I don’t much care whether it’s Connery, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig or a penguin with a license, I just loves me some Bond. Be it “From Russia With Love” or “The Living Daylights” or the more recent “Goldeneye”, which finally put Pierce Brosnan (who EON had wanted since his days on “Remington Steele”) behind the wheel of the gadget-equipped Aston Martin, it gets no better than a couple of hours with the suave MI6 agent with a License to Kill and a car collection to make Jay Leno’s chin jizz.

Sam Mendes is directing the latest Bond flick, “Skyfall” and with a cast including latest 007 Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem and Albert Finney, it’s already shaping up to be a stand-out chapter.

The “American Beauty” helmer appears here in his first videoblog, talking about his relation with the Bond franchise and how he’s balancing camp and class on the “escapist” flick.

Now to warm up the DVD player and give “For Your Eyes Only” another spin…

Some of these guys did end up playing superheroes in other films, but on the whole these thesps missed their big shot at dancing around in latex undies on the big screen.

Here’s 15 actors who was this close to playing a superhero in a big-time comic-book movie at one time or another.

1. Michael J.Fox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Not widely-known, but before he cashed in his chips and returned to the safe and secure confines of sitcom television with “Spin City”,   Fox was approached by, er, Fox to appear in a feature film version about the horny blind guy. Considering this was around the time the studio produced Roger Corman’s ill-fated “Fantastic Four” movie, a movie that was essentially made just so Twentieth Century Fox wouldn’t lose the rights to the title, no surprise it didn’t come to fruition.  This wasn’t the first time the “Back to the Future” fave had been linked to a comic book project – in 1989 Warners suggested to director Tim Burton they splice Fox into “Batman” as, well, can you guess? It’s not too difficult to imagine who he would’ve played.

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Clark Kent/Superman

Thankfully Richard Donner knew better than to cast the Austrian Strongman as the All-American boy scout. The director of 1978′s seminal classic “Superman : The Movie” wanted an unknown and disregarded studio suggestions Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds and Robert Redford in favour of casting wonderful new-face Christopher Reeve. Arnold would later be considered for the role of Brainiac in a “Superman 5″ that never came to fruition.

3. William Baldwin as Bruce Wayne/Batman

Hot on the heels of “Backdraft”, rising newcomer Billy – Alec’s brother – was offered a shot at Gotham glory. Warners flirted with the idea of the young actor taking over for Michael Keaton as Batman in “Batman Forever”, the first of two Caped Crusader films with Joel Schumacher (who directed Baldwin in “Flatliners”) at the helm, Barbra Streisand’s hairdresser producing, and a pool of six-year-old pants-wetters in the scripting department. Baldwin told Batman-on-film.com, ”I was one of Joel Schumacher’s top choices when Val Kilmer wound up playing Batman. ‘Tim Burton and Michael Keaton had left, so Joel had the luxury of replacing Michael Keaton and he told me that his four choices – which was an eclectic, diverse array – were Daniel Day Lewis, Ralph Fiennes, Val Kilmer and me. I didn’t even know it at the time – he told me when I had a meeting with him later.” Baldwin missed out a second time too, when George Clooney got the same gig over him when “Batman & Robin” came around. “‘Schumacher said, “You were on my original short list with those other three actors, but the studio went with Val and this time I’d like to go with you.” And that Friday afternoon, I thought I was playing Batman – and then Monday morning, the headlines in the trades said that George Clooney had gotten the part. So apparently, I did actually come very close.”

4. Adam Brody as The Flash

The former “OC” star, most recently seen carrying a badge in both “Scream 4″ and “Cop Out”, was all set to play The Flash in a George Miller-directed film version of “Justice League of America”. Brody, Scott Porter, Armie Hammer, Teresa Palmer and other castmembers were told, after several weeks in Australia rehearsing and trying on their ‘super’ suits, that the film would no longer be going ahead. “How close did we come?” Brody said in an interview with MTV, “We were in Australia for some table reads and fittings and whatnot for a few weeks with George Miller and his camp, and that was a great experience. I don’t regret a second of it; I had a really good time and a lot of positive things came from that.”

5. Christopher Showerman as /Flash Gordon

He had the muscle and the acting ability to play the Daily Planet’s clumsiest reporter but what the “George of the Jungle 2″ star didn’t have was totally anonymity; unfortunately for the then-thirty something actor, that’s one thing “Superman Returns” director Bryan Singer wanted in his Superman – no baggage. SyFy didn’t care so much when they were casting for their new “Flash Gordon” series, so long as the actor embodied the part and impressed in a video test.  Showerman did but sadly, the slightly younger and much blonder Eric Johnson then entered through the door.

6. Tom Cruise as Tony Stark/Iron Man

Several years before Robert Downey Jr was sworn in as Stark Industries CEO, Tom Cruise chased the gig. The actor was set to produce a feature film version of the Marvel comics property through his production company but lost interest along the way. He told SciFi Wire,  ”they … came to me at a certain point, and you know, when I do something, I want to do it right. And, you know, if I commit to something, it has to be done in a way that I know it´s going to be something special. And that … as it was lining up, it just didn´t feel to me like it was going to work.”

7. Bill Murray as Bruce Wayne/Batman

Warner Bros were originally considering, instead of a dark Tim Burton version of the comic, a feature film in the vein of the original ’60s TV series. To help nail the camp tone of the film, the studio had asked Bill Murray – who had fronted “Caddyshack” for the shingle – to play their hammy hero. “I would have been a fine Batman,” Murray told MTV. “You know, there have been a number of Batmen. I like them… I thought Mike Keaton did a great job as Batman.”

8. Nicolas Cage as Clark Kent/Superman

We all know what happened here, right? Cage was set to play the Kryptonian flyboy in a feature called “Superman Lives” for Tim Burton. The screenplay, written by Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) with revisions by “Cape Fear” scribe Wesley Strick, would see the Man of Steel meeting his demise before being resurrected Christ-like to save the day. Cage is thankful the movie was canned at the 11th hour, saying Ghost Rider – the comic book character he’s currently playing on screens – is much more appropriate.

9. Channing Tatum as Steve Rogers/Captain America

The “Step Up” star was asked by Marvel to play their blue-suited Avenger in director Joe Johnston’s “Captain America : The First Avenger”. Tatum had bigger fish to fry it seemed, so the studio went to fellow junior muscle Chris Evans. Dunno who would’ve been better.

10.  Bradley Cooper as Hal Reynolds/The Green Lantern

He’s probably thanking his lucky stars he didn’t end up in the movie, but at one stage there the “A-Team” star wanted the emerald tights badly.  The much-more appropriate Ryan Reynolds bet Cooper to the “Green Lantern” lead, but Cooper accepts that it was his lame ‘Christian Bale impersonation’ that cost him the gig. “The director was like, “OK Bradley this time just be regular””, the actor – now an oft-rumoured candidate for a “Flash” movie – told The Tonight Show.

11. Dougray Scott as Logan/Wolverine

The “Mission : Impossible II” star was all set to play the sharp-nailed X-Man but the Tom Cruise sequel went into overtime – lengthy delays on that Sydney shoot – and the actor could no longer meet his commitment to be a part of the Bryan Singer film.  Scott was apparently a big-time “X-Men” comics fan so I dare say missing out on the gig is a sore subject with him. But c’mon, can you imagine Wolverine not played by Hugh Jackman!?

12.  Renee Zellweger as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman

Back when Peyton Reed was attached to direct 2005′s “Fantastic Four”, Zellweger – who had headlined Reed’s “Down with Love” – was the pick to play the hottest member of the foursome. When Reed departed the project – leaving Tim Story to make his name as a director on a high-profile project – so did Zellweger. Jessica Alba ultimately won the role.

13. Vin Diesel as Matt Murdock/Daredevil

Hot off “Saving Private Ryan”, in-demand newcomer Diesel had been asked whether or not he’d be keen to bring the blind crime-fighting lawyer to life on screen. Diesel, rather fortuitously, decided he liked the script for a cheap science-fictioner called “Pitch Black” more so and opted to do it instead of “Daredevil”. Ben Affleck, who had appeared with Diesel in “Boiler Room”, ultimately got the gig. And now, of course, David Slade is rebooting the franchise with everyone from Xavier Samuel (“A Few Best Men”) to Taylor Kitsch (“John Carter”) said to be in contention.

14.  Brooke Shields as Kara/Supergirl

When the producers of 1984′s “Supergirl” went out with their offers for the lead, “Blue Lagoon” babe Shields was atop of it. So why did the actress not end up in tights? Anything to do with the fact that the film’s budget was stripped, meaning Christopher Reeve’s Superman would no longer be a big part of the story, and the screenplay had been unfavourably changed? Nup. Producer Ilya Salkind told MaidofMight.net, “My father Alexander and I were partners and we had a big fight over the casting of SUPERGIRL. He wanted Brooke Shields. I was against Brooke Shields. I thought she was too famous and that we should use an unknown as we had previous.” Helen Slater, a fresh face, was cast.

15. Eddie Murphy as Britt Reid /The Green Hornet

Long before Seth Rogen got his version of the classic TV series up, Eddie Murphy wanted to make a “Green Hornet” movie.  Murphy had tried to steal the Black Betty once in the ’80s, and then again in the ’90s, when he got wind that Universal had snagged the rights. Someone obviously didn’t think someone renowned for comedies would work so well as Britt Reid. Hmmm..

Three cheers for Aussie boy Nash Edgerton!

The Blue tongued Aussie filmmaker and stuntman, whose credits include “The Square” and a rather ingenious bankcard commercial, is joining brother Joel in Kathryn Bigelow’s lip-wetting actioner about the pummeling of Osama Bin Laden.

