'Spider-Man 4' delayed; Maguire, Raimi out
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tobey Maguire is out as Peter Parker and Sam Raimi won't be returning as director when Spider-Man 4 hits theaters a year late in 2012.
Sony Pictures said in a statement Monday that the movie was supposed to hit theaters in 2011 but has not yet gone into production amid rumors of trouble on the set.
Raimi said his work on the previous Spider-Man films was the experience of a lifetime, but acknowledged the studio was heading in a "new direction."
Sony said it would have more news about Spider-Man 4 in coming weeks.
The new movie will be based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on Peter Parker in high school.
Mark McGwire admits using steroids
NEW YORK – Mark McGwire finally came clean, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998. McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade. During a 20-minute telephone interview shortly afterward, his voice repeatedly cracked.
"It's very emotional, it's telling family members, friends and coaches, you know, it's former teammates to try to get ahold of, you know, that I'm coming clean and being honest," he said. "It's the first time they've ever heard me, you know, talk about this. I hid it from everybody."
McGwire said he also used human growth hormone, and he didn't know if his use of performance-enhancing drugs contributed to some of the injuries that led to his retirement, at age 38, in 2001.
"That's a good question," he said.
He repeatedly expressed regret for his decision to use steroids, which he said was "foolish" and caused by his desire to overcome injuries, get back on the field and prove he was worth his multimillion salary.
"You don't know that you'll ever have to talk about the skeleton in your closet on a national level," he said. "I did this for health purposes. There's no way I did this for any type of strength use."
McGwire hit a then-record 70 homers in 1998 during a compelling race with Sammy Sosa, who finished with 66. More than anything else, the home-run spree revitalized baseball following the crippling strike that wiped out the 1994 World Series.
Now that McGwire has come clean, increased glare might fall on Sosa, who has denied using performing-enhancing drugs.
"I wish I had never played during the steroid era," McGwire said.
McGwire's decision to admit using steroids was prompted by his decision to become hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, his final big league team. Tony La Russa, McGwire's manager in Oakland and St. Louis, has been among McGwire's biggest supporters and thinks returning to the field can restore the former slugger's reputation.
"I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come," McGwire said. "It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected."
He became the second major baseball star in less than a year to admit using illegal steroids, following the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez last February.
Others have been tainted but have denied knowingly using illegal drugs, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and David Ortiz.
Bonds has been indicted on charges he made false statements to a federal grand jury and obstructed justice. Clemens is under investigation by a federal grand jury trying to determine whether he lied to a congressional committee.
"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids," McGwire said. "I had good years when I didn't take any, and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry."
Big Mac's reputation has been in tatters since March 17, 2005, when he refused to answer questions at a Congressional hearing. Instead, he repeatedly said "I'm not here to talk about the past" when asked whether he took illegal steroids when he hit a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 or at any other time.
"After all this time, I want to come clean," he said. "I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."
McGwire said he wanted to tell the truth then but evaded questions at that hearing on the advice of his lawyers.
"That was the worst 48 hours of my life," McGwire said.
La Russa immediately praised McGwire's decision to go public.
"His willingness to admit mistakes, express his regret, and explain the circumstances that led him to use steroids add to my respect for him," the manager said.
McGwire disappeared from the public eye following his retirement as a player following the 2001 season. When the Cardinals hired the 47-year-old as coach on Oct. 26, they said he would address questions before spring training, and Monday's statement broke his silence.
"I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 offseason and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again," McGwire said in his statement. "I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season."
McGwire said he took steroids to get back on the field, sounding much like the Yankees' Andy Pettitte two years ago when he admitted using HGH.
"During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years," McGwire said. "I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years, and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too."
Since the congressional hearing, baseball owners and players toughened their drug program twice, increasing the penalty for a first steroids offense from 10 days to 50 games in November 2005 and strengthening the power of the independent administrator in April 2008, following the publication of the Mitchell Report.
"Baseball is really different now — it's been cleaned up," McGwire said. "The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did."
GI Joe Sequel Scripted by Zombieland Writers?
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are about to become extremely busy men.
