June 2008 News Archive (Page 11)

George Clooney, last seen on the big screen in the disappointing comedy Leatherheads, will likely next star in The Tourist.

According to Variety, Clooney is producing the movie and will likely star in it; the flick is based on the OlenStein hauer novel of the same name.

The Tourist is described as a contemporary international thriller about a spy who risks his life to uncover a conspiracy when he's wrongly accused of murder.

Clooney next stars alongside Brad Pitt in the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading.

Andrew Stanton earned an Academy Award for his work on Finding Nemo.

Now, the writer/director is back with this summer's next Pixar hit, WALL-E. He recently spoke with ComingSoon.net about the animated feature, commenting on the origins of the main character:

Yeah, it was, well to get really picky, it was an original character that we came up with at that lunch. The story I didn't start on until the "Nemo" years, but out of that lunch came just a quick little concept of like, sci-fi and robots and what if everyone left the planet and what if there was this one little robot left collecting all the garbage that just didn't know it could stop doing its job.

Get to know WALL-E. on June 27.

And I thought that is such an exercise in futility, I could even buy a character that's a machine, after seven hundred years of doing the same thing, finally asking the question "there's got to be more to life than what I'm doing." I just thought that that was great.

But it was such an abstract concept even then, before we'd even proven that we could do "Toy Story," we were like, well no one would ever give us the money or the opportunity to do something like that, that was so out there.

So it got put on a shelf and we became much more experienced, much more involved in other pictures, much better filmmakers and so by the time "Nemo" came out I felt we were at a place where maybe I would internally get the okay to make a movie like that but maybe the outside world would be open to coming to a movie like that. So maybe in a weird way it was better, letting it simmer for so long.

If the women can do it, so can the men.

Executive Producer Mark Wahlberg was recently asked about the future of Entourage and said:

"We're doing Season 5 right now. We're hoping for maybe three [or] four more seasons, and then maybe a film or two. Obviously the [Sex and the City movie] success has opened up a window of opportunity there."

Would you go see an Entourage movie?

Here's the clearest picture yet The Joker from The Dark Knight.

As the world sadly knows, of course, this was the last role of Heath Ledger's career.

Meanwhile, here's the latest TV spot for the movie:

Many teenage girls would likely say it's appropriate for Justin Timberlake to star in The Love Guru, considering the effect he has on them on a daily basis. (i.e. He's hot!)

With that in mind, MoviesOnline recently talked with the singer/actor:

MoviesOnline: What do you think Mike Myers saw in you that made him think you could pull this off?
Justin Timberlake: I can't say, really. I would assume that my interaction with Mike promoting Shrek the Third and probably most likely my couple of stints on SNL let Mike know that I could play the part.

MoviesOnline: Did he just send you the script or did he call you up and describe it to you?
Justin Timberlake: He called first and then he sent the script and our conversation went something like, "Hey, I want you to come play the villain in this new movie I'm working on. I've been, you know, workshopping the character." I don't know if you guys know Mike's process, but it's pretty amazing, right? I wish I would have gotten to workshop Jacques Grande. That was pretty amazing. Now he's just going to be too famous. I'm not going to be able to show up and do it.

MoviesOnline: Did you work on the accent? Did you have a dialect coach?
Justin Timberlake: Both. Yes. I figured the best way to do it was to get the accent down proper. And so I got the accent down proper and then when we got to set, for the first couple of days that I was on set, I just kept the dialect coach with me, and said, "You have to help me find ways to milk this."

Because we're in a Mike Myers film, okay, so we have to be funny." I didn't think about it, somebody just pointed this out to me, I'm the only other caricature really in the film. I mean, between Mike and myself, everybody else plays it kind of straight. But we are the antagonists in the film. I'm the other guy who's basically in a clown suit.

Daniel Craig sliced off the tip of one of his fingers filming an action sequence this week for Quantum of Solace.

Guess that's what happens when you try flying off a bus...

According to The Daily Mail, Craig was taken to hospital today while a scene was being shot at Pinewood Studios.

It's the second time in two weeks that the actor has been injured during filming. A week ago his face was cut and required eight stitches. It's a small price to pay to portray James Bond, of course.

It's gonna be a fun few years for comic book fans.

Having already announced its slate of superhero flicks, Marvel has now released the following logos to back them up. Which are you most excited for?

Ironman 2, Thor, Captain America and Avengers are all coming soon. Relatively soon, at least.

In the wake of tepid movie reviews, M. Night Shyamalan is playing down expectations for The Happening.

"I wanted it to be a fantastic, fun B-movie," Shyamalan told Reuters about his latest film. "The number-one thing is I want people to say: 'That was a really fun B-movie.'"

As for his motivation in writing the flick, the director said:

"There's so many things to be paranoid about right now. I was so clear about what kind of movie I was making," adding that he hopes viewers will wonder if the plot "could really happen."

What do you think: Is Shyamalan being sincere? Or just playing down expectations for a film that appears headed for a flop?

According to Variety, Judd Apatow (pictured) has added Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill to his previously-announced Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and Eric Bana comedy.

Aptly, the film is called Funny People.

The filmmaker, who last wrote and directed Knocked Up, hasn't commented on the plot of the movie, as he's only said it takes place in the world of standup comedy and the focus is on a comedian who has a near-death experience.

In case you haven't seen any previews for The Happening, this is M. Night Shyamalan's first-ever R-rated movie. But does that mean it's actually worth your time and money.

Let's see what various film critics have to say about that...

- The movie seems more like a '50s science fiction film of extreme paranoia or an episode of "The Twilight Zone" that even at a swiftly paced 90 minutes feels padded... -- Hollywood Reporter

- The movie demonstrates a smart movie geek's obsession with the rhythms and gory details of horror storytelling, undermined by a pompous insistence on spiritual lessons of the tritest kind... -- Entertainment Weekly

- Sadly for Mr. Shyamalan, the ideas that have been coming to him since his brilliant first hit, The Sixth Sense, are progressively worthy of less merit and more deserving of ridicule... -- Urban Cinefile

- It's a shame that the movie is such a tonal failure, because it does many other things right... -- Las Vegas Weekly