The Morning Roundup: Lots of Adaptations, Lawsuits too, and Awards!

Written by: Mike Leader, Special to CC2K

This morning we've got Johnny Depp news, Mark Romanek news, Swashbuckling news and Rock Chick biopic news. Lots of adaptation news, too. Who'd have guessed? It's the morning roundup!

– Johnny Depp's production company Infinitum Nihil, has bought the rights to In the Hand of Dante, a novel written by Nick Tosches. Depp will produce, and perhaps star in this fact/fiction mash-up about Dante Aligheri writing his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, and what happens to the manuscript centuries later. Read more about it at Empire.

– Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo, loads of music videos) has been announced as the director for the big screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The novel is a graceful, subtle twist on nostalgia and memory, as narrator Kathy recounts her seemingly-idyllic childhood at Hailsham School. For me, this book is firmly on the 'please don't adapt, it won't work' pile. However, the script was written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine). Maybe he can surprise us all.

– Pirates of the Caribbean ruled, right? Remember how it made all those 10 year olds go out and discover Errol Flynn and his seminal swashbucklers from the 1930s? No? Well, I suppose they won't complain as Hollywood foists on them a remake of Captain Blood. Phillip Noyce (Patroit Games, The Bone Collector) will direct, John Brownlow (Sylvia) will write.

– Currently entertaining teen vampire soap opera lovers the world over, Twilight star Kristen Stewart has signed on to appear as fem-rocker Joan Jett in the The Runaways, a biopic about the trailblazing 1970s all-girl rock band.

– Contrary to what was reported yesterday by the whole internet, it seems that George Miller IS still attached to the Justice League movie. If it ever happens.

– Did you hear the one about the Polish film director who made some of the best Hollywood films of the 1960s and 1970s, before getting charged with sex crimes and taking up exile in Europe? Well, Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Macbeth, The Pianist) has started the process of trying to get his 30 year old charge of unlawful sex dismissed.

– Earlier this year, Dr. Pepper (the company, not the practitioner) released a statement, saying that it would provide a can of their weird fruity beverage to any American citizen if Guns 'n Roses released their long-delayed album Chinese Democracy before 2008 was out. Well, they did. And now the Pepper people are having trouble keeping up with the requests, so Axl Rose is threatening with legal action. Read more about this insanity here.

– The nominations for this year's Annie Awards have been announced. It's been a relatively interesting year for animation, with the appearance of edgy Israeli documentary Waltz With Bashir nestling up to the usual Pixar (Wall-E) and Dreamworks (Kung-Fu Panda) output for Best Animated Feature. Read the full lineup here.

– Jo Blo has some leaked pics from the upcoming Street Fighter spin-off feature Chun Li Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li (boring title, huh?). Here's one, check the rest here.

– And to finish with, here's the new trailer for the Steven Soderbergh biopic/epic Che.