Channing Tatum as Evel Knievel?

Channing Tatum is currently in negotiations to produce and star in a biopic about arguably the greatest daredevil of all time, Evel Knievel.

The world renowned stuntman gained fame from his high flying jumps on his motorcycle during the 1970’s. Always wearing his famous red-white-and-blue suit and cape, his jumps became must-watch-T.V.

According to sources, the film will be based on Stuart Barker’s biography of the daredevil titled Life of Evel.

While I’m not completely sold on Tatum’s acting abilities just yet, he has had a massive last 18 months, and his star is certainly rising in Hollywood. Taking on a dramatic role like Knievel, should really test Tatum’s abilities, and in return allow him to showcase his efforts.

Last year it was said that another Evel Knievel film was in talks by Ric Roman Waugh who wanted Tom Hardy, Chris Hemsworth or Joel Edgerton to star as Evel. But we haven’t heard anything about that since.

Knievel passed away in 2007, so a bio-pic is surely on the way.

Life of Evel Synopsis (from Amazon):

A searching and at times harrowing re-appraisal of the life of Evel Knievel, the seventies American icon and the greatest daredevil motorcyclist that ever lived. Now fully updated in paperback with the story of the last few years of his life and his death in 2007. Stuart Barker’s definitive biography captures the super-star status that Knievel held and also examines the marketing phenomenon of a man who once boasted he ‘made $60 million and blew $63 million’. Born in the town of Butte, Montana in 1938, Robert Craig Knievel was an outstanding athlete, ski jumper and ice hockey player at school. His early jobs included working in the copper mines and driving a bus as well as a stint in the US Army, but he always subsidised his income through crime (‘I could crack a safe with one hand tied behind my back quicker than you could eat a hamburger with two.’) He used bikes to escape from the police and eventually hit upon the idea of jumping them after seeing a stunt driver jump cars at a state fair. His first jump took place over two mountain lions and a box of rattlesnakes, and he soon developed his act into the ‘Evel Knievel Motorcycle Daredevils’ before embarking on a solo career. Knievel suffered 37 breaks and fractures during his daredevil career. In 1967 he spent 29 days in a coma after an attempt to jump over the fountains outside Caesar’s Palace casino in Las Vegas. While recovering, he decided to make his goal to jump the Grand Canyon, an attempt he was forced to abort by the US Government; and later was paid $1 million for jumping over 13 double-decker buses at Wembley Stadium. Now, a quarter of a century after he last stepped off a motorcycle, he has been reborn as the originator of Xtreme sports. This, alongside his love of gambling, women and drinking, ensure his legend will live forever. Life of Evel is the story of a truly extreme personality.

Channing Tatum Says Magic Mike 2 in Development

Magic Mike turned some heads this summer, and not just the screaming young girls that went for the abs and Channing Tatum.

Critics have responded surprisingly well to Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper drama, based loosely on Tatum’s start in Hollywood when he was 19.

Recently, Tatum has said that he is working on stage musical adaptation of Magic Mike, now he delivers more news.

Aside from a 21 Jump Street sequel with Jonah Hill, now Tatum says s sequel to Magic Mike, the movie is coming as well.

In a recent interview Tatum was asked about a possible sequel to which he said:

“Yes, yes and yes! We’re working on the concept now. We want to flip the script and make it bigger.”

The movie made big money at the box office, over $70 million against a budget of just $7 million, so a sequel makes sense financially.

Trailer: Magic Mike (2)

Here is the second trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper comedy Magic Mike.

Based loosely on Tatum’s personal experience early in his Hollywood career, Magic Mike is the story of an exotic dancer, who mentors a younger male dancer. The trailer is pretty interesting, as it’s not just a movie about guys dancing for girls in clubs.

Directed by the great Steven Soderbergh, the film also stars Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey as the older, fun guy stripper, along with  Joe Manganiello, Olivia Munn, Riley Keough, and Cody Horn.

Magic Mike hits theaters on June 29th, 2012.

