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| Christian Bales Out Over 'Nam Batman Christian Bale will star with Steve Zahn in Rescue Dawn, the first fiction movie in four years from legendary German director Werner Herzog. The film will follow the true story of America fighter pilot Dieter Dengler (Bale), who was shot down during the Vietnam War, captured by the enemy and escaped with a group of POWs. Herzog made a documentary about Dengler in 1977. Is it just us, or does that story sound a wee bit like the plot of, well, Rambo? |
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| Pearce Shackled To Houdini Memento star Guy Pearce has landed the role of legendary escapologist Harry Houdini in Death Defying Acts. The film, which is based on the events surrounding Houdini's visit to Britiain in the 20s, will be directed by Australian helmer Gillian Armstrong, and Rachel Weisz is in talks to play the Scottish woman that Harry falls for. Rumours that Pearce won the role because he's the only actor skinny enough to escape from a milk churn have yet to be confirmed. |
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| Ricci Cursed Christina Ricci is set to star in the comedy Penelope, a modern day fairy story about a woman who is cursed with bad luck. The movie is being produced by Reese Witherspoon's Type-A Films, says The Hollywood Reporter. It's the latest in a string of productions for The Addams Family star, who is currently shooting Black Snake Moan with Samuel L Jackson and getting geared up for a lead role opposite Albert Finney and Liam Neeson on The White Rose. |
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| Walker Flies The Flag The Fast And The Furious star Paul Walker has landed a role in Clint Eastwood's WWII epic Flags Of Our Fathers. He'll play Hank Hansen, a seasoned soldier and one of the eponymous 'flag raisers' at The Battle Of Iwo Jima in 1945. Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis has already been hired to pen this adaptation of the book by James Bradley. It tells the story of a few good men who took part in a Pacific battle where 22,000 Japanese and 26,000 Americans were killed |
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| Aghdashloo Finds Value Of X According to IGN FilmForce, Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House Of Sand And Fog) has joined the cast of X-Men 3. She's said to be taking the role of Dr Kavita Rao, a world-renowned geneticist who develops a miracle serum to eradicate rogue cells in the mutant physiology - because they're worth it. Cameras are already rolling in Vancouver with a cast that includes franchise regulars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen and Anna Paquin. |
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| Lawless Open To Cameo Roles Lucy Lawless told SCI FI Wire that she'd welcome future cameo roles in the upcoming Evil Dead movies or in the third Spider-Man movie, which are being produced by her husband, Rob Tapert, and family friend Sam Raimi, but added that nothing's set yet. |
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| Bellucci Shooting With Owen Monica Bellucci and Paul Giamatti are in talks to star opposite Clive Owen in his action-packed latest, Shoot 'Em Up. The film sees Owen as the Mysterious Mr Smith, a taciturn heroic type who delivers a baby in the middle of a gunfight and spends the rest of the film protecting the child from an army of gun-wielding goons. Giamatti is eyeing the villain's role, while Bellucci is in the frame as Owen's love interest, according to Hollywood Reporter. Why not cast Bellucci as the villain, and Giamatti as the love interest? Come on Hollywood, how much fun would that be? |
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| Hoffman's Magic Toyshop Dustin Hoffman will star opposite Natalie Portman in the fantasy flick Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. The film will see Hoffman as the titular Mr M, an eccentric toy store owner who plans to leave his shop to Portman's character. According to Variety, she's depressed and needs a bit of cheering up. Mr Magorium is the brainchild of first time director Zach Helm, already one of Hollywood's hottest writing stars thanks to his script for the forthcoming comedy Stranger Than Fiction, which also stars Hoffman along with Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal. In fact, he's so hot that we wouldn't dare to suggest his story sounds a tiny bit like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. |
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| Neeson Hunts Brosnan Now officially free of James Bond, Pierce Brosnan has signed up for a role in Seraphim Falls, an American Civil war drama, according to Production Weekly. Brosnan will co-star with Liam Neeson in the film, which begins shooting in New Mexico next month. Neeson plays an army colonel with a vendetta against Brosnan's character, whom he pursues across the country. Veteran TV director David Von Ancken, a regular on US crime shows like CSI and The Shield, makes his feature debut on the film, which is described as a "psychological action movie". |
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| Spacey Breaks Vegas Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street production company has found a director to take charge of 21, a movie based on the non-fiction bestseller Bringing Down The House. Helmer Shawn Levy (Cheaper By The Dozen) is in talks to replace Brett Ratner, who pulled out of the production in order to direct X-Men 3. 21 is the story of a group of MIT students who used card counting techniques to win millions in Vegas casinos. Levy has just finished w**k on the Pink Panther remake, so he's no stranger to unlikely gambles. |
