New cast members for Evil Dead remake

The Evil Dead, the upcoming update of Sam Raimi's seminal horror, is adding a couple of new names to the cast, with the group of cabin-goers soon to be complete.First up is Melrose Place actress Jessica Lucas, who will play the best friend of Jane Levy's character, a recovering drug addict looking to go cold turkey. Handily, she's nurse, which should come in helpful when the gang start ripping each other's throats out.Also in talks to join the cast is Elizabeth Blackmore, a relative newcomer who will play the fiancé of Shiloh Fernandez's character. She doesn't know the rest of the group so well, which in our book, makes her odds on to be the first to turn deadite.Traditionally, it's always a female character who's the first to become possessed, although don't rule out the final member of the group, Eric, played by Beginners star Lou Taylor Pucci.Co-scripted by Diablo Cody, Rodo Sayagues and director Fede Alvarez, with input from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, The Evil Dead will open in the US on 12 April 2013, with a UK release date yet to be confirmed.

Human Centipede 3 Is Underway

First cast announced for Final SequenceTom Six always threatened a trilogy, and the maverick director has now been proved as good as his word. Human Centipede: Final Sequence is crawling its way to the studio floor, and has just announced its first cast members in Centipede veterans Dieter Laser (mad surgeon Dr Joseph Heiter) and Laurence R. Harvey (sandpaper sadsack Martin). Six himself will also play a supporting role.In case you missed all the drama last summer, Final Sequence has been made possible in no small part by the attention given to Full Sequence. Some sources - not least the filmmakers - are still claiming that it was banned by the BBFC. Not quite the case: it was denied a certifcate, which isn't quite the same thing. But whatever the fine detail, the upshot was media interest and immediate notoriety far beyond the dreams of any executive planning an advertising campaign. Not bad for a franchise whose centrail coneit is stitching people together ass-to-mouth. Full Sequence was finally granted an 18 certificate in October, after 32 cuts were agreed.Six, talking to Empire at Big Screen, called the hooplah "crazy", claimed that everyone was missing the film's black humour, and said he was disappointed at the reaction from the country that gave the world Monty Python. But he was happy to play up to the controversy, telling us that, when he got around to it, Final Sequence would "upset a lot of people" and "make Full Sequence look like a Disney film".He also laid out his plan for the trilogy, to whit: "In the end the three films can be actually attached to each other, like the centipede: one big film of four and a half hours. That's my goal. Each film is very different from the previous one. 2 is totally different to 1, and 3 will be totally different from both the others. I'm not telling you how. You have to find out. In space? I won't say!" We're going to go out on a limb and suggest that Final Sequence won't be in space. But we will suggest that Laser and Harvey will very likely be playing versions of themselves, rather than their characters from the previous films, and that Final Sequence will have some sort of meta relationship with its predecessors, in the same way that Full Sequence involved a character who was obesessed with the first film. Don't be suprised if Six arrives onscreen playing a character called "Tom Six"...Shooting starts in May for a release in 2013. Producer Ilona Six promises "100% political incorrectness". We'll keep you posted. We know you love it really.

Terence Davies adapting 'Sorrows'

Davies 'Mother of Sorrows'British auteur Terence Davies is developing a feature based on "Mother of Sorrows," the prize-winning 2005 debut novel by American Richard McCann.Davies is working on the project with Leopardrama, the fiction arm of London and NY-based production group Argonon. They have development funding from the EU's Media program."Mother of Sorrows" consists of 10 interwoven stories about two teenage brothers dealing with the death of their father and the influence of their strong, complex mother. The novel won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award and was nominated for the Stonewall Book Award for gay fiction."This is an important story because it touches the humanity in all of us," Davies said. "I love the delicacy of the book and its gentle odyssey from post-WWII optimism for the American Utopia to a deeper understanding of both maternal and filial love and an acceptance of mortality by surrendering to the light."Davies most recently directed 1950s-set melodrama "The Deep Blue Sea," starring Rachel Weisz, and is next set to shoot his long-awaited adaptation of classic Scottish novel "Sunset Song," written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon in 1932.His last film shot in the U.S. was "The Neon Bible" in 1995, though he also adapted Edith Wharton's novel "The House of Mirth" in 2000, using Glasgow for NY.Leopardrama, headed by Joey Attawia, Jez Swimer and David Chikwe, co-produced low-budget Brit thriller "The Holding" last year and made "An Englishman in NY," starring John Hurt, in 2009.Parent company Argonon has also announced that its 3D film of Matthew Bourne's production of the ballet "Swan Lake," which is due in U.K. cinemas this year, has been picked up by specialist arts distrib More2Screen for release in more than 600 theaters worldwide. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Captain Phillips To Start Shooting

