Kevin Smith Moves Past 'Fletch,' 'Hornet'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- Kevin Smith knows a few things about fanboy expectations.
"I'm in the business of announcing things and then never doing them," Smith cracks to a WonderCon audience in San Francisco that seems prepared to forgive him for any failed promises. "I'll make an announcement right here: By next year at this time, I will have lost 200 pounds. Never gonna happen."
Similarly, it appears that audiences will never get to see Smith's versions of "Fletch" or "Green Hornet."
"I parted ways with 'Fletch' because of five, six years of trying to get Jason Lee cast, it was just apparent it wasn't gonna happen," says Smith of Gregory McDonald's "Fletch Won," on origin story for the wise-cracking reporter made cinematically famous by Chevy Chase. "It thought this year might be the one that tipped the scale, because he's in 'My Name Is Earl' and he has billboards all over the f***ing country."
While "Earl" has convinced television audiences and critics that Lee is a star, Smith's boss Harvey Weinstein has proved a tougher nut to crack.
"For years I kept saying, 'Jason Lee is Fletch' and Harvey kept saying 'No.' And then finally I'm like 'Jason Lee is Fletch? 'My Name Is Earl'?' And he was just like, 'Nah. It's still not gonna happen.'"
The "Fletch Won" property remains viable for the Weinsteins, with Zach Braff as the newly speculated lead, but Smith has moved on. He's also taken a step back from writing and directing duties on the "Green Hornet" film.
"As I started writing it, I was like, 'I cannot direct and action movie. I have no idea how to do it,'" Smith says. "I'm not good at it and I don't have patience. My version of it would be like Green Hornet and Kato leaning against the Black Beauty -- the amazing supercar and home arsenal that can do almost anything and just leaning against it talking about sex."
He continues with his scenario, "Like, 'Did you get laid last night?' 'Yeah. In the mask.' And Kato'd be like 'I think there's some trouble over there.' And Green Hornet's like, 'Yeah, let's check it out.' They both just walk off camera. We still hold on the car. Then from off camera you hear [He mimics the sounds of a comic fight]. Then they walk back in and dust themselves off."
If the laughter and applause are any indication, the WonderCon audience sounds perfectly content with Smith's "Green Hornet" vision. Studio executives? Not so much.
"Nobody wants to entrust you with $70 million to make that kind of movie," he notes. "So I realized I'm so not the guy for it, but I did write the script and I turned it in. I was really happy with the script, but I don't know where it is right now."
"It's not like a presold franchise, you'd really have to make a great movie. And I can't make a great movie. I've tried for 12 years."
Smith's next stab at making a great movie, "Clerks II," will open this fall.
No Oscars 'Pimp' Performance for Howard
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Although Terrence Howard will be pimped out in his best red carpet attire for the 78th Academy Awards, he won't reprise his role as a rapping pimp for the Oscars telecast.
Howard, 36, is nominated for his lead performance as DJay, a Memphis pimp pursuing his hip-hop dreams in Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow." And even though he performed "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" in the film, he doesn't think he could do justice to the Oscar-nominated song when it comes to the live telecast.
"We don't have time in the schedule to work all that stuff out," says Howard in an interview at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 13. "It took me seven months to find DJay and find that voice. I don't think I could give it the full service that I gave it in the film."
Instead, he believes the performance will be left to the Memphis-based trio Three 6 Mafia, comprising Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, Cedric "Crunchy Black" Coleman and Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard.
"They're the ones that wrote it and they're the ones that are nominated for that song," says Howard. "It would be different if it were just plain old me."
The first-time nominee is eager to see how the audience will greet the gritty, expletive-filled song. In 2000, Robin Williams performed "Blame Canada" from the "South Park" movie, but was forced to change certain lyrics for the censors.
"I'm ready to see the entire roomful of people in there singing 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,'" Howard says, adding, "If they know the words, then we really got a problem."
The Oscars will be telecast live from the Kodak Theatre on Sunday, March 5.
Pink's video pokes fun at 'Stupid Girls'
The title of Pink's upcoming album, due April 4, is I'm Not Dead. And if you don't believe the 26-year-old singer/songwriter is indeed alive and kicking, check out some of the lyrics in her already controversial new single, Stupid Girls:
Go to Fred Segal, you'll find them there/Laughin' loud so all the little people stare/Lookin' for a daddy to pay for the champagne ...
They travel in packs of two or three/With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teenie weenie tees .../Porno paparazzi girls ...
