David O. Russell Wants Scarlett Johansson For ‘Uncharted’ Movie

It seems most everybody wants Scarlett Johansson (keep reading…) to star in their next film, and David O. Russell is no exception. The Fighter filmmaker is in the midst of developing his Uncharted adaptation and has mentioned the blonde bombshell as being on his wish list to star.

Fans of the original PS3 title Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune have been vocal about their displeasure concerning Russell’s decision to cast Mark Wahlberg or deviate significantly from the game’s plot by adding a family dynamic. Bringing Miss Johansson onboard, however, is one move that’s unlikely to upset them too much.

Uncharted protagonist and treasure-plunderer Nathan Drake (Wahlberg) is accompanied on his adventures by the reporter/journalist Elena Fisher – the role Johansson would play. Miss Fisher is not only a match for Drake in terms of spirit and sheer gusto, but she is also (unrealistically?) capable in combat – and, of course, easy on the eyes. After watching Johansson disassemble a team of security guards with naught but her hands (and thighs) in Iron Man 2, one would be hard pressed to argue that she can’t handle a part like that.

Russell mentioned the Lost in Translation star as someone he’d like to see play Elena while chatting with Empire, and also cited his Fighter actress Amy Adams as another potential candidate – if he gets his way. On the topic of the Uncharted female lead, the offbeat auteur had this to mention as well:

“Ah, Elena. I’ve cultivated her quite a bit and I think I’ve added a lot of dimension to her so that’s all I’m going to say. I love the woman characters and the more robust they are, the more robust the movie … there’s [sic] a lot of greater [actresses] I think might suit. Hopefully, we’ll see how it works out with everybody who are being scoped to do that role…”

Could Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams reunite for 'Uncharted'?

Johansson is currently busy filming Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo and has The Avengers to tackle soon thereafter, so her immediate availability is limited. The actress has long been rumored as a possibility to star in Lionsgate’s Regency-era splatterfest, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and may still be “loosely attached” to appear in another romance/undead mashup, Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament as well. So the chances that Russell will get her onboard for Uncharted are rather slim right now.

Someone like Adams would also be quite fun to watch play a rough n’ ready gal in the vein of Indiana Jones love interest Marion Ravenwood. The multiple Oscar-nominee shed her cutesy image with her foul-mouthed turn in The Fighter. Would other moviegoers like to see her work with Russell again ?

Wahlberg previously mentioned that Uncharted could begin shooting this summer, but Russell is reportedly also looking into making the comic book flick 2 Guns first. Stay tuned for more information in the near future.

Who do you want to see play Elena in Uncharted?

BONUS: For more info on the Uncharted video game series and the characters that appear in it, head over to Game Rant.

Source: Empire

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Warner Bros. Wants Robert Zemeckis to Remake ‘Wizard of Oz’ [Updated]

[Update: PopWatch is reporting that Robert Zemeckis has declined doing The Wizard of Oz remake. Scroll for details.]

Another one bites the dust. That’s right, Hollywood’s never-ending (not to mention shameless) quest to remake every movie that has ever existed has claimed yet another victim. If you’re one of those rare human beings who somehow, someway managed to enjoy the 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho by Gus van Sant, then you’re going to love this.

According to Mike Fleming of Deadline, Warner Bros. wants Robert Zemeckis, who’s currently “filming” the motion-capture animated Yellow Submarine, to remake The Wizard of Oz using the original 1939 screenplay.

This won’t even be a redux in the form of an adaptation of the source material, like, say, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or the forthcoming True Grit, thus providing new avenues for where the story can go.

Apparently, Warner Bros. owns the classic film’s screenplay because Ted Turner acquired it with his purchase of the MGM library. Warner Bros., of course, subsequently purchased Turner’s vast empire, thus acquiring the Wizard of Oz screenplay as well.

This bit of news comes right on the heels of the announcement that Disney and Sam Raimi are developing The Great and Powerful Oz, possibly starring Robert Downey Jr. Other Oz projects in development include Surrender Dorothy, a sequel to The Wizard of Oz to be directed by Drew Barrymore, and an unnamed Oz sequel from Warner Bros. about Dorothy’s granddaughter. No word yet on whether or not the latter film, with an original screenplay by Josh Olsen (A History of Violence), has been scrapped in favor of this Zemeckis remake.

Speak of the devil, I would love to see someone compile a list of all the remakes going back a decade alongside their critical and financial success rates. With every passing year, there seem to be more and more remakes and less and less original entries in big-budget cinema. Are these remakes so fiscally successful that they’re worth the artistic integrity of the studios and the filmmakers who churn them out?

The fact of the matter is, few people watch Psycho (1998) unless they’re being ironic. When someone mentions Manchurian Candidate, they likely don’t picture Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, and Meryl Streep, they more likely picture Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, and Angela Lansbury. And ten years from now, I hope that when someone wants to see a horror movie, they pick the original Halloween, not Rob Zombie’s.  It’s getting to the point where television is my main source for high-quality, original, live-action fiction, and that just makes me sad.

Sometimes I wish I could just click my heels together and wish the remakes away.

Hopefully, one day, we can live in a world free of remakes and rip-offs. But for now, we have Louis Letterrier’s Clash of the Titans, Samuel Bayer’s A Nightmare On Elm Street, and, if Warner Bros. gets their way, Robert Zemeckis’ The Wizard of Oz. I look forward (he said sarcastically) to Michael Bay’s Casablanca, now with twice as many sassy black women and 1,000,000% more nuclear explosions.

Source: Deadline

Update: Well, everybody can calm down now. PopWatch spoke to a source at Warner Bros. who said that while the studio did indeed have a meeting with Robert Zemeckis about potentially remaking The Wizard of Oz, Zemeckis wanted nothing to do with the project. (Score one for Zemeckis.) The source was quoted as saying, “The reports that Robert Zemeckis is doing The Wizard of Oz are absolutely false.” Well, to be fair, the reports merely stated that Warner Bros. wanted Robert Zemeckis to direct the remake, which seems to actually be confirmed via this report. Additionally, PopWatch seems to think that, because Zemeckis was the studio’s first choice for director, the project will either be moved to the back burner or abandoned altogether. Obviously, I’m pulling for the latter, but I’d feel a lot better if the source had said ‘nobody’ is doing The Wizard of Oz remake.

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