With The Hunger Games having such a strong opening last weekend and the big auction for Fifty Shades of Grey, Sony Pictures is looking for the next big trilogy and is currently the frontrunner to partner with Constantin films on the live action adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments.

The first part of the series, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, is set in modern day New York City and centers around Clary, a seemingly ordinary teenager, who discovers she is the descendant of a line of mystical warriors known as Shadowhunters. These Shadowhunters are a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from evil. Clary joins forces with a group of Shadowhunters who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, which is filled with various deadly creatures including demons, warlocks, vampires, and werewolves.

Sony Pictures already has multiple franchises under its belt with the The Da Vinci Code and James Bond. They are also expected to go forward with the second installment in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo franchise. Even with these heavy hitters, the company is looking to fortify its business with a huge trilogy. The studio was one of the most aggressive bidders for screen rights to the E.L. James trilogy Fifty Shades Of Grey.

It looks like CBS’ drama pilot Quean is over before it began. According to inside sources at Warner Bros TV, which produces the project with Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures, the decision has been made to pull the plug upon the advice of an outside legal firm.

Quean was supposed to be a crime procedural which centers on an edgy and independent hacker girl who teams up with a police detective to solve crimes. The pilot secured Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan) as director, was written by The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken, and was moving to the casting stage when Warner Bros TV received a letter from Sony Pictures threatening a lawsuit over alleged similarities to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

As with writers, Directors are pretty high on our list of important pieces of the film and TV making puzzle. If writers are the initial creative force that takes an idea from nothing and makes it into something, directors are the force that shapes that something into a clear vision and fulfills its potential for greatness. Or, they get it as close as it’s ever going to get.

With that in mind, the Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2011.

“The directors nominated this year for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film Award have each demonstrated an inspired command of the medium. The fact that their prodigious talents have been recognized by their peers is the highest honor a director can achieve,” said Hackford. “I offer my most sincere congratulations to each of the nominees.”

The winner will be named at the 64th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.

The nominees are (in alphabetical order):

WOODY ALLEN
Midnight in Paris
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Mr. Allen’s Directorial Team:
Unit Production Managers: Matthieu Rubin, Helen Robin
First Assistant Director: Gil Kenny
Second Assistant Director: Delphine Bertrand

Last year Trent Reznor lead a resurgence of main stream musicians turning to film scores. The 80’s saw a lot of this trend, most notably Danny Elfman, of Oingo Boingo fame and Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream. The best two scores from 2010 came from popular musicians in Reznor’s The Social Network and Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy. 2011 might be shaping up the same with one notable score by The Chemical Bros. already released.

Reznor is back again, with compatriot Atticus Ross, for another David Fincher score. This time writing the music for a film that seems much more up the ally of the Nine Inch Nails artist. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a dark, thrilling murder mystery that seems a [perfect fit for they style of music Ross and Reznor have made previously.

Much like The Social Network, this score is deceptively complex, with subtle tracks that wash over your mind like the blankets of snow that define the movie. The music is not overly orchestral, but that works to the advantage of the film, helping cement a ton of tension and keeping everything feeling a bit off.

Even though this website could technically be called a “Blog” and those of us who contribute to it are known as “Bloggers,” we like to think of ourselves as writers. So, when other writers get recognized, as they have by the Writer’s Guild of America’s nominations for it’s awards today, we take notice.

We also take notice when movies that seem an odd choice for awards get nominated anyway. We will leave it to you, good readers, to decide which of the following nominees for Writers Guild awards seems a bit out of place.

Winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 19, 2012, during simultaneous ceremonies in Hollywood and New York. Check out all the nominees (and more) from the official press release:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Studios

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

Today, Sony released the second trailer for David Fincher’s Americanization of the Stieg Larsson novel and Swedish movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Yes, I know, we don’t usually like remakes around here, especially of perfectly good movies that only came out a coupler years ago.

Let Me In I’m talking to you. However, when we take into consideration the people involved in this production, we have to give it a chance.

After all, the film is directed by David Fincher, written by Steve Zallian and has music by Trent Reznor. Plus, it stars Daniel Craig and the talented Rooney Mara who was terrific in Fincher’s The Social Network.

And then we’ve got this new trailer. If you have any doubts this movie is going to be very good indeed, this new trailer should put those to rest.

Check out the trailer after the break. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo arrives in theaters on December 21.

At the beginning of this year, MGM filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy which meant two things for film fans everywhere: there was a distinct possibility that we wouldn’t see The Hobbit or the 23rd film in the James Bond franchise for the unforeseeable future.

As we all know, Jackson is down under working on The Hobbit as we speak, and it looks like Bond may have just gotten saved, as both MGM and Sony have come to a deal and will work together to get the film made by 2012. From THR:

Sony Pictures, which released the last two James Bond movies, has struck a deal with MGM to co-finance and distribute worldwide the next Bond, still known only as Bond 23.

With Bond 23 set for release on Nov. 9, 2012, Sony and MGM also plan to join forces for the next film in the ongoing series, Bond 24, under a similar arrangement.

As part of the deal, announced Wednesday by MGM’s Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum and Sony’s Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal, MGM and Sony are also exploring co-financing deals on future movies produced by each of the studios during the next five years.

Along with Bond 23 and 24, Sony Pictures and MGM are locked in to release The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake and are in talks about working together on the Total Recall remake.

After a parade of Hollywood A-list actresses openly campaigned for the highly sought after role of Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo book series, a relative unknown ended up being cast. Sony is reporting that actress Rooney Mara has been chosen to portray the prickly, troubled character.

Rooney Mara has worked with director David Fincher before, on the upcoming fall release The Social Network. She appeared in Youth in Revolt and played Nancy in the recent remake of  Nightmare on Elm Street.

Acting runs in the family, sister Kate Mara has appeared in Brokeback Mountain, 24, Entourage, and Iron Man 2. This is a role with huge potential.  The movie will most certainly lead to sequels, as there are three books in the  wildly popular “Girl” series written by Stieg Larsson.  To date, the trilogy of books has sold over 40 Million copies worldwide.

The (anti) herione of the series is a deeply troubled, but brilliant, computer hacker boasting a plethora of tattoos, shorn locks and a seriously hard edge. Mara looks a little too soft and lovely for the role, but I am sure they can toughen her up a bit.

Fincher must be convinced, because everyone has auditioned for the role, including Scarlett Johansson, Carey Mulligan, Ellen Page, and Natalie Portman. This has been referred to as the biggest casting quest since the search for Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. Mara will play opposite Daniel Craig in the film which expects to shoot later this year for a 2011 release.