Guys and Dolls Remake with Channing Tatum + Prince Charming Richard Madden & ‘Into the Woods’ Movie Singers

Channing Tatum in Magic Mike.

‘Guys and Dolls’ remake supposedly to star Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Guys and Dolls will be brought back to the big screen by way of 20th Century Fox, according to Deadline.com. Back in 1955, Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed for independent producer Samuel Goldwyn a highly successful movie version of the Broadway musical based on a Damon Runyon short story. Distributed by MGM, that particular Guys and Dolls starred Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine. This time around, Fox supposedly wants Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose singing prowess was amply displayed in, respectively, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and The Dark Knight Rises. And Tatum and Gordon-Levitt can dance, too, as proven at the 2013 Oscar show (and, in Tatum’s case, Magic Mike).

But hey, Goldwyn didn’t care that neither Marlon Brando nor Jean Simmons could sing (or dance), either. And Brando’s and Simmons’ lack of vocal and tapdancing / tush-shaking abilities didn’t prevent Guys and Dolls from becoming a huge hit – though a critically derided one. True, people today refer to Guys and Dolls as a “classic,” but nowadays just about every movie made before 2005 is referred to as a classic, from Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator to Will Ferrell’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Guys and Dolls casting possibilities?

Of course, Fox’s Channing Tatum / Joseph Gordon-Levitt casting hopes could all be mere p.r. b.s. to get people discussing the movie project based on Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling, and Abe Burrows’ Tony-winning 1950 stage musical. If so, why not throw in Tatum and Gordon-Levitt’s fellow Oscar 2013 performers, Charlize Theron in the old Vivian Blaine role (both are blondes) and Anne Hathaway (who actually can sing) in the old Jean Simmons role (both are brunettes). Plus Daniel Radcliffe in the old Sheldon Leonard role of Harry the Horse, a cgi-enhanced Catherine Zeta-Jones as every single one of the Goldwyn Girls, and Seth MacFarlane as either George E. Stone’s Society Max or Veda Ann Borg’s Laverne.

As per the Deadline.com report, there’s no director or screenwriter “attached” or in any way connected to the Guys and Dolls remake as yet. But get ready for outlandish announcements like Michael Bay, Michael Mann, or Michael Haneke in the very near future.

For the record, the original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls starred Robert Alda (Marlon Brando in the movie), Isabel Bigley (Jean Simmons), Sam Levene (Frank Sinatra), and former Fox star Vivian Blaine (Something for the Boys, Doll Face) – the only top stage cast member to reprise her role on screen.

Guys and Dolls remake that never was

About a decade ago, Harvey Weinstein reportedly planned to join forces with Chicago executive producers (and Oscar 2013 producers) Craig Zadan and Neil Meron on a remake of Guys and Dolls. That movie project, however, never came to fruition, reportedly because of contractual issues. (Though Variety stated at the time that the project “had the blessing of composer Frank Loesser’s widow, Jo Sullivan Loesser, and Samuel Goldwyn Jr., who held rights because his father made the original film.”)

Anyhow, instead of Guys and Dolls Weinstein ended up backing a costly movie adaptation of another stage musical hit, Nine, which turned out to be a box office disaster when it came out in 2009, despite a name director – Chicago‘s Rob Marshall – and an all-star cast that included Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, Stacy Ferguson, and Penélope Cruz.

Guys and Dolls awards

The 1955 Guys and Dolls was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Color Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design, and Best Scoring of a Musical. Both the movie and Jean Simmons were shortlisted by BAFTA and the Golden Globes, while writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz received a WGA Award nomination.

Channing Tatum Magic Mike picture: Warner Bros.

Potential Into the Woods movie singer Chris Pine in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Into the Woods movie: Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal singing?

Chris Pine (Star Trek: Into Darkness) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) – maybe, possibly, who knows – to be featured in a musical directed by Rob Marshall. Sounds weird? Well, why? If Russell Crowe can be cast as a mumbling – ahem, singing – Javert in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, why can’t Captain Kirk and the Prince of Persia demonstrate their singing talents (or lack thereof) in Marshall’s movie adaptation of the 1987 Broadway hit Into the Woods?

Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep have already been cast in Into the Woods, to be released by the Walt Disney Studios sometime this decade. And only yesterday it was announced that Tony winner James Corden (Two Guvnors) would join the Into the Woods ensemble as well.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, no contract negotiations have taken place as yet, though Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine have already sung for Rob Marshall, and they’re “expected” to be invited to join the Into the Woods cast. If so, that should take place in the near future, as the film is supposed to start shooting next fall in London.