Jennifer Ehle has also the joined the cast of the film, which so far includes a SAG-members like roster of talent including Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce and Edgar Ramirez.

The untitled flick, directed by “Hurt Locker” and “Point Break” helmer Bigelow, fixes on Navy SEAL Team 6′s mission to find and exterminate Bin Laden. N.Edgerton is like bro J.Edgerton playing a SEAL in the flick.

EW has more.

I hit the road for a while with my new film, and what happens? One of the Aint it Cool lads starts mixing with the undead! (insert film critic joke here).

A super-sized version of Movie Extra’s “Where Were You” – the hit Webfest entry by Edward Drake – is about to make love to your peepers.

Film’D Media and Drake Ex Pictures’ “Animals”, based on the short about a zombie epidemic, fixes on two estranged lovers coming together “to fight time, the infection and their own government to escape the Red Zone”.

The cast includes a formidable line-up of local talent, including Sweeny Young (“Terra Nova”, Melissa Howard (“Rush”); Jeremy Kewley (“Blue Heelers”), Reg Gorman (“The Cup”) and Scott Brennan (“Skithouse”). But like any good post-apocalyptic actioner (for instance, “Tomorrow When The War Began” had Colin Friels), there’s always a starry cameo – in this case, Drake has web critic and TV presenter Lee Zachariah (formerly ‘Latauro’ of Aint it Cool News and recently the host of a small-screened love-letter to film titled “The Bazura Project”), in his first major film role!

“Animals”, written by Drake and Joel Mitchell and produced by Drake, Mitchell and newcomer Hannah Brown, is utilizing a unique combination of Canon 5D MkII and Sony PMW-F3 cameras to realize the post-war world of the film with a sense of realism and immediacy not found using film stock. This marks the first time a major Australian feature film has been shot using this unique digital approach.

Shooting locales will include Tullamarine airport, just outside of Melbourne, and the Truganina Explosives Reserve (please don’t tell me Zachariah is going to be blown in two! I don’t know how Kate will feel about having to share the bed with two Lee’s!)

Hearing today that one of the “Lost” castaways might have washed up just south of the Bubba Gump in Times Square.

Actress Emilie de Ravin, known to TV viewers as the adorable ‘Claire’ on the late ratings-terminator “Lost”, may be continuing the Aussie takeover of “Americana”.

The actress, I hear, is in talks to play the daughter of fellow Aussie Anthony LaPaglia on the ABC drama.

The show, centering around fashion designer Robert Soulter (LaPaglia) and his family business, is infused with a heavy drip of a Aussie blood – aside from the “Balibo” star LaPaglia and the newly-announced de Ravin, local Natalie Mendoza is co-starring as LaPaglia’s former wife and acclaimed Oz filmmaker Phillip Noyce is directing the pilot. It was announced earlier today that Ken Olin would play LaPaglia’s brother on the series.

de Ravin comes from the same part of the country I do, in fact her parents are about 30 minutes down the road. Not that that’s the reason I fly the flag for this talented actresses career; I support it because she’s just divinely talented and I’ve enjoyed everything she’s done thus far. The Victorian’s big break stateside was on the WB series “Roswell” – she played Tess, the most mysterious of the closet extra-terrestrial clan that the show centered around. Then, proving she subscribes to the bible of versatility, de Ravin took on the role of the sweetheart mother-to-be on J.J Abrams’ castaway drama “Lost”. And I know it wasn’t widely-seen, but “Remember Me”, the flick de Ravin did with “Twilight” alum Robert Pattinson, was a terrific flick; She and Pattinson had terrific chemistry in it, but more so, the petite blonde really ‘brought it’ in the film’s powerful emotional scenes. And again, very different character that one. Can only assume her character here is apples to Claire’s oranges too.

Milo Ventimiglia (“Heroes”, “Rocky Balboa”) will star in Frank Darabont’s “L.A Noir” pilot. The series, set in the ’40s and ’50s and fixing on the relationship between the law and crooks, will also star Jon Bernthal. (Deadline)

“Raising Hope” star Shannon Woodward has signed on for “Adult World”, which stars Emma Roberts, John Cusack, and Evan Peters (Deadline).

Ken Olin (“Brothers & Sisters”) is playing Martin, a garment manufacturer on the new drama “Americana”, which – as exclusively reported by Moviehole – Anthony LaPaglia will headline. (THR)

New posters online for “Men in Black III”, Eddie Murphy’s “A Thousand Words”, Henry Cavill starrer “The Cold Light of Day”, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, Season 2 character posters for “Game of Thrones”,

NBC has announced a return date for “Community” : March 15 (The Futon Critic).

As previously rumoured, Michael Fassbender will star in Ridley Scott’s “The Counselor”, based on a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy. Brad Pitt, Jeremy Renner and Bradley Cooper have been mentioned as possibilities for the villain. (Deadline)

The cast of “The Hunger Games” will be doing a national mall tour. Click here to find out which cities they’re visiting. Meantime Screen Rant has character photos and an IMAX banner for the film.

Antje Traue (“Man of Steel”) will star in Warner’s “Seventh Son”, about “a teen who’s the seventh son of a seventh son, and learns about wizardry from a forbidding spook.” (Variety)

Moira Buffini is adapting Erin Morgenstern’s novel “Night Circus” for the big screen (THR).

Aussie Dichen Lachman (“Dollhouse”) has joined the cast of the new Shawn Ryan TV drama, “Last Resort” (THR).

Paramount is suing Mario Puzo’s son from publishing a literary sequel to “The Godfather”, fearing the book tarnishes the legacy of the famed franchise (THR)

The 10th annual DIY Film Festival has announced the winners of the “Best Film” and “Best Director” categories. Best film went to Actor/Writer/Director Flavio Parenti’s “Quantum Butterfly”; Rodolfo Novaes has been named Best Director for his film “Just In Time.” (DIY Film Festival)

Finally, a new TV spot for “The Hunger Games” has been released :

You might remember a year or so back getting wind of some blabbering concerning a “Tropic Thunder” spin-off that would concentrate on Tom Cruise’s hilariously realistic studio chief character, Les Grossman.
I personally didn’t think it’d still be on the cards for Cruise, if only because he’s back on top with the likes of “Mission : Impossible – Ghost Protocol” so can afford to shy away from the more riskier, self-deprecating roles until his share-price drops again. But also, he’s got so much on his plate. But boy am I happy to hear the project isn’t off.

The film’s screenwriter Michael Bacall (“21 Jump Street”) tells Collider that the Grossman project is still in the cards; he also revealed some details about it saying it’ll definitely come donning a very adult classification.

The hold-up is, not surprisingly, Cruise’s choca-bloc schedule.

“Paramount has the draft and I gather that they’re pretty happy with it. I think Tom Cruise probably has a lot of stuff on his plate right now (laughs) and I think it’ll be a schedule thing more than anything.”

Bacall says he’s fleshed out the character of Grossman and audiences will get a better insight into him than they did in the Ben Stiller pic.

“I wrote it for R because we had precedent with Tropic Thunder. It’s actually a pretty heartfelt story. I had a lot of meetings with Mr. Cruise and Mr. Stiller and it was crazy, it was a blast. I think we came up with some really fun stuff to give you an insight into who the guy is, so I’m hopeful that that’ll get up and running soon.”

I’m really excited to see what Bacall has written for Grossman, I loved his “21 Jump Street”, it’s truly one of the funnest films I’ve seen in a couple of years, particularly of that type, so here’s hoping the Cruise number delivers just as much bang for our buck.

Considering Cruise has about half-a-dozen films on his to-do list – including “One Shot”, “Oblivion”, “All You Need is Kill” and potential new “Top Gun” and “Mission : Impossible” sequels – it’ll likely be a couple of years before we see Grossman’s chubby ass shakin’ it again.

Meantime…

The ever-busy Guillermo Del Toro has etched up another addition to his elongated filmography.

The “Hellboy” helmer is producing a new animated film, “Day of the Dead” – nothing to do with the Romero Zombie flick apparently – for Reel FX.

Press release follows :

GUILLERMO DEL TORO JOINS WITH REEL FX TO PRODUCE EPIC ANIMATED ADVENTURE

DAY OF THE DEAD

Jorge R. Gutierrez To Direct Tent-pole Project Set for 2014 Release

Los Angeles, February 21, 2012 – Reel FX has teamed with Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Puss in Boots, Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth) to produce a groundbreaking, CG-animated film — working title, Day of the Dead. Del Toro will also present the film which is directed by Emmy Award winner Jorge R. Gutierrez (El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera). The film is being penned by Gutierrez and Emmy Award nominee Doug Langdale. Reel FX will produce alongside Aaron Berger and Carina Schulze of Chatrone, Inc. Day of the Dead is scheduled to be released in fall 2014.

The film is an action-packed, fully CG-animated picture, with a “Romeo and Juliet” style love story set against a Mexican “Day of the Dead” backdrop. It represents the first time in almost twenty years — since 1993’s Cronos — that del Toro has collaborated on a feature project set in Mexico. Music is also integral to the story; the film will feature an international roster of A-list recording artists performing new songs as well as re-imagined iconic songs. Reel FX’s Brad Booker brought Day of the Dead to the studio and is the development executive on the project.

“We’re thrilled to have Guillermo on board for Day of the Dead,” said Booker. “As individuals, Guillermo and Jorge share a cultural background and love for Mexican folklore, which brings a palpable authenticity to our project; however, as artists, each brings to the picture a vastly different aesthetic sensibility. Working together for the first time, we feel that they bring a truly unique balance to the style and story of the film.”

