Movie / TV News: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, THE EQUALIZER, BIRTH OF THE DRAGON, INSIDE LLEYWN DAVIS, EVEREST, THE VATICAN

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Equalizer, Birth of the Dragon, Inside Lleywn Davis, Everest, and The Vatican have all made recent film and TV news. You will find a table of contents below so that you can quickly navigate to the movie and TV you want to read about quickly.

* Dawn of the Planet of the Apes gets a lead actor.
* Rupert Wyatt may direct The Equalizer.
* Birth of the Dragon will be one part action, one biopic.
* Inside Lleywn Davis gets a US distributor.
* Bale may join Everest.
* Another actor joins Ridley Scott‘s The Vatican.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Jason Clark [has]…landed the lead role in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

The sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes will be directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and is set fifteen years after the end of Rise.

One focus is on the group of human scientists who are struggling to survive alone in San Francisco. Another aspect of the story is the struggle of intelligent ape Caesar, played by a returning Andy Serkis, to maintain dominance over his kingdom.

Mark Bomback scripted.

The Equalizer

Rupert Wyatt has entered early talks to helm The Equalizer, Sony’s action thriller based on the ’80s TV series. Denzel Washington has been on board for some time now to play the lead, a retired secret agent who tries to redeem himself from an ugly past by helping people in need.

The Equalizer boasts a Black List script by Richard Wenk (The Expendables 2) and a budget of about $20 million. Wenk’s take seems to be more inspired by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim‘s television series than strictly based on it, as the protagonist has reportedly been tailored to better suit the lead actor. The character is descried as “a solitary, monastic figure who hates injustice and devotes himself to helping people who are being victimized.”

Birth of the Dragon

QED International and banner Groundswell Productions plan to re-tell the “origin story” (gag) of Lee through a new film, Birth of the Dragon. The movie will be written by Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele (Nixon, Ali).

THR reports that Birth of the Dragon is,

inspired by the true-life duel between Lee and Wong Jack Man, who was China’s most famous Kung Fu Master. The no-rules fight took place in San Francisco in 1965, when the city’s Chinatown was controlled by Hong Kong Triads.

Stephen Rivele and Chris Wilkinson have taken a little-known chapter in the life of Bruce Lee and used it as a jumping-off point for a bold, exciting story about the making of an international legend.

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THR specifies that the further plot of the film will see Lee teamed up with Wong to fight the Chinese triads that controlled Chinatown at the time

Inside Lleywn Davis

Inside Lleywn Davis, has a home. CBS Films bought the movie for US theatrical distribution.

The film stars Oscar Isaac as the title character, a folk singer navigating life in New York in the ’60s. The supporting cast includes Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, and Justin Timberlake.

Everest

Christian Bale is in early negotiations to board Baltasar Kormákur‘s Everest, about the ill-fated 1996 expedition to scale the notorious peak. Disaster struck the climbers in the form of a blizzard, killing eight people over two days

The incident was most famously depicted Jon Krakauer’s bestselling first-person account Into Thin Air, but Kormákur’s Everest will draw from other source materials including survivor interviews. Deadline reports that the most recent draft of the script comes from a relative unknown named Justin Isbell.

The Wrap stresses that neither Bale’s nor Kormakur’s deal has closed yet, but both seem like strong choices given the material.

The Vatican

Kyle Chandler, Matthew Goode, and Sebastian Koch will star in The Vatican, which is described as a behind-the-scenes look at the Catholic Church. Chandler will play the lead role of the Archbishop of New York, a Cardinal who is said to be “progressive and enigmatic,” while Goode will be the Papal Secretary and Koch will be the “dark prince of the Curia” as the Vatican’s Secretary of State is known in the series.

Source: Slashfilm (1,2, 3), THR (1,2), Twitchfilm