It’s no secret that the G.I. Joe franchise hasn’t had the best of luck when it comes to movies. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins were all critical disappointments, and the latter movie bombed especially hard at the box office. Now Paramount Pictures is looking to reboot the property once again, and it reportedly is taking an unexpected approach for more than one reason to make this happen.

According to THR, Max Landis, who’s written movies like Chronicle and Bright, has been selected to pen a treatment for a new G.I. Joe movie. Landis, the son of director John Landis, has been largely been absent from Hollywood in recent years after being accused of sexual and emotional abuse by several women in the late 2010s. He last wrote a screenplay for 2020’s Shadow in the Cloud, and while the Chloë Grace Moretz-led movie ended up being completely rewritten by Roseanne Liang, he retained his writer credit.

But Landis’ hiring isn’t the only unusual move being made on the new G.I. Joe take. The article mentions that Paramount is also having The Righteous Gemstones’ Danny McBride write a separate script for the reboot. Some sources who spoke to THR claim that the studio intends to take Landis and McBride’s scripts and blend them into one, though a studio source stated that their scripts are for different projects.

Max Landis isn’t the only controversial creative whom Paramount has hired in recent months. In the aftermath of Skydance’s acquisition of the studio, Brett Ratner, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct and recently directed Amazon MGM’s Melania documentary, was announced to be working on Rush Hour 4. Whether or not writing a new G.I. Joe movie will be the first step to him making a Hollywood comeback remains to be seen, assuming it gets greenlighted.

Which brings me back to the two reported G.I. Joe scripts. Granted, it’s not uncommon for studios to take this approach with tentpole pictures, but usually just one script is chosen to be turned into the actual movie. To merge two scripts together is significantly rarer, and I frankly worry that taking this course of action with Landis and McBride’s scripts could result in the G.I. Joe reboot coming off as disjointed at the very least.

Still, one can’t fault Paramount for wanting to revisit G.I. Joe given that the Hasbro-owned franchise remains popular more than 60 years after the toy line launched. The last major update on this front came in 2023 when it was revealed at the end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts that the robots in disguise live in the same universe as the secret military organization. However, nearly three years later, there hasn’t been any movement on a Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie, though the two properties are now expected to co-mingle in an adult animated series called Energon Universe.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on the future of the G.I. Joe film series. You’re welcome to stream the previous movies with your Paramount+ subscription, or read about how Paramount just scored a major victory against Netflix to acquire Warner Bros.

This is the greatest answer. Every director approached with the offer to remake a classic Hollywood film needs to memorize this response. Because when Edgar Wright was asked if he wanted to participate in a remake of the classic John Landis horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London, the Baby Driver helmer wisely explained:

And scene. Really, what more does one need? That's a perfect movie. "I have nothing to add to it." Think how many terrible remakes we would be spared if Hollywood studios, and talented filmmakers, realized that the cash grab isn't always worth it, when nothing else of value can be added?

Edgar Wright made this admission during a recent Shaun of the Dead screening in the UK on Halloween, but SlashFilm reached out to Wright for clarification and got the above quote.

You could understand why a studio might WANT Edgar Wright to direct a remake of An American Werewolf in London, even though Wright's filmography doesn't really lend itself to pure horror. His zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead is the closest he has come, and that leans a lot closer to comedy than John Landis' 1981 classic does.

Then again, Edgar Wright did contribute to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse experiment with this memorable trailer for a fake horror movie called Don't. Years later, this remains awesome.

After the Edgar Wright story made the rounds, John Landis' son Max reached out to SlashFilm for even more clarification. He said that his father, John, basically couldn't have offered Edgar Wright the chance to helm a remake of An American Werewolf in London, because for years, the rights to the property were tied up. It's only recently that the legal workings have course corrected, and a remake is on the right path.

Guess who is writing it? Max Landis, himself. Max's credits include David Ayer's monster-cop movie Bright, the Same Rockwell comedy Mr. Right, and the story for Chronicle, the movie that launched Josh Trank's career.

In the 1981 movie An American Werewolf in London, two backpackers touring the British countryside are attacked by a werewolf, and one -- in the aftermath -- begins suffering painful transformations. The movie's great, though it's best characterized for its incredible movie-monster makeup by Rick and Elaine Baker.

Edgar Wright was right to turn the remake down. If you can't improve on perfection, don't try, just for the paycheck. We don't know what Edgar Wright is working on next, but he's fresh off of the success of Baby Driver, and likely has the pick of the litter of the top screenplays (and doesn't need an unnecessary remake on his resume).

Ever since Freddy vs. Jason debuted back in 2003, many fans have relished the idea of horror icons crossing over with one another. However, even with the interconnected franchise boom established by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we haven't seen many of these crossovers take place. That said, it seems that Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis has an idea for a horror villain crossover that would pit Freddy, Jason, and Chucky against Pinhead and a Cenobite-worshipping cult, and it's honestly a fascinating idea. He recently revealed a lot about what it would be about during The Writer's Panel podcast.

According to Max Landis' pitch, the story opens on a troubled, teenage orphan (compared to John Boyega from Attack the Block) adopted by a couple who live on a lovely, suburban street. However, these adults are the parents of Johnny Depp's Glen Lantz from A Nightmare on Elm Street. While eating dinner with the Lantz family, the orphan becomes violently ill and falls into a coma. Landis explained that a dream sequence is how the villains start to come into play:

This idea during the Nerdist's The Writers Panel podcast, we learn that the Lantz family is part of a cult that worships Pinhead and the Cenobites. They're responsible for the murder of "Fred" Krueger (a seemingly innocent man) and turning him into the nightmare stalking serial killer we all know and love. Now the cult wants to sacrifice Freddy once and for all, forcing him to forge a tenuous alliance with the orphan as they move through the dream world. Krueger and the orphan make their escape through various dream realms and eventually go on to team up with Jason Voorhees and Chucky, and they all journey down to hell on a quest to beat Pinhead (and by extension, defeat the cult).

