Image Credit: Franco Origlia/Getty Images; Everett CollectionEver since it was first announced that director Ridley Scott would, at long last, be revisiting the sci-fi franchise he launched with 1979′s Alien, we’ve been as giddy as schoolkids. Over time, little teasers and tidbits of intel have trickled out: Like the fact that the film would be a prequel (not a sequel), that it would be in 3-D, and that Scott was on the lookout for a fresh actress to play the younger version of Sigourney Weaver’s indelibly kick-ass heroine, Ripley. Now EW has confirmation from Scott’s camp that the director has been busy lately meeting with several young leading ladies for the juicy part, including An Education Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan, Aussie actress Abbie Cornish (who appeared in Scott’s 2006 Russell Crowe flick A Good Year), and fresh-faced import Noomi Rapace, star of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly’s Rob Brunner, Rapace hinted at this development, albeit a bit cagily: READ FULL STORY »
Tag: Hollywood (71-80 of 134)
Ridley Scott meets with Noomi Rapace, Carey Mulligan, and Abbie Cornish for 'Alien' prequel
- Comments 29
- Add comment
Steve Carell to show off his singing pipes in 'Of All the Things'
Image Credit: Donna Ward/Getty ImagesHe’s played clueless bosses, idiot weathermen, and 40-year-old virgins. Now Steve Carell is about to add singer-songwriter to his onscreen menagerie of characters. According to Variety, The Office star has signed on to produce and star in Warner Bros.’ feature film adaptation of the 2008 music documentary Of All the Things – the unusual and unlikely story of Dennis Lambert. In the ’70s and ’80s, Lambert achieved a sort of semi-fame in music circles as the man behind such FM radio staples as “Baby Come Back”, “Rhinestone Cowboy”, and “Ain’t No Woman Like the One I Got”. After his moment in the sun was over, Lambert moved to Florida to sell real estate, only then realizing that he was still huge in the Philippines, where he then went on tour. The Lambert documentary was shown at the South by Southwest Film Festival and AFI Fest and won the audience award at the Nantucket Film Fest in 2008. It was directed by Lambert’s son, Jody. The new script will be written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who recently penned another Carell flick, Burt Wonderstone.
While we can’t vouch for Carell’s singing ability, we do know this: the man can certainly lip sync some C+C Music Factory… READ FULL STORY »
Sally Menke dies at 56: Remembering Tarantino's longtime editor
Image Credit: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com; Linda R. ChenBeing Quentin Tarantino’s film editor couldn’t have been easy work. There were the long, unexplained gaps between projects, the fact that her boss was a movie-mad perfectionist who always had the ideal version of his film already playing inside his own head, and the intimidating challenge that all of his movies hinged on cutting back and forth between time, place, and characters — imagine trying to keep all of the mobius-strip plotlines of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction straight. But Tarantino was so devoted to Sally Menke and such a fan of her work that he never employed anyone else to cut his films. And he was such a fan of her as a person that he routinely assembled “Hi Sally” reels (included on the extras of many of his DVDs) where the cast and crew would begin each take by looking into the camera and giving her a shout-out she’d see months later to cheer her up in the editing room and push her to forge ahead. Along with Martin Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, it’s hard to imagine a more collaborative director/editor duo than Tarantino and Menke — a partnership that came to a sudden and unexpected end earlier today when the news hit that Menke, 56, was found dead near L.A.’s Griffith Park. Menke had apparently gone hiking in the morning heat with her dog and was found by searchers in Beachwood Canyon after her friends reported to police that she’d failed to come home. Her Labrador retriever was reportedly found alive beside her.
