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Clint Eastwood To Direct J. Edgar Hoover Biopic From ‘Milk’ Screenwriter

Christopher Campbell — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:00:37 +0000

Having just gone through Oscar season with the semi-biopic "Invictus," which centered on Nelson Mandela, Clint Eastwood may be ready to tackle another big name in history: former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. According to Variety, the actor-turned-filmmaker is still merely considering boarding the project, which was penned by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Milk." Ron Howard and Brian Grazer will oversee through their Imagine Entertainment label, which also produced Eastwood's period drama "Changeling."

Hoover, a controversial figure who ran the bureau for nearly forty years, won't be as easy to cast as Mandela. There's not a single person perfectly fit for the part, like Morgan Freeman was for the South African leader. But if Eastwood does direct this biopic, I could maybe see Matt Damon, who co-starred in "Invictus" and leads Eastwood's next film, "Hereafter," in the role.

Of course, that might be a little weird after Damon starred as a major figure in Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd," about the history of the CIA. Plus I also think he's a little busy right now, starring in seemingly every movie connected with Steven Soderbergh ("Contagion") and "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass ("Green Zone").

Plenty of people have played Hoover, who has been depicted in film for more than 50 years now. Memorable actors to take on the role include Ernest Borgnine, Bob Hoskins, Kevin Dunn, Vincent Gardenia, Pat Hingle and Dorothi Fox, who played the FBI director as a large African-American woman in Woody Allen's "Bananas." Billy Crudup (also in "The Good Shepherd") was the most recent person to play him on the big screen, in last summer's "Public Enemies," though even before Imagine's full biopic goes before cameras we'll potentially see another portrayal in an upcoming crime film titled "No God, No Master."

Would you like to see Clint Eastwood direct this biopic? Who should be cast as J. Edgar Hoover?

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EXCLUSIVE: Three New ‘Kick-Ass’ Posters To Get You Set For Our SXSW Panel

Rick Marshall — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:30:48 +0000

FROM SPLASH PAGE: Back in January, we brought you the news that "Kick-Ass" will open this year's South By Southwest Film Festival, offering attendees the chance to screen the film well ahead of its April 16 release. Well, there's more to the story, folks.

While your friendly neighborhood Splash Page editor won't be making the trip to Austin this year, MTV Movies editor Joshua Horowitz is — and along with providing comprehensive coverage of the festival all week, he'll host the official "Kick-Ass" panel on Saturday, featuring the cast and creators of the film! Director Matthew Vaughn will be joined by "Kick-Ass" comic creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., as well as stars Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Moretz. So expect to see lots of "Kick-Ass" coverage throughout the show!

But that's not all — we also have your first look at three new "Kick-Ass" posters that will debut at the festival.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: New 'Kick-Ass' Poster And SXSW Panel Announcement!

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‘Eclipse’ Trailer Debuts, Prepare Yourself

Adam Rosenberg — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:11 +0000

Today is an important day for "Twilight" fans. The release of the debut trailer for "Eclipse" marks the start of the official run-up to the movie's June 30, 2010 release. You've all known it was coming of course. But the below video is your first motion picture proof that it actually exists. In three short months, you'll get to see exactly what "30 Days of Night" director David Slade did differently than his predecessors in this third chapter of Stephenie Meyer's vampire romance saga.

I won't pretend to be a Twilighter, but I do have a few observations to share on the new trailer. I find it interesting, though not terribly surprising, that this first look is focused mostly on the developing love triangle between Edward, Jacob and Bella. That is of course what longtime fans of the series are most interested in seeing.

That said, much has been made of Slade being in the director's chair, how his influence coupled with the content of the source material might make this the most broadly appealing "Twilight" movie yet. I haven't read the book myself, but as I understand it there's quite a bit of action in the third installment. My guess is that subsequent trailers and TV spots will focus more in that direction, on selling the movie to a wider male audience.

I'd like to hear what you think though. Does this trailer deliver for you? Do you think there's too much focus on the story, not enough on the eye candy that will draw in larger crowds? Or are you still too starry-eyed from the sight of a shirtless Taylor Lautner to care?

