Johnny Depp is putting down his captain's hat and picking up a pair of (lethal) scissors for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the big screen adaption of the award-winning play.
Here's a preview of the unique film, a combination of horror and musical:
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Due to the success of the best-selling book, it's no surprise that The Kite Runner is being turned into a movie; it's also no surprise this comes with a great deal of controversy overseas.
Like the novel, the film portrays two boyhood friends who must deal with political strife, and ethnic and class conflicts. In one pivotal scene, one of the boys, Hassan, is raped by a youth who later becomes a Taliban leader.
And Ishaq Shahryar, who served as Afghanistan's first post-Taliban ambassador to the United States, says that scene will destroy the lives of Ahmad Kahn Mahmidzada, who plays the victim, and his family.
"The consequences will be terrible," he says. "To be raped or to be gay over there - it's unfortunately absolutely unacceptable." The stigma is so great that even a fictional depiction is problematic, adds Shahryar, because "the whole world will see it."
The filmmakers have repeatedly said they had no idea of the danger during the making of the film.
"Nobody that we were working with [in Afghanistan] ever said this could be anything but a positive thing for these kids and their families and for their culture," says producer Rebecca Yeldham. "There was such joy and enthusiasm for the sincerity and seriousness of our approach."
But violence has now been on the rise in the country. The movie was originally slated to open in November, but was pushed back to December in order to work on these issues.
"This has been a labor of love for four years," Yeldham says. "We have taken great pains to do right by Khaled's beautiful book. And, none of us being of this culture or faith, we really, really carefully undertook every step of this process and tried to do the right thing by the kids and the families always.
It's tough to be on the receiving [end] of fraudulent accusations when you know that you can hold your head high because you did do the right thing."
Melissa George is making the move into movies.
The young actress is still noticed these days mostly for her guest starring stint on Friends, but that may change after audiences see her new horror film, 30 Days of Night.
Below, George talks about the film:
ShockTillYouDrop.com: I know you've said you didn't want to do a lot more horror after doing this movie.
Melissa George: You know, it's not about genre, it's about the script. You can never say "never" because every movie has, sometimes a great storyline or a genre, which everybody loves to pigeonhole things into. Could be horror, you never know.
Shock: True, even David Slade's previous movie "Hard Candy" was considered horror, which I'm not sure is altogether accurate.
George: D'you see what I mean? People love horror. They call it a horror even if it's not a horror. âCause it had a horrific scene in it, so it becomes a horror.
Shock: Are you a fan of the genre, because you've definitely been doing a lot of horror movies lately.
George: Well, lately? No, like three years ago I did "Amityville" and then this one.
Shock: And "Turistas."
George: That's not horror. No. It's a precautionary tale. It's a sexy Brazilian movie.
Shock: Oh, okay. It certainly was marketed as a horror film.
George: Of course they market it as a horror film, because that's what they think sells, but no, I don't think.. I've been doing "Music Within" which is not a horror. "Waz" is not a horror. "Stopping Power" is not a horror. "Entreatment" is not a horror. My next six jobs are not horror.
Click here to read the full interview.
Time to get excited, X-Men fans!
The next chapter in the franchise is called X-Men Origins: Wolverine, according to Variety.
Starring Hugh Jackman (of course) and directed by Gavin Hood, the film is set to open May 1, 2009. The superhero flick will explore the claw-wielding character Wolverine's violent and romantic past, along with his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants.
Liev Schreiber is in final talks to take on the role of a younger version of nemesis William Stryker, played by Brian Cox in X2.
A spin-off for Magneto is also being discussed.
Karl Urban will be strapping on a stethoscope to play Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the Starship's Enterprise's medical officer, in J.J. Abrams' much-hyped Star Trek follow-up film.
Also confirmed for the movie?
Chris Pine, who has closed his deal to star as the young Captain Kirk.
Abrams has been furiously casting this version of Star Trek, with John Cho, Simon Pegg and Eric Bana joining the film last week. Zachary Quinto of Heroes, of course, signed up to play Spock a few months ago.
Also on board the Starship Enterprise are Zoe Saldana as the young Uhura and Anton Yelchin as the young Chekov. Leonard Nimoy, who originated the role of Spock, also will be part of the film.
