This Week:
Ed Helms will star in Epic Fail; Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx might team up; Sony Animation has revealed plans for several upcoming releases; Disney is preparing an adaptation of Something Wicked This Way Comes; Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace are set for Taken 3; and Guy Pearce joins Black Mass.
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Ed Helms is set to star in the comedy Epic Fail for Lionsgate.
![Movie News Wrap Up: ‘Taken 3’, ‘Black Mass’ and More](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Ed-Helms-Star-Epic-Fail.jpg)
The project reportedly follows an elite Special Forces team that packs equal parts firepower and dysfunction. As if that wasn’t enough, the team is led by an elite soldier codenamed “The Walrus.”
In addition to starring, likely as The Walrus, Helms will produce the comedy through his and Michael Falbo’s Pacific Electric Picture Co. banner. The concept might sound a little goofy, and the title leaves a lot to be desired, but we could see it hitting similar notes to MacGruber.
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Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx are reportedly in talks to star in the film Black Phantom.
![Jamie Foxx Kevin Hart Black Phantom](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Jamie-Foxx-Kevin-Hart-Black-Phantom.jpg)
The project is slowly coming together, but at this point details are hard to come by. According to THR, the film centers on a double-crossed hit man who enlists the help of another hit man called the “Black Phantom.”
Ride Along director Tim Story is also in talks to helm the flick, which is based off a script by Dave Lease and Megan Hinds. If the duo of Hart and Foxx sign on, Black Phantom has the potential of pulling in big box office receipts.
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While Sony Animation is already moving forward on Hotel Transylvania 2, the studio has gone back to the drawing board on a third Smurfs film.
![Hotel Transylvania 2 Update](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Hotel-Transylvania-2-Update.jpg)
Sony has tapped the film’s original director, Genndy Tartakovsky, to helm to the sequel. The first film was a big success at the box office, and has already nabbed a September 25, 2015 release date. As if that wasn’t enough, Tartakovsky is also deep into production on his Popeye film and is prepping another animated project tentatively titled Can You Imagine?
But, while Hotel Transylvania 2 moves forward, Smurfs 3 has taken two steps back. Sony has decided to abandon any current plans with the sequel, and is now repositioning the next film as an origin story that’s entirely CGI-animated. They have hired Gnomeo and Juliet‘s Kelly Asbury to direct.
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Disney has hired Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) to direct their forthcoming new adaptation of Something Wicked This Way Comes.
![Seth Grahame Smith Direct Something Wicked This Way Comes](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Seth-Grahame-Smith-Direct-Something-Wicked-This-Way-Comes.jpg)
The film will once again adapt the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name about a roving carnival owner who grants wishes in exchange for people’s souls. Some might remember the adaptation that Disney produced back in 1983, which featured Jonathan Pryce as the appropriately mysterious Mr. Dark and was based off a script by the late Bradbury.
This will be the first directing gig for Grahame-Smith, who is known mostly for his script work at this point. He will work on a treatment for the film, before passing it off to another screenwriter.
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Yes, there’s going to be a Taken 3, and yes each of the three film’s principal cast members is now set to return.
![Famke Janssen Maggie Grace Return Taken 3](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Famke-Janssen-Maggie-Grace-Return-Taken-3.jpg)
While Liam Neeson’s deal was done about 9 months ago, his co-stars Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen have now officially boarded the Taken 3 train. How exactly the two characters will factor into the story – i.e. whether they will be “taken again” – is unknown at this point.
The fact of that matter is as long as these Taken films continue to make money then Fox is going to keep making them. And so far they have made a ton of money.
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Guy Pearce is in negotiations to join Johnny Depp’s upcoming film Black Mass as Whitey Bulger’s brother.
![Guy Pearce in Talks Black Mass](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Guy-Pearce-in-Talks-Black-Mass.jpg)
Even before news of Pearce’s deal broke, Black Mass was shaping up to be a big awards show contender for Warner Bros. In addition to Depp (as Bulger), the project boasts Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper and Joel Edgerton as Depp’s costar.
For those that might not be familiar with the story, Whitey Bulger was an infamous Boston mob boss who turned FBI informant in an effort to squash his competition. However, when word reached the feds that Bulger was still up to no good he went on the run.