The parties (at each end so of the CitiWalk) will include big-time fireworks explosions and a slew of local DJs spinning discs (what are those?).

Most interesting element is, bowing to NYC’s midnight ball-drop in Times Square, CitiWalk will start the bash at 9 p.m. complete with
outdoor big screens.

And they say they’re not the second city.

More info below:

continued…

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The film would mark one of the earlier DreamWorks/Universal efforts in the new deal between the two studios. DreamWorks will secure the remake rights and Universal will distribute.

In the 2003 Korean original, a man gets kidnapped and held in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. Suddenly, he’s released and given money, a cell phone and clothes and is set on a path to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge.

Spielberg had been looking for an opportunity to make a film with Smith, who would play the kidnapped man if all the pieces fall into place. Spielberg is looking for a writer to begin the development process.

The film was originally set at U and then found its way to Mandate.

Spielberg is next expected to direct “Tintin.”

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A tipster sent us this e-mail from the Capri Theatre (in Alabama) that sounds a lot more dire than anything else we’ve been hearing. According to the e-mail the classic movie theater received this notice from Universal:

“It is with great sadness that I must inform you that yesterdays fire destroyed nearly 100% of the archive prints kept here on the lot. Due to this we will be unable to honor any film bookings of prints that were set to ship from here. Over the next few weeks and months we will be able to try and piece together what material we do have and if any prints exist elsewhere. For the time being please check your rental confirmations and look under shipping instructions. If the print was set to ship from the studio then you date is now canceled. If the shipping instructions say ship from Deluxe then those dates are still good.”

The e-mail goes on to say:

The good news is that the elements survive. The bad news is that most likely, only the “big” titles will ever be reprinted in 35mm. Many Universal titles will never be seen in 35mm publicly again.

Martin McCaffery
Director
Capri Theatre

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NBC Moving to Uni’s Headquarters
NBC will soon consummate its marriage with Universal by sharing the same address. Variety is reporting that after 50 years in Burbank, NBC will sell a large portion of its 34-acre property and move across the street from Universal Studios. On the move will be NBC’s West Coast news operations and local stations KNBC and KVEA in a new complex in 2011, the trade paper says. More news about the move here.

THR on Fire
THR’s Kirk Honeycutt takes a closer look at Susanne Bier’s Things We Lost in the Fire starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro. In his review he calls the pic “an unstable mix of a tearjerker, junkie-recovery story and odd-couple pairing.” Honeycutt was also turned on by the “refreshing change” that Bier brought to the project by casting a racially mixed cast in parts that were “undoubtedly” written as white.

- CHRIS GARDNER

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Salon’s Rebecca Traister sits in on Elle’s Women in Hollywood round table discussion on the state of show biz, why there aren’t more women directors, and so on. The group wonders why women don’t go to opening weekends, forgetting that people watch movies lots of other ways than at the multiplex, not than any of them ever see films with the public. While distinguished and credible, the ten are sort of randomly chosen. At the table are:

Moderator/producer Lynda Obst (called one of Tinseltown’s great brains, which is a frightening thought)
Claims Kate Hudson has same power as Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon in getting girly movies green-lit. Because the audience is clamoring for more.

Writer/director Nora Ephron
Thinks Transformers had a great emotional theme, sucks up to Spielberg. Claims to meet only timid girls at film schools. Ever wonder if she still takes calls from Meg Ryan?

Writer/producer Laura Ziskin
Discussing the lack of female directors, drops a bomb,

Our children watched their mothers and said, “Oh, no thank you. I don’t want my life to be like that.”

Writer/director Callie Khouri
Claims she wanted to make a NASCAR movie. So she directed Ya-Ya Sisterhood instead? Just made indie movie with Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes and wonders why no studio wanted it. Then complains about the lack of wish fulfillment in Judd Apatow movies.

Writer/director Patty Jenkins
Liked Spiderman. Admits to concentrating on personal life after making Monster.

Producer Cathy Konrad
Has small child, married to business partner Jim Mangold, admits to scaling back work for family.

Writer/director/producer Kimberly Piece
Loves blowing things up, just made second film.

Writer/producer Andrea Berloff
Has little kid, wonders why more women aren’t in film biz. But she’s fairly new to the business, as World Trade Center was her first produced script.

Writer/producer Margaret Nagle
Breaks away from approved party line by believing babe/nerd hookup in Knocked Up.

Universal president of production Donna Langley (called “that rarest of Hollywood breeds, a female studio head”, as Amy Pascal, wasn’t in the room.)
Points out that despite Jodie Foster’s tiny cameo, lots of women went to see Inside Man starring Denzel Washington. See Queen Latifah, wish fulfillment above.

The discussion was held in August, so Jeff Robinov’s foot hadn’t entered his mouth yet.

These women don’t pay attention to the few women working as TV directors and that reality TV could be a training ground for women (who are usually credited as field producers). Michael Apted started in documentary, after all.

