Emily Blunt May Be The Girl On The Train

She's in talks for the novel adaptation

Things are gathering speed for the adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ thriller novel The Girl On The Train, which DreamWorks is busy developing. The Help's Tate Taylor hopped aboard to direct late last month and now Emily Blunt is in early talks for the titular role.

Hawkins’ novel follows a recently divorced woman called Rachel struggling with her life and sinking into alcoholism to try to cope. She sees a seemingly perfect couple from her London train ride every day and starts to fantasize about their lives. But things take a turn when she returns home covered in blood after a blackout drunk spree, and may have become intertwined with their lives... According to The Wrap, DreamWorks is looking at Fantastic Four's Kate Mara for one of the other main roles.

With roughly two million copies of the tome sold so far, it’s easy to see why DreamWorks might see the potential in this one, with Secretary/Men, Women & Children writer Erin Cressida Wilson at work on the adaptation.

Blunt, last seen in Into The Woods, will be back on screens for crime drama Sicario (out here September 25) and will be heard in animated comedy Animal Crackers, due next year. She’s currently busy shooting Snow White And The Huntsman prequel The Huntsman. 

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Nicolas Winding Refn Plans The Avenging Silence

He's developing a Tokyo-set spy thriller

He’s currently busy editing his latest, LA-set horror thriller The Neon Demon, but as usual Nicolas Winding Refn has a variety of projects in development that could become his next filmmaking gig. Talking to Collider, he revealed that one of the prime contenders is a movie called The Avenging Silence. 

According to Refn, it’s roughly in the spy genre and about the future, but would also dig into his past, focusing on a character – or at least an archetype – from other films he’s made. “It’s basically a character that appears in my other movies that will now appear again. Having done The Neon Demon, which was predominantly women protagonists, but the character that Mads Mikkelsen plays in Valhalla Rising, Ryan Gosling plays him in Drive or Vithaya Pansringarm in Only God Forgives, I want to make a new movie with that character.” 

He’s aiming to film the new project in Tokyo, but wouldn’t be drawn on any other details just yet. And for now, it’s simply under consideration with a variety of ideas, since we know he’s also working up at least two other possibilities including horror scripts The Bringing and I Walk With The Dead. The Neon Demon should be with us next year. 

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The First Z For Zachariah Trailer Gets Post-Apocalyptic

It's the end of the world as Margot Robbie knows it

Not every post-apocalyptic story has to take place in an industrial wasteland, or feature a plucky female hero caught between two potential love interests… Well, okay, Z For Zachariah skips the former but does have the latter. The first trailer for the film is available over at Apple’s site. 

In the story, which for many years was a staple of secondary school classrooms, Margot Robbie's playing Ann, a small-town girl who lives alone on a farm in a valley that boasts one of the few remaining pockets of safely breathable air following a catastrophic nuclear war. 

Her seeming seclusion is rudely interrupted when she encounters Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Loomis, a scientist who has long been searching for just such a safe zone. Half-crazed from radiation exposure, he proves to be a valuable asset, bringing knowledge such as getting gasoline from defunct petrol station pumps. Soon, a connection builds between the two, seemingly to be played out in glorious isolation. Until, that is, Chris Pine’s handsome stranger Loomis turns up, bearing his own agenda and the chiseled good looks of the once and future Captain Kirk. From there, the drama builds… {Z For Zachariah Poster}

Compliance director Craig Zobel is behind this one, working from a script by Nissar Modi that was originally developed by Pall Grimsson and adapted from Robert C. O’Brien’s 1974 novel. Z For Zachariah will be out in the States on August 21, but there’s no word on a UK date yet. 

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Degrassi Fans Just Got Devastating News

Degrassi: The Next Generation fans just got news that's more devastating than the most heartwrenching story lines combined: The show has been canceled.

On Thursday, TeenNick announced that the show's 14th season will be its last. What's more, all of the show's remaining episodes will air over just

...

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New Promo For Robert Zemeckis' The Walk

Joseph Gordon-Levitt walks the line

While the first trailer for The Walk focused solely on Joseph Gordon-Levitt bringing to life tightrope maverick and daredevil Philippe Petit as he considers the challenge of walking between the twin towers of New York’s Wold Trade Center in 1974, this new promo explores a little more about his plan and the people who helped him. Take a gander… 

Robert Zemeckis is taking the basic story chronicled in James Marsh’s documentary Man On Wire and exploring it, layering on his usual affinity for effects and virtual sets to help tell the tale of how Petit planned and attempted to execute his stunt. 

The likes of Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale and Ben Schwartz are along to assist, with Ben Kingsley playing Papa Rudy, Petit’s mentor on the art and science of what he wants to pull off. And to make sure those of a nervous disposition when it comes to heights will be turned even more into gibbering wrecks, Zemeckis is putting this one out in 3D IMAX, which means all those gaping drops will look that much more realistic. {The Walk} 

With the film now scoring a prime position as the opening slot of this year’s New York Film Festival, The Walk will arrive on UK screens on October 2. 

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New Everly Trailer Blasts In

Salma Hayek deals with a home invasion

After one bullet-riddled trailer for director Joe Lynch’s Everly, here comes the second one, which pretty much covers the same beats and blasts. 

Salma Hayek stars as the title character, who has betrayed a mob boss. So he decides to have her killed by sending several heavily armed killers to her apartment. There’s just one flaw in his plan – she’s far more of a badass than he ever suspected and is ready to fight to stay alive. Even when there are rocket launchers pointed in her direction. What we’re saying is, we hope she has really, really good home insurance.

Lynch and writer Yale Hannon had to drag this one through development, and despite some positive reactions at festivals, it faced a pretty poisonous reaction from US critics earlier this year and has slipped down the release calendar slightly here. You’ll be able to see what you think for yourself when Everly arrives on June 26 in cinemas and on demand.

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Idris Elba In Talks For The Alchemist

Laurence Fishburne still wants to direct the Paolo Coelho adaptation

The attempt to adapt Paolo Coelho’s sprawling, complex, spiritual tome The Alchemist has been going on for more than two decades, tumbling through development limbo as attempts at script drafts came and went. Now The Weinstein Company, which has long been a driving force behind the effort, is in talks with Idris Elba to star.

Laurence Fishburne, whose history with the project goes back even further than the Weinsteins, as he was circling to direct for Warners back in 2003 before grabbing the rights himself when the project went into turnaround there and teaming with TWC, is also in talks to make the current version. 

Coelho’s book has sold more than 65 million copies spanning 56 different languages, and holds the Guinness World Record for most translated work by a living author. The story follows a young shepherd in Andalucía who has a dream about a buried treasure to be found near the Pyramids. He sets off in pursuit of his dream, but along the way finds obstacle after obstacle, and is often tempted to give up. The big stumbling block for adaptations so far has been trying to balance the film’s thematic needs with entertaining action, with budgets for proposed versions fluctuating between $60 million and $100 million.

Now The Weinstein Company is hoping it can finally get the project shooting next year, according to Deadline. Elba is typically busy, with films such as Beasts Of No Nation, A Hundred Streets, Bastille Day and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book on the way. He's also in talks for a key role in Star Trek Beyond.

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