Filed under: Casting, Fandom, Newsstand, Home Entertainment, Images

Just what you needed at the end of a long day: more stuff (and things) to look at:

– Is anyone else getting sick of these celeb-stacked Vote videos? Election day is when? Really? I haven’t heard a peep about it. (See below)

– So remember that totally awesome Ghostbusters video game that was supposed to come and then didn’t? (Watch the trailer over here) Well the good news is Atari has bought the right to publish not only the Ghostbusters game, but also The Chronicles of Riddick … so you can spend hours pretending to be a bald Vin Diesel wearing blacked-out swim goggles. [Variety]

– And speaking of Vin Diesel (who’s currently trying to revive his acting career by going back and starring in sequels to all his older movies), Collider tells us that the new xXx film will be called xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, and Rob Marshall Cohen is currently eying a summer 2010 release.

– A new batch of images from Sherlock Holmes have made their way online (via The Bad & Ugly), and yep, Downey Jr. and Jude Law are still wearing those hats. Until one of them is photographed beating the living crap out of a villain, I think we’re about done looking at these boring set pics. Whaddya think?

– IESB spoke to Brandon Routh recently about whether he’d be down for a darker version of Superman in the sequel. Here’s what the dude has to say about which villain he’d like to square off against: ” I know that DC is working on a Brainiac storyline that they are excited about and I think combining the two and have that flow between the comics and the movie would be a nice thing. I honestly think there are a lot of interesting things you can do with Brainiac. Controlling people, controlling technology, a lot of cool things.”

– Fans of Twilight will be happy to know that starting tomorrow you can pre-order your Twilight movie ticket over at Fandango. Oh, but that’s totally not all — with each ticket purchased, you’ll also get a free download of “Bella’s Lullaby (Remix).

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Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Casting

The futuristic, post-apocalyptic drama Book of Eli is one of those features that sounds like a lot of other films — man setting out in a wasteland to save the Earth. To me, it’s one robot away from Cyborg — well, a few pecs away as well, since star Denzel Washington isn’t as beefy as Jean Claude Van Damme. But where the old post-apocalyptic world was great in that terrible, crappy movie sort of way, Eli is getting packed with talent.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the wonderful chameleon Gary Oldman is in negotiations to co-star. Better yet — it’s taking him back to the dark side and away from his recent good guy forays. As Washington’s Eli tries to make his way across America’s wasteland and “protect a sacred book that might hold the key to saving the future of humanity,” Oldman’s Carnegie will try and stop him. The despot of a makeshift town without laws, Carnegie wants to take possession of the book Eli is guarding, presumably for his own benefit. (Or maybe for his little community a la Blindness?)

So yeah, it’s Cyborg with a book instead of a robot, with less muscles, and a much better baddie. My hopes, they’re soaring high. Production will kick into gear next year, and unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until 2010 to see what Denzel and Gary make of this.

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Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free

Here’s some news that I’m ready to sing about! One of my favorite TV actresses is heading to Broadway. Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham will star in the revival of Guys and Dolls that opens in New York next March. She’s not only going to be making her Broadway debut, she’ll be doing it in one of the greatest musicals of all time. And she’ll be playing not the ingenue role (Salvation Army missionary doll Miss Sarah Brown). No, she’s smartly taking the very funny, very distinctive comic role as Miss Adelaide, lead singer/tootsie at the Hot Box nightclub!

For fans like me who always lamented the fact that Lauren never got the Emmy recognition she most definitely deserved for Gilmore Girls, the prospect of her doing Guys and Dolls could also mean she’s got a shot at a Tony award.

Continue reading Gilmore “Doll”: Lauren Graham heading to Broadway - VIDEO

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Filed under: Sports, Celebrities, Reality-Free

At the rate they’re going, the 2008 presidential candidates will have made appearances on every kind of TV program before voting day arrives. No show is too insignificant, it seems. (Seriously, if only we could have seen Obama and McCain do the cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars!)

Therefore, it comes as no big shock that on the eve of the election — Monday, November 3 — the presidential candidates are going to appear on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

They will be interviewed — separately on tape — by half-time anchor Chris “Boomer” Berman. The anticipated time is 10:15 p.m. (ET), but because of the flow of the game, it could be closer to 10:30.

Continue reading Monday Night Football to feature McCain & Obama on election eve

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Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Remakes and Sequels

Warning: The clip contains some foul language and Sho’nuff violence.

It’s a role that was meant to be, if any role was ever going to get a new leading man. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to play Sho’nuff in the remake of Berry Gordy’s cult classic — The Last Dragon. I mean, as you can see above, Sho’nuff thinks he’s the baddest mofo around, and we’ve all seen the wallet Jackson carries around with him. (Sadly, however, he can’t fight for the honor — original Sho’nuff Julius Carry died earlier this year.)

For the uninitiated — Sho’nuff is the Shogun of Harlem, a baddie that young Leroy Green has to come up against on his quest for The Final Level and, subsequently, The Glow (the more you glow, the better you are). Berry Gordy’s son Kerry is on as producer, so it’s sticking in the family. Furthermore, Columbia president Doug Belgrad says: “They will capture everything that people love about the original while also bringing a fresh edge to the remake.”

