I just ran across this article on Edward Norton. He is definitely one of my favorite actors so I wanted to shine the spotlight his way for a moment. Go Edward!
Okay, I've spent this week fighting off a lovely virus and highly doubt I'll be up to seeing this movie this weekend, but I wanted to post this article I just stumbled across. Today, being the first day I've felt like sitting up long enough to look at anything online, led me to check out CNN's page and find this article on Christian Bale. I've been a big fan of his for a long time now and was thrilled to hear he'd been cast in this role. I'll look forward to seeing it. Until then, here's a little about Mr. Bale.
Okay, King Kong + Peter Jackson + Jack Black! This is going to be very interesting, indeed.
CNN.com - Jack Black takes on 'King Kong' - Mar 30, 2004
Here's an article for all you David Carradine fans.
CNN.com - A pensive 'Grasshopper,' a brutal killer - Mar 17, 2004
Here's a good article from CNN about Ricky Gervais.
CNN.com - 'Office' boss sees humor all over - Mar 17, 2004
This is also from TV Guide's website today. . .
Denzel Washington is set to reunite with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua for The Return of Superfly, a biopic of Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas, Variety reports...
Here is an interesting article about Charlize Theron from The Chicago Tribune.
Screen Queen Gets Monster Coverage
While I intend to focus on movies at this site, I will sometimes post things about a TV show I like. I absolutely LOVE Alias so I'm always going to post news on it. Also, I've heard great things about The Office and I definitely plan on renting that soon. I missed it the first time it came around. At any rate, this is from TV Guide's website today.
Office Star's New Alias
by David Hochman
How did Ricky Gervais follow up his double Golden Globe win for BBC's The Office last month? He went straight to work filming scenes for Sunday's episode of Alias (9 pm/ET on ABC). Here's what the British funnyman thought of his weird, wicked week in sunny Los Angeles.
TV Guide Online: Aside from The Office, you haven't really acted before. What was it like starring in a big TV action-drama?
Ricky Gervais: The hardest part was keeping straight-faced. Everybody around me was in black and cool and wearing Gucci and Armani and guns, and there I was in a jumper looking like a country fisherman. I couldn't take myself seriously. I just pretended to be Jack Bauer from 24.
TVGO: Who do you play?
Gervais: All I can tell you is he's a very, very bad man indeed. An international terrorist. Let's just say he's somebody I most certainly wouldn't like to sit next to on an airplane.
TVGO: Still, it sounds like a pretty cushy gig compared to the BBC.
Gervais: I admit, it was hard not to become a diva. The first day, I was intimidated. The next day, it was old hat. The third day, I was blasé and by the fourth, they were lucky I showed up.
TVGO: Is Jennifer Garner as beautiful as she appears on TV?
Gervais: Not compared to me, actually. People will realize why they had to get me on the show. They needed my body.
TVGO: What was your most surreal Hollywood moment of the week?
Gervais: Aside from Jennifer Aniston saying the name "Ricky Gervais" [when she announced the Golden Globe winner], it was looking out in the audience and seeing Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Jude Law staring silently at me. All I could tell myself was, "Say something, you idiot!"
TVGO: What did you learn about Hollywood?
Gervais: Contrary to popular belief, people in Hollywood aren't hung up on agents and helpers and how they look. At least not all the time. But more to the point, I realized I am a writer and not an actor.
TVGO: Does this mean you're not staying stateside?
Gervais: I don't want to pop up as a Mr. Brit on every other television program. I've done it once. Now I need to go home to where it rains and where I can walk everywhere.
TVGO: If NBC's upcoming version of The Office goes badly, will you care?
Gervais: Nope, because it doesn't matter to me. I've done my bit. I wish them all the luck in the world. Two hundred and fifty million Americans don't know me or The Office. It's like somebody doing a cover of your song. You don't hang about the studio going, "No wait, don't sing it like that. Softer. Softer!" So my life's not going to change.
