News Archive

The Expendables 2 will be a PG-13

Does a bigger audience mean less badass action? That's the question that Expendables fans will be asking themselves this morning with news that the sequel's certificate has gone from an R to a PG-13. The reason for this change is a new addition to the Expendables team: Mr Chuck Norris.

"In Expendables 2, there was a lot of vulgar dialogue in the screenplay," explained Norris to Polish newspaper, Kazeta. "For this reason, many young people wouldn't be able to watch this. But I don't play in movies like this."

"Due to that I said I won't be a part of that if the hardcore language is not erased," he continued. "Producers accepted my conditions and the movie will be classified in the category of PG-13."

Sly Stallone later confirmed the news to AICN: "The film is fantastic with Van Damme turning in an inspired performance," said Stallone. "Our final battle is one for the ages. The PG-13 rumour is true, but before your readers pass judgement, trust me when I say this film is LARGE in every way and delivers on every level."

"This movie touches on many emotions which we want to share with the broadest audience possible, BUT, fear not, this Barbeque of Grand scale Ass Bashing will not leave anyone hungry."

Producers snap up Cormac McCarthy's The Counselor

Not content with simply being a Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Cormac McCarthy has now turned in his first stab at a film script. According to Deadline, McCarthy's The Counselor is about "a respected lawyer who thinks he can dip a toe in to the drug business without getting sucked down. It is a bad decision and he tries his best to survive it and get out of a desperate situation."

Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, and Paula Mae Schwartz have bought the script and previously worked together to produce the adaptation of McCarthy's The Road. Another of McCarthy's novels, No Country For Old Men, also made it on to the big screen, courtesy of the Coen brothers, to huge Oscar success, so no wonder there is already excitement about The Counselor.

Steve Schwartz told Deadline: "Since McCarthy himself wrote the script, we get his own muscular prose directly, with its sexual obsessions. It's a masculine world into which, unusually, two women intrude to play leading roles. McCarthy's wit and humor in the dialogue make the nightmare even scarier. This may be one of McCarthy's most disturbing and powerful works."

Fassbender talks Magneto in X-Men sequel

Along with Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender's been positioned as Hollywood's coolest man of 2011, but that hasn't prevented him from geeking out about his character's direction in the sequel to X-Men: First Class.

"You know what's interesting about Magneto and Professor X from the comic books as well, is there's such a complexity to their relationship. It's not just like clear-cut enemies; they're best friends as well," said Fassbender to IFC.

"In the comic books," he continued, "even after they've had this sort of rift, Professor X asks Magneto to come back and look after the students at certain points... I think there's always that complexity in their relationship and we want to keep that alive as possible, because that's I think a really interesting thing - the conflict there."

Although production is yet to kick off on the sequel, Fox are hoping First Class director Matthew Vaughn will return, while Fassbender is already confirmed to appear.

Kurylenko and Riseborough join Cruise's latest

Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski's new film may not have settled on a title (Oblivion and Horizons have both been tried and discarded), but it's bagged itself two leading ladies to star opposite main man, Tom Cruise. After impressing in W.E., Andrea Riseborough has been given a shot, while former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko has also signed on.

Variety reports that the sci-fi drama will see Cruise play Jack, a soldier stationed on an inhospitable planet Earth, repairing drones that battle aliens. As Jack pines for his lover (Kurylenko) who remains in radio contact from above the clouds where most of the human race are now living, a new woman crash-lands on Earth with whom he falls in love, forcing him to change his worldview.

Hollywood's hardest working woman, Jessica Chastain, was originally positioned for one of the female roles, but had to leave due to scheduling conflicts. Shooting begins in a couple of months with a tentative release date of July 2013.

Witherspoon and Reynolds set for work of art

Chocolate box A-listers Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds are all set to star in a new biopic titled Big Eyes.

The lovable pair, who have ultimately replaced Kate Hudson and Thomas Haden Church who were attached back in 2008, will play Margaret and Walter Keane, a couple who shot to fame in the '50s and '60s for their paintings of wide-eyed children which sold out in petrol stations and small stores across America.

The only thing was, it turned out that although Walter talked a good game, it was actually Margaret who was the real talent behind the couple.

