Hasbro Inc. has shelved plans to release a line of dolls based on the "Pussycat Dolls", an all-female music group known for risque lyrics and skimpy outfits.
Hasbro, the nation's second biggest toy maker, said it decided the dolls were "inappropriate" for the company to market and that the pop group catered to a more mature audience.
The company had reached a deal with Interscope Records, the group's label, to release dolls modeled after the popular sextet -- whose songs include the hit single, "Don't Cha." But it released a statement saying it had abandoned plans for the doll line.
"Interscope's current creative direction and images for the recording group are focused on a much older target than we had anticipated at the time of our original discussions, thereby making a doll line inappropriate for Hasbro," the company said.
Interscope is part of Universal Music Group Recordings.
The success of Montreal-based CG houses working on Frank Miller's Spartan war epic 300, has prompted Paramount to land Roger Corman-alumnus, writer/producer John Sayles to set up shop for the Spiderwick Chronicles at Mel's Cite du Cinema studio, in Montreal.
Spiderwick will begin shooting in August for 16 weeks, budgeted at $110-million, based on the bestselling books by Tony DiTerlizzi/Holly Black and adapted for the big screen by Sayles.
The film is to be directed by Mark Waters, whose previous films include Mean Girls and Freaky Friday.
The books tell the story of three young siblings who enter a magical world.
The studio will also be hosting another US film, a new 3-D film version of sci-fi classic Journey to the Centre of the Earth starring Brendan Fraser and produced by Walden Media of Chronicles of Narnia fame.
Journey, budgeted at $40 million, will be distributed by New Line, with a June 30 start date.
As Sneak Peek reported April 8, 2006, following the publication of a New York City casting call, director Michael Bay's Paramount/DreamWorks live action feature based on the Japanese 'Transformers' line of changeable battle toys will be titled Transformers: Prime Directive.
Although Vancouver was initially set up to shoot the CG-heavy film, the rising Canadian dollar and US state tax credits, made it more advantageous to shoot the $100 million production in New Mexico.
Spielberg's successful use of giant robotic, CG Martian pods in Paramount's War Of the Worlds gave credibility to greenlighting the Transformers project.
Fans are hoping to see 'Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion' when Warners issues their 2007 theatrical release of Sir Ridley "Alien" Scott's Blade Runner, promised to be the director's absolute 'final cut'.
In 1982, when director Scott ran overbudget on Blade Runner, based on author Philip K. Dick's sci-fi classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, completion bond guarantors took control of the film and made substantial changes, including a voice-over from star Harrison Ford, and adding a 'happy' ending.
That version was replaced in 1992, by Scott's 'rushed' directors cut.
Scott began work on a more definitive version in 2000, but that effort was shelved after Warners failed to come to terms with producer Jerry Perenchio.
Now that Warners have settled all rights issues, Blade Runner: Final Cut will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th anniversary theatrical run.
Author Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern will be adapted for the big screen by the Canadian film production company Copperheart Entertainment.
Copperheart acquired the rights to all 19 books in the Dragonriders fantasy series, confirming that the first film out of the gate will be based on the 1968 'beast-seller' Dragonflight.
Premise of the stories are set in a universe where humans ride and communicate telepathically with giant fire-breathing lizards, genetically modified to destroy spaceborn invaders.
Extremely loyal, the dragons are known to grieve and commit suicide when their riders die.
According to an interview with MTV, director Jon "Foggy Nelson" Favreau is prepping Marvel Studios Iron Man feature, for a production start, January 2007.
"It's the first movie Marvel is self-financing," he said of a new deal that frees the makers of the Spider-Man and X-Men movies from studio control.
"We're set to come out in the summer of '08, and we'll start shooting in January...
"We're gonna have it take place in the present day, but there will be an origin story that has the old, gray 'Iron Man' suit...
"Eventually it will progress into more of the modern look...
"The alcoholism doesn't come into play until later on... [the comic book] started off in the '60s, where it was about him as a successful manufacturer who developed this suit. Then, later, it spins off into that story about him fighting against himself. I think we're going to lay the groundwork for it, but the first one's going to explore him taking on this alter ego of 'Iron Man' and developing the suit, and what happens politically within the 'Stark Corporation'."
Favreau said that the actor playing Iron Man's secret identity of 'Tony Stark' is unlikely to be a major star and hopes to announce the discovery of a relative unknown to play the leading part.
