'The Incredibles' to Make an Incredibly Fast Move to DVD
Marking the fastest move from screen to DVD ever for a Disney/Pixar movie, The Incredibles will make its debut in video stores on March 15, Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment announced Wednesday. As of last weekend, it was still playing in more than 1,000 theaters (and has grossed more than $257 million domestically.) Among a slew of extras, the video will sport a five-minute clip called Jack-Jack Attack featuring the youngest member of the Incredibles family, and a 20-minute alternate opening. In a statement, Gordon Ho, head of marketing for BVHE, said, "Our hope is to make this the biggest DVD release of the year."
De Niro and Scorsese Discuss 'Taxi Driver' Sequel
Screen legend Robert De Niro has reunited with iconic director Martin Scorsese to work on a sequel to their classic movie Taxi Driver. The Oscar-winning actor, who starred as disturbed Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle in the 1976 film, has confirmed the movie veterans are mulling over script ideas for a follow-up to the gritty original. Apart from his comedy turn in Meet The Parents and its recent sequel Meet The Fockers, De Niro has starred in a series of flop films - and critics are hoping Travis Bickle's resurrection will restore his reputation as one of the greatest dramatic actors of all time. De Niro, 61, says, "I was talking with Martin Scorsese about doing what I guess you'd call a sequel to Taxi Driver, where he is older."
Fincher eyes Zodiac killer film
"Seven" director David Fincher is in talks to direct the thriller "Zodiac," Variety reports.
The film is based on the obsessive efforts of three men who hunted Zodiac, the infamous serieal killer who terrorized San Francisco for 25 years.
The Zodiac killer was also the basis for Clint Eastwood's 1971 film, "Dirty Harry."
Fincher's other credits include "Fight Club," "Alien3" and "Panic Room."
Vader, Wonka lead 2005 hit film parade
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Steven Spielberg's tossing Tom Cruise to the Martians. Peter Jackson's handing Naomi Watts over to a 900-pound-plus gorilla. Tim Burton's turning Johnny Depp loose in Willy Wonka's candyland.
Yet in a year whose big Hollywood return engagements include the remakes War of the Worlds, King Kong and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, aren't we all really looking forward to one last outing with George Lucas and the Skywalker clan?
The Force will be with you again in May as Lucas unveils Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, the final chapter of his prequel series.
Fans grumbled over the first two prequels. They scoffed at starting Anakin Skywalker's journey toward evil in childhood and ridiculed the young Jedi's mushy romantic babble.
Still, it's hard to imagine fans will not turn out to see Anakin take his final turn to the dark side and become the malevolent Darth Vader.
The man pulling the galaxy's strings shrugs off the gripes. Lucas says he's making the movies his way, not the way fans want.
"The fan base basically wanted the first film to be this film, Revenge of the Sith, and have Darth Vader become Darth Vader in the first episode, then have the other ones with Darth Vader going around killing everybody," Lucas said in an interview. "But that's really not what the story is at all. And I knew it when I was going to go back and do it. I said, 'I'm going to tell the story of how he became that person, not the story of him being that person.' "
Along with Revenge of the Sith, studios continue their onslaught of sequels, prequels, spinoffs, remakes and big-screen adaptations of TV shows throughout 2005.
Before King Kong runs off with her, Watts delivers The Ring Two, her horror followup about a videotape whose viewers die within a week.
Other winter and spring followups include Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, with Sandra Bullock back as the stylish FBI agent; Beauty Shop, Queen Latifah's spinoff of the Barbershop flicks; Be Cool, John Travolta's sequel to the crime romp Get Shorty, reuniting him with Pulp Fiction co-star Uma Thurman; and XXX: State of the Union, with Ice Cube replacing Vin Diesel in the action franchise.
Ice Cube also softens his image with the family flick Are We There Yet, about a man trying to worm his way into the heart of a single mom (Nia Long) by taking her mischievous children on a road trip.
The PG-rated comedy was a logical progression after his R-rated Friday films and PG-13 Barbershop movies, Ice Cube said.
"Kids like those movies, but those movies aren't necessarily made for kids," Ice Cube said. "Since Barbershop got a wide mainstream response, this was the natural next step, to try to see how broad can we take it? I think a lot of people are typecast, and I'm trying to stay away from that, because that limits your opportunities to work."
On the remake lineup this winter and spring: Assault on Precinct 13, with Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne in a jail-break thriller; The Amityville Horror, with Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George in a fright film about a cursed house; Guess Who, an update of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner starring Ashton Kutcher as an unwelcome prospective son-in-law and Bernie Mac as a disapproving father of the bride; and The Honeymooners, a big-screen take on Jackie Gleason's TV sitcom, with Cedric the Entertainer as loudmouth bus driver Ralph Kramden.
Intimidated by the role, Cedric?
