Law Says Penn Deserves Best Actor Academy Award

BERLIN (Reuters) - British actor Jude Law, nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his film "Cold Mountain," said Wednesday his American rival, Sean Penn (news), deserved to win the Oscar for "Mystic River."

Law told a news conference at the Berlin Film Festival, where the Civil War epic was being screened, that he wouldn't want to bet on the outcome of the voting by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science but felt Penn was the best of the lot.

"I'm probably shooting myself in the foot here," Law said, when asked who he would bet on to win.

"In my opinion, I've always loved Sean Penn's work. He's someone respected, and looked up to, and admired for years and years and years. I think it should be his year, personally."

Also in the running for the best actor award are Ben Kingsley for "House of Sand and Fog," Bill Murray for the low-budget "Lost in Translation," and Johnny Depp for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."

Law also said he was open to the offers to play the James Bond character should an offer come along. When told by a Swedish journalist that her newspaper had voted him as their favorite choice to be the next James Bond, he replied:

"I'd have to wait until the offer came. In the past I've been a little bit reluctant to play roles that would label me as one particular personality or character. But having said that I'm getting older and who knows. I know my kids would love it."

Terri Clark turns down Playboy offer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Country singer Terri Clark is keeping her hat -- and her clothes -- on.

The Alberta-born Clark, whose hits include the No. 1 song I Just Want to Be Mad, said Tuesday that she has rejected an offer to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine for the May music issue.

"I'm mostly just a regular ol' girl who likes to have fun, play her guitar, drink some tequila, hang out with my friends. Exotic beauties and total sex pots get asked to do the cover of Playboy, not girls like me," Clark said in a statement.

The singer, who usually wears a cowboy hat while performing, said she was pleased that Playboy realized "I'm not typical and the experts evidently saw something in me that said a normal-size woman can be sexy."

Ultimately she didn't think the appearance was right for her image, she said.
"But for me, even as full-tilt as I am, there are just some things I can't quite get comfortable with," she said.

Coppola's 'Lost' Finds Pot of Gold

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - A rising tide of critical and audience acclaim, marked by four Academy Award nominations and three Golden Globe, has translated into breakthrough sales for the "Lost in Translation" DVD release. In only seven days, since its release on Feb. 3, the DVD has sold over one million units.

Additionally, the film, currently in over 600 theaters, has continued its theatrical success with a modest 19 percent drop over the weekend.

"Even with the film still being in theaters, the DVD has sold-through at an incredibly high rate at retail. This unprecedented release pattern, both in theaters and on DVD, demonstrates that for this title, the market can robustly sustain both releases by capitalizing on the incredible awareness among audiences," says Universal Studios Home Video President Craig Kornblau.

The film landed Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (Bill Murray), Best Screenplay (Sofia Coppola) and Best Director (Sofia Coppola). The directorial nomination marks the first time an American woman has ever been included in this category.

The film also took home three top Golden Globes including Best Motion Picture [Musical or Comedy], Best Performance by an Actor (Bill Murray) and Best Screenplay (Sofia Coppola). Hailed by critics as Coppola's most extraordinary work yet, "Lost in Translation" has also received eight BAFTA nominations including Best Film.

Bob Harris (Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are two Americans in Tokyo. Bob is a movie star in town to shoot a whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi).

Unable to sleep, Bob and Charlotte cross paths one night in the luxury hotel bar. This chance meeting develops into a surprising friendship. Shot on location in Japan, the film contemplates the unexpected connections we make that might not last -- yet stay with us forever.

The DVD boasts bonus features including "A Conversation with Bill Murray & Sofia Coppola." Interviewed in Rome, they exchange thoughts about filming on-location in Japan, their favorite scenes, and why Coppola targeted Murray for the role. The DVD also contains deleted scenes; "Lost on Location," a behind-the-scenes documentary which features exclusive footage shot by the filmmakers.

But I Want It Now!!!

The release of Alanis Morissette's new album, "So-Called Chaos," has been bumped from April 13 to May 18 to accommodate "changes in the worldwide marketing plan for the album," according to a spokesperson. First single "Everything" will be serviced March 23 to U.S. radio outlets for airplay consideration.

