News Archive

Gerard Butler in Brilliant casting

With a film title like Brilliant, you're definitely going to want to get the best of the best when it comes to casting. Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for some pretty obvious review headlines (much like our news story title, sorry).

Eric Bana bowed out of director Robert Luketic's thriller Brilliant, when negotiations reportedly failed last autumn, and Gerard Butler has now stepped in to fill some diamond-thieving shoes, Collider.com reports.

The movie follows a small time criminal who joins up with some pretty serious thieves in order to carry out a diamond-heist. That's pretty much all the story we have so far, with reports that it's all hinged on who they cast to play opposite Butler - and all we can think of is a list of people we don't want it to be. 1) Jennifer Aniston. 2) Katherine Heigl. Thanks.

Butler and Luketic have worked together before on The Ugly Truth and the director's CV involves a lot of comedies in the same vein, but he also helmed the brilliant (sorry again) 21. Watch this space.

Screenwriter strolls into Town to write Top Gun 2

We know, we know, it feels like we've been talking about Top Gun 2 since Top Gun was on our screens back in 1986, but there's some new news abound about the sequel.

The Town screenwriter, Peter Craig, who's only produced work is that one film, but boy, it's a good one, has reportedly been hired to write the script for the long-awaited sequel. The follow up to the 80's classic was first announced two years ago with Tony Scott on board to direct and Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Skydance productions producing. Tom Cruise has said that he's attached to the project, but whether or not he'll don his leathers and reappear as Maverick is yet to be seen.

Scott has previously stated that the movie will be about Air Force drone operators who work hard during the day but play harder at night. Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, who wrote both Thor and X: Men First Class together, were originally said to be writing the script, but there's been no mention of them since.

Emma Watson likes a bit of Bling

With her Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe's film The Woman In Black haunting the box office top spot for the third week running, it's clear that Emma Watson has some catching up to do. We just didn't think it would all happen this quick.

Emma has signed up to star in Sofia Coppola's new film The Bling Ring. Coppola is on writing and directing duties with this one, which charts the true story of a group of teenage girls arrested in 2009 after a string of break-ins at the homes of some 'Hollywood elite' including Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and Paris Hilton. The pals soon became infamous, more so because they were already from affluent backgrounds themselves.

"I'm excited about the young cast we're assembling and I'm looking forward to shooting on location here in Los Angeles," Coppola told Variety magazine, but kept schtum about any other cast members.

So the Harry Potter race to the top heats up, with Emma's next film The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, slated for release later this year, and the actress is also attached to David Yates' Your Voice In My Head and Guillermo Del Toros' Beauty And The Beast.

Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy get involved with The Making Of Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock and The Making Of Psycho are going seriously crazy over their casting. The latest actors to book in to Bates' Motel are Scarlett Johansson and James D'Arcy who will be playing the roles of actress Janet Leigh and actor Anthony Perkins, according to Variety.

Add to that reports that Anthony Hopkins and Dame Helen Mirren are playing legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and his wife, and you've got the recipe for a great movie.

The film, which is being directed by Sacha Gervasi (Anvil! The Story Of Anvil), is about how Hitchcock struggled while making what many consider to be the best horror film of all time, Psycho.

The relationship between Hitchcock and his leading lady on set is the stuff of movie legend. He was once said to leave the famed corpse of Mrs Bates in Leigh's dressing room so as to get the most spooked reaction from his actress when the time came for a real shot. Leaving her on edge for the whole of filming, we bet. And to think actors moan about directors nowadays.

Who you gonna call? Not Bill Murray

It looks like there has been another hold up with Ghostbusters 3, with Dan Akroyd confirming that Bill Murray does not want to make the sequel. Did it turn out that he's afraid of ghosts after all?

Akroyd wrote the third film all of 11 years ago in 1999, and has been trying to get the movie into production ever since. "At this point it's in suspended animation," the actor told The Daily Telegraph. "The studio [Sony], the director Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie."

However, on rumours of Murray being recast Akroyd said, "We're not going to do a movie that exploits the franchise. The script has to be perfect, there is still interest from the studio."

The orginal concept for Ghostbusters 3 saw the gang pass along their proton packs to a younger generation of ghost hunters, so rumours of a complete reboot are abound and the studio is reportedly unspooked by them. After all, the Ghostbusters team without Murray - really?

Dr Seuss' The Lorax trounces competition at the US Box Office

The Lorax beat off all competition to claim the US box office top spot in its first week of release, taking $70.7 million in its opening weekend. However, now The Lorax is going to need to guard more than just trees: will it still be in poll position next week?

Raving in at second place is Project X, the handy-cam style faux docu-comedy about an out of control party, having rung in $20.77 million. They might want to start charging more for party entry if they want to beat the Lorax next week though.

Feeling courageous just wasn't enough for Act Of Valor, which hit third place with $13.7 million in takings.

Safe House was safe as houses at number four, raking in another $7.2 million, while Tyler Perry's Good Deeds are keeping him afloat in the fifth spot with a $7million weekend.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island continues its adventure in sixth place with $6.9 million, and hit romance The Vow doesn't look like it's going to go the distance after dropping off a bit this week in seventh place.

Which means, This Means War continued to fail to initiate battle sequence, taking just £5.6million over the weekend, barely enough to take it past $50million in overall takings, while Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Artist complete the chart.

Jason Segel is more man than Muppet

It looks like Jason Segel has run out of Muppet love, as news is breaking that The Muppets 2 is underway but Segel isn't on board.

Segel appeared to be the driving force behind getting the first Muppets movie made, after confessing his love for The Muppets and creating interest in the movie. Segel then penned the script for The Muppets alongside his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller before starring in the movie.

Having made $88million dollars on its opening weekend, Vulture reported that The Muppets 2 is being scripted with director James Bobin and Stoller returning for the second outing, but it looks as though Segel doesn't want to hang out with his Muppet friends again.

"My goal was to bring The Muppets back and I did that leaving them in very good hands, my writing partner and James Bobin the director," Segel told Collider.com. "All I wanted to do was to set the stage for them to do whatever they wanted. I did what I set out to do, and now I wanna pursue more human-related projects."

So, it looks as though Jason Segel is more man than Muppet after all. Oh the irony.