Category: Rumours

Shailene Woodley in Talks for ‘Spider-Man 2’

Shailene Woodley, the actress who broke out in George Clooney’s The Descendants, is in early talks to join Andrew Garfield in Columbia’s Spider-Man 2, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Woodley has been offered the role of Mary Jane Watson, the perennial red-headed love interest of Pater Parker in the Spider-Man comics. The role was previously played by Kirsten Dunst in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy.

Columbia just closed deals with Marc Webb to return to the director’s chair after this summer’s web-head reboot, Amazing Spider-Man, grossed $752 million worldwide. The studio also closed deals with Garfield to reprise the title role and Emma Stone to return as Gwen Stacy.

The stage is now set for an angst-filled love triangle.

Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing the sequel. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci wrote the latest draft of the script, which is being kept locked tight. The studio has not yet revealed who the villain will be, for example.

Woodley stars in ABC Family’s The Secret Life of an American Teenager when she nabbed the role of George Clooney’s daughter in last year’s awards darling, The Descendants. The gig nabbed her numerous award nominations, including a Golden Globe nom for best supporting actress, as well as a win from the Independent Spirit Awards.

Teenager was canceled earlier this week, and will return for the final episodes of the season in March 2013.

Heather Graham To Return In The Hangover Part III

Heather Graham, who played the stripper.hooker Jade in Todd Phillips’ The Hangover, will be coming back for the second sequel. While she received positive marks from critics and audiences for the part, she was replaced as Ed Helms’ love interest for The Hangover Part II by Jamie Chung. For the third film Phillips will be back as director, producer and co-writer, working on the script with Craig Mazin.

It was previously reported that for The Hangover Part III Phil, Alan, and Stu (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Helms) will be starting in Los Angeles, traveling back to Las Vegas, and then going down to Tijuana, Mexico. The trip back to Vegas could explain how Jade will reconnect with the Wolf Pack.

It was recently announced that Mike Epps will return to the franchise as well, reprising his role as Black Doug, and Mike Tyson and Ken Jeong will play parts as well. Variety, which reported the Graham casting, says that the plan is to sprinkle the film with multiple celebrity cameos. Trying to get a cameo had mixed results when Phillips was making The Hangover Part II. While the movie was originally going to feature Mel Gibson, he was eventually let go from the project and replaced by Liam Neeson. When Neeson wasn’t available for reshoots he was eventually replaced with Nick Cassavetes.

The Hangover Part III will in theaters on May 24, 2013. Given the release date, the film will likely have to start production in the next couple months.

Haywire’s Gina Carano May Join Fast & Furious 6

A couple months back Dwayne Johnson gave some insight into the next two Fast & Furious movies (that’ll be 6 & 7 for those who’ve lost count) and revealed The Fast and the Furious 6 will go into production in May in the United Kingdom and Germany. As the start date draws nearer, he and the franchise’s original stars, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, are gearing up for all new high-octane action setups. And THR reports Haywire star Gina Carano may come along for the ride, as she has entered into negotiations to play a member of Johnson’s Diplomatic Security force.

The former MMA athlete dazzled critics earlier this year in Steven Soderbergh’s jaw-dropping espionage thriller, wherein she toppled the gender expectations of spy movies with some incredibly fleet-footed and furious fight scenes. Carano’s betrayed black ops soldier was all business as she sought revenge against those who’d sullied her name and tried to kill her, and we ate it up. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t warm quite so quickly to Carano’s hard-edged allure, but thankfully Hollywood is eager to get this burgeoning action star a chance to blossom.

Recently, she signed onto In the Blood, a thriller in the vein of Taken with Carano in the Liam Neeson role. It’s a great fit for her, and will hopefully prove her abilities to carry a profitable movie. (I still blame marketing for Haywire’s misfire.) But her role in The Fast and the Furious 6 could expose her to a much wider audience, and serve as a less challenging introduction than Haywire. In The Blood is scheduled to go into production once The Fast and the Furious 6 wraps, and while no release date for the former is yet set, I’d be willing to bet it’ll come out after Fast 6 has paved the way.

The Fast and the Furious 6 is slated to hit theaters May 24, 2013.

Swift to play Joni Mitchell?

Country star Taylor Swift is in talks to portray iconic singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell in an upcoming film.

The Love Story hitmaker, who has previously appeared in ensemble romantic comedy Valentine’s Day and voiced a character in Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, is being courted to star in Girls Like Us, a big screen adaptation of Sheila Weller’s book of the same name, according to trade paper Variety.

The story follows the careers of Mitchell and her peers Carly Simon and Carole King.

Midnight in Paris actress Alison Pill has reportedly auditioned for the part of King.

John Sayles is set to direct and production is expected to begin later this year.

Landing the role of Mitchell will be a coup for Swift, who missed out on playing Eponine in the latest movie adaptation of Les Miserables. Swift flew to London to compete for the part, which eventually went to British actress Samantha Barks.

Sir Ben Kingsley in Talks to Play the Villain in IRON MAN 3

The release of The Avengers is now less than a month away, but Marvel is gearing up to start production on their first post-Avengers pic, Iron Man 3. Though little is known regarding the plot, Marvel and director Shane Black have apparently settled on their villain. Variety reports that Sir Ben Kingsley is now in final negotiations to take on the antagonist role in the third Iron Man pic. Though Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau had been setting up the Mandarin as the villain for Iron Man 3, insiders apparently denied that Kingsley would be playing the brilliant and wealthy Chinese scientist. So who exactly will he be playing?

