Paramount Pictures and producer Art Linson are mobilizing a spinoff to Brian De Palma's 1987's The Untouchables, which starred Kevin Costner and Robert DeNiro. The picture is now in it's preliminary stage and currently being called, "The Untouchables: Mother's Day" which will focus on the rise of Chicago Mob Boss Capone, in the years before Ness and his lawmen. The Untouchables was based on the 1959 TV Series who starred Robert Stack, both the series and the movie were based on a novel by Oscar Fraley. John Linson will be joining Art as producer and Antoine Fuqua maybe helming this flick. Thanks Variety

Another spin off is in the works and this time, it's Brian De Palma's The Untouchables and right now the working title is The Untouchables: Mothers Day. This prequel will focus on the rise of Chicago kingpin Al Capone, years before Ness and his lawmen. Antoine Fuqua may direct this film. Thanks Moviesonline.ca

David Levien and Brian Koppelman have been tapped by Paramount to pen 'The Untouchables: Capone Rising,' a prequel to the 1987 pic. The prequel will concern Capone and the early version of Irish cop Jimmy Malone, who is as crooked as every other Chicago cop until Capone becomes king of the underworld. "The film starts on the eve of Capone's arrival, and while Malone wasn't the most corrupt cop, he operated at a time when every cop was on the take," Levien said. "Once he crosses paths with Capone, he sees a level of violence and criminality that causes him to have a moral awakening." The Untouchables tv series and movie of the same name was based on the novel by Oscar Fraley. Antoine Fuqua will direct. Art Linson, who produced the original, will produce the prequel with John Linson and Par exec VP Brian Witten is overseeing for the studio. Thanks Variety

Paramount brought in writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman to write a script, 'The Untouchables: Capone Rising, which is to be a prequel for Brian De Palma's original film 1987 The Untouchables. This prequel will concern Capone and the early version of cop Jimmy Malone, who's as crooked as every other Chicago cop until Capone becomes king of the underworld. Levien said, "The film starts on the eve of Capone's arrival, and while Malone wasn't the most corrupt cop, he operated at a time when every cop was on the take. Once he crosses paths with Capone, he sees a level of violence and crimiality that causes him to have a moral awakening." Antoine Fuqua is set to direct with Art and John Linson producing. The Untouchables was also a 50/60's TV series which starred Robert Stack and the 1987 feature film and both were based on Oscar Fraley's novel. Thanks Empire Movies

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Brian De Palma has signed on to helm The Untouchables: Capone Rising and joins Producer Art Linson and Executive Producer John Linson. Art Linson got this prequel started at Paramount, drafted screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien to scribe this prequel who'll continue it's develop with input from both producer and director. This film centers on young Al Capone's arrival in Chicago, his rise to criminal kingpin status and his collision course with Irish cop Johnny (sic) Malone. Antoine Fuqua was originally attached as Director. Thanks Variety

News comes today that Brian De Palma will be making The Untouchables: Capone Rising, a prequel to his 1987 classic film The Untouchables. Capone Rising which chronicles young Al Capone's arrival in chicago and subsequent rise to criminal kingpin status and his collision course with Irish cop Jimmy Malone. De Palma will rejoin with Producer Art Linson who he had worked with on the original. They've also just recently worked on The Black Dahlia which Universal Pictures have aquired. Linson got the ball rolling on the prequel at Paramount Pictures and drafting writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien to write. Antoine Fuqua was originally attached to direct and production will likely begin next year. Thanks Empire Movies

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(sidenote) This little bit of tidbit info from the article just made me chuckle, here's what Empire Movies wrote:

As a little side note to anyone at Variety who might be reading this, the Connery character's name is Jimmy Malone - not Johnny.

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Ennio Marricone will be conducting Milan's La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra on an international tour. Marrione has composed at least 450 movie scores, which have included Spaghetti Westerns, Cinema Paradiso, The Mission and The Untouchables. Marricone had been asked to score the upcoming Brian De Palma's prequel, The Untouchables: Capone Rising but turned it down. Thanks Variety

First time appearing together in a film, actors Jackie Chan and Jet Li will star in a $70m family oriented film for Relativity Media to be produced by Casey Silvers. This is one of two new big budget projects that Relativity will be offering to buyers at the American Film Market. The second project is Brian De Palma's $70m prequel The Untouchables: Capone Rising which Paramount will distribute domestically. Both films will be repped at AFM by Magnetik Media, who'll along with Yuma will also rep overseas rights through it's new nonexclusive deal with Relativity. Ryan Kavanaugh will executive produce both films along side Art Linson, who will also be producing Capone Rising. This prequel was originally set up at Paramount, which recently struck up a deal with Relativity who will finance and produce and Paramount agreeing to US distribution. Writing duo Brian Koppelman and David Levien have penned this prequel which charts Chicago mob boss Al Capone's rise to power and his relationship with police detective and nemesis Jimmy Malone. Filming is scheduled to begin next June. Thanks Variety