The movie is expected to shoot from November-March and will focus on the early days of the Enterprise crew.
Sir Ian McKellen hasn't forgotten about Gandalf - and here's the best news for fans of this wizard:
The British actor expects to reprise his Oscar-nominated role for the much anticipated The Hobbit, whether or not Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is behind the camera for it.
McKellen told Reuters: "When Peter announced he had withdrawn from The Hobbit, he sent me an e-mail saying 'Because I am not going to do it, it doesn't mean you have to do the same. Of course, you must play Gandalf whether I direct or not.'"
The 68 year-old veteran of the big screen continued:
"I am glad to read that (The Hobbit) is looking more and more likely. ... I would be disappointed if they didn't want to have the original Gandalf. I suppose if I am still functioning and working well, it is very likely I would be asked to do it and if I were, I would be very pleased to do it."
It was recently reported that New Line Cinema and Jackson are trying to mend fences in an effort to finally bring the J.R.R. Tolkien tale to the big-screen.
Both sides have been engaged in a heated lawsuit over profits from the original trilogy, which led to studio boss Robert Shaye banning Jackson from working on any New Line pic including The Hobbit.
The truth is here:
X-Files leading man David Duchovny recently hooked up with Gillian Anderson and their former series' creator, Chris Carter, to discuss a sequel to their movie - and former hit TV show, of course.
"It was more emotional than I would have thought it was [going to be]," the actor said of the meeting. "If you spend that much time with people and go through that much, there's a lot of residual feeling."
X-Files 2 is tentatively scheduled to shoot in December, with Carter directing from a script that he penned with series scribe Frank Spotnitz.
"I want us to go out and do what the show always did best, which is really smart, scary, ultimately ambiguous stuff," Duchovny said. "There's been a lot of shows and movies that kind of tread the same area, or tried to, and I think we always did it best. And I hope we can go out and do it best again."
Great news from Rudy Sean Astin!
The actor, who got his career jump started in the classic film Goonies, is proud to say that a sequel to the film is an "absolute certainty."
"The writing's on the wall when they're releasing the [Goonies] DVD in such numbers," said Astin who also made a name for himself in The Lord of the Rings series, of course.
According to another former Goonies star, Corey Feldman, numerous plotlines are being floated, with his favorite involving the children of the original Goonies embarking on an adventure of their own. That idea's a no-brainer for Astin, who says the real-life growth of the actors should factor heavily into a Goonies 2.
"Steven [Spielberg] and Dick [Donner] and all the powers that be ⦠they really feel like the thing that made the movie strong was that it was about kids, so they really want to make the next movie about kidsâ¦the next generation of Goonies. And they've had a hard time tackling that."
Like Feldman, Astin sees the passing of the torch concept to be a logical progression for the franchise.
"I have three children," he said, "and Corey's got a kid now [too]. So as we now all have kids who are coming into the age that we were when we made the movie, it's more likely to me that they'll figure out how to design a story that will satisfy the older audience in terms of connecting with the original 1985 Goonies, and then [also] create this new thing."
Mark Wahlberg has worked with Jonathan Demme, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese.
But the former rapper is really excited to work with his next director, M. Night Shyamalan.
"The first scene we shot was a five-page scene in a classroom that any other director I've worked with would have taken three days to shoot, but we shot it by lunch," Wahlberg said about his work with Shyamalan on The Happening.
"It's beautiful. I've never walked into a trailer where your sides are there and your storyboards are there for the day. He just knows what he wants."
And we love seeing what the director wants on screen... ignoring the piece of junk that was The Lady in the Water.
Set amidst a worldwide catastrophe that has the planet fighting back against humanity, infecting people with a neurotoxin which makes them want to kill themselves, Wahlberg insisted The Happening is more character study than apocalyptic vision.
"My wife, played by Zooey Deschanel, is a therapist. The movie is about our relationship and the conflicts we're having set [amid] this kind of horrific disaster," Wahlberg said. "I play kind of a nerdy science teacher from Philadelphia - the best teacher you've ever seen, but I have difficulties in being the man she wants me to be. I am extremely positive and optimistic and she's the opposite."