The 10-track set was co-produced by the artist with John Shanks and Tim Thorney and finds her backed by her touring band of guitarists David Levita and Jason Orme, bassist Eric Avery, keyboardist Zac Rae and drummer Blair Sinta. "So-Called Chaos" is the follow-up to 2002's "Under Rug Swept," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and featured the single "Hands Clean," which reached No. 3 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart.

Spidey 2 Trailer Details

Here's the word on the new SPIDER-MAN 2 trailer.

Aunt May starts it out, with a voiceover about responsibility. Then we see Peter gettin yelled at by several different people, including Jameson, about being late. We also hear Jameson tell Peter he's fired. Curt Connors also shows up, talking to Pete about missing classes.

MJ tells Peter she can't keep thinking about him, and is getting married. Then Peter says he does't have to always give up what he wants, and throws away his Spider-man costume. We then see him walking around, wearin glasses again, and telling MJ he decided he no longer has to be devoted to anything but his own happiness. MJ tells him she likes him being himself.

Then we see Harry, chiding Peter about being Spider-Man's friend. He also talks about Octavius having a new invention that will put Oscorp on the map. We see Octavius have his accident, then hear Jameson saying "A brilliant scientist turns himself into some kind of monster with mechanical arms!", and see Ock climbing down the hospital wall.

Harry tells Ock to find Spider-Man for him, Ock asks how he'll find Spider-Man since he's apparently left town, and Harry says to go after Peter to get to Spider-Man. Next we see Ock in that cafe, grabbin Peter by the neck and telling him to bring Spidey out of hiding or he'll peel the flesh from MJ's body.

CG shots of Ock throwing car doors, hubcaps, etcetera down a street. A little boy asks Peter if he knows where Spider-Man is, since Peter knows Spidey. We see Spidey swing around Ock, sticking to a wall. Then we see Ock, holding Spidey as he says "You're beginning to annoy me," and SPidey says "Yeah, I get that a lot." We then see him being laid down in front of Harry, and as Harry rips off Spider-Man's mask, the Spider-Man 2 logo pops up.

Nolan Has Bat-Vision

Variety had the details from director Christopher Nolan about the upcoming BATMAN movie.

After a disappointing fourth installment, and three false starts at a fifth version, Batman will be born again. But don't call this the latest in the series. Consider it "Batman: Year One."

This time around, it's about the genesis of Batman: How billionaire Bruce Wayne makes a series of decisions that turn him into the Caped Crusader. Batman will be more realistic and less cartoonish. There are no campy villains. Wayne -- younger, more vulnerable, more human -- will be getting as much attention as his masked alter-ego.

"I felt like doing the origins story of the character, which is a story that's never been told before," says Chris Nolan ("Insomnia," "Memento"), who takes the reins of "Batman" from Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher.

Humanity and realism, says Nolan, is the crux of the new pic.

"The world of Batman is that of grounded reality," he says. Burton's and Schumacher's visions were idiosyncratic and unreal. Nolan says, "Ours will be a recognizable, contemporary reality against which an extraordinary heroic figure arises."

Nolan, a self-confessed James Bond fan as a child, is keen on reinventing Wayne as more of a modern-day Bond than hapless playboy -- an action-adventure hero who has mythic qualities and battles the odds to save the world.

While the new Bruce Wayne is getting emphasis, Nolan, scripter David Goyer and WB have focused on fixing problems that plagued the other pics. For example, Bruce Wayne was too dark and impenetrable and had lost the humorous side found in the comics. The character was basically just dead screen time until Batman appears -- which in the new film may not happen until 40 minutes after it begins.

"If we're successful, the thing that will be talked about a lot and on what we worked on the hardest is that the audience will really care about Bruce Wayne and not just Batman," Goyer says. It doesn't matter how much you spend on special effects -- if it feels hollow, no one gives a damn."

Rather than pit Batman against a new set of supervillains, the new film focuses on how billionaire Bruce Wayne becomes the Dark Knight.

"It's almost impossible to reinvent Batman," says Robinov. "Chris is reintroducing Batman, and it feels smart and cool and fresh. That's no disrespect to the other movies, but it's really Chris' vision of Batman, and that's what we're supporting."

There'll be a new Batmobile, a new arsenal of gadgets, a new Batsuit (sans nipples) as well as a new musical theme.

