All Work And No Play...

In this latest edition of Cinema Stew...

A remake of a classic 8o's comedy is finished before it really begins; A sequel to a film from last summer is given a green light; More Borat; A box office report for '06; Is a Writers strike looming? And playing the race card

The IGN Staff (via Variety) gets things started:

Fox Atomic has officially scrapped their planned remake of Revenge of the Nerds which had been set for a Summer 2007 release.

Word of Nerds' nixing comes after the production was halted earlier this month when Emory University in Atlanta booted the production off campus. Nerds had relocated to a smaller college elsewhere in Georgia, but word is that it just didn't feel right. And the studio was reluctant to look for yet another location while continuing to pay everyone involved in the production.

Rumor has it, according to today's Variety, that Atomic's head honcho Peter Rice wasn't all that enamored with the footage he'd seen. "Everybody worked very hard on 'Revenge of the Nerds,' and we're all extremely disappointed that we can't move forward," Rice said in a statement.

Much like the original, the new film was to tell what happened when a college campus is turned upside down by a group of freshmen misfits who wage an all-out battle against the jocks during Greek Week.

Fanboys director Kyle Newman was helming the redo of the 1984 comedy which was to star Katie Cassidy, Jenna Dewan, Dan Byrd, Christopher Marquette, Ryan Pinkston and Nick Zano. McG and Adam Brody were producing Nerds.

The original Revenge of the Nerds is a comedy classic and would have been a tough act to try and top, I wonder what happened to get the production kicked off that first campus? Didn't school officials know what they were getting into when they agreed to be a part of the process?

Next up,'Da Vinci Code' Sequel To Be Made, says Studio Briefing:

A sequel to the blockbuster movie adaptation The Da Vinci Code is in the works. Scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the Dan Brown novel for the screen, has reportedly been paid $3.8 million to write the sequel. However, it's said the sequel will not be an original story, but will actually be based on Angels And Demons, the book which precedes The Da Vinci Code.

Sources claim the plot, which sees cryptologist Robert Langdon, played by Tom Hanks, help a woman to discover the links between her father's death and secret society conspiracies, will be altered so that it can follow on from the first film. It is expected the movie will be released in 2008.

Critics may have hated the The Da Vinci Code movie...But it still made a ton of dough worldwide and recently debuted on DVD. Hence, the prequel is moving forward.

Borat: A One-Time Wonder?

Although Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan passed the $100-million mark at the box office over the weekend, Universal Pictures may already be "feeling buyer's remorse" over its agreement to pay Sacha Baron Cohen $42.5 million to make a follow-up film in the guise of his gay Austrian fashion designed Bruno, the Los Angeles Times observed (in a story published this past Monday).

According to the newspaper, the studio is concerned about the numerous lawsuits filed against Fox, which released Borat, and the possibility that Baron Cohen may now be so well known that he will be unable to dupe enough people into participating in his on-camera hoaxes. Entertainment lawyer George Hedges told the Times: "Once you have a high-profile situation and you have lawyers circling around, your risk factor is higher."

Sacha Baron Cohen = Overexposed

Box Office Offsets Last Year's Losses

So far this year, total box-office revenue is up 5.5 percent above last year when it was down 5.2 percent from 2004. And, after declining every year for three consecutive years, attendance is up 3.9 percent. (In 2005, it was down 7.1 percent.)

Analysts attributed the upswing to a larger output of films this year, appealing to a wide range of moviegoers. (Last Monday's) Los Angeles Times observed that by the end of the year, 154 films will have had wide openings in at least 1,000 theaters -- a 17 percent increase over 2005.

Total domestic box-office revenue for 2006 now stands at $8.4 billion, compared with $8 billion at this date a year ago. (Last year marked the first time since 2001 that the box office failed to pass the $9-billion mark.)

Does this mean the "slump" is considered over?

It's time to cue the ominous music...

Producers Sense Writers Strike

Appearing to foreshadow a tough year ahead for labor relations in Hollywood, the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said Monday that he had been "rebuked" by the Writers Guild of America, West after he proposed early contract negotiations.

J. Nicholas Counter told [the] Los Angeles Times [on Tuesday] that he had offered to begin negotiations in January, but that his proposed had been rejected by WGA Executive Director David Young, who proposed that the talks begin in September. The writers' contract expires on Oct. 31. Counter told [the]... Times that the refusal raises the possibility of a strike and he suggested that it may cause the studios to accelerate production of films and stockpile scripts

I remember the strike of 1988 and that affected TV more directly than it did films. If a strike does happen and it goes beyond, say 8 weeks, then tinstletown can hit the panic button.

Casting Companies Put Out "Whites Only" Signs

Despite federal law barring discrimination in employment based on race, 69 percent of all casting notices this past summer specifically asked for white actors, according to a study by the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and reported in [Friday']'s Los Angeles Daily News. "Casting directors take into account race and sex in a way that would be blatantly illegal in any other industry," Study author Russell Robinson observed.

The study also found that ethnic minorities were not cast in about 80 percent of first-, second- and third-billed leading roles. "When we get to the bus captains and the busboys [roles], then we get into the Latinos," commented Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

The results of the study come as no surprise to me. Minority actors often get short changed.

That's all the stew for now...This afternoon the Chicago Bears have a rematch with the Minnesota Vikings to win...Rex Grossman has the start...He better have a good game...The team needs a consistent QB as things move ahead