The basic idea behind this crossover is an attempt to make these killer characters into the main heroes of their respective franchises. In his description of the overarching plot, Landis is adamant in his lack of interest in characters like Laurie Strode, Tommy Jarvis, or really any other famous horror movie hero. By reframing characters like Freddy and Jason as tragically cursed figures, he seems to think that he could breathe new life into these series.

Of course, it's worth mentioning that a crossover such as this would be pretty tricky to pull off. Rights for these characters are spread across several studios, so it's not quite as easy as putting Batman and Superman in a film together. The amount of money and moving parts required would be staggering from a logistical standpoint.

That said, it's hard to deny that this is a pretty good idea for a subversive horror film. It takes a Cabin in the Woods-style approach to rethinking the way we look at these horror icons and the people they kill -- which might be precisely what they need to stay relevant. After all, if the long-rumored Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash or Freddy vs. Chucky never happens, this could be a great idea worthy of exploration.

Looking beyond this pitch, make sure to take a look at our guide to horror movies that we're dying to see, as well as our 2017 movie premiere guide and 2018 movie premiere guide.

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The landscape of horror remakes is a tricky realm to navigate. While some of them are downright terrible, others actually turn out well when handled correctly. On that note, John Landis' An American Werewolf in London is one of the next major horror properties to get the remake treatment, with his son Max currently hard at work on the film's script. It turns out the elder Landis worries about the prospect of a remake, and he even tried to talk his son out of it. John Landis explained:

John Landis' aversion to a remake of An American Werewolf in London doesn't seem rooted in territoriality. Instead, he seems more concerned about the inherent difficulty of pulling off a remake such as this. The property already tried to delve into full-blown franchise territory with the widely maligned An American Werewolf in Paris in 1997. And given the lackluster reception that film received, it is arguably hard to justify another dip in that particular creative well.

Then there's the fact that the original An American Werewolf in London has arguably become one of the most iconic films of the 20th century, horror genre or otherwise. It has become widely regarded as one of the most famous and groundbreaking horror movies in existence, and it won the first ever Academy Award for Best Make-Up -- an award which it definitely earned, given the utterly insane (not to mention gut-wrenching) transformation sequence.

With that said, John Landis does seem to have faith in his son's ability to pull off the remake, even if he thinks it's a bad idea. The delightfully outspoken Max Landis has already proven himself as a successful writer with his work on Chronicle, so he's not an untested and unknown quantity in the Hollywood landscape. John Landis already told Collider that he's not involved in his son's work on the remake of his 1981 classic (aside from the money he will earn), but let's keep our fingers crossed that some of those Landis genes can help make this iteration of the story live up to the original.

Last time we heard about the An American Werewolf in London remake, the reports indicated that Max Landis was still in the process of penning the film's screenplay, but we will keep you up to date with any and all relevant news as it becomes available. Until then, check out our 2017 movie premiere guide and give us your thoughts on a remake of An American Werewolf in London below!

Universal is gearing up to jump into the world of cinematic universes with their Universal Monsters (The Mummy, The Wolf Man, etc), but that won't be their only horror representation in the coming years. It was reported earlier today that 1981's An American Werewolf in London is being remade, and this time around, Max Landis will be the one leading the charge.

Deadline dropped the news that Max Landis will write and direct the American Werewolf in London remake. The Walking Dead's David Alpert and Robert Kirkman will produce the project through their company, Skybound Entertainment. Landis is following in the footsteps of his father, John Landis, who wrote and directed the original movie. The report noted that the elder Landis and filmmaker Anthony Waller (who directed the 1997 sequel An American Werewolf in Paris) worked out a deal over the rights with Universal, and the former will executive produce. One of the movie's other producers, Andy Trapani, told Deadline that he's worked for 10 years to move this remake off the ground.

Although this is the biggest confirmation yet of an American Werewolf in London remake moving forward, this doesn't come as a complete surprise. Back in August, Max Landis said that there was only one of his father's movies that he was interested in trying to remake, and he was "already doing it." He later deleted that tweet and denied that he was working on a new version of American Werewolf in London when asked by several outlets. However, tweets of his from June and July seemed to hint he might be working on the remake, like how he included the words "daytrippers" and "moors." Landis' writing credits include Chronicle, American Ultra, Victor Frankenstein and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, but the new An American Werewolf in London will mark his biggest directorial project yet.

The original An American Werewolf in London followed David Kessler and Jack Goodman, two students who were backpacking through the North York Moors and were attacked by a werewolf. Jack was killed, while David was bitten by the beast, thus gaining the curse of turning into a canine monster during the full moon. The story managed to strike an interesting balance between horror and comedy, something which this re-telling will ideally also pull off. Once he transformed, he went on a rampage in...well, you can figure that out. No plot details have been revealed about the remake, including whether it will be a contemporary tale or retain the 1980s setting. At least with today's modern cinematic technology, we can count on the werewolf looking more realistic, though it might not be a bad idea to rely more on practical effects rather than an abundance of CGI.

We'll keep you apprised on how the American Werewolf in London remake is progressing as more news comes in, but in the meantime, let us know what you think of this project being green-lit in the comments below.

There's been a lot of curiosity around the tone of the upcoming Power Rangers, which released its first teaser trailer just the other day at New York Comic Con. That trailer showed a fairly serious take on the color coded super team, with more than a few people pointing out the similarities to Chronicle -- including its writer, Max Landis. Landis took to Twitter to voice his displeasure and point out that he was once hired to write a draft for Power Rangers.

Once upon a time, Max Landis was hired to write a draft for Power Rangers. Apparently, it wasn't what the producers were looking for, and they decided to move in a different creative direction. After going through more writers and scripts, they settled on a version that has some eerie similarities to Chronicle, a film written by Max Landis. As Landis puts it in his tweet, they fired the writer of Chronicle and ended up making another Chronicle. Film fans tend to have mixed opinions on Landis and his work, but it's understandable that he's not too happy with how things turned out. Anyone who's listened to him pitch a project knows that he's passionate about his ideas.

