Corey Haim
(CBS) Canadian actor Corey Haim, known best for his role in the 1987 hit “The Lost Boys” has died, Los Angeles police confirmed Wednesday.
Officials said his death appears to have been accidental. Celebrity news Web site TMZ reports that, according to police sources, he died of an apparent overdose.
The 38-year-old actor had reportedly been struggling with drug addiction.
Alice Braga
This Friday at South by Southwest in Austin, Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal will debut the first footage from “Predators,” their updated take on the classic alien invasion horror franchise. The story takes place on the predators’ home planet, as a group of humans — including Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne and Topher Grace — are hunted for sport by the alien baddies.
With just days to go until SXSW, MTV News had a chance to chat with co-star Alice Braga about her role, Brody’s commitment to packing on muscle and the possibility that original franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a cameo in the film.
MTV News: So some footage is about to debut in Austin. Have you seen any of it yet?
Alice Braga: I haven’t seen. I saw it on set, some of the things. I’m really excited because it was a really cool project. We had a lot of fun on set. By what I’ve seen, the photography is beautiful. Gyula Pados is the [director of photography]. And Nimrod Antal is the director. But the predators, fans, they look really cool! I was really scared. The guys that play them, they’re really tall.
MTV News: In terms of special effects, how much is it going to be CGI and how much is going to be practical effects?
Braga: Should I answer that? They really nailed it out. I think it was nice that they took a long time to go back to make the Predators. Being the only girl in the film, I had a blast.
MTV News: Tell us about your character. She’s a special forces soldier?
Braga: She’s a girl from special forces. She’s a tough cookie. She’s a sniper. She jumps into the story and is trying to run for her life, which is classic “Predator” films.
MTV News: Such a great cast. We’re looking forward to seeing Adrien Brody in an action role, which people were a little skeptical about. What was he like on set in embodying that action hero?
Braga: He was amazing. When we arrived in Hawaii where we first started shooting the film, it was really interesting that he was willing to really get stronger because his body is naturally thin. All of us, we bonded together as a team. We were working out together. He really changed his body, which is great because he challenged himself to do something he hasn’t been doing. I think he’s done it for some films, but never as an action hero. I think he did a great job. I think people are going to be really impressed with his work. He’s a phenomenal actor and really a great person. And a great friend.
MTV News: What is it about Nimrod, in his approach on set and how he pulls everything together, that has everyone so excited?
Braga: He’s one of the nicest directors that I’ve worked with. He’s involved and passionate. Not only technically and with the crew, but with the actors. Nimrod is really passionate about action figures! He has a lot of toys in his office. He’s like a boy. Being directed by someone who loves that type of film is a blast. He feels like a kid on set telling that story. It’s great for the fans to have someone like him directing this film because he will bring what the fans want to see.
MTV News: Did Arnold Schwarzenegger show up on set? Are we gonna see that rumored cameo?
Braga: Who knows? You’re not gonna get it out of me!
Terry Gilliam
It’s no secret that Terry Gilliam has had a heck of time getting The Man Who Killed Don Quixote on film: There were shooting problems, his lead actor became ill, etc. But now it appears Gilliam, who directed the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus last year, might be revving up for another go at it.
Tony Grisoni, who had been co-writing the screenplay with Gilliam, told Dread Central about a recent encounter with the frequently-brilliant, oft-eccentric filmmaker:
“I ran into Terry the other day in London’s Oxford Street,” Grisoni said. “He was strangely calm. I said I really hoped we’d get ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ going this spring. He smiled in a reassuringly zen-like manner and said that of course we would. Then he drifted away into the crowds. I think he may have found god. Or some money.”
Last December, in interviews for his role in Crazy Heart, legendary actor Robert Duvall said he was in negotiations with Gilliam about playing Don Quixote de la Mancha. It’s not inconceivable that if Duvall were to come on-board, the money for the previously-troubled production would start flowing in. Maybe that’s what happened; or maybe Terry Gilliam has discovered the power of positive thinking. Who can be sure?
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote would revolve around an advertising executive who travels back and forth between 21st century London and 17th century La Mancha, where he is mistaken for Sancho Panza.
Kate Bosworth
By Mark Gorelord – GoreMaster News
Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda finally met Kate Bosworth last night at the Oscars, And she proclaimed, “I want her to do the ‘Barbarella’ sequel!”