But there’s a big snob factor in features, and never underestimate the insularity of Hollywood. Directors who came from TV, like Dennie Gordon, Betty Thomas, and Mimi Leder, and those who go back and forth, like Nicole Holofcener tend to not get called for big tentpole pictures.

Nikki Finke picks out some high points, but think how lively the discussion could have been, had she sat at the table.

Elle hosts the 14th annual Women in Hollywood Tribute at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on Oct. 15, when it will honor actresses Lauren Bacall, Scarlett Johansson, Diane Lane, Kate Bosworth, Jennifer Connelly, Amy Adams and director Julie Taymor.

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‘Brothers’ Love Triangle Set
Natalie Portman will join Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brothers for director Jim Sheridan, Variety reports. It’s a love triangle based on the 2004 Danish pic by Susanne Bier starring Connie Nielsen.

Diesel, Walker Back in Drivers’ Seats
Universal is back on track with its Fast and the Furious installment with a reteaming of the first pic’s original stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker back on board to star in a fourth film. You may remember that the pic helped boost their respective careers and in turn ditched they franchise. They’re back now but obviously THR has already forgotten who Diesel is: on the trade paper’s site, a pic of Chris Daughtry is identified as Diesel. Guess it was the bald head that got the editors confused.

- CHRIS GARDNER

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Jennifer Garner is headed to the Great White Way, reports Variety. The “Alias” actress has signed on to star opposite soon-to-be big-nosed Kevin Kline in a revival of “Cyrano de Bergerac.” The role will be Garner’s first foray to the Broadway stage. Well, kind of. She served as an uderstudy in the 1995 revival of “A Month in the Country.” But film auds have no need to fret: she’ll be back on the big-screen soon in Uni’s “The Kingdom” and Fox Searchlight’s “Juno.”

Bidding wars are few and far between these days in Hollywood. However, a hot one has recently gone down with Universal cashing its way to the top of the crop to acquire “Lone Survivor.” The story centers on the life of Marcus Luttrell, a Navy Seal who led a team into Afghanistan in search of a major Taliban leader. THR dishes the details on the new deal, which include Peter Berg on board to direct.

Speaking of new projects, THR has also the scoop on another redo, this time about the sci-fi thriller “Logan’s Run.” The long-in-development Warner Bros. project will be directed by commercial helmer Josesph Kosinski and THR’s Borys Kit gives all the back-story in today’s report.

Variety also has a couple song and dance stories to fill the paper today. On the heels of news that “Hairspray” has become only the third recent musical to cross $100 million at the domestic box office, Michael Fleming reports that Rob Marshall and Harvey Weinstein are prepping a “Chicago” follow-up with “Nine.” Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Javier Bardem are on board. Get the rest of the musically-charged deets here.

- CHRIS GARDNER

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Suing Judd Apatow and Universal has become a cottage industry since Rebecca Eckler made a plucky Canadian stand against mammoth American corporate greed.

Melissa Summers at Suburban Bliss weighs her options.

Patricia Pearson, who wrote Playing House, finds way too many similarities between her book and Knocked Up.

PH: an amiable, underemployed, pot-smoking expatriate Canadian living in the U.S. knocks up an ambitious magazine editor, just as her star is rising. She realizes that she is pregnant after abruptly vomiting in public.

KU: ambitious journalist on the rise has sex with an amiable, underemployed, pot-smoking expatriate Canadian living in the U.S.; realizes she is pregnant when she vomits in public.

Nine Gram Brain jumps on board when she realizes that the movie’s Alison stole her line:”Is my ass fat?”

PhD candidate Mary sums it up as a publicity ploy.

A Toronto blogger thinks Rebecca Eckler rocks.

Weirdly, Ecklers’s lawyer, Gary Gorham, works for a firm where no one has a head. (Despite the South Bundy address, the office isn’t close to Nicole Simpson’s condo.)

Earlier:
Knocked Up Ripped Off?

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Russell Crowe will star as the not-as-bad-as-we’ve-been-led-to-believe Sheriff of Nottingham, based on a spec script from Ethan Reiff and Cyris Voris of Sleeper Cell. Imagine’s Brian Glazer will produce for Universal.

Jennifer Garner will star in a remake of the perfect-the-way-it-is-now, so-why-mess-it-up? 1945 film Christmas in Connecticut. Barbara Stanwyck was wonderful as the undomesticated magazine columnist forced to entertain a war hero at Christmas. No writer has been assigned and FBLA hopes this project dies a well-deserved death. Remakes suck.

Speaking of remakes, Warner Bros. bought a Wonder Woman spec script, even though one they already have one from Joss Whedon. Joel Silver is producing the big-screen version, with Wheldon directing, and by buying the spec from new boys Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland, a future legal problem is side-stepped.

Jordana Brewster will play Mrs. Smith for ABC in the pilot based on the Jolie-Pitt movie, to be directed by Doug Linman. Brewster was also courted by NBC for the Bionic Woman series. Is Brewster the new Linda Carter or the more accessible Angelina Jolie? Aren’t they all lesbian fantasy objects?

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