Channing Tatum Project Update: ‘Battle in Seattle’, ‘Public Enemies’, ‘G.I. Joe’ and More…

There’s been a lot of different things going on with Channing Tatum’s movies lately, so I thought that I would give fans a quick update.

Battle in Seattle

Channing’s upcoming drama ‘Battle In Seattle‘, where he plays a riot cop by the name of Johnson, was the talk of the Democratic National Convention yesterday when it was shown at the Impact Film Festival. The screening was held at at the Starz Film Room and was only open to the delegates at the Denver, Colorado-based political convention. Attendees were also able to take part in a Q&A with director Stuart Townsend and actress Charlize Theron after the movie.

Star-studded premieres are planned for BIS in mid- to late September in L.A., New York., and Sacramento. The movie will then premiere in the following growing list of cites on the dates listed below.

• September 19, 2008 - New York, San Rafael, San Fransisco, Minneapolis, and Seattle
• September 24, 2008 - Sacramento
• September 26, 2008 - Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.
• October 3, 2008- Plano, Philidephia, and Santa Barbara

Fans can CLICK HERE to buy tickets. If the movie is not currently scheduled to show in your city, make sure to keep demanding it. Rumor has it that if a city gets 200 demands, then the producers at Redwood Palms Pictures will try to bring the film to your city too.

The ‘Battle In Seattle‘ marketing team has been in high gear for a while and is currently adding fans to their update list. Its easy to join. All you have to do is e-mail their private account at youcontroltheworld@yahoo.com and put “Battle In Seattle” in the subject line. You don’t need to put any message in the body of the e-mail. Once they get your e-mail they will keep you up to date on all of ‘Battle In Seattle’s progress.

Based on one of the most incendiary political uprisings in a generation, ‘Battle In Seattle‘ takes an in-depth look at the five days that rocked the world in 1999 as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in protest on the World Trade Organization. What began as a peaceful protest intended to stop the WTO talks quickly escalated into a full-scale riot and eventual State of Emergency that squared off the protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the National Guard.

Fans can CLICK HERE to download the free trailer from ITunes.

Public Enemies

A journalist who played as as extra in Channing Tatum’s 2009 drama ‘Public Enemies‘, where Chan plays the doomed 1930’s bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd, recently gave us some new info on the release of the film.

It appears that there has been an official informational release sent to theaters from the studio to remind theater owners to reserve space next summer for the film. It confirms that the film will be released July 1, 2009. The reporter was told by inside sources that even though the film is still in the midst of editing, there will be enough cleaned up and pieced together footage for theater preview trailers to be ready for the Christmas holiday movie releases.

An adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43,” Channing’s film centers on the government’s attempt to stop John Dillinger and his gang. The star-studded cast also includes Johnny Depp who plays Dillinger and Christian Bale portrays the famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis.

G. I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

Channing Tatum will play the lead role of Duke Hauser in what MTV has declared to be one of the most anticipated movies for summer of 2009, and I know that fans are definitely looking forward to seeing Chan flex his super hero chops in the big-budget, action film ‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra‘.

They wrapped filming in on the movie in the Czech Republic in June and not too long after one of the crew members posted his impressions of Channing one of the IMDB messages boards. If you want to get an idea of what it’s like to work with Channing on set, read below…

“So I did a little work on GI Joe, and I have to say it was really refreshing just how cool and unassuming Channing was. When you work with actors often, you come to expect a certain degree of self-absorption. They’re just a different breed in general–partially because they live in very different realities than the rest of the world. Channing was ALWAYS cool. He seemed like someone who knew he was in a fortunate position. He never dragged his feet coming to set, he insisted on taking care of himself, and usually had a smile on his face. Ray Park was the same way … absolutely gifted martial artist, and completely humble. For the sake of these two guys, I hope the movie does really well, as we need more personalities like theirs in the A-list.”

‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra‘ revolves around a European-based military unit known as Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity (G.I.J.O.E.), which is a hi-tech, international force of special operatives that takes on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer.’G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra‘ is currently scheduled to hit US theaters on August 7th, 2009.

Pinkville

Channing was scheduled to start filming Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone’s ‘Pinkville‘ last November until the production was derailed by the writer’s strike. I’m now hearing from multiple sources that the film may be back on sooner rather than later. Right now, this is just rumor, but if it turns out to be true, they will most likely have to recast some roles depending on which actors are available.

