American Pie’s Tara Reid is having a bad time. She’s had to suffer through botched cosmetic surgery on her belly and poorly installed breast implants. (Here she is above, before surgery ruined her taut belly.) She’s dropped her live appearance rate from something like $30,000 down to $1500 (I think). Now she’s collapsed in Bali while partying on the weekend, gaining a few cuts and bruises in the bargain. She was taken to hospital and is now recovering in a hotel room there.
Reid will be appearing in 2008’s Land of Canaan, which is murder mystery combined with a psychological thriller/ horror based on a true story of a Nevada town. Tenative release date: July 2008.
As you can see from the video below, she really likes to minimal clothing, though based on how surgery has ruined her, no idea what’ll happen in Land of Canaan.
Nicolas Cage is back as Ben Gates in the conspiracy sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets (aka #2). Also appearing are Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris,Harvey Keitel, Bruce Greenwood and others.
The sequel’s plot suggests that Ben Gates’ great-grandfather had something to do with Abraham Lincoln’s murdder, so Gates sets about trying to clear the family name.
Release date is Fri Dec 21st. A trailer clip is below.
The New York Post reports that John Travolta will not in fact be in the new Dallas movie - which is based on the hit TV series. His role of J.R. Ewing might have been given to Ben Stiller, though this hasn’t been confirmed yet. (Sorry, but I just don’t see either of them suited for the role.)
The movie has been suffering casting problems for a while. Other actors previously let go include Shirley MacLaine, Luke Wilson, aand Jennifer Lopez.
Here’s a video clip of bloopers from the TV series.
Lovers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings books or even the acclaimed trilogy of movies directed by Peter Jackson should be happy to hear that another Tolkien novel, 1937’s The Hobbit, will be turned into a live-action movie. Unfortunately, Jackson will not direct, but he will be the executive producer.
There are actually going to be two movies filmed together, though no word if it’ll be in New Zealand like the Rings trilogy. The first will be released in 2010 and the second in 2011.
The Hobbit is a prequel to the Rings books, and follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, the uncle of Frodo Baggins, who was the main character in the Rings books and movies.
There was an animated TV movie, The Hobbit, in 1977, of which a clip is below.
By the looks of the Cloverfield movie poster, this is a ‘disaster’ movie. The head of the statue of liberty is missing, and the background shows buildings burning. But a Slashfilm post gives details that director Matt Reeves has revealed in various interviews. It’s a monster movie, though there have yet to be any visuals - either in stills or trailers - of the monster. That’s supposedly to build “dread and anticipation.”
J.J. Abrams is producing, so it’s not surprising the trailer for the next Star Trek - which he’s also producing - is attached to Cloverfield. The latter is out on Jan 18th. Note that depending on which Cloverfield trailers you watch, it either looks really boring or really exciting. A more exciting clip is below, but no monster appears. My bets are on a Gojira or Mothra monster.
When I first watched Alien vs Predator, I laughed. A lot. At least when I wasn’t cringing every time I imagined “what if it were real. (I mean, you just gotta laugh at scary aliens that look like they have dreadlocks.) Well if you saw it too and couldn’t get enough, Alien vs Predator 2: Requiem (aka AvP-R) will be out on Christmas Day. Right, because nothing says ‘horror gorefest’ like Christmas Day, when relatives you can’t stand are hanging around. Here’s the link to the official AvP-R website.
Actually, not sure if I love Hilary Swank, not having seen her in a lot of roles other than as Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. She tends to take on roles in “true story” types of movies, so a tearjerker romantic comedy seems completely out of character, but the trailer makes it look like interesting. And tearjerking. Ahem *chickflick*. The movie opens this Friday, Dec 21st. Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame also appears.
Swank also appeared in Freedom Writers and The Reaping this year, and will appear in Birds of America in 2008.
There are a lot of “fantastical” movies over the past few years - including this year’s Golden Compass - a new series is in progress. Now, “new” is a relative term, as this series is based on C.S. Lewis’ classic Chronicles of Narnia books. Below is the most recent trailer for Prince Caspian, which releases on May 16th, 2008. If you’re a Narnia fan, go check out Narniaweb for tons of information and images. Also, click on the picture above for a much larger view of Aslan the lion roaring.
The remake of Alvin and the Chipmunks, starring Jason Lee of the TV series My Name is Earl, might be a bomb with critics but it made #2 in the box office for this opening, topped only by I am Legend (starring Will Smith), which set an all-time December opening record with $76.5 million. The Chipmunks took in $44 million on Friday and Saturday combined, thanks probably to Saturday matinees with screaming kids.
Atonement, a ‘love and war’ drama starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, scored seven Golden Globe nominations late last week, but has stiff competition for best dramatic picture. Nomination categories include best actor (male and female), best supporting actress, and best director. The movie was directed by Joe Wright. Knightley did not win a nomination for the “actress most likely to take her top off for a photo shoot if you ask her” category.