Bosworth’s name joins a long list of ladies that have circled the project over the years, including Drew Barrymore, Sienna Miller, Erica Durance, and Rose McGowan.
The original Barbarella came out in 1968 and starred Jane Fonda as an intergalactic agent who is dispatched to apprehend a missing scientist whose latest handiwork threatens to bring evil back to the galaxy.
The ‘new’ Barbarella is scheduled to be released in 2012 and will be directed by Robert Luketic who directed Legally Blonde and Monster in Law
Liv Tyler
Partick Wilson
by Patrick Sauriol – CoronaComingAttractions.com
Liv Tyler (The Strangers) and Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) are the next two players cast in The Ledge, a thriller to come from writer-director Matthew Chapman. Already signed to the movie are Terrence Howard (Iron Man) and Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy).
The movie began filming yesterday in Baton Rouge and has one of those high concept story ideas that can be made on a lower budget. Hunnam plays a man who is standing on the high ledge of a building, preparing to jump off and kill himself. A cop (Howard) stands all those stories below, trying to calm him down and control the tense situation from becoming a tragedy. As the police officer gets to know the troubled man, he learns that the jumper believes that he has to step off the ledge by noon.
“As more and more films succumb to the visual wizardry of 3D, The Ledge explores the fourth dimension: the interior life of tortured souls hovering over the precipice of emotional nullity,” said one of the movie’s producers, Michael Mailer. “This film is the reason why I became an independent filmmaker and why I continue to suffer in the trenches of independent filmmaking.”
I hate seeing movie producers suffer in the trenches. Together we can bring about an end to this senselessness. Source(s) -The Hollywood Reporter
Amanda Seyfried
from Colin Boyd – GetTheBigPicture.net
It was rumored two or three weeks back, and now it’s confirmed by the actress herself. Amanda Seyfried, quickly hitting the fast track thanks to a variety of commercial or critical hits, told red carpet reporters she will play the lead in a new Leonardo DiCaprio-produced Little Red Riding Hood update.
Seyfried will team with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke for the new version – now called Red Riding Hood, I’m told – which is expected to fall somewhere between Twilight and a really dark, better, and more mature version of Twilight. The Hardwicke thing was rumored back in February, and make no mistake about it: Warner Bros. is absolutely tying this production to “the director of Twilight.”
No offense to Hardwicke, but that’s why you hire her at the moment. Warners and Leo could have their pick of filmmakers for this one, but Hardwicke not only delivers that brand name but can direct a movie that solidly hits the target audience, which has to be another key here. That’s the hope, anyway. She also does well with female characters, as both Bella Swan and her underrated Thirteen illustrate.
And with Seyfried proving her box office mettle with Dear John last month, you can expect more offers to come her way. There just aren’t a lot of women who can open movies and if you’re the girl who unexpectedly toppled Avatar…you win.
Liam Hemsworth
By James White – EmpireOnline.com Source – MTV News
It seems as though the Hemsworth family has done well breeding actors who can take on heroic roles. First Chris Hemsworth goes from Trek to Thor, and now his younger brother Liam is jumping aboard Arabian Nights.
Chuck Russell, who has been away from the director’s chair since The Scorpion King, has co-written and will helm the film, which follows a young commander dealing with the loss of his king in a bloody coup.
He doesn’t sit around and mope: he teams up with Sinbad, Ali Baba and the genie of the lamp to rescue queen Scheherazade.
It’ll be shot in 3D (but of course!) towards the end of this summer for a likely 2011 release.
In case you think this is the limit for the Hemsworth acting lineage, there’s also Luke, older than either Liam or Chris, who has appeared in Neighbours.
Christopher Lee
He sheds the blood of Saxon men.
Sir Christopher Lee has made a heavy metal album. “I have been metal for many years,” he says, “only I did not know about it.”
That’s not a joke, or an early April fool. The concept album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross, on which Lee sings and provides narration, has been put together by composer Marco Sabiu, who worked in the past with Ennio Morricone and Luciano Pavarotti (and, er, Kylie and Take That). According to the MySpace, Lee is backed by a 100-piece orchestra and choir, two (anonymous) metal bands, and accompanied by several “guest vocalists”.
It’s not his first album: the Shatner-ish Revelation (Silent Night, O Sole Mio, Wanderin’ Star…) came out in 2007, and if you’ve seen his star turn in The Return of Captain Invincible (or indeed The Wicker Man) you’ll be well aware of Lee’s rather lovely baritone. The loss of his barbershop trio (with Peter Bowles and Anthony Stewart Head) in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd is still a sad one.