Notes del Toro, “I have admired Jorge’s work for a long time. He has a unique aesthetic and sense of humor. Day of the Dead offers a perfect opportunity for his sensibilities to shine. This is a colorful, vibrant, vital fable that utilizes the animation medium in an incredible way. The object of the tale is not only to talk about life but to dazzle us – jolt us- into living to the fullest. To join Reel FX, Cary Granat and Jorge in this adventure is a privilege and a joy.”

In addition to Day of the Dead, Reel FX has secured and is actively developing multiple CG-animated and effects-driven, live-action projects. Projects underway include an animated feature adaptation of the Dark Horse graphic novel, Beasts of Burden, produced by Andrew Adamson (Shrek) and Aron Warner; and Turkeys, the studio’s CG-animated comedy directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!). The studio also recently collaborated on the production of the 3D film Cirque du Soleil’s “Worlds Away,” written and directed by Andrew Adamson, and executive produced by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker James Cameron (Avatar). Cary Granat and Ed Jones served as producers on the project for Reel FX. Cirque du Soleil’s “Worlds Away” is currently in post-production and set to debut in late 2012 from Paramount Pictures.

One of my favourite actors, Dennis Quaid (“The Right Stuff”, “Wyatt Earp”, “Innerspace”, “D.O.A”, “Flesh & Bone”, “Postcards from the Edge”, “Frequency”… do I need to go own?!) is headed to TV.

Seemingly convinced the big studios have run out of use for him film-wise – and looking at that horrible D-grade flick he just did, “Beneath the Darkness”, where he plays a serial killer to the beat of a telemovie plot, he could be right! – Randy’s sane brother has accepted an offer to take his skills to the box.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Quaid and Michael Chiklis are in talks to front an untitled cowboy drama for CBS “based on the true story of Ralph Lamb, a rodeo cowboy-turned-longtime sheriff in Las Vegas. Quaid would star, with Chiklis playing opposite him as a Chicago mobster who moves to Vegas.”

Chiklis is coming off the recently-canned “No Ordinary Family”, while Quaid was the preacher in Craig Brewer’s unsuccessful but fun “Footloose” remake.

Greg Walker and Nicholas Pileggi are attached to write and executive produce along with James Mangold, the “3:10 to Yuma” helmer is also helming the pilot.

So long as it’s not “Las Vegas” or “The Defenders”, and actually has something different to say, I’ll be listening!

The first project under this agreement is the action thriller “Skyscraper”, based on an original idea by Mike Sobel. Walker will executive produce and star, with Neal Moritz’s Original Films producing. Walker’s most recent film with the studio, “Fast Five”, grossed over $630 million dollars at the worldwide box office, making it one of the biggest films in Universal’s history.

This spring, Walker will start production on “Fast & Furious 6″. Walker is also attached to star in and executive produce “Hours”, alongside producer Peter Safran’s, Safran Company. The thriller, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, is slated to begin production in April. Walker recently starred in and executive produced “Vehicle 19″, also with the Safran Company producing. Laguna Ridge Pictures is run by Walker, Brandon Birtell and manager Matt Luber.

Josh Duhamel finally got himself a new project to work on. Deadline is reporting that the “Transformers” actor, along with Dan Fogler (“Take Me Home Tonight”) are set to star in Kevin and Michael Goetz’s “Scenic Route”. Written by Kyle Killen, the film follows two former college buddies who go on a road trip and become stranded in the desert. As they begin to realize they might never be rescued, they begin to have heated fights, both emotionally and physically.

Killen is best known for writing 2009′s “The Beaver”, which starred Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson…and apparently nobody really watched but still got some good reviews here and there.

Killen also created the upcoming NBC series “Awake” which will premiere March 1. “Awake” follows a police detective who lives two alternating parallel lives, one with his wife and one with his son. The full episode can be seen here.

Duhamel was last seen in Garry Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve” and will next star alongside Rosario Dawson and Bruce Willis in “Fire with Fire”. Fogler meanwhile is currently co-directing and producing the film “Don Peyote” through his production company Studio 13, which he co-founded.

Win 1 of 5 copies of “Twin Peaks : Fire Walk With Me” on Blu-ray (Region B).

Open to local Aussie residents only.

The film :
I had just started working in radio when I went along to a screening of “Twin Peaks : Fire Walk With Me” at the Lumiere Theater in Melbourne in 2003.

It’d been some months since the film had been released in the states (and a good six months since the film’s premiere at the St. Kilda Film Festival – which I’d had to miss because I was completing my Year 12 exams), so the ‘bad word’ was already out there – and yet, as if having to feed my no-good habit, ran to the theatre on the first day to get my fix.
It left me intoxicated for days.

A fellow radio announcer and I (You’d all know him well – he’s still a regular on both TV and the wireless) were left scratching our heads – but smiled as we did. We also complained a lot about it – but continued to smile as we whined. And we questioned for days about the axing of Lara Flynn Boyle for Moira Kelly (As Donna) – but recurrently smiling. But you know what? Til this day, we both claim it’s one of our favourite movies – so go figure. I guess, for all of it’s bumfuckery, it’s still a magnificently alluring picture (not that many of it’s stars agree – I remember talking to musician and sometimes actor Chris Isaak about his role in the film once, backstage at a concert, and it was quite clear he wasn’t too fond of it – questioning whether the thing even had a plot).

Here’s a transcript of my review from radio in 1993 of “Twin Peaks : Fire Walk With Me” :

There’s a lot wrong with “Fire Walk With Me”. You could say it’s weird and incomprehensible because they’re the kind of films director David Lynch makes – and I will say, Mark Frost – who was busy filming his own movie “Storyville” at the time and so couldn’t fit this in – really should’ve been a part of it, because you really miss the humour of the series; too much of this thing is just ‘nuts for nuts sake’ – but in this case, I think it turned out the way it did because of studio interference.

Lynch decided to make a ”Twin Peaks” movie because, as he said in an interview, “I couldn’t get myself to leave the world of Twin Peaks. I was in love with the character of Laura Palmer and her contradictions: radiant on the surface but dying inside. I wanted to see her live, move and talk.” Tracing the events before the series pilot, “Fire Walk With Me” jets back to the last seven days of Laura Palmer (the brilliant Sheryl Lee), the murdered prom queen of the series. Out of control, hornier than ever and just begging for affliction, Palmer’s got herself mixed up in an interchanging reality where men find her alluring, she finds sex overpowering, and soul-sucking demon fiends possess those close to her, preparing for her looming death. Yep, Laura Palmer’s on a one-way trip to hell. Following the inexplicable disappearance of colleague, Agent Chet Desmond (Chris Isaak), pro snooper Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is called into action to head up an investigation to pick up where his predecessor left off. Seems a body floating in the water, belonging to a woman named Theresa Banks, leaves a path of clues and insight into revealing the man responsible for such gruesome acts.

Though Lynch was forced to make some drastic cuts to the film pre-release, “Fire Walk With Me” is still an intriguing and visually arresting film experience. Sheryl Lee gives an award-worthy performance as the demonized Laura Palmer, while there’s great (if even too brief) turns from the likes of Kyle MacLachlan (briefly reprising his role as agent Dale Cooper – – who, quite frankly, the film needed more of), Harry Dean Stanton, crooner Chris Isaak, Gary Bullock and a twitchy Kiefer Sutherland. The star of the show might be Ray Wise though, again brilliant as the maniacal Leland Palmer. The cinematography, music and production design is also excellent.

Lynch’s cut was several hours long (try 5!) – and included a heap more characters, as well as plot points – and that rubbed the studio – always keen to fit in as many sessions of a film a day it can – up the wrong way. New Line decided to cut it down to a couple of hours long – but not only that, cut the film in a way that didn’t make sense at all. If you’ve ever read the script for “Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me” you’ll know that in paper form, it does flow a lot better, and that the film skips over huge plot points. Worst of all, the structure is all off – it’s like someone switched reels 3 with 1 and just went with it. There’s a whole chunk of the story – Kiefer Sutherland’s character has a lot more to do, as does Dale Cooper; not to mention many of the residents of “Twin Peaks” like Big Ed and Sheriff Truman, who don’t even show up in this cut – missing from the finished film and to this day, fans are still petitioning the studio to let us see the movie the way it was meant to be seen. Also disappointing is that Lara Flynn Boyle didn’t return – due to the nude scenes required – to reprise her role as Laura’s best friend, Donna Haywood. Though her replacement Moira Kelly was good enough, it’s Boyle that we signified with the part and therefore, couldn’t get past the change of face. Fans weren’t impressed that Lynch didn’t resolve the series’ cliff-hanger ending (with Cooper’s doppelganger free in the real world, whilst the real one’s stuck in the Red Room) either.

BUT If you loved the show, you’ll like the movie. It’s nowhere near as good as the show – for abovementioned reasons – but it’s still an intriguing and visually arresting film experience. Sheryl Lee gives an award-worthy performance as the demonised Laura Palmer, whilst there’s great (if even too brief) turns from the likes of Kyle MacLachlan (briefly reprising his role as agent Dale Cooper – – who, quite frankly, the film needed more of), Harry Dean Stanton, crooner Chris Isaak, Gary Bullock and a twitchy Kiefer Sutherland. The star of the show might be Ray Wise though – again brilliant as the maniacal Leland Palmer. The cinematography, music and production design is also excellent.

Most of Lynch’s films are crazy, but they look great, sound great, have great performances in them and are so imaginative that you can’t resist them – this one is no exception. Jack-all of it makes sense, but it’s still strangely appealing and fans were thankful that at least they did get a movie version of their favourite TV series…. Something many series creators talk about, but rarely get to do.
And while on the subject of weird, I’m befuddled by the increasing interest in Toni Pearen – nevertheless here she is with her no.1 single, In Your Room.