Into the Woods plot

Based on the Broadway musical by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim – Lapine also wrote the film’s screenplay – Into the Woods tells the story of a baker and his wife who bravely travel into the woods to force a(n environmentally conscious?) witch (Meryl Streep) to lift the spell that prevents them from procreating. James Corden is to play the baker, while Johnny Depp will play Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf. Waiting to be cast are Rapunzel, Cinderella, the aforementioned Little Red Riding Hood, and possibly Jack (of the Beanstalk). And the baker’s wife, of course.

According to the Reporter, “sources” say that Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine will play two self-absorbed brothers, who also happen to be Prince Charming for both Cinderella and Rapunzel. Now, considering that Gyllenhaal is also starring and producing the indie crime drama Nightcrawler in the fall, it remains to be seen how all the late 2013 filming schedule will be arranged.

Into the Woods movie: Previous attempt

Nearly two decades ago, director Penny Marshall (no connection to Rob Marshall) led a couple of readings of City Slickers screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Manzel’s adaptation of Into the Woods for a prospective movie adaptation. The cast in the second reading included Robin Williams as the Baker, Goldie Hawn as the baker’s wife, Cher as the witch, Danny DeVito as the giant, Steve Martin as the wolf, and Roseanne Barr as Jack’s mother.

Chris Pine Star Trek: Into Darkness photo: Paramount Pictures.

Richard Madden in Game of Thrones: Cinderella Prince Charming.

Richard Madden: Game of Thrones’ King of the North to play Prince Charming in Cinderella

Richard Madden, Game of Thrones’ King of the North Robb Stark, has been cast as Prince Charming in Disney’s live-action retelling of the Cinderella fairy-tale. A few days ago, Lily James (Wrath of the Titans, Downton Abbey) was announced as the actress to try on Cinderella’s tiny glass slippers. The other major Cinderella cast member announced so far is Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator), who’ll play the evil Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s wicked stepmother – perhaps with shades of Queen Elizabeth I?

Cinderella follows in the (sizable) footsteps of other fairy-tales that have reached the world’s screens in recent years: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010), starring Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, grossed $1.02 billion worldwide. Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror (2012) was a box office disappointment in North America, but this comic version of the Snow White tale starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, and Armie Hammer performed passably well internationally, cuming at $166.17 million globally.

Also in 2012 there were two other Snow White adaptations: Rupert Sanders costly ($170m) but financially successful ($396.59 million worldwide) Snow White and the Huntsman, starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, and Sam Claflin; and Pablo Berger’s well-received Blancanieves, set in the world of (female) bullfighting, and starring Maribel Verdú and Macarena García.

Cinderella movies

Apparently inspired by a Chinese folk tale – hence the prizing of small female feet – Cinderella has been adapted to the screen countless times. Those include a couple of early silent versions in the 1910s starring Florence La Badie (1911) and Mary Pickford (1914); First Love (1939), with Deanna Durbin as the waif who wins the heart of princely Robert Stack; Disney’s animated 1950 feature; The Glass Slipper (1954), with Leslie Caron and Michael Wilding; and the musical The Slipper and the Rose (1976), with Gemma Craven and Richard Chamberlain.

More recent takes on the classic story include a handful of modernized versions: Ever After (1998), starring Drew Barrymore; A Cinderella Story (2004), with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray; and Another Cinderella Story (2008), with Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley.

Additionally, Julie Andrews played the role on television, in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Cinderella (1957).

Cinderella 2014

To be directed by Kenneth Branagh (Henry V, Hamlet) from a screenplay by Chris Weitz (director of The Golden Compass, The Twilight Saga: New Moon), and Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), the latest Cinderella should be hitting the world’s screens some time in 2014.

Also opening next year is Robert Stromberg’s Maleficent, a reworking of Sleeping Beauty, with Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, and Elle Fanning. Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth should also be returning for Snow White and the Huntsman 2, though the SWATH sequel will open only in 2015.

Richard Madden Game of Thrones photo: HBO.

Will Smith in The Wild Bunch remake?

Will Smith has been mentioned in connection with Focus, the caper tale that was to have starred Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart, and is to star in Edward Zwick’s Hurricane Katrina drama The American Can. But that’s not all. His producing company is working on a remake of the Broadway musical Annie – which got a less-than-satisfactory screen version back in 1982 – and apparently he wants to revive The Wild Bunch as well.

Set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, Sam Peckinpah’s ultra-violent 1969 classic Western features William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O’Brien, and other movie veterans as a group of outlaws fleeing from Robert Ryan while out to do one last job in war-torn northern Mexico. The Will Smith The Wild Bunch reboot, however, is to be set in the present, though the perilous locale should remain more or less the same: a disgraced DEA agent rounds up a group of ragtag oldtimers to hunt down a Mexican drug lord and steal his money.

Now, who should be part of the early 21st-century’s The Wild Bunch? In case The Expendables 3 cast is unemployed at the time, expect the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, in addition to Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Mexican bandido.