This is from the TV Guide website today. Since reality tv costs a lot of actors jobs, I'm always interested to hear what they think of it. It seems Paul doesn't have a high opinion of it himself so I guess we won't catch him watching Forever Eden. ;)
Paul Bettany's Reality Rant
by Angel Cohn
While he mostly stars in period movies like Master and Commander and A Knight's Tale, Paul Bettany still keeps up with small-screen trends. In fact, studying the history of the Middle Ages for his new film, The Reckoning (now in limited release), made him worry what future generations will think of us, based on reality TV. The mere idea sends Jennifer Connelly's otherwise placid husband into a frustrated tirade.
"I'm so frightened that in 2000 years time, some archaeologist is going to come across some video of a reality-TV show," Bettany says, "and go, 'This is what they were watching? Who were these f------ idiots? What were they doing? They spent money to watch somebody in their f------ room, sitting there talking?' I find that really shocking."
"[I] sit there and [I] watch these things, and I can feel my brain atrophying as I'm watching," the 32-year-old Brit continues. "I'm becoming more stupid by the second. It is going to be such an indictment of our culture. There should be a mass burning of reality-TV show [video tapes]. There really should be."
Bettany particularly despises shows featuring former stars trying to recapture lost glory. "Johnny Lydon was on this one in England, I'm a Celebrity — Get Me Out of Here! Johnny Rotten! I got a bit teary."
It should be noted that Lydon — the front man for the Sex Pistols — walked off Celebrity's British version after a foul rant. But that doesn't help assuage Bettany's annoyance. "The point is that [Lydon] walked on," he says. "At some point he went, 'Oh f--- it, I'll do it. It'll be a f------ laugh.' [I say to Lydon], 'No, it won't be a f------ laugh. It will be the end of you. And now, everything that you ever say is suspicious to me. Everything you say is like a turd falling into my drink. I don't trust you anymore, and I used to look to you to lead.' It is so depressing."
Here is a page with some good biography information on Johnny Depp.
And here is a neat thing from The Internet Movie Database today about Depp. It's about time he got the praise. He is one of the best actors out there today and I really respect him for choosing to stick with quirky roles instead of selling out for big bucks.
Depp "Moved" by Accolades
Oscar nominee Johnny Depp has been deeply moved by the numerous accolades he has received for his performance in Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl. The movie hunk has been propelled back into the spotlight thanks to his portrayal of roguish pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in the swashbuckling adventure. And Johnny - was lives with partner Vanessa Paradis and their two children in France - admits he never expected such attention for the role. He says, "I'm very thankful. I'm very grateful for this past year, and certainly the things that have happened, I had no expectations at all. Certainly not nominations of any sort. So I'm very touched, very moved."
When he went missing I feared the worst. I hate to say my worries were confirmed. Please click here for his obituary from CNN.
I adore Nicole Kidman so this news makes me look forward to the movie even more.
Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman has been signed to star in a new movie version of CS Lewis' classic children's novel The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. Studio bosses at Disney - who are backing the project - were desperate for Kidman to play the White Witch, and her two kids with ex-husband Tom Cruise, Isabella, 11, and Connor, nine, convinced her to say yes. A Tinseltown source says, "Nicole's kids don't pay great attention to her career - she's just mom to them. But when she mentioned she had been asked to star in the movie they went wild. They even asked for jobs as extras." Kidman even made a secret visit to New Zealand last week to see locations and meet the crew. Walt Disney chairman Richard Cook recently said of the movie - which is due to start filming later this year - "It's a very, very ambitious project and one that we believe could be very important to the studio."
I was worried something like this would happen. The very people who are offended by the film are attacking Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus. I am all for people having the right to protest, but you don't carry it as far as attacking an actor who played a role in a film. That is disgusting and it's horrible that Jim Caviezel has to worry about this simply because he took a job. Speak your mind, but don't threaten or harm others.
The Passion Of The Christ star James Caviezel is being protected by a security team from attack by religious fanatics following his performance as Jesus Christ in the Mel Gibson movie. Studio bosses are concerned that zealots will attack Caviezel for his role in the controversial film and have hired a 'protection squad.' A furious mob have already screamed 'anti-Semite' and hurled a bucket of lamb's blood at Oscar-winning actor and director Gibson in a New York street. A studio source tells British tabloid newspaper Daily Star On Sunday, "There are some crazy people out there and everything is being done to protect Mel and Jim from physical attack." Caviezel, a devout Catholic, says, "Of course I'm scared that someone could get it in his head to make me a target. But I won't let this stop me doing my business. I'm an actor, helping to promote a movie I truly believe in."