‘Pinkville‘ is a drama about the investigation of the tragic 1968 My Lai massacre that occurred during the Vietnam war. Channing was supposed to play real-life hero Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot who, upon realizing what was happening below, put a stop to the killing by placing his craft between gunmen and the few villagers who were left, and telling his two shipmates to fire on the soldiers if they shot any more people. They airlifted the survivors and reported the carnage to superiors.

What’s Next for Channing Tatum

Channing is scheduled to start filming his romantic drama ‘Dear John‘ next month in South Carolina, his movie ‘Fighting‘ will be released in January 2009, and his movie ‘Parkour‘ will start filming early next year. Fans can CLICK HERE to get a complete list of Channing’s past, current, and future films and watch their trailers.

NEWS FLASH: Channing Tatum Confirmed as Duke in 2009’s ‘G. I. Joe’

Although tons of entertainment news sites have been reporting it all day long, we now have an official announcement from the Hollywood Reporter that Channing Tatum has most definitely been cast in the iconic role of Duke, the central character, field commander and second in command in 2009’s ‘G.I. Joe‘.

Channing will join previously confirmed castmates Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Saïd Taghmaoui, Marlon Wayans, Arnold Vosloo and ‘Stop-Loss‘ castmate Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the film that was written by Stuart Beattie and Skip Woods and will be directed by Stephen Sommers.

The movie is scheduled to start filming in Los Angeles, California on February 13, 2008 and is already set to hit US theaters August 7, 2009. You can CLICK HERE to get all of the current release dates for ‘G.I. Joe around the world.

Here is the Hollywood Reporter article confirming Channing’s new role:

Tatum Will Duke It Out in ‘Joe’
By Carly Mayberry
Jan 29, 2008

Channing Tatum has joined the “G.I. Joe” team for Paramount.

Tatum will play Duke, a key leader of the G.I. Joe crew, a role originally thought to be played by Sam Worthington. Worthington, however, could not coordinate the production’s schedule with his current work on James Cameron’s “Avatar,” which has run over schedule.

Tatum, who had been cast in Oliver Stone’s My Lai massacre film “Pinkville,” found some time in his schedule with that production being put on hold due to the writers strike.

He joins Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Said Taghmaoui and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the live action film, which is set in the future and based on the popular Hasbro action figures.

Stephen Sommers is directing from the latest script penned by Stuart Beattie.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Hasbro’s Brian Goldner are producing with Sommers and Bob Ducsay. The film is scheduled for an August 7th, 2009 release.

The project is turning out to be quite the William Morris package. Tatum is repped by the agency, which also reps Sommers, Hasbro and Wayans.

Tatum, who will appear in the upcoming “Fighting” with Terrence Howard as well as the war drama “Stop Loss” starring Ryan Phillippe, has also been cast in “Public Enemies” for Universal.

Besides WMA, he is repped by Management 360 and attorney Rick Genow of Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson and Binder.

I think Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan and CTU reader Kat of Nashville says it best:

Hollywood should just get smart and cast him in everything. I will personally be at every movie he will be coming out in this year. And in all future years. Channing is an amazing talent. He was so convincing as Antonio in ‘Guides’. He blew me away in that role. I think if he was cast in movie about ‘How to Clip Your Toenails’ I’d be first in line.

Blessings Channing,
Kat, Nashville

I can’t agree with Kat more. I admittedly would not have seen G.I. Joe had Channing not been chosen for the film, because I’m notoriously a romantic comedy fan. So here’s the smart thing about hiring Channing Tatum…

Whatever kind of movie you put him in, his highly-supportive fans in every corner of the world will not only see it multiple times in the theaters, but we will also buy it on DVD and buy anything else associated with the film just to support him. With two little boys, I’ll be the first one in line to get whatever G.I. Joe action figures and accessories Hasbro creates in relationship to this movie.

I’m a true believer in the old adage that everything happens for a reason. We were all disappointed with the postponement of ‘Pinkville‘, but that event actually opened the door for Channing to be able to take this career-changing role and his role in ‘Public Enemies‘.

Who would have thought that something so good could have come out of the horrible WGA writer’s strike? Channing and his team just managed turn lemons into some pretty sweet lemonade and all of us thirsty fans are waiting with empty glasses in hand.

NEWS FLASH: Director Oliver Stone’s Take on Channing Tatum’s ‘Pinkville’

Variety is reporting that Oliver Stone (Oscar-winning director of Channing Tatum’s postponed Vietnam war drama ‘Pinkville‘) is now moving on to a new project called ‘Bush’.

It’s a movie focusing on the life and presidency of George W. Bush, and Josh Brolin is currently slated to star in the film.

So what does this new development mean for Channing Tatum’s ‘Pinkville‘?