I’ve had the pleasure of crossing paths with a few “Peaks” players over the years. I bumped into the lovely Madchen Amick (Shelley Johnson) when I was developing a movie at Warner Bros a few years ago (she was there shooting “E.R” from memory); After he retired I got in touch with Everett McGill (Big Ed Hurley) to see if he’d reconsider his stance on acting to play a role in a film I’d written; and over the years I’ve developed a friendship with Chris Mulkey (Hank Jennings), who I discovered was a reader of Moviehole.

So here we are, 20 years after the first airing of “Peaks” – a show that undoubtedly my favourite series of all time. As much as I love “The A-Team”, “Knight Rider”, “Spin City”, “Family Ties”, “The Fall Guy”…. I’m not still hung up on them like I am “Peaks”. It’s etched into my soul. Don’t think it’ll ever leave. But you know what? I think it’s driven my tastes. I think it’s partly responsible for my tendency to look beyond what’s going on in a film, and see the bigger picture -appreciate the frame that surrounds the picture, if you will. I’ve been reviewing films for about 15 years now… and I tell ya, I don’t think I’ve been as quite excited to attend a screening as I have been “The Twin Peaks Movie”. Sure, I was rapt to check out Tim Burton’s “Batman” at any advance screening in 1989, and the Saturday afternoon I checked out “Return of the Jedi” will forever be remembered, but mops were needed for “Peaks”. And still today, as far as I’m concerned, The Owls are Not What They Seem.

Oh, and I guess you know where my love of coffee comes from now?

The Blu-ray :

The critically-bitten prequel to the hit ’90s series is a highly anticipated title among Blu-ray enthusiasts and Lynchians. Madman’s Region B (Australia) release marks the first time the title has been available to buy in spiffy 1080p.

Some good extras on there, too!

Read more about the specs here.

I believe it needs some fix-up work on the page it currently resides on, so here’s a chat I had with “Fire Walk With Me” EP and writer Bob Engels for those that missed it first time around :

Q&A with Robert Engels

Bob Engels was a writer, co-producer and executive story editor on the series, and later wrote the film “Fire Walk With Me”. I had a wonderful chat with him earlier this week about both.

Caffeinated Clint : Did you think you’d be here, twenty years later, talking about ”Twin Peaks”?’

Bob Engels : It does seem to grow – in a weird way. I don’t look at it that much but for the 20th anniversary, we joined some friends and watched it. It was the first time I’d watched it all the way through in a long time. I thought it was wonderful. So many memories of all that stuff we dreamt up. For the most part, I thought it held up. It’s so flattering to hear people like yourself talking about all of its memorable scenes.

Caffeinated Clint : Both the series and the movie had many memorable moments.

Bob Engels : A neighbour of mine was just saying to me the other day that the scene in Fire Walk With Me, at the traffic stop, where the girls are screaming and yelling at each other over the noise, was terrifying. I think that’s what great movies are – moments that you remember. The saying is ‘you got five cool scenes, you got a movie’. The film held up much better. And it definitely seems to be increasing in popularity. It’s entering some kind of pantheon… it’s not cult, it’s just a movie that influences people. The seemingly non-linear narration – it’s not, it’s very linear; there is a plot – is also very appealing. I think those type of films make great movies. We live in a time when so many movies – movies good and bad – just, well… one scene pushes to the next scene. I think there’s a whole other way to watch movies and appreciate movies. A movie doesn’t have to be scenes pushing forward, it can be about theme or what’s being discussed in the movie – I think that’s why the popularity of Fire Walk With Me grows; it’s about this young girl who died, but it’s about so much other stuff. We’re still moving forward but there’s so many wonderful detours along the way.

Caffeinated Clint : I think that’s it. What works about ”Twin Peaks” – series and the film – is that you don’t just serve it up on a plate and say, ‘this is what’s on offer’. All these years later, people are still trying to figure out what went on in ”Twin Peaks”.

Bob Engels : Yep, Yep. In terms of the movie, David [Lynch] and I know what’s going on – but we don’t share it. That’s part of the reason why we don’t do commentary tracks on these DVDs – we want you to take away from it what you take away from it.

Caffeinated Clint : So, had a third season of ”Twin Peaks” happened, would you have explained what was going on? Or would you still have left things dangling?

Bob Engels : I don’t think so. My recollection is that there wasn’t really a plan for a third season. I think, as we were going through the second, that we knew we were toast. If we were on Showtime now, or HBO now, we would’ve done six years.

Caffeinated Clint : Definitely. I was talking to Gary Cole the other day about ”American Gothic” – another quirky, supernatural series of the ‘90s – and he said the same thing. Shows like ”Gothic” and ”Peaks” were just too ahead of their time.

Bob Engels : Yeah… Oh, Yeah.

Caffeinated Clint : So all those rumours about Audrey becoming pregnant in a Season 3 outline, and so on, are bogus? There was never an outline for a third season?

Bob Engels : Audrey survived. They all survived. that world of doppelgangers and a reality that’s just behind another reality, there can be another Audrey – that was the area I would’ve liked to have explored. And yeah I think it was Harley Peyton who thought up the idea of Audrey being pregnant. We discussed the idea of going ten-years forward… the screen would say ‘Ten Years Later’ and all the characters would be doing different things. But I think, in reality, once we saw that the numbers had dwindled, we knew we were done. I also did a show called Wiseguy at the same network, and I remember checking the ratings for it and we’d just gotten like a 13. I went into the boss’s office and said, ‘We’re gone aren’t we?’. And we were. Now, a ’13′ would get you the evening! They would give you Monday night if you could deliver a 13! But twenty years ago, with those numbers, we just knew we were done.

“Twin Peaks” also did benefit from TiVo.

Yeah. And these days, so many series are successful because the DVD comes out – say it’s the first season of 24 – so it gives people a chance that missed it on TV, to catch up with it, and then they’ll watch the series when they’ve caught up.

Caffeinated Clint : So when did you decide to do ”Fire Walk With Me”? As soon as you found out the show was a goner?

Bob Engels : David and I had been writing more together. When the season ended, he asked me to write something else with him. We were writing that, and then David came up with the idea of doing a Twin Peaks prequel. I think then he went back to CIBY-2000 (the production company), or they approached him, I can’t remember, and they went for it. We then had to ask ourselves, “What would the two weeks before Laura’s death be like?”. And then we just started to think of things that would happen in those two weeks. We just started listing things we’d like to do in it – ‘what would be a cool thing to have happen to each of these characters?’. We then tried to weave their stories into those two weeks. I’m sure a lot of the things we talked about were things that David and Mark Frost had talked about before – because you can’t just build these stories from scratch without having some kind of understanding of where they’ve come from or what they’ve gone through. At one point we were going to go back to the 1950′s.At one stage the script was 200 pages of stuff. What was different about writing this, as opposed to another project, was that we already knew the project was going to happen so we could essentially do whatever we wanted to do, and they’d make it. We had to whittle the script down due to length, budget considerations and making sure the main characters got a good share of screen time – but as I said, this was a unique situation in Hollywood because we knew the movie was going to get made regardless of what we wrote.

Caffeinated Clint : I’ve heard that Kyle MacLachlan wasn’t very keen to come back for the film?

Bob Engels : I think he was afraid to be typecast – he was so identified with that role. At one stage, as I recall, he was reluctant and we still had to go [on with the film] so we came up with the character of Chet Desmond (Chris Isaak’s character). But before we started shooting, Kyle had agreed to do it. And then we decided we’d keep both characters. David thought it’d work great. I think there’s a certain point in an actor’s career where, although they’re a little frightened they’ll be forever known as a certain character, they know that great parts are hard to come by – and to not let them go. I always think about Sean Connery’s advice to Christopher Reeve, ‘I would do Superman’s until they don’t want to see Superman anymore – and then I’d find out if I can act’. Connery, of course, played 007 in four of five Bond movies and it worked out for him. I think Kyle knew that it was such a great part, and David was so terrific with him, that he was always going to return to it.

Caffeinated Clint : I remember reading that original 200-page script and, if I recall correctly, there was a lot more with Dale Cooper and Sam Stanley in it.

Bob Engels : Yeah, I think so. I don’t remember, but I think so. Like I said, the script was long but… I think we had them on another case, and then that case led to this case.

Caffeinated Clint : So none of that stuff was filmed?

Bob Engels : No, I don’t think any of that was filmed. There was, however, probably another forty-minutes or so of stuff that was actually filmed that didn’t make it into the movie. Everybody in the series we wrote a part for. And then, as I recall, there was more with the David Bowie character. But everyone had their moment – we were very faithful, we brought everyone back. A lot of it was written and a lot of it was shot. When it was clear it was too long, David started to cut it down.

Caffeinated Clint : Do you think we will ever see these legendary deleted scenes?

Bob Engels : I don’t know if those scenes still exist or not. I’m not bullshitting here – I don’t know if they exist or not. I know they shot them, and I saw some of them, but I don’t know if they’re gone or if they’re somewhere or… my guess is that they’re gone or they would’ve turned up on the internet. A film house would’ve come across them by now.

Caffeinated Clint : The character that David Bowie’s character refers to ‘Judy from Seattle’. Is that supposed to be Josie’s sister?

Bob Engels : Hmmm, that’s a good question – I don’t know. That’s good though. And I think they’re probably all related, but to be perfectly honest I don’t remember.

Caffeinated Clint : And Annie, is she dead?

Bob Engels : No, I think she’s sort of in a dream state – which carries through the whole series and movie.

Caffeinated Clint : Now I have to thank you guys for something – in a round-a-bout way Twin Peaks brought my wife and I together. We were out with mutual friends. Weren’t speaking a lot to each. In fact, I was probably intimidated by her beauty. But then, for some god unknown reason, I mentioned Twin Peaks… and we hit it off. She was obsessed with the series. So was I. And spent the rest of the night discussing it.

