James Franco (Spiderman) is set to star in Twentieth Century Fox’s upcoming Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes.
The 32-year-old actor will play a San Francisco-based scientist determined to keep an ape named Caesar safe from drug testing experiments. What he doesn’t know is that Caesar will eventually lead a revolution against mankind.
Production on Rise of the Apes begins on July 5. Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) is attached as director.
The international trailer for director Vincenzo Natali’s (Cube) long-delayed sci-fi morality tale Splice has been released. The clip draws heavily from the film’s monster sequences and provides a pretty good idea of the scares to come.
Splice stars Adrien Brody (Predators) and Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead) as ethically-compromised geneticists who successfully splice human and animal DNA to create a hybrid female named Dren.
Check it out:
Natali has been trying to get Splice made for nearly a decade. Budgeting issues and concern over the movie’s controversial themes had kept studios from picking up the project up until this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where Warner Bros. scored U.S. distribution rights.
Splice costars David Hewlett (“Stargate: Atlantis”), Abigail Chu (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Amanda Brugel (Jason X), Brandon McGibbon (Saw 5) and Delphine Chanéac as Dren. Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) serves as executive producer.
The film makes its way into theaters on June 4. To see a gallery & learn more, go here.
Julie Benz (“Dexter”) and Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”) star in ABC’s new fall superhero-dramedy “No Ordinary Family.”
The duo play Jim and Stephanie Powell, an exasperated married couple weighed down by work obligations and the hardships of raising teenagers. While on vacation, the family survives a freak accident that leaves them with supernatural powers.
Check out the trailer:
The show’s official synopsis reads:
The Powells are about to go from ordinary to extraordinary. After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie’s relationship lacks the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children, leaving little time for family bonding.
During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River. But this is where the fun starts for the Powells, as they soon discover that something’s not quite right. Each of them now possesses unique and distinct superpowers.
But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important, as they try to find purpose for their new powers and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them. The Powells are a totally relatable family who happen to be a little bit amazing.
“No Ordinary Family” costars Kay Panabaker (“CSI”), Jimmy Bennett (Orphan), Autumn Reeser (Lost Boys: The Tribe), Tate Donovan (Damages), Romany Malco (Gulliver’s Travels) and Christina Chang (“CSI: Miami”).
The series debuts in the fall.
Michelle Rodriguez showed off her softer sides at the World Music Awards in Monaco this week by going half-commando.
The 31-year-old actress, who has made a career out of playing bad-tempered—often butchy—tough chicks in flicks such as Avatar, Resident Evil, and Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming grindhouse-thriller Machete, let her femininity shine through in a see-thru black number that revealed her unholstered chi-chis (Spanish for jugs) and panties.
Check out the gallery … then make share own Fast & Furious joke.
Megan Fox will not be reprising her role as Mikaela Banes in Michael Bay’s soon-to-start-shooting Transformers 3. Deadline reports that Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger will instead introduce a new love-interest for Shai LaBeouf’s character .
That decision will surely please the franchise’s 13-year-old fan base who have been clamoring for Bay to provide a beautiful and meaningful love story.
While this development is a major disappointment to those of us who watched Transformers with a box of tissues and a jug of KY personal lubricant, it comes as no surprise.
Fox, who was described by the Transformers 2 crew as a “thankless, unfriendly bitch,” compared Bay to Adolf Hitler in an interview with Wonderland magazine and referred to Transformers as nonsensical on the “CBS Early Show” while doing a promo tour for Jennifer’s Body last year.
Pictured: Hitler, Fox, LaBeouf
The duo seemed to have worked out their issues late last year when Bay welcomed Fox back to the fold with the following tongue-in-cheek post on his website:
P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.
Of course, there could be more than meets the eye to the story. Fox told People magazine that she quit the franchise. In her most recent interview with Allure magazine, Fox says:
I had been tanning a lot so that Michael would be happy with my skin tone. Every spare moment of sun that was outside, I had to be in it. It’s not going to happen again because of the damage and the possible skin cancer.
Personally, I’m disturbed by the blatant sexism at work here. Shia LaBeouf talked shit about Transfromers 2, yet still appears as Optimus Prime’s BFF. What gives?
There’s only one way to make this injustice right: Hire Gemma Atkinson and her 34-E’s to replace Fox.
Actresses rumored to be up for the part include Zoe Saldana (Avatar), Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Amber Heard (The Stepfather), Hayden Panetierre (“Heroes”), and Ashley Green (The Twilight Saga).
Transformers 3 goes into production this month. It arrives in theaters July 1, 2011.
Rumor out of Cannes is that tabloid-darling Lindsay Lohan is attached to star in director Ryuhei Kitamura’s (The Midnight Meat Train) latest frightener Black Friday 3-D.
The film centers on the family and friends of a murdered couple as they set out to find the killer responsible.
Lohan is currently working on a cinematic comeback in between cocaine binges. The 23-year-old party machine managed to score a possibly topless role in Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming grindhouse-thriller Machete.
Lohan’s first foray into horror was in 2007’s serial-killer drama I Know Who Killed Me. She played stigmatic twins with very large breasts.
