Well, this is one way to get a date. Sergeant Scott Moore took time out of his day patrolling in Afghanistan with the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines in Musa Qala to ask Mila Kunis for a date – and not just a simple stop at a coffee shop. No, Sgt Moore went all in, asking That ’70s Show star Mila Kunis (soon to be seen in Friends with Benefits) to accompany him to the Marine Corps Ball in Greenville, NC on November 18, 2011.
Sgt Moore’s video posted on Youtube caught fire and caught the attention of Kunis and her Friends with Benefits co-star Justin Timberlake who took the opportunity on Fox News to tell Kunis she should go for it. Kunis ultimately said yes, something I’m willing to bet Sgt. Moore never actually believed would happen.
Are you ready to rock? If the answer’s yes, then this bit of news is just for you. New Line announced filming has just begun on the big screen adaptation of the Broadway hit musical Rock of Ages. Hairspray director Adam Shankman is at the helm with Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige, Malin Akerman, Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, and Tom Cruise all attached to star.
Per the press release: “Rock of Ages tells the story of small-town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Whitesnake, and more.”
Chris D’Arienzo wrote the script based on his musical. Matt Weaver, Scott Prisand, Carl Levin, Tobey Maguire, and Jen Gibgot are producing. Garrett Grant, Adam Shankman, Janet Billig Rich, Hillary Weaver, Toby Emmerich, Michael Disco, and Samuel J. Brown are executive producing.
The behind-the-scenes team includes cinematographer Bojan Bazelli, production designer Jon Hutman, costume designer Rita Ryack, editor Emma E. Hickox, music supervisor Matthew Rush Sullivan, executive music producer Adam Anders, and choreographer Mia Michaels.
Rock of Ages is shooting in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. New Line’s set a June 1, 2012 release date.
Hugh Jackman’s back as the steely-clawed mutant who fights the good fight in this spin-off from the super successful X-Men film franchise: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Although the film didn’t quite live up to its hype, Jackman and X-Men newcomers Liev Schreiber and Ryan Reynolds make it one worth checking out.
Pros:
– What the film lacks in action, the Blu-ray release makes up for in entertaining extra features. Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber are terrific as mutants
Cons:
– Wolverine doesn’t live up to expectations, but it’s still a decent comic book-inspired adaptation.
Description:
– Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Lynn Collins, and Taylor Kitsch
– Directed by Gavin Hood
– Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence and some partial nudity
– Blu-ray/DVD Release Date: September 15, 2009
The Story:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine focuses on one of the most interesting mutants from the series, providing a look at his family life and how he came to fight on the side of what’s good and wholesome. The film also introduces us to Logan/Wolverine’s brother Victor/Sabretooth (Schreiber) and unveils Victor Creed’s mysterious Weapon X program.
The Bonus Features:
Although Jackman doesn’t provide an audio commentary, director Gavin Hood does one on his own, with producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winters contributing their own separate track. Skip theirs and listen to Hood’s. He gives in-depth explanations as to the choices he made, just what X-Men fans want to know.
The featurettes include X-Men creator Stan Lee and Wolverine co-creator Len Wein sitting down for a lengthy chat which is a must-watch, even for those not into comics. “Wolverine Unleashed” is an insightful piece on the character’s origin and Jackman’s dedication in getting into the role, and “Thrill of the Chase” is a behind-the-scenes look at the helicopter sequence. The multi-part feature “Weapon X Mutant Files” explores all of the central characters, with interviews and other background material.
I suggest watching the four deleted scenes and an alternate ending with the optional commentary by director Hood turned on. His thoughts as to the direction of the story and why these didn’t work are well worth listening to. The disc also includes “Ultimate X Mode” with pop-up tracks and a live look-up feature that lets you access IMDB.com using the BD-Live feature. It’s state of the art and allows for easy access to the info you need/want/might enjoy looking up.
