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Francis Lawrence (II) More at IMDbPro »
2009 | 2008 | 2005
1-20 of 83 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
‘I Am Legend’ director takes over ‘Sgt. Rock’ movie
9 hours ago | ReelLoop.com | See recent Reel Loop news »
I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence has replaced Guy Ritchie on the upcoming Sgt. Rock project for Warner Bros.
In May, producer Joel Silver told AICN that Ritchie would direct the comic book adaptation. “I’m going to make that. I’m going to make that very soon. With Guy Ritchie, I think,” Silver said.
Created in 1959 by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, Sgt. Rock led a gritty fictional World War II Us Army infantry called Easy Company in multiple comics for DC. The Sgt. Rock movie will take the story in a new direction by bringing the character into the future.
Lawrence will work from the adapted script from Chad St. John (Ronin).
Ritchie is reportedly working on a DC Comics adaptation of Lobo. His latest, Sherlock Holmes, opens Christmas Day.
Source: Heat Vision
Food for thought: What if Sgt. Rock fought for the Soviet Union? Think about That! »
- Reel Loop News Staff
Sgt. Rock Adaptation Set on Fast Forward
19 hours ago | Reelzchannel.com | See recent ReelzChannel news »
Producer Akiva Goldsman is already involved in the production of four comic book movie adaptations, including Jonah Hex, The Losers, Lobo, and Swamp Thing, and now he's attached to a fifth. Goldsman is joining Joel Silver in his decades-long quest to bring DC Comics' WWII hero, Sgt. Rock, to the big screen.
Only, Rock and his "Easy Company" are not going to be slogging through the trenches fighting Nazis in war-torn Europe. According to THR, the Sgt. Rock movie will be set in the future. Previously envisioned as a Dirty Dozen-esque "authentic" war film, the change of time period and locale is said to be reflective of the lack of interest by moviegoers in period war films.
Silver had previously enlisted Guy Ritchie to script and direct Sgt. Rock, but Ritchie has moved on to direct Lobo with Silver so Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) has been brought in to front the film. »
- BrentJS Sprecher
Sgt. Rock Coming To The Big Screen
21 hours ago | toxicshock.tv | See recent toxicshock news »
According to a report by Heat Vision, Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman are producing a big-screen adaptation of “Sgt. Rock”, the WW2 comic book from DC Comics. Francis Lawrence (”I Am Legend”, “Constantine”) is directing the project, based on a script by Chad St. John (”The Days Before”). Andrew Rona of Silver Pictures is also onboard as a producer, and Kerry Foster is the project’s executive producer. Joel Silver has been trying to get the project off the ground for the past 20 years. Debuting in 1959, DC’s Sgt. Frank Rock was the leader of his WW2 infantry unit called Easy Company. He first appeared in “Our Army at War,” [...] »
- Costa Koutsoutis
Sgt Rock marches into the future and on to the screen
10 November 2009 4:47 PM, PST | The Geek Files | See recent The Geek Files news »
Since Warner Bros set up a DC Entertainment unit to oversee adaptations of characters from DC Comics, fans have been eagerly waiting for news of which crimefighting crusader will next be heading to the big screen.
If you were hoping for an announcement on Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Arrow or any of the other big names, think again.
Today came the news that a long-planned film based on DC's Second World War hero Sgt Rock is moving forward. And it will instead be set in the future.
According to Heat Vision, I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence is to helm the movie while Chad St John is penning the screenplay.
Producer Joel Silver, who has for nearly 20 years been trying to get Rock on to the screen, is teaming with Akiva Goldsman, who has just come on board as a co-producer, to finally get the film made for Warner Bros. »
- David Bentley
Francis Lawrence Goes to War with ‘Sgt. Rock’
10 November 2009 3:30 PM, PST | The Flickcast | See recent The Flickcast news »
Director Francis Lawrence, who’s previous credits include I Am Legend, Constantine and TV’s Kings has picked up another directing gig. He will take on the big screen adaptation of DC’s comic character Sgt. Rock for producers Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman. The film, who’s previous director Guy Ritchie left to take on DC’s Lobo adaptation, will be scripted by relative newcomer Chad St. John.
Another change announced for this project is the shift from a WWII setting, where in the comics Sgt. Rock leads his “Easy Company” team of soldiers against the Nazis, to the future where, reportedly, the producers feel the film will be more universally accepted due to the comic’s current “pro-America” stance. Plus, the producers are worried about the relative box office success of a big budget WWII action film, Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds notwithstanding.
