News

Haim Saban, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Saban Capital Group, Inc. ("Scg"), announced today that the company has acquired the North American distribution rights to the action thriller Tracers starring Taylor Lautner (The Twilight Saga, Abduction) and Marie Avgeropoulos (50/50, The CW's The 100).

Tracers reteams Lautner with Twilight producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment who are producing alongside D. Scott Lumpkin.

The fast-paced action thriller follows New York City bicycle messenger, Cam (Lautner) who is the hottest thing on two wheels, but is in debt to an organized crime gang. When he crashes his bike into a sexy stranger, Nikki (Avgeropoulos), Cam is immediately seduced by her and the thrill of the high-stakes world of parkour.

Saban President Bill Bromiley had this to say in a statement.

"We were immediately drawn to Tracers because it amplifies and expands on action storytelling and captivates the thrill seeker in all of us.

Daniel Benmayor‘s first feature was titled Paintball. In the action/horror a group of people were dropped into a forest for a paintball match, only to find out someone was using real ammo. After being attached to a sequel to Hitman, the Spanish director has his second feature hitting theaters at the end of the year. It is a Spanish war epic titled Bruc, that somewhat reminds of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Valhalla Rising. The film stars Juan José Ballesta, Vincent Perez, and Astrid Berges-Frisbey (who can been seen in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides this summer). Check out the trailer below via Buzzes Cafe.

Here is also a neat teaser trailer from over a year and half ago:

Synopsis: A Catalan drummer boy retreats to the high sierra to escape Napoleon’s army, but then manages to almost singlehandedly defeat them, bringing hope to the rest of Europe.

After the relative commercial success of the mishmash that was Hitman, Fox is not surprisingly pushing on for a sequel to the action film, which was based on the best-selling videogame series by Danish developers Io Interactive. Urgh. Where the games succeeded, the film failed. Being a professional killer was exciting and nail-bitingly suspenseful at times in the games, where you wondered if the passing guard around the corner was going to catch you before you disposed of the dead body you were currently dragging. In the film, every situation was overplayed and trying to be cool, rather than just letting the situation play out and be cool on its own. That, and the fact that Timothy Olyphant - who is usually brilliant - was horribly miscast as Agent 47, the film's lead. Anyway, the sequel now has a director attached: Daniel Benmayor, who has previously directed the no-name film Paintball from 2009, a bunch of commercials,...

There are those who saw Timothy Olyphant in video game to big screen remake, Hitman back in 2007 and there were those who didn’t. I fall into the latter category as the film really didn’t interest me personally, however it seems that the property interested some people enough to warrant a sequel – and now that sequel has it’s director!

Deadline Hollywood/New York or whatever they’re calling themselves now they’ve been bought out, have reported that Spanish director Daniel Benmayor is in their sights as director of the sequel, which has yet to secure Olyphant for a return. This from Deadline:

Benmayor will make his Hollywood debut on the sequel to the film based on the Eidos videogame about a master assassin. Fox is planning a fall production start.

Benmayor, the Barcelona-born Nyu grad created a following shooting Spanish commercials for Sony PlayStation, Renault, Mercedes, Heineken and Samsung.

Spanish filmmaker Daniel Benmayor ("Paintball," "Bruc") has been hired to direct a sequel to the 2007 video game-based action feature "Hitman" for 20th Century Fox reports Deadline.

Xavier Gens directed the original $30 million film which starred Timothy Olyphant as the bald assassin Agent 47, a film which went on to gross $100 million worldwide. Whether or not Olyphant will return is still unclear but there's an option on him to return.

Story details will borrow from the video game "Hitman 5" in which a beaten Agent 47 must build himself back psychologically and physically to reclaim his mantle as world’s most feared assassin.

Daniel Casey has penned the most recent draft of the sequel, taking over scripting duties from Kyle Ward. Adrian Askarieh, Alex Young and Chuck Gordon will return as producers. Shooting could kick off as early as this Fall.

Hitman was pretty effective, as video game movies go. That's not saying a whole lot, but they did a decent job working out a story that worked as a movie and the action was pretty good. I always though, if there had been more money, it would have been much better.

For the sequel, 20th Century Fox is hiring Spanish director Daniel Benmayor, according to Deadline. I would have hoped, no offense to the guy, that a sequel to one of the few truly profitable video game adaptations would have picked up a bigger name behind the camera, but Fox is apparently committed to keeping costs down. And maybe Benmayor, who has a ton of experience cooking commercials in Spain, can do the trick.