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| Hunnam Mulls Sci-Fi British actor Charlie Hunnam, soon to be seen chucking bricks in Green Street, is in talks to join the cast of Alfonso Cuaron's sci-fi thriller The Children Of Men. The film, which is based on a novel by PD James, takes place in a future world where men and women can no longer reproduce, and opens with the news that the world's youngest person, an 18-year-old, has died. Julianne Moore and Clive Owen star. The Children Of Men is one of a quartet of book adaptations for the busy Cuaron, who directed the best of the Harry Potter films, The Prisoner Of Azkaban. He's also planning film versions of Yann Martel's The Life Of Pi, Nicole Krauss' The History Of Love and and Ron McLarty's The Memory Of Running. |
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| Gere Trains Danes Richard Gere and Claire Danes are set to star together in The Flock, a thriller directed by Asian cinema supremo Andrew Lau. Gere plays an ageing federal agent who is training up Danes as his replacement. Together, they're charged with hunting down a missing girl who may be connected to a sex offender on parole. Lau, who directed the Infernal Affairs trilogy, makes his English language debut with the film. Meanwhile Danes, last seen cuddling up to Billy Crudup in Stage Beauty, is also starring with Steve Martin in Shopgirl, a film based on the comedian's novel. And as for Gere... well, did you know his middle name is Tiffany? It's not relevant, but we like to mention it every now and then. |
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| Ewan's Quadruple Comedy Ewan McGregor is teaming up with fellow Scot Peter Capaldi to make an ambitious new comedy. The Great Pretender will see Ewan playing four different roles in two time periods. According to Variety, the film follows a pair of 30s film producers trying to make a movie about Bonnie Prince Charlie. When their hard-drinking star goes missing, the producers have to find a lookalike to fill his role. To make things more complicated, the Prince in the film also has a double to distract his enemies. McGregor is playing the boozy star, his unassuming lookalike, the celluloid prince and his double. And you thought his double role in The Island was confusing... |
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| Statham Gets Cranked Up Seems like everywhere you look these days, you see Jason Statham. If he's not breaking box office records with The Transporter 2, he's making his case to be the new Bond. Clearly wise to Statham's rising Hollywood stock, Lions Gate and Lakeshore Entertainment have nabbed the rising star to topline their new thriller Crank. Statham plays a hitman who goes on a day-long vengeance spree after he discovers that he has been poisoned. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor wrote the screen play and will direct the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Is it just us, or does that plot outline sound a teensy bit like the old Dennis Quaid thriller D.O.A.? |
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| Nancy Goes To Hollywood Teenage detective Nancy Drew is coming back to the silver screen for the first time since the 30s. Warner Bros has hired 14-year-old Emma Roberts, who just so happens to be Julia Roberts' niece and Eric Roberts' daughter, to play the feisty young sleuth. According to Variety, the film will be set in Hollywood, where Nancy tries to solve the case of a long-dead movie star while coping with various self-indulgent Hollywood types. Expect celebrity cameos galore. |
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| Brosnan Falls For Seraphim Pierce Brosnan will join Liam Neeson in Seraphim Falls. Mel Gibson is producing this so-called "psychological actioner" that takes place at the end of the American Civil War. Essentially it's a revenge story that follows a colonel as he hunts down a man to settle a wartime grudge, ie it's Payback with epaulets. Shooting begins on 17th October when director David Von Ancken will make his feature bow from a script he co-wrote. With Gibson in charge though, expect lots of slashing, hacking and superfluous flag-waving. |
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| Willis & Madsen Do Astronaut Bruce Willis along with Sideways star Virginia Madsen and veteran actor Bruce Dern have signed on for The Astronaut Farmer. Billy Bob Thornton stars in this whimsical story of an eccentric farmer who builds a space rocket in his barn. Michael Polish will direct from a script he co-wrote with brother Mark - the people who brought you the spaced-out Northfork. Madsen is set to play the long-suffering wife while Dern takes on the role of her father. Willis will play the farmer's onetime colleague at NASA. Shooting has already begun in New Mexico. |
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| The Car Of The Dead Fresh (or should we say rotten?) from his zombie comeback Land Of The Dead, horror maestro George Romero has signed up to direct the latest Stephen King adaptation From A Buick 8, according to The Horror Channel. John Schaech and Richard Chizmar are writing the script for Chesapeake Films. One of King's odder tales, From A Buick 8 is all about a bunch of Pennsylvania state troopers who discover a mysterious car in a shed. Anyone who hangs around this vehicle has a habit of disappearing. Hang on, didn't Steve do this story already in Christine? |