Wolverine looks just as gorgeous on blu-ray as on the big screen, the colors are crisp, the audio sharp, and the bonus features are not just filler material but truly interesting/entertaining.
American Idol Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery is proving that he will have a career after AI. Signed to Mercury Nashville/19 Recordings/Interscope, McCreery’s first single, “I Love You This Big,” is now the highest-charting debut for a new artist in more than two decades, according to Interscope.
The scoop from Interscope:
“I Love You This Big” debuts at No. 32 on Billboard’s Nielsen BDS-based Hot Country Songs chart. This is the highest debut for a new artist’s first single since the chart began using BDS data the week of Jan. 20, 1990, according to Billboard. The song, which hit No. 1 on iTunes, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Digital Songs chart with 171,404 units sold, while a compilation album featuring 14 of his performances from American Idol, entitled American Idol Season 10: Scotty McCreery, reached No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200 all-genre albums chart and No. 3 on the country albums chart with 23,196 units sold.
“I am humbled and shocked by this news,” says Scotty. “I can’t tell you what it means to me to be on the same charts as my musical heroes. I want to thank my fans and especially country radio for their support. I continue to be amazed by everything that has happened to me in such a short time.”
Scotty won Season Ten of American Idol on May 25. A record-breaking 122.4 million votes were cast for Scotty and Lauren Alaina, the runner-up, and 38.6 million viewers tuned in to see the winner’s name announced. The song was sent to radio on May 24 after Scotty debuted the song on American Idol.
“This is such a special song to me, so I am thrilled that it is getting such a great reception at country radio. What I love about ‘I Love You This Big’ is that it can mean different things to different people. It could be about the relationship between a couple in love or a parent and child,” said McCreery.
The 17-year-old singer is receiving big love from WQDR in Raleigh, N.C., which is located six miles north of his hometown, Garner, N.C. Not only is the station leading all Billboard panelists with more plays in the first week, but it has dubbed itself “Scotty 94.7” and incorporated the new name into an American Idol-inspired logo.
“I feel like the words ‘thank you’ aren’t enough,” he says. “I wish I could find more words to express my gratitude to everyone. I still can’t believe how people are supporting me in so many ways.”
Scotty will travel to Nashville next week to begin recording his debut album. He will present at the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday and participate in other CMA Music Festival activities, including the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game on Saturday, June 11. He will make his Grand Ole Opry debut on Friday, June 10.
He will perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 15. He will be featured on the “American Idols Live” tour that begins July 6 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and runs through September. He will perform on ABC’s Good Morning America on Aug. 12.
Columbia Pictures has picked up the rights to remake the 2007 Japanese film Big Man Japan in a deal which also gave the studio sequel rights. Neal H Moritz will develop and produce the film through his Original Film banner. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Clash of the Titans) have been tapped to write the script.
Per the press release: “Set in a world where monsters wreak havoc, there’s one man who can protect the citizenry: Big Man Japan, who runs the Department of Monster Prevention. Using electricity, he can grow to be 10 stories tall and fight off the most menacing of monsters. The problem is that he’s not very good at his job and often causes as much damage as he prevents. The people believe he’s a joke – and not nearly as good at the job as his father and grandfather were before he took over the family business.”
The original film was written and directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto. The cast includes Riki Takeuchi, Ua, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Haruka Unabara, and Itsuji Itao. Matsumoto stars as Masaru Daisatô / Dai-Nihonjin.
Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, and Dennis Quaid have some more company in The Words, according to Benaroya Pictures. Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Ben Barnes, John Hannah, J.K. Simmons, and Nora Arnezeder have all signed up to join the cast of the dramatic thriller which marks the feature film directorial debut of Tron: Legacy screenwriters Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal.
Klugman and Sternthal also wrote the script, which went through the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and appeared on the Black List (the annual list of Hollywood’s best-unproduced screenplays). The Words starts shooting this month in Montreal.