Here’s what Stone had to say about why the project was postponed, how he felt about the cast, and what he feels about the future of the movie…

“…Stone said his NYU classmate Weiser did a lot of research as they worked for more than a year on the project before setting the script aside when Stone committed to “Pinkville.” While UA partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise said they pulled the plug on that movie because of the WGA strike, Stone seemed to support widespread speculation that the strike was an excuse to kill another war-themed movie that UA was wary of making after its first release, “Lions for Lambs,” flopped.

“On ‘Pinkville,’ I had a great script and one of the best casts on any of my films, with 40 young actors and Bruce Willis,” Stone said. “It’s a shame they lost faith in the film, and that they unemployed 500 people right before Christmas. We were three weeks from shooting.”

Stone hopes to get his script back so he can revive “Pinkville” down the line…”

Since this new film’s script is already written, it’s not affected by the ongoing writer’s strike that partially caused ‘Pinkville‘ to get postponed. If they are able to get financing quickly enough, ‘Bush’ could start production as early as April and could be in theaters for the next US election or the inauguration of the new President.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Stone is able to get his script back so he can possibly get ‘Pinkville‘ made at some point in the future.

Source: Variety.com

NEWS FLASH: Channing Tatum’s ‘Pinkville’ Still on Hold After Studio Strikes Landmark Deal with Writer’s Guild

I’ve had a lot of readers ask me about the status of Channing Tatum’s Oliver Stone directed Vietnam war drama ‘Pinkville‘ where he is set to play the real-life, heroic helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson.

In case you don’t already know, Channing was supposed to start filming ‘Pinkville‘ this past December in Chiang Mai, Thailand with Woody Harrelson and Bruce Willis, but the film was put in turnaround (aka put on hold) by United Artists (UA), the studio funding the film, because of the ongoing writer’s strike.

They said the script still needed adjustments and that guild members Oliver Stone (director/producer) and Mikko Alanne (screenplay writer) chose not to cross the picket line to make the required changes to the script. When the film was postponed in November, unnamed sources were also saying that the movie was put on hold because Bruce Willis signed on to another project.

Today the announcement was made that United Artists has penned a deal with the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) that allows guild members to now work on UA projects. This extremely important development means that projects like ‘Pinkville‘ could get the green light again, but sadly, insiders are saying that is not in the cards for the film. With the strike-induced exit of Bruce Willis in the title role and possibly other actors in supporting roles, ‘Pinkville‘ will most likely remain in turnaround until parts can be recast.

Although Stone is reportedly telling the actors not to give up on the film and that he still wants to make it this year, the movie is officially on hold…for now, but luckily in Hollywood things can change on a dime.

Working with three-time Oscar winning director Oliver Stone will be an incredible opportunity for Channing, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed that ‘Pinkville‘ gets a second chance at life sooner rather than later.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEWS FLASH: Is Channing Tatum’s ‘Pinkville’ More Than Just a Casualty of the Writer’s Strike?

If I’ve learned anything over the past year from doing this blog, I’ve learned that the movie-making business is one of the most fragile things I’ve ever seen in my life. From scheduling conflicts to unpredictable actors to unresolved writer’s strikes, it’s seems to take an act of Congress to get a movie made these days.

If you’ve been reading CTU for the past couple of weeks, you know that Channing Tatum’s movie ‘Pinkville’ announced they were postponing filming because of the writer’s strike. IMBD has actually been buzzing since this announcement with people close to the production saying that there may be a little more to the cancellation story.

Since many of these sources were people upset about the production shutting down, I held off writing about what I was hearing, because I wanted to get the information from a more reliable industry source first. Then yesterday came the Variety article below that seems to confirm a lot of what I’ve been hearing.

You can read a snippet of the entire article below to see some additional reasons why it sadly may be a while before ‘Pinkville‘ comes to a theater near any of us….

Hollywood’s New Scapegoat
Strike allows some to bail out of projects
By ANNE THOMPSON
Posted: Thurs., Nov. 29, 2007, 7:43pm PT

During the best of times, movies heading toward production are fragile chemical equations. Add a writers’ strike to that mix and things were bound to explode. “It’s tough enough to get things right,” says one senior agent. “This difficult situation makes it even more difficult. If something is risky it’s always the first casualty, whether there’s a strike or anything else.”

