Fall Out Boy Are Taking A Break ... Unless Sealand Calls

'I wanna play the first fest in Sealand,' Pete Wentz says of the micro-nation off the coast of England.

By now, you're probably aware that after they wrap up their tour with Blink-182, Fall Out Boy are taking a well-deserved break. They've got no obligations to fulfill, no videos to shoot, no arenas to pack. Basically, 2010 is gonna be a very mellow year in FOB land.

Unless, of course, they get a call from the Principality of Sealand, that is. Then all bets are off.

"Yo, I want to go to Sealand. ... That is the craziest kind of story ever! I wanna play the first fest in Sealand," FOB bassist Pete Wentz laughed. "The only thing I'm worried about is that the dude may shoot us, and I know we'll be paid in native currency. We'll be like, 'We want 1 million Sealand bucks,' and he'll be like, 'I'll double it. I'll give you 2 million,' because the dude is just printing them."

For the uninitiated (which, we're assuming, is probably 99.8 percent of you), Sealand is a sovereign principality founded on an abandoned British sea fort in 1967 by radio broadcaster and British Army Major Paddy Roy Bates. For more than 40 years, Bates (who calls himself "Prince Roy of Sealand") has operated the fort as an independent micro-nation, printing currency and passports, surviving forcible takeovers and firing upon any vessel that dares enter his sovereign territory. And since Sealand is located in international waters — 6 miles off the southeast coast of England, outside the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom — the rest of the world has basically allowed Bates to do whatever he wants.

So, obviously, as soon as Wentz heard about Sealand, he decided that Fall Out Boy had to play there, no matter the cost (remember, this is the same guy who dragged his band and an entire camera crew to the southernmost point of Chile in a failed attempt to play a show in Antarctica, just because he wanted to get in the "Guinness Book of World Records"). The only problem is, after FOB's October 4 show with Blink at Madison Square Garden, they're basically done for the foreseeable future.

Of course, if Bates were to contact him, that would change in a heartbeat. Wentz promised that he would convince his FOB mates to shelve the hiatus and play their comeback show in the Principality of Sealand. And, yes, he is 100 percent serious about this.

"Of course, we would totally do it," he said. "As long as passports, safe entry and a lot of Sealand bucks are guaranteed."

Poltergeist Remake Gets a Release Date

For the last year now, we’ve been hearing rumblings of a Poltergeist remake over at MGM. Last August we told you that the studio had hired Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, the team behind the modern horror classic (sarcasm) Boogeyman to write the screenplay. And we soon after learned that House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelmen was in talks to helm the unnecessary remake.

But until a release date is announced, I sometimes tend to convince myself that these projects could easily find their way into the depths of development hell. Until there is a production start, or a release date, the movie really doesn’t exist. Well, I have some bad news. MGM has announced a release date. According to Shock, the “studio” has slated the haunted house remake for November 24th 2010. No further details have been released at this time.

Tobe Hooper’s 1982 film was co-written, produced and highly supervised by Steven Spielberg, and told the story of a family’s haunted home which had been built over an Indian burial ground. The film is notorious for it’s PG rating, which it obtained after an appeal to the MPAA. The movie spawned two sequels, neither of which were as acclaimed or as successful as the original.

Perelman debuted with 2003’s House of Sand and Fog, a well received literary adaptation that garnered three Oscar nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Ben Kingsley. In addition to Boogeyman, Snowden and White’s screenwriting credits also include the remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds for M.Bay’s Platinum Dunes and Alex Proyas’ Knowing.

Big Ben chimes again: Pistons re-sign Wallace

Ben Wallace says he was very close to retiring before deciding to rejoin the Detroit Pistons.

After three seasons away from Detroit, the four-time All Star signed a free-agent contract Wednesday with the Pistons. Wallace won an NBA title with Detroit in 2004 and went back to the finals in 2005.

In July 2006, he signed a free-agent deal with Chicago, and was traded to Cleveland in 2008. This summer, he was traded to Phoenix in the Shaquille O'Neal trade, only to have his contract bought out by the Suns.

Wallace said he considered retirement, but said that his good memories from Detroit and encouragement from former teammates Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince helped him decide to come back.

