Film News: Richard Donner confirms Goonies 2, Chiwetel Ejiofor for Bond Baddie and more

The Rumour Mill: Goonies 2, Point Break remake, Chiwetel Ejiofor for Bond Baddie

‘Goonies never say die!’ was their motto and it seems like they’re being true to their word. Richard Donner, the director of the 80s classic about a group of adolescent misfits who go searching for long lost pirate treasure, has confirmed Goonies 2 is in the works. While signing autographs for fans, the filmmaker was cornered by a reporter from entertainment site TMZ, who was questioning Donner on Hollywood’s love of superhero movies. Unsurprisingly Donner, who directed the first comic book movie, 1978’s Superman, and currently produces the X-Men movies, was all for the comic book boom. “They’re smart,” he says of the producers who proliferate the genre, “they’ve got a good thing going for them.” “Are you going to make another comic book movie then?” asks the interviewer. “Would you call Goonies a comic book?” says the laconic Donner, “‘we’re doing the sequel.” When asked if any of the stars are going to return, Donner replied, “Hopefully all of them.” While we’re sure Corey Feldman is available, we suspect Josh Brolin and Sean Astin might have to talk to their agents.

Another cult classic being updated is Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break, the ultimate high concept cop movie, where Keanu Reeves’ driven young FBI agent Johnny Utah goes undercover as a dumb surfer dude (not really a stretch) to take down a gang of surfer bank robbers headed up by Patrick Swayze’s zen hippie Bodhi. Already cast in the remake is relative newcomer Luke Bracey, best known for his role in Aussie soap Home & Away, as Johnny Utah; the not very zen Gerald Butler takes on the Bodhi role. The most recent casting announcement, according to Empire magazine, is that Ray Winstone will step into Gary Busey’s role as the grizzled FBI agent who takes Utah under his wing.

The other casting rumour that has caught our eye this week is that Chiwetel Ejiofor is being sought to be the next Bond villain, according to Variety. If the 12 Years a Slave star takes up the offer, he’ll be the second Oscar-winner on the bounce to play Bond’s antagonist, following Javier Bardem’s memorable turn as the eccentric Silva in Skyfall. 

Trailers: Godzilla – Extended Look; Woody Allen in a clip from Fading Gigolo

Step aside Transformers, X-Men, and all those Marvel movies, because the summer blockbuster has landed, or at least it looks that way from this hair-raising trailer for Godzilla. So far, the promotional material of this remake of the allegorical Japanese monster-movie that spawned endless sequels and a notoriously lame 1998 remake by Roland Emmerich has been reluctant to show off its monster, and this extended trailer, in particular, instead focuses on the characters at the heart of the story, specifically Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston. We’ve been fooled by trailers before (see Zack Snyder’s enigmatic Man of Steel promo that was cut from the meat-headed Man of Steel feature), but given that it’s directed by Gareth Edwards, who made the brilliant road-movie cum monster-movie Monsters, we suspect this character focus and atmosphere of dread will be evident in the full feature. When The Skinny spoke to Edwards when Monsters was released in 2010, he was keen to emphasise he wants his films to be more than CGI spectacles: “It was important that [Monsters] works without the computer graphics,” he said. “What we filmed was the skeleton of the story; it works emotionally. The effects just elevate it.”

We assume that John Turturro cast Woody Allen in Fading Gigolo, his second feature as director, before Dylan Farrow’s previous sexual abuse allegations against Allen became front page news. But rather than playing down the fact that the under-fire filmmaker is in the movie, this clip puts him front and centre. Taken from New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, we see Allen being picked up by some orthodox Jew heavies (one played by Liev Schreiber) who aren’t happy that Allen’s character has been pimping his friend (Turturro) as a Lothario to a local widow. While the plot doesn’t sound promising, there is at least one Allen-esque zinger in the clip below that suggests it might not be terrible.