All the News That’s Fit to Rank: Week of August 28, 2015

These are the top movie stories that got the Flickchart staff talking this week. We rank ’em, you read ’em. Lots of potential project rumors this week, but there are some really intriguing ones, so we opted to feed the rumor mill and hope pure optimism and enthusiasm can help make these things happen.

1. Toshiro Mifune to get star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is Hollywood’s best known way to honor famous celebrities, but not everyone famous has a star yet – that goes double if you’re primarily famous for films you made someplace other than Hollywood, like Japan. It’s also not inexpensive. This story doesn’t say who’s bankrolling Mifune’s star, but as one of the most acclaimed Japanese actors of all time, appearing in sixteen films by Akira Kurosawa, among others, Mifune definitely deserves recognition from his Hollywood counterparts, so this is welcome news to film fans everywhere. (via Akira Kurosawa info)

2. Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer are working on a film together

Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer became fast friends this summer, and they’re looking to turn that friendship into a professional relationship as well. They’ve been working on a screenplay, a comedy where the two of them will play sisters. Let’s be clear, this project doesn’t yet have a studio home, director, or many other things , but with Schumer’s Trainwreck being a breakout hit this year and Lawrence holding onto the “highest paid woman in Hollywood” title, all of Hollywood should be interested in this combination. (via /Film)

3. Anne Hathaway to produce and star in a female ensemble sci-fi comedy

Anne Hathaway’s most recent excursion into sci-fi was Interstellar, which was decidedly somber for the most, but her next one will be a comedy about what happens when a baby shower gets interrupted by a meteor shower. She plans to produce and star in the script by Jac Schaeffer, which made last year’s Black List of best unproduced scripts, and is being compared to Bridesmaids (because every female ensemble comedy is like Bridesmaids…but I digress). (via AV Club)

4. Ridley Scott confirms Prometheus 2 is his next project

Prometheus was only sort-of well received by critics and audiences, but that hasn’t deterred Ridley Scott from his plans to make a sequel, and in fact he’s now let it slip that he’s working on Prometheus 2 next (which means the recently announced Cartel is a bit further off). Whether you liked Prometheus or not, are you interested to see what Scott does next in that universe? (via /Film)

5. Robert Rodriguez plans to make another $7000 film next year

Robert Rodriguez famously made his first feature El Mariachi on a budget of just $7000 – he even wrote a book about the experience called Rebel Without a Crew. As El Mariachi nears its 25th anniversary (in 2017), Rodrigeuz is again looking at making a shoestring budget film, using friends both behind and in front of the camera. He’s got a lot more movie-savvy friends now than he did then, so it’ll be interesting see what he comes up with if this project comes to fruition. (via AV Club)

6. Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst may reunite for another film in 2016

Info on this is pretty barebones, but any mention of a potential reteaming of Coppola and Dunst has my interest piqued. Coppola has stayed pretty quiet since 2013’s The Bling Ring, so it’d be great to hear about a new Coppola film in the works. Her previous films with Dunst (The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette) were both pretty wonderful and among Dunst’s best work for sure, so let’s hope and pray this rumor is true and we’ll soon hear confirmation and more details about this project. (via /Film)

7. Galaxy Quest to become an Amazon TV series

A movie that satirizes the original Star Trek TV show, Galaxy Quest is about to come full circle and become a TV show itself, produced by Amazon. There has been talk of a film sequel for quite a while, but news of this retool to a TV series is new, and details beyond that are sparse – even whether it’ll be a reboot, sequel, prequel, or what, or if any of the original cast will return. If it’s good, though, it could be very good. (via /Film)

8. Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and other animation companies can’t avoid wage-fixing lawsuit

Several major animation companies have been trying to get a lawsuit against them dismissed, a case that argues that they conspired together to fix artists’ wages and avoid recruiting artists from each other (such recruitment would’ve resulted in higher wages as studios competed for the best talent). This week a judge ruled that there’s sufficient evidence of conspiracy, and the suit will likely go to trial. Bad news for the studios, which may be liable for years of back wages, but great news for animators and special effects artists, who may finally get paid fair market wage for their work. The link has lots more detail on the case and the evidence. (via Cartoon Brew)

9. Robert Pattinson cast in Claire Denis‘ upcoming sci-fi film

The news that Claire Denis is making a sci-fi film slipped past me when it was announced in June; regardless of who gets cast in it, THAT’S AWESOME. It’ll be the acclaimed French director’s first English language film (as well as her first sci-fi film, though she’s done other genre films before), and she’s collaborating on the screenplay with none other than critically acclaimed novelist Zadie Smith. RPattz is actually okay when he’s not being a sparkly vampire, so this pretty much just shot to the top of my most-anticipated list. (via AV Club)

10. 1920s-30s British film critic Cedric Belfrage was also an MI6 spy who passed secrets to Russia

This is only tangentially film-related, but who doesn’t like espionage stories about double agents? Cedric Belfrage was a film critic in the 1920s and 1930s, working for American and UK newspapers, but later he worked for British intelligence agency MI6 and passed secrets to the Russians during WWII – ostensibly on orders to get more intelligence from them, but Russia apparently considered him a valuable source on par with the infamous Cambridge Spy ring. His left-wing sympathies were no secret – like many in Hollywood, he was called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (he’d joined the Communist party briefly while in Hollywood in 1937). At the time, he was lauded in Britan for his refusal to testify in McCarthy’s witchhunt, but perhaps MI6 should’ve been more on guard. He was never indicted for his double-agent activities, though, because apparently MI6 thought it would be “an embarrassment.” I feel like there’s even more to this story than we’re getting here. (via BBC)

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Top Trailers of the Week

When a trailer for a film starts off with “What does it mean to be human,” then shows scientists messing with DNA, then asks “what’s the worst that could happen,” hopes run high for thoughtful AND exciting sci-fi, and it looks like we might just get that in upcoming Swedish film Origin.

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Kristin Wiig is really upping her indie drama game lately, this time with Nasty Baby, a film from Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva that premiered at Sundance this year. Looks like it’s part three-way fertility dramedy and part stalker thriller?

https://youtu.be/HpKc7jSAJ7A

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Everyone knows Brad Bird from his Pixar films and more lately, Mission Impossible IV, but hardcore fans remember his lovely and poetic animated film The Iron Giant. Well, rejoice, hardcore fans, because The Iron Giant: Signature Edition is returning to theatres this fall. Here’s a taste.

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A lot of news today involving foreign filmmakers with English-language films, and here’s another – Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) brings us Youth, with Michael Caine as a retired composer going to a European spa with his best friend Harvey Keitel. Already I’m intrigued, and the trailer looks both comic and quite moving.

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A sword of ambition, a sword of justice, and a sword of revenge – these are the story threads that tie together Memories of the Sword, an upcoming Korean martial arts film. The fight scenes look gorgeous and thrilling, so I’m on board.