Movie & TV News: The Flash, Ripley's, Adam Resurrected, White Hotel, Trek Webtoon, Coraline, Around the World in 80 Dates, Mike Fright, Comic Previews

The Flash
Since the project fell into the hands of David Goyer the only one talked about to play Wally West (or Barry Allen depending on which rumors you read) has been Ryan Reynolds. Now Superhero Hype quotes the actor as saying: "It's a hundred and eight billion dollar movie if they do it. I don't know how that stuff works and I don't really get involved with it. I think if they do it, they're going to see it through the eyes of Wally West and its inanimate world [sic]. I can hear people falling asleep while I'm talking about this. I honestly don't know. It's just such a huge undertaking. I'd love to wear a red unitard sometime, but I can do that on my own." The whole article is here.

Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Variety reports that Paramount has fished "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" out of development hell. With a new script by Steve Oedekerk and star Jim Carrey as Ripley and Tim Burton directing, the film now has a proposed production start in winter 2008 in China, a 2009 release date and a #150+ budget expected.

Adam Resurrected

Willem Dafoe will star opposite Jeff Goldblum in "Adam Resurrected," Paul Schrader's World War II Holocaust drama based on the novel by Yoram Kaniuk. Adam Stein (Goldblum), a former circus clown, is spared the gas chamber to entertain thousands of Jews as they marched to their deaths. Dafoe will play a Nazi officer whose life is saved by Stein. He is the one who later spares Stein. The film has an April production start date and will be shot in Germany, Romania and Israel. Does this plot sound suspisiously like the "lost" Jerry Lewis film "The Day the Clown Cried" to anyone else?

The White Hotel
Brittany Murphy is in talks to star in "The White Hotel," a movie based on the D.M. Thomas novel. Simon Monjack has written the adaptation and will direct. Murphy would play an opera singer seeking Sigmund Freud in post-World War I Vienna. She is driven to distraction by horrifying dreams about a white hotel, and becomes Freud's famous case study Anna G.. They work to find the keys to her memories and her premonitions of the future, which include the Holocaust. The movie will begin production in the spring in Vienna and Prague.

Trek Webtoon
The Trek Movie Report website has put up the story of the Star Trek web cartoons that CBS is considering. David Rossi, producer and writer, is quoted discussing the setting and drives behind them. The toons are planned as 5-6 minute mini-episodes like Cartoon Network's "Star Wars: Clone Wars," and take place several decades after the events of the last Star Trek movie. Several pieces of design artwork are posted with the article and at there is more at writer/artist Jeff Parker's weblog.

Neil Gaiman on Coraline
In his latest blog Neil Gaiman talks about his recent set visit of the stop-motion animation adaptation of his children's novella. The film is being directed by Henry Selick. Earlier entries have noted Gaiman's pleased reaction to what he has seen, although he is doesn't want to leak information to freely, since he is not sure what he is supposed to talk about.

Around the World in 80 Dates
The Jennifer Cox memoir will be directed by Andy Tennant and the script will be by Gwyn Lurie .The Universal Pictures project will be produced by Reese Witherspoon through her Type A Films production company. It's all about a British travel writer who looks for love by sending her profile to contacts around the globe. As she then follows up prospects around the world she dates the top 80 candidates in 16 countries.

Mike Fright: Stand Up!