A few movies on track to get started this year have had their timelines updated, with some of them moving forward and some getting pushed back. Let’s take a quick look.
• As you would probably expect, Robert Rodriguez’s 2012 projects are moving like clockwork as the master of efficiency updates his Comic Con announcements and not only confirms an April start time for Machete Kills shooting, but promises a summer shoot for Sin City 2. Beyond that he also spoke at SXSW of the two major companies he’s forming: one an animation studio with two features on its docket, the other a Hispanic-targeted cable network (that will be a part of a larger batch of minority-focused TV stations).
You’ll be interested to hear that the animation studio’s first project will be Heavy Metal, which is currently being storyboarded and will soon move on to the 6-8 in-house Rodriguez animators who will start the process. The second animation is apparently a family film with a concept-revealing title that Rodriguez will not yet cough up.
• On the other end of the spectrum an update on the 24 film starring Keifer Sutherland has that film put back on hiatus indefinitely. Unconvinced that the budget was right and that Sutherland’s TV schedule (he stars in Touch) was accommodating enough for a feature shoot, Fox has popped the brakes on a planned March shoot. It’s likely the project will stay active and be tinkered with between now and Sutherland’s next hiatus, as Deadline points out that producer Brian Grazer has a history of pushing through stalled projects like American Gangster. There’s also some indication now that the first film decidedly lays groundwork for a trilogy, and if that’s true then it justifies Fox’s hesitation to rush the production all the more.
I’m not sure who will be pleased by the RR projects moving forward, but I know some will be disappointed in the 24 stall. Better luck next year…