I guess both of those things make sense. »
- Joe Gillis
Francis Lawrence Taking DC Comics' Sgt. Rock Into the Future
10 November 2009 12:29 PM, PST | firstshowing.net | See recent FirstShowing.net news »
A movie based on DC Comics' WWII hero Sgt. Rock has been stuck in development hell for quite some time and last we heard was Guy Ritchie might be at the helm until he became attached to Lobo. But that was over a year and a half ago, and THR's Heat Vision now says that Francis Lawrence (who last directed I Am Legend) is attached to direct a script from newcomer Chad St. John with super-producers Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman guiding the project for Warner Bros. However, Sgt. Rock will be lifted from the period fight in World War II into the future to avoid feeling dated and out of tune with contemporary issues. While hardcore fans of the comics might be aghast at this shift into the future, this is probably best for the film to reach a bigger audience. Heat Vision points out, "Inglourious Basterds notwithstanding, »
- Ethan Anderton
Francis Lawrence Takes ‘Sgt. Rock’ to the Future
10 November 2009 9:54 AM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »
Borys Kit over at Heat Vision is reporting today that the long-gestating Sgt. Rock movie is being given to a new creative team by producer Joel Silver. Silver, who is producing through is company Silver Pictures, had originally set up Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie to work on the script and direct, but has since moved him to the DC Comics adaptation of Lobo. Now, Silver is bringing in I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence to direct Sgt. Rock, with scribe Chad St. John on to work on the script. Up to this point, the Sgt. Rock project has retained the World War II setting of the original DC Comic, in which Sgt. Frank Rock is the leader of the infantry unit known as Easy Company. But now according to this new report, Silver and Co. are looking to move the project to a futuristic setting. The success of Inglourious Basterds notwithstanding, period »
- Neil Miller
Sgt. Rock Movie Gets a New Director… and a New Time Period
10 November 2009 9:08 AM, PST | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »
Producer Joel Silver has been struggling to bring WWII comic book hero Sgt. Rock to the big screen for almost 20 years now, with the script undergoing a ton of rewrites and people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis once under consideration to star. This week it looks like he has finally managed to convince Warner Brothers to back the movie, although he may be forced to make some compromises in order to get it off the ground. Heat Vision [1] reports that I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence has signed on to helm the film, taking over for Guy Ritchie who was previously attached [2] (he has since moved on to direct Lobo). The latest draft of the script was written by Chad St. John, who also penned the upcoming remake of Outland. Akiva Goldsman will co-produce with Silver. Now, here's the thing that's going to worry Sgt. Rock fans: apparently they »
- Sean
Joel Silver Finally Revives Sgt. Rock By Bringing Him To The Future
10 November 2009 8:27 AM, PST | cinemablend.com | See recent Cinema Blend news »
No matter what Lieutenant Aldo Raine and Quentin Tarantino may have done for the war movie, World War II is still not hip with American moviegoers apparently. Joel Silver has spent 20 years trying to make a movie based on the DC Comics Sgt. Rock character, and only now, by setting the movie in the future, has he actually pulled it off. According to THR, I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence will take over on Sgt. Rock, with Akiva Goldsman writing the script and producing as well. Sgt. Rock had always been a World War II character in the comics, even though he debuted in 1958, near the beginning of the Vietnam War. THR notes that Sgt. Rock had been a symbol of American jingoism, and that even G.I. Joe was getting out of that racket, having dropped the "Real American Hero" tag in the latest movie. There's no telling if »
'Sgt. Rock' Movie To Be Set In The Future, New Writer & Director Attached
10 November 2009 7:44 AM, PST | MTV Splash Page | See recent MTV Splash Page news »
Guy Ritchie's attachment to "Sgt. Rock" was immediately put in question once the filmmaker was announced for "Lobo," but now the question has been answered—Ritchie is out and a new team is in for the DC war hero's big-screen debut.
"I Am Legend" helmer Francis Lawrence is the latest director attached to the long-developing "Sgt. Rock" film, based on a new screenplay from Chad St. John. Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman, two names with plenty of comic book connections, are producing the picture. Despite the departure of Ritchie, the addition of a new director-writer team means that fans of the classic World War II hero can hope to see Rock on the big screen before too long.