Michael Benaroya of Benaroya Pictures is producing along with Animus Films’ Jim Young, and Serena Films’ Tatiana Kelly. Untitled Entertainment’s Laura Rister is executive producing the film with Cassian Elwes under their joint venture Waterfall Media. Rister and Elwes are shepherding the project. Cinematographer Antonio Calvache is the Director of Photography.
Olivia Wilde recently starred as Jeff Bridges’ trusted friend and protector Quorra in the 3D futuristic blockbuster, Tron: Legacy. This year she will be seen in a wide array of projects including the Universal fantasy-action film Cowboys and Aliens starring alongside Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford; the physical comedy The Change Up, to be released in August, starring opposite Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman; Andrew Niccol’s futuristic thriller In Time; and The Weinstein Company’s quirky political satire Butter also starring Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman and Ty Burrell.
Zoe Saldana starred in major blockbusters Star Trek and Avatar and will next be seen in the upcoming action film Colombiana produced by Luc Besson.
Ben Barnes stars in the upcoming Killing Bono. His additional credits include Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Dorian Gray, and Prince Caspian.
The Words Plot:The Words follows a writer (Cooper) who, at the peak of his literary success, discovers the price he must pay for stealing another man’s work.
Matt Lantner and Sara Paxton lead the cast of the dramatic thriller Liars All. Written and directed by Brian Blightly, Liars All is targeting an August 6, 2013 premiere.
The cast also includes Gillian Zinser, Alice Evans, Torrance Coombs, and Darin Brooks.
The Official Synopsis: “On New Year’s Eve, a provocative game spins out of control and ends in murder, the true killer elusive amidst conflicting testimony and hidden motives.
In London, an NYU student Mike sits across from a British Police Detective. In a holding cell sits a good-looking Leicester footballer, and there’s blood on his shirt. Fueled by booze, drugs, sex, and excess, a twisted version of Truth or Dare has ended in a tragic murder.
Over the course of the story, three different versions of the evening complicate the case. Flashing between the party and the interrogations, the detective tries to find the truth amongst everyone’s lies.
This elevated, sexy thriller pulls these characters into a dangerous fantasy. A night of shared secrets and newfound intimacies takes unexpected turns, creating an evening that will damage everyone forever.”
Garrett Hedlund will receive the 2011 Maui Film Festival Rising Star Award, it was announced today by Barry Rivers, Director of the festival which will be held June 15-19, 2011 at the Wailea Resort in Maui.
From Maui Film Festival:
The Rising Star Award honors a film artist who dares to dream big dreams and delivers brilliantly charismatic and revelatory performances every time that opportunity knocks. Hedlund will be presented the 2011 Maui Film Festival Rising Star Award at one of evenings at the Celestial Cinema located at the Wailea Gold & Emerald Golf Course.
“Every so often a young actor comes along and delivers performances deep and wise beyond their years. Garrett Hedlund is blessed with that talent and we can all look forward to years of stunning work as he explores his opportunities,” said Festival Director Barry Rivers.
Hedlund will next be seen in On the Road with an all-star cast that includes Sam Reilly and Kristen Stewart. The film, based on the novel by Jack Kerouac, will be directed by Walter Salles and is scheduled for release in 2011.
Hedlund made an auspicious motion picture debut as part of the all-star cast in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy, the big-budget movie based on The Iliad, co-starred opposite Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, and Diane Kruger. Last year, Hedlund starred in two films: TRON: Legacy for Walt Disney Studios and Country Strong, starring opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester, and Tim McGraw. Other past film credits include Death Sentence, Eragon, Four Brothers and Friday Night Lights.
I’m hardly an expert on the first two Ice Age movies having seen Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown a total of one time each, but I don’t remember either of those two movies having as much ‘adult’ humor as the third film of the series: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. This one seems to have taken its cue from the Shrek films, inserting more than a handful of jokes that’ll soar over kids’ heads. It’s not a bad idea, adding a little salty humor to the Ice Age world, and the jokes and double entendres (which don’t come close to being R rated) liven up what could have been strictly a film for the young ones.
