed Brad Pitt, one of the biggest stars on the planet despite being a highly inconsistent draw at the box office, has landed only one of two roles (it appears) in upcoming films.  The most pivotal on the surface as far as we are concerned, would have been him playing a villain, Professor James Moriarty, in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes.  Already one of our most anticipated films of the year, due to a strong action director, a great cast that includes Jude Law, Rachel McAdams and Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role, the addition of Pitt would have been a major coup for this films Christmas time prospects.  This has been reported as an unofficial add though, although it was reported with certainty via the Daily Mirror:

A source on the set tells us: “It’s a huge coup to have Brad joining the cast.

“He has worked for Guy before and said if he could, he would do anything to help out.

“It was an oversight in the film not to make a bigger deal about Moriarty. He is mentioned as Holmes’ arch enemy, but the bosses wanted Guy to make more of him. Jude Law (who plays Dr Watson) and Robert Downey Jr (Holmes) have already shot their scenes.

“But now that 10 extra days have been added to shoot the new ones, they may be called back for a day or two.

“Brad is expected to be filming all over London. Cliveden House has been earmarked as a location for Moriarty’s home. There will be scenes shot at Royal Victoria Dock, Pontoon Docks, Pinewood and Chatham Docks in Kent. And they will be using clips around City of London to set the scene.”

I had to strongly suspect the reports were fake. One issue is that they are claiming a release date push back, something we have not yet heard about. Another is that while Pitt and Ritchie worked well together on Snatch, it is highly surprising that something would come in this late and this undercover, for this not to have been known sooner.  Take this news with a grain of salt, but it is being reported by various sites as him being a go for “Holmes” (again I think based on the original source though), so we had to share it with you.  Again, I am stating it is NOT happening.

Keeping up with Pitt, as his Inglourious Basterds is dropping this week, it is being reported by MTV that he has joined the cast of Dreamworks Animation’s Oobermind.  He is supposedly joining Jonah Hill, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey who are attached to the project as well.  The project is a new spin on an established idea where Pitt would play an enemy to Will Ferrell’s super-villian and Hill would be the created new hero to give Oobermind some trouble but Hill wants to be an a-hole and hence Ferrell becomes the hero by default.  A strange tale, but it sounds original.  The type of film that could cause Pixar to re-think their strategy for success (not likely).  Still, it would be another feather in the cap of DWA, who is growing an intense rivalry with Pixar, some of which we have discussed previously.  As for Pitt, it doesnt sound like he would have a huge voice role but hard to tell for sure. His last effort at V.O. work was with the animated Sinbad, which didn’t fare well at the box office, so I would bet that Pitt disappears from this work in films if Oobermind isn’t a success.  But, the prospects sound pretty strong right now, agree?  Share your thoughts on the above, below.  And despite yesterday’s slip-up, I knew “Tiger Wood(s) kill ‘em once thrown in Brad’s Pit(t). ” Peace.

About 7-8 years ago, a friend told me that Quentin Taratino had ambitions to do a war movie, particularly about World War II.  I like war films a lot and to have a notion that Tarantino would be directing one, I couldn’t dream of a better scenario.  Tarantino would easily make my top 5 list of greatest directors of all-time and he certainly has earned that mark with others as well.  Since time started to pass after hearing the news of the war film, I started to forget and even wondered if it ever was coming out. During that time, Tarantino has worked on other projects and has succeeded well with the Kill Bills, guest directing on Sin City, a couple of episodes of “CSI” and Death Proof from Grindhouse. Finally, after a long wait, Tarantino has finished his war movie called Inglourious Basterds and this is easily one of the most anticipated movies for me personally and I’m sure for a lot of other people as well. There is an Italian war movie called Inglorious Bastards from 1978, but it’s not related to the current one.

Some people never move on from tee ball.

Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) stars as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, an officer in charge of recruiting eight Jewish-American soldiers to go undercover behind enemy lines in German-occupied France. Their main orders are to “kill Nazis” and for each soldier to get “100 Nazi scalps.”  One of the soldiers, Donny Donowitz, will be played by Eli Roth (director of Hostel). This will be one of his biggest acting performances, as he has only done small cameos in the past.  The other part of the story will focus on a young Jewish girl named Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent, Paris).  She is bent on revenge since the Nazis killed her family and is looking for Secret Service colonel Standartenfuhrer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, Ordinary Decent Criminal) aka “The Jew Hunter,” the man responsible for her families’ death. With the combination of Shosanna’s personal vendetta and the American’s German hunting, the Nazi’s world is about to be turned upside down.

Other actors appearing in the film will be Diane Kruger (National Treasure), Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane) and Mike Myers (The Love Guru). Tarantino, who wrote and directed the film, developed the story into five main chapters chronicling different perspectives and also heavily barrowing themes from spaghetti westerns.  Tarantino once said the spaghetti western epic, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, was the best-directed movie he has ever seen, so expect major influences from that.

If you were a Nazi, where would this rank on the "Worst Things to Wake Up To" list?

I can’t wait to see to this and I’m hoping Tarantino continues his colossal streak of great movies since he hasn’t had a bad one yet (his segment from Four Rooms doesn’t count).  Since Tarantino’s last movie, Death Proof, didn’t do so hot in the box office, I’m not sure how this will turn out with audiences, but I’m hoping it will be huge.

Inglourious Basterds opens August 21st.

