You Can Dance...and Sing, Too!
We hear that they were doing it anyway, but now audience members are actually going to be encouraged to sing and dance in the aisles while watching Mamma Mia!
Universal Pictures announced Tuesday that a sing-along version of the critically panned yet infectiously upbeat ABBA-fest will be unleashed in selected theaters Aug. 29.
Anything to drown out Pierce Brosnan, right?
Funny Bunny Anna Faris Talks Outfits, Food
Funnylady and current Playboy cover girl Anna Faris puts it all out there in House Bunny, as both the star and a producer. She talked to me recently about where she got the idea (a Playmate is ejected from the Mansion!), what she didn't like about the getups and how she stuck to her intense diet. Hit the clip to get the details.
Doomsday for Watchmen?
Who will watch Watchmen? Nobody, if 20th Century Fox gets its way.
After a major court victory, the studio has announced a bid to block the release of Warner Bros.' anticipated adaptation of the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Fox originally tried to develop the project more than a decade ago, but didn't manage to get the film off the drawing board. The studio claims Warners never properly acquired the rights to Watchmen, and, in a major twist, instead of seeking a share of the would-be blockbuster's box-office gross, Fox is seeking to kill the flick entirely before it unspools in theaters March 6.
Cue the agonized cries of fanboys everywhere.
Pitt, Damon, McAdams Front-Load Toronto Fest
Our neighbors to the north are readying one heck of a welcome wagon next month, when some of Hollywood's finest are set to hit the red carpet—and debut a movie or two—at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival.
Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Canada's own Rachel McAdams are among the latest crop of A-listers set to make the Gala scene during the fest, which runs Sept. 4-13.
Booked to appear, though not to premiere films, at the fest are Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Julian Schnabel who, along with several other Industry vets, will appear on the fest's Mavericks roster, giving informal talks throughout the week on their filmmaking experiences.
Rate-a-Trailer: Leo and Russell Tussle in Body of Lies
Looks like Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe are having the world's longest, most heated phone conversation all the way through the al-Qaida/spy thriller Body of Lies. This way intense trailer just landed online, and the Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) flick looks complex and exciting enough—but can these two guys just get off the phone already and pay attention to the terrorists or whatever?
What do you think? Is this one war-on-terror flick too many, or is that an Oscar-caliber beard on Leo's face? Sound off in the comments!
Dark Knight's Golden Silver Medal
Second place never looked so lofty.
The Dark Knight pushed past the original Star Wars Saturday for No. 2 among Hollywood's all-time moneymaking champs.
Elsewhere at the box office, the Ben Stiller-led Tropic Thunder rebounded from an underwhelming debut to post a $26 million Friday-Sunday take, tops for the weekend, per studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations.
Luke Wilson Thinks Jesus Rocks
Who's that old-time musician making a cameo as Jesus in Luke Wilson's new flick, Henry Pool is Here?
Eagles rocker Glenn Frey—well, sorta.
Lemme explain: Without giving too much away, an image of Jesus on the side of a house plays an important part in the movie, but when Wilson first got a look at it, he didn't exactly see the son of God...
Getting Naked With Mary-Louise Parker
One minute Demián Bichir never heard of Weeds, the next minute he's filming love scenes for the series with star Mary-Louise Parker.
"My girlfriend, she's a great fan of Weeds," Bichir tells me in his thick Mexican accent. "When she heard that I had this audition for that, she told me, 'You know what? This is it. This is one of the greatest shows ever!' "
Bichir—so famous in Latin America that he's known as the George Clooney of Mexico—made his Weeds debut this season playing the mayor of Tijuana, who becomes intimately involved with Parker's pot-dealing suburban mom, Nancy Botwin.
Harry Potter and the Unexpected Summer Premiere
He may have passed his O.W.L. exams, but Harry Potter is being held back.
Despite the recent Internet premiere of a certain highly anticipated trailer, Warner Bros. has announced that it's bumping the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to next summer.
The film, originally slated to unspool Nov. 21, won't be bewitching us until July 17, 2009.
Not that the shake-up should give Hogwarts fans any reason to worry that this latest installment in the billion-dollar franchise isn't up to snuff—studio heads say this is purely an economic decision, based on the fact that Potter No. 6 is so darn magical.
Brendan Fraser's Target Practice Cited in Gun Club Suit
Brendan Fraser had no problem whipping out the heavy artillery for the third Mummy movie. And that made some people uncomfortable.
Two former managers of a Burbank, Calif., shooting range have sued their ex-employer for wrongful termination, saying they were fired last summer after objecting to the after-hours use of leaded ammunition for special customers, when they were promised that they'd only be working with lead-free materials.
Fraser is not a party to the suit, but the plaintiffs cite an incident in July 2007 when a club exec allowed the actor "to utilize machine guns at the range using leaded ammunition" while training for his role in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, even after one of the plaintiffs explained to the studio's weapons handler that they only permitted unleaded ammo.
Exclusive
Star Trek Scoop: A Romulan Speaks!
Learning to speak a foreign language for a movie is one thing, but how about perfecting a made-up language from outer space?
Clifton Collins Jr. said that's exactly what he and Eric Bana had to do for J.J. Abrams' much-anticipated Star Trek movie.
“Me and Eric are the new Romulans,” Collins said of their space alien characters in the flick. "They had a linguist come in and invent Romulan!”
We caught up with Collins last night in downtown L.A. at a party for the limited-edition movie posters celebrity tattoo artist Mr. Cartoon has designed for the upcoming Robert De Niro and Al Pacino flick, Righteous Kill.
Want more about Star Trek? Read on to find out what else Collins revealed...
Quiet Debut for Tropic Thunder
This was supposed to be the weekend The Dark Knight loosened its bat grip on the box office.
But the movie math was being rethought after Tropic Thunder, the presumptive and still-potential No. 1 weekend movie, opened with a relatively quiet $6.5 million Wednesday, per Exhibitor Relations-compiled final figures.
"I think it's not going to be as big as people thought," Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Chad Hartigan said today of the Ben Stiller-directed comedy.

