So it was no surprise when five volatile go-projects fell apart last week: Sony pulled the February start for Ron Howard’s “Da Vinci Code” sequel “Angels & Demons,” starring Tom Hanks; United Artists shut down Oliver Stone’s November starter “Pinkville,” an investigation into the My Lai massacre starring Bruce Willis; Warner Bros. pushed back Mira Nair’s Indian epic “Shantaram,” starring Johnny Depp; Weinstein Co. postponed “Nine,” Rob Marshall’s screen adaptation of the Broadway musical inspired by Fellini’s “8 ½”; and when Brad Pitt pulled out of Kevin Macdonald’s political thriller “State of Play,” Universal threatened to sue.

Players involved in all five pics cited striking writers as a key factor in scuttling the projects. But while the strike certainly made things more vexing, there were also other forces at play. The strike offers studios, filmmakers and movie stars a smokescreen for doing just what they want to do, with a convenient scapegoat.

“It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card,” says one producer.

Over the past six months the looming writers’ strike (with potential director and actor walkouts threatened in July 2008), pushed the studios to announce a raft of green lights sooner than they would have under normal circumstances. Stars jostled for position on projects lined up for takeoff like planes at LaGuardia. But many of those commitments seem less firm than if writers were available to make changes.

Take Stone’s “Pinkville.” The Vietnam era movie was just three weeks away from principal photography on Dec. 10, with complex sets built in Thailand and a large cast led by Bruce Willis prepping to fly to Southeast Asia, when UA chief Paula Wagner shut it down. She cites WGA member Stone’s habitual script-tinkering throughout shooting as the main reason for not being able to proceed. Not being able to write during a strike “violates his process,” she says. But the script, by Stone and Mikko Alanne, had been locked down enough to get the movie to the verge of shooting.

It was Willis who had made the film’s financing possible by taking a fraction of his normal fee. And it was Willis who walked away, saying that the script was only 90% there, and booked another, more commercial, film with a bigger payday, Jonathan Mostow’s “The Surrogates,” originally ready to go in March, now set for February for Touchstone Pictures. Some parties say there was a “scheduling issue,” while others insist that the two movies could have gone back to back.

Stone is repped by CAA partner Rick Nicita, who is married to Wagner. Obviously, UA had initially wanted to work with the filmmaker. But today’s harsh box office climate for political war films makes it likely that in the wake of Robert Redford and UA co-head Tom Cruise’s disastrous political screed “Lions for Lambs,” Willis’s withdrawal gave UA an excuse to shut down a commercially risky film. It is improbable that “Pinkville,” even with “Platoon” director Stone attached, will get made anytime soon. Encumbered by several million dollars in costs, it needs another star to save it….(click here to read more)

So what have we learned?

First of all, don’t underestimate the gossip mongers on IMDB. A lot of industry insiders hang out on that site, and you’ll be surprised what you can learn. Of course you should ALWAYS take anything you read on the internet with a grain of salt (including this blog).

Secondly, ‘Pinkville‘ may be a casualty of more than just the writer’s strike, but let’s all just hope the Tinseltown gods will smile upon us and somehow the movie will still get made (assuming they resolve whatever environment and casting issues exist now).

Finally, we know that, in addition to the 4 movies that Channing has releasing next year, he also has no less than 5 other projects on his dance card, subsequently keeping himself and all of us fans pretty busy in 2008 (with or without ‘Pinkville‘). ;-D

Source: Variety.com

CTU EXCLUSIVE NEWS: Channing Tatum Project Update…Chan Will ‘Fight’ and ‘Step Up 2′, But Won’t ‘Push’

One of my goals once CTU became Channing Tatum’s official site was to get an accurate list of upcoming projects to the fans.

In the crazy movie business it’s very difficult to juggle schedules, so projects will be announced with actors tied to them and then often, scheduling conflicts or other factors will make that cast list change prior to the start of filming. We’ve already seen this happen recently with Channing Tatum and the ill-fated ‘Poor Things’ project that was delayed by Lindsay Lohan and other production factors.

Well it seems that the scheduling conflict issues have reared their ugly head again, but since CTU is now Channing’s official site (Sorry I can’t seem to stop saying that. I promise it’ll wear off soon…maybe ), I can get the low-down on what projects Channing is actually going to be working on. Mind you, things happen and could change, but here is what Channing’s camp is telling me now…

As I previously posted, Channing Tatum is scheduled to start filming his untitled underground street fighting movie with Oscar nominated actor Terrence Howard and director Dito Montiel next month. He is currently meeting with both of them in New York where his girlfriend Jenna Dewan also happens to be filming her most recent project. That’s why we were able to see our favorite couple together at Butter earlier this week in New York. I’m sure they’ll be happy that they get to work near each other.