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who wrote Ed Wood and Man On The Moon, stated on Deadline: "We are ecstatic to have this dream cast for our dream project. Walter is a larger-than-life antihero - charming, funny, dangerous, and a little crazy.

"Ryan will knock it out of the park. As for Reese, she will be perfect as Margaret - soulful, decent, transforming from vulnerability to learning to fight for herself."

Underworld awakens at top of US Box Office

Four films in and we still can't get enough of Kate Beckinsale's leather-clad vampire warrior! Selene's latest adventure, Underworld Awakening, debuted at the top of the US Box Office chart this weekend with $25.4 million, beating the George Lucas-produced Red Tails, which opened in second place. Matk Wahlberg's controversial comments would not have helped last week's number one, Contraband, which fell to three, while Tom Hanks' star power shot Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close up the chart to four. Steven Soderbergh's Haywire kicked and punched its way into the chart, rounding off the top five.

Beauty And The Beast's 3D makeover couldn't halt a slide to six; Queen Latifah and co were still making Joyful Noise at seven; and Tom Cruise's fourth Mission: Impossible ghosted down to eight. Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows was in the dark at nine, while The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo may need a redo at ten.

Scorsese's Hugo leads Oscars charge with 11 nominations

Martin Scorsese's first foray into 3D family-friendly filmmaking has come up trumps at the Oscars as Hugo led the way with 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Director. Hot on its heels, The Artist earned 10 nods, while The Descendants had five.

The nominees were announced at a ceremony at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverley Hills. The 84th Annual Academy Awards take place on February 26th. See below for a full list of nominations:

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in A Better Life

George Clooney in The Descendants

Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn

Jonah Hill in Moneyball

Nick Nolte in Warrior

Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis in The Help

Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in The Artist

Jessica Chastain in The Help

Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer in The Help

Animated Feature Film

A Cat in Paris

Chico & Rita

Kung Fu Panda 2

Puss in Boots

Rango

Art Direction

The Artist

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

War Horse

Cinematography

The Artist

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Costume Design

Anonymous

The Artist

Hugo

Jane Eyre

W.E.

Directing

The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)

The Descendants (Alexander Payne)

Hugo (Martin Scorsese)

Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)

The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

Documentary (Feature)

Hell and Back Again

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Pina

Undefeated

Documentary (Short Subject)

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement

God Is the Bigger Elvis

Incident in New Baghdad

Saving Face

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Film Editing

The Artist

The Descendants

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Moneyball

Foreign Language Film

Bullhead

Footnote

In Darkness

Monsieur Lazhar

A Separation

Makeup

Albert Nobbs

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The Iron Lady

Music (Original Score)

The Adventures of Tintin by John Williams

The Artist by Ludovic Bource

Hugo by Howard Shore

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Alberto Iglesias

War Horse by John Williams

Music (Original Song)

"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

"Real in Rio" from Rio Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Short Film (Animated)

Dimanche/Sunday

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

La Luna

A Morning Stroll

Wild Life

Short Film (Live Action)

Pentecost

Raju

The Shore

Time Freak

Tuba Atlantic

Sound Editing

Drive

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

War Horse

Sound Mixing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Moneyball

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

War Horse

Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Hugo

Real Steel

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The Descendants

Hugo

The Ides of March

Moneyball

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Artist

Bridesmaids

Margin Call

Midnight in Paris

A Separation

Ben Stiller is All Talk

After the Tenenbaums and the Fockers, Ben Stiller is making something of a reputation of starring in projects about families with issues. Continuing the trend, he's now signed on to star, direct and executive produce HBO's TV series All Talk.

Popular author Jonathan Safran Foer is the man behind the concept and has penned the pilot, which follows the daily life of a Jewish family in Washington, DC. Foer has described the show as "politically, religiously, culturally, intellectually and sexually irreverent."

Alan Alda, who worked with Stiller on Tower Heist, is in negotiations to co-star, while the pilot is scheduled for a late 2012 shoot.