Except that Sgt. Rock won't be a World War II hero in this version—instead, he's heading into the future.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the surprising decision to jettison the »
- Josh Wigler
'Sgt. Rock' Won't Be Set in World War II
10 November 2009 6:26 AM, PST | GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news »
No, this isn't what we need: Sgt. Rock is heading to the future. The Hollywood Reporter says the DC Comics series, in various stages of non-development for quite a while, is getting a fresh start with I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence.
At one point, Guy Ritchie was in talks for this one, but producers Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman have settled on Lawrence, who will be working from a script by newcomer Chad St. John. It's not immediately clear if a move to the future means just bringing Sarge out of World War II and into a contemporary environment or if this will actually be futuristic in some way. Regardless, it's the wrong approach. »
- Colin Boyd
Francis Lawrence And Chad St. John Report For Duty With Sgt. Rock
10 November 2009 6:00 AM, PST | Screenrush | See recent Screenrush news »
It seems that the WWII comic-book hero Sgt. Rock is no longer in a hard place, with the long-simmering film looking closer to a greenlight with I Am Legend's Francis Lawrence attached to direct and Chad St. Johnfuriously scribbling a script.
Joel Silver , who has been championing the project for nigh on two decades has joined forces with fellow super-producer Akiva Goldsman to get this mo-fo made for Warner Bros.
And although the comic was firmly rooted in the conflicts of World War II, the film will be transported to the future in a bid to make it a more attractive prospect for audiences who have lost interest in the less dramatic takes on the historical war genre - as pointed out by the tepid response to this year's Inglourious Basterds.
Guy Ritchie was originally attached to direct the project but has since moved on to DC Comics' Lobo. »
Is Sgt. Rock Finally Happening?
10 November 2009 12:40 AM, PST | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »
Benjamin Franklin once said, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” Well, if the former Us President had lived to see the present day, he doubtless would have added one more thing to the list: “…and Joel Silver trying to make Sgt. Rock.”Silver has been trying to get an adaptation of the DC Comics’ World War II-based, cigar-chewing, bullet-spewing tough guy hero off the ground for as long as Empire can remember. So long, in fact, that Arnold Schwarzenegger was tipped to play Rock for a long time, and virtually every action writer worth a damn in Hollywood has taken a crack at the script, from Brian Helgeland to Steven E. DeSouza to John Milius. And all to no avail.Most recently, Guy Ritchie, of all people, took a stab at it, attaching himself to direct, before moving onto another comic book for Silver, Lobo.But »
Sgt. Rock Now Serving Under Director Francis Lawrence
9 November 2009 11:21 PM, PST | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »
It’s taken nearly twenty years for Producer Joel Silver to bring DC Comics’ Sgt. Rock to the big screen. The film has passed through numerous writers and directors and even in today’s comic-book-hero drenched cinema landscape, but it’s hard out there for a guy who just wants to serve his country even though he has no superpowers. Now it looks like I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence is going take a shot at enlisting the character. Hit the jump for details.
According to Heat Vision, Lawrence is attached to direct Sgt. Rock with Chad St. John handling the script. Silver will team up with the world’s best paid and lousiest writer Akiva Goldsman to produce the film.
Sgt. Frank Rock, leader of his infantry unit, Easy Company (but definitely not like the Easy Company soldiers featured in Band of Brothers) first appeared in a 1959 issue of »
- Matt Goldberg
Francis Lawrence Takes Sgt. Rock Into…the Future!
9 November 2009 11:00 PM, PST | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
Looks like not all of Joel Silver's long-simmering DC Comics projects (er, sorry -- DC Entertainment) have been recalled. He's been moving veerrrryyy slowly on a Sgt. Rock adaptation, with a few scripts written over the years, but now finally has some forward momentum. If things go well, we might soon have a Sgt. Rock film written by Chad St. John and directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine). The character has been battling through the DC Universe since the late '50s, and became popular enough that his book Our Army at War was renamed Sgt. Rock in the late '70s. Appropriately enough, he was a WWII character, serving to shepherd a young reader's gestating image of Us soldiers in the aftermath of the Korean War, as Vietnam raged, and through the ugly fallout of the latter. Did Rambo and other mid to late '80s »
- Russ Fischer
Lady Gaga Launches Her Next Phase With Eye-Grabbing 'Bad Romance' Video
9 November 2009 10:50 PM, PST | MTV Music News | See recent MTV Music News news »
Francis Lawrence-directed clip is eye-catching and conceptual.
