Looks like World War Z is in trouble. From THR:

Extensive re-shoots, a last-minute script rewrite and creative issues force Paramount’s $170 million-plus zombie war movie to June 2013 from a planned December release.

Brad Pitt went into producing and starring in Paramount’s World War Z, based on a best-selling Max Brooks novel about zombies in a postapocalyptic world, hoping to kick off a trilogy that would amount to more than just a series of PG-13 popcorn movies.

“Can we take this genre movie and use it as a Trojan horse for sociopolitical problems, and what would the effect on the world be if everything we knew was upside-down and pulled out from under us?” he told The Hollywood Reporter in January, suggesting that his inspiration was the iconic 1974 disaster epic, The Towering Inferno.

It now seems that everything was upside-down on World War Z. “A nightmare from top to bottom,” describes one source with ties to the production, which appears to have been hampered from the outset by a lack of clear creative direction. Pitt hired the director of his choosing, Marc Forster (The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland), but Forster — who has limited experience on effects-heavy tentpoles — was not allowed to bring along his usual team. Instead, several more seasoned players were hired. The result, say multiple sources, is a seemingly headless enterprise driven by conflicts. At this point, the movie, with a price tag now said to be north of $170 million, needs as many as five weeks of complex reshoots, which are not expected to get underway until at least September. Paramount has taken the unusual step of hiring Prometheus scriptwriter Damon Lindelof to rework the film’s third act. The studio announced in March that it was moving the film to June 2013 from December.

Trouble emerged early: Three weeks before shooting was to begin in June 2011, sources say Forster had not made critical decisions about what the zombies would look like and how they would move. “They just couldn’t get it right,” one insider says. “There was a lot of spinning of plates, a lot of talking. [But] they did not have a plan.” Meanwhile, seasoned below-the-line talents were hired, then replaced, including line producer Colin Wilson (Avatar) and Oscar-winning effects man John Nelson (Gladiator). Cinematographer Robert Richardson, who has three Oscars, is said to have asked to leave the production on more than one occasion. (None would comment for this report.)

World War Z is one of several recent projects that underscore the risks associated with big effects films, especially when untested directors are involved. Disney saw first-time live-action director Andrew Stanton’s John Carter bomb in March, and Universal is facing serious problems with the $175 million to $200 million Keanu Reeves samurai film 47 Ronin, which it pushed into 2013 after first-timer Carl Rinsch presided over a chaotic shoot. Industry veterans say World War Z is another example of a film that was greenlighted and sent into production with a concept and script that were not fully baked. And they cite this situation as one of many in which studios set release dates and then push to finish in the timeframe allotted, leaving insufficient prep time.
Read the rest of this entry »

2 clips from Killing Them Softly and the poster, which premieres September 21st. Here is the movie synopsis:

Three dumb guys who think they’re smart rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse. Brad Pitt plays the enforcer hired to track them down and restore order. KILLING THEM SOFTLY also features Richard Jenkins (THE VISITOR), James Gandolfini (“The Sopranos”), Ray Liotta (NARC), Scoot McNairy (MONSTERS), Ben Mendelsohn (ANIMAL KINGDOM), and Vincent Curatola (“The Sopranos”). Max Casella, Trevor Long, Slaine and Sam Shepard also make appearances. KILLING THEM SOFTLY is written for the screen and directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), and is based on the George V. Higgins novel, “Cogan’s Trade.” Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz, and Anthony Katagas produced the film, with Roger Schwartz, Matthew Budman, Will French, and Douglas Saylor Jr. serving as co-producers. Director of photography Greig Fraser, and production and costume designer Patricia Norris led the creative behind-the-camera team. Casting for KILLING THEM SOFTLY was handled by Francine Maisler, and Brian A. Kates, A.C.E., served as editor. Executive producers are Megan Ellison, Marc Butan, Bill Johnson, Jim Seibel, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Adi Shankar and Spencer Silna.

Hey everyone! Brad attended the Photocall for Killing Them Softly yesterday at the 64th Cannes Film Festival and here are pictures. Huge thanks to Claudia from MorganFreeman.us for the pictures!

Brad is attending this year’s Cannes with his upcoming moving “Killing Them Softly” (formely known as Cogan’s Trade). I’ll upload pictures later tonigth, here’s the article from THR:

The competition title drew huge crowds for Tuesday’s eagerly anticipated screening.

After a rainy few days, the sun and stars came out for the Cannes premiere of Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly on Tuesday night.

