LOS ANGELES – October 27, 2011 – Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington and Matthew McConaughey will star in Freedom Films’ upcoming action thriller “Thunder Run” with Simon West set to direct, announced Brian Presley, CEO of Freedom Films, who will produce alongside Carissa Buffel and Kevin Matusow of Freedom Films and Jib Polhemus of The Graphic Film Company. Additional casting will begin in the next week. Hyde Park International has signed on for international sales.

“Thunder Run,” is an all CG 3-D action thriller based on the novel “Thunder Run – The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent David Zucchino. Adapting the story for the screen are Academy Award-winner Robert Port and Ken Nolan, screenwriter of “Black Hawk Down.” The Graphic Film Company will utilize proprietary facial-capture technology they used on West’s upcoming “Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3-D” along with the motion capture technology used in “AVATAR.”

“We are very excited to have attracted this outstanding level of acting and writing talent. ‘Thunder Run’ will be the first ever conventional war film made to utilize this revolutionary facial and motion capture technology and state of the art CG and 3D. Simon and I have developed this project over the last five years so it will be nice to see it come alive,” commented Presley.

“Thunder Run” is the untold story of the dangerous and bloody capture of Baghdad by American Forces at the onset of the Iraq War. In April 2003, three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of five million, igniting a three-day blitzkrieg, which military professionals often refer to as a lightning strike, or “thunder run.” In telling the story of the surprise assault on Baghdad- one of the most decisive battles in recent American combat history–this movie paints the harrowing picture of the soldiers on the front lines and the realities of modern warfare.

Source: Killer Film

Machine Gun Preacher is based on the true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who finds faith leading him on a path to East Africa. Shocked by the mayhem in Sudan, Childers becomes a crusader for hundreds of refugee children. Inspired to create a safe haven for the multitudes fleeing enslavement by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, he restores peace to their lives and eventually his own.

Set against the backdrop of a postapocalyptic Earth whose Eastern Hemisphere was destroyed by a massive solar flare. Story centers on treasure hunters aiming to extract such items as the Mona Lisa amid competition from rival hunters, mutants and pirates.

Source: Variety

The Crazies

Escape From New York is set in 1997, when the US President crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber Snake Plissken is sent in for a rescue. Kurt Russell originally took on the role of Plissken in the 1981 version, now being remade under Neal Moritz’s Original Films.

No word yet on who else is being looked at to take on the role of Snake. The Bounty Hunter star Gerard Butler was going to originally take on the role in this modernized version but jumped ship due to creative differences.

Since the possibility of almost anybody taking on the role is open, who would you want to see as Snake Plissken?

Escape from New York

From what was gathered out of the interview, Mendes is entirely out of Preacher, which means that Sony Pictures is currently on the hunt for somebody to help bring John August’s script onto the big screen. August has shown interest in possibly directing, which could work for the seasoned screen writer. However, that will not stop the company to continue their hunt that way they could start up a 2011 filming date.

Then we make our way over to the on again/off again remake of Escape from New York. For awhile there were talks that 300 star Gerard Butler would don the eye patch and scruff as the bad ass Snake Plissken, but those are nothing more than rumors. Moritz says that they are looking to approach the actor once more whenever they do get a director completely on board. Unfortunately there’s no word on who exactly they’re looking at to helm the picture.

Give us your two cents, what do you think about these developing projects?

A banished hero (Fiennes) of Rome allies with a sworn enemy (Butler) to take his revenge on the city. The Magnolia Mae, Artemis Films and Hermetof Pictures production of Coriolanus is expected to come out sometime this year.:

The story is pretty standard, a bounty hunter named Milo’s (Gerard Butler) luck changes for the better when he gets assigned to pick up his ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston), who recently jumped bail to follow a lead on a story she’s working on (she’s a reporter if you haven’t figured that out by now). Only, it doesn’t take long for the lead Nicole (Aniston/Ex-wife) is following, and  Milo’s gambling debts to quickly blow up in their faces. Thrown in for good measure are car chases, gun fights, lame jokes.

I know your thinking to yourself, that’s not so bad, and your right, it isn’t so bad, but it is a movie we as movie fans have seen a dozen times before. Hell, in this reviewer’s opinion cliché isn’t always a bad thing, but int he case of The Bounty Hunter it was compounded by the lack of character development. Butler and Aniston are both top-notch actors that have proven themselves time and again, but in this flick their chemistry isn’t just weak it’s nonexistent. The other characters suffer from lack of development as well. A good example would be Jimmy (Adam Rose), the snitch that sets the bad guys on Aniston and Butler. Rose is a solid actor that could have added extra depth to his character, but was instead just used as a plot device to get the leads into the action.