"Indeed. He's such an iconic figure, and the comedy on the show was the first of its kind," Cedric said. "The timing of his delivery, the way he punctuated what he said. I didn't want to do a caricature or just try to outright emulate him, so I just tried to do my own thing. I mainly took the attitude that this guy was an everyman and took the attitude of doing it my way, but paying homage when I could."
Other early-year releases include Constantine, with Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz in a supernatural adventure based on DC Comics' Hellblazer series; the romantic comedy Hitch, starring Will Smith as a matchmaker pursuing his own dream date; The Interpreter, featuring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn in a thriller centred on an assassination plot at the United Nations; Hide and Seek, with Robert De Niro in the story of a girl (Dakota Fanning) with a menacing "imaginary friend"; and the animated tale Robots, about a young inventor who moves to the big city to make a name for himself in a world populated by mechanical beings.
Directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age), Robots features voice work by Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Drew Carey and Greg Kinnear.
While aimed at families, Robots touches on themes that adults without children can appreciate, including rampant consumerism, marketing blitzes that dictate the latest fashions and the plight of "outmodes," machines that have overstayed their welcome.
"I look at the machines in my life. That's what started the whole idea," Wedge said. "Some of the things are so endearing, you give them names. Everybody gives their first car a name. You get attached to gadgets, cellphones, stereos. You upgrade them, but after a while, it's just not worth it. The machines become obsolete.
"It's a metaphor for people growing old. Those are the issues the characters in the movie are dealing with."
Along with Revenge of the Sith, summer brings such sci-fi and action tales as War of the Worlds, with Cruise in Spielberg's update of the Martian-invasion classic; Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale in a look at the masked crime-fighter's early years; and Fantastic Four, with Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba in a big-screen adaptation of Marvel Comics' saga of a superhero family.
Other big summer-season releases include Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Depp in an update of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; Adam Sandler and Chris Rock's The Longest Yard, a remake of the 1974 prison football tale; Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as husband-wife assassins; Madagascar, featuring the voices of Ben Stiller and Chris Rock in the story of zoo animals cut loose in the wild; and The Bad News Bears, a remake of the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears casting Billy Bob Thornton as an ex-ballplayer coaching misfit Little Leaguers.
Also, Fun With Dick and Jane, starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni in a new version of the 1977 romp about an upscale couple who take to robbery; Kingdom of Heaven, featuring Orlando Bloom in Ridley Scott's epic set in the Middle East during the Crusades era; Jennifer Lopez's Monster-in-Law, a comedy about a woman battling back against her fiance's scornful mom (Jane Fonda); The Dukes of Hazzard, with Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson and Burt Reynolds in a big-screen take on TV's good old boys; and Kicking & Screaming, starring Will Ferrell as a father coaching his son's soccer team to a showdown against his own dad, Robert Duvall, an opposing coach with a win-at-any-cost mentality.
Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka co-stars as himself, playing a rival neighbour of Duvall who becomes a coaching mentor for Ferrell.
"I start coaching and don't really know what I'm doing and just want everybody to have a good time. Only it's not quite working, the kids are so bad, and they're not really having fun," Ferrell said. "So I kind of get the help of Mike Ditka, we build this team up from nothing, and along the way, I'm the casualty. I kind of develop the same bloodlust for winning that my dad has, so I become an even bigger maniac than my dad is."
Ferrell also joins Woody Allen's latest romantic ensemble in the spring release Melinda and Melinda; Nicole Kidman in the summer comedy Bewitched, adapted from the TV sitcom about a mortal man who marries a witch; and Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick for the holiday-season remake of Mel Brooks's theatrical farce The Producers.
Among other fall and holiday flicks: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with Daniel Radcliffe returning for the fourth chapter in J.K. Rowling's saga of the boy wizard; Memoirs of a Geisha, with Rob Marshall (Chicago) directing Zhang Ziyi in an adaptation of the novel about a Japanese madam; Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist, featuring Ben Kingsley as Fagin in a new take on Charles Dickens's adventure of the orphan boy; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on C.S. Lewis's fantasy classic of children whisked to an oppressed land; and The Pink Panther, with Steve Martin taking on Peter Sellers' role as bumbling Inspector Clouseau.
Also, Chicken Little, an animated tale about the poultry prankster who proclaimed the sky is falling; Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as country-music legend Johnny Cash; Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger playing the 19th-century fairytale spinners as con men peddling their services as monster fighters; All the King's Men, starring Sean Penn in an update of Robert Penn Warren's novel about a political kingfish; Rent, adapted from the stage hit of artists struggling against poverty and AIDS; Wallace & Gromit, an animated comedy about the cheese-loving dweeb and his dog from the British short films; and of course, Jackson's take on King Kong.