Bob Engels : Ha! Ha! That’s fantastic! Congratulations. Wow! It has a great effect. It was some sort of lightning in a bottle. And it really has to do with both David and Mark Frost.

Caffeinated Clint : Would you ever like to return to ”Twin Peaks”?

Bob Engels : Oh sure. It’s a funny thing… I think if we could figure out a way to do it, I think everybody would have fun going back. You just don’t want to do Return to Mayberry. It’d be a miracle to get the whole group back together again but I think, all things being equal, they’d say ‘I’m in’. I certainly would.

Caffeinated Clint : I know David has said in interviews that ‘Twin Peaks is still there’ and that he still thinks of it, so that’s what makes me think one day he might..

Bob Engels : Completely. I get a call once every six months or so from someone asking, ‘What do you think about doing Twin Peaks again?’ but it’s not my call. If David and Mark are in, then yes.

Caffeinated Clint : So these people calling – are they fans? Studio execs?

Bob Engels : Both fans and the network. The network will come to me and say ‘What do you think about this?’ Thing is, all the writers and directors from the show have gone to have nice careers, and none of them will want to come back and do, as I said, Return to Mayberry. When people think of Twin Peaks they usually think of it as this show about a town full of weird people… and that it was quirky. But I think what they’re forgetting is that it also had a lot of heart. There was so much emotion to it. It’s a quirky town, sure, but there’s so much more in it – and it gets lost when people try to revisit that.

Caffeinated Clint : Did you watch ”Lost”?

Bob Engels : Yeah, from time to time, but not much. I liked it, but I certainly wasn’t a regular viewer, I certainly saw the last episode. It was wonderful.

Caffeinated Clint : I’d think that, with the success of a show like Lost, that there’d be definite movement on resurrecting ”Twin Peaks”. ”Lost” owes so much to ”Twin Peaks”.

Bob Engels : Yeah. In fact, someone sent me a long article in a London paper that compared the two. The article basically stated that ‘there’s no Lost without Twin Peaks’. That’s very flattering, but I don’t know. David and Mark certainly did something new on Television. And suddenly it was cool for a big time director to do Television. And the whole scape of guest stars they could attract. It became cool to do television if you were on a cool show. At the same time as we were doing that, Bill Murray went and did an episode of Square Pegs – the biggest comedy star in the universe was doing a sitcom! It was a little golden era of Television.

Caffeinated Clint : I’d love to see ”Fire Walk With Me” on Blu-ray. Assume it’s on the way?

Bob Engels : I would assume so. Any way you can release material, people are for it. Like, over the next ten years we will have five more versions of Avatar, right?

Caffeinated Clint : Indeed. I mean, I have like four different DVD copies – and let’s not even talk about the VHS’s – of ”Fire Walk With Me” on my shelf. Exactly the same film, just with different covers.

—-

HOW TO WIN : Thanks to Madman, we have 5 copies of Twin Peaks : Fire Walk With Me up for grabs on Blu-ray. To Win, just email us here with your name, address and the answer to this question : In our interview with Bob Engels (ABOVE) he says that the character of Annie isn’t dead but….

Good Luck!

 
—————————————————

A couple of international posters for “Piranha 3DD” starring Danielle Panabaker and, erm, Gary Busey and David Hasselhoff, have gobbled their way online.

The script is – so excuse my mockery of the Hoff and ‘Mr Joshua’ above – actually a lot of fun, there’s some great stuff in there. I think the heroine of this one, a young student who returns home to work at the water park her family runs, is a lot more relatable and, without sound too Penthouse, ‘rootable’ than the previous film’s protagonist. And it’ll be fun to see Christopher Lloyd back in the role of thew crazy (well, of course) fish-doc.

John Gulager (“Feast”) directs.

Thanks to ‘Bloody Disgusting‘, ‘Zone Fears‘ for the posters :

Having awoken from their spring break extravaganza at Lake Victoria, the swarm heads upstream where they look to make a meal out of Big Wet, a local water park where when it comes to fun, nobody does it wetter! Though they came to get wet, get loaded and get some, the staff and patrons get more than they bargained for when they must face the fiercest, most bloodthirsty piranhas yet. Lead by the strong-willed, studious Maddy and her friends, Barry and Kyle, the trio must dive in and take on these man-eating creatures using every ounce of their being…but can they be stopped? Shot in 3-D and feauturing Esquire Magazine’s “2011 Sexiest Woman Alive,” Katrina Bowden and the return of Christopher Lloyd, Paul Scheer and Ving Rhames alongside fresh bait Gary Busey and David Hasselhoff, the film that took an $80 Million bite out of the box office is back for more…only this time it has double the terror and double the D!

For those wondering what a ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ looks like, here’s a pic of Katrina :

Remember a few years back when McG was attached to direct the film that would become “Superman Returns”? (though at the time, McG’s movie had the working title “Flyby”)

Yeah?

Then you’ll also remember that most of the talk about that incarnation revolved around the filmmaker, and not, strangely enough, the actors he was considering for the main roles.

Sure, you might remember a couple of casting rumours – Ashton Kutcher as Superman, Rose Byrne as Lois Lane – but mostly you’ll remember McG’s time on ‘Superman’ because he was the guy that jumped ship from the film because the job would’ve required him to – get this – fly. The “Charlie’s Angels” helmer refuses to get into a plane- doesn’t matter how many vomit bags you’re supplying, he ain’t getting in that bird. So when Warners set their sights on Australia for the filming locale, it meant McG couldn’t direct – - his solo tugboat wouldn’t have arrived in time for the shoot.

The filmmaker, out plugging “This Mean’s War”, admits freely to The Playlist that he’s to blame for the movie not happening. McG says his fear of flying got him booted from the project and it was his personal “rock-bottom” moment.

Secondly, because we never heard much about who McG was looking at for Superman and his nemesis Lex Luthor, it’s interesting to hear who the filmmaker was considering for the main role and who was a ‘lock’ for the villain.

Henry Cavill may only be getting his shot at playing Superman now, thanks to Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel”, but it was McG who wanted him for the gig all those years ago.

“Ironically, we liked Henry Cavill a lot, but we hadn’t cast him yet”

But Lex Luthor, on the other hand, was cast.

“We had Robert Downey Jr. locked up to be Lex Luthor, which I think would have been extraordinary.”

Interesting choice. I’m sure he’d have done a fine job… but obviously Marvel would’ve then likely gone with another actor for their “Iron Man” movie as to not cross-pollinate the Marvel and DC film franchises. Or not. Still, Downey as Lex? Hmmm..

The Lex Luthor in the film would’ve been slightly different to the one we’ve seen on the cinema screen, or TV screen, before. He was actually Kryptonian, and wasn’t some corporate nut-job but a doctor employed by the C.I.A. Taking this into consideration, I guess it makes it easier to see how Downey would’ve worked.

I know there was some suggestion of Johnny Depp swayback playing Luthor, which might’ve been one of McG’s ideas, but again, not jumping through fire-rings to see that myself.

McG’s “Superman” script, you’ll recall, was written by a pre-”MI:3″ J.J Abrams. The piece was essentially a rejigged version of the origin tale – with the main details the same (though, for some reason, Abrams thought to make Jor-El a King and thus, Kal-El a Prince) and simply a couple of new fan-unfriendly twists. Kal-El is sent to Earth, the Kent’s find him and he meets Lois (though at college). The big bad was Ty-Zor, Kal-El’s cousin, who is hellbent on killing the Man of Steel (now a bonafide ‘Superman’ of the people) in line with a centuries-old civil war. It’s then Kyrptonian vs. Kyptonian. And.. well, hey! It doesn’t matter! We’ll never see it.

But back to Downey as Lex. Can you see it?

Though there’s no word on whether Rose Byrne or Patrick Wilson will reprise their roles, “Insidious 2″ will see the return of the paranormal investigator duo played by Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson.

You’ll recall that those two, Specs and Tucker, assisted spirit-communicator Elise (Lin Shaye) as she attempted to expunge the bad spites from a haunted house.

writer Whannell, who plays Specs, revealed his return in an interview with Dread Central.

“I can say that yes, my character will be seen in Insidious 2… It may probably bum a lot of people out, though, to hear this news. It’s part of the reason I don’t even read the internet message boards anymore; there was this hatred that spewed out from fans saying ‘I hated those guys! They sucked! They ruined the movie!’ so there will probably be a lot of people out there who will be disappointed to hear that the Specs and Tucker characters will be coming back. (laughs)”

They didn’t bother me.

Dustin Clare, terrific in “Underbelly” and currently impressing as Gannicuson “Spartacus”, is lending his muscle to “Sunday”, a new drama that begins principal photography today in Christchurch.

Clare and Camille Keenan (“30 Days of Night”) star in the film, which will be set in the hurting, earthquake-ravaged Christchurch community.

Here’s the synopsis :

Eve and Charlie are having a baby. The only problem is, they’re not together. After years of history and months of separation Charlie and Eve have one day to face each other and find their own way forward. Set in the earth quake ravaged city of Christchurch, New Zealand, SUNDAY is a story like the city, one of past devastation and a chance at rebuilding.

Director, producer and writer Michelle Joy Lloyd says, “While the film’s backdrop is a broken Christchurch city, there is a strong theme of hope and rebuilding. We want to shoot many of Christchurch’s undamaged areas, and attractions, and aim to showcase Christchurch as a city with unique potential. We all feel strongly about creating something special for Christchurch.”

Producer Mark Canton, who is lending his skill-base to the new Schwarzenegger-Stallone prison flick “The Tomb”, revealed on the ol’ wireless that Jim Caviezel has been cast in the film.

