• Sacha Baron Cohen has set up his own production company to produce film projects. First up, a movie where he plays a Latino ambulance chaser. Over-the-top antics and hilarious accents will no doubt ensue.

• Bradley Cooper is replacing Shia LaBeouf in Dark Fields, the upcoming thriller from the director of The Illusionist. Uh oh! Has the LaBeouf's la-luster worn off?

• The creative team behind High Fidelity could reteam for Lay the Favorite, a gambling comedy set in Las Vegas. But will John Cusack and Jack Black be involved?

• Anna Faris, Dan Aykroyd, and Justin Timberlake have signed on for a live action/CGI Yogi Bear movie. Aykroyd would voice Yogi, while Timberlake will take on Boo Boo. Odd, we would have pegged Aykroyd as more of a Park Ranger Smith type.

• The new trailer for Brothers, the war drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire, has been released. This one definitely takes a weird turn. It starts out like Grace is Gone, and ends up like The Stepfather.

• Wal-Mart is slashing the prices of a number of upcoming DVDs to $10, creating a potential price war. This is serious business -- $10 is way too much to pay for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 11.06.09 - Timberlake in Yogi Bear; Cooper Replaces LaBeouf in Dark Fields" »

• Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle will tackle the true-life drama 127 Hours, about a  mountain climber who cut off his own arm in order to survive an expedition.

• The first teaser trailer for Salt, the twisty spy drama starring Angelina Jolie, has turned up online. Angelina is blonde? And starring in an action thriller? OK, that second part isn't all that surprising.

• Disney is developing another Three Men and a Baby sequel. If the second outing was Three Men and a Little Lady, what will this one be titled? Three Geriatrics and a Graduate Student?

• Anthony Hopkins could be playing Ernest Hemingway in a biopic. Is Chris O'Donnell really the only actor who's ever played him on the big screen?

• John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker have now joined the cast of Red, the comic book spy thriller starring Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, and Helen Mirren. Willis will be the aging black ops spy forced to do battle with much younger, deadlier agents. Taking on young whipper-snappers is something Willis can do in his sleep.   

• A TV version of the upcoming disaster blockbuster 2012 is already in the works. The show will be set in 2013 and deal with the aftermath of the disaster depicted in the movie. Place your bets now on whether it will be on the air long enough to see the actual 2012.

• Jerry Bruckheimer claims to be confident that Johnny Depp with return for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Looks like we're going to find out who is the more powerful force: Depp or Bruckheimer?

• In other Johnny Depp news, the actor is in talks to costar with Angelina Jolie in The Tourist. The movie is (you guessed it!) a spy thriller with Jolie playing a female Interpol agent to draws Depp into a world of intrigue.  

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 11.05.09 - Danny Boyle to Direct Mountain Climbing Story; First Peek at Angelina Jolie in Salt" »

• Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have been selected as hosts of the 2010 Academy Awards Ceremony after Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. turned the gig down. Why can't all four host? It's happened several times in the past. In 1976, it was the motley crew of Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda and Richard Pryor.

• The first poster images for Clash of the Titans have been released. While intriguing, Liam Neeson shouldn't be wearing that silly armor. He's a god, for crying out loud.

• The first trailer for How to Train Your Dragon, the upcoming Dreamworks animated fantasy romp, has been released. A better title would be "How to Make a By-the-Numbers Shrek Cash-In."

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 11.04.09 - Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to Host Oscars; First Clash of the Titans Posters" »

• District 9 crossed the $200 million mark, with talk of a sequel brewing. Unfortunately, it won't be for a while. Those alien costumes are tough to make.

• George Clooney is in talks to star in The Descendants, the next movie from writer/director Alexander Payne (Sideways). Has it really been five years since Sideways?

• Owen Wilson has signed on for the title role in Marmaduke, a live action/animated version of the long-running comic strip about a giant dog. Sadly Wilson will just voice the animated dog, not actually dress up in a dog suit.

• The first trailer for Prince of Persia, the adaptation of the hit video game starring Jake Gyllenhaal, has been released. It basically looks like The Mummy, but with more jumping.

• The Berenstain Bears are coming to the big screen courtesy of the director of Night of the Museum. Hopefully it will finally solve the mystery of why bears are allowed to wear human clothes. Seriously, has the mom ever not gone out in public in her nightgown?

• Michael Jackson's This Is It topped the worldwide box office this past weekend with $68.5 million. Domestically, it took in $21.3, beating Paranormal Activity for the top spot. The documentary will also stay in theaters past its initial two-week engagement. It's a great film and all, but it's no Moonwalker. That one had giant robot Michael fighting drug dealer Joe Pesci.

• The original screenwriters of Who Framed Roger Rabbit will return for Robert Zemeckis' proposed sequel. Will it be another mix of live-action and animation, or will Roger be paired with a creepy motion-captured Bob Hoskins?

