This week's Ketchup features a slate full of 1980s nostalgia, including sequels or remakes of movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Wall Street, Videodrome and even Drop Dead Fred.

#1 OLIVER STONE TO MAKE HIS FIRST SEQUEL WITH WALL STREET II

Earlier this year, Oliver Stone was quoted as saying that he had given up on Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to Wall Street, but the Los Angeles Times now reports that 20th Century Fox has signed the director back on to the project, which is now known as the more obviously sequel title, Wall Street 2. Michael Douglas is on board to reprise his role as Gordon Gekko. Shia LeBeouf is in talks to costar as a "young Wall Street trader under Gekko's spell," which also describes Charlie Sheen's character in the original movie. The details of the plot aren't known, except that it will focus again on Gordon Gekko, "whose exploits will closely reflect much of the greed and chicanery seen in the past year on Wall Street." The original sequel script was written by Stephen Schiff (The Deep End of the Ocean, 1997's Lolita), but a new rewrite is being done by Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire; co-writer of 21). 20th Century Fox is hoping to get Wall Street 2 ready for production as soon as this summer, 2009.

#2 VIDEODROME TO GET REMADE AS A LARGE SCALE ACTION MOVIE

Director David Cronenberg may have gone mainstream with his last two movies (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises), but back in the 1980s, he was known as the man behind Scanners, The Brood, and Videodrome, which went into even crazier and more disturbing subject matter. James Woods starred as the head of a sleazy cable channel always on the lookout for sexy and violent material, whose interest in a satellite feed of torture called Videodrome leads him into an experience where reality and fantasy cross. If you've ever seen images of James Woods holding a "flesh gun", or with a huge gaping hole in his abdomen, that was Videodrome. Now, Universal wants to take what was an essentially small story of a man going insane and "blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller" and "infuse it with the possibilities of nano-technology." David Cronenberg isn't involved in the project (yet?), which is being written by Ehren Kruger, whose filmography includes The Ring, The Ring Two, Scream 3 and Reindeer Games, and an upcoming TNT mini-series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman. If Cronenberg does indeed step in to direct this new version of Videodrome, the project might have some hope, but as it stands now, this remake sounds like it's steering too far from the original's unique vision.

#3 RUSSELL BRAND FINDS THE ROLE HE WAS BORN TO REMAKE: DROP DEAD FRED

British comedian Russell Brand is an acquired taste, specializing in a certain type of frenzied personality that easily can grate on the nerves (mine, at least). A few months back, he was reported as being involved with a remake of Arthur, but this week he may have found the one remake that he is absolutely perfect for: 1991's Drop Dead Fred. Universal Pictures is developing a remake, in which Brand will take over the role (originally portrayed by fellow Brit Rik Mayall) of an imaginary childhood friend who returns to a young woman's life, wreaking havok in his attempts to help her. Drafting the script is Dennis McNicholas, who co-wrote 2000's The Ladies Man, this summer's Land of the Lost, and another upcoming movie version of another old Sid and Marty Krofft TV series, H.R. Pufnstuf. McNicholas has been tasked to reimagine Drop Dead Fred "in the tone of "Beetlejuice as inspiration to imagine a new mythology based upon imaginary childhood friends." I often rail against remakes in this column because they're usually of movies that were fine the first time around, but Drop Dead Fred is a great example of a movie that could use improvements.

#4 ROGER RABBIT 2 MIGHT STILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN SOMEDAY?

It's been over 20 years since Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the remarkable live-action/animation hybrid that featured cameos from many competing properties (Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, etc). A prequel script called Roger Rabbit: The Toon Platoon, which featured Roger and lots of classic cartoon characters in a 1941 World War II setting, was written not long after the movie's initial release and, during the '90s, was rewritten to remove the war spoofing and retitled Who Discovered Roger Rabbit? Tests were reportedly done rendering the characters in CGI, but Disney cancelled the project after the budget was projected to be well over $100 million, and the idea of a second Roger Rabbit became the sort of thing that gets covered in books like Chris Gore's The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made. Roger Rabbit's director, Robert Zemeckis (Beowulf, Back to the Future), however, still has hopes, as he told MTV this week that a second Roger Rabbit is "buzzing around in my head." It'll be based upon a new idea and take advantage of continuing improvements in digital tools and performance capture. In the meantime, we'll have to wait for Zemeckis and Jim Carrey to finish their motion capture version of A Christmas Carol, due in November, to see what his latest work with the technology looks like.

#5 JOHN MILTON'S PARADISE LOST BECOMES THE LATEST SUBJECT OF DUELLING PRODUCTIONS

A few months back, Warner Bros announced plans for Paradise, a big budget adaptation of John Milton's epic 17th century poem, "Paradise Lost," about Adam and Eve's fall from grace and exile from the Garden of Eden. Now, an independent production of Paradise Lost, which has reportedly been in development by producer Martin Poll (The Lion in Winter, Nighthawks) since the late 1960s, is getting steam again as competition to WB's version. (It also has the advantage of having the actual title.) Back in the day, Poll hired screenwriter John Collier (he wrote a lot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents scripts) to write the Paradise Lost script, which was eventually published as a book in 1973. Martin Poll long tried to get Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man) to direct, but Penn ultimately declined, so the project is currently out to directors. What the project does currently have is half of its projected $30-35 million budget and two unknown actors for Adam and Eve, with the role of Satan expected to be played by a recognizable movie star. The two Paradise Lost projects appear far enough from each other, one being a big-budget modern Hollywood version, and the other being full of connections to the old-school Hollywood.

