Naturally, everyone in Hollywood these days is still shaken over last week's tragic death of Heath Ledger. Few, however, had been in touch with the actor recently quite like "Juno" star Ellen Page, who had been in talks to star in Heath's intended directorial debut, "The Queen's Gambit."
"It was talked about," the Oscar-nominated actress said of her possibly taking the lead role in an adaptation of the novel about an orphan who becomes a chess prodigy. "But, you know," she sighed, shaking her head, "obviously, that's not the [most important thing right now]." Read more...
You've been to Disney World, ridden all the rides at Six Flags. The staff at Universal City know you by name. So where's an intrepid, theme park enthusiast to go next? Why, to "Adventureland," of course, the new amusement destination featured in director Greg Mottola's "Superbad" follow-up.
Just make sure you bring a copy of your life insurance, joked co-star Kristen Wiig.
"A lot of times towns will have the really great amusement park," she smiled. "And then they'll have the kind of scary one where you really don't want to go on the rides because you're afraid you might be killed. Read more...
We knew we had a mystery on our hands when Fall Out Boy's frontman Pete Wentz revealed to us that the writer of "Cloverfield," Drew Goddard, told him that he "based much of the film" on Fall Out Boy's Infinity on High album...so much so that if you played the flick and the record simultaneously, they would sync up like "Wizard of Oz" and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
So...what's the whole story? Well, as we report exclusively, Wentz may have gotten some things lost in translation. When we reached out to Goddard, he told us: "To clarify ... I was playing their album the whole time while writing 'Cloverfield.' I don't want to undercut [the idea that the movie was inspired by FOB's album], but it was just that the album came out at the same time as I was writing the script, and the way I work, I need music on in the background, and I was playing it, so it was inspiring in that sense, so I told them it was inspiring." For more on this story, watch the video below and then click here to read our full report.
God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates movie about dinosaurs...movie about dinosaurs becomes the biggest film in history, spawning two sequels, billions of dollars in revenue, and a veritable cottage industry of toys and games. But will there ever be another?
It's the most discussed on-again, off again sequel in recent memory, but if "Jurassic Park IV" ever DOES get made, one thing's for sure, joked franchise castmember Alessandro Nivola, it sure as heck won't include him.
Hold onto your butts - somebody's about to bump himself out of a movie. Read more...
The good news is that Josh Hartnett has a brand-new movie called "Bunraku" that sounds like it could be "Sin City" all over again. The bad news, unfortunately, is that he also broke the news to me at Sundance that his passion project about the legendary Chet Baker is now dead.
"It's not gonna happen," the "30 Days of Night" star sighed. "We’ve been working on this for years, and the producers and I just couldn’t see eye-to-eye."
As you might recall, the 29-year-old heartthrob broke the news to MTV at Sundance 2007 that he was expecting to play the drug-addled jazz man sometime this year. Titled "The Prince of Cool," the project was at various points rumored to be flirting with "Driving Miss Daisy" director Bruce Beresford. Now, nearly a year to the day, Hartnett is officially squashing his "Prince" project. Read more...
Grab your gowns and flip those tassels, the senior class at East High is graduating. But while Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay might shed a few tears at the prospect of separating, not "High School Musical 3” star Zac Efron, who told MTV News that the chance to once again don a Wildcat jersey has him smiling - even if it is for the last time.
"'High School Musical' is unlike anything. No one can fully understand. It's just all of us in a group having fun," Efron insisted when we asked if returning for the last installment would be a bittersweet experience. "We really became best friends during this project, the whole cast. It's like not even work. We just have the time of our lives out there." Read more...
We've been fortunate enough to run a bunch of celebrity columns since we launched this blog; everyone from Judd Apatow and Eli Roth to David Wain and Chris Weitz. Now we're re-adding "Watchmen" chief Zack Snyder to the list (he wrote a column for us last May).
In his new piece exclusively for MTV News, Snyder dishes out on one of his favorite musician, cover artist Richard Cheese, whose songs Snyder utilized for "Dawn of the Dead." Find out how Cheese is helping the filmmaker on the set of his current project, the heavily-anticipated "Watchmen" by clicking here.
It might just be 2009's most anticipated movie, and if "Watchmen" is half as good as it's classic source material, it could become the best superhero movie of all time. So, for more reasons than usual, it was a thrill to recently bump into the stunningly sexy Carla Gugino — meeting up on the red carpet at the recent SAG Awards, we were both excited to break her silence and engage in some red-hot, non-embargoed Sally Jupiter action.
"It was really one of the craziest, most fun roles I've ever gotten to play," marveled the "Sin City" star, cast as the burlesque dancer who proves to be the most PR-savvy of the complex superheroes. "I start at 25 years old in the 1940s, and I age to 67 years old with full prosthetics in the 1980s. [Sally] is a larger-than-life character. She's a costumed crime fighter, but her idea of a costume is very Bettie Page-meets-[Alberto] Vargas." Read more...
Hollywood goes in cycles, and 2008 has started out as a tough year for blondes (witness Jessica Simpson's "Blonde Ambition" coming in as unreleasable). Hoping to pick up where Ms. Simpson failed are Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards, whose ditzy film "Blonde & Blonder" is notable for having Bob Clark ("A Christmas Story," "Porkies") originally attached to direct before the legendary helmer was killed in a car crash with his son last April. More or less coming straight to video, the film is now available in stores, and we've got the exclusive gag reel below for your viewing pleasure.
In "Yes Man," Jim Carrey returns to his comedic roots and plays a man who forces himself to say "yes" to everything. When we visited the film's set this past weekend, the actor was in the process of dangling from a bridge, so I guess he's going the method route. Click here to read our full report from the set visit, and see the wrap-up below.
