Canadiens movie stars NHL legends
MONTREAL - The celebrations surrounding the Montreal Canadiens' centennial anniversary will include a movie slated for release on the storied hockey club's 100th birthday next year.
"Pour toujours, les Canadiens" (The Canadiens Forever) has begun filming in earnest and will include members of the Canadiens past and present.
The fictional movie features a 17-year-old college player and a 10-year-old boy who is waiting for a kidney transplant at a children's hospital where his mother works.
The history of the Canadiens will be evoked in a number of different ways, including through the teenager's father, a filmmaker who is preparing a documentary on the Canadiens' 100th anniversary to the detriment of his neglected family.
"I've never been so afraid to tackle a project," director Sylvain Archambault told a news conference at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.
The film has a $6-million budget and will continue shooting until mid-December.
"Between fear of failure and the pleasure I've felt making this movie and meeting all these people ... it is the chance of a lifetime."
Archambault and Jacques Savoie, who will write the screenplay, are well established in Quebec's entertainment scene.
The pair walked away Sunday with a rash of awards at the Gemeaux, handed out for French television achievement, for "Les Lavigueur," a miniseries based on the true story of a working-class family from Montreal that won a $7.5-million lottery jackpot in 1986.
The film, slated for release on Dec. 4, 2009, will include a number of well-known Quebec actors, including Dhanae Audet-Beaulieu as the teenager and Antoine L'Ecuyer as the hospitalized boy.
The movie will also include various current Canadiens such as team captain Saku Koivu and star sophomore goaltender Carey Price as well as Habs legend Jean Beliveau.
The players, both active and retired, will play themselves.
"I had five players yesterday (Monday) at Sainte-Justine Hospital," Archambault said. "I had Carey Price, (Christopher) Higgins, (Mike) Komisarek, Francis Bouillon and Saku Koivu ... everyone played themselves, but if there was one who will be more featured than the others, it's Saku Koivu."
Koivu battled back from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2001.
"In a context where he interacts with a sick child, and we know Saku's story, who overcame enormous odds ... it's easy for him to connect with other people. I was amazed by the quality of Saku Koivu."
As for Beliveau, Archambault says he isn't sure what sort of role the 77-year-old Hockey Hall of Famer will play.
"I know at the end of November, I have three days of filming at Colisee Jean Beliveau in Longueuil," Beliveau said.
Beliveau, known as "Le Gros Bill," won 10 Stanley Cups as a player with the Canadiens and said he's honoured to be part of the project.
"It warms my heart ... to play a role in a film that has such a big importance for the organization, for the City of Montreal and fans," Beliveau said.
Hagar Inks With New Roadrunner Imprint
Sammy Hagar is the first signing to new Roadrunner imprint Loud & Proud, which will focus on established artists. His label debut, "Cosmic Universal Fashion," will arrive Nov. 18.
The album's title track was written online by Hagar with an Iraqi rock fan named Steven Lost. The cut and its accompanying video, an homage to Van Halen's text-heavy 1992 clip for "Right Now," can be sampled on Hagar's Web site.
"'Cosmic Universal Fashion' is not about supporting left or right, blue or red, but rather an attempt to appeal to people on a personal level to get involved," says Hagar.
The album also includes the song "Loud," featuring the Cult's Billy Duffy and Matt Sorum along with former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, and a cover of the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right To Party."
Hagar was most recently signed to Rhino, which issued his 2006 album "Livin' It Up." The set has sold 52,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Here is the track list for "Cosmic Universal Fashion":
"Cosmic Universal Fashion"
"Psycho Vertigo"
"Peephole"
"LOUD"
"Fight for Your Right To Party"
"Switch on the Light"
"When the Sun Don't Shine"
"24365"
"I'm on a Roll"
"Dreams/Cabo"
Movie buffs can win bleacher seats for 2009 Oscars
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Stargazers seeking an up-close glimpse of Hollywood's royalty can win seats on Oscar night along the red carpet.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday that 300 bleacher seats will be up for grabs in an online lottery.
Beginning at 9 a.m. PDT Monday, movie buffs can enter for a chance to win a seat in front of the Kodak Theater for the Oscars scheduled for Feb. 22. The lottery runs through 9 p.m. Sept. 28.
Applicants can register for up to four seats at http://www.oscars.org/bleachers.
In previous years, as many as 20,000 fans have applied online for the bleacher seats.
Tom Cruise Wrecks Shrek Rumors
Los Angeles (E! Online) - Sorry to disappoint you Shrek fans, but Tom Cruise won't be heading to the swamp for the next go-round in the green-guy franchise.
Despite a flurry of stories on the Web over the past two weeks, Cruise is not—repeat, not—a candidate to voice the villain in Shrek Goes Fourth for DreamWorks Animation.
"As of today, there is no truth to the Tom Cruise-Shrek 4 rumor," rep Jeff Raymond tells E! News without further explanation.
The ogre rumors went into overdrive after first surfacing Sept. 4 on the movie blog cinemablend.com, which claimed to have received an email from an unnamed studio insider stating Cruise was being considered for the role.
That report took off in the blogosphere, eventually getting picked up in mainstream publications, including one of the Los Angeles Times blogs, which gave it even more traction.
And voilà, Cruise's camp stepped up to debunk the Shrek story.
DreamWorks declined to comment.
What exactly is the Top Gunner doing next? He certainly has plenty of options.
After wrapping the World War II thriller Valkyrie, due out in December, Cruise could join Ben Stiller in The Hardy Men, a comedy envisioning the sibling sleuths all grown up.
Cruise and his United Artists also just snapped up the rights to the true-crime thriller The Monster of Florence as a possible starring vehicle. That film chronicles a three-decade serial-murder spree in the Italian city.
One film he won't be doing is Edwin Salt. Cruise had been considering the film but ultimately passed on the role of a CIA officer mistaken for a president-assassinating Russian spy. The part is now reportedly being refashioned for Angelina Jolie.
As for Shrek Goes Fourth, the film will feature the voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy. It's currently in the early production stages and expected to hit theaters in 2010.