'Transformers 3' Extra Hurt and in Critical Condition
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy
I've always assumed that the Transformers films were more painful to watch than to make, but apparently that may not be the case. CBS 2 Chicago is reporting that an extra on the set of Transformers 3 was seriously injured during a stunt on the film's Indiana set last night. Gabriela Cedillo - a 24 year-old Chicago resident - had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital after an object pierced the windshield of the car she was driving and struck her in the head. The car - Cedillo's personal 2006 Toyota - slammed into the road's median barrier after impact and then scraped along the concrete divide for almost a mile before finally coming to a stop.
The strange part of all of this is not that another person was injured during a Michael Bay shoot (his dialogue scenes tend to feature more explosions than some small wars), but that Cedillo is supposedly not a member of the production's stunt crew. The CBS report suggests that she was merely an extra, but why would an extra be participating in a vehicular stunt scene, and driving her own car no less? The accident was serious enough to shutter production for the day, but thus neither Bay nor Paramount have offered any comment (if Cedillo were a puppy, Bay would no doubt already be on the warpath.
Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig and Anne Hathaway to Join 'Friends with Kids'?
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Casting
Watching the Emmys the other night, I saw George Clooney on the stage accepting his Bob Hope Humanitarian Award and then I saw Jon Hamm in the audience (they cut to him as Clooney left the stage) and wondered if he's that next TV star to transition to being an A-list film actor. Will he be back in 15 years to similarly win a special honor? Is he even big into causes? In any event, he's about to hit the big screen in next week's The Town and later this month in Howl, and now he's also eying a more prominent role in the indie comedy Friends with Kids, according to Showbiz 411.The film was written by Hamm's girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt (maybe you saw her with him at the Emmys), who previously scripted and starred in the indie hit Kissing Jessica Stein and the cute, little seen rom-com Ira & Abby. Hamm had minor roles in both prior to becoming famous as Don Draper. This time he'll star, and I wonder if we'll get to see the real-life couple playing an onscreen couple presumably dealing with the fact that all their friends have kids and they don't (and maybe, like Hamm and Westfeldt, aren't even married).
Could Harvey Keitel Manage 'The Office'?
Filed under: Casting, RumorMonger, Home Entertainment
Television gets its share of replacement actors. When a series goes into one, two, or many years, not all of the cast is going to stick around. That might mean seeing David Tennant replace Christopher Eccleston as Doctor Who, Kirstie Alley replacing Shelley Long on Cheers, or Cheryl Ladd taking over for Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels. There have been high points, low points, and shocking new faces ... but this new one might take the cake.Why are we talking about television here? Because executive producer Paul Lieberstein really wants to cast Harvey Keitel as Steve Carell's replacement on The Office. Harvey. Keitel. Not a rumor, nor an example of random wild dreaming, Lieberstein hopes to replace The 40-Year-Old Virgin with The Bad Lieutenant.
The Best Songs That Are Inspired By Movies
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Fandom, Lists
Usually when I talk about music around these parts, it's with an eye on the movies. But even though most of my inspirations come from movies -- with the music as a vital, but supporting player -- today I thought I would try to do things a little differently. Which is why today is all about music that was inspired by the movies.
Pop music is littered with movie references, and sometimes the references are a little more obscure, as is the case with the genesis of Bob Seger's classic Night Moves. Legend has it that the idea for the song was born as Seger walked out of the theater for George Lucas' American Graffiti and he realized that he had his own stories of a misspent youth to share. But other inspirations can be a little more obvious, like with Jay Z's tribute to Frank Lucas and American Gangster with his album of the same name.
We all know inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places (yes, even from within darkened movie theaters), and so here are five songs that could never have existed without a little inspiration from the silver screen.
Angelina Jolie Passes Up Awesome 3D Sci-Fi Epic 'Gravity' Because ...
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, RumorMonger
Though there are five (or is it fifty?) projects Angelina Jolie is flirting with or prepping for right now -- from her directorial debut in Bosnia to Cleopatra -- there's one film she's definitely not doing. In fact, she's refused to sign on twice now, even after some salivating hard-core press from the studio, an intriguing premise, a great director, and big money.Though Warner Bros. fought to bring her into the fold, and she was initially intrigued by the project when it was at Universal, Jolie refuses to headline Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's upcoming 3D sci-fi film, which would see her in a challenging Cast Away-type role set on a space station.
Get Ready... Here's Your First Peek of Rihanna in 'Battleship'
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Games and Game Movies, Images
Oh man... That insane gamble otherwise known as Battleship shows no signs of stopping, even though many of you agree that it's somewhat ridiculous and most likely doomed. Whether we like it or not, the future is bringing us a board-game finagling that will see Navy types battling aliens on the open seas. It stars the utterly baffling mix of Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna, Alexander Skarsgard, Tom Arnold, Hamish Linklater, and Brooklyn Decker (a model).At this point, it seems beyond our mental capacity to imagine how this will play out. But finally, we've got our first look at Rihanna on set, dressed in Navy duds and ready to kick some alien ass.