Ed Helms to Star in Central Intelligence

Universal Pictures has acquired the spec script Central Intelligence as a star vehicle for Ed Helms (The Hangover, "The Office"), reports Variety.

The script, written by Ike Barinholtz and Dave Stassen, revolves around an accountant who's thrown into the world of international espionage after reconnecting with an old friend through Facebook.

Principato/Young's Peter Principato and Paul Young are producing. Matt Berenson and Allen Fischer are executive producers. Joel Zadak will be co-producer.

EXCL: Death Race Prequel is in the Garage

The origins of the deadly, fuel-injected game at the center of Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race are going to be explored in an upcoming sequel.

Tony Giglio (Timber Falls, interview) has been hired to write a script, based on a story by Anderson, to be produced by Impact Pictures (Anderson and Jeremy Bolt's production outfit). Giglio may also direct. The script is said to delve into the past of the driver known as Frankenstein.

Created for Paul Bartel's original 1975 cult classic, Death Race 2000, Frankenstein was played by the late David Carradine. In the film, history said that his face was mangled by so many car wrecks he had to wear an intimidating mask. Carradine returned to Anderson's remake briefly to voice the new Frankenstein before he was replaced by Jason Statham's Jensen Ames.

Anderson and Bolt will oversee the Death Race prequel after they've completed Resident Evil: Afterlife on which Giglio will serve as a second unit director. Death Race grossed over $70 million worldwide in 2008.

Vin Diesel Talks Riddick Sequels

ShockTillYouDrop.com recently talked to director David Twohy about continuing the "Chronicles of Riddick" franchise (an interview you can read here), but Vin Diesel has commented now as well on his Facebook profile:

The Riddick discussion is about rating now...
Though Hollywood likes their PG Ratings, the next chapter in the COR series was always envisioned as an R rating, like Pitch Black...

One Studio exec suggested doing both "The Underverse" and "The Furyan," (working titles) at the same time, allowing us an R rating for the first and a PG rating for the second.

The good news- David Twohy's script comes in next month.

New Screenwriter To Board Super Max

New news on Super Max has been a long time coming. The state of play was this: Justin Marks was scripting, David Goyer was producing, DC comics’ Green Arrow was the lead character and the plot would see him incarcerated in the tip-topper most high security prison in the DC universe, framed for a crime he didn’t commit.

There have been any number of rumors surrounding the project along the way. Would Matt Damon star as the Green Arrow? Would Kevin Smith direct? Would Lex Luthor, The Riddler or The Joker appear? It has generated a healthy bag full of headlines over a couple of years without actually going into production, or even pre-production. Nonetheless, slow and steady can often win the race and Super Max is still chugging along steadily. David Goyer has spoken to MTV and given an update. Here’s the man himself:

We’re working on that. We’re about to bring on another writer. Obviously, Warner Bros. is now heavily into mining all of the various DC properties.

So the studio won’t let it die, though it isn’t yet in the shape they’d want for it? It would seem that’s what he’s saying here.

Justin Marks was one of the originators of the concept, so it’s actually quite sad to hear he’s off the script. Having said that, I don’t know of any evidence that he can actually write anything worth a jot.

Here’s an old quote from Goyer on the beginnings of Super Max:

The basic concept actually came about through Justin Marks, a terrific young writer my wife Jessika (a producer) had previously worked with. They thought the idea of a prison-break story set in a jail designed exclusively for super-villains was a cool one. And I heartily agreed.

It is a cracking good hook, that’s for sure. Let’s hope the new writer is a real talent and a suitable director follows soon after.

Arrested Development Trio Reunite for Fox Comedy

"Arrested Development" series creator/executive producer Mitch Hurwitz, co-star Will Arnett and co-executive producer Jim Vallely have teamed for another Fox comedy, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The project is being written by Hurwitz, Arnett and Vallely. It stars Arnett as a rich Beverly Hills jackass who falls in love with a charitable tree-hugging woman who can't stand his lifestyle or values.

The comedy is produced by Sony TV and studio-based Tantamount.

Hurwitz is executive producing with his producing partners at Tantamount, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum; Vallely; and Peter Principato and Paul Young. Arnett also serves as a producer.

Arnett recently lent his voice to "Sit Down, Shut Up," Hurwitz's animated comedy for Fox and Sony TV on which Vallely served as a co-exec producer.

