Film News Roundup: Dave Bautista in Talks for ‘Fantasy Island’
By Dave McNary
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – In today’s film news roundup, Dave Bautista is in talks for “Fantasy Island,” “Glam Masters” exec producer Diana Madison gets her first movie role and Kino Lorber buys 10 Hungarian classics.
CASTINGS
“Guardians of the Galaxy” actor is in negotiations to star in Blumhouse and Sony’s upcoming “” movie.
Ricardo Montalban starred in the television series “Fantasy Island” as the white-suited Mr. Roarke who oversaw a mysterious island where people could live out their fantasies — for a price. The series, which ran for seven seasons from 1977 to 1984, often dealt with dark themes and the supernatural. If the deal goes through, Bautista would play a former guest who is still on the island against his will.
The TV show became best known for Mr. Roarke’s sidekick Tattoo (played by Hervé Villechaize), who would ring a bell in a bell tower and shout “Ze plane! Ze plane!” to announce the arrival of a new set of guests at the start of each episode.
Sony and Blumhouse are co-financing the movie, with production starting on Jan. 14. “Truth or Dare” filmmaker Jeff Wadlow is directing and penning the script with his “Truth or Dare” co-writers, Chris Roach and Jillian Jacobs. Jason Blum is producing, while Wadlow will executive produce.
Bautista played Drax the Destroyer in Marvel-Disney’s two Guardians of the Galaxy films and starred in “Blade Runner 2049” as Sapper Morton. He will be seen next year in the untitled Avengers movie opening on May 3 along with Fox’s action-comedy “Stuber.” The news was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
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Diana Madison, creator and executive producer of “Glam Masters” on Lifetime as well as co-creator of Obsev Studios, has been cast in the mob drama “Apalachin.”
2B Productions is the production company with Danny A. Abeckaser directing. The film is in production in upstate New York, and will revisit the 1957 summit of more than 100 crime figures in the small town of Apalachin, N.Y. The meeting was discovered and broken up by a small town cop named Ed Croswell, played by David Arquette.
Madison, who will make her feature film debut, has been cast as a mob wife and close friend of Jamie Lynn Sigler’s character.
ACQUISITION
Kino Lorber has announced that it has acquired North American rights for ten newly restored classics from the Hungarian National Film Fund- Film Archive.
The titles includes “Mephisto,” directed by István Szabó, which won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 1981 Academy Awards; “Colonel Redl,” directed by Szabó and a 1986 Academy Award nominee; Szabo’s “Confidence,” winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 1980 Berlin International Film Festival and 1981 Academy Award nominee.
The others are “My 20th Century, directed by Ildikó Enyedi; and six films by Miklós Jancsó — “The Red and White,” “The Confrontation,” “Elektra, My Love,” “The Round-Up,” “Winter Wind” and “Red Psalm,”which won the Best Director award at 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
