Breaking Up The Backlog

Every week the Hollywood machine spits out a steady stream of gossip, rumors and revelations. We at FlickSided would love to report them all, but a few will inevitably slip by our radar. In an effort to remedy these oversights, here are a handful of stories we placed on the back burner until now.

• Guillermo del Toro left The Hobbit for this? Geesh. Evidently he will co-write and produce a live-action film based on the Disney ride The Haunted Mansion. Not to be confused with the awful flick Eddie Murphy did a few years back. No, this is a reboot that promises to be spooky scary. Hey, the Mouse struck gold with Pirates of the Caribbean, so maybe history will repeat itself. With del Toro providing substantial input at least we’ll be guaranteed a film that looks good.

• Brad Pitt is going to war. He’s slated to star in a film adaptation of Max Brooks’ zombie apocalypse novel World War Z. Zombies are all the rage and don’t appear to be slowing down. This marks sorta new territory for Pitt, who hasn’t ventured into the horror genre since Interview with the Vampire sixteen years ago.

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are heading back to the big screen. The movie will be based on an upcoming comic book called The Strange Case of Hyde.  This time around, the split personality fiend will play the hero and be pitted against a “historical villain” yet to be named. Sounds like producers are aiming for a Sherlock Holmes type franchise.

• David Fincher’s remake of the Swedish smash hit The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been tapped for a December 11, 2011 release. I’m a huge fan of the original, so I’m intrigued to see how Fincher — one of my favorite directors — handles the intense and often brutal subject matter. The dude made Seven and Fight Club, so I think he’ll do it justice. A worldwide search is also under way to find the right actress to portray goth lesbian hacker Lisbeth Salander. Good luck with that. And no, Ellen Page isn’t a suitable candidate.