Unrelated question: what do you think of our first look at Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria?

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Rounding Up Corey Haim’s Final Projects

Larry Carroll — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:30:11 +0000

FROM MTV.COM: As fans, family and the Hollywood community continue to comprehend the news of Corey Haim's sudden death on Wednesday, details are emerging about some of the many projects the '80s icon had been working on. A peek at Haim's upcoming slate reveals plans for a big comeback, a desire to direct and an affinity for everything from slasher to political films.

Here's the latest information on Haim's rumored, finished and never-filmed projects, straight from the mouths of those who were working with him in his final days.

Continue reading Corey Haim's Final Films Reveal Late Actor's Comeback Plans

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Corey Haim: A Life In Photos

Adam Rosenberg — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:00:45 +0000

In lieu of a Daily TwitPic this morning, I've decided to highlight a little photo gallery we put together celebrating the life and career of the late actor Corey Haim. The "Lost Boys" star was found dead early yesterday morning at the too-young age of 38. For any troubles he had later in life, Haim made some significant contributions to pop culture over the course of his career, and we should remember him most for that. Just click the image below to check out our Corey Haim: A Life in Photos flipbook.

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‘The Runaways’ Vs. The Runaways: Comparing Cherry Bombs

Adam Rosenberg — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:30:46 +0000

Yesterday, MTV's Hollywood Crush ran an exclusive music video/trailer for the upcoming Kristen Stewart/Dakota Fanning-starring biopic about The Runaways, the all-girl 1970s rock group known for (among other things) their song "Cherry Bomb." The video, embedded below, is filled with clips from the movie, but the entire thing is set to the music of "Cherry Bomb" as performed by Stewart, Fanning et al.

Hit the jump for a video of the actual band performing the song. You'll notice that the costume designer for the movie really nailed it. The fictional Runaways do a solid job of filling in for the real ones in general. The only big difference I can see? Fanning's voice registers at a much higher pitch than the real-life Cherie Currie's does. Judge for yourself after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comment section below or @MTVMoviesBlog on Twitter.

08 The Runaways-Cherry Bomb
by didoudenice

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Quentin Tarantino Would Do ‘Kill Bill, Vol 1′ In 3-D If He Could Do It All Over Again

Adam Rosenberg — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:00:05 +0000

At Sunday's 82nd Annual Academy Awards show, one thing on a lot of people's minds was 3-D. The David v. Goliath showdown in the Best Picture category -- Kathryn Bigelow's tense, Iraq War-set soldiers story up against James Cameron's 'game-changing' 3-D sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" -- was in many ways a contest of new technology versus tried-and-true methods of filmmaking. "Locker" emerged victorious, but 3-D is nonetheless on the rise, with multiple studios prepping or converting their upcoming features into 2-D/3-D releases.

MTV's Josh Horowitz was on the red carpet before that race was decided, and he put the question to "Inglourious Basterds" filmmaker Quentin Tarantino: would he be interested in doing a "ginormous" 3-D blockbuster, a la "Avatar"?

The director replied that he wouldn't do "a ginormous 3-D movie," but he's a fan of the format. "Actually, one of my favorite movies [of 2009] was 'My Bloody Valentine 3-D,'" he said. "That was a great 3-D movie."

Tarantino turned serious when Josh asked about the possibility of us seeing a "Kill Bill 3-D." As you may know, there have been rumblings for awhile that he's considering a return to the world of Beatrix Kiddo and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.

He didn't take the bait and spill any of his thoughts about the next "Kill Bill" -- which would obviously need a different title since (spoiler alert?) Bill is dead -- but he did admit that he would have taken a different approach with the first movie.

"If I had to do 'Kill Bill' all over again I probably would do volume one in 3-D," he replied. What, no love for volume two? It certainly gets me wondering, what "Kill Bill" might have looked like in 3-D. One thing that Cameron's "Avatar" made clear is that the tech doesn't necessarily have to be used as a gimmick, to give the audience the impression that things are flying off the screen at them. Some of the finest moments on Pandora were simple landscape shot, in which 3-D functioned to add greater depth to what you were seeing.