SNL’s Categorically Unjustified “MacGruber” Movie to Be Hard R

One of the most recycled, one-note, inexplicably dated bits in the history of SNL, “MacGruber,” is still moving forward as a feature film. Shooting has started in New Mexico on the 2010 release, with SNL writer and Lonely Island member, Jorma Taccone, making his theatrical debut as a director. Personally, I’d rather see Taccone reprise Cha-Ka in a spin-off or sequel to Land of the Lost, but his performance (and that rad film) sadly await discovery on Netflix. Just wait. Let’s skip the existential dilemma that is a 95-minute MacGruber sketch, and get down to its all-important rating. In an interview with Vulture, co-star, Bill Hader, defends the film, saying that a theatrical leap is by no means “a stretch.” Also, in discussing the script by star Will Forte, John Solomon, and Taccone, Hader says that the film should earn a “fucking ugly” R-rating. If so, it will join John Belushi’s The Blues Brothers as one of the rare R-rated SNL films….

I read the script, and it’s like a hard-R comedy, and it totally works. It’s hilarious. It’s kind of in the vein of, like, eighties action movies, like there’s a very definitive bad guy. I don’t know if I can talk about the plot too much, but it’s hilarious. The thing that kind of blew my mind about it is that it’s like a HARD-R movie. I was like, “What is this? This is fucking ugly. You guys are really going to do this?” And they’re like, “Yup.” And I was like, “That is awesome. That is fucking hilarious.”

You know what was not “fucking hilarious”? SNL whoring out its once-irreverent legacy to a soft drink and creating those dubious, in-show Pepsuber sketches without explanation to fans. Hader doesn’t mention Pepsuber in the aforementioned interview, but I highly doubt that the producers (including Lorne Michaels) will miss a lucrative opportunity to insert a nod at the very least. And, similar to the old adage about extreme attractiveness being a comedy killer, nothing knocks the wind out of sharp comedy faster than intrusive, relentless money-grabs in the name of “modern marketing trends.”

Sanchez and Myrick Discuss Possibilities For Blair Witch Project 3

It’s a couple of weeks over ten years now since The Blair Witch Project proved to be a strange freak of box office nature. Back at it’s release on July 30th 1999 the film was given a crazy leg-up by its accidentally wonderful online marketing and a public desperate to buy into something spiritual-mystical, however crazy. We also shouldn’t underestimate the voracious appetite of the dedicated horror audience, of which I would suppose I am a member, and our never-ending desire for something new, fresh or exciting.

The sequel, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, was an entirely different beast to the original, eschewing the Last Broadcast-style handicam aesthetic for something in the vein of classical narrative film stylings. Personally, I thought it was conceptually a far more exciting film than the first though somewhat hampered by its lackluster realization. I do still relish the irony, though, that this second film was directed by Joe Berlinger, typically a maker of documentaries.

So, which way would a third Blair Witch film go? Back to the faux-doc approach of part one? Or further into the potential of ‘traditional’ film language?


The BBC have spoken to Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick on the occasion of the film’s tenth anniversary, and their conversation turned to a possible sequel.

Sanchez admits they are still undecided how to proceed with the project, whether to stick with the grittiness of the first film, or make a more polished and more obviously expensive sequel. Sanchez began by explaining one of thei abandoned ideas:

Ideally, each Blair Witch film would be a completely different kind of movie. We’ve thought about doing a film that takes place in the late 1700s and looks like a Kubrick movie with gritty looking people and lighting.

Gritty looking people? Nice. That idea, however, has already given way to something more in step with the series’ legacy:

But now, we’re thinking about going back and and seeing what happened directly after the first film finished. I think it will have some kind of video element in it, but it won’t be a first person hand-held movie.

“Some kind of video element” brings back bad memories of Fear.Com and Halloween Ressurection.

Myrick was also asked about the possible return of the originals’ cast:

I talk to Josh quite regularly and Mike Williams as well. Actually, he had a role in my last movie. Heather, I haven’t seen in years. The last I heard, she had got out of the business and gone up north and is living on a ranch somewhere. Maybe she’s still traumatized.

The Blair Witch mantle seems likely to be scooped up by Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity, in both low budget and studio-funded remake forms. Will a relevant Witch sequel make it out of the traps before the brand is completely devalued?