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Here’s hoping it is better than the first one!!

A “Fantastic Four” Follow-Up
It’s clobbering time…again.
Fox has green-lighted a sequel to Fantastic Four that will bring back the quartet of squabbling superheroes on July 4, 2007.
Ioan Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic), Jessica Alba (Invisible Woman), Chris Evans (Human Torch) and Michael Chiklis (the Thing) are all expected to return for the second go-round, having signed initial three-picture deals.
Not coming back, however, is their nemesis, Julian McMahon, aka the magnetically charged, steely-eyed Dr. Victor Von Doom. Per trade reports, he’s already signed to star in the thriller Premonition with Sandra Bullock.
And every comic book flick needs a good story; hence, Fox is bringing back director Tim Story, who guided the film to $320 million in worldwide ticket sales. Story, whose previous credits included the comedies Barbershop and Taxi, reportedly was wooed back with a seven-figure deal.
No word on the plot, but Story promises to deliver the mutant goods, and then some.
“We tried to do something different than the brooding, dark setting you usually get in superhero films,” Story tells Daily Variety. “The key to that movie was how to play with a comedic tone and the action and have it feel respectable to the genre and the franchise and still be fun.
“By the end [of the first movie], we’d found the right note and then you want to put the band back together,” he continues. “The universe of villains is vast, and now that everyone’s been introduced, you can just get right to it. That’s why so many superhero sequels improve on the original.”
While Story wouldn’t divulge details on the new nemesis, Fantastic Four 2’s biggest foe could be Spider-Man 3, which is opening two months earlier, in May 2007, and is projected to be one of the juggernauts of the year.
This is the second time the superhero foursome has staked out a July 4 debut. The film was supposed to open last Independence Day weekend, but Fox pushed the film back to July 8 to avoid facing off against Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds remake for Paramount.
Story is currently working on two small-screen pilots for 20th Century Fox TV. The first, The 12th Man, is a half-hour comedy inspired by NBA scrub Paul Shirley, who keeps a blog about his experiences keeping the bench warm on the Phoenix Suns. He’s also helming Primary, an hourlong drama focusing on a couple who also happen to be hostage negotiators.
If all goes well with the script, Story expects to roll cameras on Fantastic Four 2 early next year. And for those jonesing for more of the quartet, the DVD of the original drops Tuesday.

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8096 – Does anyone else think he has gone nuts?

Cruise Buys Sonogram Machine for Katie
NEW YORK – Tom Cruise has made an unusual purchase for his fiancee Katie Holmes √≥ one that will let them see the development of their baby. “I bought a sonogram machine,” Cruise says on ABC’s “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2005,” to air Nov. 29 (10 p.m. EST). Excerpts of the interview are published in the latest issue of People magazine, on newsstands Friday.
The 43-year-old actor said the couple will do their own sonograms, which show fetus development with ultrasound waves. Cruise said he will donate the machine to a hospital after the baby is born. Sonogram machines range in cost from $25,000 to $200,000.
Holmes’ pregnancy was announced in early October. The couple, who have been dating since April, became engaged in June.
“We are gonna get married next summer or early fall,” Cruise told Walters. “We don’t have a date set yet.”
Cruise said he didn’t know if the baby is a boy or a girl. He has two children, Connor, 10, and Isabella, 12, from his marriage to Nicole Kidman. It will be the first child for 26-year-old Holmes.

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This comes second behind a reunion of The police as the coolest thing that could happen musically at a wedding!!

Original R.E.M. Members Rock Athens Wedding
A few hundred lucky wedding guests got the surprise of their life Saturday (Oct. 8) as R.E.M.’s original four members reunited to play a seven-song set at the wedding of R.E.M. guitar tech Dewitt Burton. The action went down at Kingpins Bowl & Brew in the group’s Athens, Ga., home base and marks just the second time Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills have performed with drummer Bill Berry since his 1997 departure.
“Nobody really knew it was going to happen,” Kingpins owner Ed Connolly told Billboard.com. “As a matter of fact, I think it was fairly hit and miss up until the time it happened. I heard they didn’t know if Bill was even going to make it, and I don’t know if they had a chance to rehearse.”
Connolly, who has known Burton for years, said the actual wedding band was taking a break when he noticed Stipe and company setting up in the bowling alley’s arcade. “I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “I was transfixed. I heard the count in and then ‘Sitting Still,’ and by the time they got to the first chorus, it was packed shoulder to shoulder.”
The group went on to play some of its most beloved early tunes: “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” (with Mills on vocals), “Wolves, Lower,” “Begin the Begin,” “The One I Love,” “Permanent Vacation” and “Radio Free Europe.”
“The beauty is that it was in Athens on a warm Saturday night, with the band on the floor with no production,” Connolly says. “I had three old disco mirror balls and they hung them up — that was the extent of the lighting show.”
As for the possibility of the performance seeing commercial release, Connolly says with a laugh, “If it’s cool with [R.E.M. manager] Bertis [Downs], it’s cool with me.”

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I would never make this kind of mistake!

Marley Interview Requested 24 Years After His Death
LONDON (Reuters) – The British Broadcasting Corporation sent an e-mail requesting an interview with reggae star Bob Marley, 24 years after his death.
The publicly funded broadcaster confessed on Friday it was “very embarrassed” by the mix-up which appeared in an e-mail to the Bob Marley Foundation.
“We are obviously very embarrassed that we didn’t realize that the letter to the Marley Foundation did not acknowledge that Mr. Marley is no longer with us,” said a BBC statement.
The Bob Marley Foundation was not immediately available for comment, but the BBC said it had laughed off the mistake.
“The Marley Foundation have been extremely good humored about this and we have apologized for the error.”
It said the mistake occurred in a standard letter the BBC sent out to hundreds of “icons and musicians” it wanted to take part in a series on digital channel BBC-3.
The approach followed the success of BBC-3 documentary “The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody” about the classic track by rock group Queen.
A BBC spokeswoman said the statement was not an April Fool hoax.
“It’s a genuine mistake … today of all days,” she said.
Marley died from cancer in 1981 aged just 36. The 60th anniversary of his birth in Jamaica was celebrated in Addis Ababa earlier this year in an event attended by more than 200,000 Ethiopians who shared the legend’s Rastafarian faith.
The BBC-3 program was to have concentrated on Marley’s hit song “No Woman, No Cry.”

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The people who made “Dazed And Confused” and “Bad Santa” are now doing a remake of “The Bad News Bears”!!!

Linklater Will Coach Thornton in ‘Bears’ Redo
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – “School of Rock” director Richard Linklater has signed on to shoot the remake of “The Bad News Bears,” starring Billy Bob Thornton.
The Paramount Pictures project is due to start shooting in November. The original 1976 feature starred Walter Matthau as a beer-chugging manager who transforms a group of Little League misfits into a winning team.
Linklater, a stalwart of the indie scene, scored a solid commercial hit when he directed Paramount’s 2003 comedy “School of Rock,” which grossed $81 million domestically. He is currently in theaters with “Before Sunset,” starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
He also has been tapped to direct “The Smoker” for Paramount. That project was scheduled to begin production in the fall, but it will likely move back to film after “Bears,” with an exact date still to be determined.
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the writers and creative team behind the Thornton hit “Bad Santa,” are writing the screenplay for “Bears.”