Lady Gaga in the "Bad Romance" video
Photo: Interscope/Universal
The wait is over! On Tuesday (November 10), after 24 hours spent frantically refreshing LadyGaga.com for its scheduled Monday premiere, fans were finally treated to the premiere of Gaga's much-discussed "Bad Romance" video. And needless to say, it was worth the wait.
Directed by Francis Lawrence — who's helmed clips for the likes of Britney, Justin, Gwen and Shakira, not to mention the post-apocalyptic Will Smith vehicle "I Am Legend" — and featuring countless costume changes (and one unearthly pair of Alexander McQueen heels), partial nudity, and choreography that runs the gamut from spooky to sexy, "Bad Romance" is very much an event, the kind of video you just don't see very often anymore — and that goes double for the anticipation surrounding it.
"Romance" was supposed to premiere Monday on Gaga.com, »
'Sgt. Rock' Set in Today.s Time?
9 November 2009 9:30 PM, PST | CinemaSpy | See recent CinemaSpy news »
Francis Lawrence, who directed I Am Legend, is attached to another action-adventure film set in the future. However, this one revolves around a World War II hero/DC Comics character, and by set in the future, we mean the present day.
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog, producers Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman are looking at the Sgt. Rock comic as the basis for a big-budget actioner along the lines of The Dirty Dozen. The recent success of Inglourious Basterds might have made the project seem more palatable, since expensive period war movies — especially those lacking the contemplative tone of a Saving Private Ryan — have not exactly been on many Hollywood studios' to-do lists.
Chad St. John, who has written a remake of the sci-fi film Outland, will be writing the modern take on Sgt. Rock, with Silver and Goldsman expected to bring it to Warner Bros. »
Sgt. Rock is Back … But Not in WWII
9 November 2009 8:50 PM, PST | Beyond Hollywood | See recent Beyond Hollywood news »
It seems like everyone with some action movie clout has tried to make a “Sgt. Rock” movie at one point or another in Hollywood, with each big name eventually falling by the wayside. The latest stab at bringing the tough Sergeant and his merry killing men to the big screen comes courtesy of Warner Bros., who has attached “I am Legend” director Francis Lawrence to lead the charge. The catch? Forget WWII, the boys are done fighting Nazis. The movie will be based on the D.C. Comic that starred Sgt. Frank Rock, the Thompson-armed leader of Easy Company, who first appeared in a 1959 issue of “Our Army at War” before it was renamed “Sgt. Rock” in 1977. The comic ran until 1988, and usually featured Rock and his Easy Company doing impossible missions behind enemy lines. The last director attached to the project was Brit Guy Ritchie, but he’s since »
- Nix
Francis Lawrence to Direct Sgt. Rock
9 November 2009 7:41 PM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »
Heat Vision Blog is reporting that I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence will direct Sgt. Rock, based on the WWII hero from DC Comics, from a script by Chad St. John.
Joel Silver, who has been steering the project for nearly 20 years, is teaming with Akiva Goldsman, who recently boarded as producer, to bring the project to the big screen via Warner Bros.
Sgt. Frank Rock was the leader of his infantry unit, Easy Company. He first appeared in a 1959 issue of "Our Army at War." In 1977, the comic was renamed Sgt. Rock and ran until 1988.
Until now, Sgt. Rock has retained its World War II setting, with Silver and the studio trying to make a big-budget action adventure movie that was a throwback to flicks like The Dirty Dozen, which feature acts of American derring-do.
The studio hopes moving the time period to the future solves the dilemma.
No production date was announced. »
I Am Sgt. Rock
9 November 2009 7:26 PM, PST | JoBlo.com | See recent JoBlo news »
Apparently Joel Silver has been laboring for 20 years to have DC's WWII non-superpowered hero Sergeant Rock on the big screen. Silver and producing partner Akiva Goldsman feel that the latest director they've attached to the project will be the one to finally make it happen. Warner and Silver Pictures have tapped I Am Legend helmer Francis Lawrence to direct the Sgt Rock movie from a modern-take script by Chad St-John, a newcomer who's also working on an update to the Sean Connery... »
- Tony Lang
2009 | 2008 | 2005
1-20 of 83 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
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