His first film, Paintball is about a paintball match in the middle of the jungle with one player who decides to use real ammo. That sounds fun.

Spanish director Daniel Benmayor has been hired to direct Hitman 2, which will follow on from the relative success of the first Hitman film, released in 2007. The sequel will actually be Benmayor's first big Hollywood film. So far he has mostly directed adverts (for brands such as Sony PlayStation, Renault, Mercedes, Heineken and Samsung) and his feature debut was action film Paintball.

So, Benmayor, who has just finished wrapping up work on Bruc, a story about "a 19th-century Catalan drummer boy who helps give Napoleon's army its first taste of defeat" is on board and Fox is gearing towards an autumn start date for the film's production.

But still, there is no detailed information about the upcoming project, especially when it comes to Timothy Olyphant reprising his role as Agent 47. We'd hope to see Olyphant in this sequel, because at the moment there's probably no better guy to play "a beaten...

Make no mistake: it's still happening. Agent 47 is stealthily sneaking towards a second screen outing at 20th Century Fox. Deadline have revealed that Spanish director Daniel Benmayor is in talks to direct Hitman 2, but their big question is, will Timothy Olyphant return?2007's original Hitman was directed by Xavier Gans for a paltry $30m or so (IMDb puts it as low as $24m), and managed to rake in about $100m at the box office, despite being pants. Financially then, a follow-up is a no-brainer for the studio, and a useful step across to Hollywood for Benmayor's English-language debut (following many commercials, last year's Spanish slasher quickie Paintball and this year's historical Bruc).Last we heard, Kyle Ward was writing Hitman 2 (clearly a gamer, he's also the pen behind the Bruce Willis / Jamie Foxx Kane & Lynch), which apparently shares plot details with the as-yet unreleased fifth game in the Eidos series.

Finally something new about Hitman sequel! Spanish director Daniel Benmayor has been hired to direct Hitman 2.

Sounds just fine, especially if you remember that last summer we heard Kyle Ward is in charge of writing the story, based in part on the forthcoming game Hitman 5.

This sequel will actually be Daniel Benmayor’s first big Hollywood film. He has directed commercials for Sony PlayStation, Renault, Mercedes, Heineken and Samsung and his feature debut was action film Paintball.

So, Benmayor, who recently made his feature directorial debut with above mentioned Paintball and just finished ‘Bruc’, a story about “a 19th Century Catalan drummer boy who helps gives Napoleon’s army its first taste of defeat” is on board and it was said that Fox is gearing towards a fall start date for the film.

But still, we have no detailed information about this upcoming project, especially when it comes to...

I really, really enjoyed Hitman. Timothy Olyphant is one of my favorite actors and he brought an edge and a badass nature to the famous video game character. The producers even had the decency to cast the super hot Olga Kurylenko who was naked half the time. Plus there were numerous shootouts and dudes getting their heads blown off. We even got the cool sword fight in the train car. Who cares where they got the swords from? They could have pulled them from out of their asses for all I care, all I know is I got to see a bunch of dudes fighting with swords and guns.Looks as if Xavier Gens won't be returning to direct the sequel. Deadline has the scoop on who got the gig: 20th Century Fox has Spanish helmer Daniel Benmayor in the crosshairs to direct Hitman 2. Will original star Timothy Olyphant return?...

Whilst the first film didn’t set the world alight, Fox are still plowing ahead with a sequel to 2007’s Hitman. Yes, despite all the critic’s mumblings, the original film still grossed $100 million at the worldwide box office, and with a budget of just $30 million it seems Fox took that as a good sign and so a sequel is in order. According to Deadline:

20th Century Fox has Spanish helmer Daniel Benmayor in the crosshairs to direct Hitman 2… Benmayor will make his Hollywood debut on the sequel to the film based on the Eidos videogame about a master assassin. Fox is planning a fall production start. Benmayor, the Barcelona-born Nyu grad created a following shooting Spanish commercials for Sony PlayStation, Renault, Mercedes, Heineken and Samsung. His feature debut come on the Spanish language action film Paintball, in which adrenaline junkies get dropped in a dense forest for a paintball match,...