Menke graduated from the NYU film program and served as an editor on 1990′s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. There were other films after that, but her career really took off when she partnered with Tarantino, an encyclopedic video store clerk-turned-auteur, on 1992′s Reservoir Dogs. The brilliant independent film about a band of nameless career criminals who assemble for a botched heist and reassemble in a warehouse trying to figure out how it all went wrong and whether or not they had a rat in their midst, made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival that year, turning Tarantino’s into one of the most electrifying debuts Hollywood had ever witnessed. There was no arguing that he was a genius, but it was Menke’s editing of the low-budget film that made it so unique and revolutionary. READ FULL STORY »
Kevin McCarthy: An appreciation of the 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' icon
Image Credit: Everett CollectionThe world of horror and science fiction movies lost one of its totemic actors on Saturday when, according to the Los Angeles Times, Kevin McCarthy died at the age of 96. McCarthy was never really a household name, but he starred in a raft of genre classics including 1978′s Piranha, 1981′s The Howling, and most famously, the seminal 1956 sci-fi movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which aliens attempt to turn the human race into emotionless “pod people.” He was a hugely talented character actor who made whatever he appeared in watchable and could help elevate good material into the realm of the truly great.
The Minneapolis-raised McCarthy was orphaned at an early age. “My parents died of the flu,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1991. “First my father, then one day later my mother. That happened when I was not yet 5 years old.” McCarthy was sent to a succession of foster homes and turned into “a lazy, good-for-nothing kid.” He found his calling at the University of Minnesota when a friend suggested that he try out for a role in Henry IV, Part 1. McCarthy would later recall how, when he first appeared onstage, he “literally felt a millstone lift from my shoulders.”
In 1951, McCarthy appeared in the movie version of Death of a Salesman and won an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Biff Loman. It was his starring role, however, in Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers for which he will be, rightly, remembered. READ FULL STORY »
'The Town' director Ben Affleck talks filming in Fenway Park, being a local hero, and why he won't run for office
Image Credit: Claire FolgerBen Affleck’s new heist thriller, The Town, stars Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm, The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner, and Affleck himself. But there’s another imposing character in the movie — the city of Boston. And there’s already buzz that the film may follow in the same Oscar-nominated footsteps as other recent Bay State crime flicks Mystic River and The Departed, not to mention Affleck’s own critically acclaimed directorial debut, 2007′s Gone Baby Gone. When we sat down with the writer-director-star recently, we asked the Beantown native about the city that seems to inspire him. Here’s what he had to say.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve directed two movies in Boston now. Are you worried about being pigeonholed as the Boston guy?
BEN AFFLECK: That was one of the things that almost made me not want to do The Town. I thought, I’m going to be the guy who makes crime movies in Somerville, [Mass.]. I guess from an actor’s point-of-view, you worry about being typecast.
Well, that didn’t seem to hurt Martin Scorsese with New York.
Yeah, but Scorsese won Best Picture for a Boston movie [The Departed]! He’s the king of all movies. You can’t be holding yourself up to Scorsese. He’s a genius. READ FULL STORY »
Liam Neeson replaces much-younger Bradley Cooper in survival thriller 'The Grey'
Image Credit: Todd Williamson/WireImage.comOne of the defining characteristics of that merry band of enterprising tough guys in The A-Team is their all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude. Apparently, that ethos carries over off of the big screen, too. This morning, EW confirmed that Liam Neeson is in negotiations to replace his A-Team costar Bradley Cooper in the upcoming survival thriller, The Grey (first reported by the Hollywood Reporter). The film is being directed by Joe Carnahan, who directed, you guessed it, The A-Team. The action-packed flick apparently kicks off with a plane crash in Alaska and follows a team of oil drillers as they try to stay alive in the wild, including attacks by packs of very hungry wolves. Sounds cool. But this bit of casting news raises a couple of intriguing questions. READ FULL STORY »
California passes new anti-paparazzi law, but will it help? (Or at least save Kate Moss?)
California passed a new anti-paparazzi law on Tuesday that will implement harsher penalties for photographers found breaking traffic laws or interfering with the operation of a celebrity’s car while in pursuit of a photo. Under this new legislation, those guilty can receive a fine of up to $5,000 or a year in prison. This is California’s second paparazzi-related law made in the last year; in October 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a similar bill which can fine photographers for taking photos that invade a celebrity’s privacy.