Then again, The Bride's showdown with the Crazy 88 -- particularly her duel with Gogo Yubari and that chained weapon of hers -- would probably look pretty sweet in 3-D.

Do you think "Kill Bill, Vol 1" would have benefited from a 3-D release? Do you think it would be worth a conversion and theatrical re-release now?

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New ‘Robin Hood’ Trailer Is Filled With Dour Expressions, Dire Warnings

Adam Rosenberg — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:30:57 +0000

Weren't Robin Hood and his band of outlaws supposed to be "merry"? Ridley Scott's new take on "Robin Hood" looks like an entertaining action flick, but those Merry Men are nowhere to be seen in this latest trailer. Russell Crowe stars as the titular bandit, which suggests that this take on the story will fall closer to the Kevin Costner-starring "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Even that movie had some light-hearted merriment though; we'll see if Scott's own take follows suit soon enough, as "Robin Hood" hits theaters on May 14.

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Video: Prince of Persia trailers, clips posted

bmz — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:34:48 +0000

We’ve posted the latest trailers and clips to Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Directed by Mike Newell and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, the film comes to IMAX theaters May 28, 2010.

Teaser

Trailer

Watch more videos after the jump.

Super Bowl TV Spot

Journey Behind-The-Scenes: Creating An Epic

Journey Behind-The-Scenes: The Sands of Time

Journey Behind-The-Scenes: Dastan: The Prince of Persia

BMZ Film Page >>

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“The Actresses Are All Right”. Best Actress Next Year?

NATHANIEL R — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:59:00 +0000

The Oscar ceremony wrapped a mere 72 hours ago. If you look closely you can probably still see the impression of Sandra Bullock's grip on her Oscar. So it's time to start thinking about next year's Best Actress.

Would that I were kidding! Oh the life of the obsessive. Now, I won't be unveiling TFE's annual year-in-advance predictions until April 1st (April 1st... April Fools. cuz it's foolish, get it?) as is the tradition but that doesn't mean I haven't started thinking about them. And whether or not I'll do some sort of contest this year, despite the stumble last year. So I thought I'd share this brief chat I had with Guy Lodge (In Contention) as a sidebar during The Oscar Symposium a couple weeks ago.

Guy: All I'll say is that I'm CONVINCED I've seen two of next year's Best Actress nominees already.
Nathaniel: Which ones?
Guy: Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone and whichever of The Kids Are All Right ladies comes out on top.
Nathaniel: I can't believe I didn't see that [Winter's Bone] at Sundance. Dumb me.
Guy: Small distributor needs to push hard there but it's such a mammoth performance, plus she's young and hot... it was all people were talking about at Berlin.
Nathaniel: Young and Hot plus Mammoth = winner.

But I'm not convinced about The Kids Are All Right. I think there's so many things that could go wrong there, campaign wise.
Guy: Yeah, but I think they've done the right thing going for a summer release.
Nathaniel: I'm rooting for The Bening.
Guy: I prefer Moore.
Nathaniel: I don't know if you read my review but was I wrong in freaking out over that last closeup from Mia Wasikowska? She just killed me. What a perfect ending that was.
Guy: Yeah, she's terrific. Hopefully Alice doesn't damage her too much. Julianne's line reading of "But I shall return!" [edited to remove spoilers] ...just pitch-perfect coming timing. She's so rarely allowed to be that funny.
Nathaniel: I was in a weird mood when I saw it and Julianne in comedy always makes me tense. I loved the Joni Mitchell scene so much.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as "Nic & Jules" in The Kids Are All Right

Guy: Bening's scene on the couch reacting to [edited to remove spoilers] is one of the best things she's ever done.
Nathaniel: Yeah. And some of the little details were so funny and warm. Like the way they'd both stretch out their arms like one super-fusion mom. ha ha
Guy: I know! But that's the thing... they ARE one super-character. I think Focus needs to bite the bullet, accept that it's a two-lead Thelma & Louise type deal and let the votes fall where they may.
Nathaniel: I do too. Hey... maybe you've seen three of next year's Best Actress nominees already.
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