For any who may not remember, Chronicle was a film about a group of teenagers (one of them an outcast) who stumble upon an alien structure and get super powers. Hijinks and serious trouble soon follow. The trailer for Power Rangers also showed a group of teenagers (all of them outcasts) stumbling upon an alien structure and getting super powers. Hijinks and serious trouble no doubt follow. It's not hard to see how these two films have similar tone and plot, though the Power Rangers trailer might not be indicative of the whole film.

Landis went on to tweet about his version of the Power Rangers script and how different it was from the one the producers ended up choosing.

A "silly, fun, goofy retro teen action adventure" is certainly more in line with the Power Rangers source material and couldn't be farther than what the trailer ended up showing. Does that mean the film made the wrong choice? It's way too soon to tell, but I'm of the opinion that they may have gone a bit too far ("no one would care if you died" is written on someone's locker). Knowing Max Landis, his version of the script will end up online eventually, and I'm really curious how his version will compare to the final film.

Power Rangers is directed by Dean Israelite and is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 24, 2017.

It’s time for some frank talk: unless something drastic happens, American Ultra is not going to get a sequel. The movie didn’t even crack the top five at the box office in its opening weekend, reviews haven’t been kind, and no one is particularly clamoring for more. But none of that is going to stop writer Max Landis from talking about the sequel that could have been.

Sitting down with The Daily Beast, Landis, who is well known for saying exactly what is on his mind at all times, revealed that he already had an American Ultra sequel in mind. This time around, it would switch things up and put Kristen Stewart’s character front and center, making her the action-movie badass. He said:

Not to ruin anything for those of you still intending to see American Ultra, but the end is very much set up so that more movies can easily follow, should the demand for such a thing arise. And as remote as it may be, there could possibly still be a chance for American Ultra 2: Kristen Stewart’s Revenge (that’s what I would call it anyway).

Though the movie only took in $5.5 million dollars in its debut, finishing in sixth place at the box office, despite a fairly big name cast—Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Walton Goggins, Topher Grace, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, and Connie Britton—it doesn’t wasn’t the most expensive movie to produce, with a reported $28 million budget. There are some explosions, and one scene in particular obviously required a ton of black lights, but aside from that, any expenditure appear to be rather minimal.

While I wasn’t super into the movie, it’s not hard to imagine it finding a niche cult fan base once it hits the home video market. If it does find a big enough audience, you can imagine a scenario where a sequel could maybe, just maybe, be in the cards. That’s a big if—even a movie like Dredd, which tanked at the box office but broke records on Blu-ray, isn’t likely to get a follow up anytime soon, despite the fact that people keep talking about it happening. That, however, is also a much more expensive style of film than American Ultra.

If you don’t know, the story of American Ultra follows a stoner convenience store clerk (Jesse Eisenberg) who just so happens to be an undercover CIA sleeper agent. When he’s activated, all hell breaks loose in his small town and he goes on the run with his girlfriend (Kristen Stewart). It does sound like fodder for midnight movie screenings, but we’ll have to wait and see if a sequel with an ass kicking Kristen Stewart waits in our future.

With so many classic movies receiving sequels, reboots, and reimaginings, it’s really just a matter of time before we get a fifth Lethal Weapon movie. Screenwriter Max Landis -- who previously penned Chronicle -- believes he has found a way to breathe new life into the classic action franchise.

In a recent interview with Grantland, while discussing their new film American Ultra, the conversation with Landis and director Nima Nourizadeh quickly turned towards how to go about a new adventure between Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). To which Landis quickly gave his pitch:

Although somewhat absurd, the pitch has many of the tenets for a successful sequel/reboot: it honors the source material, while taking the franchise in a new – and especially intriguing – direction. The pitch possesses a certain blend of genres that could make it feel like a cross between Cabin in the Woods and The Expendables. Every outing for Riggs and Murtaugh has always ended in them figuring out the bad guys’ plot, and engaging in some form of urban combat to bring it down; this pitch turns that on its head and takes the heroes outside their comfort zone – or in Rigg’s case, it bring him back to the underexplored area of his time in Vietnam. Landis’ version also sets up a "passing of the torch" to the new loose-cannon cops – which has become a common and powerful trope to use in Hollywood.

Landis also expressed the concerns that go into making another installment of the Lethal Weapon franchise. Although the installments vary in quality – as is the case with most film series that make it to four movies – we have yet to witness a truly bad Lethal Weapon movie. As he continued, Landis noted the importance of character over action, having no desire to see the headlining duo to devolve into generic action movie clichés.

With Riggs and Murtaugh settling into their respective new roles as father and grandfather by the end of Lethal Weapon 4, it's difficult to say if Hollywood should try and revive the action classic, or let it rest. Do you like Landis’ Lethal Weapon 5 pitch? How would you bring Riggs and Murtaugh back to the big screen?

The interconnectedness of people, places and things has long been subject matter for storytellers to base their tales on, but few have handled it with the erratic aplomb of British author Douglas Adams. His holistic detective character Dirk Gently is headed to American television thanks to comic publisher IDW and Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis. Let’s hope this project comes into existence faster than the payments from any of Gently’s clients.

Landis will pen a script for Dirk Gently, though THR doesn’t make it clear whether he’s only writing a pilot or if he’s mapping out something larger. It’s also not obvious whether this will be a direct adaptation of 1987’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, its 1988 sequel The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, or if it will be an entirely new story set in Adams’ wild and wonderful universe. I think I’d even be accepting if this series was a comedic case-of-the-week procedural, assuming Gently is the same quirky psychic he is on the page.

Gently does have psychic powers, though he prefers to think of them as perfectly natural intuitive thoughts. He solves strange cases that not only involve time travel and cleverly parceled-out information, but sometimes revolve around inexplicably placed couches. I don’t know if Landis has proven himself worthy of taking on the masterful wordplay of Douglas Adams, but I’m not going to write him off over it, especially since we have to wait until 2015 to get a better idea of his skills through his screenplays for Frankenstein and American Ultra.