Craig Ackroyd on Paul Greengrass' dramaWith Bourne,United states . 93 and Eco-friendly Focus his locker, PaulGreengrass can be a filmmaker who's as comfortable as anybody moving the political difficulties in the publish-9/11 landscape. He's stretching that to 'seascape' too, along with his new thriller, Captain Phillips, set almost entirely inside the Indian Ocean. Following a few false starts, cameras are finally poised to start getting around the director's dramatisation in the 2008 Maersk Alabama hijacking. The film stars Tom Hanks since the ship's American skipper, Capt. Richard Phillips, and involves his, and also the crew's terrifying encounter with many different gun-transporting Somali pirates. Not necessarily time old-ho-ho'ing kind of pirates. The nasty ones.The project reunites Greengrass along with his Eco-friendly Zone and United states . 93 cinematographer Craig Ackroyd, whose handheld camerawork should increase the risk for claustrophobic ship in the nightmarish rabbit warren. The DoP told Empire the second movie will give you the closest reason behind reference to the their new movie: "The building blocks of Captain Phillips is United states . 93. We don't want the story being as hectic as that film, but it is much like limited and high and dark."Captain Phillips hunkers lower inside the watertanks at Malta's Mediterranean Film Art galleries over the following day or two, before visiting the other agents due to its beach moments. Much more about the expansion after we get it.

Good timing for WGA prexy

Keyser Christopher Keyser has already faced one big disappointment in his first five months of his tenure as the 30th president of the Writers Guild of America West -- last month's stalling of Hollywood anti-piracy legislation on Capitol Hill."Piracy's a very real issue for our members because it takes money right out of our pockets," he notes. "Unfortunately, the industry lost control of what had been a very populist message when it became more about censorship."It's unusual for the guild to find itself on the opposing side of a censorship debate, but because piracy is such a bread-and-butter issue to members, Keyser said it's clear the industry will have to regroup but continue the fight against copyright-infringing activity.As the guild prepares to honor some of its leading lights at Sunday's Writers Guild Awards, Keyser says he's acutely aware of how tough economic times have taken a toll on members who aren't marquee names."It's a tough time for all middle-class people," he says. "The real issue for us is how to get through what continues to be a very difficult economic period."For that reason, he came out in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement early in his tenure -- during the first week of October -- and pledged that the WGA West would continue to be vocal on issues that impact writers and reach out directly to politicians via its political action committee.He's also promised that the guild leadership will evaluate the effectiveness of contract enforcement in such areas as late pay, free rewrites and "sweepstakes" pitching without pay. Keyser says the board's already laying the groundwork for negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on a successor deal to the current master contract, which expires in May 2014. He was part of the board during the last negotiations cycle when the guild quietly reached a deal in early 2011 -- a sharp contrast to the previous round of negotiations, which featured a 100-day strike in 2007-08.WGA East president Michael Winship, who's in his third term, asserts that the outreach to members is well under way. "When you're getting ready for a negotiating cycle, you need to know about your constituents' concerns -- such as parity in cable with the broadcast networks and late pay," Winship says. Keyser's not venturing any kind of prediction as to how the negotiations might go when they start, noting that the key is to set bargaining priorities as a result of "consistent communication" with the membership.He's pleased that the board approved giving the late blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo screenplay credit for the 1953 film "Roman Holiday" in late December. And he reiterates that the org isn't going to change its policy of limiting eligibility for the WGA screen awards to films produced under guild jurisdiction -- even in the face of complaints by such members as Christopher Nolan who urged, during his acceptance speech for the WGA award for writing "Inception," that the guild loosen the rules."The WGA is the ultimate arbiter of screenplay credit, so the awards have to reflect that," Keyser says. "It's really a part of who we are." Both Keyser and Winship remain optimistic for expanding guild jurisdiction. The WGA East has scored some successes in organizing non-fiction cable TV at Atlas, Lion, ITV and Optimem."We had a pretty good year," Winship said. "We did pretty well at the AMPTP negotiations and with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. And we signed the Onion News Network along with new deals in new media and digital -- whose writers very much want to be part of the guild."Winship, who's in his third term as president, agrees with Keyser that the leadership is focused on economic issues."Our members tell us that they're concerned about achieving cable parity with the broadcast networks and late payments. When you're starting to get ready for a contract cycle, it's crucial that you do so with a complete knowledge of our members' priorities. So we had a year of reaching out." nWGA AWARDS 2012Truth elbows out gags | Good timing for WGA prexyHonoreesKress & McDuffie | Eric Roth | Tate Taylor | Patric Verrone | Zwick & Herskovitz Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Sci-Tech Awards marked by remembrance

