Weekly Entertainment News

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Famke Janssen on X-Men 3
Source: ComingSoon!
ComingSoon.net talked to Hide and Seek star Famke Janssen about the status of X-Men 3. Janssen plays Jean Grey in the 20th Century Fox franchise based on the Marvel characters.

Asked whether or not she will be back, Janssen said, "Don't know quite yet, but probably... I've heard things and they're developing the script right now, Dark Phoenix is part of that script."

Bryan Singer, who directed the first two "X-Men" movies, won't be back for the third as he's preparing to start filming Superman in March. Janssen says she'll miss him this time around. "I would, yes. I think he made those movies."

Janssen also addressed which cast members may return. "Some people are because of signed contracts, and some people can renegotiate. So I'm sure it has to do with a lot of different things. I'm not contractually obligated. I wouldn't want to do a sequel for the sake of a sequel. Hopefully there's a good director involved or the character is fun to play."

There have been rumors that the third story will involve her character's transformation into Dark Phoenix. "I've heard things like that," she adds, "but at the same time I'm realistic about knowing that they're going to have to give a bunch of people a good chunk of the movie for them to want to come back. And then there's going to be new characters introduced, so it's always a little tricky. If it's anybody's movie ever, it's going to be Wolverine's movie because that's the number one X-Men character. But we'll see. From what I've heard? Yes, she's a big part of it."

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Disney and Jackman to Make Musicals
Source: ComingSoon!
Disney has made a nonexclusive deal to develop multiple theatrical musicals for Hugh Jackman to produce and star in, reports Variety. The deal came after Disney toppers Dick Cook and Nina Jacobson saw Jackman in Broadway's "The Boy From Oz."

The trade says that Jackman has formed a company with new partner John Palermo, Bryan Singer's assistant on X-Men, and they will be joined in the venture by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who executive produced the feature version of Chicago and are producing Hairspray.

"As an art form, the musical is Mount Everest. Tough to pull off, but exhilarating and timeless when it works. And when it is done badly, it stinks to high heaven," Jackman said from the set of Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.

Jackman and Palermo will also cut their teeth as producers by getting involved in X-Men 3 as well as a Wolverine spinoff feature Troy screenwriter David Benioff is writing at 20th Century Fox.

Jackman said Disney will develop as many as three projects at the same time. That may include a remake, though he hopes not.

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McG and Endgame Team on Stay Alive
Source: ComingSoon!
McG's production company Wonderland Sound & Vision has teamed up with James Stern's Endgame Entertainment to co-produce horror film Stay Alive. According to Variety, the movie is expected to start shooting in March in New Orleans.

To be directed by Brent Bell, Stay Alive is about a group of New Orleans teens who play an online horror video game; as their characters die in the game, the players die also.

The film was written by Bell with Matthew Peterman. Video game producer American McGee will design all the game effects for the movie and consult on its production. Morris Paulson's Base 2 Studios will handle visual effects for the project.

Wonderland is developing Revenge of the Nerds, Hot Wheels, and Evel Knievel.

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Henson & WB to Adapt Witch's Children
Source: ComingSoon!
Jim Henson Pictures has teamed with Warner Bros. Pictures to adapt 2001 children's book The Witch's Children, written by the British team of Ursula Jones and illustrator Russell Ayto, reports Variety.

First published in the U.S. in 2003 by Henry Holt, "Children" started out a simple picture book about some misadventures caused when the magic of several witches-in-training goes off half-cocked.

But Henson Pictures producers Lisa Henson and Kristine Belson (Good Boy!) were taken with a more sophisticated pitch from Laws of Attraction screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna - What happens when a single-mother witch decamps from her magical and somewhat morally suspect realm to raise her brood in the safer, more kid-friendly suburbs?

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Ricky Gervais in Mission: Impossible 3?
Source: ComingSoon!
UK tabloid the Daily Mirror is reporting that The Office creator/star Ricky Gervais may star alongside Tom Cruise in Paramount's Mission: Impossible 3, targeted for a summer 2006 release.

The newspaper says Gervais agreed to take a role in the second sequel after meeting the international star when he picked up two Golden Globe Awards last year.

"I greatly admire the director Jeffrey Abrams and Tom Cruise is the greatest film star of our generation. It should be fun," Gervais was quoted as saying.

Gervais now hopes to hire Cruise for a cameo role in his new comedy Extras about a struggling actor. Jude Law will also appear in one episode.

The 43-year-old has also finished writing a script for an episode of The Simpsons.

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Avi Arad Talks About Hulk 2
Source: SuperheroHype!

Scooper 'Kevin Roegele' tells us that Avi Arad talked to Total Film magazine about Hulk 2:

Bigger action, smaller Hulk in sequel says Avi Arad.

February's Total Film magazine features some new information from Marvel's Avi Arad. He confirms that Hulk 2 is in progress, and a few intruiging changes that will be made from the first film.

