Scifiwire Movie News (9/24/2004) - Terminator 4, Farenheit 451

[Granite]

Scifiwire Movie News (9/24/2004)

Terminator 4 Gears Up
Darabont does Farenhiet 451

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T4 Gears Up

A fourth Terminator movie is readying to begin production in 2005, but it's unclear whether franchise star and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will reprise his most famous role, Variety columnist Michael Fleming reported. John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who wrote the script for the last installment, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, have completed a draft of a T4 script, which was developed under the supervision of T3 director Jonathan Mostow, the trade paper reported.

Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna are returning as producers. Formal negotiations will open shortly for a deal that would bring Mostow on as T4's director, the trade paper reported.

Similarly, talks have begun with Schwarzenegger to return for an encore, but the likelihood is that it would be in a limited role, as the Austrian Oak is currently occupied with his duties as California's chief executive, Fleming reported. Sources told Fleming that the expectation is that T4 will break in a new Terminator model.

There is no word on whether T3 stars Nick Stahl or Claire Danes have been approached to return for the sequel. Neither is believed to have been signed to an option agreement, Fleming reported.
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Hot For Fahrenheit

Writer/director Frank Darabont told SCI FI Wire that he will definitely direct a new film version of Ray Bradbury's seminal SF novel Fahrenheit 451 in the near future. "Since I was 9 years old I've wanted to make this movie," Darabont said in an interview. "I think it is the most eloquent indictment of political intolerance—fascism, if you will—that's ever been written."

Darabont, who has already tapped out a Fahrenheit 451 screenplay, added, "It is particularly relevant to our society today, where the definition of patriotism is being twisted around to mean the opposite of what it should be. Society is always trying to become oppressive, and that's what Bradbury was writing about. He wrote it as a cry from the heart, as a reaction against the McCarthy era. So it's very timely again, in my view. Aside from that, it's just a walloping good story."

The writer-director of The Shawshank Redeption and The Green Mile added that he pretty much ignored the existence of Francois Truffaut's 1966 version of Fahrenheit 451. "It really missed on a lot of levels," Darabont said. "It was a very bland and lifeless movie, wasn't it? For such a passionate piece of literature the movie just kind of sat there. Also, in terms of visuals, boy, there's nothing we can't do now by comparison to the limited things they could do then."

For example, in his take on the material, Darabont intends to include Bradbury's mechanical hound. "They didn't even try to make the mechanical hound back in Truffaut's day," the filmmaker said. "I'm very anxious to put that on the screen. Early days, yet, but I'm guessing that we'll probably want to do it as a seamless combination of [animatronics and computer animation]."
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Also a note:

British actress Rosamund Pike has signed on to star in Universal Pictures' upcoming video-game adaptation Doom, playing Samantha opposite Karl Urban's John Grimm and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

[chernabog_ca]

I though that it was Mel Gibson who was working on a new version of Fahrenheit 451.