Film News: Frank Darabont to sue The Walking Dead; Adam Stafford world premiere at GSFF; Inside Llewyn Davis: behind the music

FRANK DARABONT SUES THE WALKING DEAD
When Frank Darabont co-created The Walking Dead TV show for US network AMC, he probably thought he had a hit on his hands – along with the series' original creator, Robert Kirkman, and producer Gale-Ann Hurd, he was considered the architect of the show that would go on to become a record-breaking hit worldwide. Now, in a lawsuit against the network, Darabont is claiming that he is owed tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue, and alleges that the network fired him from the series during its troubled second season to avoid paying him what he was owed.

The court document, quoted by the BBC, states: "Darabont is being deprived of tens of millions of dollars in profits, despite delivering to AMC the most popular show on all of television and the most popular show in the history of cable." Darabont alleges the network indulged in a process known as 'self-dealing', whereby the show's production company is paid an artificially low rate for producing the show, meaning it officially runs at a loss, and producers like Darabont, who are on profit-share deals, receive next to nothing. Darabont insists that he is entitled to a 20% cut of the show's profits, and its spin-offs, such as behind-the-scenes show Talking Dead, and a newly-commissioned spin-off show, to be written by Kirkman.

Kirkman is no stranger to this kind of controversy – he was sued by Tony Moore, the artist who drew the comic's first six issues and was initially credited as its co-creator, for a similar loss of revenue, after the comic became a runaway hit. That suit was eventually settled out of court by Kirkman and Moore.

GLASGOW SHORT FILM FESTIVAL: COMPETITION SELECTION UNVEILED
Glasgow Short Film Festival (13-16 Feb) announced its selection for the Short Film category today. The competition will feature work by Skinny favourite Adam Stafford, whose No Hope For Men Below , his first film since award-winning 2009 short The Shutdown, gets a world premiere, Gavin C. Robinson's BAFTA Scotland-winning animation Hart's Desire, a depiction of the Port of Leith pub by Rory Alexander Stewart, and new work by Mika Taanila, Mike Hoolboom, Jonathan Romney and John Smith. The selection has been expanded this year to reflect the wealth of talent at work in the Scottish filmmaking industry. 

Director Matt Lloyd said: "At a time when Scottish film producers are forecasting an extremely bleak future for indigenous production, we can at least demonstrate that there is no shortage of emerging talent. We couldn’t contain our selection within the usual four programmes – this year a mighty thirty films screen across five programmes of new Scottish work."

THE  RUMOUR MILL: PAUL RUDD CONFIRMED FOR ANT-MAN, BRYAN SINGER ASSEMBLES TEAM FOR X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, HUGH JACKMAN FOR PETER PAN VILLAIN, TARANTINO TO MAKE A HORROR FILM?
We reported earlier in the week on the rumours that Anchorman's Paul Rudd was being considered for the lead role in Marvel's forthcoming movie of Ant-Man, based on the 2006 comic reboot of the characterd by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. Today, Marvel officially confirmed Rudd's casting in the Edgar Wright-helmed movie, in an article on TotalFilm.

Marvel's Kevin Feige, the producer behind the Iron Man and The Avengers movies, commented: "When Edgar Wright came to us with the idea of Paul Rudd, we felt a huge sense of relief because the first step in creating any Marvel Studios film is finding the right star. We knew early on that we had found the right person in Paul. When he not only agreed to do it but became as enthusiastic as any actor we’d ever met with about doing the work, we knew we’d found the right guy. We couldn’t be more excited for our audiences to see what he’s going to do to bring Ant-Man to life."

Sticking with superheroes, news has reached us that the writing team being assembled for the follow-up to X-Men: Days of Future Past – currently going under the title X-Men: Apocalypse – will reunite director Bryan Singer with Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris, who will join Simon Kinberg to help develop the script about an evil time travelling mutant. The news was confirmed in a tweet by Singer. Dougherty and Harris both worked on the script for Singer's X2, widely regarded as the most successful X-Men adaptation to date. 

Hugh Jackman, who stars in the X-Men films as Wolverine, is rumoured to have been cast as the villain in Pan, a new film directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice), Variety reports. Rather than playing Captain Hook, however, Jackman is tipped to play the pirate Blackbeard.

And finally, Quentin Tarantino has been talking to The Independent about his possible future projects – on the subject of the long-mooted Killer Crow, the concluding part of his 'history trilogy' begun with Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, he was noncommittal, also tamping down expectations for the similarly long-rumoured Kill Bill 3, saying: "I don't think about Kill Bill 3 that much." He also failed to confirm rumours that his next film might be another Western, hinting instead that he might consider a move into horror. 

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS: THE MUSIC BEHIND THE NEW COEN BROTHERS FILM
The Coen brothers' new film Inside Llewyn Davis tells the story of a downbeat folk-singer in the 60s Greenwich Village scene, and as such, it joins O Brother Where Art Thou as one of the brothers' films which looks set to be remembered as much for its soundtrack as for its script and performance. With the film already playing to rave reviews – see our review in The Skinny's January issue – we sought out the featurette below, which tells the story of the music behind the film.  

TRAILERS: EXPENDABLES 3, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
We'll attempt to summarise the "plot" of The Expendables 3. Blah blah blah blah, explosions, blah blah blah blah, Harrison Ford, rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb, Kelsey Grammer, blah blah blah, Mel Gibson, rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb, Antonio Banderas, etc etc etc, Stallone and the rest of them. Did we mention there are explosions? And punching – lots of punching. Let's be honest – we don't go and see films like this for the story. The teaser trailer gives away nothing but the cast, but we think you can reasonably infer explosions and fisticuffs. 

Last but not least, here's the trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the follow-up to Rise..., which again features the remarkable Andy Serkis in a motion-capture suit, giving it his best intelligent ape impression. In this instalment, it looks like all-out war between human and primate... and we all know how that turns out, don't we? Damn dirty apes...