• The writers behind Tron Legacy will tackle the Ouija Board movie. From video game movie to board game movie. Isn't that more of a lateral move?

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 11.02.09 - This Is It Moonwalks Into Box Office Glory; Roger Rabbit Screenwriters to Return" »

• Producer Stephen L'Heureux says that Sin City 2 will go into production at the end of 2010, although whether it will be Robert Rodriguez or Frank Miller directing seems yet to be determined.

• Paranormal Activity (which cost $15,000 to make) has officially surpassed The Blair Witch Project as the most profitable movie. Ever.

• Columbia is putting the pieces together for Men in Black 3, although neither Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith have committed at this point.

• Just because it's not yet Halloween doesn't mean we can't start with award season news: Jonathan Demme, Quentin Tarantino and Kirk Douglas will all be handing out statuettes come the big night.

• Apparently, Sony believes This Is It has Oscar potential and plans to submit it as a Best Picture contender. (It missed the documentary entry deadline.)

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 10.30.09 - Sin City 2 Back in the Works; This Is It to Go for Oscar" »

• Michael Jackson's This Is It is already tearing up the box office, taking in $2.2 million on its opening night. Surprisingly, that's about half what the budget was for Jackson's Captain EO.

• The longer international trailer for James Cameron's Avatar has surfaced online. Look for a Sigourney Weaver cameo, and try not to watch the rest without rolling your eyes.

• Jessica Biel is attached to star and produce the raunchy comedy F***ing Engaged. Ah, isn't that precious. They think the title isn't going to be changed to something generic like "Wedding Bell Blues."

• Tony Scott is attached to direct a biopic about the founder of Chippendales Steve Banerjee. Seriously, look it up. It's a dark, surprisingly fascinating story.

• Brad Pitt and Josh Brolin are in consideration to star in Go Like Hell, a racing movie from Fox. And another movie that's likely to be retitled to something like, "5 Fast 5 Furious."

• A deleted scene from Star Trek featuring Klingons has turned up online.

• Peter Berg is no longer attached to direct Dune. The studio reportedly wants District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to take over. Perhaps he can make Dune not mind-numbingly boring.

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 10.29.09 - This Is It Storms Box Office; Second Avatar Trailer Debuts" »

• Zach Galifianakis and Amy Adams are in talks to star in the drama Town House. The story follows an agoraphobic man who strikes up a friendship with a call girl. Could it be a modern take on Pretty Woman?

• The first trailer for Clint Eastwood's Invictus has debuted. Morgan Freeman portraying Nelson Mandela in an Eastwood-directed film? Just mail them the Oscars right now.

• Adam Sandler will star in the comedy Jack and Jill, playing both Jack and his twin sister Jill. So he's back to making the kind of comedies he made fun of himself for making in Funny People?

• Tom Cruise could be reteaming with director John Woo for the movie Flying Tigers. Expect many shots of Tom shooting two pistols at a time in slow motion.

• January Jones will star opposite Nicolas Cage in the thriller Hungry Rabbit Jumps. The plot finds Cage joining an underground vigilante organization after his wife (Jones) is murdered. What this has to do with the title still remains to be seen.

• Emmanuelle Chriqui is costarring with Val Kilmer as the female lead in Renny Harlin's war film Georgia. Chriqui is known to most as E's boring girlfriend Sloan on Entourage. 

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 10.28.09 - First Trailer for Eastwood's Invictus; Sandler Will Be Jack and Jill" »

Greetings to those of you finding your way here by way of the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, in Los Angeles. I'm speaking today, Oct. 27, at 3:35PM PT on the panel Hollywood Politics: The Making of a Twitter Cause Celeb. My co-panelists are Wendy Cohen from Participant Media and Ted Johnson from Variety, and it's being moderated by blogger Maegan Carberry.

First things first, I hope you're already interacting with me via AMC News on Twitter. If you're not, please start now.

For those of you that have no idea what the 140conf is, here are some details from the conference itself:

Continue reading "AMC News at 140 Characters Conference" »

• Steve Carell is attached to the golfing comedy Missing Links, based on the book by ESPN's Rick Reilly. Carell is great, but it'll need a fantastic Kenny Loggins hit if it hopes to compete with Caddyshack.

• The major film studios are considering a plan to delay the rental release time for films coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray in order to drive up home entertainment sales.

• Matt Damon and Josh Brolin have joined the cast of Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of the 1969 western True Grit. Call it "Yes Country for These Men." Goodnight, folks!

• The director of Paul Blart: Mall Cop will helm the Short Circuit remake. Kevin James had better not voice Johnny 5.

• Rumors of a seventh Rocky movie are proving to be premature. Stallone can only handle one franchise he should have hung up years ago at a time.

Continue reading "The Newsdesk 10.27.09 - Damon and Brolin Join Coens' True Grit; Carell Hits the Links" »