One of the movies that'll be at this week's American Film Market in Santa Monica is Director Brian De Palma's planned prequel to the The Untouchables. The current title to this $70M prequel is The Untouchables: Capone Rising, which Brian Koppelman and David Levien scripted and is scheduled to begin shooting in June. The movie will chart Al Capone's rise to power and his relationship with police detective and nemesis Jimmy Malone. The Original 1987 movie starred Robert DeNiro as Capone and Sean Connery as Malone. De Palma's last directed The Black Dahlia. Paramount Pictures will distribute. Thanks Empire Movies

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Scripted reviewed by El Mayimbe on November 22, 2006. The Untouchables: Capone Rising is 115 pages and rated at a C+ (You might like it). After a meandering introduction to El's sitdown read of Brian De Palma's Untouchables prequel script, El begins his review. He said the script is not bad, nor that good, he wished it was as good as the meal he had before sitting down for this read. He acknowledges that this is a very early script for the movie, and wishes that David Mamet have a serious looksies at it for improvement, as El believes that the biggest flaws in this script are the dialogue and characterizations. He then goes into the meat of the story, of how Capone leaves NY with his family, how he met up with Jimmy Malone and more... Just check out the article above, if you want some major spoilers. Movie does have some interesting themes in it. Thanks Latino Review

MTV news have confirmed that Nicholas Cage has joined the cast of The Untouchables: Capone Rising as Chicago crime boss, Al Capone. Cage will be reteaming with Brian De Palma (Snake Eyes) and will reprise the role made famous by Robert DeNiro. Capone Rising is the prequel to De Palma's classic 1987 film The Untouchables, which is based on 50's/60's TV drama. The prequel story revolves around the early dealings between Capone and Irish cop Jimmy Malone. With Cage's casting for Capone, Sean Penn and Colin Farrell's rumored involvement is given more credence. Principal photography is set to begin in October. Thanks MTV News

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Nicholas Cage is in negotiations to headline Brian De Palma's $70m prequel film, The Untouchables: Capone Rising, for Relativity Media and Paramount Pictures. Art Linson is producing and both Brian Koppelman and David Levien have scribed this story which follows Chicago mob boss Al Capone's rise to power and his relationship with police detective and nemesis Jimmy Malone. Paramount will be handling domestic distributions with this project being shopped at Cannes. Nic is currently shooting Disney's sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets and is currently in theatres with Next. Thanks Variety

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media made several announcements at the Cannes Film Festival and one is about Brian De Palma's upcoming prequel The Untouchables: Capone Rising. Kavanaugh said that Gerard Butler will topline in Capone Rising and Butler put in a 60 second appearance to say how "Unbelievable" the script is. Paramount Pictures has domestic rights to this movie. Thanks Variety

Variety reports that Gerard Butler of 300 has joined the cast of The Untouchables: Capone Rising and will appear along side with Nicholas Cage in Brian De Palma's prequel to The Untouchables. Butler made an brief appearance at the Cannes Film Festival to announce this news and said that the script was "unbelievable". Last week Nicholas Cage was cast as young Al Capone and this film prequel will follow Al Capone, who arrives in Chicago Illinois, his subsequent rise to power and his dealings with cop Jimmie Malone. Butler is believed to reprise the role of Jimmie Malone which Sean Connery made famous and won an academy award for. Capone Rising is scheduled to begin shooting this October. Thanks Slash Films

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Gerard Butler is interviewed by MTV News and made a few comments on his upcoming role in Director Brian De Palma's prequel, The Untouchables: Capone Rising. Here's the excerpt from the article. Thanks MTV News

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"[I play] the young Sean Connery, when he was still a detective," Butler said of his role in the prequel "Capone Rising." "It's great, the script is phenomenal."

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The performance was Connery's most popular since Bond, and even won the Scot an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. Butler said that fans expecting an imitation, however, will leave disappointed. "Being Scottish and being tall, I'm gonna come across a little bit like Sean Connery... and people will make those comparison," he contended. "But I'm going to do my own thing."

He'll have plenty of opportunity, he revealed excitedly. "You know what? I think this character [has even] more [great lines] in him [than before], because this was a point where he was more a wheeler and dealer," Butler exclaimed. He has to deal with things coming for him, he has to deal with his own morality. In this story there's so much going on with this guy that you really see a lot of different sides to his character."