War Horse defeats newcomers to retain UK No. 1

Despite a duo of impressive action women attempting to take its crown, Steven Spielberg's War Horse held off all challengers to stay at the top of the UK chart over the weekend. Racing to an impressive £3.2 million haul, the emotional epic staved off newbies Haywire at second and Underworld: Awakening at third. Sherlock Holmes' Game Of Shadows is yet to become tiresome at four and The Iron Lady continued to show her mettle at five.

The Sitter was sitting pretty after debuting at six; Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol cruised down to seven; while The Artist slipped a place to eight. Alvin's Chipwecked friends sailed to nine, accompanied by animated amigo Puss In Boots at ten.

Lily Collins drops out of Evil Dead remake

Against all odds, Phil Collins' daughter Lily has had to step down from her lead role in the remake of Sam Raimi's horror classic, The Evil Dead. The popular young actress was set to play recovering drug-addict Mia, but Variety reports that scheduling clashes have forced Collins to remove herself from the project. Director Fede Alvarez will now be on the hunt for another young actress to fill her shoes.

The official synopsis for the film (partly scripted by Diablo Cody) reads: "Mia and David, estranged siblings who have recently lost their mother (Mia's taking it the hardest being that she's the one who spent most days at the hospital watching her mother deteriorate) have reunited, along with some old friends and David's fiancee, for an intervention at THAT old cabin. It's here that the near rehabilitated Mia will also toss the last of her drugs down the well and finally go cold turkey."

Zeta-Jones feels Side Effects for Soderbergh's latest

Bad news for those hoping that Steven Soderbergh would make Ocean's 14: the Oscar-winning director is pursuing his dark thriller Side Effects and has added Catherine Zeta-Jones to the cast.

Deadline reports that the beautiful Welsh-born actress is on board to play a character called Dr Erica Siebert. She joins Jude Law, Channing Tatum and lead Blake Lively, who plays a young woman struggling with depression over the imminent release of her husband (Tatum) from prison and turns to prescription drugs to cope. Zeta-Jones has previous with Soderbergh, of course, having worked with him on Traffic. We can see her next in Stephen Frears' comedy, Lay The Favourite.

The Wolf Pack set for third helping of Hangover

Greed is good. Sequels are the way of the future. The Hangover: Part II was unfairly maligned. These are no doubt just some of the catchphrases being bandied about right now in the corridors of power at Warner Bros. Despite the critical kicking Todd Phillips' Hangover sequel received, the studio clearly want to help themselves to another slice of raucus, if predictable, fun with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis.

They'll have to pay for the pleasure too as the lead trio are reportedly in for $15 million apiece to sign on for any threequel. The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Warners will be keen to meet such a mark-up in stars' salaries what with mega franchises Harry Potter and now Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy coming to a close this year. The studio then is looking to milk any remaining cash cows it still has in its stables.

Production is expected to begin this summer and will hopefully be ready for a Memorial Day 2013 release.

Spielberg all set for his Moses Movie

Despite getting the cold shoulder from The Academy this week for his War Horse, Steven Spielberg will console himself by inking a deal to direct an epic Moses movie for Warner Bros. According to Deadline, the two-time Oscar winner is now a lock to direct Gods And Kings, which is described as a "'Braveheart'-ish version of the Moses story" mixed with the "gritty reality" of Saving Private Ryan.

Spielberg is pretty busy right now as he wraps on Lincoln and preps work on Robopcalypse. Therefore this Moses mash up should be in production for 2013. One thing's for sure, this new deal will certainly bump Indiana Jones 5 down Spielberg's pecking order...but one wonders if this is such a bad thing.

Romeo and Juliet meets the Twilight generation as casting takes shape

What the world needs now is love, sweet love...and a new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, apparently. Yes, Billy Shakespeare's tale of star crossed lovers is getting another airing and this time it's being squarely aimed at the 'Twilight Generation'.

The cast for this one is taking shape with the likes of Hailee Steinfeld (the breakout star of True Grit), Douglas Booth (The Pillars of The Earth), Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl), and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) all lined up to star. They'll be kept on their toes by award-winner Paul Giamatti now too - The Ides of March star has signed on the dotted line to feature as Friar Laurence.

According to Variety, shooting is due to commence this month in Italy with all involved working from a script by Downton Abbey creator Jullian Fellows.

Cap America 2 details revealed, Nick Fury to get his own movie?

