Owen to give Marlowe a shot
Clive Owen is set to star as iconic gumshoe Phillip Marlowe in a film he also will produce.
No licence to kill? No problem, as Clive Owen continues to prove with his hard-boiled, bullet-ridden resume.
Case in point: Following in the powder burns of next month's explosively violent Shoot 'Em Up and 2006's live-action comic book Sin City, he's planning to star as Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, the iconic gumshoe previously embodied by such screen legends as Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart. Owen will also produce.
"So no," he says when asked if playing noirish anti-heroes is wearing thin, "I'm not stepping away from it."
Frank Miller, the graphic novelist behind Sin City and 300, will pen the Marlowe project.
Prior to that, Owen will star in The International, an action thriller with Naomi Watts that casts the one-time Bond contender as a federal agent trying to expose a corrupt European bank. Thomas Tykwer (Run Lola Run) is directing.
Still, Owen is not all about gun play and leather dusters, either. He'll attend this year's Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in which he portrays Sir Walter Raleigh.
DREAM ROLE: Owen's Shoot 'Em Up co-star Paul Giamatti wants to play influential science fiction author Philip K. Dick in a biopic, he told journalists last weekend in New York City.
Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which the 1982 classic Blade Runner was based on, as well as the short stories Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly.
OSCAR KICKS THE BUCKET: The L.A. Times reports that Warner Bros. has slotted a Dec. 25 bow for The Bucket List, a tearjerker about two geezers going on a last hoorah before they croak.
Given that it stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, it's safe to assume the studio believes the Rob Reiner project has a lively shot at multiple Oscar nominations.
BARBARIAN INVASIONS: By Crom! Did 300 do what even a god couldn't -- namely, inspire Hollywood to resurrect Conan The Barbarian?
Apparently.
You can add a Conan remake to the litany of sword-and-sorcery epics inspired by 300's global success. Among them, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and a re-imagining of 1981's Clash of the Titans (penned by no less than Lawrence Kasdan, director of Body Heat and The Big Chill, as well as writer of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back).
Don't look for California's guvenator to don the fur diaper and iron crown again, though.
The new Conan, ramping up to go into production by spring, will be sans Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Star Wars actors named film couple with least chemistry
British audiences have voted the pairing of actors Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen as having the least onscreen chemistry, according to a new poll.
The survey of 3,000 movie-goers by British cinema advertisers Pearl and Dean rated the young pairing from two Star Wars movies, including Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, as having the least plausible chemistry.
The two beat Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez for their performance in Gigli. That film was made when they were a real life couple.
Affleck hit the top 10 twice, in fact. His not-so-hot chemistry with Kate Beckinsdale in Pearl Harbor took the No. 7 spot.
Rounding out the top three were British thespians Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom who were thought "too stiff upper lip" in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and just didn't have "enough lust."
Madonna and Italian actor Adriano Giannini sat in the No. 4 spot for Swept Away, the 2002 box-office flop directed by the pop superstar's husband Guy Ritchie.
Catherine Zeta Jones's romance with Sir Sean Connery in 1999's Entrapment ended up in fifth place, partly because of the 39-year age difference, according to the poll.
Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell are sixth for Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Then-married couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were eighth, for their roles in the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were ninth as gay lovers in the cowboy film Brokeback Mountain followed by Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
MOVIE COUPLES WITH THE WORST ONSCREEN CHEMISTRY
1. Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
2. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in Gigli
3. Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy
4. Madonna and Adriano Giannini in Swept Away
5. Catherine Zeta Jones and Sir Sean Connery in Entrapment
Timberlake Dicking Around at the Emmys?
Will Justin Timberlake be allowed to show his “Dick” at the Emmys?
Maybe.
I hear there are ongoing talks for Timberlake and Andy Samberg to perform “Dick in a Box” on the big night (Sept. 16) at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium.
No surprise there, because they’re nominated for the skit, which originally aired on Saturday Night Live in December. Problem is, not everyone is a fan of the racy ditty.
Taking its cue from early '90s R&B videos, the number features Timberlake and Samberg with wrapped presents attached to their waists. They sing about giving very special gifts to their ladies for Christmas. The song even explains how to do it:
1. Cut a hole in a box.
2. Put your junk in that box...
I’m told executives at Fox—the network airing this year’s ceremony—still haven’t given their final approval.