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Nicolas Cage has been in negotiations to star in Director Brian De Palma's prequel, The Untouchables: Capone Rising, but the talks have ended due to scheduling issues according to his reps. In Cannes last week, Relativity's Ryan Kavanuagh announced that Gerard Butler has joined the cast and would be set for the part of Jimmy Malone, played by Sean Connery in the original. Cage would have played young Al Capone, currently, Cage is shooting National Treasure: Book of Secrets and hasn't said what his next movie will be. Art Linson is producing, Relativity Media is financing this film and Paramount Pictures has domestic distribution rights. Thanks Variety

Variety reports if Brian De Palma moves ahead with prequel The Untouchables: Capone Rising, it will be sans Nicolas Cage. The negotiations with Cage to star in the follow-up have ended and according to his representatives, talks have ended because of scheduling issues. It was announced last week that Gerard Butler has joined the cast as Jimmy Malone and that Cage would have played the young Al Capone. Art Linson who produced De Palma's 1987 feature, is also producing this sequel with Relativity Media financing this film and Paramount has domestic distribution rights. Thanks Coming Soon

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Over the last few days while writing on Capone Rising news, there seemed to be a little bit of mixed messages about Ennio Morricone and his involvement for composing for The Untouchables: Capone Rising. Variety wrote that Ennio would not be composing De Palma's prequel, but when perusing IMDb he was listed as being the composer. So, for the last few days an extensive research was being done to find out what the true answer would be. With the help of a Patrick B. and Didier at The Ennio Morricone Discussion Board, I was once again redirected to Ennio Morricone's Official Site and received help in translating Capone Rising news on Ennio's Official Site News page, this is what was written for Capone Rising:

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"Il Maestro sottolinea inoltre che in relazione al remake del film di Brian De Palma 'Gli intoccabili', non potrà curare la colonna sonora per mancanza di tempo"

Translation: "The Maestro underlines that, in relation to the remake (sic!) of Brian de Palma's movie 'The Untouchables', he will not be able to provide the soundtrack because of lack of time". Ennio Marricone will not be composing for The Untouchables: Capone Rising.

With many thanks to Patrick B., Didier and Ennio Marricone for this news

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(A bit of an update: After reading stuff at IMDb, perhaps they could use Morricone's opening theme and give him the credit as composer but someone else can do the soundtrack and get credited elsewhere, perhaps what Ennio meant at his official site that he won't be doing the sound track... I guess time will tell with this one

Tucker Tooley has signed up with Relativity Media as the new head of creative operations. Tooley will lead development and production of the Single Picture Division and also over see expansion of it's production team. He will also work on a number of projects with Ryan Kavanaugh and one will be The Untouchables: Capone Rising. Thanks Variety

Josh Horowitz from MTV News had a chance to speak with Brian DePalma on his upcoming prequel The Untouchables: Capone Rising. De Palma said, that Capone Rising will likely be his next film project and that he'd like to use the original music from The Untouchables and locations in Chicago. Gerard Butler is still onboard to play Jimmy Malone, the same role that Sean Connery won an Oscar for, but young Capone still remains uncast. At one time Nicolas Cage was once attached. He also talks a little on What a new Capone needs and set pieces. Here's the excerpt from the article. Thanks MTV News

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The young Capone, however, remains uncast. Nicolas Cage was attached but is no longer on board. De Palma is on the lookout, though. What does the new Capone need? "You've got to have that street animal sexuality," he said.

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And what about a typical showy DePalma set piece to rival the shootout in the train station? The director promises, "It's got a lot of fabulous set pieces in it. It will be a lot of fun to do."

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Brian De Palma is planning another Iraq War film even though his current one, Redacted has been creating controversy. Movie Geeks United received this scoop from their movie themed talk show during a live podcast on November 7th. De Palma also spoke a little bit on Capone Rising, here's the excerpt from the article. Thanks Movie Vine

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As for 'Capone Rising', the long-gestating prequel to his 1987 smash hit 'The Untouchables', De Palma was skeptical of it's immediate future.

"We are still trying to cast this," he said. "We've had this together with a bunch of different actors over the last couple of years and things keep on falling in and out. I don't know if it's going to pull itself together soon enough for me to shoot next year, because I have to shoot it in the wintertime because there's a Valentine's Day massacre that's gotta be done in the cold in February. If we don't get it together in the next month or so, I'm going to go off and do something else."

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In this article from Variety, they discuss the upcoming films that are slated for Paramount Pictures Japan in 2008 to 2010. One of the films that are pencilled in is, The Untouchables: Capone Rising, for 2010. Thanks Variety

James Mottram from The Independent has a chance to sit down and interview Brian De Palma about his upcoming release, 'Redacted', 'The Untouchable: Capone Rising' and a little bit on thd director's childhood. Here's the excerpt about Capone Rising. Thanks The Independent

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It would be pleasing to think that making Redacted had convinced De Palma to return to his low-budget origins for good. In truth, the film rather feels like a one-off, not least because he hopes his next film will be Capone Rising, a prequel to The Untouchables, his 1987 film about Chicago gangster Al Capone.

Capone Rising sounds like it's going to need big money. Does De Palma think the disastrous commercial showing of Redacted will harm his ability to raise funds? "Not really," he sighs. "I've made pretty wild movies before. You should have been around for Scarface..." And with that, Brian De Palma battens down the hatches for another squall.

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The Untouchables: Capone Rising makes it onto a sequel list, even though it is a prequel, ah well the list is at least an interesting read. Here's the excerpt from the article. Thanks Den of Geeks

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The Untouchables: Capone Rising: A prequel to Brian De Palma’s cracking prohibition thriller of, er, twenty years ago. De Palma is back behind the camera, and the project is in the pre-production stages now.

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