Fans of the comic series have been hoping to see the Mandarin portrayed on the big screen, as the character is a classic villain from the source material who used ten alien-forged rings of power as weapons against his foes. Alas, it appears fans will have to wait a bit longer for the Mandarin to get his day in the sun. We recently learned that the plot of Iron Man 3 would involve nanobot technology that Tony Stark incorporates into his suit, with the conflict coming in the form of a nanobot virus.

Per Variety, Kingsley would play a role that revolves around the spreading of said virus. The storyline is loosely based on Warren Ellis’ Extremis series that focused on nanotechnology. Kingsley’s a swell actor and is definitely in line with the caliber of talent that Favreau brought to the first Iron Man with Jeff Bridges, so I think he’s a nice addition to the cast. It’s hard to say whether he’s right for the role, as we don’t really know what the role is. Production on the film is set to get underway in May in North Carolina, with Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Scarlett Johansson all reprising their roles from the previous films. Kingsley is currently filming the adaptation of Ender’s Game.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about Kingsley’s character soon, but in the meantime I’ll leave it to those more versed in Iron Man lore than me to speculate away in the comments. Iron Man 3 opens on May 3rd, 2013.

Aykroyd gives up on Murray team-up

Actor Dan Aykroyd has given up all hope of trying to persuade Bill Murray to reprise his Ghostbusters character for a third movie, insisting the film will have to be made without the funnyman.

Aykroyd, co-star Harold Ramis and director Ivan Reitman have been waiting for Murray to sign on for the sequel for over a year, but the frustrated Blues Brothers star now accepts the project will have to go ahead without him.

He tells The Telegraph, “It’s a surety that Bill Murray will not do the movie.”

He adds, “The studio, the director Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie. He doesn’t want to be involved. He’s got six kids, houses all over America. He golfs in these tournaments where they pay him to turn up and have a laugh. He’s into this life and living it.

“I know we’d have a lot of fun but I can’t be mad at him. He’s a friend first, a colleague second. We have a deep personal relationship that transcends business and he doesn’t want to know.”

McCartney set for ‘Mad Men’ cameo

Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney is reportedly set to make a cameo on hit U.S. TV show Mad Men.

Series producers had initially approached the British icon about using music from his latest album Kisses on the Bottom in the 1960s drama, but discussions soon led to talk of a guest appearance – and now McCartney’s agreed to film a walk-on part for an upcoming episode, according to Britain’s Daily Mirror.

A source says, “It’s a perfect, perfect fit.”

It is not known what McCartney’s cameo will entail, but he has also reportedly given producers permission for his tracks to be included in the series.

Britain’s The Sun reports, “It’s perfect timing because his new music suits the programme perfectly. Action in the show has now reached the Swinging Sixties. So it’s only right that the man who was pivotal to the era is involved in the show.”

Mel B fuels Spice Girls reunion rumours

Melanie Brown appears to have confirmed plans for an upcoming Spice Girls reunion after letting the news slip during an Australian TV interview.

The pop group split in 2000, but reformed in 2007 for a worldwide tour and fans are speculating that they will be getting back together to perform at the Opening Ceremony of the upcoming London Olympics.

However, when Brown was questioned about the Olympics rumours during an appearance on Aussie TV show Sunrise, she appeared to suggest the band would in fact be singing at a gig to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in the summer.

She told the host, “Well, we do have the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee coming up. Did I really say that?”

The concert will take place at Buckingham Palace in London on June 4.

’24’ movie scheduled to begin shooting this spring

PASADENA, California (AP) — Fans of Jack Bauer have something to look forward to. A movie based on the old Fox series “24” is scheduled to begin shooting this spring.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland said Sunday that he expects to go to work on the movie in late April or May. Sutherland played Bauer, the centerpiece on the pulse-quickening adventure series that ended its television run in 2010.

Even with the movie ahead of him, Sutherland is already working on a new Fox series. “Touch” features him as the father of a super-intelligent son able to understand odd connections in the world and even predict the future.

After portraying Bauer, a character who is often required to repress emotions, his new character Martin Bohm shows his feelings. Sutherland said he hadn’t expected to be doing a new TV series so soon, and wasn’t specifically looking for a character as different from Bauer as possible.

“The reason I wanted to do this is it really spoke to me,” he said.

Fox will offer a sneak preview of the show January 25th before it joins the network schedule in March.

‘Austin Powers’ musical coming?

Mike Myers’ movie franchise Austin Powers looks set to receive a musical makeover for a Broadway show, according to a U.S. report.

The funnyman first debuted the outlandish character in 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and went on to release two sequels – 1999’s The Spy Who Shagged Me and 2002’s Goldmember.

He’s currently working on a fourth installment, and now editors at New York Post’s gossip column PageSix reports he’s also considering creating a stage adaptation of the spy tales.

A source tells the publication, “Mike is in talks to turn Austin Powers into a musical stage show. Mike would be heavily involved in writing the show, but he will not star in it, even though he has quite a good singing voice.”