Universal Pictures is set to roll out Death Race: Frankenstein Lives, the prequel to the 2008 remake starring Jason Stathem, on DVD and Blu-ray next week. The film stars Danny Trejo, Luke Goss, Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, and gorgeous South African model-turned-actress Tanit Phoenix.
Also along for the ride is leggy up-and-comer Lauren Cohan as Death Match host—and all-around bad bitch—September Jones. The 28-year-old stunner cut her bad girl teeth playing relic thief Bela Talbot on The CW’s “Supernatural” and 500-year-old vamp Rose on the network’s hit bloodsucker soap “The Vampire Diaries.”
Cohan also stars opposite Arielle Kebbel in director Bill Eagles’ island-frightener Disturbed.
Slovakian stunner Barbara Nedeljakova appears to be stepping up her B-game. Best known in the States for her role as Euro cock-bait Natalya in writer/director Eli Roth’s Hostel, Nedeljakova has recently completed work on low-budget frighteners The Hike and Children of the Corn: The Dweller (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Her latest project is producer Jonathan Sothcott’s (Devil’s Playground) so-ridiculous-it-can-only-be-awesome thriller Strippers vs. Werewolves, directed by Jonathan Glendening (13 HRS). No word on what role Nedeljakova will play in the film, but my highly trained industry insider senses tells me it could very well be a stripper.
Interesting aside: Sothcott recently bragged to Dread Central that he is “pals” with insanely gorgeous British actress/model Gemma Atkinson and got the idea to hire Glendening as director after watching her in 13HRS. Let’s hope he still wants to bang her bad enough to offer her a part in the flick as well.
Here you see the first image of actress Rooney Mara (Nightmare on Elm Street) as pissed-off hacker-punk Lisbeth Salander in Columbia Pictures’ upcoming adaptation of late Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
W Magazine scored the shot along with a lengthy interview with director David Fincher, who reveals that he put Mara through an audition test that required her to “kick a dildo” up some guy’s ass. Fincher also discusses his previous films, including Zodiac, Seven, and Alien 3.
The interview offers no explanation, however, for Fincher’s decision to make Mara as fugly as the chick in the original Swedish film (see gallery below). Isn’t the point of a remake to make things look better? Fucking Hollywood. Never gets it right.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo costars Robin Wright (Unbreakable), Joely Richardson (”Nip/Tuck”), Stellan Skarsgard (Melancholia), Christopher Plummer (Priest), and Daniel Craig in the role of journalist Mikael Blomkvist.
Columbia Pictures will also adapt the other two entries in Larsson’s widely popular Millennium Trilogy: “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Collectively the novels have sold over 40 million copies worldwide.
Sony Pictures has released the first full-length trailer for director Jonathan Liebesman’s (Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Begining) alien-invasion feature Battle: Los Angeles … and it is good. The film stars Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight), Michelle Rodriguez (Machete), Michael Pena (Love Object), Jim Parrack (“True Blood”), Noel Fisher (Breaking Dawn), sexy newcomer Taryn Southern, and R&B pop artist Ne-Yo.
Described as Independence Day meets Black Hawk Down, the film takes its name from a supposed massive UFO sighting in Santa Monica, California said to have taken place on Feb. 25, 1942, just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. According to UFO enthusiasts, the alien ship was attacked by the U.S. military under the belief that it was Japanese aircraft (read more about it here).