Barney Burman surrounded by his alien creations
During the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, GoreMasters Friend Barney Burman, along with Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow, took home the Oscar for their work on Star Trek.
Barney Burman special effects makeup master and all around gore guru recently took a few moments to answer some GoreMaster questions. As the son of famed makeup artist Tom Burman, Barney has worked to create his own identity in the field.
Burman is a founding member of The Proteus Make-up FX Team (formerly Proteus FX) studio. As the artistic director and lead make-up artist of Proteus FX, Burman has accumulated an impressive credits list that includes the TV series Alias, and such films as Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006), Blades of Glory (2007), and Valkyrie (2008).
Read the entire interview of Barney Burman HERE
Mark Christiansen – ProVideoCoalition.com
Stranahan’s Open Letter one month later, on the eve of the Oscars
The decade of the twenty-teens is only a couple of months old – or hasn’t started yet – but already, there has been something of a shot heard ‘round the world for VFX artists, particularly those located in the U.S. Lee Stranahan’s Open Letter to James Cameron: Fairness for Visual Effects Artists has become a hot topic of discussion among VFX artists across the U.S. since its publication at Huffington Post one month ago.
Why? Because while visual effects has moved to the top of the list of what makes a bankable blockbuster movie, the artists and studios creating those effects find their own commercial viability compromised by many factors that make a career in visual effects one with high risks. And while other Hollywood-related creative professions from writing, directing and producing to cinematography right down to theatrical stage employees are typically members of unions which negotiate on their behalf, visual effects in particular and post-production in general has not united to negotiate better compensation and fairer treatment.
And that brings up another set of more complicated “Why?” questions. Why don’t the largest, most successful VFX studios turn a healthy profit? Why are visual effects artists routinely listed at or near the bottom of the end credits in a feature, with individual artists often not listed at all? And increasingly, why are individual artists finding themselves in dire personal straights, with health, financial and personal problems – destroyed relationships among them – while contributing the most in-demand set of skills to highly profitable projects?
There’s also the question of why James Cameron has been asked to answer for these grievances, when they are industry-wide and have been building for the past two decades, at least since ILM ushered in the CG animation era with Jurassic Park, yet failed to earn more than a low-single-digit percentage of the budget (let alone the astronomical earnings of that movie). Stranahan’s perception is that Cameron might be sympathetic to vfx artists and their hard work and plight working in “the best, most fun and high-tech sweatshops on earth.” Yet the complaint that “visual effects artists typically work with no contract, no paid vacation, no benefits, and often no paid overtime” can hardly be laid at the feet of one man, no matter how much his most recent success with Avatar relied on many of those same people.
In any case, the truly remarkable thing about Lee’s letter is the chord it seems to have struck among the visual effects community, one that for many reasons has been traditionally leery of unionization and collective bargaining. The questions of what it would take for a union to succeed and what specifically is at issue are complex, while overall the points that resonate seem to be relatively simple:
And those are just the top level issues – this leaves out questions of a globalized workforce and the “cool factor” of working in visual effects, both of which exert further downward pressure on wages, as does the roots of visual effects as a somewhat marginal craft practiced by those who have done it, first and foremost, for the love of doing it.
So when the Academy Awards ceremony is telecast on Sunday and James Cameron appears to reap more rewards from the most financially successful single piece of entertainment in history, few of use will hold our breath that he does anything significant on stage to address the complex problems of the visual effects industry – although even a small gesture in such a large forum creates big ripples. Meanwhile, even if the Oscars 2010 looks like business as usual, behind the scenes, a longstanding set of problems is coming to light.
While the world is waiting for the 82nd Academy Awards tonight (Sunday), not many knows that the first Oscars were held out of public eye and there was almost no razzmatazz about the ceremony.
Two hundred seventy people attended the May 16, 1929 dinner in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room; guest tickets cost $5. It was a long affair filled with speeches, but Academy President Douglas Fairbanks made quick work of handing out the statuettes, said Oscars.Org.
Cutting down the excitement, the awardees were already announced three months earlier.
However, the format was changed the very next year; the award winners’ names were not disclosed till the last hour. But the Academy used to send the list to the newspapers in advance to be published at 11pm on the Awards night.