When it aired on NBC, “dick” was bleeped out 16 times! A few days later, NBC came under fire from conservative groups when the network posted an uncensored version on the SNL website and YouTube.
Reps for the Emmys and Fox did not comment, nor did reps for Timberlake and Samberg.
Considering Fox is home to The Simpsons, you’d think there would be no hesitation.
It’s not like Timberlake doesn’t have experience handling controversial television performances, but let’s just hope he and Samberg keep their junk well hidden. The last thing they need to be worrying about is a wardrobe malfunction.
Garth Brooks to release hits album
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Garth Brooks may be retired from touring, but he's not slowing down.
Brooks announced Saturday that a greatest hits package called "The Ultimate Hits," with four new songs and a DVD full of videos, will be released on Nov. 6.
Brooks, 45, retired in 2001 to be a stay-at-home dad. He said he has no plans to tour, but he assured more than 200 radio executives and music retailers that he will be promoting the album.
"You're going to see us everywhere," said Brooks. "It's my job to let people know it's out there. And then after February, I'm going to go back to whatever I was doing before this."
Brooks' hits include "Friends in Low Places," "Shameless" and "Longneck Bottle."
'Superbad' has super haul of $31 million
LOS ANGELES - "Superbad" was super good at the box office, proving that a no-name cast could hold its own amid A-list summer blockbusters.
The teen comedy from Sony, the misadventures of two high school buddies trying to score booze, took in $31.2 million to debut as the weekend's No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Superbad" knocked off the previous weekend's top flick, New Line's "Rush Hour 3," which slipped to second place with $21.8 million, raising its total to $88.2 million.
The Warner Bros. sci-fi tale "The Invasion," starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in an update of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," opened a weak No. 5 with $6 million.
"Superbad" maintains the pattern of producer Judd Apatow's earlier hits, "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which he directed. Apatow and his collaborators, including "Knocked Up" star and "Superbad" co-writer and co-star Seth Rogen, have a knack for packaging crude, R-rated humor with clever, authentic dialogue far smarter than what's normally seen in summer comedies.
Shot on a modest $20 million budget, "Superbad" had a slightly better debut than "Knocked Up," which opened in June with $30.7 million and went on become a $100 million hit.
"I think a genuinely funny movie always has a shot at doing well, because so few movies are really funny," Apatow told The Associated Press as he headed to the "Knocked Up" premiere Sunday at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland.
"Superbad," co-written by Rogen and his high school best friend Evan Goldberg, stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as pals on a quest for alcohol to impress the foxy host of a party. Rogen co-stars as an inept cop who ends up carousing with the teens, while Christopher Mintz-Plasse proves a scene-stealer as Hill and Cera's super-geeky friend.
Though centering on high schoolers, "Superbad" drew in older crowds, with 40 percent of the audience over 30, said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony.
"The Apatow comedy machine itself is a brand now, and it's a brand that has created movies that appeal to older audiences who now follow whatever he does, even in the teen genre, which is very unusual," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
Overall Hollywood revenues rose with the top 12 movies taking in $110.5 million, up 21 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Snakes on a Plane" opened at No. 1 with $15.2 million. Movie attendance is running 5 percent ahead of last summer's, according to Media By Numbers.
The Weinstein Co. release "The Last Legion," featuring Ben Kingsley in an action tale set in ancient Rome, tanked with just $2.6 million, finishing at No. 12.
In narrower release, MGM's comedy "Death at a Funeral," a tale of outrageous goings-on at a British patriarch's farewell, opened solidly with $1.3 million.
Warner Independent's "The 11th Hour," a global-crisis documentary on ecological issues co-written, co-produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, debuted well in four theaters with $56,000.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Superbad," $31.2 million.
2. "Rush Hour 3," $21.8 million.
3. "The Bourne Ultimatum," $19 million.
4. "The Simpsons Movie," $6.7 million.
5. "The Invasion," $6 million.
6. "Stardust," $5.2 million.
7. "Hairspray," $4.3 million.
8. "Underdog," $3.6 million.
9. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," $3.54 million.
10. "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," $3.5 million.