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| Carrey Takes A Number Jim Carrey and director Joel Schumacher are teaming up for quirky thriller The Number 23. The funnyman will play it straight as an ordinary bloke thrown into turmoil after reading a book that seems to be about his life but ends with murder. (The number 23 is a recurring facet of the plot.) Schumacher had previously been attached to the project but shifted focus to his real-life drama The Crowded Room (the story of a schizophrenic man touted as a vehicle for Colin Farrell). However, that script is now undergoing a rewrite, which frees up the director to shoot The Number 23 in November. |
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| Winslet On Holiday Kate Winslet will join Cameron Diaz in romantic comedy Holiday. Negotiations seemed to hit a brick wall last week due to "scheduling conflicts", but the issue has now magically been resolved. Kerching! Nancy Meyers who had a modest box office hit with Something's Gotta Give has written the script and will direct the adventures of an American woman abroad. On her travels, she encounters a British villager who holds the key to resolving her man troubles. (Kinky.) Shooting begins early next year in Europe and the US. |
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| Black's Fast Career Move Up-and-coming actor Lucas Black (Cold Mountain, Friday Night Lights) has landed the lead in The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. The third instalment in the franchise is set in the underground world of Japanese drift racing, where rear-wheel cars speed into turns and "drift" sideways for as long as possible. Black will play a troubled youth who avoids jail time by moving to Japan with his military dad. While there, he loses a race to someone with ties to the yakuza and decides to pay off the debt by entering the drift circuit. In other words, it's about dudes driving cars, like, really, really fast. |
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| Wilson's Unhappy Munday Luke Wilson will take the lead in cheeky comedy Barry Munday. He'll play a womaniser who wakes up one morning to finds his, ahem, 'family jewels' missing after an irate father attacks him with a trumpet. Hey, it could happen. Things go from bad to worse when our squeaky-voiced hero learns that he's being sued for paternity by a woman he can't even remember having sex with. (Surely there's a cameo here for Lorraine Bobbit.) In the meantime, Wilson is prepping to shoot opposite Uma Thurman in Ivan Reitman comedy Super Ex. |
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| Jackman & Bale Make Magic Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale will star in The Prestige for director Christopher Nolan. The thriller reunites Nolan and Bale after Batman Begins and provides yet another opportunity for wearing a cape. Set in 1878, the plot follows the rivalry between two magicians - a rivalry that turns them both into murderers. Think Penn & Teller after forgetting to take the medication. Christopher's brother Jonathan has adapted the screenplay from the novel by Christopher Priest and cameras are expected to roll in January. |
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| Kidman Marches With Penguins Ain't penguins just the cutest things? Warner Bros certainly thinks so. The studio is teaming up with IMAX cinemas to make a giant 3D computer animated musical starring Nicole Kidman as a waddling, flightless Aptenodytes Forsteri. Happy Feet will be directed by George Miller, the man who brought Babe to the silver screen, and will tell the story of a tap-dancing Emperor Penguin. Warners is positioning the movie as a Christmas family blockbuster. To keep Nicole company on the ice floe, Warners has hired the vocal talents of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman and Brittany Murphy, Variety reports. |
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| Cassel Plays Gentleman Thief Vincent Cassel, everyone's favourite French fancy, has signed up for a two part film about a legendary Gallic criminal. Cassel will play Jacques Mesrine, a bank robber who became something of a folk hero in France for his disguises, womanising, flash suits and excellent manners. The two films, entitled Death Instinct and Public Enemy Number One, will start shooting next summer with a budget of €45m and Jean Francois Richet at the helm, according to Hollywood Reporter . Cassel's last role was remarkably similar; he was the smarmy cat burglar Francois Toulour in Ocean's Twelve. Richet recently directed the Hollywood remake of Assault On Precinct 13. In short, they both know a thing or two about robbery... |
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| All Hail Headey Jobbing British actress Lena Headey has been cast opposite Phantom star Gerard Butler in sword 'n' sandals epic 300. She'll play the Queen of Sparta, mostly clutching her chest and weeping as her King leads 300 Spartan warriors in a battle against the invading Persian army. According to historians, The Battle of Thermopylae led to Greece uniting and giving rise to democracy. This version of the story is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller with director Zach Snyder (Dawn Of The Dead) adopting the CG technique Miller used for Sin City. He'll shoot actors in front of a green screen beginning on the 17th October in Montreal. Rounding out the cast are David Wenham, Dominic West, Vincent Regan and Rodrigo Santoro. |
