Movies Daily by Zach Cannon

Some news out of the comic book world today. Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier is in talks to develop and direct the eco action thriller Strays. The film is about a group of young consultants on a business trip to Russia who find themselves in a radioactive city and encounter many obstacles on the road to safety.

Last Thursday, a rather dull trailer for The Punisher 2 hit the nets. (You can see it here ). Director Lexi Alexander explains why the trailer is not very indicative of the actual film here . Short answer: It was a bit hard to find anything that would be allowed to go into the trailer.

The good folks over at IGN.com got a few words from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige about Jon Favreau’s return to Iron Man 2 and the short turn around between the original and the sequel. In so many words, he says, “Trust us.” The article is available here .

And Robert Downey Jr. is jumping out of the Mark III and into a pair of cowboy boots in Cowboys & Aliens. Based on a graphic novel of the same name, it revolves around a battle in the Old West between the settlers and Indians who find themselves fighting together when aliens crash nearby in the prairie.

In other casting news, Eva Mendes will join Nicolas Cage in the Werner Herzog remake of Bad Lieutenant. In all honesty, this isn’t really news that interests me that much personally (I don’t care much for Mendes), but it gives me an excuse to link this awesome interview with Herzog that ran on Defamer.com in which the director wonderfully explains his reasons for remaking the film and dismisses/insults the original’s director in just five questions.

The Vatican has said no to Angels and Demons director Ron Howard’s request to film inside two churches in Rome. Months ago Howard put in a request to shoot inside Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria, where important parts of the Da Vinci Code sequel take place. The Vatican said “no,” claiming that “the film pursues a type of fantasy that damages common religious sentiment.”

Lawrence Kasdan, the writer of classics such as The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Big Chill and Body Heat, the latter two he also directed, will script a big-screen adaptation of the anime Robotech. Hopefully, he can get back to the fantasy epics he’s good at and make up for Dreamcatcher.

Finally, another great has passed away. Last night Stan Winston, the legendary make up artist who won Oscars for Jurassic Park, Aliens and Terminator 2, died. He was 62. The Variety obit can be found here . Aint It Cool News has posted up a touching tribute to him from James Cameron, and hopes to update with some words from Jon Favreau and Spielberg in the near future. Here’s the piece here.

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