This policy continued until 1940 when, much to the Academy’s consternation, the Los Angeles Times broke the embargo and published the names of the winners in its evening edition – which was readily available to guests arriving for the ceremony. That prompted the Academy in 1941 to adopt the sealed-envelope system still in use today, said the website.
Only 15 statuettes were presented for cinematic achievements in 1927 and 1928.
The first Best Actor winner was acclaimed German tragedian Emil Jannings, who had to return to Europe before the ceremony. The Academy granted his request to receive the trophy early, making his statuette the very first Academy Award ever presented.
The Academy continued to hand out the awards at banquets – held at the Ambassador and Biltmore hotels – until 1942, when increased attendance made these dinner ceremonies impractical. Starting with the 16th Oscar ceremony, which was held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the event has always been held at a theater, according to Oscar.Org.
In 1953, the first televised Oscar ceremony enabled millions throughout the United States and Canada to watch the proceedings.
Broadcasting in color began in 1966, affording home viewers a chance to fully experience the dazzling allure of the event.
Since 1969, the Oscar show has been broadcast internationally, now reaching movie fans in over 200 countries.
Academy Awards Milestones :
1st Awards – Recognizing the need to honor achievements that didn’t fit into fixed categories, the Academy presented two special awards at the very first ceremony in 1929: one to Warner Bros. for producing the pioneering talking picture “The Jazz Singer,” and one to Charles Chaplin for producing, directing, writing and starring in “The Circus.”
2nd Awards – The number of categories was reduced from 12 to seven: two for acting and one each for Outstanding Picture, Directing, Writing, Cinematography and Art Direction. Since then, the number of awards has slowly increased.
7th Awards – Film Editing, Music Scoring, and Song were added to the categories honoring films released in 1934. The year also brought the first write-in campaign, seeking to nominate Bette Davis for her performance in “Of Human Bondage.” (Academy rules now prohibit write-ins on the final ballot.) Also that year, the Academy retained the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse to tabulate the ballots and ensure the secrecy of the results. The firm, now called PricewaterhouseCoopers, continues to tabulate the voting to this day.
9th Awards – The first Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress Academy Awards are presented, for performances in films of 1936. The honors went to Walter Brennan for “Come and Get it” and Gale Sondergaard for “Anthony Adverse.”
10th Awards – The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award was presented for the first time at the ceremony held in 1938. The honor went to Darryl F. Zanuck.
12th Awards – Fred Sersen and E. H. Hansen of 20th Century Fox were the first winners of the Academy Award for Special Effects. They were honored for their work in the 1939 film “The Rains Came.”
14th Awards – In 1941, a documentary category appeared on the ballot for the first time.
20th Awards – The first special award to honor a foreign language motion picture was given in 1947 to the Italian film “Shoe-Sine.” Seven more special awards were presented before Foreign Language Film became an annual category in 1956.
21st Awards – Costume Design was added to the ballots for 1948.
25th Awards – For the first time, the Oscar presentation was televised. The NBC-TV and radio network carried the ceremony, honoring the films of 1952, live from Hollywood with Bob Hope as master of ceremonies, and from the NBC International Theatre in New York with Conrad Nagel as host.
29th Awards – The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established and Y. Frank Freeman was its first recipient.
36th Awards – The Special Effects Award was divided into Sound Effects and Special Visual Effects beginning with the honors for films released in 1963.
38th Awards – The Oscar ceremony in 1966 was the first to be televised in color.
41st Awards – The April 14, 1969, Oscar ceremony was the first major event held at the new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles County Music Center.
54th Awards – Makeup became an annual category, with Rick Baker winning for his work on the 1981 movie “An American Werewolf in London.” The Gordon E. Sawyer Award, recognizing technological contributions to the industry, was established.
74th Awards – The Animated Feature Film Award is added, with “Shrek” winning for 2001.
Director Craig Gillespie
DreamWorks first announced their “Fright Night” remake almost a year ago. Since then writer/producer Marti Noxon (“Mad Men,” “Buffy Vampire Slayer”) has been hired to pen the script. And now, LA Times has learned which director will likely bring the film to the big screen.
After considering three directors, the paper says that the studio is now in final negotiations with Craig Gillespie, the man behind the 2007 comedies “Lars and the Real Girl” and “Mr. Woodcock.”
The original “Fright Night,” written and directed by Tom Holland in 1985, was a horror comedy about a teenager who discovers that his neighbors are vampires. The new version will keep the comedy/horror tone while modernizing the effects.