Caviezel, currently seen on TV’s “Persons of Interest” but known for such flicks as “The Passion of the Christ” and “Frequency”, would play the Prison Warden in the actioner, which sees prison designer Stallone having to escape – with the help of fellow inmate Schwarzenegger – one of the prisons he designed.

Canton (“300″) revealed the casting on The Matthew Aaron Show, noting that Caviezel had only been signed 24-hours before.

The prolific producer is giddy with excitement about teaming the action icons, saying though “The Expendables is fantastic” it’s great to have Stallone and Schwarzenegger going “mono e mono… like in Heat… or a movie of that quality.”

Mikael Hafstrom directs “The Tomb”.

Middle Earth and Tomb Raider survivors, respectively, Orlando Bloom and Djimon Hounsou are teaming for ”Zulu”, based on the novel by Caryl Férey.

Screen Daily says Frenchman Jérôme Salle is helming.

The pic tells of “two Cape Town police officers (Bloom, Honsou) who investigate the murder of a 18 year-old girl, the daughter of a member of the championship winning Sprikboks rugby team,” a job that ultimately “reveals ties to the country’s apartheid past.”

Production begins in July.

The late Whitney Houston, who tragically left earthly soil last week, was paid tribute to earlier today at a starry funeral that featured as many stars as it did tears.

Among those that attended the ceremony, Houston’s “Bodyguard” co-star Kevin Costner.

Now say what you will about Costner, be it about his choices of the past few years or private life, but the eulogy delivered by the Oscar Winning actor and filmmaker was nothing but class. Just as he does on the screen in films like “No Way Out”, “The Untouchables” and “Open Range”, Costner’s mere presence commands your attention here.

Enjoy the stories, appreciate dearly the sentiment.

Rest in Peace Ms Houston. I’m confident in saying you, and that voice of yours, will be dearly missed.

Feel like checking out a clip from Pascal’s pricey “Spider-Man” do-over?

Course you do!

Though nothing overly exciting, the following moment from Marc Webb’s attempt at freshening up the Spidey series does give us a good look at Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker – and in doing so, just how not only dorky the guy is, but how he clearly doesn’t belong mixing it up with rich-types like Gwen Stacy.

And I believe what happens after this scene is Parker, miffed that the doorman won’t let him up, ends up scaling the building to see the object of his affection.

Oh, and did you see who is playing the doorman? Yep, none other than ‘Lou’ from “Rescue Me”, John Scurti! Just love that guy!

And for those that missed them, here are the two trailers for the film that have been released :

Like many comic fans, the character of ‘Ghost Rider’ has been a favourite of Nicolas Cage for years. It was vital to the actor that, if he were going to play Johnny Blaze, he needed to make a film that his 8-year-old self would’ve begged Ma and Pa to sneak him into.

Cage tells Moviehole that he believes this second “Ghost Rider” movie, “Ghost Rider : The Spirit of Vengeance” delivers on all levels.

We know you’re into comics. Any faves?

Well, I’ve always liked the monsters, I felt bad for The Hulk, or I did when I was a child, I want to make it clear though, to clear up any misperception about my love of comic books, yes I’m loyal to them, like Rosebud in Citizen Kane, I love the influences on my childhood, but I’m not up at four in the morning with a stack of Spider-Man comics and a Green Lantern lantern with milk and cookies [Laughs].
Now you have graphic novels for adults, but Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, The Hulk and Batman the ones that were a little bit scary to look at and had an edge.

So Batman aside you were very much a Marvel guy?

I would say that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had the biggest effect on my childhood, yes.

But you were attached, many years ago, to play the title character in Tim Burton’s “Superman Lives”. Is there any regret in not playing Superman?

No. The only regret that I have is to have not worked with Tim Burton, I hope some day we will work together cause I know it will be special. As for that particular character I have no regrets, I think Ghost Rider is a far better match for me.

Where does playing Ghost Rider rank in terms of your favourite characters to play?

I felt I had more to say with it, Ghost Rider was a character that had an enormous impact on my childhood, I was eight when I discovered the Ghost Rider, infect I had the very first comic and I would stare at that picture, that cover and I couldn’t get my head around how something so terrifying to look at, who was infect using forces of evil could also be considered good. How was this a superhero? So it was like my fist philosophical awakening, here’s a character that’s literally inspired by Girta, this is a Faustian contract. But of course it’s really all just a metaphor, this movie isn’t sanctimonious at all, it’s about pop art, it’s about having fun, it’s about going along for the ride, but in my opinion the ‘deal with the devil’ happens everyday, everyone sells their soul everyday, it’s usually for love, you meet a lady or a gentleman and you think they love you but then you find out that it’s for a green card or money or to make you pay for what their parents did to them, that’s a deal with the devil. So for me that character and the movie is just a metaphor for life, and if you want to compete in this day and age where every other movie is a comic book movie you have to provide an alternative, and Ghost Rider does that.

As opposed to the first flick, you play Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze this time. Was that important to you?

Yes, that was an opportunity to experiment with movement, and with my state of mind to really believe I was this character. It was actually Brian Taylor that had the idea for me to do that, he was a big advocate of that and we were in New Orleans at the time, first thing I said was ‘can I wear a mask?’ so I wouldn’t feel totally ridiculous as I went on set to play this part. But there was also a writer called Brian Bates, who wrote the book ‘The Way of Weird’ and also ‘The Way of the Actor’ in there, he put forth the notion that all actor whether they know it or not come from a long distant past of Medicine Men and Shaman, and what these Shaman would do is go into an altered state of consciousness to try to find answers and collations to give to the village people, and in this day and age these people would be considered as psychotic. When you think about it, it was a way of channeling the imagination to talk with spirits to get answers to the village, so they would wear masks, they would gather objects that had magical properties.
So I thought ‘I’m dealing with a supernatural character, so why don’t I try some of that?’ So I’s paint my face with black and white so it looked like a skull, so it looked like some Afro-caribbean voodoo icon or a New Orleanean voodoo icon by the name of Baron Samedi or Baron Saturday who looks like a skeleton but very finely dressed, he’s the spirit of death but he’s also the spirit that loves children, he’s a very lusty voodoo icon. And I would paint my face and put black contact lenses in my eyes so that it looked more like a skull, and you couldn’t see any pupils or whites of the eyes, I would sew Egyptian artefacts into my costume and got some rocks that had alleged frequencies, and who knows if it works or not, the point is it stimulated my imagination to think I really was this character. I would walk onto set projecting an aura of horror and I would see fear in my co-stars, it was like oxygen to a fire and that led me to believe that I really was this spirit of vengeance. The problem is, if you have a Christmas party in Romania and shooting until two in the morning and you’re invited to the Christmas party and some schnapps is involved and you’re still in character, all hell can break loose and it did, I’m lucky I’m not in some Romanian prison.

What about your body language? How did you decide to move that way?

I remember Cobra snakes, cause at one point in my neighbourhood I had a couple of them, but my neighbours didn’t like it so I gave them to a Zoo, but I would study these Cobra’s and what they would do is move back and forth in a rhythmic motion and on the back of the snake was the pattern of an eye, like an occult eye, and it would try to hypnotise me and when it felt it had hypnotised me, it would strike. So I thought ‘why don’t the Ghost Rider move like that? With that sort of hypnotic, rhythmic motion?’ And then there was something else I saw in a Trent Reznor video, where he was levitating and revolving in circles, so I said ‘why don’t we have the Ghost Rider levitating and revolving in circles’ we called it “the compass” where he would find his next victim and then attack. So a lot of thought went into it and a lot of imagination and improvisation, sometimes I would talk in what I thought was a Wotanic, Norse dialog or some sort of Enochian angel speak or something, who knows what was coming out of me, but it was a fun experiment.

That wouldn’t have been possible on a mo-cap stage…

Yeah, exactly, what you see is really in camera.

And if getting about moving like that isn’t dangerous enough….did your partner warn you about taking care on that motorcycle!?

No, she loved it, she thought it looked great, she thought it was a very sexy motor cycle and wanted to have a ride on it. The truth is I was blessed to work with the Yamaha Gomez, I’m not a sponsor for Yamaha, I don’t have a contract but I have had my experience on several different motor cycles, and they’re the best because iIf you think of something that you want the bike to do it will happen, so I could go impossibly fast on the motor cycle and tell it to stop safely and it will. And I totally trusted that motor cycle and I never got hurt, now my insurance tells me I can’t ride a motor cycle in my own life, so I have to do it when I’m working. I’m legally unable to ride motor cycles.

Why’s that?

Because it’s a contract I have with my life insurance, so whenever I do a movie and I have the opportunity to ride a bike, I go for it.

You said you got in touch with your characters spiritual side in preparation for the movie, did you experience anything inexplicable, anything supernatural while filming?

I’m of the opinion that everything supernatural is in the imagination, and I had wonderful flights of fancy in my imagination whilst playing the Ghost Rider. I can’t say that anything outside of the realm of the natural occurred while filming the movie, no.

What scares you?

I think I will always be fearful of something happening to those I love, I don’t think that ever goes away. As far as what scared me as a child, Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera, I would see promotions on television as a little boy and when he took the mask off, his face really freaked me out. I remember running away from the television to try to avoid that, and of course now I love him for it. What does that say about my psychology? I love Lon Chaney for scaring me like that.

You seem to be drawn to the anti-hero roles, what is it about them that draws you to them and what do you think is in you for people to think you’re right for the role?