Dirk Gently serves as the latest trip to television for both the character and IDW, who teamed up with production company Circle of Confusion last year to focus more attention on creating TV series. (They also have the upcoming V-Wars adaptation in the cards.) Both Dirk Gently novels have been adapted in BBC Radio 4 productions, and BBC4 also brought the character to the small screen for the short-lived Dirk Gently series in 2012. Check out the trailer for that project below.

My hope is that this Dirk Gently series gets picked up immediately and turns into an absolute success, so that it can lay the path for a future Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. I think we can all agree that series of novels deserves the advantages that TV has over movies. I’d almost argue that Gently would work better as a film, but I’ll never complain about anything Adams-related, especially if they find the perfect actor to play the titular detective.

Adams fans should also be on the lookout for Jem Roberts’ The Frood: The Authorized and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which has a wealth of deleted passages from Adams’ intergalactic laugh riot. Grab your towel and find it in stores on September 25.

Rumors circulate like wildfire within the industry. Sometimes it can be hard to tell where they've come from. Like the one that made the rounds Tuesday night claiming Max Landis is in line to write Ghostbusters 3. Because no one told Max Landis.

Last night, a report from Nikki Finke (since deleted) announced that Landis was doing a three-week "polish" on the existing Ghostbusters 3 script. This was news to the loquacious Landis, who took to Twitter to debunk this in his own chatty way.

As you can see, Landis is an extremely busy dude, currently making his directorial debut on Me Him Her while working on several scripts . Amusingly, Landis later suggested he's been doing polishes on various massive properties in secret (which is common – screenwriters often moonlight on bigger films without the public knowing), but Ghostbusters 3 and Wonder Woman (was this a rumor?) are apparently not amongst those seeking the Landis touch. Yet.

Another story recently reported by Finke was the existence of Father Of The Bride 3. Steve Martin's character was to return, this time coping with his gay son's upcoming nuptials, and getting kicked out of the house by his wife. This was news to Martin, who swiftly took to Twitter to also debunk this story.

The industry will no doubt rush to condemn Nikki Finke for beginning her site with such "inaccurate" rumors. Of course, they neglect to understand the various machinations of moviemaking. There is little doubt these ideas have been discussed amongst these studios: Max Landis is the hot young genre screenwriter and a third Father Of The Bride makes a good amount of sense. But these might also be board room discussions, and not actual movie studio decisions. Lots of movies get released each year by studios. Imagine how many of those are simply discussed internally, only to fall by the wayside? Imagine how many bad movies DON'T get made? Finke's Ghostbusters 3 and Father Of The Bride 3 stories may not be true, but they might not necessarily be false either.

When Lionsgate announced they were making a Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie, aside from wondering "Why?", everyone was curious as to what kind of movie it would be. Would it bear any resemblance to the two films made in the 90's? Would it bring us a vision of the Power Rangers that we've never seen before? Would it still be using old footage from the Japanese series repurposed for America thanks to dubbing? It looks like someone has asked Max Landis, and he may have put the secret formula to a Power Rangers movie in screenplay format!

SchmoesKnow is reporting that Max Landis was the scribe of choice for Power Rangers and has already submitted a draft to producers Jim Miller, Alison Shearmur and the mighty Haim Saban. SchmoesKnow accurately points to the fact that the Chronicle writer is basically porting over the concept for that film into Power Rangers, at least on the orders of producers. Could it be possible that Power Rangers would be headed in the same direction as Chronicle, a semi-plausible, dark story about teenagers with untapped powers and abilities?

Max Landis, an outspoken critic of blockbuster films and geek cinema, seems like an unlikely choice for the material, beyond the similarities between Chronicle and Power Rangers. Isn't a Power Rangers movie, with its cynical play on the nostalgia of Generation X, the sort of thing that Landis would rail against? His father made wildly original and diverse films throughout his career, from the perfect An American Werewolf In London to the still-hilarious Coming To America. But Max Landis is working in an entirely different Hollywood, one that thrives on familiarity, one that will shut down any new ideas he might have in favor of something familiar. Congratulations, Max Landis, you wrote Chronicle, a hit movie. Would you like a job writing one of our many sequels, remakes, reboots and/or rehashes?

If it's true and this is a more "realistic" take on the Power Rangers, then that seems to be an unwise decision. It's misguided enough to adapt one of the laziest, most empty-headed kids' shows in history, trying to bring a "broad" audience old enough to not drool on the couch during a sugar high to a concept that seems designed specifically to sell plastic pieces of crap. But we live in an age of extensive fan-service, with producers who treat movie message boards like focus groups, so Saban is going to hesitate before making any major changes to the "mythos." Which means that we'd get a souped-up Rita Repulsa with a magical scepter, and everyone would have to act like it's the most serious thing they've ever seen, but at some point someone would make a joke about her lips not matching her words. And we'd also get two desperate-for-work character actors forced into playing Bulk and Skull, only to have the first photos of them scrutinized as soon as they hit the internet. Making a Power Rangers movie is really a lose-lose proposition, no matter which way you look at it.

I was a pretty big fan of Josh Trank’s found-footage superpowers flick Chronicle while I was sitting inside the theater watching it, but further thought into Max Landis’ screenplay kind of killed the mood and I retroactively began to dislike it. In fact, I was pretty happy when Landis announced last month that Twentieth Century Fox was moving on with other screenwriters for what will probably still be a pretty terrible Chronicle 2. But this past weekend, Landis took to Twitter to reveal his ideas for the sequel, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. And you know what? It sounds pretty damned interesting, even if it extends the dark and dreary superhero motif that we’re all kind of sick of at this point.

Already in retrospect mode, Landis says he’s “not even sure if fans of the first film would’ve been ready or eager for my second installment as originally written,” saying that it was a sequel that extended the themes and ideas presented in the first film rather than a Xeroxed copy of it. In fact, he goes so far as to call it a “different genre of movie.” A good story always starts with high ambitions, but he probably should have realized Fox wouldn’t embrace a 180-degree twist.

