January 2008 News Archive (Page 2)

While Mathieu Amalric did not share his thoughts on the title of the next James Bond movie - Quantum of Solace? Really? - the actor did recently open up to IGN about the role he'll be playing in it...

Tell us a little bit about your character?
Mathieu Amalric: We've only just started shooting and at the moment I'm doing a lot of rehearsing for the stunts, which means there might be a fight. Sometimes the villain sends his bodyguard, but this time, there is a fight.

It's awkward because, what I like when I discover James Bond films is not to know anything, so it would be disgraceful for the public if I tell you who this guy is because it's part of the suspense.

Look for Mathieu Amalric in Quantum of Solace. 

Can you tell us what kind of villain he is?
Amalric: Well there are a lot of villains around today. We are all villains, no? When you see Casino Royale there's the fantasy of Bond, but it's also realistic â€" it could happen. It's not a villain on a secret island who wants to destroy the world - it's more complicated than that.

For example, what's happening in economics today - where are the villains? We don't even know. They are more like a gas - you don't know where it is. Before you had something to help you look like a villain - a jaw full of metal, an eye that bleeds - something, but I don't.

Read the full interview with Amalric now.

Here's a new poster for the movie Leatherheads, along with a summary of its plot:

The quick-witted romantic comedy is set against the backdrop of America's nascent pro-football league in 1925. George Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, a charming, brash football hero who is determined to guide his team from bar brawls to packed stadiums.

But after the players lose their sponsor and the entire league faces certain collapse, Dodge convinces a college football star to join his ragtag ranks. The captain hopes his latest move will help the struggling sport finally capture the country's attention.

Welcome to the team Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), America's favorite son. A golden-boy war hero who single-handedly forced multiple German soldiers to surrender in WWI, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed on the field.

This new champ is almost too good to be true, and Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) aims to prove that's the case.

A cub journalist playing in the big leagues, Lexie is a spitfire newswoman who suspects there are holes in Carter's war story. But while she digs, the two teammates start to become serious off-field rivals for her fickle affections.

As the new game of pro-football becomes less like the freewheeling sport he knew and loved, Dodge must both fight to keep his guys together and to get the girl of his dreams...

Gerard Butler is bring his rock hard abs to a romantic comedy alongside Katherine Heigl.

The pair will star in The Ugly Truth, a film in which Butler will play the TV host of a chauvinistic segment called ''The Ugly Truth'' and Heigl will portray a romantically-challenged morning show producer who is reluctantly embroiled by Butler's character in a series of outrageous tests to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love.

The project brings together the team behind Legally Blonde: director Robert Luketic and writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith. Shooting is scheduled to start in April.

Butler's recent credits include P.S. I Love You and 300. He next stars in Nim's Island, while Heigl just completed 27 Dresses.

Director J.J. Abrams has cast very young actor Jimmy Bennett as a young James Kirk in Star Trek, which opens in theaters on Christmas Day.

Bennett has appeared in such films as Hostage, The Amityville Horror, Firewall, Poseidon and Evan Almighty. The older Kirk is played by Chris Pine in the film.

The young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before includes Zoe Saldana, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy and Marlene Forte.

American Pie star Jason Biggs is starring in the upcoming comedy Over Her Dead Body. The young actor recently talked about the role with Rotten Tomatoes.

What attracted you to the Over Her Dead Body script?
Jason Biggs: Well, for comedies, if you read a script and you laugh, it's funny. If you don't laugh, it's not funny. I laughed a lot and that's a good starting point. I thought for romantic comedies, there is a certain formula that you generally need to stick to and the best romantic comedies will play with that formula a little bit. They'll do their best to be original where they can be and play with things.

While this may be a recurring theme, I feel like Jeff [Lowell, writer/director] put a lot of original ideas and original comedy into it and it just stood out. Part of that is that he [Jeff] is just so smart and edgy.

The first scene is Eva [Longoria Parker] getting crushed by an ice angel and it's pretty morbid and dark. You could be like "Is this movie going to be too extreme, too edgy?" But he was able to keep the right amount of edge but keep it accessible, fun, and entertaining I thought.

The role was really interesting for me because it actually was one of the toughest roles that I've done because it was really layered. I'm playing a straight guy who's playing a gay guy because he's in love. I had to figure out what Dan's impression of homosexuality was or how he would want to perform it. It had to be credible.

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Here's a look at the next movie from Joel and Ethan Coen. In their follow-up to No Country for Old Men, the brothers have finished Burn After Reading, a dark spy comedy.

According to IMDB, John Malkovich stars as a CIA official in the flick. His memoir accidentally falls into the hands of two unwise gym employees intent on exploiting their find (Brad Pitt and George Clooney).

Burn After Reading is expected to hit theaters later this year; until then here are a couple of set photos to tide you over.

Guillermo del Toro (pictured) is in talks to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Del Toro, of course, has built up goodwill in the geek world through such films as the Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade 2 and The Devil's Backbone.

Due to other commitments that included The Lovely Bones and Tintin, The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson could not take on writing and directing roles, opting instead to become an executive producer with approval over creative elements of the pair of films.

Principal photography for the films, which will be shot simultaneously, is tentatively set for 2009. The production budget is estimated at $150 million per film. The release of the first film is slated for 2010 and the second in 2011.

The Hobbit is centered on Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf who go on a quest to find the treasure of a dragon named Smaug.

This is probably all we need to say about the upcoming comedy Step Brothers: it stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

In case that somehow isn't enough to inspire you to see the film, here's a synopsis:

Ferrell plays Brennan Huff, a sporadically employed thirty-nine-year-old who lives with his mother, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). Reilly plays Dale Doback, a terminally unemployed forty-year-old who lives with his father, Robert (Richard Jenkins).

When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and laziness threaten to tear the family apart, the two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together.

To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house.

Step Brothers opens on July 25.

Dennis Quaid has joined the cast of GI Joe: The Movie.

The 53-year-old veteran actor will portray General Hawk, the commander of the G.I. Joe team. Yesterday, it was announced that Channing Tatum will be playing Duke, a field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe Team after Hawk.

Arnold Vosloo also has signed on to play Zartan, a mercenary who works with Destro and Cobra. GI Joe: The Movie comes out on August 7, 2009.

Smart People star a handful of stars: Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Dennis Quaid and Thomas Hayden Church. It comes out on April 11.

Check out the trailer for it now: