Source for the first two articles: Blastr
Anne Rice pushes for Robert Downey Jr. in Interview remake
Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire hit the screens in 1994. That’s centuries ago in Hollywood years. Now Rice, who was famously critical of the casting of Tom Cruise as the Vampire Lestat before being wooed by his performance, offers HER choice for Lestat: Robert Downey Jr.
Rice spoke at length to New York magazine about her most recent novel, Of Love and Evil, as well as her hopes for Universal Studios’ potential reboot of the beloved series. She feels either Richard Armitage (who played Guy of Gisbourne in BBC’s Robin Hood) or Matt Bomer (who played Bryce in Chuck) could play the part of Louis, the New Orleans planter and Lestat’s lover. As for the tortured former slave, Armand, she prefers Max Records (who played Max in Where the Wild Things Are). Rice also has suggestions for Marius, one of the oldest vampires.
But the casting could not be complete without the main character, the devil-may-care Lestat. Rice waxed poetic about “the one name that’s been floated,” Downey:
He is a great actor. He would bring the gravitas and the wit and humor and all of that to the part, and I don’t think he’s too old. I think if he had a blond wig and makeup, he would be a wonderful Lestat. Lestat has to have the gravitas of a 200-year-old man and Robert Downey Jr. can do it. He can do anything. He’s just incredible. That would be wonderful. But I don’t know whether he’s really interested and I don’t know if that will work out. I hope so. I hope the rumors are true. …
More HERE
Aaron Eckhart ‘heartbroken’ there’ll be no Two-Face in Batman 3
While we wait to learn which villain Christopher Nolan will spotlight in The Dark Knight Rises, we don’t have to wait any longer to find out which villain WON’T appear—Aaron Eckhart ‘s scar-faced Harvey Dent, who we all assumed was being set up to return as Two-Face.
Eckhart told MTV News:
“Chris and I had a meeting, on the beach, just the two of us … I said, ‘Chris, a lot of people are asking me if I’m in the next Batman. And Chris said, ‘Yes?’ I said, ‘Am I?’ He looked at me and he said, ‘No.'”And I was heartbroken. I was heartbroken. But Chris has his reasons and my life must go on.”
The Rest HERE
Last two articles from: SMH.com
Narnia Not Doing So Hot?
WHEN YOU consider the fanfare with which Harry Potter and his cohorts have just returned to the screen, it seems remarkable that the third instalment of the Narnia Chronicles, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is about to slip into cinemas without so much as a squeak from Queen Susan’s hunting horn. A tinny trailer is doing sluggish rounds of the internet; meanwhile, there has been almost no courting of the press. With one shove of the ship into the deep water of box-office takings, it seems to be every king and talking mouse for himself.
Of course, everyone knows that the Potter books are a phenomenon, so the fact that the films based on them are the most successful of all film franchises is unsurprising. But before Harry, the Narnia books were the most popular of all children’s fantasy series; in the 60 years since The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe first led three English wartime refugees through a tangle of fur coats into another, snowy world, they have sold some 65 million copies in 30 languages.
And while it is true that the films made from the first two books in the series — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2003) and Prince Caspian (2008), both financed by Disney — did not take hold of the collective imagination in the way the Potter films have, they were hardly flops. Together, they grossed about $US1.2 billion worldwide.
Even so, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has had a troubled passage to the screen. Late in 2008, Disney announced that it was dropping the series. The obvious explanation for this decision was that the second film, Prince Caspian, took not much more than half as much at the box office as the first ($US420 million as against The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‘s $US750 million). This was despite the fact that the studio spent an estimated $US175 million on marketing it — way more than the first film — in an attempt to capture the teenage market.
Clearly, that didn’t work. Those teens who were captured complained that the Prince Caspian story was too slow; Narnia fans resented the way C. S. Lewis’s pukka English story had been sexed up in a halfway swerve towards the junior-high genre.
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Jack Sparrow role ‘written for Hugh Jackman’
Hugh Jackman as Jack Sparrow? It could have been.
One of the men behind the screenplay for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Australian writer-director Stuart Beattie, says he wrote the part, famously played by Johnny Depp, with Jackman in mind.
But the Aussie hunk was a relatively unknown actor in the US at the time, and Disney bosses opted to hire Depp.
“I initially wrote that character with Hugh Jackman in mind. Hence the name Captain Jack Sparrow,” Beattie told Fox News.
He says the project, the first of a four-film franchise, took a decade to come to fruition.
“I spent ten years pitching it (to) Disney and they weren’t interested. Then finally, I got a call to come back in,” he says.
Jackman later went on to become a household name as Wolverine in the X-Men franchise and hosted the Oscars in 2008.
Depp has thrilled moviegoers with his portrayal of the flamboyant pirate, who he says was inspired by Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards, in all three films of the franchise.
The first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, was released in 2003, followed by Dead Man’s Chest in 2006 and At World’s End in 2007.
More HERE
What do you think of the Movie News? Hmmm a Interview remake? Interesting first I have heard of it. I thought Narnia was doing pretty well, what about you? Although I have to say I still haven’t seen the last one, didn’t look to interesting to me, but this new one looks awesome so I will be seeing it. Are you planning on seeing it? I can not picture the Pirate movies with out Johnny Depp, could you see Jackman playing Caption Jack?