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| Gere Trains Danes Richard Gere and Claire Danes are set to star together in The Flock, a thriller directed by Asian cinema supremo Andrew Lau. Gere plays an ageing federal agent who is training up Danes as his replacement. Together, they're charged with hunting down a missing girl who may be connected to a sex offender on parole. Lau, who directed the Infernal Affairs trilogy, makes his English language debut with the film. Meanwhile Danes, last seen cuddling up to Billy Crudup in Stage Beauty, is also starring with Steve Martin in Shopgirl, a film based on the comedian's novel. And as for Gere... well, did you know his middle name is Tiffany? It's not relevant, but we like to mention it every now and then. |
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| btw has anyone seen the Infernal Affairs trilogy? are they any good? |
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| Stone & Wood Shoot Bobby Sharon Stone and Elijah Wood have signed up for Bobby, a "personal project" by actor-turned-director Emilio Estevez. The former Brat Packer also penned the script and will take a major role in this ensemble story which flits between factual and fictional characters at the Ambassador Hotel in the hours leading up to the assassination of Robert F Kennedy (1968). Stone will play the wife of the hotel manager and resident beautician while Wood is a draft dodger who is about to get married. Anthony Hopkins and Demi Moore are already on board with cameras set to roll in just over two weeks. |
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| Vega For Los Borgias Spanish starlet Paz Vega recently made her Hollywood debut in Spanglish, but is going home for Los Borgias. She'll star as conspiring Renaissance aristocrat Catarina Sforza in a portrait of the bloody dynasty that spawned Pope Alexander VI as well as the role model for Machiavelli's The Prince - the pope's illegitimate son Cesare Borgia - and one of history's favourite femme fatales Lucrezia Borgia. Antonio Hernandez will direct this historical soap opera, which is already being talked about as one of the biggest productions to come out of Spain. Have they already forgotten BBC soap El Dorado? |
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| Wilson Heads For Ohio Mrs Tom Hanks aka Rita Wilson and Julianna Margulies (still best known for TV's ER) have taken roles in comedy drama Beautiful Ohio. It marks the feature directorial debut of Chad Lowe who is also producing with his Oscar-winning wife Hilary Swank. William Hurt has already signed up for the lead role. Novelist Ethan Canin adapted the script from his short story Batorsag & Szerelem about an American family grappling with the chaotic social changes in the early 70s. (Hilarious!) Shooting begins Monday in Brooklyn. |
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| Farrow Babysits Beelzebub According to the Czech Film Commission, Mia Farrow will join Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles in a remake of classic 70s spooker The Omen. The star of Rosemary's Baby will play shifty nanny Mrs Baylock who gets more than she bargained for when she babysits for the devil's spawn. Where's Julie Andrews when you need her? Flight Of The Phoenix helmer John Moore will be resurrecting the Gregory Peck classic as The Omen 666. |
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| Witt Takes Minutes For Pacino Alicia Witt is perhaps still best known for playing Cybill Shepherd's daughter in 90s sitcom Cybill, but that's all set to change. She's landed the romantic lead opposite Al Pacino in 88 Minutes. Jon Avnet will direct this thriller which sees Pacino as a college professor moonlighting as an FBI forensic psychologist. Witt will play his teaching assistant who helps investigate a case of a murder that hasn't even happened yet. Neal McDonough (Minority Report) will play the death row inmate Pacino suspects is behind the imminent killing while up-and-coming actress Leelee Sobieski plays one of his students. |
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| Pegg's Impossible Mission Only a day after we reported that Simon Pegg would be appearing opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in romantic comedy The Good Night, the Shaun Of The Dead star and all round funny bloke has added another blockbuster to his to-do list. Pegg has signed up to play Tom Cruise's buddy in the long-delayed, endlessly troubled Mission: Impossible 3, according to Hollywood Reporter. Pegg joins an impressive ensemble that includes Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laurence Fishburne. JJ Abrams is directing the film; he's the third helmer to take the job, after David Fincher and Joe Carnahan dropped out. The film has also lost several stars because of delays. Earlier line-ups featured Carrie-Anne Moss and Kenneth Branagh. |
