Is Josh Brolin having a great streak, or what? He’ll be playing the title role in DC Comics’ “Jonah Hex,” a former confederate soldier-turned hardened bounty hunter and gunslinger. Yeah, I can see him in that role.
John Malkovich has also signed for the film, playing Turnball, a wealthy Southern plantation owner whose son is killed by Union soldiers during the Civil War. He blames Hex for the tragedy.
Jimmy Hayward is directing the pic, with “Crank” scribes Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor penning the screenplay. Shooting is scheduled to start this spring with a 2010 release date.
I’m not familiar with …read more

Wheeeeeee … "Candy Land" is coming to the big screen courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Yep, Variety is reporting that the classic board game will soon be a live-action movie with Kevin Lima directing and Etan Cohen on board as writer.
I’m just not really feelin’ this one, people. Would it be a kid’s movie? A fantasy movie like "Enchanted"?
I’m guessing the second one, because Lima most recently directed Amy Adams in "Enchanted." Then again, Cohen recently wrote "Tropic Thunder," so that’s a pretty big stretch between those two movies!
Image: Amazon

Ever wish you could plan your own funeral while you’re still alive – so you can enjoy it? Yeah, me either. But Felix "Bush" Breazeale did just that in 1938.
The true story of the Tennessee recluse is being made into a feature film by the Zanuck Co. titled "Get Low."
Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek are already on board, and Bill Murray and Lucas Black just joined the cast, as well. They’ll play partners at the funeral home.
The Variety story is calling it a "dramatic thriller," but with those two as funeral directors, you have to wonder …read more

Spike Lee and his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, has nabbed the rights to "Now the Hell Will Start," a nonfiction book written by Brendan Koerner. Check out the book’s Web site here.
The true story follows Herman Perry, a black Army private during World War II who snapped and went AWOL after shooting an unarmed white lieutenant. Instead of facing the gallows, he ran deep into the Southeast Asian jungle and ended up living with the natives.
I haven’t read the book, but it sounds like a great story that will make a fantastic movie with …read more

An "Arrested Development" movie has been brewing for some time now, and it looks like forces may be rallying to actually make it happen.
At a recent Uprights Citizens Brigade show, Jeffrey Tambor – who played George Bluth, Sr. in the Fox TV series – said Michael Cera will be in the big-screen movie, even if he has to call him on the phone and order him to be on that set!
My son and I just started watching "Arrested Development" recently, and have to say it’s easy to get sucked into the crazy scenarios of the Bluth family. …read more

Jimmy Hayward, who directed the animated "Horton Hears a Who!" will take a different turn with his next project. He’ll be directing the live-action "Jonah Hex" from Warner Bros.
Josh Brolin is attached to star in the western-centric film, which previously had Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor ("Crank") on board as directors. The duo, who penned the script, bowed out over creative differences in November.
Hex is a DC Comics character known for having the right side of his face disfigured and wearing a Confederate army uniform. He’s a rough-and-tumble gunslinger and part-time bounty hunter whose adventures always ended in …read more

John Curran is set to direct "The Beautiful and the Damned," a Film Department period drama that will star Keira Knightley. It begins production in March, with a release date of 2010. (Curran is pictured with Mark Ruffalo on the set of "We Don’t Live Here Anymore.")
Instead of big wigs and giant dresses, Knightley will play Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1920s. "The Damned and the Beautiful," penned by Hanna Weg, follows the turbulent marriage of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his schizophrenic wife Zelda Sayre.
It seems unbelievable that Keira Knightley is only 23. She’s done so many …read more

Tony Stark suffering from identity issues? You know, I kind of wondered about that when his identity was revealed at the end of "Iron Man." Apparently, that will be a major plotpoint in "Iron Man 2."
While working on the script for the sequel, screenwriter Justin Theroux told MTV.com that the main theme of "Iron Man 2" will indeed be the issue of identity.
"It’s something that we’ve made a real decision to run towards rather than away from," said Theroux. I wonder what that means exactly…that maybe Tony isn’t sure about this whole Iron Man thing and wants …read more

What if you were a loser (hypothetically speaking, because no Film Gecko reader is a loser), and found a book on how to prevent an alien invasion of the Earth? And then had to use that knowledge when one actually occurs?
Such is the premise of “The How-To Guide for Saving the World,” an action comedy picked up by MGM with Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct and produce.
Apparently, the script by BenDavid Grabinski landed enough votes among execs to make this year’s unofficial Black List of “most liked” screenplays.
More after the jump…

When I interviewed Ross Partridge this summer, he raved about the talents of Jay and Mark Duplass, the filmmaker brothers who brought “Baghead” to life. 
Now they’re helming an untitled comedy - formerly known as “Safety Man” -with John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei in talks to star. This will be the Duplass brothers’ studio directing debut, from a script they penned.
The story centers on a recently divorced man (Reilly) who meets the woman of his dreams (Tomei). She has a teenage son (Hill) who has no interest in sharing his mother with a new …read more