Saturday night's Academy Scientific and Technical Awards banquet was marked by emotional remembrances of departed friends, a passionate defense of the Academy's mission to encourage excellence, and a call for the entire movie industry to rediscover the spectacle and showmanship that makes watching movies in theaters irresistible.The evening included the presentation of Oscar statuettes to Douglas Trumbull, who received the Sawyer Award for a career that includes groundbreaking visual effects, directing, and pioneering technology; and to the team that built the ARRI laser scanner, which had received an Academy Plaque in 2001 but was "upgraded," as the Acad sometimes does when an innovation stands the test of time. Because honorees are announced in advance and their families are present, the Sci-Techs are always among the most intimate of kudofests. Saturday's presentation was more emotional than most because two men were being honored posthumously: Dr. Jurgen Noffke, honored for the ARRI Zeiss Master Prime Lenses, died last year; and John Lowry, honored for the digital image restoration process that bears his name, died suddenly 21 days before the presentation. Noffke and Lowry were remembered at the podium by the teams that shared their awards. Lowry's widow took to the stage with his fellow winners to collect his Plaque. Trumbull, in his remarks, spoke of his future plans and said sadly "I was counting on John. That's a tough one."Trumbull's plans include making a movie with his Showscan Digital process and combining high frame rates, laser projection, high-gain screens to upgrade the movie experience. "I am trying to find a way to make a movie you are in, rather than looking at," he said.He called on the industry to rethink its next steps so it makes and presents movies that demand to be seen on the bigscreen, not on mobile devices, laptops and tablets. "I think we can make movies so people will (say) 'I want to go out to the movies tonight, because it's so big, it's so grand, it's so spectacular, and there's so much showmanship that I want to go out to the movies.'" Jonathan Erland, winner of the Bonner medal for service to the Academy, talked at length about the historical mission of the Academy to encourage excellence. He recalled the founders of the Academy itself, the previous winners of the Bonner medal and the tech pioneers he'd known and worked with, many now dead, including Doug Trumbull's father, Don TrumbullErland called on the Acad to remember the how important its mission is amidst the rapid technological and business change swirling around the movie industry. "There's an ancient Chinese curse: May you life in interesting times," said Bonner. "We're past interesting. We're all the way to white-knuckle fascinating." He reminded the gathering the main Oscarcast is supposed to support the Academy's mission and rejected the idea that entire org needs a new vision. "If our Academy still stands for excellence in motion pictures, and it must," he said, "then the real task before us is to manage the trends, such that motion pictures stay relevant to the Academy's mission and the ideals we espouse, not the other way about. When all motion pictures are excellent, then we can talk about a new vision for this Academy."Erland noted that he and other founding members of the Acad's revived Science and Technology Council are soon to term out. He said he and others are in the process of setting up an institute for motion picture studies that will cooperate with other orgs, including the Acad. The Sci-Tech banquet was once notorious for its gleefully cheesy entertainment, but those days are gone. Saturday night Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performed three songs, including their Oscar-winning "Falling Slowly." With the main Oscarcast now planning to eschew song performances, that made the Sci-Techs the only Academy Award presentation this season to feature a live performance of a Best Song winner. Onstage, Hansard dedicated part of a song to the late Whitney Houston, and also saluted the late Ronnie Chasen, whom he said "was also very very good to us."Milla Jovovich was the presenter and host for the evening. She struggled at times with the jargon on her teleprompter, as all Sci-Tech presenters do, but won over the attendees with her warmth and enthusiasm. With no TV clock demanding they hustle offstage, every winner got his moment at the microphone to hail their fellow "nerds," and "geeks" and apologize to wives and children for the long hours they'd put in. More than one honoree said he hoped this would inspire his children. Andy Jantzen of Vision Research, collecting a Plaque for the Phantom high-speed camera, said to his children "The work your grandparents started in 1950 is not done. The work continues." Acad prexy Tom Sherak, at his final Sci-Tech banquet before his term ends, said he'd had time to ponder the oft-repeated idea that Academy President is the best unpaid job in the industry. He said that this Awards season, he realized why it was so: "I got to meet (Honorary Oscar winner) Richard Smith, and I got to meet Doug Trumbull." Contact David S. Cohen at david.cohen@variety.com

Grammy Honours: You won't Miss an issue with this particular Coverage!

Adele Is not it time for your Grammy Honours? Music's finest evening is going on on Sunday, and TVGuide.com and tv Guide Network might have your back before, throughout and following a show and that means you won't miss anything.Have a look finally years' Grammys fashion hits and missesIt starts Sunday with this particular Grammy Honours Red-colored-colored Carpet Countdown at 5/4c. Situated by Maria Sansone and Tim Kash, the show includes previews, predictions and early arrivals. At 6/5c, Chris Harrison will host Grammy Honours Red-colored-colored Carpet, where he'll interview the industry's finest names simply because they make their way lower the red-colored-colored carpet. TVGuide.com will at the same time stream Fashion Cam coverage of stars' arrivals, and fans will have a way to go over their preferred looks via Facebook. Through the Grammys broadcast (8/7c on CBS), you'll be able to follow along after we live-tweet the whole show. Among the scheduled artists: Adele, Chris Brown, Bruce Springsteen as well as the E Street Band, Tony Bennett and Barbara Underwood.2011 Grammys: Best performancesIt will all cap off Monday at 8/7c with this particular Grammy Honours Fashion Wrap. Ali Landry and her team of experts, including Tabatha Coffey, will dissect the night's best and worst styles and, clearly, hair.