You might remember hearing up-and-coming (actually unproven) director Carl Erik Rinsch’s name being tossed about in discussions of Ridley Scott’s planned Alien prequel or reboot. However, Scott took Rinsch off the project to see over it himself, leading the man to head in another direction: that of 47 Ronin.

In a logline that reads like someone didn’t quite understand why The Last Samurai didn’t work, 47 Ronin will be an “epic period samurai swordsmen tale that will star Keanu Reeves” which will tell “the famous fact-based story of a band of samurai swordsmen who avenge the death of their master in 18th century Japan.”

You heard me right. Keanu Reeves. Samurai. I know the guy’s half Asian — that doesn’t stop him from having the acting chops of a bump on a log. Rinsch, who cut his teeth on car commercials, will direct the film from a script by Chris Morgan, the man who wrote Wanted. This film is quickly getting the chips stacked against it, but I’ll reserve judgment for when I see the final product. Who knows — maybe we’ll have a Neil Blomkamp-esque success on our hands that completely exceeds my expectations.

Producer Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian director behind Night Watch, Wanted, and 9, has released the trailer for his new film Black Lightning. While you probably won’t understand a word of the trailer unless you’re fluent in Russian, the visuals tell the story entirely: a boy gets a flying car and begins to fight crime and win the heart of his woman with it. Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with sleeker visuals and heightened violence!

I’m quite honestly not sure what to think of this quite yet. Bekmambetov has described the film as “the Russian response to Transformers and Batman.” I’m not sure it comes across as anything but insane at the moment. The film is directed by Alexandr Voitinsky and Dmitriy Kiselev. Check out the trailer below!

My face is melting.

Remember all those rumors last year about Megan Fox taking the reigns from Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider franchise? If you do, I bet you’ll also remember that those were quickly debunked from the Fox camp. Well now, it looks like that Jolie is officially out as Lara Croft, according to Tomb Raider 3 producer Dan Lin who spoke at the U.S. premiere of Terminator Salvation. “We’re rebooting Lara Croft. It’s a great origin story that we’re going to tell. Very character-oriented -I would say more realistic than the past movies.” Lin said, adding that he was looking for a “younger Lara Croft.”

“I think for me the Lara Croft games and movies have gone a little too action-oriented. I wanted to have action, but with character.”

Don’t feel too bad for Angelina Jolie. Since her performance in Wanted made her a bona fide super-heroine, she was picked for the lead in the upcoming spy thriller Salt over Tom Cruise and has been connected to Wanted 2.

Plus she’s hot.

Oscars air live on February 22nd

The nominations for the 81st annual Academy Awards are in and to be honest not to surprising. The group behind the noms are getting to be pretty predictable. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button brought in 13 nominations to lead all other films.

Other films such as Slumdog Millionaire, scored 10 nominations.

My personal favorite of 2008, The Dark Knight, failed to earn nominations in both the best picture and best director categories. Personally I would not think it would win because of all the old farts on the board, but the money it earned alone should of been a hint to the old fogies that someone enjoyed it.

Heath Ledger did get his Best Supporting Actor nod. If he doesn’t win, there may be a broken TV in Maryland somewhere. I would be sure to bet that he is the leading candidate for the win.

Another favorite movie of mine, GranTorino was snubbed in a few categories also.

The Oscars will be on TV February 22nd live from the Kodak Theater in a Hollywood.

Below are the nominations:

BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Gus Van Sant, Milk

BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River , Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
Milk, Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth
Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan
The Reader, David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

BEST ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306

BEST EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

BEST MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
”Down to Earth,” (WALL-E)
”Jai Ho,” (Slumdog Millionaire)
”O Saya,” (Slumdog Millionaire)

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, and Morgan Freeman, will hit shelves on DVD and Blu-ray next week – Tuesday December 2 to be exact – from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

To gear up for the release, we just received a behind-the-scenes clip off the bonus features featuring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy that I thought you and your readers would enjoy to get through the holiday weekend.

Searching for the Hero: [youtube]TToWmabd4_0[/youtube]

Angelina Jolie Kicks My Ass: [youtube]KoNiL5viIJA[/youtube]

The 2-disc special edition of Wanted arrives on DVD and Blu-ray 12/2 loaded with tons of bonus features.  Also available will be a Limited Edition Collector’s set that includes a Book of Assassins, Collectible Postcards and Motion Film Cell.

To see all you can get in the collector’s set, check out this video: [youtube]1ALsyMN1lyc[/youtube]

Let me know what you think!

So after a pretty solid run in the theaters, “Wanted” is coming back with a sequel. We all knew it would happen, but I, and at least a few other folks, would of thought the book would of come before the film. That seems not to be the case.

At a press junket about the DVD release Millar told Newsarama;

“It will be some of the stuff that we didn’t utilize from the first book for the movie – like chapters three and four – there will be some stuff from that, so in the loosest sense it will be based on the book, but only very little. The nice thing about owning it and creator-owned properties is that JG and I will still be producers on the thing, and will still obviously get paid for the rights.”

I think sticking to one book is a great idea as the original is the best and will remain so. The questions arise, who is coming back for the new film?

Stay tuned for more “Wanted” news.

So, if you are one of the many who enjoyed the comedy hit “Tropic Thunder”, then here’s some interesting news.  A documentary entitled “Rain of Madness”, which details the making of the movie-within-a-movie “Tropic Thunder” will be made available on iTunes for download.