Synopsis:

Set in the world of male strippers, “Magic Mike” is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Channing Tatum (“Dear John,” “Step Up”) in a story inspired by his real life. The film follows Mike (Tatum) as he takes a young dancer called The Kid (Pettyfer) under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money.

Trailer: Magic Mike

Channing Tatum as a male stripper…ladies, eat your heart out.

Based loosely on Tatum’s personal experience early in his Hollywood career, Magic Mike is the story of an exotic dancer, who mentors a younger male dancer. The trailer is pretty interesting, as it’s not just a movie about guys dancing for girls in clubs.

Directed by the great Steven Soderbergh, the film also stars Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey as the older, fun guy stripper, along with  Joe Manganiello, Olivia Munn, Riley Keough, and Cody Horn.

Magic Mike hits theaters on June 29th, 2012.

Synopsis:

Set in the world of male strippers, “Magic Mike” is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Channing Tatum (“Dear John,” “Step Up”) in a story inspired by his real life. The film follows Mike (Tatum) as he takes a young dancer called The Kid (Pettyfer) under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money.

Review: 21 Jump Street

Living up to the hype. MUCH easier said than done.

The promotional campaign for 21 Jump Street starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill has been like wildfire; everywhere you look, from buses to billboards to every other commercial – it’s hard NOT to see advertising for the film.

Based off of the television show from the 80’s – the big screen adaptation was a riot.

Tatum plays Jenko – the popular dumb jock in high school who always picked on Schmidt (Hill) because of the way he looked. When the two end up in the police academy, they end up befriending one another in order to survive – and eventually become best buds.

As they realize the life of a cop isn’t so “bad-ass” as they imagined – they get reassigned by the hilarious Nick Offerman who plays Deputy Chief Hardy – to 21 Jump Street – a secret Korean church where the undercover police agents meet.

The two are sent to high school by Ice Cube, who plays the angry Captain Dickson, in order to stop a new synthetic drug from spreading.

Without going further into the plot several things needs to be pointed out.

The first being the chemistry between Tatum and Hill. Absolutely fantastic, and that’s especially surprising coming from a guy like Tatum who mostly has done sappy chick flicks. He goes stride for stride with Hill and the others, even Rob Riggle who plays the cooky gym teacher said he was pleasantly surprised with Tatum. There were scenes that were done off the cuff, improv style and Riggle mentioned that Tatum didn’t skip a beat.

Schmidt and Jenko feed off each other brilliantly, the first 45 minutes of the film are laugh non stop while holding your stomach funny. I was absolutely rolling, tremendous comedic pace which is important in comedy films. I hate when they tell a few jokes or have one or two funny scenes and then there is a twenty minute lull for the next laugh.

The supporting cast is top notch. Starting with Riggle who plays Mr. Walters – a typical meat head gym teacher who clearly has a few screws loose. There is  a particular scene with Schmidt and Mr. Walters on a track that almost brought me to tears at how funny it was.

The unheralded comedy supporter of the film is easily Ellie Kemper. I’m a huge fan of hers to begin with; the meek style she gives off, along with the awkward dialogue is brilliant in the film as she plays a science professor Ms. Griggs – who is smitten with Jenko.

Throw in Brie Larson who plays Molly, the popular hipster girl, Jake M. Johnson as the principal, Chris Parnell as the weird drama professor and many more; and this becomes one of the best ensembles a comedy film has seen in a long time.

21 Jump Street takes you on so many wild adventures from hilarious, not-so-cliche highway chases, to a play of Peter Pan, and even Jenko interacting with the nerds in science class. It’s all done so well.

As Jenko and Schmidt get into character as undercover students, their one mission is to get in with the popular kids and find who the supplier of the drugs is.

While the tone of the plot seems to get a bit more serious, it really doesn’t. The entire time directors Phil Lord, Chris Miller and writer Michael Bacall keep the laughs rolling. From clearly mocking the typical Lethal Weapon “serious” perp chases, to the lack of “typical” Hollywood explosions – much to the ironic surprise of Tatum in the film; it’s like the guys behind the lens and script were poking fun at the idea of the remake.