“Gone was the aspirational ‘what would you do,’ gone were the pranks and the bromance, gone were lovely tragic Andrew and hopeful, bright Steve,” he said. “In their place was a dark, frustratingly unblinking stare into a complicated world that posed the question is it worth it to be a hero, told from the point of view of a heartbroken and insane woman who would martyr herself to the cause of being the world’s first villain.” He even refers to the movie by the non-sequel name Martyr, which probably means somebody else is going to swoop in and purchase this story to be reworked for another studio.

In switching up the genre, Landis is knowingly lofty in hoping his ideas could make the sequel “an Aliens, a Terminator 2” or at worst, “a Grease 2.” Or even a Halloween III: Season of the Witch, if we’re really talking completely different stories.

“So at the end of the day, maybe it’s better that Martyr never saw the light of day,” he admits. “Sad I didn’t get to do some of my other versions. The multi-movie low budget Chronicle-based found footage superhero universe culminating in an Avengers type team up was a real good one.” That might have been interesting. An indie universe, somewhat akin to the insular world that Kevin Smith’s first batch of films inhabited, only with superheroes instead of foul-mouthed lesbians and clerks.

Frankly, I’d be fine with the sequel dropping the found footage aspect altogether, despite that being part of what made the first film as interesting as it was. It would also take away the relevancy of the title Chronicle, but I think Fox is more interested in dollar signs than relevancy anyway.

Though screenwriter Max Landis only has one produced feature screenplay to his credit, 2012's superhero drama Chronicle, he's already earned a reputation as a bit of an outspoken celebrity. Last month Landis was far from shy when he shared his incendiary thoughts on the polarizing blockbuster Man of Steel. And now he's stepped it up to breaking news on Twitter regarding Chronicle 2.

The science-fiction drama that centered on three friends who accidentally receive superpowers after stumbling upon an alien object became a surprise smash hit for Twentieth Century Fox. Aside from a warm reception from critics wooed by the original take on the superhero genre, the $12 million production with no major stars brought in an astounding $126 million at the box office. So it was little surprise when news emerged a month after its debut that Fox had hired Landis to pen a part two, even though original director Josh Trank was moving on to the Fantastic Four reboot. However, the following fall brought signs of trouble for Chronicle 2.

Max Landis' famous father, Blues Brothers director John Landis, told the press that his son had written an "amazing" script for the sequel, but Fox wasn't happy with it. According to the elder Landis, the studio wanted the formula for the first film repeated, and Max was fighting to take the growing franchise in a new direction. Then a few months passed, and Max spoke up, saying his dad basically spoke out of turn. Aiming to set the record straight, he stated directly, " There’s no one at the studio who wants to make a bad movie. They all want to make a good movie just as much as I do. We’re not fighting." Yet he did admit there was a debate about what a Chronicle sequel should look like. He explained his dark script wasn't exactly what Fox had in mind, and finding a compromise that makes both their backers and filmmakers happy had become "an incredibly slow process."

This brings us to today, and Landis's public acknowledgement that he's no longer involved with Chronicle 2 and new writers will be unveiled in short order. But don't cry for Landis; his star is still on the rise. He's got a pair of scripts in development: one an untitled Frankenstein project that has Daniel Radcliffe attached to play Igor, the other an action-comedy called Good Time Gang that has Mark Wahlberg and Jonah Hill on board. Plus, Landis is set to make his feature directorial debut with Me Him Her, which could shoot this summer. As to how that film's development is going, we refer twice more to his tweets:

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This video contains some language that may be considered NSFW. Spoilers for Man of Steel begin at about the 3:20 mark.

It's looking like Man of Steel will become one of the most polarizing superhero movies of our time. While early buzz on the film was resoundingly positive, the latest Superman movie's theatrical release brought a fast and fervent backlash from critics, which caused the now all-too-familiar outcry from fans including many insults and some death threats. Still, audiences turned out in force, giving Man of Steel a very impressive opening weekend box office of $116 million. However, with those numbers dropping down to $41 million in its second week it seems the word of mouth among fans is less enthusiastic than even they might have expected.

Here at Cinema Blend we too are divided, both on our staff and our comment boards. But another noteworthy Superman fan has come out to explain why he takes issue with Man of Steel. Quiet Earth (via Film Drunk) tipped the vid above, where screenwriter of the 2012 superhero drama Chronicle, Max Landis, explains at length what makes the character of Superman so worthwhile, and how Man of Steel failed to live up to Supe's legacy. It's nine minutes and change and is sure to incite plenty of nerd rage (Spider-Man a "narcissistic bully"? Batman "a cold sociopath"?), but it's worth listening to in full as Landis's reasoning and conviction are pretty compelling. Nonetheless, here are some highlights.

Some of these reasons above are what our own Katey Rich has cited as why she, who has little to no interest in reading comic books, has always harbored an appreciation for Superman. So, okay, Landis loves Superman. What's his beef with Man of Steel? Well, if you read the review of Superman: Birthright writer Mark Waid, you probably have some idea already. But SPOILERS AHEAD for Man of Steel.

It's exactly Superman's strength that made the film's finale skyline-annihilating battle sequence between Superman and Zod so infuriating to Landis. He believes Superman should have killed Zod, and he should have done it right away, saving the aforementioned hundreds of thousands of victims that were ultimately slaughtered in their punching fest showdown. "Because he's not responsible for Zod," Landis explains. They should have fought in space or on the moon, away from the helpless people of Earth Superman has chosen to protect, but in this instance does so wildly ineffectively. While admitting his own superhero feature ends in a minor metro melee, he surmises:

For a better sense of what Landis likes in his Superman, check out this comedic short he wrote and directed titled "The Death and Return of Superman."

It's been a few months since we last heard an update about the progress of Chronicle 2, and at that time there was little more than bad news. While the news didn't come from an official source, just screenwriter Max Landis' dad John Landis, the story was more than a little disheartening, with the elder Landis saying that the script for the sequel was having trouble over at 20th Century Fox and that the studio simply wanted a rehash of the movie we already saw. But now the screenwriter has popped up to set the record straight, and it sounds like things may have been a little blown out of proportion.