Here’s the official press release:

“Rain of Madness,” starring Jay Baruchel, Jack Black, Steve Coogan, Robert Downey Jr., Bill Hader, Nick Nolte and Ben Stiller is a companion piece to the hit comedy “Tropic Thunder,” which debuted in theaters nationwide on August 13, and serves as a documentary of the making-of the feature film.  It was shot on location in Hawaii , at the same locations used in the feature film, and details the demise of the fictitious cast & crew of “Tropic Thunder”, as they struggle to finish shooting their film despite numerous shooting, budgeting and casting problems.

“We wanted to do a fake documentary about the making of the movie within the movie which is called “Tropic Thunder” — not the actual movie “Tropic Thunder”. The fake documentary focuses on the real movie’s fake director, and what happens to the fake cast before they go into the real jungle. It’s pretty straightforward”, says Ben Stiller, one of the stars of the documentary and the director/star/producer and co-writer of “Tropic Thunder.”

“Original material for web consumption is a growing area for us, and ‘Rain of Madness,’ dovetails perfectly with the theatrical release of ‘Tropic Thunder.’  They complement and reinforce one another, while staying true to the comedic sensibility that Ben and his team brought to ‘Tropic Thunder’.  We hope fans will appreciate this exclusive digital content and continue the experience at www.rainofmadness.com” says Amy Powell, Senior Vice President, Interactive Marketing, Paramount Pictures.

No movie in recent years has poked fun at, mocked and downright dragged the good name of Hollywood through the mud, laughing all the way quite like “Tropic Thunder”.  In a time when theaters are overpopulated by comedies that somehow have Judd Apatow’s name attached to them, “Tropic Thunder” is Apatow-free, but it still retains that gleeful sense of vulgarity that audiences seem to now love so much.  Not only does “Tropic Thunder” work with that vulgarity, it soars with it, easily making this the funniest movie I’ve seen so far this year.

In this laugh-a-second action comedy directed by its star, Ben Stiller, the very idea of Hollywood is taken for a ride.  “Tropic Thunder” also happens to be the title of a war movie being shot in the film, its cast a hodgepodge of movie stars.  There’s the action guy, Tugg Speedman (Stiller), the star of countless special effects-driven films that have gradually lost steam and the star of “Simple Jack”, a box-office dud centered around a retarded farmer.  Next is Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), a comedian famous only for his film flatulence but yearns for more respect for his name.  Then comes the five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an intense method actor who undergoes a controversial skin pigment alteration procedure in order to play the film’s main black character.  This really ticks off the cast’s real black actor, a rapper who goes by Alpa Chino (say that name out loud).  Anyway, the fed-up director (Steve Coogan) gets the idea from  the writer of the film’s source material (Nick Nolte) to take his actors out into the real “battle zone”, a jungle rigged with hidden cameras and shoot the entire film “guerrilla style”.  The only problem?  Well, the actors are mistaken for D.E.A. operatives and get caught up in a war against Korean drug runners, with good humor all the way.

Well, the real gem of “Tropic Thunder” is Robert Downey Jr., who shines as Kirk Lazarus.  In the hands of any other actor, I think the role could have easily gone off the rails as a result of stereotyping, but thankfully, Downey Jr leaves stereotypes of any kind at the door.  He’s black, but in a tasteful manner as he spews profanity, talks about collard greens and takes offense when Speedman says “you people”.  Downey Jr never overplays it, and his many arguments with Alpa Chino and the other cast members are sure to have everybody in the audience gasping for breath while laughing hard; the audience I saw the film with certainly behaved that way.  Downey Jr has always been one of my personal favorites, despite his personal problems, and I’m happy to see him back on his game.  He’s on a roll this year with “Iron Man” and now this.

However, that’s not to say that everybody else is just mediocre, because they’re not.  “Tropic Thunder” has a lot of funny performances, in addition to great cameos which are really supporting roles.  Matthew McConaughey has a good one as Tugg Speedman’s spaced-out agent, whose primary concern seems to be getting his star a Tivo.  And the other one that I just have to talk about is Tom Cruise as a vulgar, mean-spirited studio executive with no hair and quite a bit of paunch.  Cruise gets great laughs, both from his profane demeanor and his weirdly funny dance moves.  And suffice it to say that this role is one of the highlights of Cruise’s career.

Stiller both acts and directs perfectly for this material, as he amazingly makes us forget that he helmed the god-awful “Zoolander” back in 2001.  Stiller is clearly mocking Hollywood as best he can, and having fun with it.  The way the actors, agents and studio executives are portrayed in this movie will have film buffs such as myself cracking up continuously.  The film opens with clever fake trailers that introduce each actor to us, and they are hilarious.  Ben Stiller really does have a sense of what notes to hit for this movie, and it all winds up being a comedy experience for those interested in the film.

So, would I see “Tropic Thunder” again?  Definitely, because even though you can pretty much catch every joke about the movie industry the first time through, I think there’s still some subtlety underneath the surface of these jokes that cannot be picked up in the first viewing.  What Stiller has done is essentially created a biting commentary on Hollywood itself, one that always has something funny and interesting to say about how the studios operate and how actors can be taken as something they don’t want to be.  But the trick is that Stiller, who also co-wrote the screenplay, does so in a very fast-paced manner, hitting us with jokes left and right as he makes his point.

In the end, I would gladly take “Tropic Thunder” over other crude comedies like “Knocked Up”.  The movie is a laugh-riot with a LOT of F-bombs and other four-letter words, but that works here…somehow.  I know, crudeness and profanity actually working for me is something that rarely happens.  But I guess you could say “Tropic Thunder” is that rare type of comedy that I can say with all confidence that I loved.

Rating: ★★★★☆