Be still my Shakespearian heart. Yes, I’ve written about ol’ Will a lot lately, and now it’s time for more, although with this round, the Bard is providing the inspiration rather than the story. Variety reports that Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Franco Nero will star in Letters to Juliet, an adaptation of Lise and Ceil Friedman’s book. (Not to be confused with this Juliet-inspired project.)

Riffing on the book, which talks about Verona and the multitude of people who write letters to Juliet in care of the city, the story will follow a couple (Seyfriend and Garcia Bernal) who vacation in Italy and mistakenly get one of these letters. Written by Redgrave’s character, the letter recounts her memories of being romanced during a trip to the country long ago. Inspired, Seyfried heads to Tuscany to find the woman’s lost love (Nero). Man, she likes playing Cupid. Anyone want to make bets about how long it will take for her to star in a film AS Cupid?

The project was adapted by Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries and the upcoming On the Road) and Tim Sullivan, and will be directed by Gary Winick, the man behind Tadpole, 13 Going on 30, Charlotte’s Web, and Bride Wars. I’m not sure what that will mean for this film — fluffy romance, something more gritty, a little bit of both? — but I do like the idea. Production begins in Italy on June 25.

source: cinematical.com

Summit Entertainment is presenting four new titles to buyers at Cannes this year including two new Summit productions - a romantic drama starring Twilight sensation Robert Pattinson and a generational love story set in Italy starring Amanda Seyfried.

Pattinson is starring in Remember Me which is shooting this summer in New York while the actor is between Twilight sequels New Moon, which wraps at the end of May, and Eclipse, which starts in August.

Allen Coulter, the award-winning TV director (The Sopranos, Damages) who made his feature debut with Hollywoodland in 2006, is directing the film and Nick Osborne and Trevor Engelson of Underground Films (License To Wed) are producing.

Summit co-chairman and CEO Patrick Wachsberger wouldn’t go into too much detail on the plot but described the film as this generation’s Love Story. A female lead is in the process of being cast, while Rachel Getting Married writer Jenny Lumet has finished the latest draft of the screenplay.

Meanwhile Gary Winick (Bride Wars, 13 Going On 30) is directing Letters To Juliet which stars Seyfried as an American girl in Italy who discovers the legend of the “letters to Juliet” – love letters which visitors leave in the wall of Juliet’s courtyard in Verona which are individually answered by a group of women called the secretaries of Juliet. While at the wall, the girl discovers a letter written in 1958 which has never been picked up and she decides to go on a quest to find the lovers in question.

UK writer Tim Sullivan wrote the screenplay from an original draft by Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries). Ellen Barkin whose Applehead Productions originally brought the concept to Summit’s attention is producing alongside Mark Canton.

An English romantic lead for Seyfried is currently being cast while two distinguished actors are being finalized to play the older couple. Wachsberger said the tone was in the vein of Four Weddings And A Funeral but with “a lot of emotion.”

Summit will handle domestic distribution on both these films and they will go through its international output partners including E1 in the UK, SND in France and Concorde/TMG in Germany.

Summit is also representing sales on two productions from Bill Pohlad’s River Road Entertainment – Doug Liman’s Fair Game featuring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts and The Runaways, a biopic of the 70s girl band starring Twilight’s Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett.

Fair Game, which reunites Summit with Mr & Mrs Smith director Liman, is a true life drama about the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson after her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson accused the US government of manipulating evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq. It starts shooting next week.

The Runaways is being directed by first timer Floria Sigismondi and produced by Art Linson. Dakota Fanning (who also has a role in New Moon) is scheduled to co-star alongside Stewart playing Runaways lead singer Cheri Currie.

Summit previously handled sales on River Road’s Tree Of Life directed by Terrence Malick and starring Brad Pitt and Penn which opens at the end of this year.

Also on Summit’s sales lineup is Furry Vengeance, a live action family comedy starring Brendan Fraser and directed by Roger Kumble which Summit is co-financing with Participant Media.

Going into production this summer is Summit’s Step Up 3 which Disney will open domestically in Aug 2010.

New Moon directed by Chris Weitz is set to open in North America on Nov 20, while the third film, Eclipse, to be directed by David Slade, will open on June 30, 2010.

The first film in the series Twilight has now grossed over $380m worldwide. Meanwhile Summit’s Knowing starring Nicolas Cage has just crossed $100m worldwide.

source: screendaily.com

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - “300″ filmmaker Zack Snyder has gathered some of today’s most recognizable young actresses for his upcoming action fantasy film, “Sucker Punch.”

The director is planning an all-girl $100 million-budgeted film for Warner Bros. based on the ’60s action fantasy of the same name.

Amanda Seyfried (”Mamma Mia!”), Vanessa Hudgens (”High School Musical”), Abbie Cornish (”Elizabeth: The Golden Age”), Evan Rachel Wood (”The Wrestler”), and Emma Stone (”The House Bunny”) are all in talks to star in the project, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Seyfried will lead the group, playing a girl in the ’50s named Babydoll who is confined to a mental institution by her stepfather. She fantasizes about escaping with the help of her fellow inmates, the rest of the girls.

Snyder, who is writing the script, is co-producing with wife Deborah. Shooting starts in fall.

source: allheadlinenews.com

Zack Snyder (”300,” “Watchmen”) revealed to IESB.net that “Mamma Mia!” star Amanda Seyfried is in talks to take one of the five leading female roles in Snyder’s upcoming action film “Sucker Punch”.

The R-rated project, described as “an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ with machine guns,” kicks off pre-production this June in Canada.

It was also announced last month that Amanda Seyfried will star in Myriad Pictures’ adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s comedy A Woman of No Importance opposite Annette Bening and Sean Bean.

Seyfried will play an American who finds herself falling in love with the womanizing Lord Illingworth (Bean) in the English countryside until his mother (Bening) throws a wrench in his plans.

Donald Zuckerman will produce and Bruce Beresford will be directing from a script by Howard Himelstein.

Seyfried is known for playing the role of ditzy Karen Smith in Mean Girls, Seyfried’s other film credits include Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, Alpha Dog, American Gun and Nine Lives. Her TV credits include “Veronica Mars,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and “Big Love,” on which she plays Sarah Henrickson.

An unprecedented worldwide box office phenomenon, Mamma Mia! The Movie has already been proclaimed the fastest selling DVD of all time in the U.K. after first-day sales reached 1.6 million units, surpassing the previous decade-long record holder Titanic on November 24, 2008 by over a half-million units, or 50 percent of total sales.

The Abba stage hit big screen transfer is now the first DVD to sell more than 5 million copies placing it in one in four UK households. Its closest rival was The Dark Knight with 1.5 million sold. The previous top seller was Pirates of the Caribbean.

source: broadwayworld.com

Those of us who have loved Amanda Seyfried ever since her role as ditzy Karen in Mean Girls are thrilled to see her career blowing up, even if it’s because of her silly role in the very, very silly Mamma Mia!. The latest role she’s snagged in her career explosion will be in A Woman of No Importance, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde play about English upper class society.

According to THR, Seyfried will play a young woman who is the victim of a game played by some upper-class types, led by Annette Bening. I love the idea of Seyfried and Bening facing off, or of any young actress getting to learn from the Great Bening at such an early age. So if Seyfried can stick with promising projects like these, and stay away from singing ABBA songs on the beach, she should be good to go.

source: cinemablend.com