Sound like anyone you might have spotted in the tabloids lately? In the video for Girls, which premiered Jan. 26 on MTV's Overdrive, Pink (Alecia Elliott) appears at one point stumbling around in oversized shades, beads and a billowy frock, possibly evoking Mary-Kate or Ashley Olsen in an unguarded moment.
Another clip shows the singer driving recklessly while sporting a red bouffant that makes her look like Lindsay Lohan. And in a third sequence, Pink writhes atop a soaped-up car while clad in a long blond wig, bikini top, short shorts and boots, suggesting a parody of Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke or Paris Hilton in her ad for Carl's Jr. hamburgers.
There's also a scene resembling an amateur sex video, perhaps alluding to one of Hilton's earlier, less polished efforts.
Pink herself isn't naming any names in the song or in the press.
"It's pretty obvious," the singer says. "I'm talking about a general mentality. I use examples because I can't help but be blunt." (Representatives for the Olsens, Lohan, Simpson and Hilton either didn't return calls or e-mails or declined to comment.)
The single and video, which also has images referring to bulimia and cosmetic surgery, aren't judgmental in intent, Pink says. "I use humor as well. And I'm not saying I'm better than any of these girls. There are 50 new tabloids every year, and I'm in them, and I read them, and I do stupid things.
"But this is a reaction to that, and it was brought on by several conversations I've had with women and girls. Women have fought so long and hard for our rights and equality, and now all our attention is put on being a size 0.
"Rather than focusing on someone who can't pay rent, or a child who's sick, or on our children and brothers overseas, it's about living vicariously through these people who seem to shop all day."
Although Pink has been outspoken on disc in the past, primarily about more personal matters, the topical focus of Stupid Girls is a venture into new territory. She leaps even further on another track on the new album, the even more pointed Dear Mr. President.
Girls and President fundamentally address "the exact same thing: distraction, consumerism and fear. I've always tried to rally people to fight for what they believe in."
Jason Vorhees Lives!
You just can't keep a good psycho killer down.
Hollywood testosterone king Michael Bay has been charged with breathing new life into Jason Vorhees and resurrecting the Friday the 13th franchise with a prequel.
Bay's production company, Platinum Dunes, will attempt to crank out the 11th installment in the hearty horror series for New Line Cinema by October--on Friday the 13th, natch.
Per the trades, Bay's company is scrambling to meet the pre-Halloween deadline. The script, by Mark Wheaton, is not yet finished and there's no immediate word on a director or cast.
The new, untitled chapter in the ongoing saga of the hockey-masked antihero Jason is purportedly going to be a prelude to Sean S. Cunningham's original Friday the 13th, which was released by Paramount in 1980. The horror classic followed the hacking up of various teens at Camp Crystal Lake. The low-budget gorefest grossed more than $40 million and spawned a franchise that eventually descended into camp with 1989's Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.
New Line bought the rights to the never-say-die slasher series in 1993 from Paramount and churned out Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday that same year. But it was far from being the "final Friday": The studio embraced the space age by launching the series into orbit with 2001's Jason X.
The studio then decided to pit two of its aging horror icons against each other, Jason and Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger, in 2003's battle royale, Jason vs. Freddy. The face-off scared its way to $82 million in ticket sales.
New Line has been trying to figure out more ways to unleash Jason on moviegoers in the past few years. First, the studio toyed with the idea of another combo deal, with Ash from the Evil Dead movies joining the fray. But that fell through when filmmaker Sam Raimi decided to relaunch Evil Dead separately.
Then, New Line reached out to Quentin Tarantino to put his stamp on the Friday the 13th franchise. Tarantino also passed.
Now it's up to Bay and his Platinum Dunes to do for Friday the 13th what it did with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The production company's 2003 remake of Massacre exceeded expectations, raking in more than $80 million and spawning a prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The latter, starring Jordana Brewster, is scheduled to unspool Oct. 6, a week before the new Friday.
Bay is seeking a return to blockbuster form after last summer's box-office bomb The Island. His hit credits include Armageddon, Bay Boys II, Pearl Harbor and The Rock.
Doctor Who - Canadian Release Of 2005 Show Delayed?!?!
The 2005 version of Doctor Who, starring Christopher Eccleston as the 9th Doctor, was delayed in the USA until the 4th of July holiday, due to the SciFi Channel's pick-up of the show for broadcast in the USA on the popular cable network.
The Canadian release, as of last week, was still on track for its long-planned February 14th release.
Even though Amazon.ca's website now states "Usually ships within 24 hours." there are some internet rumours that the streetdate is now March 7th.
