Reel World
Seems like writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village) has dropped out of his first big screen adaptation. Shyamalan had long planned to helm a version of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Life of Pi. Now, it seems Shyamalan has been distracted by yet another “original†twist-filled supernatural thriller called Lady in the Water, about an apartment manager who apparently discovers a mermaid. (Um, OK.) According to the rumor mill, Shyamalan will be replaced by Mexican director Alphonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), which sounds better anyway. For those who haven’t read it, The Life of Pi tells the story of an Indian-born zookeeper’s son who searches for his true faith and somehow finds himself adrift on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, a seasick orangutan and a 45-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Odd stuff.
While plans for the new James Bond feature, a remake of 1967’s Casino Royale, are still up in the air (will Clive Owen be the new Bond or not?), it looks like a new 007 franchise is in the birthing process. No, Halle Berry’s aborted “Jinx†spin-off is not back on (thankfully). This time it’s a “Young Bond†series, with Pirates of the Caribbean hunk Orlando Bloom in “serious talks†to play the teenage James Bond in ’30s England. The film will be based on the young adult series of books, which kicked off earlier this year with the publication of Silverfin by Charlie Higson. In the books, however, Bond is only 13, making the 28-year-old Bloom a tad old for the part.