How quickly we forgive or forget. Tom Cruise was considered a box office poison when his personal life overwhelmed his career, and he’s had a string of box office disappointments. In fact, 2010 saw Cruise in Knight and Day, which unperformed and felt barely released. But word is good on his next Mission: Impossible movie, and so Cruise is a star again. He’s now signed to play Jack Reacher in Christopher McQuarrie’s One Shot, and his leading lady has been found: Rosamund Pike.

Pike had a big breakout role in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, but it led to some less-than-great roles in films like Doom, Fracture, Surrogates, and other films with more than one word in the title. But though it was Carey Mulligan who got all the award attention, Pike was excellent in An Education, and that led to more work and a renewed interest in the actress.

But this casting also points out that the pool of young actresses is small, and for intelligent late 20′s/early 30′s types, they often go to England. Recently we saw Gemma Arterton get a number of high profile roles in American films only to not connect. Hayley Atwell (recently in Captain America) will probably get the same treatment – in fact she was one of the other actresses up for the One Shot lead. This is Pike’s time (again), we’ll see if it sticks.

Who’s your favorite current British actress?

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Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie really has a thing for comics and cartoons. The acclaimed scribe has been tapped to write a big screen adaptation of the 1970s animated series, Star Blazers. The film will be produced by Skydance Productions, who plans on turning the property into a live action tentpole.

If Star Blazers was before your time allows us to clue you in. The series was an American remake of the Japanese cartoon “Space Battleship Yamato.” “Yamato” debuted in 1974 and “Star Blazers” hit the scene in 1978. Some of the same footage was used from the original Japanese production for the U.S. versions of the show. They simply re-dubbed it with English speaking actors and re-cut some of the scenes. It’s similar to what’s been done with “Dragon Ball” and the early incarnations of the “Power Rangers.”

McQuarrie currently has his hands full with the upcoming sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine entitled The Wolverine. Prior to that, he’s written screenplays for The Usual Suspects, The Way of the Gun, and Valkyrie.

What do you think of a McQuarrie adapting a feature version of Star Blazers? Were you a fan of the show?

Source: Deadline

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Now that it’s been confirmed by director Tony Scott that Top Gun 2 is ago, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie has decided to fill us in on some sequel details. Previous reports claimed that Tom Cruise’s character Maverick would be featured in a small role in the film, that would be led by a new cast of recruits. But according to an email sent to Vulture by McQuarrie, Cruise will in fact be the star.

The original article regarding the plot for Top Gun 2 said that Maverick would return depressed and disappointed at the current state of the flight program. And at the time, the character was set to be a minor part of the overall story, but the screenwriter says that’s not true. According to McQuarrie, “There is no Top Gun 2 in which Maverick is not the starring role.” Well there you have it!

Another update came from Scott who claimed that he was inspired to produce another movie after having an in depth conversation with someone who is currently involved with the Air Force. “These computer geeks — these kids play war games in a trailer in Fallon, Nevada and if we ever went to war or were in the Middle East or the Far East or wherever it is, these guys can actually fly drones. They are unmanned aircraft.  They operate them and then they party all night.”

So old school Maverick will be front and center again. But we’re pretty sure they’ll find a way to give him a sidekick or someone younger who will eventually to take his place.

Photo Gallery:

What do you think of Cruise being the star of the Top Gun sequel?

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Christopher McQuarrie will reunite with The Usual Suspects, X-Men, and Valkyrie director Bryan Singer for his upcoming project, Jack the Giant Killer. The film has been in development for months over at New Line Cinema and Legendary Pictures and McQuarrie’s hiring is a much needed step in the right direction.

According to THR, McQuarrie is currently writing a draft of the Jack the Giant Killer screenplay that will center on the kidnapping of a princess that threatens a long-standing peace between men and giants. In the story a young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giants’ kingdom in hopes of rescuing her. As you can tell it’s a fantasy with some serious fairytale elements but don’t get it twisted, the title character will be an adult not some rambunctious teen.

Singer is getting ready to start casting for the production that’s scheduled to shoot this summer in England. Jack the Giant Killer might prove to be a new challenge for McQuarrie because his writing resume isn’t exactly filled with storybook based material. But everything he and Singer have collaborated on in the past has turned out pretty decent. Valkyrie wasn’t even that bad. Lets see if they can work their magic on Jack.

What do you think of McQuarrie and Singer reuniting for Jack the Giant Killer?

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For the love of film! I mean I support you Hugh on almost anything. Want to go ride a horse across a desolate land for 3 hours and I’m with ya, but when I hear the words “script” and “Wolverine” I get a little nervous. At least we have a different crew on board for this film and only one writer to boot! As we’ve known for some time, writer Christopher McQuarrie has decided to tackle to un-tacklable and has completed a Wolverine 2 script. He himself has turned in great work (The Usual Suspects) and not so great work (Valkyrie), so it’s still up the air as to what we can expect from this film.

According to Roger Friedman the script is “a little different than we originally thought” and the rumor that “Wolverine is heading to Japan [is] for real.” We had heard about Japanese Wolverine from Hugh Jackman before, but many people didn’t know if it was a rumor or not, apparently it is!

Friedman reassures us that we shouldn’t be too scared just yet…

Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. “It’s a beautiful story,” says a source, “and will be very different than the first film.”

Well, I can’t complain about it being different. Gavin Hood has said he won’t be helming the film and at the moment it all depends on good director… neigh a great director to turn the series around and take it back to the Bryan Singer, X-Men days.

Friedman goes on to talk about the Japanese Wolverine…

In addition to “Wolverine in Japan,” don’t worry. There are plenty of X-Men movies on the drawing boards. The next one will bring back director Bryan Singer, who made the first two films.

It almost sounds like he’s saying, “don’t worry about this one, we’ll have lots more good ones following this!” Seeing as Singer will most likely be tackling Magneto, he might be right!

Apparently they’re looking to tie things up and get shooting on Wolverine 2 in the new year, currently the start date is set for January 2011 according to SlashFilm.

What do you think about Wolverine 2?

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It’s already been set in stone that a sequel to this summer’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine is happening, and a writer has just been confirmed. According to /Film, Christopher McQuarrie will pen the screenplay for what we’re tentively calling Wolverine 2. After the sorry excuse that passed for a script the last time around, there’s nowhere to go from here but up.

Find out more after the jump…

It’s pretty obvious that the second Wolverine film will take place in Japan. The film’s star and producer Hugh Jackman has voiced that fact on multiple occasions. The Japanese storyline is one of the most popular in the characters history, so they’ve decided to recruit someone who actually knows how to formulate a story. Christopher McQuarrie is the man who wrote the script for Bryan Singer‘s cult classic, The Usual Suspects. Therefore, he has somewhat of a history with the X-Men franchise, since he worked with the original’s director.

With Japan as a backdrop, we’ll get to see Wolverine like we’ve never seen on the big screen before. Jackman himself expressed some excitement about seeing his“anarchic character, the outsider, being in this world — I can see it aesthetically, too — full of honor and tradition and customs and someone who’s really anti-all of that, and trying to negotiate his way.” I would get excited about this, but we all know, I left my abusive X-Men relationship after Origins. I’m just done. I’m an outsider looking in at this point. I love Wolverine, but I have yet to see him portrayed on film as the bad ass as he should be.

What do you think about Christopher McQuarrie penning the screenplay for the Wolverine sequel?

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