Well the anti-hero and probably largely to do with Ghost Rider and that influence and you’re right to point out in my filmography that I’m drawn to characters with an obstacle to overcome, whether it’s inside of them or outside of them, to me that’s drama. That’s the human experience, we all have that, but within that I’m attracted to characters that allow me to realise my most surrealist and abstract dreams. I believe in art synthesis, I think that acting should be no different from painting or music, that if you can get very outside the box or as critics like to call over the top in a Francis Bacon painting, why can’t you do that in a movie? But in order to do that as an actor who is only a collaborative effect in a movie, he’s not the director, you have to find characters that provide an engine that makes their behaviour make sense within the context of the movie. I’m attracted to characters like Terence in Bad Lieutenant; he’s high on cocaine, so I can make those sounds and moves, so I can do those crazy things with old ladies and handguns. In Ghost Rider you see my face morph into a skull and there’s pain in that, I can then do things like scraping at the door, scraping at the door and make those notes come to life. I have to look for characters that allow me to realise my abstract dreams in cinema.

You and Idris Elba had a good chemistry on screen, did you get the chance to work with him beforehand or did you just fool around on set?

No, we just hit it off, Idris is someone I consider a friend, we had some good conversations, I admired his film presence, he’s got a larger than life presence that was interesting to me, thank you for noticing, we just had a good connection.

Did you have any say in casting?

No, Mark and Brian did all of that, they have a great appreciation for all things cinema and they really know their movies, they’re the ones who did all the casting, from Christopher Lambert to Ciarán Hinds how brilliant to cast those two. Ciarán in the Rome series to think of him as the devil is very inspired. I was lucky to work with Violante and Johnny Whitworth, and Johnny Whitworth what can I say? He’s Johnny Whitworth, he’s full of surprises.

Brian and Mark tried to get you for ”Crank”, didn’t they?

I never heard about it, but I couldn’t imagine it without Statham in it, that’s his part, and he’s the only one that should be allowed to do that.

There’s a gonzo vibe to those guys, Brian and Mark, was that something that attracted you? Did you see something of yourself in their approach?

Yeah, absolutely, they’re daredevils, they’re literally risking their lives to entertain you. You have Neveldine with a camera in one hand and a motor cycle in the other on roller blades being pulled a long at sixty miles an hour to get a shot and at any moment he could break his neck or jumping off a cliff with a wire and a camera to collide with Idris’ stunt man, they’re the only guys doing it. There are a lot of poetic filmmakers out there, but only Mark and Brian are poetic and risking their lives, it’s like daredevil extreme sports filmmaking, you have to give them credit for that.

A lot of your filmography is rooted in fantasy, and there’s a nice montage in the film of how the devil could have been present in figures throughout history, is there any one in particular that you’d like to play with a bit of the devil in him?

Generally my instinct is to not do biographical movies, I want to build characters and not get locked into a certain part in history, for me, not that I wouldn’t, but I for me what’s interesting is creating that person and introducing you to them, I don’t want to play people that we know per se.

Going back to where you said we all make deals with the devil, looking back at you life have you ever made any?

Yeah, I’ve probably done it more than once, and I mean it metaphorically, which is the only way the devil really exists in my opinion, is in interactions with people who don’t walk the walk and talk the talk, people who act or talk one way and do another, those are the deals with the devil. I don’t see the devil as a horned, goateed guy with a fork in one hand, there to continuously stab me and send my soul to hell, I don’t see it that way.

you obviously do your own stunts in the film. Anything you won’t do?

I feel that I have to jump in when I’m doing a movie with a high level of risk, the odd thing you might notice with all the caffeine here on the table is that it calms me down. Caffeine makes me go the other way, it relaxes me, I can meet all of you and feel comfortable with all of you because I drank a Red Bull. If someone puts a bit of fire on me or asks me to drive extremely fast in a car chase, everything slows down, it gets my mind off of everything else, emotional, whatever baggage and it all goes away. So I like doing stunts. This movie though I knew it would be a whole other level of extremity, their motto is ‘if you broke a bone, that shot is going in the movie’. So it was like ‘ok this is different’ and my way of handling that was ‘give me more!’ with a director who likes to do a lot of takes, I’ll say gimme more, I’m not happy with twenty takes, let’s do forty. It’s my way of physiologically reversing it.

So have you been hurt?

I won’t mention the names of the movies, I’ve had two concussions, and what’s funny is that in American Football they say ‘if you’ve had two concussions, in six months you’re out of the game’ and I did have two concussions in six months on two movies working stunts for the same company but I won’t say which one. Thankfully I’m OK but one of them was ridiculous and should never had happened, where my head where the actor was in his moment and he grabbed my head and he smashed my head into the marble floor, and then I couldn’t speak right for a couple of days, and it was a bit dizzy for me, but I’m OK, it was an unfortunate accident, it wasn’t even a stunt or meant to be a stunt.

There’s a nice reference in the film where you mention the possibility of a bee sting and a child’s face, nice “Wicker Man” reference!

Oh, now I never thought of it that way, but I do have fantasies of doing another Wicker Man, having another go at it, but this time take it to Japan. Get your head around that one! Japan do great ghost stories, so we could do a ghost story about The Wicker Man.

Speaking of spooky, how was it filming in Romania?

The were a lot of wild, not wild but stray dogs everywhere, just running around, and I didn’t know where they came from or where they would go and then I would near them at night and it was impossible not to think of Bram Stoker and The Children of the Night howling at the moon as the dogs were barking. So Romania was a spooky, cool place to make the movie, and the fact that the alleged Vlad Tepes castle was there just added to the charm of that. To ride my motor cycle out there and to be around all those scary energies but beautiful, just stimulated me when making this kind of a movie.

Mark and Brian were obviously fun guys to work with, but tell me which other directors you’ve enjoyed working with?

I think they all had enormous effects on me, but because I started acting at such a young age, I started at fifteen, which makes me a child actor of sorts, I’ve been doing it for thirty three years which is hard to believe at this point but so be it. But because I started so young, I think some of the directors that I worked with at a young age my mind was still impressionable, still learning. So I would say [David] Lynch, [Martha] Coolidge on Valley Girl, yeah those two come to mind.

Do you find 3D a challenge to work with? Are you a fan?

I see 3D as a tool to be used when it suits the character or the story line, it’s not something you should use all the time, it’s just another paint brush to work with, and Ghost Rider is a character that matches well with 3D because the chain can go into the audience, the fire, the motor cycle and I wanted to see that with Spirit of Vengeance.

Idris Elba says you’re a normal, gracious down-to-earth bloke. True? Or is there a little bit of the lunatic we see on screen in there, too?

The thing is, well first off thank you Idris, The thing is I play characters, largely because of what I said earlier about realising my surrealist dreams in film acting but I’m not insane, Damon Macready in Kick-Ass is insane; he’s the one whose forty eight years old and dresses like Batman and goes out to seek vengeance, he’s the one that probably watched a lot of Adam West and tried to talk like him, that’s the character, that isn’t me, I don’t do that in my life, so that’s the idea – I’m attracted to characters that are different, that are flawed and I love them for it, that’s what interests me as a movie goer.

And this one obviously interested you, but you also seemed to be having fun. Is it important to you to have fun?

I think you have to have fun, and that’s going ace to what David Lynch told me, as one of my influences, it’s very important to have fun while making a movie because if you’re not then the audience won’t.
With Ghost Rider, that isn’t meant to be a sanctimonious thing that everyone’s going to forget about, it’s got to be fun, it’s got to make you want to have fun with it. It sounds trite and I probably said too much again, but it is essential.

There seems to be a link in the religious elements between “Ghost Rider” and one of your other pics, “Season of the Witch”. Just a coincidence or are you at a point in your life where religion is something you’re looking into and believing?

I believe that everybody has the right to believe in what they want to believe in, I think to knock anyone’s faith or religion is foolish whatever it may be; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, as for myself I’m a Seeker, I’m a big believer in science but I do think there is a time when reline and science intersect, and that’s the best way I can answer that.

You started a comic with your son Weston, “Voodoo Child”. Any more on the horizon? Maybe a film version of that one?

Well I don’t want to play any more comic book characters [myself] but Voodoo Child would be great to see as a television series or movie. I’ve tried and tried, and talked to different directors who seem interested and suddenly aren’t interested, so I don’t know where that one will land.

When Kyle Chandler opens his mouth, you listen. That’s likely why director Kathryn Bigelow has cast the “Friday Night Lights” and “Super 8″ actor as a CIA agent in her Hunt for Bin Laden movie.

The untitled pic, starring Joel Edgerton and Jason Clarke, fixes on Navy SEAL Team 6′s mission to take down Osama Bin Laden (Apparently Bigelow and writer Mark Boal somehow scored some inside information on the mission from some deep throats within).

The movie, due out in December, features a large ensemble – not unlike the one Bigelow grouped for “The Hurt Locker”; among the other cast members, Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez.

Emmy-winner Chandler recently wrapped on the Mark Wahlberg/Russell Crowe flick “Broken City”.

“John Carter” director Andrew Stanton is refuting claims that his expensive science-fiction blockbuster went over-budget (but isn’t denying it’s tracking pretty terribly). (THR)

Saad Siddiqui and Oded Fehr (“Sleeper Cell”) have boarded the Marisa Tomei/Joshua Jackson thriller “Inescapable”, about a Syrian expatriate’s search for his missing daughter. (THR)

“Rock of Ages” helmer Adam Shankman is in talks to helm the Warner Bros’ comedy “This is Where I Leave You”, about “four grown children who return to the house they grew up in and sit shiva with their mother after their father dies.” (THR)

Former “Friends” star Matthew Perry will play a charming Chicago attorney on several episodes of TV’s “The Good Wife” (THR)

Kevin Durand (“Robin Hood”) and Lukas Haas (“Contraband”) will star in ”Dark Was the Night”, which is set “in an isolated town where a logging company has disrupted the balance of life in the woods, causing an evil force to emerge.” Durand and Haas play a sheriff and his deputy, respectively. Jack Keller directs. (Heat Vision)

John Turturro may reunite with his “Transformers” director Michael Bay on “Pain and Gain”, about two bodybuilders (Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg) who kidnaps, tortures and leaves for a dead a businessman (Turturro). (Latino Review)

Dwight Yoakam has pulled out of Disney’s “The Lone Ranger”, citing a scheduling conflict (Deadline).