The Wild Bunch 1969 cast and Oscar nominations

Besides William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch also features Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, veteran filmmaker Emilio Fernández (Flor Silvestre, Maria Candelaria), Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins, future filmmaker Alfonso Arau (Like Water for Chocolate, A Walk in the Clouds), and Elsa Cárdenas. The Wild Bunch was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay (Roy N. Sickner and Walon Green for the story; Green and Sam Peckinpah for the screenplay) and Best Original Score (Jerry Fielding).

M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth Will Smith photo: Columbia Pictures.

Will Smith in The Wild Bunch remake source: TheWrap.

‘The Candy Store’ coupon-caliber cast: International mastermind Christoph Waltz?

Get your coupons ready, as The Candy Store cast keeps growing: Besides Robert De Niro, Jason Clarke, and Omar Sy, writer-director Stephen Gaghan’s thriller will also feature this year’s Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz.

Co-written by Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana) and Shannon Burke (a “consultant” on Syriana), The Candy Store follows several storylines set in the underworld of Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. Here’s the basic plot:

A former covert operative (Jason Clarke) discovers the organization he was dedicated to fighting is now operating in his new backyard. When he teams up with a disgraced local cop (Robert De Niro), their investigation leads them to an international sex trade entrepreneur (Omar Sy), a Cold War consigliere posing as a typical American suburbanite (Christoph Waltz), and a beautiful girl wrapped up in an elaborate threat against Manhattan.

It seems that The Candy Store‘s “beautiful girl” has yet to be cast. Here’s wondering if she’ll also have a foreign accent like Manhattan threats Omar Sy (French) and Christoph Waltz (Austrian).

The Candy Store actors

Robert De Niro has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning twice: Best Supporting Actor for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Best Actor for Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980). Following a 21-year gap, De Niro was shortlisted for the Oscars earlier this year, in the supporting category, for David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper and eventual Best Actress Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence.

Omar Sy was the (somewhat surprising) Best Actor César winner last year for the blockbuster The Intouchables – he beat The Artist‘s Jean Dujardin. Christoph Waltz, for his part, is a two-time Oscar winner in the Best Supporting Actor category, for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012). Jason Clarke hasn’t won any Oscars or Césars, but he has been featured in several major films, among them Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain; Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio; and Roland Emmerich’s upcoming White House Down, starring Channing Tatum.

According to Deadline.com, Lionsgate will distribute The Candy Store in North America, while Good Universe is handling international sales. In fact, The Candy Store is one of the films to be pitched at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained image: The Weinstein Company.

Catalina Denis: Paul Walker thriller gets leading lady.

Catalina Denis cast in Paul Walker thriller

Model and film actress Catalina Denis has been cast as the female lead opposite Paul Walker (Fast & Furious 6) and David Belle (Malavita) in Camille Delamarre’s Brick Mansions. The action thriller is EuropaCorp and Relativity Media’s English-language remake of the 2004 French-made action / thriller District B13.

In Brick Mansions, Paul Walker incarnates an undercover cop out to defuse a bomb in possession of drug warlord RZA. Catalina Denis will play David Belle’s romantic interest. Luc Besson, who specializes in run-of-the-mill, Hollywood-style French-made action thrillers, is one of the film’s producers.

Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, From Paris with Love), and co-written by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri, District B13 / Banlieue 13 stars David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Dany Verissimo-Petit, and co-screenwriter Naceri. The film performed modestly at the French box office; according to Boxofficemojo.com, District B13 was no. 51 on France’s 2004 box office chart, after collecting $6.92 million. A 2009 sequel, District 13: Ultimatum, also featuring David Belle, was no. 50 on the chart, grossing $8.92 million.

In some capacity or other, the Paris-born Luc Besson has produced more than 100 movies. Among Besson’s most notable producing credits are Subway (1985), with Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert; La Femme Nikita (1990), with Anne Parillaud; and, more recently, Colombiana, with Zoe Saldana; the animated A Monster in Paris; Blind Man, with Jacques Gamblin and Lambert Wilson; Taken 2 with Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace, and Lockout, with Guy Pearce and, once again, Maggie Grace.

Catalina Denis movies

According to the IMDb, Catalina Denis has been featured in only five films: a bit role in Taxi 4 (2007), in addition to Olivier Van Hoofstadt’s crime drama Go Fast (2008), with Raschdy Zem and Olivier Gourmet; Hervé Renoh’s action comedy Coursier (2010); Pascal Bourdiaux’s comedy Le Mac (2010), with José Garcia, Gilbert Melki, and Carmen Maura; and Frédéric Jardin’s thriller Sleepless Night / Nuit blanche (2011), with Tomer Sisley.

Catalina Denis’ Brick Mansions casting news via TheWrap.