Robert Downey Jr.

It seems right now Robert Downey Jr. is one of the biggest stars on the planet. He seems to be everywhere. A lot of that has to do with Iron Man being such a hit. But he also has Tropic Thunder coming up in August (which I think has the potential to be hilarious). 

So if you decided to go to the cinema and you feel like you need a bit more Robert Downey Jr. or Tony Stark or Iron Man then check out The Incredible Hulk. Here is a teaser where we get a glimpse of Tony. For more Hulk clips and trailers, click here.

Robert has also been attached to some upcoming films, including Sherlock Holmes (By Guy Ritchie) and Cowboys vs. Aliens (a Dreamworks/Universal film).

Also here is a video from youtube. Its the Tropic Thunder Promo from the MTV Movie Awards. Enjoy!

Movie News

• Dreamworks is looking to break away from Paramount and go back to being its own studio. Spielberg wants to have a more streamlined structure, like he had back in the Amblin days. Spielberg is getting help from Indian's Reliance ADA Group.
• The Incredible Hulk and Transporter director Louis Leterrier has picked his follow-up film to Hulk, called Strays. He is currently in talks to direct the film according to Empire Online, the film is about about a group of young consultants who, while on a business trip to Russia, mysteriously wake up in an abandoned, radioactive city. They’re then forced to struggle for survival, with a number of deadly obstacles blocking the way to freedom. The film is described as an eco action triller.

Casting news

• Sienna Miller is set to play Maid Marion in Nottingham, alongside Russell Crowe. Nottingham will be a new take on the Robin Hood legend and will be directed by Ridley Scott.
  
• Judd Aptows newest film already, Funny People has Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, Leslie Mann, and Eric Bana. Now Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill have joined the cast. Little is known about the film, except for that it is about the world of stand-up comedy and about a comedian that has a near death experience. 
• Christopher Eccleston has joined the cast of Amelia, a biopic about Amelia Earhart. Also in the cast is Hilary Swank and Ewan McGregor.

New Trailers (click on title name for a link to the trailer)

• Death Race starring Jason Statham
• Punisher: War Zone starring Ray Stevenson
• The Transporter 3 starring Jason Statham

Newsies

• Both the Watchmen and The Hobbit have lawsuits filed against, which could delay the films respective releases. Watchmen is in a battle between 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers, because Fox claims that they still had the rights to the film, when the Warner Brothers production got underway. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is being sued by the Tolkien Trust claiming that the trust is owed at least $150 million in gross profits from the films. In addition to the money, the trust wants film rights for The Hobbit to be taken away from New Line.
• The 3+ Month WGA Strike has officially ended. WGA Members voted tonight (2/12) on whether the strike should end or not and 92.5% voted to lift the strike order. Writers will be going to work tomorrow (Wednesday 2/13) and show-runners had already returned to work this past Monday.
• Martin Scorsese is going to make a documentary about Bob Marley. Academy Award Winning Director Scorsese has already made documentaries on The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. The Film is set to be released on February 6th, 2010 which would have been Marley's 65th birthday.
• An Arrested Development movie may be in the works. Jason Bateman as well as other cast-members have expressed interest in a movie about the dysfunctional Bluth family. The show originally ran on Fox from 2003-2006 and series finally left fans wondering if there would be an AD movie. Here's hopping that the studios are willing to give the cast and crew what they want, so that this movie can become a reality.

Casting News: 

• Christopher Eccleston has signed on to play the villain in the new G.I. Joe film. Eccleston is well known for playing the Ninth Doctor on Doctor Who.
• Hank Azaria has joined Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian and will by playing an Egyptian Pharaoh. 
• Amy Adams has also joined the cast of Night of the Museum 2.
• Kristen Bell has signed on to star in Mark Steven Johnson's new comedy When in Rome. Johnson has mainly been making comic book films such as Daredevil, Elektra and Ghost Rider.
• Ellen Page has signed on to be in Sam Raimi's first horror film since Army of Darkness. The film is called Drag Me To Hell and is about a girl who is afflicted with a supernatural curse.
• Ben Foster is going to star in The Messenger which is a military drama being helmed by first time director Oren Moverman who wrote the Screenplay for I'm Not There.
• The indie film The Open Road, which tells the story of a young man returning home to reconnect with his father and spend time with his ailing mother, has casted its principle players, including Justin Timberlake, Jef Bridges, and Mary Steenburgen.
• Casey Affleck has signed to star in The Kind One. The film is about criminals and is a noir thriller. Affleck had a very successful 2007, with his Academy Award Nominated performance as Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and his brilliant performance in Gone Baby Gone. Hopefully his 2008 will turn out even better.

Hot Fuzz

Plot details have finally been released on the upcoming Hot Fuzz starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and directed by Edgar Wright, whom all came into the spotlight because of Shaun of the Dead. I, like most, have desperately been awaiting just a tiny bit of information about the upcoming movie, and finally there is some information available, empire online recently reported that: "Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg made their names on the big screen with Shaun of the Dead, and details are finally emerging of their long-awaited follow-up Hot Fuzz, the British action movie we've been nagging them about for ages. Here's what we can expect...


"Police constable Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is good at his job; so good in fact, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, his superiors at the Met have decided to sweep him under the carpet. So it is that London's top cop finds himself in the sleepy West Country village of Sandford.


"With garden fetes and neighbourhood watch meetings replacing the action of the city, Angel struggles to adapt to his situation and finds himself partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost), an oafish but well meaning young Constable, who dreams of being Mel Gibson. Just as all seems lost, a series of grisly accidents motivates Angel into action. Convinced of foul play, Angel realises that Sandford may not be as idyllic as it seems."