After the writing tandem behind Zombieland was recently confirmed to be penning the Deadpool X-Men spin-off films, their names have now been attached to another high (geek) profile project.
According to Collider, Reese and Wernick have been hired by Paramount to script the sequel to GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. They were not involved with the first film and there is no confirmation of this news or, if true, when they might be fitting this project into their busy schedule.
Rise of Cobra's director Stephen Sommers has publicly declared interest in working on GI Joe 2 but his name has yet to be attached.
Doctor Zhivago Blu-ray Announced
Warner Home Video has set a May 4 date for the release of 'Doctor Zhivago: 45th Anniversary Edition '. The Blu-ray of this David Lean movie will come in a Digibook with a 44-page booklet, and will also exclusively include a CD sampler with eight selections from the soundtrack that won Maurice Jarre his second Oscar.
Special features include:
- Doctor Zhivago: A Celebration (all-new production
- Commentary by Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger and Lady Sandra Lean (wife of David Lean)
- Introduction by Omar Sharif
- Doctor Zhivago: The Making of a Russian Epic
- Vintage Featurettes
- Zhivago: Behind the Camera with David Lean
- David Lean's Film of Doctor Zhivago
- Moscow in Madrid
- Pasternak
- New York Press Interviews Omar Sharif
- New York Press Interviews Julie Christie
- Geraldine Chaplin Screen Test
- This is Omar Sharif
- This is Julie Christie
- This is Geraldine Chaplin
- Chaplin in New York
- Trailer
“We're very excited about this meticulous new restoration from Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging and, in particular, how incredible Doctor Zhivago will look on Blu-ray,” said George Feltenstein, WHV's Senior Vice President, Theatrical Catalog Marketing. “The qualities that have kept the film so vital and popular all these years – the sweeping love story, the gorgeous vistas and unforgettable imagery – are all dramatically enhanced through the unprecedented technical capabilities of Blu-ray. The result is not only breathtakingly beautiful to look at but also provides a magnificent aural experience with Zhivago's highly-lauded sound mix presented with unprecedented clarity and dimension.”
WHV had stopped sales of the previous DVD edition of this movie in September 7 in preparation of this new release.
Report: Hopper losing battle with cancer
Acting legend Dennis Hopper is losing his battle with prostate cancer after the deadly disease spread to his bones, according to a British report.
The Easy Rider veteran revealed his struggle with the illness in October, after he was admitted to hospital suffering from "severe flu-like symptoms."
He immediately underwent treatment at the University of Southern California, but doctors admit hopes for the 73-year-old are fading after the cancer spread, according to Britain's News of the World newspaper.
According to the publication, medics have informed Hopper - who has battled the disease since 2002 - that his cancer is incurable and that he may be facing his final days.
JJ Abrams’ Star Trek sequel has a release date
Here's some welcome news to kick off the week. Given that many of us have now devoured the film numerous times on disc, questions have inevitably been raised about when we can expect to see Star Trek 2/12/whatever you want to call it. And it seems that Paramount Pictures has now answered that question.
The studio has earmarked June 29th 2012 as the day for the next Star Trek movie, making first claim on that summer's big release dates. There was early speculation that a sequel may be turned around in two years rather than three (the former being the pattern that the Iron Man and Transformers films appear to be following), but it soon became clear that that would be a fairly big ask.
As such, we've got to wait another couple of years yet, but at least we know what date to ring in our diaries.
Slash turned down millions to reunite with Guns N' Roses
The original lineup of Guns N' Roses will "never" reform, Slash has declared, claiming that he turned down offers of hundreds of millions of dollars to reunite with Axl Rose. "It's sad that something so good doesn't exist any more, even though we're both still alive and on the same planet," he said.
Axl Rose might claim he doesn't need Slash. After all, Guns N' Roses still exist – more than a decade in the making, Chinese Democracy was released in 2008. But the band's sixth LP was more whimper than bang, and the group haven't undertaken a major tour in years. Wrestling with his management and copyright infringement claims, Axl Rose's hard-rock gang don't exactly seem like the biggest band in the world.