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| Sex Star Butters With Beau Sarah Jessica Parker seems determined to get her movie career on track again now that Sex And The City is over. Parker has no less than five movies on her slate. Perhaps the most intriguing is a film adaptation of Rebecca Gilman's play Spinning Into Butter, a controversial tale of racism and political correctness on an American college campus. Miranda Richardson and Beau Bridges will co-star in the film, which starts shooting this month in New York. Meanwhile, SJP is preparing to shoot Whistle, David Mamet's follow-up to Spartan, and in 2007 we'll be seeing her in Slammer, the story of a publicist banged up in Sing-Sing prison who stages an all-inmate musical. Kind of like The Longest Yard, but with sequins. |
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| Pegg Joins MI: 3 Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg has signed on to join Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Pegg will play an ally of Cruise's character, Special Agent Ethan Hunt. Director J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) told the news service that he pursued Pegg because of his w**k in the British zombie comedy. "I've been dying to w**k with Simon since I saw Shaun of the Dead," he said. "His comedic skill is remarkable; he's able to be hysterically funny while always seeming 100% real, even when he's killing zombies with vinyl records." Pegg is the latest addition to the large ensemble cast, which also includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell and Maggie Q. The film is produced by Cruise and Paula Wagner through their C/W Productions. It's scheduled for release on May 5. |
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| Trilogy Wags Wolfe Tale US author Tom Wolfe's latest doorstop of a novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, is getting the big screen treatment. Trilogy Entertainment and Syntax Entertainment have snapped up the rights to Wolfe's tale of an innocent girl from smalltown USA and her experiences of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll at a posh American college. Wolfe is a highly respected writer in the US (even if his latest sounds like a saucy Drew Barrymore vehicle) but his experiences with Hollywood have not been altogether successful. The last Wolfe novel to get the movie treatment was The Bonfire Of The Vanities, a film that is still regarded as a disastrous turkey some 15 years later. |
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| Jennifer Connelly is in talks to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in thriller Blood Diamond. The Last Samurai's Ed Zwick is directing the story of a poor African farmer who gets caught up in a conflict between an American diamond smuggler (DiCaprio) and the syndicate that controls the local diamond mining industry. Judging by Connelly's career so far, we assume she's playing a) deeply troubled mother, B) deeply troubled alcoholic or c) deeply troubled drug addict. Shooting is expected to begin early next year in Africa. |
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| Garcia Is Smokin' Andy Garcia has signed up for action comedy Smokin' Aces to be directed by Narc helmer Joe Carnahan. He joins Jeremy Piven, The Amityville Horror's Ryan Reynolds, sometime songstress Alicia Keys and some bloke called Ben Affleck. As well as calling the shots, Carnahan wrote the story of an illusionist (Piven) who snitches on the mob and puts himself in the firing line. Garcia will play the FBI man assigned to protect the cocky entertainer. It's the first major leading role for Piven who usually plays the geeky buddy role in films like Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), The Family Man (2000) and Old School (2003). |
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| Dunst Goes To Iraq Kirsten Dunst will star in the untitled true story of American relief worker Marla Ruzicka. After being sent to Iraq, Ruzicka was killed by a suicide bomber at only 28-years-old. She had been on a quest to get reparations for the scores of civilian casualties of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions. The organisation she founded (The Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict) raised $28m. Dunst has just wrapped on Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola and will next reprise her role as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3. |
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| Ford Flick Finds Director Harrison Ford's period thriller Manhunt has a director in the shape of Sebastian Cordero. "Sebastian who?" we hear you cry. Well, he's originally from Ecuador, he's directed two films (Cronicas and Ratas, Ratones, Rateros), he was nominated for the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and the critics seem to like him. Manhunt is his Hollywood debut. The movie follows the 12-day hunt for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, led by Colonel Everton Conger (Ford). |
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| Thora Trapped In Dark Corners American Beauty star Thora Birch is teaming up with the terribly British Toby Stephens for Dark Corners, a London-based horror movie. Directed by first timer Ray Gower, the film tells the story of a woman who falls asleep one day and wakes up as a different person. Not a lot wrong with that, you might think, but this particular person is being stalked by all manner of ugly, evil beasties. Bond fans might remember Toby Stephens as the sneering villain Gustav Graves in Die Another Day. Before that he was the sneering literary snob in Possession. One thing you can say about Toby: he gives great sneer. |