Fittingly, the third film of the franchise is the first of the Ice Age bunch to be in 3-D. I’m not a fan of 3-D in most cases because I find it more annoying than entertaining to have things jump off the screen at me. Plus, I enjoy the more vibrant colors offered in 2-D animated films. But Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs doesn’t overdo the 3-D and doesn’t really get in the audience’s face with gimmicky effects. As far as 3-D goes, Ice Age didn’t exactly melt my heart but it did earn a few extra Brownie points for effort.
The Story:
Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are going to be parents and for Manny, the idea of being a dad for the very first time is a very scary proposition. Manny wants his baby mammoth to be raised in a safe environment, but the wild Ice Age world isn’t exactly baby-proof. Still, he tries his best to prepare a kid-friendly area and creates a beautiful little playground just for his soon-to-arrive bundle of joy.
He also tries to prepare Sid (John Leguizamo) for the big changes that will take place in their friendship once he and Ellie add a bouncy baby to their little group. While Diego (Denis Leary) saw the writing on the wall and sets off on his own adventure, Sid is completely flummoxed by the very idea that he, Manny and Diego will no longer be an animal version of the three musketeers.
Sid, at a loss as to how to be on his own, stumbles upon three eggs that have apparently been abandoned by their mother. Key word here – apparently. Actually, momma is still around and she’s extremely large and extremely unhappy about Sid’s hijacking of her offspring. She’s also a dinosaur. Yes, a dinosaur. And before you say, “But dinosaurs weren’t around during the Ice Age,” remember this is an animated family comedy with prehistoric animals who talk and act human. Historic liberties are taken, and the presence of dinosaurs is explained by showing they’ve been hidden away in an underground world.
So, dino mom takes her three new hatchlings Sid has named Yoko, Shelly, and Eggbert – as well as the silly sloth – back underground. Here, Sid’s completely out of his element, but that doesn’t stop him from still insisting these newborns are his. Meanwhile, Manny, Ellie, Ellie’s two little weasel brothers, and Diego (who’s returned to the pack to help out his adopted family) make the trek down, down, down to this strange and frightening world filled with creatures who didn’t get the memo that they’re supposed to be extinct. Manny and company, joined by a dashing one-eyed weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), have to carefully navigate their way through this treacherous world in order to save Sid. And all this is going down just as Ellie’s about ready to give birth.
The Bottom Line:
Is the third time the charm? No, the original Ice Age is still the best of the lot. But Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is far, far better than Ice Age: The Meltdown. There’s more action, more humor, and more Scrat in Ice Age 3. And, let’s face it, you can never have too much Scrat. In fact, this time around there’s a female version of Scrat added into the mix just to give the squirrelly dude some real competition for the love of his life: the acorn he’s been chasing after since 2002.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs moves at a faster clip than Ice Age: The Meltdown, packing a lot of punch with wild chase scenes and cute new characters. And amid all the action in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs there’s an important message to be learned. Family is important, even if your family is made up of an odd conglomerate of characters who drive you crazy at times.
GRADE: B
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Michael Thurmeier and is rated PG for some mild rude humor and peril.
Sony Pictures announced Tommy Lee Jones will star in Great Hope Springs to be directed by David Frankel. Jones joins Meryl Streep and Steve Carell in the project, with Sony Pictures aiming for a 4th quarter of 2012 release.
Vanessa Taylor wrote the script, which earned her a spot on Hollywood’s prestigious Black List, with Todd Black producing and Nathan Kahane, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, and Jessie Nelson executive producing.
The story follows “a middle-aged couple who after thirty years of marriage attend an intense counseling weekend to examine the intimacy issues that are threatening their marriage.”
Mandate Pictures says production will start in August 2011.