Mark Feuerstein (“What Women Want”) is joining Joss Whedon’s supernatural romance “In Your Eyes” (Variety)

A new still from “The Avengers” is online; this one features Agent Coulson and Thor.

Robert Pattinson says, despite Summit’s interest in continuing the “Twilight” franchise beyond “Breaking Dawn”, he won’t be returning to reprise the character of Edward Cullen. In short, the actor simply feels he’s probably “too old” to play a teenage-looking vampire. (Reuters)

Naomi Watts in a bikini? Yes please, the “Fair Game” actress is currently filming “The Grandmothers”, a controversial film which tells the story of two childhood friends and neighbours who end up falling for each others sons, in NSW.

Chris Pine, out plugging “This Mean’s War”, says of playing the Jack Ryan role in the upcoming Jack Bender-directed reboot of the Tom Clancy series that’s filmish beginnings lay with 1990′s “The Hunt for Red October” : “Not to take anything away from Harrison Ford or Alec Baldwin or Ben Affleck, but I don’t think Jack Ryan is as iconic as Captain Kirk – who was William Shatner. Jack Ryan has been inhabited now by many different guys – so I am not too nervous. The task ahead of us now is to make an international spy movie in the post-9/11 era. It’s not going to be a Cold War Jack Ryan.” (Adelaide Now)

John Leguizamo (“Moulin Rouge”) will star in the ABC comedy pilot “Only Falls And Horses”, which “chronicles the misadventures of two streetwise brothers, Del (Leguizamo) and Rodney, and their aging grandfather as they concoct outrageous, morally questionable get-rich-quick schemes in their quest to become millionaires. Del, the older brother, is the leader of the team. He is an overly confident bon vivant and con artist who trades crap out of the back of his car, cheerful and oblivious to the fact that he is a lowlife scamster”. (Deadline)

Former “Felicity” star Scott Speedman is headed back to TV; he’ll co-star on Don Cheadle’s new outing “Last Resort” (Deadline).

Nonso Anozie (”The Grey”) will play Sergeant Dap in the film version of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel ”Ender’s Game” (Deadline)

Franchise-chaser Robert Downey Jr has inked a deal with in-demand screenwriter Marc Guggenheim (“Green Lantern”) to pen his big-screen “Perry Mason” reboot.

Though Mason originated in the pages of the Erle Stanley Gardner books, the lawyer character claimed fame as the central character in a 1950′s/60′s TV series that starred Raymond Burr.

Downey’s film, set up at Warner where he and wife Susan will produce said offering, will be set in the 1930′s – as per the original books, says THR.

Guggenheim’s seemingly the right man for the job; not only has he worked on such legal series as “Eli Stone” and “The Practice”, but in a former life he was an attorney himself. He’s currently writing and executive-producing The CW’s superhero series “Arrow” – which, for the record, likely won’t have much to do with lawsuits or numbers.

Umpteen years after it was first announced, that “I Am Legend” follow-up is inching a bit closer.

THR says newcomer Arash Amel has been tapped to write the sequel to the 2007 hit, with Will Smith back onboard as both star and producer. Akiva Goldmsan, that hack that fucked the ‘Batman’ franchise before ruining Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” series with his awful screenplay adaptations, is producing.

As the trade states, It’s unclear how Smith’s character Robert Neville, the last surviving human in a New York overtaken by zombies, will figure into the story considering his character…. well, you know. Maybe he’s playing Rob’s twin brother, Bob?

Interesting that, all of a sudden, Smith’s so gung-ho for sequels – when he seemed to shy away from them for such a long time. I mean, the actor’s next flick is the unnecessary cash-cow “Men in Black III”, he’s also producing a sequel to “The Karate Kid” starring son Jaden, and he and Pete Berg are tinkering away on a “Hancock” sequel. Oh, and there’s those “Independence Day 2″ and “Bad Boys 3″ rumours. Has Smith simply come to the conclusion that money’s more important than merit these days? Or is simply caving in and accepting Hollywood’s tendency to only want to make sequels, films based on games and so on, that have a built-in audience? And if so, can we please get a ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ movie!?

Dean Parisot, who last directed 2005′s “Fun with Dick and Jane”, has been tapped to helm “Red 2″, says THR.

The sequel to the confusingly successful 2010 hitman actioner starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman as aging spies, was written by Erich and Jon Hoeber.

Production will begin once Willis wraps the next “Die Hard” flick.

Excited me isn’t young Skywalker; No, away from it this Jedi stay.

What about y’all?

Update : We can confirm that LaPaglia has accepted ABC’s offer to headline “Americana”, a new one-hour drama in which he plays a high-profile fashion designer. Places everybody! Places!

Previously….

Hearing today that big-time Aussie actor Anthony LaPaglia might be returning to the box with the starring role in the ABC pilot “Americana”.

LaPaglia, who for seven years played Jack Malone on “Without a Trace”, would play a New York-based fashion designer in the one-hour drama.

The show will be written and executive produced by Michael Seitzman, Mark Gordon and Nicholas Pepper, with Phillip Noyce helming the pilot.

LaPaglia recently wrapped Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti western “Django Unchained”; he will also be seen in Sarah Siegel-Magness’s upcoming indy “Long Time Gone” and P.J Hogan’s “Mental” starring Toni Collette. The Golden Globe winner’s many lauded credits include “Lantana”, “Looking for Alibrandi”, “Balibo” and “The Client”.

He mightn’t have gotten an “Expendables” jersey to wear – heck, he mightn’t have even wanted in on that game; maybe he’s got enough money without having to demote himself to a supporting player just yet – but Steven Seagal got his big smile-worthy moment of appreciation by fronting up for the hammy villain role in Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete”. In my opinion, that was the better flick anyway – and much more of an ’80s throwback than Stallone’s salute to the era.

I don’t know that “Machete” will ultimately do anything for Seagal’s career, but at least his projects are starting to sound a tad more interesting – so maybe it’s inspired him to chase better material.

In addition to the entertaining “True Justice”, the TV actioner that Seagal headlines, about to head into production on it’s second-season, Seagal’s got a couple of fun things in the works*. There’s speak of a Zero Mostel biopic, with Seagal playing the “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Producers” star, who history buffs will recall was blacklisted from acting in the ’50s. And also, “Maximum Conviction”,a new two-hander with him and Steve Austin as black-ops guys going up against terrorists in a prison. The movie, released by Anchor Bay, is rumoured to be getting – something rare for Seagal – a theatrical release.

(*And though there’s some whispers about Warner Bros relaunching the “Under Siege” franchise, I don’t believe Seagal is involved.)

We’ve been sent over some artwork and new stills from “Maximum Conviction” :

Former “Big Love” star Douglas Smith has joined the cast of Fox sequel “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters” starring Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario. In the Thor Freudenthal-directed sequel, Percy heads to the Bermuda Triangle. (Variety)

Brendan Fraser and Sienna Miller have boarded Justin Long’s directorial debut “A Case of You”. Long, who co-wrote the script, plays a ”young writer who tries to impress a girl he meets online with an embellished profile, but finds himself in a real mess when she falls for him and he has to keep up the act.” (Variety)

Josh Duhamel says he won’t be back for “Transformers 4″. In fact, says the actor, “I don’t think anybody’s doing it. I know Shia [LaBoeuf]‘s not doing it. I don’t think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it.” Meanwhile, Bad Ass Digest have some new details on the ‘reboot/sequel’, suggesting that the film – which follows on from “Dark of the Moon” – will be seen from the point-of-view of the Transformers.

Jennifer Aniston and Dennis Quaid have joined the cast of the “Jackie Brown” prequel, “The Switch”. Quaid plays a crooked real-estate developer whose wife, played by Aniston, is kidnapped. (Deadline)

The poster for the new science-fiction actioner “Lockout” starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace is online. (MTV)

Despite suggestions the film is tracking horribly, Andrew Stanton and Michael Chabon are already writing a sequel to next month’s “John Carter”. (Coming Soon)

An international trailer for “Prometheus”, which might just be my most-anticipated film of 2012, is online :

Colin Ferguson (“Eureka”) is doing Fox’s “Like Father”, a new sitcom from “Cougar Town” cap Bill Lawrence (THR)

NBC has released the first episode of the new supernatural series “Awake” starring Jason Isaacs online.

Kevin Costner will speak at his late “Bodyguard” co-star Whitney Houston’s funeral (Washington Post)

Dimension Films have announced that “Scary Movie 5″ won’t be coming out in April as expected; look for the spoof January 11, 2013 instead.

Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Zegers are aboard “The Colony”, “about a group of underground survivors after the next Ice Age fending off an invasion of feral cannibals.” (THR)

Finally today, a red-band trailer for “Wanderlust” which reunites “Object of Affection” co-stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Anniston :

Gael Garcia Bernal will play the masked vigilante Zorro in Fox’s new reboot of the swashbuckler classic, says Variety.

“Zorro Reborn” won’t be set in a classic Mexican setting, as per the other films featuring the sword-fighting hero, but rather a post apocalyptic-wasteland. And unlike the other incarnations of the character, Bernal’s version will be somewhat of an anti-hero – a revenge-seeking rebel that shrouds his phizog.

Bernal (“The Motorcycle Diaries”, “The King”) joins Glenn Gers, Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy on the project, who are scripting. No director has been announced as yet.

Sony, who produced the Antonio Banderas-starring “Zorro” movies, are also doing their own cinematic revamp of the character.