Slash isn't doing much better. His band, Velvet Revolver, lacks a singer, and his forthcoming solo album will be released, at least in part, as a free attachment with Classic Rock magazine. Plus, Jack White turned down an invitation to sing on one of his songs. Yet the guitarist still thinks that there "[isn't] ever a chance of a [Guns N' Roses] reunion".
"Things were so abrasive by the time I left," he told GQ. "I've never thought, 'Oh, wouldn't it be nice to get back together'. Because I know it wouldn't!" The lineup's last tour, in 1993, was "an ongoing exercise in how we could bond the least", Slash said. "It just got worse and worse." As Axl Rose remarked last year: "One of the two of us will die before a reunion." The two musicians have reportedly not spoken in 13 years.
Then again, if they do decide to reunite, the money would certainly be worthwhile. "I can't remember exact numbers, but [the offers have been] excessive," Slash told GQ. "Seven, eight-digit kinds of things." Asked directly if the amount was higher than $100m (£62m), Slash admitted, "Yeah".
"When we were on stage we were a real force together," he said. "But it got to a point off stage where it was impossible for us to even be in the same room together and create any music."
DVD in awards season could be the trigger for 'The Hurt Locker'
The Hurt Locker is getting ready to redeploy.
The film about a renegade member of a bomb squad in Iraq opened in June to near unanimous critical acclaim. But it earned a not-so-whopping $12.7 million at the box office.
Still, though audiences seemed unwilling to trust the 97% positive rating from film review site RottenTomatoes.com, the awards season may help The Hurt Locker turn a corner in the fight for moviegoers.
The film is still playing on a handful of screens, but its potential for discovery now rests on its DVD and Blu-ray debut Tuesday and the momentum of Sunday's Golden Globes, where it is up for three prizes, including best drama.
Oscar nominations are announced Feb. 2, and The Hurt Locker is expected to fare well after earning numerous critics' awards and guild nominations.
Releasing it on home video now allows the film to ride a wave of attention cast by Hollywood's backslapping season.
"We were obviously very, very hopeful we would get the award recognition that critics were talking about when we released the movie back in June," says Rob Friedman, co-chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment, which distributed The Hurt Locker. "It was definitely something we hoped for. You can never anticipate, but you can plan."
The awards race has long been a marketing tool for prestige films, which is why many open in theaters late in the year with hopes of generating ticket sales while amassing honors.
Making a DVD available during awards season may be particularly smart for more intimate, sophisticated fare that doesn't have the bombast that typically drives blockbusters, says Paul Bond, West Coast business editor for The Hollywood Reporter.
"Adults have less time on their hands, they're more conscious about money, they're less interested in the social aspect of moviegoing than high school and college kids are," Bond says. "It's no surprise they're willing to wait for the DVD release to see a film they're interested in. And adults are interested in The Hurt Locker."
Though it will be many months before Avatar or Up in the Air arrive on home video, other films such as Julie & Julia, Inglourious Basterds and District 9 were on DVD last month.
In those cases, they opened strongly in theaters and were trying to capture the holiday gift-buying crowd. But now they have another wave, thanks to their respective award campaigns.
"We try to determine the appropriate date, and we have a lot of flexibility there, so with District 9 and Julie & Julia, we knew they had awards potential and releasing at the holiday would be ideal, but also we would capture the timing of the Golden Globe nominations and the Academy (Award) nominations," says Lexine Wong, senior executive vice president of marketing for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Smaller films waited out the holiday crush rather than risk being overshadowed and instead based their release solely on awards season.
That's why you'll see the Coen brothers' A Serious Man on Feb. 9, An Education announcing its DVD debut around the Oscars, and The Hurt Locker out now. "It's a good time post-Christmas for titles that are a little less well-known than the big behemoths coming out in November and December," says Summit's Friedman.
With that in mind, the literary romance Bright Star is due Jan. 26. Says Sony's Wong: "If you wait until January, you can still capture awards buzz, but you get out of the way of the other stuff, and you get more attention."
But what if you don't get the nominations?
"If you're assuming you'll get that nomination, and then you're not nominated," Bond says, "you'll be sorely disappointed."