Even Gotham City is getting a facelift. Previous pics made the city seem dark and claustrophobic or garishly stylized. Instead of lensing on sets built inside huge soundstages, the new film will be shot on locations in New York, London and Iceland, assembling pieces of each city to recreate Gotham as a modern-day metropolis.

In terms of whether the movie will be too dark, Robinov says the film's more about conflict than darkness: about Batman's internal conflict and what drives him to suit up as a superhero.

More King is a Good Thing

Peter Jackson says that almost an hour's worth of extra footage will make its way onto the extended DVD version of LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING. One of the scenes apparently is a drinking competition between Gimli and Legolas. "I really quite liked [it]," Jackson said. "But we felt [it was too comedic] at a point when we wanted to set up the tension of the story. And there's a sequence of Sam  and Frodo disguised as orcs, where they end up in the orc army for a while."

TV debut set for 'Shrek 2' trailer

(Variety) The green machine will be in overdrive this month.

Reflecting the growing weight studios give to the timing and placement of trailers, DreamWorks will bow the trailer for "Shrek 2" not in theaters but on the small screen during February sweeps, following NBC's premiere of the original "Shrek."

The promo will feature the full 21/2-minute theatrical trailer, which hits theaters soon afterward, plus behind-the-scenes footage on the making of "Shrek 2."

Pic arrives in theaters May 21 and marks the culmination of an aggressive, year-long marketing campaign by DreamWorks for the loveable green ogre's sequel.

Original pic grossed $476 million worldwide after bowing at Cannes in 2001.

"Shrek 2" isn't the only summer tentpole looking to grab auds with an early promo push: Sony's "Spider-Man 2" teaser rolled out last December and got a big boost in visibility when it debuted on Yahoo!'s online homepage in 13 countries.

Berlin Cheers Linklater Sequel 'Before Sunset'

BERLIN (Reuters) - Director Richard Linklater's long-awaited sequel to his award-winning 1994 French-American love story "Before Sunrise" got loud cheers at its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday.

But Linklater and "Before Sunset" stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke said they prefer to call the new film about an improbable rendezvous in Paris of two lost lovers a "continuation" of the original set in Vienna and not a "sequel."

"The term 'sequel' has weird connotations," Linklater told usually fickle Berlinale journalists who applauded his film at the premiere and news conference. "'Sequel' means 'economic interest', and are often done a year or two after the original.

"This obviously wasn't the case," he added, rejecting any notion that cynical commercial reasons were behind his sequel. "We did it for personal reasons. We had been talking about it since wrapping up 'Before Sunrise'. We finally got serious three or four years ago. It was only a matter of 'when' and 'how'."

"Before Sunrise," which earned Linklater a Silver Bear as best director at the 1995 Berlinale, was a romantic drama about an American traveling through Europe meeting by chance a French woman on a train. They spend 24 hours together, fall in love and before her train leaves they promise to meet in six months.

That film, which cost just $2.4 million but had a box office of more than $20 million, left its devoted audiences entangled in endless debates about whether they meet up again or not. Romantics argued they did, while cynics said they didn't.

THIRD FILM COMING?

The mystery is finally resolved in "Before Sunset" when Hawke, who now plays a best-selling author, meets Delpy in Paris at the end of a European promotion tour for a novel written, ironically, about their love affair in Vienna.

This time they have just 90 minutes to sort out their emotions, lives since Vienna and next moves. In the 90-minute film shot in just 15 days it emerges they both searched for each other after a tragedy prevented a Vienna rendezvous.

"This finishes something missing for me," said Delpy, who with Hawke and Linklater wrote the engaging screenplay. "This is a continuation of the story with the same characters."

Hawke added: "The way the first one ended pretty much begs to do this -- but we were scared and that's why we waited so long. If we made a second film that wasn't good, it wouldn't just be one bad film but would ruin the first one."

"Before Sunset" is one of 23 films competing for Golden and Silver Bear awards at the 11-day Berlin festival, ranked beside Venice and just after Cannes among the world's top festivals. It will be the first film released by Warner Independent Pictures, a unit of Warner Bros and Time Warner Inc, in June.

