We’ve lost another legend of the entertainment industry. Musician Ray Charles has shifted to that big cloud in the sky. Charles, 73, renowned for his gospel and blues music, died at his Beverly Hills home after suffering a nasty bout of liver disease. The “Blues Brothers” star had been blind since age 7, but it never stopped him from becoming one of the world’s best music artists. He shall be missed.
David Duchovny stated on the UK’s GMTV morning show that there will be a new “X-Files” movie being produced in the next nine months. He has spoken with Gillian Anderson, presently in Ireland, though residing in London, about the project and both are keen. Duchovny, in London promoting “Connie & Carla”, said (on the Jonathan Ross Show on the BBC) that he (Duchovny) would have liked to have had an “X-Files” movie franchise up and running years ago.
SneakPeek.CA reports that US cabler the Cartoon Network will reteam with Lucasfilm Ltd. to broadcast 5 brand-new 12-minute animated "Star Wars" adventures.
IGNFilmForce has a script review up of “Caesar” today. Quite a positive go over.
MediaSharx have the first pictures from Cartoon Network’s new series “Krypto the Superdog”.
Spyglass has pre-emptively purchased a pitch based on the yet-to-be-published online comic strip “Spin”, created by Rob Liefeld. Th fantasy comedy concerns a highly successful single woman whose life is uprooted when a curse is put on her.
Robert Pattinson has been cast for the part of Cedric Diggory in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. More details at Coming Soon.
Viggo Mortensen will topline “A History of Violence” for director David Cronenberg. Adapted by Josh Olson from John Wagner and Vince Locke’s graphic novel of the same name, the film tells the story of an ordinary family’s life after the father receives unwanted national attention for a seemingly vigilante-style self-defense killing at his diner. Mortensen would play the father.
Jay Roach will develop as a potential directing vehicle the Gustin Nash-scripted coming-of-age comedy “Charlie Bartlett” for Fox Searchlight. The film is about an eccentric teenager who gains popularity by becoming the student supplier of prescription drugs. A potential collision with the school superintendent is averted when the student helps the educator patch up his relationship with his daughter.
The Ten Network has commissioned a telemovie based on Glenn Robbins’ “Russell Coight” character from production Working Dog, says The Age.
David Twohy told CHUD a little about the “Riddick” TV Spin-Off. “It will be a two hour pilot followed by a series based on the Jack/Kyra character, and how she went and searched for Riddick, and what trouble befell her along the way”. Starring Alexa Davalos? “Probably not, because she wants to pursue a film career, not a cable career, and it might deal with a slightly younger version because this is five years later, she’s playing 18, 19, 20 and she would be 15, 16, 17.”
Judy Greer and Paul Schneider have joined the cast of “Elizabethtown”. Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Biel star, with Greer playing the daughter of Susan Sarandon’s character and Schneider playing the cousin of Bloom’s character.
Woody Allen is making an extremely rare foray outside New York, as the Gotham-centric helmer readies to shoot his latest movie in London. Details of the project are shrouded in secrecy, but a production office is up and running at Ealing Studios, in West London, with shooting reportedly to start July 12. The movie, known only as "Woody Allen Summer Project," is set in London’s high society, with Kate Winslet possibly among the cast. The budget is said to be $15 million.
Vince Colosimo will star in a new Australian flick called “Poppy and Dingan” for Director Peter Cattaneo, set to start filming in August. Based on the novella by Ben Rice, it tells of an 11 year old boy who lives in the opal-mining town of Lightning Ridge. Colosimo will play the father.
After huge buzz in Cannes involving the project, Hollywood Attorney, Harris Tulchin, has come on board female driven spy thriller ‘Daisy Scarlett’ as Executive Producer, alongside Writer/Producer Ben Trebilcook, who has penned outlines/Treatments for 3 more ‘Daisy Scarlett’ movies – which is more than hinting at the fact that ‘DS’ will become a franchise ala Bond.
The Exclusive uncut trailer for “Saw” is over at ifilm, The “Fahrenheit 9/11” trailer is also up at the aforesaid site, and they’ve got an exclusive clip from “The Stepford Wives” also and an exclusive clip from “Dodgeball”.