Speaking to IGN Middle East, Max Landis explained that Chronicle 2 is still moving along, albeit at a slow place. Saying that it wasn't his father's place to comment on the status of the sequel, the screenwriter told the site that the success of the first film has simply led to a lot of voices trying to edge in their opinion about what the follow-up should be like. Said Landis,

Landis also set the record straight on the draft that he already turned into the studio, saying that they didn't hate it, but that there are still some issues that need to be worked out. "They liked my script," he said. "It’s just a really dark script. The question is more of 'How do we all compromise to get something we want?' And that’s an incredibly slow process."

So it sounds as though it's going to be a while until Chronicle 2 actually gets off the ground, but that's nothing that we didn't expect. Trank's Fantastic Four was recently given a March 6, 2015 release date, which means that he will be tied up for at least the next three years (if it goes well chances are the studio is going to want a sequel), and Landis is even prepping his own directorial debut, with Me Him Her. So fret not, fans. It sounds like it will happen, just not soon.

Beyond being the son of famous director John Landis, Max Landis finally made his first big step in Hollywood when he wrote the hit found footage superhero movie Chronicle. The film was a big hit for its budget, bringing in $126 million internationally while spending only $12 million. He's now, of course, hard at work scripting Chronicle 2, but now he has another big project on the horizon: his directorial debut.

Sources have told Variety that Landis is now getting set to helm Me Him Her, a film that the trade describes as "Reality Bites on acid." The film, which is being financed by Big Beach Films, is about a group of young friends, one of whom is struggling to understand their own sexuality. Landis will reportedly be exploring themes of sex, love and friendship with the movie and will emphasize "that conceptions of self should be flexible."

Landis is currently casting the movie, but keeping all other details about the production under wraps. Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub are already on board to produce and the film is looking to get cameras rolling by the spring or summer of 2013. Right now it all depends on Landis' "prior commitments."

And Landis has much more on his plate than just Chronicle 2. He also wrote a script about Frankenstein (which is one of seven or so projects about the monster currently making its way through Hollywood) that Paul McGuigan is attached to direct; is serving as a producer on the film Woogles with Timur Bekmambetov; and is developing an action comedy called Good Time Gang with Jonah Hill and Mark Wahlberg.

Michael B. Jordan has certainly kept busy over the years. He had The Wire back in 2002, then it was on to All My Children for nearly four years after which he moved over to The Assistants and then hit Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. When did this guy have time to make two movies? Jordan had a part in the January 20th release Red Tails and now he’s returning to the big screen yet again in Josh Trank’s Chronicle.

Jordan stars as Steve Montgomery, the quintessential big man on campus. He’s a star athlete, running for class president and is a favorite amongst the ladies. However, one night, Steve winds up adding another skill to his resume – superpowers. When Steve and Matt (Alex Russell) stumble upon a bizarrely deep hole in the woods during a party, they recruit Matt’s cousin Andrew (Dane DeHaan) to bring his camera and film what happens when they go inside – but the bigger deal is what they end up filming after.

As a self-proclaimed comic book nerd, playing a super powered teen is a dream come true for Jordan. Sure it wasn’t easy working within the found footage realm, which required him to be on his toes for particularly long takes, but having the ability to fly and move cars with his mind-- or at least seem like he could-- made it worth it.

In advance of Chronicle’s February 3rd debut, Jordan took the time to run through the whole procedure from landing the role and working with a rising young cast and crew to manning up for his stunts. Check it all out in the interview below.

You’ve done a few films, but your resume is packed with TV work. How did Chronicle sneak in there? Was it just the right time when the script came along?

Yeah, I think it was just the timing and everything worked out for it. When I read the script, it was like I was picking up a comic book for the first time; I was super excited about it. It was a really good read. As soon as I picked it up, I didn’t put it down. I read it twice, back to back. I called my team and I was like, ‘Look, I’ve gotta get on this project. This is it. This is the one I wanna do,’ and it just worked out. I was finished with Parenthood and had the opportunity to go and shoot for a couple of months and I took it and I went.

Did you have any preconceptions about found footage films or superhero movies before getting involved?

A little bit. You have your stereotypical superhero films and you have your typical found footage films. I guess if you had to put us in a box, it’d be a found footage movie, but it’s so much more than that. It’s not about what happens next or shaky camera angles and this monster or this building, whatever it may be; it’s about these characters that you find yourself with at the beginning of the movie. And it’s a new take on superheroes. It’s a fresh take on an old idea. There’s no tights, no spandex, no masks, none of that stuff; it’s real kids and what they would do if they had powers. That’s one of the things that drew me to it because it was such a grounded film.

Are these the kind of things you’d do if you had superpowers?

Yeah, I think along those lines. I think you’d start off small scale, me figuring out what it was, what I could do, my limits and then the mischievous stuff with the girls and all that stuff, however it could benefit me and then I’m pretty sure I would do something that was completely out of line and got completely out of hand and I would probably get in trouble and have to reel it back in and then make an apology and then hopefully everything would be fine. [Laughs]

I’m thinking just the flying would help. Anything to keep me off the subway.

Oh, yeah! That’d be awesome to be able to travel. I love traveling. You would go wherever you wanted to go, no TSA. No TSA, how awesome would that be?

So, once you got the part, what’d you do next? Is there any personal preparation you like to do after landing a role?

Not really. This is actually one of those fun roles where it’s like I’m a comic geek. I grew up watching cartoons and Marvel comics, X-Men and all of that stuff, so when I finally had the chance to play a superhero and use my imagination, it was just like a dream come true. It was just fun. There wasn’t a lot of prep I had to do besides knowing things for all the high wire stuff, the flying rigs and really getting my core strong. That was kind of the only real prep that we did as far as shooting’s concerned. I was in the best shape of my life a couple of months ago! [Laughs]

I’m going to give away my Friday Night Lights obsession with this, but Steve is an all-star athlete who throws a mean football. Did you find any of Vince sneaking into him?

