11.19.08: Massive 'Where The Wild Things Are' update, the return of both He-Man and Nicolas Sparks, and more

TEENAGE MUTANT GOSSIP X-MEN

Even though through characters like Rogue and Iceman the teen generation has already been well represented in the X-Men films, Fox has hired Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz to write and possibly direct X-Men: First Class, which will focus exclusively on the youngsters. There have been a number of youthful mutant teams in the Marvel comics universe, most notably the New Mutants and Canadian kiddie troupe Power Pack; but who knows if any of the related characters will end up in Schwartz's take. This Variety article suggests many different directions the script could go.

WHERE 'WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE' IS

Spike Jonze's adaptation of beloved children's classic Where the Wild Things Are has been one of the most troubled major productions of the past several years, with rumors of massive reshoots, disastrous screenings, an overwhelmingly dour tone, and worse.  But with Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and author extraordinaire Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) behind the project, could it really be that bad? Aint It Cool News' Moriarity – who saw an early version of the film – has a new, lengthy interview with Jonze which is a must-read for film fans.  And while it's hard to say what will end up on screen, Jonze's heart is certainly in the right place.  He says, "I wanted it to feel like... like when I was a kid, and I would play with my Star Wars action figures... it felt like it was everything, you know?" Other nuggets: Karen O. from indie group Yeah Yeah Yeah's is doing the score; even though the editing is done, there's still about a year's worth of work to do; Brad Pitt's character in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is entirely CG for the first hour of the film (a random aside). Read the AICN article for a whole heaping bunch more, including photos (all the way at the end).

ODDS AND ENDS

• Disney's Beauty and the Beast will be gussied up in 3-D and released theatrically in 2010.  Because everything goes better with a headache. (Variety)

• Little Fockers

• Two college-aged football jocks go to cheerleading camp to score in Fired Up.  Kudos to the casting director on this one, for the unconventional leads might actually make this appealing to more than just the teen set. Check out the NSFW trailer over at Empire.

• John Stevenson HAS THE POWER... to make a new He-Man movie.  Maybe.  There's no indication as to whether the Kung Fu Panda director's film would be animated or live action. (Latino Review)

• Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to Lucky, continuing Hollywood's weepy love affair with heart-tugging author Nicolas Sparks (The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe). The book "tells the story of Logan Thibault, a Marine who survives three tours in Iraq. He attributes his good fortune to a photograph he carried of a woman he has never met, and he sets out to meet his good-luck charm when he returns to North Carolina." (Variety)

• Journastic integrity – good! Government – evil!  Or so the trailer for the Valerie Plame-inspired Nothing But The Truth would have you believe.

• "Story follows a town terrorized by a giant mutant squidlike creature hatched by toxins that flow into a nearby river from a military base." This is the approximate plot of a gazillion B-movies, but regardless some folk are up in the arms that one particular Korean variation, The Host, is set to be remade by Universal. To them we say – get over it.  It's entertainment, not prophecy. We don't see you reading the bible in Hebrew and Aramaic, and you can bet that some of that was lost in translation.

• The prospects for Marvel's Captain America have not improved with news that the writers behind the blah Narnia adaptations are working on adapting the iconic character. (Variety)