May 2008 News Archive (Page 6)

As talk of numerous follow-ups dominate Hollywood - from Jurassic Park 4 to S. Darko - Jack Black has confirmed he may be involved in a future sequel.

From The Cannes Film Festival, the comedian said there's already a script written for School of Rock 2. Moreover, he's anxious to return to the role of music teacher Dewey Finn, even though nothing is signed just yet.

"In a few weeks we have to decide if we go through with the project or not," Black said.

Would you go see School of Rock 2?

It's hard to figure out the funniest part of this new poster for The Love Guru.

Is it Mike Myers, dressed up as yet another ridiculous character? Verne Troyer, re-joining his Austin Powers co-star? Or Justin Timberlake looking like, well, a 1970s porn star?

You tell us!

There's little doubt you can pencil in Sex and the City: The Movie at the top of the box office rankings for next week. But does this mean the film is actually any good?

While many viewers may not even care - they'll be more focused on Carrie and company's fashion choices - we asked a handful of critics for their take on this anticipated remake...

- Will give female audiences a jolt of excitement in the same way that seeing Indiana Jones back in action will thrill male audiences this summer... -- Boxoffice Magazine

- For a series so steeped in romance, the eagerly awaited Sex and the City movie feels a trifle half-hearted... -- Variety

- Yes, it's good to see the Fab Four together again. You just wish they were in a funnier and wittier film than this indulgent and essentially middlebrow saga that feels like six TV episodes glued together, with a running time of two and a half hours... -- Emanuel Levy

- One thing's for sure: fans of the series will lap this film up... -- The Daily Telegraph

James Cameron is not known for being modest. Upon winning Best Director at the Academy Awards, he recited a Titanic quote and announced: I'm the king of the world!

Therefore, it came as no surprise this week when, at Microsoft Advance '08, the director hyped up his highly-anticipated Avatar, which opens on December 18, 2009.

"Avatar will make people truly experience something," said Cameron. "One more layer of the suspension of disbelief will be removed. All the syn-thespians are photo-realistic. Now that we've achieved it, we discovered CG characters in 3D look more real than in 2D. Your brain is cued, it's a real thing not a picture, and discounting part of [the] image that makes it look fake."

Cameron continued with his high praise for, well, himself and his upcoming movie:

"Avatar is the single most complex piece of filmmaking ever made. We have 1,600 shots for a 2.5 hour movie. It's not with a single CGI character, like King Kong or Gollum. We have hundreds of photo-realistic CG characters. We were Microsoft's sandbox for filmmaking beyond the cutting edge."

As part of their promotional campaign for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (as if that movie even needs to be promoted), Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf showed up on MTV's Total Request Live this week.

When asked about a fifth Indiana Jones film - which George Lucas has admitted to contemplating - Shia smiled and said:

"I know Harrison would love to, I know that Harrison, when he's 80, will still be jacked. Is there going to be an 80-year-old Indiana Jones? No one can say never."

There's just one major movie coming out on DVD today. Let's get right to a mini rundown of it...

National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Stars: Nicolas Cage
Why you should rent it: Because it would be nice to know what secrets George W. Bush and other presidents have been keeping from us, wouldn't it?

Jay Roach is a producer/director with a pair of comedic aces up your sleeve: Austin Powers 4 and Little Fockers. Will these follow-up films be made?

"I know [Mike Myers is] thinking about it," Roach said when asked about a new Austin Powers movie. "Which is something of a move in a direction."

As for rumors that Gisele Bundchen might end up in the film? Roach has a message for fans: slow down.

"There isn't a script like that or anything yet," Roach cautioned. "But it's something, that [is still alive]... he's got other stuff to do too, and that one's completely driven by Mike. If he wants to do it, I'll definitely want to be involved. But I don't know yet when that's gonna happen."

A similar theme accompanies a sequel to Meet the Fockers.

"The way we go after these is when we have a story that can make it earn itself back," Roach told MTV. "Sequels shouldn't always be automatic; there's a certain amount of pressure if something works, to have it work twice. But that doesn't always mean it will work three times."

As for the film, which would reportedly focus on parenthood and be called Little Fockers, the director continued:

"We're just trying to find the right story that makes it worth doing again. We always talk about ideas for it, and it would be a great group of people to get back together, for sure."

Christian Bale appears to be locked in to yet another franchise. At the Cannes Film Festival, it was announced that that Bale has signed on for all three of the new Terminator films, starting with Terminator 4, currently in production.

"Christian was our first choice and he's a big fan of The Terminator, so we're very lucky," said Victor Kubicek from Halcyon at the Cannes Film Festival. "But with Batman he's already done the whole franchise thing, so we weren't sure he'd respond."

"He read the script and he loved it, so he's signed on for all three," added Kubicek's business partner, Derek Anderson.

Next month, of course, Bale stars in his current franchise, portraying Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton will star in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films' adaptation of the popular video game.

In the fantasy adventure, Gyllenhaal will portray Dastan, a young prince in sixth century Persia who must join forces with Tamina (Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess. Together, they must prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

As The Hollywood Reporter states, Gyllenhaal will next appear in Brothers with Tobey Maguire.

British actress Arterton is relatively new on the film scene, but is already generating heat for her work in Guy Ritchie's upcoming RocknRolla and the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

While Liv Tyler's Lord of the Rings character, Arwen, doesn't appear in the book of The Hobbit, the actress would not exactly be let down if Peter Jackson called her to star in the big screen version of the story.

"Oh, are you kidding?" she said when asked. "In a heartbeat! I'll buy my own ticket and be on the plane in a second. I mean, that was a magical experience and it was just a once in a lifetime, amazing [thing]. Because it was so like… we knew and we didn't know that it was sort of something that had never been done before, and there was this feeling that was really gung-ho.

Like, 'O.K., let's go off together!' And we just rolled our sleeves up. It really was this amazing, crazy, special thing."