*We may see Jack Bauer on the silver screen yet, despite the myriad of problems faced by the planned 24 film. Part of me is still confused by the decision to dump the script put forth by Billy Ray(Breach, Shattered Glass), but Kiefer Sutherland and producer Brian Grazer are confident and holding fast to their planned 2012 start date. Deadline notes that Tony Scott, who had been attached in some producer-like capacity or something, is out of the picture. A script by Mark Bomback(Live Free or Die Hard) is on the way, and the search for a director has begun. The hope is to begin production as soon as next spring. I won't hold my breath.
* There's reason to be excited about the pairing of director M. Night Shyamalan and star Will Smith with the sci-fi flick, One Thousand AE. For one, it at least has a great premise, with the story focusing on a father and son(Jaden Smith) who crash land on an uninhabitable earth, and put in a position where the son must rescue the father. So it sounds like the story will revolve more around Jaden's character, and he was very good in The Karate Kid. Shyamalan's script is getting a touch up by Stephen Gaghan(Traffic), and now Zoe Kravitz and Sophie Okenedo(Hotel Rwanda) are in talks to join the film. The daughter of Lenny Kravitz was last seen in X-men: First Class, and would play Will Smith's daughter. Okenedo would be Will's wife and the mother to Jaden's character. [THR]
* And here I thought he'd been banished from the horror realm after Paranormal Activity 2, but here Kip Williams is with his first film since. He's set to write and direct an adaptation of horror novel, Those Across the River, from author Christopher Buehlman. The story is of a failed academic and WWI vet who moves to a small Georgia town with his wife to write a novel about his evil grandfather, a plantation owner. He discovers a deep, dark secret the town has been hiding, involving a blood sacrifice and the disappearance of some of the residents. Despite his last film, Williams has made a good film before in 2004's The Door in the Floor, so maybe this will be a return to form.