20th Century Fox has hired Spanish helmer Daniel Benmayor to direct Hitman 2 , though it is unclear whether Timothy Olyphant will return for the sequel. The studio is planning a fall production start. The first film, based on the Eidos video game, earned $99.97 million in theaters worldwide in 2007. It was made for about $30 million. Benmayor's film credits include the Spanish action film Paintball and the upcoming Bruc . Adrian Askarieh, Alex Young and Chuck Gordon are producing the sequel, and Daniel Alter is executive producer. Kyle Ward wrote the script which includes elements from the game "Hitman 5."...

Studio Canal Among the Cannes selected items, prestige outfitter Studio Canal has a pair of mention-worthy titles in the five plus hour offering from Oliver Assayas and perhaps this year's Battle of Algiers in Rachid Bouchareb's Outside the Law. Among the films they'll be selling in a non-completed stage are Rowan Joffe's Brighton Rock (see pic of Sam Riley) and Joe Cornish's Attack the Block – both of these should be Venice and/or Tiff bound. - Studio Canal Among the Cannes selected items, prestige outfitter Studio Canal has a pair of mention-worthy titles in the five plus hour offering from Oliver Assayas and perhaps this year's Battle of Algiers in Rachid Bouchareb's Outside the Law. Among the films they'll be selling in a non-completed stage are Rowan Joffe's Brighton Rock (see pic of Sam Riley) and Joe Cornish's Attack the Block – both...

Studio Canal Among the Cannes selected items, prestige outfitter Studio Canal has a pair of mention-worthy titles in the five plus hour offering from Oliver Assayas and perhaps this year's Battle of Algiers in Rachid Bouchareb's Outside the Law. Among the films they'll be selling in a non-completed stage are Rowan Joffe's Brighton Rock (see pic of Sam Riley) and Joe Cornish's Attack the Block – both of these should be Venice and/or Tiff bound. Brighton Rock by Rowan Joffe - Post-Production Carlos by Olivier Assayas - Completed My Afternoons With Margueritte by Jean Becker - Completed The Princess Of Montpensier by Bertrand Tavernier - Completed The Two Deaths Of Quincas Wateryell by Sergio MacHado - Post-Production And Soon The Darkness by Marcos Efron - Completed Attack The Block by Joe Cornish - Production Beyond Suspicion (Insoupconnable) by Gabriel Le Bomin - Post-Production Bruc by Daniel Benmayor...

Astrid Berges-Frisbey will be playing a beautiful mermaid that Captain Jack Sparrow encounters on his travels. Yes, we’re talking about Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strangers Tides, and this name maybe doesn’t sound familiar to you guys, but she’s quite popular in France (and as you have a chance to see, very beautiful young lady).

We already wrote that Sam Claflin will star in Pirates 4 but the news is he will play the character Philip, a youthful missionary but we don’t know what Philip’s role actually is.

Ok, some of us are still dissapointed with that information about Bloom and Knightley, but we guess that show must go on…

So what do we know about this project by now? The fourth film will be based on Tim Powers’ pirate novel On Stranger Tides which was optioned by Disney years ago.

And this is how the...

French actress Astrid Berges-frisbey has landed her first English-language film as a mermaid in the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean movie.

The Bruc star joins Penelope Cruz and Brit Ian McShane among the Europeans joining Pirates regulars Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush in On Stranger Tides, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film, directed Rob Marshall, will start shooting in Hawaii this summer.

Astrid Berges-Frisbey joins the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Disney has let the trades do most of the talking when it comes to early casting for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, such as Ian McShane playing Blackbeard and Penelope Cruz playing his daughter. However, today they issued a media wide press release announcing the casting of 23-year-old French-American and Catalan actress and model Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Syrena, a beautiful and alluring young mermaid.

Of course, that's the extent of the news other than to say Berges-Frisbey has appeared in such French films as La Fille du Puisatier, Bruc, Extase, La Premiere Etoile and Un Barrage Contre le Pacifique, none of which I have seen. However, you can get a look at her the video just above directed by Romina Shama.

However, to make sure you get your fill with this post I will use...

Astrid Berges-Frisbey Joins the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesVariety reports that Disney has cast Astrid Berges-Frisbey in the role of Syrena in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Syrena is a mermaid.

Berges-Frisbey has previously appeared in such films as Bruc and Extase.

Johnny Depp is returning as Captain Jack Sparrow in the popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides teased audiences with Sparrow and Barbossa both in hot pursuit of the Fountain of Youth!

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides comes to theaters May 20th, 2011 and stars Johnny Depp, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Penélope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush, Stephen Graham, Max Irons. The film is directed by Rob Marshall.