Criminally underused in his role as Dum Dum Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger, Neal McDonough is clearly not a man to mince words. If there are sequels afoot then he'll tell you all about them. You need only ask. And so it goes that, in a chat with IMDb, McDonough spilled the beans on upcoming Marvel properties.

"Yeah, they're planning [to go into production for] Captain America 2 for the end of this year, because Marvel does one film at a time," he says. "So they're going to do Thor 2 and as soon as Thor has wrapped, they'll do Cap 2. Hopefully right after that, we'll jump into Nick Fury because that's the one I'm looking forward to more than anything."

News of Captain America 2 is no real surprise. However any hint of a standalone Nick Fury pic featuring Samuel L. Jackson's eye patch-wearing badass should be greeted with no small amount of glee. At least McDonough certainly seems to think so; "I just pray that they have a 1970s setting, because I want to see Sam Jackson with lamb chops kicking people's asses for [the] Marvel universe," he continues. "It would just be awesome."

Jackson did pen a multi-picture deal with Marvel not too long ago and one could hazard a guess that his own moment in the spotlight would feature therein - perhaps including more from the S.H.I.E.L.D. team.

The Grey KOs US Box Office

Its director and star would have you believe that The Grey is a metaphor for man's ongoing struggles against nature and self. Fortunately we all know that to be hokum - The Grey is really just an excuse for A-Team helmer Joe Carnahan to unleash his star man Liam Neeson on a pack of wolves armed with nought but some broken bottles and a grizzled demeanour.

Whatever their reasons behind making this survival thriller, it's high-fives all round as The Grey scooped up an impressive $20 million to claim top spot at the US Box Office. That was enough to best runner-up Underworld Awakening and rom com queen Katherine Heigl in One For The Money at number 3.

George Lucas' WWII actioner Red Tails is on course to crash and burn at 4 with Sam Worthington precariously placed at 5 in Man On A Ledge. Tom Hanks' Oscar-nominated Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close languishes at 6 just ahead of George Clooney in The Descendants, which falls to 7. Mark Wahlberg is stealing himself for a backlash as Contraband plummets to 8 and is vying for position with the re-release of Beauty And The Beast at 9. Rounding out the US Box Office this weekend is the all-star, all-action fest Haywire.

The Help and The Artist clean up at the 18th annual SAG Awards.

The road to the Oscars is a long and winding one and there's still plenty of time for the leading contenders to jostle for position and scoop up some consolation prizes should their Big Night not come to pass at The Academy. And so it was that The Help managed to best its rivals at the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Both Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis nabbed the Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Female Actor in a Lead Role respectively for their turns in The Help. Indeed the entire ensemble cast went home with the collective award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture. The Artist, many peoples' favourite to take home Oscar, went home with just the one gong - Jean Dujardin silently making off with the Best Actor in a Leading Role prize.

Golden Globe-winner Christopher Plummer kept up his impressive batting average with another success for his performance in The Beginners. The veteran star waltzed off with Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

Vaughn signs on to direct X-Men: First Class sequel

It's the news that all X-Men: First Class fans wanted to hear: the man who brought us one of the finest blockbusters of last year will be returning to the X-Men universe to direct the sequel. Deadline reports that Vaughn and some of the other First Class team will be returning, with Simon Kinberg writing the script.

Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and co are all expected to return too, though their schedules are currently busier than ever before. Vaughn himself is a man in demand as well so we may have to wait before we see Magneto and Xavier square off.

War Horse battles to third week at UK No. 1

Steven Spielberg's War Horse continued galloping at a pace unmatched by its rivals this week as the weepy epic retained its position at the top of the UK Box Office. With a healthy £2 million take, War Horse beat a Hawaiian shirt-clad George Clooney in The Descendants at number two and a snow-covered Liam Neeson in The Grey at three. A Monster In Paris got the audiences animated at four and The Artist painted itself into the top five.

Sherlock Holmes remained a mystery at six; Underworld: Awakening came up for air at seven; while The Iron Lady is looking decidedly creased at eight. The Sitter will be retiring soon at nine and Tom Cruise's fourth Mission: Impossible adventure is looking easily surmountable at ten.