Andy Serkis, who provided the voice and body for the computer-enhanced Gollum in Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, is handling similar duties as Kong. Serkis's motions will be the basis for the computer-generated final images of the gigantic ape.
Having Serkis on set has been a great help for Watts as she recreates the role originated by Fay Wray as the object of King Kong's affections, the actress said.
"It's wonderful having a pair of eyes to look at," Watts said. "Andy Serkis is there, and they're filming him at exactly the same time as they're filming me, so everything is in sync in terms of our reactions and connections together.
"He's got a special suit on, not like a hairy gorilla suit, but it's a thing that pads out his body, gives him posture and big teeth, and he's hooked up an audio system so his voice carries around the whole stage. He's studied and prepared so well that I forget I'm actually looking at Andy Serkis. Other than the size, everything seems as it should be."
For One Week Only, It's 'Scrubs,' the Sitcom
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) NBC's "Scrubs" has never been accused of being a conventional sitcom, nor has it tried to be.
Not until this week, anyway.
On Friday (Jan. 21), "Scrubs" will film in front of an audience, using multiple cameras, for the first time. Fans of the show needn't worry: It's not a radical overhaul dictated by NBC to improve ratings.
Instead, an extended fantasy by J.D. (Zach Braff), who's treating a patient who's a TV writer, will play out on the show as a traditional sitcom, complete with a live audience and laugh track.
"Basically, it's tweaking sitcoms and an homage at the same time," says "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence, who's previously worked on traditional sitcoms like "Spin City" (which he co-created) and "Friends." "Zach and and Donald [Faison], on the show, love sitcoms; they're always goofing on 'Sanford and Son' or 'Friends' and all the shows they watch."
The idea came to the show's writers because over the four years of the series, they've come across a number of interesting stories, some based on fact, that for whatever reason "have no second act," Lawrence says. "There's nothing to do."
As a way around that, this episode, written by Deb Fordham, will introduce those stories in the first act -- which will look like any other episode of "Scrubs" -- then be resolved, in neat sitcom fashion, in J.D.'s fantasy.
Lawrence is looking forward to the experiment, but he says, not entirely jokingly, that "there's a high recipe for disaster," stemming mostly from the fact that aside from Faison ("Clueless") and Sarah Chalke ("Roseanne"), the other cast members have only limited experience acting on traditional sitcoms -- or none, in Braff's case.
"When we first cast this, I told everyone that it was a show built on pace," Lawrence says. "So even if you have a joke in the middle of a speech, John McGinley, I want you to -- people are gonna process that joke, but I want you to get through that speech the way people talk, and haul ass.
"And now John has a monologue in the sitcom with like four laughs in it, and he's going to have to, overnight, learn the skill of getting a laugh, holding, then continuing on with the speech as if that's the way somebody talks."
The audience for the show will be made up of "Scrubs" fans who bid on tickets (proceeds will go to tsunami relief efforts), so Lawrence isn't worried about people being unreceptive to jokes. He does, however, plan to ask the audience for a little something extra in a couple of archetypal sitcom scenes, including a "Whoooo!" when Turk (Faison) and Carla (Judy Reyes) kiss.
"On 'Spin City' when I was there, we didn't really tweak the laughs," he says. "What we're gonna do here is if somebody does something and doesn't get a laugh, I wouldn't be surprised if I asked the actors to ... break the fourth wall and go, 'Well, that didn't work.'"
The sitcom episode of "Scrubs" is scheduled to air during February sweeps.
Brent Butt of Corner Gas hosts Winnipeg Junos; shift from usual musician host
WINNIPEG (CP) - The Barenaked Ladies. Shania Twain. Alanis Morissette. Brent Butt.
Think one of these people doesn't belong? Not anymore. The Juno folks have enlisted comedian Butt, of TV's Corner Gas, to host this year's festivities in Winnipeg. "It's high time the Junos were handed back over to someone who has no idea about music," said the popular joker, tongue presumably planted in cheek.
Selecting Butt as host is a bit of a departure for the show's producers, who've prided themselves on landing pop stars to host the evening ever since winning broadcast rights from CBC in 2002.
Insiders said producers tried again this year, but weren't able to book an internationally known star because of timing issues.
Even though he doesn't have his own CDs, Butt says he's not intimidated by the A-list music shoes he's going to be filling.
"How big are Alanis's feet?" he said Thursday, referring to last year's host. "I wear a 12 . . . Why not (a comedian?). It's just a matter of saying stuff. I can talk."
His plan is to keep the show moving with short bursts of comedy.
"Award shows, generally speaking, are long and as a result have the ability to be tedious. That's the thing to fight against," said Butt, whose hometown is Tisdale, Sask.
"I'm going to hearken back to Bob Hope doing the Academy Awards. A couple of gags and keep it moving."
The show airs April 3 on CTV. Nominations will be announced on Feb. 7.