No, not even a little bit. Steve and Vince are two completely different characters and I think that was another reason why I was drawn to this character. Steven Montgomery was originally Steven Kaczynski. He used to be written for a white Jewish guy, which was cool because there’s no stereotype for a black guy playing a Jewish guy, so I went in there and I kind of had a completely fresh new take that he’s well off, he wants to go into politics, Steve is running for senior class president. Yeah, he’s a jock. He just so happens to be playing football, Vince played football, so that’s the only similarity between the two characters.

And how about working on the project with Josh? What kind of direction and advice did he have for you?

Josh is great. He had this project mapped out in his head. He knew exactly what he wanted and being a first time film director at 27, I’m in my early 20s, Dane’s in his 20s, Alex’s in his 20s, Max Landis, the writer, is in his 20s, it was like a new fresh wave, a new energy, just the next generation. Josh was great with letting up collab. What we thought was relevant. We spoke the same language. And it was the first time I was working with a director that was so close in age to myself so I felt like I could do that a little bit more on this project. A lot of growing was done on this film.

What was the environment like on set? A group of guys in their 20s, I’d like to bet you had a good time.

Yeah, for the most part. Well, it was long days. We were all in a position of like, ‘Oh my god, we can’t fuck this up. Don’t fuck this up!’ That was everyday, we’d just go to work and give it 110% all day, every day because we know what’s at stake. I think when you have everybody from the PA to the writer to the director to the producers to the actors, everybody doing the best job they can do to make a great movie, that translates to the film and I think that’s what we got and that’s what we did.

And what was the set like in terms of equipment? Did you actually shoot any of it on a smaller camera?

No. I think we shot on an Alexa. We shot on a big camera. They had a prop small digital camera, but everything was done with the big boy, so we shot with all the regular equipment that a full-sized production would have shot on. We didn’t hold back anything. If anything, we used new technology on this film.

How’d that work with the blocking because you’ve got to appear like you’re holding the camera at times?

Yeah, it was a lot of off screen lines. The greatest thing about the film is usually how a conventional film is shot, I’ll shoot your coverage, you shoot my coverage, you do a wide establishing shot, etc. With this film, there’s only one take. There is no edits, there’s no cuts. Each scene would be somebody turning on and off a camera, so we’d start off in a wide shot and then it could turn into a single and then turn into another single and everybody’s on all the time. There is no saving your performance for the next take or saving your performance until it’s your close-up. Everybody was on all the time. And that was something to get used to. That was a muscle I hadn’t used in a long time. It kind of reminded me of theater. As we continued to shoot and the weeks went on, I got more and more comfortable with this single camera style of shooting.

You’ve got the single camera and are doing really long takes, but how many takes are you doing? Did you have enough shooting time to do each shot a few times?

Yeah, we got some takes in. If you mess up, you start over. [Laughs] We have these scenes, it’s like a minute and a half, two-minute, three-minute scenes and for an actor to be on beat emotionally or wherever you need to be and make sure you’re where you need to be with the blocking. Everything was precise. Rehearsal and preparation was very key to shooting this film and if we got it wrong or some timing was off, you start over from the beginning and do it again.

How do the stunts factor in? I imagine there was a lot of green screen here.

We did most of our own stunts for the most part. We did a lot of them. There were certain things that obviously we couldn’t pull off like smashing the cars, but the scene where I dive into the lake, that was all me. With stunts it was pretty extensive. A lot of our gags were practical, like the car, but also a lot of special effects were added in after. We could actually see the practical rigs and everything. The green screen stuff was more of less with the flying. Everything else that you see us doing was more or less practical.

So, for example, what about the baseball scene? What’s the movie magic behind that one?

I actually hit Alex in the face with the baseball the first couple times. [Laughs] And then another few times, there was nothing there at all. Everybody’s just trying to be on the same page, everybody have the same eye line, stuff like that.

Red Tails just hit theaters a few weeks ago and now you’ve got this, but do you have anything else on your plate right now?

I’ve got House coming out later on this month. I shot that a few weeks ago and that was a lot of fun, House on FOX, and I play Will Westwood, he’s a blind character. He’s been blind since birth, which is a very interesting role. It’s a fun episode, so you guys are gonna really enjoy that. And then after that it’s just literally trying to figure out what I’m doing next. I’m enjoying myself. I’ve been enjoying this time. I know it’s very rare when you get two movies in two weeks. To shoot two movies a year, that’s a big deal, so for me I’m just kind of enjoying this ride right now because I know it doesn’t happen often.

The more I learn about Chronicle, Josh Trank and Max Landis’ faux-documentary, found-footage drama, the more I’m intrigued by what we might be in store for early next year. First, it was that fantastic trailer that established a superhero story of three friends who stumble on … something that granst them super powers. At first, like most teenage boys, they use these powers for mischief, as you can see in the international trailer that recently arrived online (courtesy of BadTaste.it):

But later, we’ll learn that absolute power corrupts one of these kids absolutely, and Chonicle become something else entirely.

The found-footage nature of Trank’s shoot will have several making comparisons to The Blair Witch Project or the Paranormal Activity films, which is understandable. But this origin story reminded me more of M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, with ordinary citizens being blessed with newfound powers and trying to figure out if they’ll be used for good or evil. I guess you also could make the argument that it’s the realistic take on X-Men: First Class, if, in fact, Trank and Landis are laying the groundwork for a series of stories to be told involving these characters. Chronicle could also just be a one-off thriller like Cloverfield, never to be expanded on again.

Either way, the trailer and this new poster have piqued my interest. There’s a very brief “flying” shot in the trailer, and the poster hints at where these kids might be heading once airborne. We’ll know a lot more about Chronicle in the weeks leading up to release, which is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2012.

When a character in fiction learns that they have certain powers and abilities that others don't possess, they have a choice to make: they can either use said powers and abilities for good and to help people, or they can use them for evil. Such is the story of Chronicle, a new film from director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis. Shot as a faux-documentary, the movie is about a group of three friends who acquire superpowers in the woods and go on an unexpected journey.