British babe Rhona Mitra has survived the apocalypse in Neil Marshall’s Doomsday and faced-off against vampires and werewolves in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. But, now, she’s up against horror’s most deadliest foe: the Nielsen families.
That’s right. Mitra is heading back to the small screen (she stared on the David E. Kelly lawyer dramas “The Practice” and “Boston Legal”) to star in ABC’s new vampire series “The Gates.”
(UPDATE: CLICK HERE TO SEE MITRA IN FIRST 17-MINUTE PREVIEW CLIP OF “THE GATES”)
The show’s synopsis reads:
Nestled inside a private mountain community are The Gates. The image of perpetual suburban bliss, each street is lined with perfectly manicured homes protected by the massive iron gates, but a dark and delicious secret is buried just beneath the surface of this picturesque neighborhood.
Like most families that settle inside The Gates, the Monahans are unmoored from a complicated life they abandoned in Chicago. Named the new police chief of The Gates, Nick Monahan is expecting a change of pace in this quiet suburb.
Nick’s wife, Sarah, and their children, Charlie and Dana, are embarking on new adventures as well. Their house is to die for, but amidst the excitement Sarah is still burdened with the revelation that her husband may not be the man she thought he was.
Charlie and Dana will also face some challenges of their own: Along with navigating the trials and tribulations of adolescence, they’ll also face the daunting task of fitting into their new upscale school, where their new friends run in tight-knit packs.
There’s something very different about this place, almost… haunting. Unions will be complicated by friends with unnatural influence, insatiable housewives will struggle with ravenous cravings, and teenagers will be cursed with keeping their beastly instincts in check.
The Monahans are facing an uncertain fate. Nick is about to be tangled up in a mystery where he will begin to piece together the dark truth about their new home and the supernatural elements that lurk behind the shadows of The Gates.
Ironically, the show was probably canceled during the time it took to read that synopsis. Horror just doesn’t survive on network TV (HBO & Showtime don’t count). CBS killed “Harper’s Island” last year and ABC recently announced that “Happy Town” would not be renewed after airing two episodes.
“The Gates” costars Frank Grillo (Mother’s Day), Marisol Nichols (“24”), Skyler Samuels (The Stepfather), Chandra West (White Noise), Luke Mably (28 Days Later), Colton Haynes (“Teen Wolf”), and Janina Gavankar (“The L Word”).
The show is set to debut on June 20.
Rhona made her U.S. deboob in 'Hollow Man'
Mitra’s additional horror/sci-fi creds include The Number 23, Skinwalkers, “SGU: Stargate Universe,” and Hollow Man, which featured a topless Mitra being raped by an invisible Kevin Bacon (you can see those shots here).
The Los Angeles premiere of Disney’s fantasy-actioner Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was held last night at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
On hand for the festivities were producer Jerry Bruckenheimer and the film’s stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, and breakout babe Gemma Arterton. Celebrities in attendance included Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Jaime King, Krystin Ritter, Alanis Morissette, and Seth Green with his giant girlfriend Clare Grant.
In keeping with the film’s time manipulation theme, event organizers also managed to dig up ’80s and early ’90s relics Judge Reinhold, Jon Lovitz, and Wayne’s World’s Tia Carrere.
Prince of Persia is an adaptation of Ubisoft’s hit video game. The film is directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and scripted by Jordan Mechner, creator of the Prince of Persia game. It arrives in theaters on May 28.
Actor Shia LaBeouf must be hitting the truth serum again. The 23-year-old actor told The Los Angeles Times that he thinks Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sucked donkey balls … and that star Harrison Ford agrees with him.
He says:
I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you’ve made shit. And I think if you don’t acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you’re promoting a movie.
He [Harrison Ford] wasn’t happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn’t universally accepted.
LaBeouf, who owes his career to director/producer Steven Spielberg, goes on to say that he’s not scared to piss off the Hollywood giant, adding that Spielberg needs to eat shit (I’m paraphrasing).
I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I’m not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man.
I think he’s a genius, and he’s given me my whole life. He’s done so much great work that there’s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball.
Last month, LaBeouf poo-pooed all over Michael Bay’s Transformers 2 (also produced by Spielberg), stating that he felt the film had “missed the mark.” That said, LaBeouf had no problem signing on to star in Bay’s upcoming Transformers 3.
You know who else talked crap about Spielberg? The kid from E.T. I get a feeling LaBeouf is about to have his career Henry Thomas-ed if he keeps talking crazy.
No comment from Spielberg or Ford on LaBeouf’s comments. The duo, however, are reportedly developing a fifth Indiana Jones film.
The first images from director Tarsem Singh’s Immortals (formerly entitled War of the Gods) have hit the web. The fantasy-adventure, which pits men against gods ala Clash of the Titans, went into production last month in Montreal.
Immortals stars Henry Cavill as our hero Theseus, John Hurt as Zeus, Mickey Rourke as King Hyperion, Twilight’s Kellan Lutz as Poseidon, Stephen Dorf as master thief Stavros, Isabel Lucas as the Goddess Athena, and Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto (pictured above) as Phaedra the oracle priestess.
To read about Pinto’s new role in Rise of the Apes, go here.
