Recent castings for upcoming movies:
- Brendan Fraser will be in Journey to the Center of the Earth. Hasn’t that been remade like umpteen million times? [io9]
- Jessica Biel is filming for the British romantic comedy Easy Virtue. Please tell me this isn’t the one Biel and beau Justin Timberlake want to be in together. [DigitalSpy]
- Ashley Tisdale has been cast for 20th Century Fox’s They came From Upstairs. [HotMomma Gossip]
Hollywood has always been particularly tough on relationships. Without any hard data, a personal observation suggests that relationships disintegrate sooner than non-celebrity marriages. But this has been quite the year of celebrity divorces: Marie Osmond, Valerie Bertinelli, Pam Anderson, and many more. Most recently announcing that they’re splitting up are Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn, and Brendan Fraser and Afton Smith.
Fraser and Smith have three children, and the Penns have two. The Penns are the last couple I’d expect to be splitting up because of how much Sean Penn always seemed to adore her.
On the flipside, there are positive developments Josh Duhamel confirmed a recent engagement to popstar Fergie, formerly of the Black-Eyed Peas. Pregnant Jessica Alba finally confirmed through a rep that she is engaged to boyfriend Cash Warren. Even weirder news is that Jenna Fischer is now dating David Spade. It seems like a very odd relationship, but maybe Spade won’t be so “Droopy Dog” anymore. He always seemed so sad and reserved, despite being a comedian.
Some upcoming movies from some or all of the above celebrities, in no particular order, are:
- Sean Penn: 2008: Crossing Over, Tree of Life; 2009: Milk.
- Robin Wright Penn: 2008: What Just Happened, Hectic, State of Play; 2009: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, A Christmas Carol. Currently in Hounddog, Beowulf.
- Brendan Fraser: 2008: Journey 3-D, Inkheart, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Singularity. Currently in The Air I Breathe.
- Jenna Fischer: The Promotion. Currently in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
The poster above and the video clip below are from is from The Air I Breathe, which opened Dec 13th and also stars Sarah Micelle Gellar, Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Forest Whitaker, Andy Garcia, Emile Hirsch, Julie Delpy.
Brendan Fraser will be back in third installment of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but lovely Rachel Weisz has not signed on. No matter because Jet Li (The One) and Michelle Yeoh (Memoirs of a Geisha) will be in this one. Also in the cast are Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford and others. This one has a shape-shifting Oriental mummy of an Emperor, cursed by a wizard.
The Mummy movies have always been entertaining and action-packed, and Fraser’s brash Rick O’Connell character kind of reminds me of Indiana Jones.
The director for this Mummy is Rob Cohen, who has been producing since 1975: Mahogany, Thank God It’s Friday, The Wiz, The Legend of Billie Jean, The Witches of Eastwick, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Bird on a Wire and more. He also directed Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dragonheart, The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious, Stealth and others.
The movie opens Aug 1st, 2008. Probably a smart idea to open so late in the year, with Indiana Jones 4: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opening May 22nd.