Check out the first trailer for the film, courtesy of MTV (apologies to our international friends).

While I'm not a huge fan of the found-footage format, I must admit that this teaser has definitely piqued my interest. As cool as having powers is, one aspect that I've always been interested in is the psychological side of superhumans and how they choose which path to follow. Judging by this trailer, the character named Andrew will be experiencing an interesting path to the dark side.

The movie stars Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell and Dane DeHaan. Chronicle is scheduled to hit theaters on February 3, 2012.

Vampires continue to be all the rage, but another classic horror creature is waiting in the wings for his time to shine. As we reported on the site earlier, there are as many as eight potential Frankenstein movies in the works at various studios. But today, one feature took a monster step closer toward becoming a reality.

Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy will direct a movie based on Mary Shelley’s misunderstood creature, according to Variety. The trade says Levy beat out Paul Greengrass and David Yates to earn the gig. He’ll work from a screenplay written by Chronicle scribe Max Landis, son of director John Landis.

Levy is able to take on the assignment because his planned remake of the 1966 sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage has been put on hold for the time being. As we reported, the director is lobbying hard to cast Will Smith in the lead role of a scientist who is reduced to microscopic size and injected into the bloodstream of a diplomat. It’s unclear why Fox would balk at the idea of casting Smith in anything, let alone a sci-fi action thriller with Levy, a proven talent, at the helm. Then again, maybe they saw Wild Wild West or maybe Smith isn’t interested because the third Men In Black is coming out next year. Maybe Levy can accomplish two goals in one film by somehow bringing Smith with him to this new Frankenstein project. Smith has yet to try horror over the course of his lengthy and extremely successful career. Is it time the Fresh Prince gave Frankenstein some thought?

Shawn Levy's commitment to Fox's remake for Fantastic Voyage has been on the rocks as of late. Last Thursday it was said that the director was thinking about bailing on the project unless the studio would greenlight his plan to cast Will Smith as the film's star. There hasn't been any update on the project since, but while Levy waits he's contemplating making a science-fiction film of another variety.

Deadline has learned from sources that Levy is now interested in bringing Frankenstein back to the big screen. Now, if you just asked yourself, "Which Frankenstein?" you deserve a cookie for paying attention. As we've previously reported, there are now as many as eight different movies based on Mary Shelley's scientist and reanimated monster currently in develoment, but Levy is apparently staying in-house to work on the script written by Max Landis. Fox wants to fast-track the film so that they can get a jump start on all of the other similarly themed movies and is interested in having Levy be the man to take their project through production. Levy's newest film, Real Steel, is set to be released on October 7th.

If you think it's bad that we're getting two Snow White movies next year, just wait until 2013/2014 when more than a half-dozen Frankenstein movies make their way into theaters. We can only hope that some of the projects will hit terrible pre-production woes and either get cancelled or delayed for a decade, but the sheer number of films in development suggests that we will probably have to deal with at least two movies coming out within the same calendar year. We can only hope that Fox gets Fantastic Voyage into gear and Levy will be too preoccupied to deal with a bolt-neck wearing giant.

You expect to hear Mark Wahlberg’s named attached to a buddy-action-comedy premise. His resume is littered with similar tough-guy roles, from The Other Guys and Date Night to the grittier Max Payne or We Own the Night. But when Wahlberg’s rumored partner is Jonah Hill, the project takes on an intriguing twist.

The two actors will team for Good Time Gang, a film that’s being set up through RCR Pictures and penned by Max Landis (son of the legendary John Landis), according to the L.A. Times. Wahlberg and Hill would play “party-happy mercenaries” -- which automatically sounds bizarre -- who agree to a job involving a known terrorist, then find out one of the two men are related to their intended target. The anonymous source who was briefed on the nature of the project says that it is being constructed in the mold of Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon, with more of an emphasis on the action sequences over the comedy.

On second thought, the casting of Hill might not be as off-the-wall as we initially thought. The Superbad star has been easing into the action genre, writing and starring alongside Channing Tatum and Ice Cube in a

[[ http channing-tatum-boards-21-jump-street-with-jonah-hill-21977.html new www.cinemablend.com ]] 21 Jump Street reboot that just finished shooting. And he appears to be dipping his toe into more adult fare, as suggested by the latest trailer for Bennett Miller’s Moneyball.

I’m less concerned with the casting of Hill as one half of a buddy-action effort than I am with the Good Time Gang team trying to connect their project back to Lethal Weapon, which was a seminal entry in the genre and likely won’t be duplicated. Comparing your script to Shane Black’s masterpiece (yeah, I said it) sets us up for disappointment when it doesn’t live up to the self-generated hype. We can hope Gang becomes Weapon for a new generation, but it has a long way to go before that expectation becomes a reality.

The idea behind the spec script Chronicle seems better suited for a kid-focused TV series in the line of The Secret World of Alex Mack, but because superhero stories just won't die at the movies, it's going to the big screen instead. According to THR Fox has picked up the spec by Max Landis, and first-timer Josh Trank plans to direct.

The story follows three teenagers in Portland, Oregon who are exposed to "a mysterious substance in the woods" that gives them some kind of superpowers. They team up to take advantage of their new skills, but if even The Avengers squabble amongst themselves once in a while, you know the relationship is going to turn sour before too long. Apparently Trank plans to shoot the film in a handheld, Cloverfield-inspired style, which is not really great news. We've seen kids running around in the woods followed by a handheld camera in The Blair Witch Project, and it's really only the rare director who can pull off the handheld style without just giving the audience motion sickness.

Trank and Landis are both children of Hollywood-- Landis is son of director John, Trank's dad Richard won a documentary Oscar in 1997-- so clearly their inexperience doesn't indicate a lack of knowledge. As much as the handheld style worries me, a small, original story like this sounds like a great place for new filmmakers to get started. Of course, these are new filmmakers who just happen to have a major studio funding their work… but hey, that's Hollywood nepotism at work for you.