I hope he’s right, because it’d really suck if this went the Death Race way and lost all the camp. But could it ever live up to the original?

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Filed under: Drama, Casting

On the one side, there’s Howard Marks — international drug smuggler and U.K. spy. On the other, there’s some faces that you might not expect to find in international drug and spy territory.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Rhys Ifans, Chloe Sevigny, and David Thewlis are wrapping up negotiations to star in Mr. Nice — Bernard Rose’s adaptation of Marks’ autobiography of the same name. Ifans, who long ago played Puff in Michel Gondry’s Human Nature, will head the cast as Marks. Once Britain’s most-wanted man, he morphed from Oxford grad and teacher into a drug smuggler — all to impress his wife Judy (Sevigny). Thewlis comes into the picture as an Irish Republican Army boss he asks for a job, which leads Marks to his other gig — informant for British intelligence.

But wait — don’t expect lots of violence and action — according to Wikipedia, Marks says that he never used violence during his smuggling career. But with these actors, and the director behind Immortal Beloved, methinks the action won’t matter.

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Filed under: Doctor Who, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free

You don’t get much more official than an announcement from the BBC. David Tennant will be leaving the lead role in Doctor Who at the end of the 2009 specials.

It kind of makes sense. That’s when the changeover from Russell T. Davies to Steven Moffat takes place. If one was going to leave the show, that would be the time. Still, Tennant was utterly amazing in the role. Even when the episode was crap, his youthful enthusiasm made the character always a pleasure to watch. His love for the role and the character always shone through. It’s probably best for him to leave while the fans are wanting more and he hasn’t worn out his welcome.

There is an upside to this. While in his tenure as the Doctor, Mr. Tennant wasn’t permitted by BBC to attend any conventions. Perhaps now we’ll be able to catch him at one, if he isn’t busy with moving on in his career.

Who should play the next Doctor? I vote for Paul McGann. Discuss.

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Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Wow! Talk about a spooky Halloween memory. This sketch is from Saturday Night Live, just about a year ago. The date, in fact, was Saturday, November 3, 2007. How things have changed. It really proves the adage that a week in politics can seem like a year. Here’s a case where a year seems like a decade.

Of course, the significance of the clip is that it’s Senator Barack Obama’s first appearance on Saturday Night Live. And it’s not looking as though he’s dropping by again before the election, although it’s still possible.

If he does actually become president on November 4, 2008, this sketch will likely go into the National Archives or the Smithsonian or — at the very least — the Museum of Radio and Television.

Continue reading Obama’s Halloween memory on Saturday Night Live - VIDEO

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Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Casting

Being the replaced man in Imagine Me & You, Matthew Goode (soon-to-be Watchmen) managed to balance the anger and loneliness of being second place while his wife found true love with their wedding florist. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he gets to be the dead remembrance of A Single Man along with Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

This is Tom Ford’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel about a gay Englishman and professor named George (Firth). Over the course of one day, the story follows George as he tries to continue his normal life and routine after the death of his partner Jim (Goode). Moore will play one of his fellow professors.

It’ll be nice to see Firth take on an entirely different romantic role, in the wake of his many typical romances. As for the story, being “one of the first and best novels of the modern gay liberation movement,” it should come as no surprise that the book was dedicated to friend and fellow writer Gore Vidal. So perhaps Vidal can play an educated cameo once again? We’ll know soon enough — the project is about to head into production.

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Filed under: Casting, Fandom, Newsstand, Trailers and Clips, Posters

[photo via LA Weekly]

Here’s a round-up of some stuff (and things) currently making waves online:

–They hosted a Zombie Dance-Off in Los Angeles over the weekend as part of Thrill the World ‘08 where, according to LA Weekly, folks gather to perform the zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 91 cities in 12 countries across the world “in an attempt to hold the world record for the most people to do the ‘Thriller’ dance at one time …” Check out the photo above and this video of the actual performance (and is that a zombie slave Princess Leia — right on!) …

– Natalie Portman is taking on some more adult roles as Variety reports the gal has signed on to star in Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, opposite Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan. Portman will play a woman who fixes her marriage through bonding with her stepson.

– While Anne Hathaway stars in Dancing with Sheba, Amy Adams has signed on to headline the film Daughter of the Queen of Sheba. This one, based on the life of NPR correspondent Jacki Lyden, tells of a woman who “uses her mother’s madness and delusions to empower herself.” See, and all I did was use my mother’s cupcakes to gain weight. Clearly I came out a winner in the end.

– Cracked has up some leaked excerpts from Miley Cyrus’ “Memoir”, and since we’re talking about those warped minds over at Cracked, I wouldn’t exactly take this too seriously. Among the different chapters (”Chapter Twelve: Insanity Fair! Lol. No, But Seriously, This Was Humiliating”) was this image of Cyrus as Venom. [via Superpunch]

New Watchmen, Star Trek posters after the jump …

Continue reading Stuff and Things: Miley Cyrus Plays Venom as Zombies Dance in Los Angeles

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