I have ordered it from Amazon.ca and in my account information it states: "Delivery estimate: Feb 21 2006 - Feb 23 2006."
I can't get any real confirmation on this, but if it is delayed until March, it is still coming out four months ahead of the south-of-the-border DVD release!
'Rock Star: Van Halen' Rumors Unfounded
Persistent rumors that Van Halen will audition new singers on the upcoming season of CBS reality series "Rock Star" are untrue, according to the network.
"All it is is a rumor, we deny it," a CBS Entertainment spokesperson tells Billboard.com. "We don't even have [an act] firmly established yet, though, hopefully we will shortly."
A spokesperson for Van Halen referred Billboard.com to a previously published report in which the band's involvement with the show was vehemently denied.
Speculation of the "Rock Star"/Van Halen pairing has been running wild since the fall when, in an interview, the series' producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor") used the group as an example, along with Queen, as an act appropriate for the show's mission of filling vacancies.
The story got new legs during this morning's (Feb. 14) broadcast of the syndicated David Lee Roth radio show as the former Van Halen frontman declared, "They really are gonna do it, I think. It's the 'Rock Star' open call schedule. They just handed me the schedule... they won't say who it's for, but I think it's for Van Halen."
"Rock Star," which is co-hosted by former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, has indeed announced its audition schedule. Tryouts will be conducted throughout North America for about a month, starting March 1 in Austin. An announcement about the featured artist is forthcoming, according to the CBS spokesperson. The network plans to air the program's second season this summer.
The first season bowed last year as "Rock Star: INXS." The Australian band ultimately crowned J.D. Fortune as its new lead singer, recorded an album and is on the road in North America, playing Reading, Pa., tomorrow night.
Since Roth exited the band in 1985, hard rock crew Van Halen has been helmed by Sammy Hagar, who left the band in 1996, and former Extreme singer Gary Cherone. Attempts to regroup with Roth failed, and the band has been quiet since guitarist Eddie Van Halen began battling cancer around the turn of the millennium
Uncle Owen, R.I.P.
To Phil Brown, it seemed "a very unimportant role." But in Star Wars lore, it was anything but.
Brown, who died last week at age 89, was being remembered by Jedi faithful as Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen from the original Star Wars movie.
In George Lucas' 1977 space saga, farmer Owen Lars and his dying-for-adventure nephew, played by Mark Hamill, come into possession of two junked droids: R2-D2 and C-3PO, setting in motion the ragtag Rebellion's overthrow of the evil Empire, not to mention a six-picture, mega-billion-dollar franchise.
The find also led to the eventual off-screen slaughter of Owen and wife Beru at the gloved hands of droid-seeking Imperial Stormtroopers, but nothing's perfect.
Shelagh Fraser, who played Aunt Beru to Brown's Uncle Owen, died in 2000.
Brown was plagued by various heart ailments in recent years. In an undated post on his official Website, the actor noted his retirement from the convention scene.
"Meeting my fans personally has been endlessly rewarding for my wife Ginny and me," Brown wrote. "I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all for your support of my career, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind thoughts and warm wishes."
Brown succumbed to pneumonia last Thursday at the motion picture retirement home in Woodland Hills, California, the Associated Press reported.
Born April 30, 1916, in Massachusetts, Brown's pre-Star Wars career was far removed from the blighted lands of Tatooine. Per his official biography, he danced on Broadway in the 1930s, courted (but never won) the likes of Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr in Hollywood movies of the 1940s, and directed Dorothy Dandridge in a 1951 feature about the Harlem Globetrotters, simply titled The Harlem Globetrotters.
The Communist witch hunt of the 1950s ensnared Brown, who himself denied ever being a member of the party. For 40 years, from 1952-92, the once-blacklisted Brown lived and worked out of London.
By the time Lucas was in London casting Star Wars, Brown wasn't looking at Uncle Owen as a life-changing opportunity. "This [part], what seemed to be a very unimportant role, occurred at the end of my acting career," Brown once told TheForce.Net.
In the interview, Brown said he suspected Lucas selected him for Owen "because of my resemblance to Alec Guinness, a contemporary and an old friend of mine." In Star Wars, Guinness played Luke's Force-full mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In the Star Wars prequels, the role of the younger Obi-Wan went to Ewan McGregor. Similarly, Uncle Owen got a new look in the newer movies, with Australian actor Joel Edgerton inheriting the role.
Brown told TheForce.Net that he wished Edgerton luck "in having as many devoted followers as I have had."
Brown's post-Star Wars credits included a bit in the 1980 TV miniseries, The Martian Chronicles.