#6 BRUCE WILLIS: LIVE FREE AND WORK HARD

The Hollywood Reporter did an update on Bruce Willis' upcoming slate of movies, which is pretty much dominated by action movies. In addition to The Surrogates, which comes out this September, the Die Hard franchise star also has the previously announced A Couple of Dicks (from Kevin Smith, which has reverted back to its racier title from A Couple of Cops) and the videogame adaptation Kane & Lynch. New to the mix are Inventory, in which Willis would play a detective on the trail of a murderer and Red, which is an adaptation of a Wildstorm comic book about a retired black ops agent who has to return to action when a high-tech assassin threatens him and his girlfriend. Yet another possibility is the previously announced Scarpa, which is a biopic about an FBI informant working in New York's Columbo crime family, although THR suggests that project might not end up being a Bruce Willis project. Although both A Couple of Dicks and Kane & Lynch sound promising, these new projects, Inventory and Red seem to have rather tired premises. Then, so did Taken, and look at the box office business it did.

#7 HAVE THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO LASSOED THEIR DIRECTOR?

British director Mike Newell used to be best known for romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Pushing Tin, but his latest projects are all setting him up for a reputation as a go-to helmer for big budget action movies. First there was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and he recently wrapped principal production of Disney's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Now, Disney is reportedly in talks with Newell to direct their highly-anticipated revival of The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto. The role of the Texas Ranger who seeks revenge for the murder of his fellow Rangers is still uncast, but there have been rumors that George Clooney may be the studio's top choice. The Lone Ranger is being written by the team of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who wrote the three Pirates of the Carribean movies, and have also co-written animated movies like Shrek, Aladdin and this summer's G-Force. There's no production start date yet for The Lone Ranger, but it is expected to likely be one of Disney's big tentpole movies for the summer of 2011.

#8 DE NIRO AND NORTON TEAMING UP AGAIN FOR STONE

Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, who costarred together in The Score, will reteam for independent drama Stone, in which De Niro plays a security guard who befriends a teaching assistant (Norton). Stone was written by Angus MacLachlan (Junebug) and will be directed by John Curran (We Don't Live Here Anymore), who previously worked with Edward Norton in 2006's The Painted Veil. Filming is expected to start later this month. Another project on Curran's development slate is The Beautiful and the Damned, a biopic about the romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre, to be played by Keira Knightley.

 

#9 IS DENZEL WASHINGTON UNSTOPPABLE?

Denzel Washington is in talks to star as a locomotive engineer in Unstoppable, 20th Century Fox's action thriller about a runaway train carrying a load of toxic chemicals straight at a major American city. Unstoppable was written by Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard; cowriter of Race to Witch Mountain), reportedly loosely based upon a true story, and will be directed by Tony Scott. Unstoppable would mark this the fifth time Scott has worked with Denzel, following Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu and this summer's remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Production is expected to start on Unstoppable sometime this fall.

 

#10 THIS WEEK IN ANIMATION: RICKY GERVAIS' FLANIMALS AND THE NEXT AARDMAN STUDIOS PROJECTS

Universal-based Illumination Entertainment will produce a 3D CGI animated movie based upon Flanimals, a series of four books by British comedian Ricky Gervais (The Office, Extras), with Gervais also providing the voice of the main character, a "pudgy, perspiring purple creature, [who] goes on a mission to change the world." Flanimals is set in a world inhabited by 50 different types of creatures that are "so ugly and misshapen they become cute and endearing." Illumination Entertainment is a relatively new company at Universal, and is currently working on their first animated movie, Despicable Me, starring the voice of Steve Carrell as a super villain planning on stealing the moon.

ROTTEN IDEA OF THE WEEK: TODD MCFARLANE STILL TRYING TO MAKE ANOTHER SPAWN

It's nearly 12 years now since Todd McFarlane's Spawn was released as a live-action movie starring Michael Jai White as a demonic superhero on a path of vengeance, and for most of those years, McFarlane has been trying to get another Spawn movie made. This week, McFarlane told IESB.net  that he is talking to five different companies, with offers that range from big budget special effects to smaller, independent productions that would allow him to write and direct the new Spawn movie himself. The problem is that Spawn was very much a product of the 1990s and, though Spawn continues in comics form, readers by and large have moved on. And as for the Spawn movie, there is not much of a clamoring fan base for it either; it's remembered as being slightly better (maybe) than other superhero movie attempts of the time like Steel, Judge Dredd and Tank Girl.

For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS through his MySpace page or via a RT forum message. Greg also blogs about the TV show Lost at TwoLosties.Blogspot.com.