teven Spielberg always tends to have a handful of projects in development at once so that he can swoop in and direct anything that is ready for production. With his planned Tintin collaboration with Peter Jackson in jeopardy, it was inevitable that the director with more money that God would start snooping around for a new project. The man has snatched up the rights for a book and it sounds like a project perfectly suited to the fantasist side of the director that sadly doesn’t get as much play these days.

Spielberg plans to adapt Chocky into a feature film. Chocky is a novel by British author John Wyndham that was turned into a cult 80s TV series. The story is about a father who is concerned that his son’s imaginary friend is becoming a problem and is shocked to discover that the “friend” is actually an extra terrestrial. The concept is perfect for Spielberg and harkens back to his great sci-fi/horror romps of the 80s like E.T. and Poltergeist.

While Spielberg can still be depended on for a quality film, he hasn’t really gotten his hands on any pure escapist entertainment since Jurassic Park

While Spielberg can still be depended on for a quality film, he hasn’t really gotten his hands on any pure escapist entertainment since Jurassic Park. It’s really a shame because for all of the beard’s many skills as a filmmaker, he is probably best at audience manipulation. His early blockbuster movies are told with the control and style reminiscent of Hitchcock in his ability to transfix audiences. Seeing him dive into this type of filmmaking again without George Lucas or any pretensions of social commentary (War Of The Worlds) or philosophical debate (A.I.) would be an exciting prospect. Spielberg still plans on making his Lincoln bio-pic and Tintin (provided he can find the money) first, but as far as I’m concerned this is the most exciting movie on the director’s slate.



Bill Murray Talks Ghostbusters 3
The 80s nostalgia wave has been in full effect for a few years now and one of the most beloved cultural artifacts to be rediscovered has been the Ghostbusters franchise. Hipsters everywhere walk around with tight and faux-faded Ghostbusters T-shirts. With a 25th anniversary fast approaching, it was inevitable that someone in Hollywood would start discussing the possibilities of reviving the franchise. It all started with the production of a Ghostbusters video game that reunited Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray. Aykroyd and Ramis wrote the script for the game (as they did with the movies) and they all came in for voice work sparking off a wave of nostalgia for the three absurdly hilarious comedians.

Shortly after that Ramis told the press that a new script was being written by Office scribes Gene Stupnisky and Lee Eisenberg (who just wrote Year One with Ramis). The concept for the film involves the original Ghostbusters training a new generation of recruits and it’s been rumored that Judd Apatow and his cast of thousands will be involved with the project. However, the thing that would make or break the movie is the involvement of Bill Murray. The notoriously prickly comedian has been blocking the production of a third film for years after a negative experience on Ghostbusters 2 and could easily thwart the franchise again. However, someone recently asked him about the project at Fantastic Fest, and Murray had this to say (skip to the end of the file):