Hells Angels sue Disney over movie plans (Reuters)
March 10, 2006Reuters - Hells Angels has sued Walt Disney Co., claiming that a planned movie about a group of motorcycle riders called "Wild Hogs" infringes on its trademark name and skull logo.
'Narnia' Sequel in the Works (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - A sequel to the megahit family fantasy "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is slated to hit theaters in late 2007.
Box Office Slumps Worldwide in 2005 (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - The movie business was down both in the U.S. and worldwide last year, final box-office figures show.
Pixar Steals Show at Disney Meeting (AP)
March 10, 2006
AP - Pixar stole the show Friday at The Walt Disney Co. shareholders' meeting.
Rachel Weisz to Be Face of Burberry (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - The public has seen a lot of mama-to-be Rachel Weisz lately — first at the Golden Globes in a gold Donna Karan gown and then at the Oscars in a sleek black Narciso Rodriguez gown.
A Hanks Family Film (E! Online)
March 10, 2006
E! Online - According to Variety, the two-time Oscar winner and his budding
actor son, Colin Hanks are linking up for some hocus pocus on the big
screen in the magician comedy The Great Buck Howard.
New James Bond movie: fewer gadgets, more grit (Reuters)
March 10, 2006
Reuters - Forget the gadgets, invisible cars and
exploding space stations. The next James Bond movie is going to
be pure grit, real stunts and a spy who fumbles a kill, falls
in love and dislikes violence, the makers say.
Garrett Ordered to Another Month in Rehab (AP)
March 10, 2006
AP - Leif Garrett was ordered to remain in a strict live-in drug rehabilitation program for another month, despite telling a judge he was "going down the right path" after spending 42 days there.
Review: 'The Shaggy Dog' (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - In the creative funk that has Disney updating almost anything it can find in its family-film vaults, it probably was inevitable the studio would end up sniffing around "The Shaggy Dog" again.
Review: 'Failure to Launch' (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - Everything about "Failure to Launch" screams out "typical romantic comedy," from the cutesy title to the whimsical posters (featuring stars Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker and their blindingly white teeth) to the absurdly contrived premise.
Review: 'Ask the Dust' (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - Robert Towne would seem to be the ideal person to bring "Ask the Dust," John Fante's novel about an aspiring writer's dreams and doomed love affairs in 1930s Los Angeles, to the screen.
Review: 'The Hills Have Eyes' (AP)
March 10, 2006AP - You could look at "The Hills Have Eyes" as a pointed political statement, a nasty revenge piece in which a Republican family is brutalized by a pack of mutant cannibals, the offspring of miners who were exposed to government atomic weapons testing in the desert.
Blond Bond stirred by criticism, but not shaken (Reuters)
March 10, 2006
Reuters - Is the next James Bond too
blond for Her Majesty's Secret Service? Stricken by heat rash?
Licensed to kill but not licensed to drive the famous
stick-shift Aston Martin sports car?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Tony?
March 10, 2006Okay, we get The Wedding Singer, The Color Purple and Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Broadway. Well, Harvey and Bob Weinstein plan to give it a go, anyway. Hollywood's favorite brothers have acquired the rights to author Wang Du Lu's series of martial arts novels that includes Tiger — the plan is to adapt Ang Lee's Oscar-winning movie for the theater, then to turn the other four books (Crane Frightens KunLun; Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin; Sword Spirit, Pearl Light, and Iron Knight, Silver Vase) into a "series of great films, much like the Lord of the Rings trilogy." Speaking of which, a friendly reminder to all you little hobbits: The LotR musical opens later this month in Toronto. Frodo sings!
Bullock Moves to Peyton Place
March 10, 2006It worked for Capote — so now we get Sandra Bullock as Peyton Place author Grace Metalious, the New Hampshire housewife whose 1956 novel about the randy shenanigans of the citizens of a small town modeled after her own led to the best-seller list, a hit movie and a TV series, Fortunately for Bullock, Metalious' own life was ruined by her success — she began to receive threatening calls and letters from people upset about the racy book, her children were harassed, her marriage fell apart, she began drinking and less than a decade later, at age 39, she died of cirrhosis. "She was ahead of her time, but not in a self-conscious way," screenwriter Naomi Foner (Bee Season) says. "She was one of those people who told the truth, almost naively talked about it, and got vilified for talking about it. I'm not sure if she had the muscle to deal with it."
Carell Loves Binoche
March 10, 2006This one probably isn't going to net her an Oscar nomination, but Chocolat and The English Patient star Juliette Binoche is likely to have a good time on the set. Binoche has signed on to star with Golden Globe winner Steve Carrell and comedy It Boy Dane Cook in Dan in Real Life, a comedy about a widower and father of three girls, who writes a parenting column. But his family values are tested when, on a vacation, he falls in love with his younger brother's (Cook) girlfriend (Binoche). Who comes out on top? Hmmm … isn't it a movie rule that the guy with the bigger paycheck gets the girl?
Hey, Blond Bomb Is Trying!
March 10, 2006If you can't say something nice about Daniel Craig and his 007 debut in the upcoming Casino Royale, just make sure you say it to a reporter. After months of criticism aimed at their casting of the very un-Pierce Brosnan-looking Craig as Brosnan's 007 successor, Bond producers invited members of the press to a set visit in the Bahamas this week, where they 'fessed up to Craig's on-set mishaps, denied that he didn't know how to drive the famed Bond Aston-Martin and let the actor himself assure that — despite detractors who are so committed to seeing him fail that they've started a Website (craignotbond.com) — he has been "trying to give 110 percent from the beginning … and maybe after (the criticism), I was trying to give 115 percent." And there's the Bond bunch's final take on the barrage of negative news surrounding the remake/sequel. "People are, thank goodness, in a way still incredibly interested," Casino casting director Debbie McWilliams said. "Virtually a day doesn't go by where we don't read something about James Bond in a newspaper, and that can only be good for us, I think." Well, they've got today covered.
Weinsteins bringing martial arts to film, stage (Reuters)
March 10, 2006Reuters - Former Miramax Films chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein are bringing martial arts to the stage and screen, nabbing the five novels behind "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and bringing the Oscar-winning film to theater.
Oscar-less 'Cashback' will grow into feature (Reuters)
March 10, 2006Reuters - Although the filmmakers behind best live-action short nominee "Cashback" left Sunday's Oscar ceremony empty-handed, their film is poised to enjoy a cinematic reincarnation.
Oscar-winning 'Crash' producer is flat broke (Reuters)
March 10, 2006Reuters - It's been a bumpy ride. Accepting the fifth best picture Oscar ever awarded to a woman, independent producer Cathy Schulman landed on the stage of Hollywood's Kodak Theater on Sunday along with writer-director Paul Haggis as one of the credited producers of "Crash."
'Shaggy' remake best in show at box office (Reuters)
March 10, 2006Reuters - Theater marquees will be touting three new wide releases this weekend, but moviegoers might feel a tinge of deja vu as two are remakes from decades ago: "The Shaggy Dog" and "The Hills Have Eyes."