Source:  The Buffalo News

The feature film “Henry’s Crime,” starring Keanu Reeves, will be shooting in Buffalo next month, a source close to the film told The Buffalo News on Monday evening.

“Independent reports are not accurate,” the source said. “Some of the movie will be shot here, some of it will be shot elsewhere, and decisions are still being made.”

Reports surfaced Monday that “Henry’s Crime” would be filmed in New York City, not in Buffalo, after Exxcel Model& Talent Agency in Williamsville was told that there were changes in locations and the shooting schedule for the film. Production originally was to start Monday.

Plans now call for production to begin in New York City on Nov. 30, with all filming to be wrapped up before Christmas.

“It’s going to be real intensive,” the source said. “In the Buffalo portion, there are going to be 14-and 16-hour days.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Carl Rinsch may not be directing the “Alien” prequel. But he’s got a pretty good alternative.

The commercials director, who had been loosely attached to the reboot of the sci-fi franchise, has landed the gig to helm “47 Ronin,” the samurai pic that’s set up at Universal with producers Scott Stuber and Pamela Abdy.

“Ronin” centers on a group of 18th century samurai who set out to avenge the death of their master. Keanu Reeves is attached to star in the film. Chris Morgan, who counts “Fast & Furious” and “Wanted” among his writing credits, penned the screenplay.

The CAA-repped Rinsch is the commercials wunderkind who made his name directing spots, many with futuristic themes, for the likes of Mercedes and Heineken.

He had originally been reported as attached to “Alien,” but reports later broke that Fox preferred Ridley Scott direct it himself (he had been on board only to produce). While there is no official word on “Alien,” Rinsch now likely won’t direct the prequel.

Samurai tales were for decades a staple in Japan, where movies like Kobayashi’s “Harikiri” and Kurosawa’s “Sanshiro Sugata” and “Seven Samurai” became broad hits. In the U.S. their audience has often been limited to a more arthouse audience, though Hollywood tried most notably in 2003 with Ed Zwick’s “The Last Samurai,” a Tom Cruise starrer that earned $455 million globally.

Source:  www.wivb.com

A Hollywood veteran is joining the cast of a new movie being shot right here in Buffalo.

James Caan has been set to costar with Keanu Reeves in “Henry’s Crime,” a romantic comedy about a man who’s falsely accused of robbing a bank in Buffalo.

Local production is set to begin next March.

Source: MTV Movies Blog

…

Variety reports that Scott is now officially attached to helm the Alien prequel, and Jon Spaihts is set to write the script. It was Spaihts who apparently lured the director back to the franchise, and he had a little help from actor Keanu Reeves.

Reeves is set to star in Spaihts’ script “Shadow 19” which is set up at Warner Bros, and he subsequently hired the screenwriter to pen the sci-fi epic “Passengers.” It was that script that got him a meeting with Fox and Scott, and his pitch won him the prequel gig and reportedly sold the director on returning.

…

Source: Reuters

Keanu Reeves is about to develop a split personality as the star of a modern retelling of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Universal Pictures is developing the feature, with Justin Haythe, writer of “Revolutionary Road,” penning the script. Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, writer-director of the “Pusher” trilogy of gritty thrillers, is in negotiations to direct the project, titled “Jekyll.”

Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella about a doctor who scientifically develops an evil self has become so pervasive in popular culture that the phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” conjures the idea of a split personality. The story has been translated to the screen and stage dozens of times. Among the adaptations are comedy versions, kids’ stories (“Jekyll and Heidi”) and gender-switch tales (1995′s “Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde”). The story has undergone modern iterations as recently as 2007, when the BBC aired a miniseries that set the story in the present as Hyde ran amok in London.

Plot details for this “Jekyll” are being kept locked in the laboratory.

Universal clearly is enamored with the tale; it also has been developing a take on it with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, but the two adaptations couldn’t be more different.

Del Toro, who has an affinity for Gothic horror as well as creature features, aims to stick more closely to the Stevenson tale. His project is on the back burner, though, as he works on “The Hobbit” for New Line and MGM, a project that’s expected to take up the next five years.

Refn’s indie crime biopic “Bronson,” starring Tom Hardy, premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

Haythe wrote the script for “The Clearing,” the Robert Redford-starring kidnapping thriller. He is working on the remake of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”

Reeves most recently starred in the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”