Christa Campbell
Lawrence P. Raffel –FearNet.com
Scream Queen Christa Campbell (2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams) will join Nicolas Cage in Patrick Lussier & Todd Farmer’s (My Bloody Valentine 3D) Drive Angry for Nu Image/Millennium Films according to Shock Till You Drop.
In Drive Angry Cage stars as a ‘tough-as-nails man who speeds through the desert, hunting down the man who kidnapped his granddaughter and killed his daughter.’
Campbell joins previously announced cast members: Charlotte Ross, Billy Burke, Amber Heard, David Morse, William Fichtner, Simona Williams and genre fave Tom Atkins.
Shooting is scheduled to begin this month in Louisiana.
Guy Ritchie
By David Bentley – The Geek Files
Fresh from his successful reinvention of Sherlock Holmes for the the big screen, director Guy Ritchie is now said to be steering a King Arthur movie for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros has two Arthurian movies in development, both called Excalibur: one from a story treatment by Warren Ellis; and another that’s a remake of John Boorman’s 1981 classic to be directed by Bryan Singer.
Pajiba reports that Ritchie is attached to direct the Ellis version and that other writers will soon be hired to hone the treatment into a full screenplay.
The site says Ritchie’s possible take is “more in the tone of Star Wars”, and, as Ellis explained last year, his version “differs from the prior 751 King Arthur movies in many ways, but perhaps most obviously in that it is very specifically about the gathering of the Knights.” He added that Excalibur was just a ’shorthand’ name for the planned film, not necessarily its theatrical title.
Singer’s version is apparently proceeding at a slower pace. No scribes are attached and the director is working on the story for X-Men: First Class and next planning to direct a remake of Jack the Giant Killer.
Rachel Nichols
By Katey Rich – CinemaBlend.com
Rachel Nichols has already had a part in two major summer blockbusters, Star Trek and G.I. Joe, so why not make it a hat trick? Latino Review is reporting that Nichols has signed on to play Tamara in Conan the Barbarian, a martial arts master who serves as the Queen’s bodyguard in Conan’s world.
Actually, I’ll just give you the casting breakdown they provided and let you take it from there. Nichols is building a reputation as “that hot girl who is convincing at action,” so this role makes sense as continuing the trend. Will this be a part that actually helps her break out past her male co-stars, though?
Here is a description of the role: Tamara is 18 to 24 years old, Caucasian or Middle Eastern, open to all ethnicities; beautiful, studious, correct, a novitiate of a Greek influenced monastery. A master of martial arts, she has been trained to be the Queen’s servant, bodyguard and best friend. She and many other female bodyguards to the queen have been in hiding most of their lives because of the curse of Acheron, which would take the queen’s life to bring almost immortal power to its king. When Khalar Singh, a powerful warlord with ambitions to become the king of Acheron, storms the monastery and captures all of the novitiates, she is separated from Ilira, the one she must protect. With all of her strength and will, Tamara is determined to find and rescue her. She finds herself in league with Conan because of a mutual need to find Khalar Singh. She is not in the least intimidated by Conan’s size or grim demeanor and their alliance eventually blossoms into something that surprises them both…
Olivia Munn
Rumor has it, the role that is played by Olivia Munn in upcoming “Iron Man 2″ has been revealed. According to FanboyWEB, the 29-year-old beauty, who has been cast for the superhero film, is said to portray Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch.
The character that is reportedly tackled by Munn first appeared in X-Men #4 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. She is a regular team member of The Avengers. If the news by FanboyWEB is true, it is possible that the actress will also be featured in “The Avengers” movie.
However, IMBD has different information about Munn’s role. On the list of “Iron Man 2″ cast, the site mentions that the TV personality is playing Melina Vostokoff aka Iron Maiden, who is known as the enemy of Black Widow.
“Iron Man 2″ will see Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow returning to reprise their roles as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. The film additionally has Scarlett Johansson playing Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff and Mickey Rourke starring as Whiplash/Ivan Vanko. This “Iron Man” sequel will hit U.S. theaters on May 7.
