January 2008 News Archive (Page 18)

Daniel Radcliffe is ready to expand his acting horizons beyond a certain young wizard.

The British star will take on his first truly grown-up role, playing slain photographer Dan Eldon in the forthcoming drama Journey.

Radliffe reportedly fought off competition from a slew of other actors for the part, from Orlando Bloom to Joaquin Phoenix. Journey will chronicle Eldon's journey to war-torn Somalia and his murder at the hands of an angry mob in 1993.

According to British newspaper The Guardian, Kathy Eldon, Dan's mother, refused to sell the rights to her son's story until she found exactly the right actor for the job.

"The timing is right and the person is right and I couldn't ask for more," said Kathy. "He has portrayed a magician for years and my Dan was a different kind of magician. There are parallels in the two Dans' lives. Daniel Radcliffe is a poet, he keeps journals and he's half Jewish. He has a puckishness, sense of humour and energy inside him which remind me of Dan."

For those unaware of the history:

Eldon was a well-respected photographer when he travelled to Kenya with a family friend to take pictures of refugees from the war in Somalia. In 1992, he went to the country on assignment for Reuters and his photographs helped draw attention to the escalating violence.

On the day he was due to return home to England, Eldon photographed the aftermath of a U.N. bomb that mistakenly killed 74 innocent Somalis. While there, a crowd of locals erupted in anger at the attack and surrounded, stoned and beat to death Eldon and three of his journalist colleagues.

Michael Stahl-David isn't a huge name in Hollywood.

But that may change as this actor stars in the upcoming monster movie, Cloverfield. Of course, Stahl-David says the J.J. Abrams flick isn't really even about the mysterious villain:

"I think in some ways it's as much a survival movie as it is about the monster," he said. "The monster is definitely the problem, but you're seeing it the way we would, we don't pan back and watch it perfectly. It is going to be exciting.

It is contemporary film vocabulary - this kind of first-hand account, something that could've been on YouTube or something. Someone just holds up the camera and starts filming, there are probably other accounts, [our footage is] just the one the government happens to find."

What else does the actor have to say? Read the full interview right now.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hits theaters worldwide on May 22.

But the media blitz for the movie has already begun.

Below, Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf grace the cover of Vanity Fair. In the featured article, Ford says it was easy to get back into the role:

"There's something about the character that I guess is a good fit for me, because the minute I put the costume on, I recognize the tone that we need, and I feel confident and clear about the character."

Read the full interview with the actors now.