"In the next movie, Hulk 2, the Hulk will be smaller. If you make him 15-feet tall, there's no human connection there.....Right now we are still developing the sequel. I think the key thing is to come up with the right story."

The article also says we are promised, 'less angst and a lot more Hulk smashing,' and that Bruce Banner will become more comfortable with his big green side.

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"Fockers" Shushes "White Noise"
Source: E!Online


Meet the Fockers remained on top of the box office for the third weekend in a row, earning an estimated $28.5 million from Friday to Sunday to bring the dysfunctional family comedy's gross to a whopping $204.3 million.


White Noise, a new horror mystery starring ex-Batman and onetime Mr Mom Michael Keaton as an architect with I-hear-dead-people problems, was shushed into second place. But its $24 million was earned at considerably fewer theaters, giving it the per-screen-average victory among wide releases. At 2,261 theaters, White Noise averaged $10,615 despite being slammed by critics, while Meet the Fockers, the amazingly successful sequel to Meet the Parents, averaged $8,081 at 3,527 theaters.

The Fockers' three-peat and the combined one-two top listing was good news for Universal, the studio which released both PG-13 movies, which together attracted 53 percent of ticket sales over the weekend, according to Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations.

With none of the top 10 movies dropping off over 50 percent from the previous weekend, distributors didn't have too much to complain about. Combined business for the top 12 movies was down 21 percent from last weekend, but that's understandable given that the holiday season is over, school is back in session, and NFL football playoffs dominate television, and the $98.2 million overall gross was actually 8 percent higher than this time last year.

Fox executive Richard Myerson felt business for his studio's Fat Albert was "fantastic" in its third week, particularly on Saturday when its core audience of family and teens bought tickets, boosting sales more than 100 percent over Friday night's take. The PG-rated live-action comedy take on the TV 'toon earned $6 million at 2,675 sites. It dropped just 41 percent and one slot to fifth place, behind multiple Golden Globe nominee and probable Oscar contender The Aviator's $7.6 million in third and rival kid flick Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which earned $7.4 million in fourth.

In limited release, the National Society of Film Critics' Best Picture winner and another of the potential major Oscar contenders Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood's female boxing drama starring Hilary Swank, expanded from nine screens to 109 in its fourth week, consequently gaining 640 percent for an estimated $2 million on a per-site average of $18,440.

Another big challenger in the awards game, Sideways, won't expand until the end of this month, after the Golden Globes have been handed out and the Oscar nominations announced. The wine-quaffing, road-tripping, midlife-crisis-suffering buddy comedy, now in its 12th week of release dropped 7 percent, earning about $2 million with a per-screen average of $5,479 at just 365 locations, five fewer than last weekend.

Gaining from expansion was yet another Oscar wannabe, the fact-based drama Hotel Rwanda starring Don Cheadle. Adding 98 locations to play at 105, the MGM/UA release gained 708 percent, earning $1.1 million from a $10,952 per-screen average, .

Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on preliminary studio figures; final tallies will be released Monday:

1. Meet the Fockers, $28.5 million
2. White Noise, $24 million
3. The Aviator, $7.6 million
4. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, $7.4 million
5. Fat Albert, $6 million
6. Ocean's Twelve, $5.4 million
7. National Treasure, $4.47 million
8. Spanglish, $4.4 million
9. Andrew Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera, $3.4 million
10. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, $2.6 million

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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Teaser

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New Line's "Next Big Trilogy"
Source: Moviehole

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article up today about what New Line are doing now that Frodo has turfed the ring.

Their big hope is another trilogy, the far less well-known "His Dark Materials," by British author Philip Pullman.

The studio has committed to producing only the first of Pullman's bestselling novels. "The Golden Compass," a special-effects-driven fantasy, could cost more than $150 million to bring to the screen. If it's successfull, then, the studio may consider doing the two other stories.

Studio co-chairman Michael Lynne believes the studio has a winner on their hands with this new potential trilogy. "If you create something of historic proportions with historic economic returns and you find a project of scale that you want to invest in," Lynne said, "no one is going to tell you not to do it."

Chris Weitz was attached to direct the first film, but dropped out saying the project was too fat for his liking. "I didn't feel like I was willing to undertake the sheer scale of this," he said. "It's a remarkably daunting challenge for me."

Rolf Mittweg, New Line's head of worldwide distribution and marketing, said the global popularity of the "His Dark Materials" books provided a good foundation for a major film. "There is tremendous box-office potential in properties whose appeal stretches beyond the borders of the United States," Mittweg said.

The first book, "The Golden Compass," follows the adventures of a 12-year-old orphan who goes on a magical journey in search of a kidnapped friend and discovers secrets of her own past, her world and parallel universes. The story features witches, angels, talking polar bears and "daemons" — animals that serve as each human character's alter ego.