Zeta-Jones Joins Cast of 'Ocean's Twelve'

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is joining the all-star cast of the upcoming sequel to Warner Bros.' hit caper film "Ocean's Eleven," the studio said on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old Welsh-born beauty will round out the ensemble of actors returning from the 2001 hit movie for "Ocean's Twelve," with Steven Soderbergh back on board to direct.

Producer Jerry Weintraub said Zeta-Jones will play an agent of an Interpol-style police agency, with George Clooney reprising his role as Danny Ocean, a veteran thief who led a gang of multitalented associates in a heist of three Las Vegas casinos in the last film.

The 2001 movie was itself a remake of a 1960 film that starred Frank Sinatra and his "rat pack" cohorts Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.

In the globe-trotting modern sequel -- to be shot in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Chicago, Las Vegas and Monte Carlo -- Ocean enlists his former cronies and one new member of the team to pull off yet another heist.

Weintraub said all of Clooney's co-stars from the last film are returning for the follow-up, including Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner, Bernie Mack, Casey Affleck and Elliott Gould.

"It's not easy to find an actress who can measure up to the star power of this cast, but Catherine will not only hold her own, she'll add a lot to the movie," Weintraub said.

Zeta-Jones, who is married to Hollywood veteran Michael Douglas, won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role as the homicidal hoofer Velma Kelly in the hit musical "Chicago."

She previously teamed up with Clooney in last year's romantic comedy "Intolerable Cruelty" and with Roberts in "America's Sweethearts." She also co-starred for Soderbergh in the drug wars drama "Traffic."

"Ocean's Twelve" is slated to begin production in April for Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., and Village Roadshow Pictures, with worldwide release planned for December 2004, the studio said.

"Ocean's Eleven" pulled in $183 million in North American box office receipts alone.

The Oscar Nominee No One Saw

Multiple Oscar nominee Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, which received ten nods including Best Picture is due on DVD and Video on April 20th.

This Russell Crowe starrer gets the deluxe two-disc set treatment: anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, 70'minute "The Hundred Days" documentary, "In The Wake Of O'Brian," "Cinematic Phasmids," "Sound Design Featurette" and "Interactive Sound Recording Demo" featurettes totaling over an hour, the HBO First Look special, six deleted scenes, four multi-angle studies, a split-screen vignette, four art galleries, theatrical trailers and a collectible booklet and packaging. Retail will be $39.95, and Fox will also release a full screen-only, single-disc edition sans extras for $29.95.

Fox will also release the Farrelly Brothers comedy Stuck on You a week later on April 27th. This unfunny box office underperformer will include an anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby 5.1 surround track, plus plenty of extras: audio commentary by the Farrelly Brothers, "Behind The Scene - Dodgeball," "It's Funny: The Farrelly Formula," "Bring 'Stuck on You' to the Screen" and "The Makeup Effects" featurettes, eight deleted scenes, a blooper reel and trailer gallery. Retail will cost you a conjoined $27.95.

STAR WARS TRILOGY ON DVD

The most requested films for the DVD format will finally become a
reality this September as Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox
present the eagerly-awaited Star Wars Trilogy for the ultimate home
entertainment format. The four-disc collection will be released on
September 21 in the U.S. and Canada, with international release dates
following closely.

"We know how long fans have waited for this release and how much they
have been looking forward to it, so everyone has been working overtime
to make sure that the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD is an awesome
experience," said Jim Ward, Vice President of Marketing and
Distribution for Lucasfilm Ltd. and the DVD collection's Executive
Producer.

Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi will be available in a four-disc
set that includes a bonus disc filled with all-new special features
-- including the most comprehensive feature-length documentary ever
produced about the Star Wars saga and never-before-seen footage from
the making of all three films. Each of the three films in the Star
Wars Trilogy has been digitally restored and re-mastered by THX for
superior sound and picture quality.

"First and foremost, the DVDs will deliver the very best possible sound
and picture and take advantage of everything the medium can offer. On
top of that, we are creating added-value material that gets inside the
creation of the Star Wars films in a fresh and fun way," Ward said. "We
want watching this DVD collection to be as memorable as seeing the
movies for the first time."

The films of the Star Wars Trilogy will be available exclusively as a
collection and will feature Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX. All three
films are closed-captioned and subtitled in English, French and Spanish
in the U.S. Internationally, sound and subtitling specifications will
vary by territory.