That didn't take too long. Dan Brown's new thriller, "The Lost Symbol," hit bookshelves in mid-September and Tom Hanks—busy Oscar-winner that he is—has already finished reading it. Of course, Hanks had a little extra motivation going in, seeing as he's twice played Brown's hero Robert Langdon on the big screen (in little pictures called "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons").
"I just finished it last week," Hanks told MTV News on the "Where the Wild Things Are" red carpet. "Page-turner. Dan Brown knows how to weave a tale. I was exhausted by the end of it." Read more...
Sure, we all want another installment of Jason Bourne. A fourth film is being written as we speak. But who says every spy movie has to star Bourne or his aging rival, James Bond? After all, "Bourne" creator Robert Ludlum penned a ton of exciting espionage thrillers, and any one of them would make for a good time at the movies. Luckily, Universal agrees. The studio is dusting off their Ludlum collection to bring us "The Parsifal Mosiac" with Ron Howard in place to direct, Varietyreports.
If adapted right by David Self ("Road to Perdition"), "Mosiac" holds the promise of an agents and assassins-fueled thrill ride. The story follows a tormented U.S. spy named Michael Havelock. He loves fellow spy Jenna Karasova, who is executed after being uncovered as a KGB double agent. Haunted by the tragedy, Havelock abandons his life of espionage and tries to go civilian. Things are going fine until he encounters Jenna again while kicking around Europe. Cue the chase, explosions, action sequences and double crossing. Read more...
Looking back at the original run of "Happy Days," it was far from obvious that Ron Howard was going to end up being one of the more prolific filmmakers of our time. Now it appears that his very own daughter is trying to pull off a similar sucker punch in her career. How very "Original" of her.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal and Imagine have picked up the rights for "The Originals," a drama written by Bryce Dallas Howard and Dane Charbeneau. Imagine will produce the project, and the senior Howard is expected to have some involvement as well. Read more...
Have you ever wondered if there's a dark side to the easygoing Mr. Nice Guy personality that actor Tom Hanks has cultivated for himself? MTV's own Josh Horowitz sure has, and he's not afraid to ask the tough question in this interview. Not that we can really trust Hanks' answer. After all, the interview did go down in Rome as part of the 'Angels & Demons' premiere.
What do you think? Is Hanks actually a wolf in sheep's clothing, despite what he says here? The idea of him even playing a villain seems outlandish to me. Sound off in the comments below.
FROM MTV.COM:
The hardest thing about wrestling a Dan Brown novel into submission for movie purposes would have to be the endless wads of undigested explication that clog the author's narratives. Brown and his reclusive wife/research assistant, Blythe, appear never to have encountered an arcane factoid they could resist cramming into one of his tales. It needn't even be factual. (Their inaccuracies have been widely derided.) The result of this book-crafting strategy has been to give Brown's wooden characters far too many things to explain and to instruct us in. This was already a problem for director Ron Howard in his film version of "The Da Vinci Code" three years ago. Now, taking a whack at "Angels & Demons" — the Brown book that preceded "Da Vinci," but has been extensively revised into a sequel here — Howard has thrown up his hands and gone native. Impatient viewers may want to go home.
Continue reading 'Angels & Demons': Talk Show, By Kurt Loder
If you’re like any of us at MTV News, you’re probably wondering what keeps holding up the big screen adaptation of “Arrested Development” from moving forward. Well, now we have our answer: the new Fox show, “Sit Down, Shut Up.”
Mitch Hurwitz’s animated comedy debuted earlier this month, and between writing and producing that series, and developing other television projects, the “Arrested” creator hasn’t had a chance to start writing a script for his Emmy-winning Fox show that was canceled in 2006, says “Arrested” producer/narrator Ron Howard.
“Still waiting on a script,” Howard told MTV News this week. “Mitch’s television company was very successful—good for Mitch—and slowed things up a little bit for ‘Arrested Development’ fans.” Read more...
FROM SPLASH PAGE: When it comes to adapting anything associated with horror master H.P. Lovecraft, the first name to pop into your mind probably isn't Ron Howard. Nevertheless, that's who's interested in tackling Image Comics' graphic novel "The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft," which is set to hit shelves this April.
According to Variety, Universal and Imagine Entertainment have bought the rights to the novel, and are planning it as a potential director's vehicle for Howard.
Read more about Ron Howard's plans for "The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft" at SplashPage.MTV.com.
The status of the “Arrested Development” movie has vexed and teased fans of the Emmy-winning Fox show almost since the day it was unjustly canceled. The project’s various rumors -- it’s happening! It’s dead! Wait, it’s totally on again! -- were more confusing than Tobias Fünke’s sexual preferences. Last month at Sundance, Michael Cera told MTV News that there was no script and he didn’t even know if he’d reprise his role as George Michael Bluth. Then co-star Jeffrey Tambor hit back, claiming Cera was in and the movie would film before the end of the year.
It seemed like every time a cast member opened his mouth, the mystery only deepened. So when we had the chance to speak with executive producer Ron Howard on the red carpet at the Oscars, we asked him to kick us some truth. He did, and now MTV News can exclusively confirm that the “Arrested Development” is happening.
“It’s going ahead,” Howard confirmed. Read more...
During a recent interview with MTV News, Michael Cera refuted rumors that he was the lone hold-out on an "Arrested Development" movie. At least one man at the top agrees. Speaking with MTV, Ron Howard laughed off any sign of worry that Michael Cera won’t be onboard for a big-screen feature. Despite the long-gestating nature of the project, the “Frost/Nixon” director remained positive.
“There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm within the cast,” said Howard. Asked if he thought the original “Arrested Development” cast would be reassembled for the film, he was optimistic. “I think so. I haven’t spoken to everybody, but everybody loved doing the show.” Read more...