Channing’s previously announced project ‘Push’ also starts filming in Hong Kong next month, which is where the scheduling conflict comes in. Although Channing has a list of skills as long as my arm, he has yet to master the difficult talent of being in two places at one time. Now once that whole replication thing is perfected, I’m thinking there’s a market for Channing clones.

OK back to reality…

His camp is telling me that the fighting movie has beat out ‘Push’ in the scheduling wars, which means that Channing will remain stateside and will hopefully be filming in New York.

Even more exciting is that they confirmed Channing’s cameo in ‘Step Up 2: The Streets’ is still on his schedule, so fans can now breath a sigh of relief and rejoice in the fact that we will once again see Chan in a ‘Step Up’ film. YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Finally, I am told that his next project will probably be the Oliver Stone directed Vietnam movie ‘Pinkville’ where Channing is set to co-star with Oscar & Golden Globe winner and veteran actor Sean Penn. From the director with three Oscars to the Oscar winning co-star, a film with that kind of pedigree is an amazing opportunity for Channing and his career. I am so happy that he has been cast in this film and being cast in it is a shining example of how Hollywood feels about Channing and his abilities.

So that’s it’s for now. I will update all of the upcoming projects on the blog to reflect what I’ve told you above and stay tuned to Channing Tatum Unwrapped for daily news on what’s going on in Chan’s world!

NEWS FLASH: Update on Channing Tatum’s Movie ‘Poor Things’

If you’ve been reading the blog a while, then you know that Channing Tatum was chosen along with Lindsay Lohan (aka LiLo) and Rosario Dawson for roles in the movie ‘Poor Things’.

Just to quickly recap, LiLo went to rehab for the second time this year right around the time the movie was supposed to start filming in May, she extended her stay in rehab (a lot of good that did her), had a relapse quickly after exiting the extended rehab, and is now in her third try at rehab this year in Utah. Now in the middle of all of that mess, ‘Poor Things’ decided to stick by their troubled starlet, lost Channing in the process, and replaced him with Giovanni Ribisi.

Channing went from being listed as part of the cast on the movie’s IMDB profile to being listed as rumored with Giovanni added to the list and now only Giovanni remains on the cast list.

So finally the IMDB profile for the movie has been updated to reflect what we all have known for quite sometime. Channing is not going to be in ‘Poor Things’ at this point, because of scheduling conflicts caused by LiLo-induced production delays. Just so you know, I am basing this on information from production insiders and the IMDb update. I am hoping I can confirm this and all of the rest of Chan’s project committments very soon.

But if you talk to crew and cast who were working on the project, they are saying that the entire production either has been canceled or is extremely close to being canceled completely.

One poster on IMDB who worked with the production said the following, “I was working on it. It’s been over for a while…The offices are all but shut down and no one is on staff any more. There is no movie.”

An actress who had a role on the film contacted me and had this to say, “The movie has been ’shelved’. I spoke to Shirley’s [MacLaine’s] publicist a few days ago and even SHE didn’t know what was happening. Nobody is talking, but I was told the ‘offices’ for the production are shut down (at a Marina del Rey Hotel) and that everyone is going off to do other projects. I stopped getting calls about what was happening or when or where or how around mid July.”

We may never get to see Channing in this ill-fated movie, but I did my homework and found out what roles Channing and LiLo would be playing in the film.

‘Poor Things’ was based on a true story about two older women (played by Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis) who somehow took out insurance polices on unsuspecting homeless men and then, believe it or not, killed them to get the insurance money.

The actress who contacted me told me that Channing had a really cool role where he was going to play a young homeless ‘victim’ of Olympia and Shirley’s characters and is picked up by them at a homeless shelter. From what she says, “There were scenes that would show how hot he is and the role would have/could have shown the depth of his acting abilities.”

Only Channing could somehow make homelessness look hot.

Ironically, LiLo was going to play the niece of Shirley’s character who is also a messed up, crazy druggy just out of a mental institution. Wow! Can we say “type cast”? Maybe the second stay at rehab was really just research for this role! That may be why it didn’t work. She did not realize she was REALLY supposed to be doing rehab.

OK, I’m totally kidding. Multiple visits to rehab is a common occurance among people with LiLo’s problems. Let’s just hope for her sake that the third times a charm and she truly takes it seriously this time.

Well, I was looking forward to seeing Channing in this dark comedy, but I guess that’s Hollywood! And when I really think about it, I wasn’t quite ready to see Channing get killed in a movie anyway. That might have freaked me out a little.

I believe that everything happens for a reason, so not being in this movie seems to have already opened the door for his many other projects, which I am sure will have much less drama than this one did (hopefully).