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My Movie Week... with Mike Shaw

By: Mike Shaw whatsoneditor@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 00:00, 18 July 2013

Director Sam Mendes, with Skyfall actors Naomie Harris, Daniel Craig, Berenice Marlohe and Javier Bardem

He’s been on and off again, but the Oscar-winner has Sam Mendes has now signed on the dotted line and committed to another Bond movie.

Mendes said: “I am very pleased that by giving me the time I need to honour all my theatre commitments the producers have made it possible for me to direct Bond 24. I very much look forward to taking up the reins again.”

It’s great that things are getting put in place for the next Bond film, but is Mendes the right person for the job? Sure, Skyfall was good, but it was no Casino Royale; and is treading water the right move for the man behind wonderful films like American Beauty and Road To Perdition?

Not much is known about the film, although we do know it will be in cinemas here on October 23, 2015. Can you imagine planning anything that far in advance? I barely know where I’ll be working next week.

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Disney is planning a live-action version of The Jungle Book.

The company’s 1967 animated film is probably the most famous of the various movie adaptations of Rudyard Kipling’s book, but the House of Mouse feels it’s time for another bite of the cherry.

Writer Justin Marks has been hired to work on the script, which the studio hopes will sit comfortably alongside other live-action remakes of its animated classics; Alice in Wonderland, forthcoming film Maleficent (based on Sleeping Beauty) and the recently-announced Cinderella.

That’s not the whole story, however, as Warner Bros. is making its own version of the tale, thanks to the Kipling stories being in the public domain.

Will either one be a musical? Will either one have a Beatles-esque group of vultures? Inquiring minds want to know.

In 2003, Fox released an adaptation of Alan Moore’s comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

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The film was battered unmercifully by critics and then given another kicking at the box office, so of course it makes perfect sense for the studio to try and convert it to the screen again.

This time the story is heading to TV, with Fox hiring the Green Lantern’s Michael Green to work on a script, which will offer a new take on the team featuring Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll and Allan Quatermain.

While I don’t exactly want this project to fail, part of me would love to hear horror stories from the set. The problems that plagued the 2003 film are now legendary, including one alleged incident where a wound-up Sean Connery knocked out director Stephen Norrington who then didn’t turn up to the premiere of his own movie.

Kevin Costner’s career renaissance continues undeterred, and the one-time megastar is now going to lead the cast of a Taken-esque, badass-dad-on the-rampage action-thriller.

Midnight Delivery will star Costner and be produced by Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim), and will tell the story of a father who, in a bid to rescue his daughter from Colombian drug traffickers, agrees to carry a package of cocaine on a flight to London.

Things don’t go smoothly and there is fighting. And oh yeah, the flight leaves at midnight. Clever eh?

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