By Katey Rich
Surprising news this morning... Anthony Minghella, the 54-year-old director of The English Patient, Cold Mountain and other films, has died, according to Variety. No cause of death has been given. Minghella was still actively working, having just completed the TV movie The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. He was most recently seen on-screen in a cameo in Atonement; his most recent film was last December's Breaking and Entering. More details to come, presumably.
On to a very different kind of film news...Over 20 years ago a young director with some acclaim behind him tackled an adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel Dune, and it didn't exactly work out too well. But now Peter Berg is daring to succeed where David Lynch failed by adapting the same novel, reports Variety. Berg, who has four films to his name plus the upcoming summer tentpole Hancock, will tackle the intergalactic war story with Paramount backing the project. For what it's worth, the book was also turned into a Sci Fi Channel miniseries in 2000, to less-disastrous results. Given Lynch's recent reputation for outspoken commentary, we wonder if he'll have something to say about this as well.
Steve Zahn, who is looking to be ubiquitous in 2008 (the already-released Strange Wilderness plus the upcoming The Great Buck Howard, Sunshine Cleaning and Management), has signed on for yet another project. The Hollywood Reporter writes that he'll join Timothy Olyphant in the action thriller A Perfect Getaway, about a honeymooning couple who encounter two killers. Olyphant plays a killer, while Zahn is one half of the couple. MGM will distribute the film.
And finally, an array of Young Turks have signed on to provide voices for the DreamWorks Animation project How To Train Your Dragon, set for release on March 26, 2010. It's a funny example of animated characters being pretty well-suited to the onscreen personalities of their actors. Jay Baruchel, the stringy twerp from TV's "Undeclared" and Knocked Up, voices a reluctant boy hero named Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third; America Ferrera, TV's "Ugly Betty," is his friend Astrid. Gerard Butler (he of the majestic abs in 300) is a tribal leader named Stoick the Vast, and I'll let The Hollywood Reporter describe for you the rest: "[Jonah] Hill will play Snotlout, a bully who thinks he should be the next chief, and [Superbad's McLovin Christopher] Mintz-Plasse portrays Fishlegs, a Viking big in size but small in brains." I know it's early to say, but the creativity demonstrated in these names alone is enough to make this movie promising.
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