Scarlett Johansson
Benicio Del Toro
By Perri Nemiroff – CinemaBlend.com
Jack Garcia was a Cuban-born FBI agent. He was also an investor in a strip club, a jewel thief and an extortionist. No, he wasn’t moonlighting to make some extra cash; he was in the business of undercover investigation. He participated in 100 covert operations, but none could compare to the degree of dedication required to infiltrate the Gambino Crime family. Under the alias Jack Falcone, Garcia successfully took down 39 members of the infamous New York crime organization.
According to Deadline Hollywood, a movie about Garcia is in the works and it’ll star Benicio del Toro. The project will reunite del Toro with his Che writer and director, Peter Buchman and Steven Soderbergh. Buchman penned the script and Soderbergh, who’s currently fishing for a director, is on board to produce. The duo originally had Making Jack Falcone set up at Paramount, but DH predicts the studio will soon let it go.
I don’t quite understand why they would ditch the project, considering this seems like a fantastic filmmaking idea with a fascinating character at its core. Garcia had everything working against him. At 6’4” and 390 lbs, blending in wasn’t really an option and even being of Italian lineage, his Cuban heritage posed a major problem. With help from his handler, Garcia went through ‘The Mob School’ and came out extremely knowledgeable of every little nuance down to the broccoli band wallet. Thanks to this training he was offered the mafia’s highest honor, becoming a made man, just before the FBI closed the investigation.
So, is del Toro capable of acting as well as the man he’s trying to portray? He might need to put on some pounds in order to make it truly convincing, but if any actor can do it, it’s del Toro. The guy’s played everything from Samoan Attorney Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to American actor Lawrence Talbot in the recently released The Wolfman.
From Shocktilyoudrop Source(s) The Hollywood Reporter
Matthew Greenberg
Matthew Greenberg, who wrote the Stephen King adaptation 1408 has been tapped to script the new remake of Pet Sematary for Paramount.
Published in 1983, King’s tale centered on a family that trades the city life for the country life in Maine, then discovers that they have moved near a pet cemetery that rests on an ancient burial ground. When the husband’s toddler son is killed in an auto accident, the father takes the boy’s body to the cemetery, where it is resurrected in demonic form.
Paramount brought the book to life in 1989, with a feature version adapted by King that starred Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby and Fred Gwynne.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schneider are producing the update.
Scott Caan
Ocean’s Eleven’s Scott Caan has signed on for the role of Danny “Danno” Williams on CBS’ updated remake of Hawaii Five-O.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new Hawaii Five-O hails from CBS Studios, Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and CSI: NY executive producer Peter Lenkov, and centers on an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police headed by Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin).
Williams, who was played by James MacArthur on the original series, is a New Jersey cop who has recently undergone an acrimonious divorce and has transferred to Hawaii to be near his 7-year-old daughter. Forced to partner with McGarrett, Danno is initially leery of their association — but as he grows more familiar with his maverick new boss, he begins to appreciate the opportunity to work with McGarrett.
The character’s name was immortalized by McGarrett’s catchphrase, “Book ‘em, Danno!” which closed most episodes of the original series and is expected to live on on the new show.
Caan will be a guest star on the Hawaii Five-O pilot because of his commitment to HBO’s Entourage.”
He will then segue to Hawaii Five-O as a regular if the pilot is picked up to series.
director Francis Lawrence
by Russ Fischer – SlashFilm.com
The story of Marco Polo has been brought to the screen before and will probably be adapted many times in the future. The next film about the explorer could be directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) as Warner Bros. has attached the director to a project based on a pitch by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who will write a script based on Polo’s adventures.
Marco Polo
The key word here is likely adventure. Variety says the Cooper/Collage project is “seen as a fantasy-adventure rather than a biopic,” which is actually fairly appropriate given that the authorship of some of Polo’s tales is in doubt. Cooper told the trade “We see this as something that takes place in the Orient of our imagination amid the cultural clash of the East and the West.” Hey, the fictionalized take on Polo worked for Neil Gaiman, so why not for these guys?
The Venetian Marco Polo spent 24 years journeying to and residing in the court of Kublai Khan, who ruled the Mongol Empire in China. When he returned to Venice he found the city at war with Genoa, and he was imprisoned in a Genoese cell. There he dictated his adventures to another inmate (who likely embellished Polo’s stories and added his own) and they were eventually published in various editions and under a number of titles, including The Travels of Marco Polo and Il Milione.
While Marco Polo may have appropriated other travelers’ tales as his own, his book became the first major representation of Asian culture in Europe. He and his family were hardly the first to go to China, but the book allowed tales of China to spread.