A video of Kate Moss at Los Angeles International airport — making the rounds today in support of the new law — certainly exemplifies the need for stricter penalties for paparazzi. In the 2008 video. Moss is consistently hounded by photographers, and later trapped outside of her car. Check it out below. READ FULL STORY »
'Piranha 3D' producer responds to James Cameron in a message that'd require 55 Twitter posts
Image Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images; Ryan Miller/Getty ImagesLesson one in how to handle criticism: If someone insults your film in 89 words, don’t spend 1,374 words fighting back. Especially if the movie in question is Piranha 3D, and especially if you’re fighting against James Cameron. Last week, Cameron told Vanity Fair that Piranha 3D was “an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D.” He continued: “It just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s, like Friday the 13th 3-D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip.”
Piranha 3D producer Mark Canton responded Tuesday in an e-mail sent to reporters that not only circumvented Cameron’s initial point, but also engaged in much of the same behavior that Canton accused Cameron of. For instance, if you’re going to slam Cameron for name-dropping some notable directors, you shouldn’t mention that you watched Piranha 3D with J.J. Abrams, who “had nothing short of the fabulous, fun 3-D experience that the movie provides.” I agree that it was inconsiderate of Cameron to single out Piranha 3D. Cameron could have easily made his argument without condemning a specific movie. But if Canton thinks Cameron “should be taking the high road,” the producer shouldn’t declare that he found “the 3-D in Avatar to be inconsistent,” and that he had wished “Avatar had been more original in its storytelling.” Mr. Canton, hidden not that deep within your dissertation was the only response you needed to make. And it would have taken all of 11 words: “My sense is that Mr. Cameron has never seen Piranha 3D.“
Canton’s unedited response, in its entirety, starts after the jump: READ FULL STORY »
'Avatar!!!!!': Sigourney Weaver gets a new catch phrase in 'You Again' promo clip
Image Credit: Mark FellmanI’ve been a fan of Kristen Bell ever since she took roughly 0.0007 seconds to get on the phone with me to talk about cult movie The Room. (The girl can’t get enough Tommy Wiseau — and that’s not a euphemism.)
My suspicion that she’s an actress with a pretty decent sense of humor is confirmed by a new tongue-in-cheek promo clip for the forthcoming movie You Again, in which Bell’s costar Betty White derides her as both a poor actress and an terrible bore. The skit, however, is definitely stolen by Sigourney Weaver, who asserts her alpha dog Hollywood status by listing her box-office triumphs including, repeatedly, a certain blue alien-featuring James Cameron movie (which, incidentally, is being re-released in theaters today).
You can watch the sketch after the jump. Take a look and tell us if it tickles you.
Channing Tatum working on 'Ten Year' reunion: This could be one handsome cast
Image Credit: Rob Kim/Retna LtdDear John star Channing Tatum is making plans for a high school reunion, just not his own. Tatum will star in Ten Year, an ensemble drama about friends reuniting 10 years after their graduation, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Tatum has been working closely with writer-director Jamie Linden (Dear John, We Are Marshall) on the project, which he will also be producing. They hope to begin shooting in November.
No other actors have deals to appear in the film, but Linden’s script is being written with some specific people in mind. Tatum’s wife, Jenna Dewan, Anna Farris, Chris Pratt, Chris Pine, and Scott Porter have all made the short list.
Now I’m not sure how I feel about the storyline (do we really need another high school reunion movie?), but I do know that’s one good looking cast. Again, no one else has been officially confirmed, but let’s just say that if these deals go through, I won’t be able to handle all the gorgeousness on one screen. My favorite on the list has to be Chris Pratt, but maybe I’m still just heartbroken over the gone but not forgotten Everwood. (Come on. You know you love and miss Bright Abbott.)
What do you think, PopWatchers? Does this project pique your interest?
- Prev
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- Next
Latest News
- 'DWTS' poll: Who deserves to win?
- 'Voice' dedicates song to tornado victims
- CBS takes 2012-13 ratings crown from Fox
- Justin Bieber booed: Will he listen?
- Bon Jovi to Bieber: Don't be late!
- Jennifer Lawrence in 'X-Men': New photo
- 'Buffy': 10th anniversary of series finale
- 'X Factor': Kelly Rowland, Paulina Rubio in
