'Kick-Ass 2' Filmmaker Tackling Fox's 'X-Force' (Exclusive)

Jeff Wadlow, who is readying for the Aug. 16 release of Kick-Ass 2, has been tapped to write an adaptation of X-Force, an X-Men spinoff being developed by 20th Century Fox.

The news comes on the heels of various blogs reporting Friday that the studio registered X-ForceMovie.com a few months ago.

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Longtime X-Men franchise producer Lauren Shuler Donner is producing X-Force.

Wadlow is writing with an eye to direct.

X-Force, created by Rob Liefeld, was a spinoff from Marvel Comics flagship Uncanny X-Men released in 1991. Its first issue set records when it sold 5 million copies. (The record was surpassed later that year when X-Men No. 1, drawn by Jim Lee, sold 8 million issues.)

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The original lineup of the team comprised several characters from the first Uncanny X-Men spinoff, The New Mutants, teens who had matured into young adults. Also in the lineup was Cable, a militant leader from the future who is related to X-Men heroes Cyclops and Jean Grey. His body is enhanced by robotic parts, and he has telekinetic powers as well.

X-Force has been rebooted a couple of times in the past decade, and there are now two comics in the marketplace: Uncanny X-Force and Cable and X-Force.

Wadlow wrote and directed Kick-Ass 2, the sequel to the violent and funny 2010 hit based on the comic books by Mark Millar and John S. Romita Jr. He also recently wrote two episodes of A&E’s hit show Bates Motel.

Wadlow also is writing an adaptation of Bloodshot, based on the Valiant comic, that is set up at Sony.

He is repped by WME and Hirsch Wallerstein.

Filmmaker Claims Netflix Committed 'Most Egregious Act Ever' by Distributor

In a new lawsuit against Netflix, a filmmaker and licensed attorney named T. Allen Chey asks a judge to allow The Hollywood Reporter to cover a trial "to prevent other innocent people from going through what Plaintiff went through."

As we await the judge's invite, Chey describes the "most egregious act ever committed by a film distributor."

Chey, who says he graduated from Harvard and USC, has an imagination when it comes to lawsuits. The subject of his real-life one is a film entitled Suing the Devil, starring Malcolm McDowell, Corbin Bersen, Rebecca St. James and Tom Sizemore about a law student who sues Satan for $8 trillion dollars.

Chey wants much less from Netflix -- at least $10 million -- over allegations of fraud, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, copyright infringement, infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference.

In August 2011, the plaintiff implies that Netflix allowed its customers to put Suing the Devil in their queue.

"Plaintiff and his film team noticed Netflix put the film on its site with a 'SAVE' button, enticing it's [sic] customers, both old and new, to 'SAVE' the film," says the lawsuit. "What 'SAVE' means on Netflix, is when a film comes out on either DVD or streaming, that customer will get the film when it comes out later in the year."

Chey says his film was the top faith-based movie in theaters in August 2011, the best-selling movie on ChristianCinema.com, one of Wired Magazine's most anticipated summer films, that it made it into 33,000 Redboxes and was a hit on Walmart's on-demand site, Vudu.com.

But evidently, the film never made it on to Netflix, and so while Suing the Devil may have been a niche hit, it wasn't Saints and Soldiers, currently very popular on Netflix's network. And Netflix's advertisement (or whatever you want to call that invitation to SAVE) allegedly steered customers wrong.

The lawsuit says, "Plaintiff believes this action hurt theatrical sales as customers stated on Facebook and in person that they would 'wait until it comes out on Netflix.'"

Chey says Netflix never intended to license his film. He says he took it to them three times, and that Netflix passed. Each time added to his misery as "so many customers would have bought the DVD or paid for VOD had the customers known it would not be available on Netflix."

"Bait and dump" is the phrase used to describe Netflix' allegedly "horrific conduct."

In Chey's film, Satan shows up to defend himself with "eight of the world's best trial lawyers" in tow. No word on who Netflix is bringing to this fight. The company said it had no immediate comment on Chey's lawsuit, which at best will save the souls of the innocent, and at worst will score some free publicity.

Banned Iranian Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Accepts Academy's Invitation to Join

Persecuted Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has issued a statement thanking the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the invitation to join its ranks.

Panahi was among the 276 film industry figures offered membership to the Academy when the organization made its annual announcement on June 28.

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The celebrated director of The White Balloon and The Circle has been subject to a 20-year government ban on travel and filmmaking in his country since the mass demonstrations in Tehran following the controversial 2009 presidential elections.

Panahi has twice successfully flouted the regime’s ban. In 2011, he managed to smuggle This Is Not a Film -- a critical political piece shot almost entirely in his apartment (he was under house arrest at the time) – out of Iran on a USB device hidden inside a cake. It premiered at Cannes that year.

And in 2012, his Closed Curtain – another introspective political film made under severely constrained conditions – was successfully transported to the Berlinale, where it won the festival’s Best Screenplay prize. Iranian authorities soon denounced the film and the festival for screening it, saying in a statement: “We believe that the Berlin fest organizers should correct their behavior.”

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The authorities have not yet commented on the Academy's invitation to the director, but Michael Moore posted Panahi’s statement in response in full this week, as below:

“I would like to sincerely thank the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for inviting me to join their organization. I am especially grateful to Michael Moore and the documentary branch for nominating me.

“It’s an honor for me to join such a prestigious organization, and I am proud to accept the invitation on behalf of the large family of the Iranian filmmakers, who have steadfastly represented the best of Iranian arts and culture despite all the limitations they have been subjected to.

“I understand this membership affords me the chance to see some of the best films every year and vote on their merits. For someone in my situation who has been banned from making films, viewing the works of international colleagues is an opportunity that I would deeply cherish. If I am forbidden from making films for twenty years, I can at least share the joys of filmmaking in a vicarious manner.”

'X ­Men: Days of Future Past' Writer Jane Goldman and Filmmaker James Watkins Scare Up BFI Gothic Season Interest

LONDON ­ -- Filmmaker James Watkins and screenwriter Jane Goldman, who worked together on the Daniel Radcliffe movie The Woman In Black, talked up the launch of the British Film Institute's Gothic film season.

The pair were joined by "scream queen" Madeline Smith, whose resume boasts turns in the 1970s' Taste The Blood of Dracula, The Vampire Lovers and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, among others.

And self-confessed Gothic aficionados cult British author Charlie Higson and Reece Shearsmith (Shaun Of The Dead, The Cottage) also crept on stage for the event.

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The season, divided into four themes -- Monstrous, The Dark Arts, Haunted and Love Is A Devil -- will feature digitally restored copies of various cult Gothic classics from U.K. shores.

The BFI promises 150 titles and around 1,000 screenings during the season that will run from August 2013 through January 2014.

Goldman, who penned the screenplay for The Woman in Black, directed by Watkins, said she looked forward to being scared in the movie theater again "as a collective experience."

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She noted that like comedy, horror and gothic are genres where the the audience left no doubt over whether your script had worked.

"They're either scared and jumping out of their seats or not," she said.

The Woman in Black is the highest-grossing British horror film of the past 20 years, grossing over $33 million in the U.K. and crossing the $120 million box office mark worldwide.

Watkins said at least part of that movie's success in the U.K. stemmed from the fact that British audiences enjoy a spooky movie.

"The Spanish were having a lot of fun with the genre so I just thought, why not us, we practically invented it," Watkins said.

He noted that while Hollywood was adept at "mythologizing" society and itself on screen, the Brits were more wary of doing it.

The BFI's Gothic season titles to unspool include Robert Wise's The Haunting, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and John Landis' An American Werewolf In London.