Tyler Perry, Potential Oscar Nominee?
Filed under: Drama, Awards, Lionsgate Films, RumorMonger, Distribution
Until a month or so ago, I didn't realize that Tyler Perry's next film, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, was based on an acclaimed play. No, even with a cast that included Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine, Macy Gray and Janet Jackson among others, I had just assumed that we were looking at another tone-deaf gospel-laced melodrama. (To date, I've seen all but one of his feature films, so believe me when I say that they're identical in both content and execution.)Colored Girls might be something to contend with, though. Left with little to push for awards this fall beyond maybe Ryan Reynolds in Buried (if they're feeling frisky, and I hope that they are), Lionsgate has moved the film's release up by two months, from January '11 to November 5 -- a vote of confidence if ever I saw one.
Then again, nobody's seen the thing yet, but maybe, just maybe, Perry leveled his direction out this time. If so, let's just hope that he doesn't let Madea accept any awards on his behalf...
Michael Bay Offers $50,000 for Arrest of Girl Who Threw Puppies Into River
Filed under: RumorMonger, Newsstand
There's a video circulating that I haven't had the stomach to watch, but it shows a girl throwing puppies into a river. Puppies, people. I know there are people who like to watch stuff like this -- I believe they're called sociopaths -- but Michael Bay is not one of them. And no, I'm not linking to it. You know how to use Google. Bay might be Hitler on set according to Megan Fox, but he's a bleeding heart puppy-lover when it comes right down to it. Although I'm not sure it will put my butt in the seat to watch Transformers Take Chi-Town, it does make me feel a little warm and fuzzy towards him.
According to Gawker, the director "is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of the woman in the red sweatshirt and the person who shot this act of cruelty."
The blog post has since been removed, but Gawker has thoughtfully taken a screen capture of the blog post from "Nelson," the person who runs Bay's site and sometimes posts for him when he's busy making stuff blow up. Nelson describes them as "squealing puppies." They're squealing. Squealing!
Whether or not it was removed because the girl has apparently issued an apology (complete with a frowny face!) via YouTube, or if the Bosnian police have solved the case, or if it was because the animal lovers at 4chan found her already is anyone's guess. 4chan recently found out pretty much everything there was to know about a woman who was seen on video throwing a live cat into a garbage can less than 24 hours after the video surfaced. Incidentally, she's now under police protection.
So, don't eff with 4chan, the Bosnian police, or with Michael Bay. Especially 4chan.
Cinematical Late Night: Paula Patton, Barry Levinson, Sam Levinson
Filed under: Casting, Images, Trailers and Clips
- Now we'll just paint a little happy Spartan over here. THIS...IS...PAINTING!
- Another operative is in place for Mission: Impossible IV (don't call it that). Paula Patton will join Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner for the reboot-or-whatever-it-is-exactly as a young agent. Now here's an idea so crazy it might just work: Patton's Precious co-star Gabourey Sidibe for the villain!
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson are expected to star in the Diablo Cody-adapted zom-rom-com Breathers: A Zombie's Lament. Suddenly this video tutorial on how to make ScarJo look like a zombie comes in handy.
Why Video-On-Demand Might Save Movies (and Movie Theaters)
Filed under: Distribution, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing
My dad is old, and he kind of looks like W.C. Fields. He's old enough that there was a time in his life when people probably thought he actually was W.C. Fields. His favorite movie is Doctor Zhivago, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't enjoyed a movie since (he walked out of The Dark Knight in favor of Mamma Mia! And he walked out of Mamma Mia! in favor of a ham sandwich). He's not much of a movie-goer, but if you asked him which recent film is about "A swat team sent into a pitch black apartment building where a virus that turns people into demons is raging," he'd instantly be able to tell you that it's Rec 2, the plot of which he was intimately familiar with a month before its theatrical release. That's because my dad aimlessly watches a lot of television, and in his endless quest to find C-SPAN he rolls his eyes across the Magnolia Pictures "Early Screening" tab embedded in Time Warner Cable's VOD menus several dozen times a month.
In October of 2007 Magnolia inaugurated their "Ultra VOD" program by allowing cable subscribers to watch Brian De Palma's Redacted prior to its appearance in cinemas, and have since made approximately 75 films a year available to rent directly through VOD services. The vast majority of those titles have been made available day & date with their theatrical bows, but only a chosen few have received the "Ultra" service and been beamed exclusively into viewers living rooms for $10.99 a pop ($9.99 in standard definition). And my dad is a perfect example of why Magnolia would be interested in providing customers with early access to much-anticipated titles for less than the cost of a movie ticket.
The Best Songs That Are Inspired By Movies
Angelina Jolie Passes Up Awesome 3D Sci-Fi Epic 'Gravity' Because ...
Early Picks For The Best Screenplay Race
Will 'Avatar' Mark the End of the Re-Release?
And the Director of 'Clash of the Titans 2' Is...
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