SneakPeek.CA says Vancouver’s Shavick/Insight Entertainment, are currently casting the ‘Cliffhanger’ type mountain actioner "Snowman’s Pass", slated to begin shooting this month in British Columbia.
The official website for “Exorcist : The Beginning” is online here and the trailer is up at MTV. Don’t all rush at once!
According to The Age, Australia’s ABC has snapped up the rights to U.S series “Carnivale”, whilst Channel Ten has bought “One Tree Hill” from Channel 9.
Australian TV Presenter Tracy Grimshaw [“Today”] will voice the character of Katie Current,a journalist, in Dreamworks’ “Shark Tale”. In the U.S, the character will be voiced by Katie Couric.
Pino Donnagio is composing the music for “Seed of Chucky”, which is locked in for an October release.
According to Coming Soon, Hugh Jackman will start filming “The Fountain” for Darren Aronofsky from November 1 in Montreal.
Dark Horizons reports that Michael Madsen and Alexis Bledel have joined the cast of “Sin City”. “Madsen will play Bob, the partner to Bruce Willis’s ‘Hartigan’ in "That Yellow Bastard", while it is thought that Bledel will play ‘Becky’ in "The Big Fat Kill"”, says a scooper.
Jennifer Love Hewitt told About.Com that plans for a third “I Know what you did Last Summer” have fallen through. “They talked about it for a while and then sort of gave up on it. Then I heard they were going to make another one without any of the original cast in it, which would have been odd. Then they decided not to do that either. So no, I don’t think there will be.” She wasn’t keen for it anyway. “I was done with the fisherman. And my top could not have gotten any smaller”.
Eddie Murphy will star in an as-yet-untitled comedy at DreamWorks described as "Romeo and Juliet" told from the point of view of the lovers’ parents.
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is in negotiations to acquire the film rights to Rick James’ autobiography, “Memoirs of a Super Freak”, with David Chappelle in early talks to topline the feature film adaptation of the funk rocker’s memoirs for Paramount Pictures.
Steve Carr will helm “Mama’s Boy” for Warner Bros. The film concerns a slacker in his thirties whose ideal life of living at home with his angelic mom is endangered when she falls in love with a self-help guru and prepares to marry him.
George Tillman Jr. and Robert Teitel’s State Street Pictures and A Squared Prods. have sold their untitled “Sports Babysitter” pitch to 20th Century Fox. The project is based on an article in Details magazine by Chris Smith. The story is about a star NFL quarterback who jeopardizes his lucrative corporate endorsement deal when he misbehaves in public. With the publicity-rich Super Bowl fast approaching, the company hires a child psychologist to "baby-sit" the wayward athlete and protect their brand from further scandal.
According to Superman-V.com, Brendon Routh, Mike Vogel, and Hayden Christensen were scheduled to screen-test this week for “Superman” as well. Christensen apparently pulled out though. Other names apparently in the running are Jake Gyllenhaal (yep, he’s still in with a chance), Max Brown and Charlie Hunnan [“Cold Mountain”].
Warner Bros. Pictures has beat out stiff competition for Cristi Limm’s black comedy “Maid of Dishonor”.The film follows a jilted bride-turned-anti-romantic who must return home to be the maid of honor in her sister’s wedding party.
Mark Waters will helm Paramount and Nickelodeon’s children’s movie, “The Spiderwick Chronicles”.Based on a six-part book series by fantasy writer Holly Black and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, the film revolves around twin boys and their teenage sister. They discover a world of goblins, fairies and other magical creatures.
Juliette Binoche will star in Barry Levinson’s “My Italian Story”, playing the mother of a Jewish boy in Nazi-occupied Italy during WWII on a quest for a rabbi to perform his bar mitzvah.
Krypton Site says that some of the “Smallville” cast are doing commentary on the Season 3 DVD’s.
Sources : The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, ‘Stax’, ‘Marcus’, ‘Brits’, ‘Megan’, ‘Carolina’, ‘Michael’, ‘Catherine’
Caffeinated Clint
We’ve lost another legend of the entertainment industry. Musician Ray Charles has shifted to that big cloud in the sky. Charles, 73, renowned for his gospel and blues music, died at his Beverly Hills home after suffering a nasty bout of liver disease. The “Blues Brothers” star had been blind since age 7, but it never stopped him from becoming one of the world’s best music artists. He shall be missed.