"Why is everyone so afraid to say the word girdle? Nobody's perfect." She then went on to say she definitely wears them. Anytime an actress stresses that they don't wake up looking perfect I think it's great. The media spends way too much time making women feel like they should look like that naturally so I appreciate actresses stressing that they're wrong. I still remember Cindy Crawford's great quote "I wish I woke up looking like Cindy Crawford."
Personally, I'm looking forward to this; especially Johnny Depp's performance.
Depp Looks Forward to 'Pirates' Sequel
Johnny Depp is desperate to step into his pirates outfit and appear in a sequel to The Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl. Oscar-nominee Depp, 40, desperately misses playing swashbuckling character Captain Jack Sparrow in the Disney blockbuster - a role he based on Rolling Stone Keith Richards - and he's desperate to start filming a follow-up to the hit 2003 film. Depp explains, "I went through a decompression period after the first film. If you're really connected with a character, you always do to some degree. You miss the guy. You miss being that person. The only thing that was in the back of my mind was the hope that there would be a sequel some day, so that I could meet him again."
I absolutely agree with him. The people who have prejudged this movie are missing out on so much.
Gibson "Forgives" His Judgemental Critics
Mel Gibson has a message for the harshest critics of his movie The Passion Of The Christ - he forgives them. The devout Catholic, whose movie depicting the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life has sparked accusations of anti-Semitism, insists he will try to adopt a forgiving attitude to those who have prejudged his work. He says of the controversy, "It's like a wave. I didn't expect anything this huge. For an entire year, it's been nothing but nasty editorials and name-calling. Right out the box, without anyone even seeing it, pre-judgment and condemnation, which is like totally so wrong, I think. I just hope they can kinda see clearly, that's all. It's kind of a knee-jerk reaction. I can't say that it's always coming from someplace wholesome. It's not personal - you try not to have it be personal. If you take on resentments like that, they'll kill you. So you gotta give 'em away and try and perform an act of love even for those who persecute you, and I think that's the message of the film." The movie took in $23.6 million in just one day when it opened in America on Wednesday.
I'm putting together links for a link section that I will soon add to this site. In doing so, I stumbled across this interview with Jim Caviezel who plays Jesus in The Passion Of The Christ.
Moviehole.net - Interview : Jim Caviezel
From TV Guide online today. . .
KILLER INSTINCT: Fresh from her serial-killing spree in Monster, Charlize Theron is in talks to play a futuristic (and, thankfully, good-looking) assassin in a film based on MTV's animated series Aeon Flux.
CNN is running an article on Jim Caviezel who plays Jesus in Mel Gibson's new film The Passion of The Christ. Here is a link to it. . .
CNN.com - The man who plays Jesus - Feb. 25, 2004
This was on today's Internet Movie Database website. . .
Law: Give Penn the Oscar, Not Me
British actor Jude Law is appealing to the Academy Of Motion Arts And Sciences to award Sean Penn the Best Actor Oscar this year. Law is nominated in the same category as Penn, for his performance in romantic civil war epic Cold Mountain - but he is happy to stand aside, if the Mystic River star can pick up his first Academy Award. Law says, "I'm immensely proud to be in the category I'm in. There are actors in that category who I have been inspired by from a very, very young age - and to be amongst them is extraordinary. I've always loved Sean Penn's work. He's someone I've respected and looked up to and admired for years and years and years, and I think it should be his year."
I loved Gollum long before the Lord of the Rings movies came out, but it was even more amazing to see how those movies portrayed him. He's definitely my favorite Lord of the Rings character!
CNN.com - The importance of being Gollum - Jan. 21, 2004
Here is an article from CNN about a new exhibit of Marilyn Monroe photographs. As a child, she was probably the first film star I was really interested in. It would be great to see this exhibit!
CNN.com - Exhibit catches Marilyn off-guard - Feb. 2, 2004