Strike stalls two more features

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December 3, 2007 (Variety / Michael Fleming) -- The writers strike has scratched two more feature films that were headed for the start gate next year. Rogue Pictures has halted "Castlevania," the live-action adaptation of the Konami vampire videogame that it is co-producing with Crystal Sky Entertainment. Sylvain White ("Stomp the Yard") was set to direct, and production was slated to begin in April in South Africa.

Spyglass, meanwhile, has postponed "Ironbow," a film about 15th-century Swiss crossbow legend William Tell, which was slated to begin production next spring with Kevin Reynolds at the helm.

Both films were unplugged because they needed additional script work that wasn't possible because of the writers strike. They join the list of such previously scratched films as the Johnny Depp starrer "Shantaram" at Warner Bros., the Tom Hanks starrer "Angels & Demons" at Sony and the Oliver Stone-directed Bruce Willis starrer "Pinkville" at United Artists.

The strike momentarily jeopardized "State of Play" when Brad Pitt asked for rewrites but Universal refused because it had pay-or-play deals with the whole cast. Russell Crowe, who was available, stepped in for Pitt and kept the picture on track to start production this month.

Separately, Depp appears poised to recover from the loss of "Shantaram" with another movie. He met Wednesday with director Michael Mann about playing John Dillinger in "Public Enemies" at Universal.

"Castlevania," with a script by Paul W.S. Anderson, may not seem as high profile as those other pictures, but it is the most ambitious project attempted by Rogue, the genre arm of Focus Features. Script sets up a generational battle between Vlad the Impaler and members of the family that inadvertently unleashed the first vampire.

With a budget around $40 million and franchise aspirations, Rogue reluctantly shelved the picture, preferring to wait for a strike resolution and get it right. White is still committed, and the genre producer has at least four other production starts for 2008, including remakes of "Last House on the Left" and "Near Dark."

"Ironbow," which has a script by "The Count of Monte Cristo" scribe Jay Wolpert, was poised to begin casting after Reynolds agreed to direct. A decision was made last week to wait for another rewrite.

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Posted by Vladimir
Sun, 12/09/2007 - 17:15

Also at VO:

Chapter 4 The Isle of Wyrm

Chapter 4

ISLE OF WYRM

What is more important
giving her what she wants
or expressing the love
that she knows you feel?

How do you express this love
when the biggest-most important
way to do so is no longer
allowed but is now tabooed?

Why would she fight something
thats a part of me, the person
that she says she loves so much?

She says that she loves me and
I know that its true but than
why wouldn't she want to be with
me so we can both express it to
the other?

Prince Angel
September 13, 2001

Shadows

The sun is void
There is no day
Dark cast over the truth
Hidden evils
Once captive now roam
Where the misunderstood
And the outcasts govern
Where the sidewalk ends
And the world is turned
You may never have seen us
But we're so definitely there
Haunting your subconscious
You're not quite aware
But we'll stay in the shadows
In the dark shades
Of what you don't know.

Howling Stars
October 9, 2001

Chapter 20

They were sitting in a little Italian restaurant where they had often, in the old days, lingered late into the night over a glass of Lacrimæ Christi. But no pale ghost of the past rose from the wine. Only a wriggling something, with serpent eyes, that sent cold shivers down her spine and held her speechless and entranced.

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