The article also mentions that they're waiting for Chris Tucker to say yes to a script for "Rush Hour 3". What the heck is the guy waiting for?! You'd think it'd be Jackie Chan they'd have to convince. Anyway, that's scrawled on their schedule too. Brett Ratner returns to helm.

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1949's Batman and Robin on DVD March 22
Source: SuperheroHype!
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced Batman and Robin - The Serial Collection for release on March 22nd. The two-disc DVD set features the fifteen black and white episodes which were shown in theaters in 1949. This was the second Batman and Robin serial, the first came to theaters in 1943.

The weekly episodes left you with a cliffhanger to keep you coming back the following week. The price of admission? It was only a nickel!

Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, Batman and Robin starred Robert Lowery as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Johnny Duncan as Robin/Richard 'Dick' Grayson, Eric Wilton as Alfred, and William Fawcett as Professor Hamill.

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James Cameron Prepares Battle Angel
Source: DarkHorizons



"Titanic" and "Aliens" Director James Cameron has been busy doing the press rounds for for Disney's underwater doco "Aliens of the Deep", and during those chats he confirmed to LatinoReview his next project was the feature length 3D feature "Battle Angel", based on the Japanese graphic novel "Battle Angel Alita" - "It will be live action combined with CG, and hopefully will be ready for release in 2007."

More importantly though, he's finally gone into some details, such as what book the movie will cover, "It will be a combination of the 1st and 3rd books." Who will play the main character of Alita, "A known actor will be cast to play Alita, but it is not a star driven movie. And most of Alita will be CG."

Cameron went on to say that he's waited to do Battle Angel in digital 3-D because of Digital Cinema, "By the early summer of 2007 most theater houses will be equipped with D-cinema, or Digital Cinema."

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Traktor Options Sci-Fi Thriller Siphon
Source: ComingSoon!

Swedish directing quintet Traktor has optioned sci-fi thriller script Siphon by Paul Sloan, reports Variety.

The film is described as The Silence of the Lambs meets Blade Runner. It's about an obsessed female detective tracking a serial killer through a sprawling metropolis, using futuristic crime-fighting weapons and tactics, only to discover the suspect may not be human.

Sloan also wrote, and is attached to star in, Snakeskin, which is set up at Millennium Films with Emmett/Furla producing.

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SCOOP: ALIEN PET BOY resurrected?
Scooper tells us that project is back on track
Source: Cinescape


One of the more interesting projects trapped in the pits of development hell is a movie adaptation of the childrens book PET BOY. Written and illustrated by Keith Graves, the story follows a young boy named Stanley who's more of a pet collector than a pet lover, always losing interest in his latest furry friend until a new animal that's more exotic comes along. One day Sytanley is kidnapped by a flying saucer and adopted by a three-eyed alien boy named Jopnar as his pet, forcing the human child to learn what it's like to be treated without respect for one's pets.

ALIEN PET BOY (as the movie was titled) was first optioned by Universal Pictures in the late 1990s and scheduled to be one of the studio's new computer generated films until plans for Uni's new division fell through. The project was then picked up in 2000 by Nickelodeon in turnaround from Universal, with director Chris Bird coming aboard to develop it. Then, for the past five years, there's been no news to report about the ALIEN PET BOY film...until we got this scoop:



"Paramount on 1/5/2005 gave the production go-ahead to Klasky Csupo to develop and reinvigorate ALIEN PET BOY. It will be the first full 3D movie for Klasky Csupo."


Klasky Csupo is the animation firm behind the RUGRATS cartoon series and movies, so if ALIEN PET BOY has indeed been picked up by this company, it's found a good home.

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Wig Allegedly Used By PAUL STANLEY Being Auctioned On EBAY - Jan. 10, 2005
Source: Blabbermouth

A wig purportedly used by KISS guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley during the making of the group's 1989 video, "Rise to It", is currently being auctioned on eBay. A message on the auction page from the seller, Alexx Michael from the band SHAMELESS, reads as follows:

"This is a wig for the top of Paul's head that he used in the 'Rise to It' video. His initials are on the inside of the wig. This wig was just a part of his head. It was on top over his real hair. This is the real deal!!!!
"My name is Alexx Michael from the band SHAMELESS. I've been known in the KISS world for many many years. You can ask KISS dealers like Frank Caraglio, Kissfanshop.de, Kissmuseum.com, Keith Leuroux from Kiss Asylum or members of the band like Bruce Kulick or Eric Singer about my person.

"I've been a KISS fan myself for the last 28 years. I still love the band but I just don't have the time anymore to take care of my collection. So here is a chance to get your hands on a few unusual, rare pieces of KISStory.

"All the stuff came from Manning/Butterfield's when me and a friend bought a big lot of items that didn't sell in the KISS Auction 2000. The lucky winner will get a copy of the Manning receipt for the lot.

"This wig was in a little bag along with various other hairpieces."

The starting bid is $150.00. The auction ends on January 17 at 12:11:44 PST.