…in this commercial for the Japanese cell phone company, Softbank.

Spike Jonze, he of the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are, directed this short 30-second commercial. To tell you the truth, it makes little sense to me. Brad Pitt is in it and so is a big sumo wrestler. That’s the commercial.

Pitt must have some kind of contractual thing with Softbank, as he starred in a Wes Anderson-directed commercial for them a few months ago. I kind of prefer that one. Click here to check that one out.

The beautiful thing about these things though, regardless of them making much sense or not, especially to a non-Japanese reader like myself, is it establishes a rapport between actor and director which may be exploited in a feature film some day. At least we can all hope.

Which would you rather see Pitt in? A Wes Anderson movie or a Spike Jonze movie?

Oh, yeah. Here’s the Pitt/Jonze commercial. Enjoy it.

Was anybody else reminded of the “Entourage” episode where Vince films a commercial for that Japanese energy drink?

While we reported yesterday that Amy Pascal had opted to kill Steven Soderbergh and Brad Pitt’s Moneyball at Sony/Columbia Pictures, Soderbergh was given the option to shop the script around town, in hopes of bringing his version of the book to life.  Well, according to the LA Times, both of the studios where Soderbergh hoped to land the film, Warner Brothers and Paramount, have passed on the project as well.  It seems as if nobody in town wants to play this brand of baseball.

Pascal supposedly didn’t like the script rewrite that Soderbergh submitted to her, killing the production at the 11th hour.  The budget, at a reported $57 million, has apparently stymied its opportunities at the other studios.  Baseball is not a subject/sport that plays well overseas, regardless of Pitt’s drawing power, and adult dramas like State of Play and The Soloist have already crapped out here this year. In this economic climate, it appears that nobody seems to think a baseball movie is capable of earning $100 million, which is what one executive has said it would need to make here, in order to earn its money back once all i s said and done. Apparently, Sony has already sunk $10mm into the film.

While I would like to find out what happens with the film, as it is one that I am interested in, I am certainly inclined to agree with the unnamed exec’s statement.  If Moneyball needs to hit the century mark here, its probably not a gamble worth making.  I also think it speaks to Pitt’s “supposed” box office clout.  While he has for years been considered one of the industries biggest stars, his box office support has never earned him that right in my opinion. I like Pitt as an actor, I find him engaging enough, and he has made some great films, but couple his at times avant-garde choices, with an against the grain, abstract director, who makes The Girlfriend Experience (click for review) and Che in his time away from studio pics, it makes sense that Hollywood would be leery about this film.  In the meantime, I can offer those studios a great little dramedy for $5mm with me in the lead if they really want to play ball.  If you need to put me opposite Megan Fox, I guess I would allow it.  Give a player a call, H-town!

Sony has pulled out of the long approved Moneyball film, which was supposed to start production this week.  Steven Soderbergh rewrote a script that veered far from what Columbia Pictures head Amy Pascal was fired up about and they decided to dump the film at the “last minute.”  (Which in reality happens quite a bit, just not that often when you have an A-list director and Brad Pitt fully committed to star!)  Steven Zallian wrote the original screenplay that had Pascal ready to play ball originally.

“Moneyball” is based on the Major League Baseball Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane’s formula for success in the league with a low-cost team still competing at a high level.  The book was written by Michael Lewis, full title “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.”  Soderbergh plans on using several former MLB players in roles, including Halle Berry’s ex-husband and one-time actor David Justice.  Ex-stars Daryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra are among the ball players interviewed for vignettes that were planned to be interspersed in the movie.  The film still hopes to land elsewhere as the most likely targets are Warner and Paramount.

Admittedly, I have a particular interest in this topic, primarily due to the director and star on board.  As a lifelong sports and baseball fan (go Tigers!) and a native of the Bay Area, Beane’s success was highly publicized and I have long been aware of the moneyball concept.  I would like to see how this film turns out.  Apparently the $50mm budget is a concern, so we’ll see if another studio grabs it in short order with all the players still on board and ready to go.  What do you think; are you hoping this one still makes the big screen?  Would you plan on being a paying customer?  Source: Ballhype

Okay, the title is a play on words to get you here.  Don’t feel duped, it’s not a gay insinuation.  Javier Bardem, who was in the news last week regarding Wall Street 2, is in talks to join the Brad Pitt produced (“Plan B.”) Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts.  “Love” is being directed by Ryan Murphy, creator of the hit TV show “Nip/Tuck”, based on the book  of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Richard Jenkins, Oscar-nominated actor for The Visitor, is also already a part of the cast.  Moviehole gives us a touch on the plot:

Roberts plays the author, and Bardem will play Felipe, the man Gilbert meets and falls in love with on the final leg of a journey of self-discovery that began with the end of her marriage.

Richard Jenkins plays a Texan whom the heroine befriends at an Indian ashram.

The autobiographical tale looks to be playing out as a fantasy for the author with Roberts playing her and Bardem, who seduced so well in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is here fictionalized lover?  Not a bad score as fantasies go.  Mine involves a trio of Jessicas, Simpson (pre-weight issues), Alba (pre-baby), and Biel (pre-Timberlake), but it is a fantasy so there are no rules from there.  “Rules? We don’t need no stinking rules.”  What do you like more, my fantasy or Gilbert’s?  That’s a rhetorical question…kind of.  Enjoy.