Movies
Uni’s ‘R.I.P.D.’ Seeking New Director
A quick news brief this morning via the LA Times who reports that there has been some movement (backwards) on Universal Pictures’ live-action adaptation of R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department). They report that David Dobki will no longer direct, and will serve as produce at most. They also add that McG nearly took the reigns until Fox pushed forward with another project (thank heavens). At this point, Uni is searching for a director, putting the latest comic book adaptation in trouble. If the movie goes, Reynolds would play a cop named Rick Cruz who just died.
“Welcome to the Rest In Peace Department–the devoted, yet dead, officers of divine law enforcement “patrolling the deadbeat. . . reporting to one boss.” Yep–THAT boss. Nick Cruz died an untimely death, at the height of his personal and professional life. Why did he join the R.I.P.D.? Well, not knowing the identity of his killer has left his soul a bit. . . restless. Now he hunts some of the most fiendish creatures, hoping for the chance to find out who set him up so he can get into heaven.”
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
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