While at times I was reminded of solid films like, Seems Like Old Times or Bird on a Wire it didn’t take long for those memories to fade, only to be replaced by tired jokes and bad chemistry. The Bounty Hunter isn’t a complete washout, but if I could I’d have waited and added it to my Netflix queue, because it wasn’t even close to being a killer film.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

There is one other major question that we have not answered, and that’s if Gerard Butler will be returning to play the role of the courageous and cunning character King Leonidas. Unfortunately the actor will not be returning to reprise his role, but that won’t stop Legendary Pictures from finding another character in Miller’s script to be casted and conquer this feature. Frank Miller is also putting together at the same time a graphic novel that will intertwine the two stories together before the film comes out. Zack Snyder, who originally directed 300 does show interest in helming this prequel but is waiting to see the final results from Miller’s graphic novel and script before he commits.

300 was a fun, action packed romp that really put director Zack Snyder out there in all of our fanboy radars before he was attached to direct Watchmen. The thing is, do you find it necessary for them to continue on with a prequel? Or do you think that they’re cashing in on a cow that’s already withered away and died?

Title: District 9
Starring: Sharlto Copley
Released: 22nd December 2009
SRP: $36.95 (2-Disc DVD)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced 1-disc DVD ($28.96), 2-disc DVD ($36.95), and 2-disc Blu-ray ($39.95) releases of District 9 for the 22nd December. Extras on the 1-disc DVD will include a director’s commentary, a 3-part documentary (“The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker’s Log”), and a Koobus Big Gun feature. The 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray releases will include all that, along with additional featurettes (“Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus”, “Innovation: Acting and Improvisation”, “Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9″, “Alien Generation: Visual Effects”).

Title: Moon
Starring: Sam Rockwell
Released: 12th January 2010
SRP: $27.96 (DVD)

Further Details:
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced DVD ($27.96) and Blu-ray ($37.95) releases of Moon which stars Sam Rockwell. Each will be available to own from the 12th January. Extras will include a commentary with Writer/Director Duncan Jones, Director of Photography Gary Shaw, Concept Designer Gavin Rothery and Production Designer Tony Noble, a second commentary with Writer/Director Duncan Jones and Producer Stuart Fenegen, and 4 featurettes (“The Making of MOON”, “Creating the Visual Effects”, “Science Center Q&A with Director Duncan Jones”, “Filmmaker’s Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival”). We’ve attached our first look at the official package artwork for each of the releases below:

Title: Gamer
Starring: Gerard Butler
Released: 19th January 2010
SRP: $29.95 (DVD)

Further Details:
Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($39.99) releases of Gamer for the 19th January. Extras on the DVD will include an audio commentary with Writers/Directors Neveldine/Taylor and actors Amber Valletta, Alison Lohman, and Terry Crews, an Inside the Game multi-part making-of documentary, a First Person Shooter: The Evolution of Red featurette, and a never before seen theatrical trailer that was cut for the film by the filmmakers but ultimately deemed too radical for audiences. The Blu-ray release will include all of the above, plus an I-Con Mode interactive feature, and Gamer Cheat Codes (interactive specialized scene-specific audio and video commentary accessible throughout the film). Early artwork is attached:

Source: dvdactive

Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is a family man that that is forced to take the law into his own hands after his lawyer (Jamie Foxx) makes a deal that sets one of his wife and daughter’s murderers free. Shelton doesn’t rush out to exact his revenge immediately, he decides to wait 10 years and to meticulously plan out their demise in precise detail. So precise is his attention to detail that he is able to kill from behind bars.

Brilliant! Law Abiding Citizen follows the standard revenge flick conventions, then throws a wrench into the mix. It totally puts the audience in Shelton’s corner for the first quarter of the movie, only to quickly split his supporters after Shelton decides that everyone, including the lowly file clerk or legal assistant connected to the release of his wife and daughter’s murderer must die.

Director F. Gary Gray did a tremendous job of creating the perfect balance of love and hate for Jamie Fox’s character Nick Rice, while allowing Gerard Butler to shine as the titular character. I was really impressed with his visual style as well as his pacing. Gray is definitely going to be added to my list of directors to watch.

Law Abiding Citizen was a fun adrenaline fueled thrill ride that left me begging for more, it is positively a killer film. The only complaint I have is that I would have enjoyed watching Shelton kill more people and cause more carnage.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars