4/10/2012

Sure Shots: Jennifer Aniston; 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho'; Tim Burton


* After an eternity in development, the gears may finally be turning for We're the Millers, a road trip comedy that at most recent report had Jason Bateman set to star. Well, he's out, with Jennifer Aniston stepping in and her Horrible Bosses co-star, Jason Sudeikis, close to signing. Written by Wedding Crashers scribes, Bob Fisher and Steve Faber, the story would have Sudeikis as a drug dealer who creates a fake family and heads off into an RV to cross the border into Mexico and pick up over 1,000lbs of marijuana for one big score. Aniston would play a hooker who gets roped into the scheme playing the mom of the family. Rawson Thurber(Dodgeball) is still attached to direct, but there's no timetable for when, or if, this will shoot. [Deadline]

CSI star Wallace Langham will play legendary graphic designer Saul Bass in Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the film by director Sacha Gervasi which already boasts Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, James D'Arcy, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Stuhlbarg, Toni Collette, Michael Wincott, and Danny Huston. Wow. Bass was known for his inventive title and credit sequences(The Man with the Golden Arm is the best in my opinion), and he did the same for Psycho along with serving as storyboard artist. He would work alongside Hitchcock many times, but as proved to be the case with others involved with the film, the director's personality would cause this to be the final time.  The film is based on the novel by Stephen Rebello. [Variety]

* Does Tim Burton have a new running buddy not named Tim Burton? It appears so. The director will pair up with Dark Shadows scribe Seth Grahame-Smith(he also wrote Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which Burton produced) for a stop-motion animated film which Burton will direct. Titled Night of the Living, details are under wraps at this point but it sounds like some sort of zombie movie. Grahame-Smith will also provide the script for Burton's Beetlejuice sequel, and will next adapt his own upcoming novel, Unholy Night.