The film’s leading man Brad Pitt caused a paparazzi frenzy as crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the movie star sporting long hair and sunglasses as he schmoozed down the red carpet after taking time to sign autographs for fans on the Croisette.

Pitt then took out his iPhone to take pictures of the scene for himself.

Brad Pitt the new face of Chanel? Hm! I like it. Report from TheHollywoodReporter.com:

According to E! News, the actor has signed a deal with the iconic label to be the face of the fragrance Chanel No. 5. Pitt was scheduled to film a commercial in London at some point this week, said E!, for a seven-figure paycheck. The spot won’t be released in the U.S., only abroad, circa late 2012.

Pitt’s rep did not immediately respond to THR’s request for comment.

Pitt, freshly engaged to Angelina Jolie, is expected to attend this month’s Cannes Film Festival with Jolie (who, according to THR sources, is assembling her wardrobe for the film festival.)

Pitt returns to the Croisette for the red-carpet rollout of his mobster drama Killing Them Softly, directed by Andrew Dominik, who worked with Pitt on The Assassination of Jesse James.

Movie rumours! Brad could be working Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender on “The Counselor”

Brad Pitt has met with director Ridley Scott this week, the filmmaker who gave the now A-lister an early breakout role in his film Thelma & Louise 21 years ago, back when Pitt was just a pretty boy no-name.

The reason for their meeting? Ridley Scott is moving at breakneck speed to get casting locked for The Counselor, his next low-budget thriller based on acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy’s first original screenplay that had Hollywood buzzing when it first surfaced a few months back.

Twitch say Scott is offering Pitt a supporting role in the picture that Michael Fassbender will lead as a Southwest lawyer who gets involved in shenanigans way over his head in the drug trade. The word is we never learn the name of Fassbender’s character as he goes in search of one last big payday after he proposes to his girlfriend and gets himself involved in the wrong crowd who plan to take $20 million from Mexico into the U.S. to offload.

Pitt will play Westray, a no-gooder criminal who helps out with the trade which obviously, otherwise there wouldn’t be a movie, goes tits-up. The Playlist, who have read the script, call him an ‘enigmatic character’, which we have to say are the parts that usually attract Pitt.

The film has been described as a very ‘masculine’ work, occasionally diverting into McCarthy’s ‘sexual obsession’ in his books and ‘No Country For Old Men on steroids’. In other words, it sounds pretty damn spectacular.

Pitt first emerged as a candidate for the film a few weeks back along with A-listers Javier Bardem and Jeremy Renner but now looks close to being the one chosen, as long as his schedule lines-up.

This will be the second team-up of Pitt and Fassbender since they shot Inglourious Basterds together and from the looks of things they hit it off well. They will co-lead Hunger and Shame director Steve McQueen’s next movie Twelve Years A Slave when that films this summer but they could well share screen time again in The Counselor if all works out.

Shooting begins on The Counselor in May.

Source

Brad Pitt has been added to the roster of performers who will take part in the Los Angeles premiere of Dustin Lance Black’s 8, to be offered as a benefit reading at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on March 3. Rob Reiner will direct — and appear in — the performance, which will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

The play, which received a reading on Broadway in September, has been crafted from the transcripts of the Proposition 8 trial over same-sex marriage in California. Among the characters in the piece are Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the lawyers for the two gay couples who sued California over the ban; Charles J. Cooper, the lead defense counsel; Kristin M. Perry and Sandra B. Stier, a lesbian couple who were among the plaintiffs; and the judge, Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.

The cast will also feature, as previously reported, George Clooney as Boies, Jamie Lee Curtis as Stier, Christine Lahti as Perry, Jane Lynch as Maggie Gallagher, and Matthew Morrison as Paul Katami, John C. Reilly as United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, Kevin Bacon as attorney Charles J. Cooper, and Chris Colfer as Ryan Kendall, who testified about his experience being sent by his parents to so-called “reparative therapy” as a teenager. The company will also include Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cleve Jones, Rory O’Malley, Yeardley Smith, and George Takei.

Source

Scans from Vanity Fair March 2012, Cinema Teaser November 2011, and the photoshoot picture from Vanity Fair are in the gallery

Hello everyone! I’ve updated the Gallery with Movie Stills, Set Pictures, Posters, etc. Also added 182 World War Z Set pictures. I’ll be updating with screen captures from some movies I’ve already done in a few. Stay tuned.