In addition to Frost and Pegg, the cast will also include (deep breath) Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, Bill Bailey, Olivia Colman, Anne Reid, Rafe Spall, David Bradley, Stewart Wilson, Paul Freeman and Edward Woodward. Wright and Pegg wrote the script, and Wright is once again directing with Nira Park producing.
Shooting is due to start later this month, and we'll keep you up to date as we hear more."

I can't wait for this, I loved Shaun of the Dead, and from the cast and the plot details it sounds like it is going to be good. I am especially excited that Martin Freeman is going to be in it, because its then combining two of my favorite actors, Pegg and Freeman.

New News

• Casino Royale finally has a Vesper Lynd, and Eva Green is playing her. Green was last seen in Kingdom of Heaven, opposite Orlando Bloom. Jeffrey Wright has been added to the cast as well, playing Felix Leiter, a CIA agent. Mads Mikkelsen, a Danish actor, who played Tristan in King Arthur, staring Clive Owen.
  
  

• Phillip Seymour Hoffman, has revealed his troubled past, in which he dealth with substance abuse problems. The favorite for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, for his portrayal of Truman Capote in Capote has been sober since he was 22 years old. The actor revealed this on 60 Minutes, which will air this Sunday in the US.
  
  
• The Bourne Ultimatum is set to begin filming in August. The third and final installment of the series of books, written by Robert Ludlum, may not be the last film. Producers would like to make a total of 5 films, but the decision is up to Matt Damon and if he wants to make that many. The third film will have Bourne team up with the KGB, and both Julia Stiles, and Joan Allen's character will have more central roles in the films. The first two films The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, were hits in America as well as internationally.
  
  
• As Previously discussed Sin City 2 has been pushed back until next year. The film which was going to be released this summer has been pushed back since Robert Rodriguez is working with Quentin Taratino on Grind. Pushing back the release date is not a surprise, since filming hasn't even begun the film.
  
  
• Nathan Fillion who played Captain Mal Reynolds in Firefly and Serenity will star in the sequel to White Noise, entitled White Noise 2: The Light. His character (played by Michael Keaton in the first film) "realizes that he has changes and can now identify those about to die, but his powers come with some terrible ramifications." For more information visit empire article: Nathan Fillion Step Into The Light

News, News, News!

• Filming had begun on Casino Royale in Prague, Czech Republic, without a new bond girl or a villain. There have been many actresses linked to the project, including, Angelina Jolie, Rachel McAdams, and Thandie Newton, whom have all been considered to play Vesper Lynd. Hopefully they will find the actors for the open roles, before they have to delay fiming.

• Would you like to be the next George Lucas? Want to make your own Star Wars film? Where here is your chance, Hasbro, who make Star Wars action figures (over 500 different ones), have launched a mini movie competition. Entrants can re-enact or spoof a scene from one of the Star Wars films, using Hasbro figures to do it. Entries will be judged and awards will be given to Best Creativity, Best Storyline, and Best Use of Characters. For more information visit: empireonline.com

• Just a reminder that the Grammy’s are being aired on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on your local CBS station. Jamie Foxx will be performing with Kanye West, along with a slew of other performances including, Mary J Blige and U2, Paul McCartney, Kelly Clarkson, and more. For more information visit. http://www.grammy.com/

• The Oscar statuettes have arrived in Los Angeles, practically a month before the award show, which takes place on March 5th. 50 of the gold statuettes, which are 13.5 inches tall, left New York, where they were being exhibited, on a special flight, with bodyguards, and arrived at Los Angeles Airport. They will be on exhibit from February 10th until March 3rd nearby the Kodak Theater where the 78th annual award show takes place.

• With the Super Bowl taking place this Sunday, some celebrities, athletes and politicians have placed their bets on who will win. To see their picks visit: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/news/story?id=2316803

I can't wait......

So production has begun on Grind (changed from Grindhouse....I like the latter better especially since the former is a skateboarding movie) and I Can Not wait for this film, or shall I say films. Grind consists of two 60 minute films, one called Planet Terror (being Directed by Robert Rodriguez), and the other called Death Proof (by Quentin Tarantino). Both films will be released together, with an intermission between the two, and during the fake intermission there will be fake trailers and ads. The films are a 70's exploitation-style project, and both are going to be full of gore. Planet Terror is going to be a zombie movie, while Death Proof is set to be a slasher film.

Some critics have already started to trash the film, calling it a vanity project, and blaming it for the delays on Sin City 2, and Inglorious Bastards. But this project is going to be different, and I think it will be interesting to see how it all plays out on the screen, especially with these two directors doing it. It's not that I can wait for Sin City 2, or Inglorious Bastards, its just that I want Grind a tad more, plus it will give Frank Miller more time to make an awesome script, and work on that new material.

I think Chris Hewitt on empireonline.com said it best, "the geeks will love it (and since I’m a geek, I should too)." I concur.....especially since I am a geek when it comes to things like this.

For more information visit: Grind at Empire Online or

Grind at Imdb.com

American Dreamz

So I saw the trailer for American Dreamz, and I can not wait for this film. From the trailer it seems to be funny but in a satirical way and the fact that it has an amazing cast helps.

For more information visit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465142/combined

Of all the ideas.....

Of all the movies that I thought would never get a sequel, The Butterfly Effect was number 1. I apparently was wrong because there is going to be a Butterfly Effect 2, and there is also going to be a television series based on the show. Couldn’t Hollywood think of something else to make. There are so many better scripts, plays, or books that can be made into a movie. But then again Hollywood executives have decided to make Final Destination 3 and Fast and the Furious 3. It just seems that they like to make stupid sequels.

For more information visit: http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=17825