Don’t worry, Calender Man got dis!

A lot of dates, both in terms of release and production, have cropped up this week.  On the theatrical side of things, April 5th of this year seems to be have a spotlight on it.   First up, Paul Feig’s The Heat has vacated that slot in favor of a “warmer climate” on June 28th.  This sees the film bolting from a day where its only competition was the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park and now going toe-to-toe with the likes of Kick-Ass 2 and Roland Emmerich’s White House Down.  The latter is the Volcano to Olmypus Has Fallen‘s Dante’s Peak, except in this case I feel that the “Volcano” will be the good one.

As we all know, studios are like vultures, especially when it comes to release dates.  Sorry, Mr. Gennaro, but Jurassic Park 3D never had a chance of standing solo on April 5th.  Swooping in to fill the slot vacated by the Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy-starrer are two films.  The first is Danny Boyle’s thriller, Trance.  The second is the remake of Evil Dead, which is now hitting a week sooner than we expected.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but that sounds like one hell of a great triple-feature to me.

On the production end of things, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will begin filming in New York City on February 12th for a 14-day shoot, afterwards it will move elsewhere.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier now has an April start date, so expect a few more big casting announcement to come flying out over the coming weeks.  In the realm of horror, Greg McLean finally began rolling on Wolf Creek 2 last week.  John Jarratt is thankfully reprising the role of the sadistic “Mick Taylor”.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice will commence production in late April if all goes well.  The film is currently expected to star Joaquin Phoenix as lead “Doc Sportello” and Charlize Theron is being courted for the project as well.  While I sit here impatiently waiting for The Master to hit Blu-ray so that I can finally see it, it’s nice to know that PTA won’t be waiting another block of years before he manages to get another film off the ground.  The fact that it will be a Big Lebowski-esque detective story starring Phoenix as a stoner private dick makes things even more appealing.  Given the more commercial nature of the project, I greatly anticipate the chance to actually be able to see this one on the big screen next year in my area.

And now we come to the final act of our little play.  The Weinstein Company has announced a May start date for a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  Wait…what?  Yep, the Brothers Weinstein intend on shooting Silver Vase, Iron Knight in a few months time.  Before I go further, I would just like to state the obvious and say there is no way it won’t be called “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2“.  I mean, who are we talking about here?  In a perfect world, it would be titled “2 Crouching, 2 Tiger“, but that is neither here nor there.  Anyway, the project is based on the fifth book in the Crane-Iron Pentatlogy.  Crouching was based on the fourth, so this would be a direct sequel.  There is no word at this time as to whether or not Michelle Yeoh or Chow Yun Fat are expected to reprise there roles, but their characters are apparently main components of the story.  In fact, as far as I can tell, there is absolutely no one officially attached to the project beyond screenwriter John Fusco (Hidalgo, The Forbidden Kingdom).  That’s a really intelligent way to make a big project there, Misters Weinstein.  Ronny Yu (Freddy vs. Jason, Fearless) is currently in talks to direct.  The budget is reportedly $20+ million, but I suspect it will balloon beyond it if they have to scramble to get people involved just to meet their start date.

Source | Dark Horizons