You see it a lot in T.V. shows these days where the actors acknowledge “the fourth wall” (when they look or speak directly at the audience) THAT’s what it seemed like was happening, but in a more subtle way.

The in your face high school villain and drug peddler in the film is played by James Franco’s younger brother Dave Franco. He comes off as a bit annoying, but does his job; although it’s clear that he’s studied a bit too much of his older brother’s style. (not a good thing.)

When the green light was given to 21 Jump Street to be made into a movie, many people – myself included rolled their eyes, as if Hollywood had to do this. But once the trailers and pictures started to surface a few months back, it was clear that this wasn’t such a bad idea. And now that i’ve seen the final product, it was definitely the right way to go, absolutely hilarious.

It will certainly be hard to top this as funniest movie of the year, I’m saying that now because the amount of laughs, paired with how hard the people I was with and I laughed – reaffirmed those sentiments over, and over, and over throughout the film.

21 Jump Street is dirty, raunchy, and hilarious, while at the same time making fun of all the cliche buddy cop films we have seen. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum come off as genuine while on screen, all the while putting together a juggernaut of a comedy film.

Rating: 8.5/10

Trailer: G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation

Another sequel.

And after the first film wasn’t received to positively.

 G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the sequel that brings back only a few cast members like Channing Tatum from the original 2009 film, it introduces new cast members like Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Ray Stevenson and Adrianne Palicki.

Channing Tatum returns as Duke, along with Ray Park as Snake Eyes and Lee Byung-hun as Storm Shadow. Other newcomers to the cast include Bruce Willis as General Joseph B. Colton, Adrianne Palicki as Lady Jaye, Ray Stevenson as Firefly, Joseph Mazzello as Mouse, Arnold Vosloo as Zartan, D.J. Cotrona as Flint, and RZA as the Blind Master.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation hits theaters on June 29th, 2012.

Trailer: 21 Jump Street

So we have heard a ton about 21 Jump Street, starring (skinny) Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, but I didn’t expect it to be this funny.

Nor did I think they would release such a long red-band trailer.

The film is about Hill and Tatum, who go undercover at a high school in order to catch some new drug dealers.

The film is based on the 80’s T.V show that starred Johnny Depp, and he does have a few cameo’s in this film, but they are not shown in the trailer.

The cast also includes Ice Cube, Nick Offerman, Rob Riggle, Ellie Kemper and Brie Larson.

You can catch 21 Jump Street in theaters on March 16th, 2012.

Trailer: Haywire

Steven Soderbergh’s next film hitting the big screen is a CIA thriller called Haywire.

A diverse, and star studded cast lead by MMA fighter Gina Carano, Haywire looks exciting.

Also starring in the film is Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum,  Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, and Bill Paxton.

Plot – Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

The film hits theaters on January 20th 2012.

Trailer: Son of No One

Solid cast, with a premise that’s been done to death, but the film bombed at the Sundance Film Festival.

Channing Tatum stars, along with Al Pacino, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche, Katie Holmes and Tracy Morgan.

A young cop is assigned to a precinct in the working class neighborhood where he grew up, and an old secret threatens to destroy his life and his family.

The Son Of No One is due to release on November 4th, 2011.

Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike Coming Together

When I first wrote about the next project for acclaimed direct Steven Soderbergh, it seemed like an interesting story.

Magic Mike, the story is about a male stripper, as the film will be based on Channing Tatum’s life when he was 19.

Lots of big names are joining the film as well.

Channing Tatum will star as the main male stripper, along with  Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, and Riley Keough.

Cody Horn, is taking the role of Paige, the sister to Pettyfer and lover of Tatum.

Jessica Biel will be playing one of the female strippers, who is dating Tatum’s character of Mike. Seems like Mike will be getting a ton of action in this one.

In the film Tatum will play as a mentor stripper to Pettyfer’s character, a younger male stripper. McConaughey will play a former stripper, who now owns the club where the film takes place, called Xquisite, Bomer will be another employee), and Manganiello will play a character named Big Dick Richie.

Shooting on Magic Mike begins this fall in Tampa, Florida.