Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
For those of you who don’t know who Alex Rider is, he is a teen spy who is insanely popular with the school children in England. This movie stars 16-year-old Alex Pettyfe, EAlicia Silverstone, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy, Stephen Fry, Sophie Okonedo, Mickey Rourke, Robbie Coltrane, Missi Pyle, and Andy Serkis. The author and scren writer for the movie, Anthony Horowitz, has the sixth sequel of the series coming out soon and you might wonder if they will make a movie out of all the books (like Harry Potter).
Trivia about the movie:
Alex Pettyfer was chosen from five hundred other boys for the coveted lead role of Alex Rider.
The Alex Rider books have sold eight million copies across the world and been translated into twenty-eight languages.
Because Alex Pettyfer was only 15 at the time, he was not allowed to drive the car in the car chase mentioned in the book, so it was instead converted to a horse chase so as the chase could still take place.
Anthony Horowitz, author of the book, recommended Alex Pettyfer to play Alex Rider after seeing his impressive performance in the lead role in the British TV drama Tom Brown’s Schooldays (2005) (TV).
The one movie Bush would not want to see
“Death of a President,” which focusses on a fictionalized assassination of George W. Bush, was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie was received well and the audience applauded at the end and several more times during a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers.
Director Gabriel Range does not believe this movie will encourage anyone to attempt an assasination. He said “I think the film makes it clear it would really be a horrific event. There have been plenty of fictional films about assassinations, so this is not the first in that sense,”. You better be right Gabriel.
“Death of a President” shows a sniper shooting of Bush on Oct. 19, 2007, during a trip to Chicago for a speech. The movie includes interviews with actors playing Secret Service and FBI officials, White House aides, journalists and anti-war activists, along with suspects and their relatives.
Newmarket Films, who also distributed “The Passion of the Christ“, have bought the rights over the U.S distribution for this movie for only $1 million. Guess they couldnt find any other buyers in the states.
Return of the Gladiator?
Ridley Scott is planning to make a sequel to Gladiator. “The only problem is Russell Crowe was such a powerful presence and, of course, Maximus dies at the end. We’ll have to get Russell back somehow.”
He did give it a lot of thought and then gave up the project in 2003 when he couldnt think of a way to get Russell Crowe back into Gladiator 2. Well, there is an easy solution and rememeber, you read it here first at SuggestAMovie. Make a prequel Scott!!!! It would be interesting to see how Maximus became Maximus and you will get your wish of having Russell Crowe back into your movie. They would probably have to drop Djimon Hounsou though and that would be sad. Djimon Hounsou played a slave named Juba in the first movie.
Daniel Craig and Nicole in “The Golden Compass”
Daniel Craig has just signed on to star along with Nicole Kidman and young Dakota Richards in “His Dark Materials” trilogy, which is based on the series by Philip Pullman. The trilogy is set to challenge “Narnia” and “Harry Potter” in the lucrative children’s fantasy film genre. Craig will play Lord Asriel and Nicole Kidman plays the villainous and glamorous Mrs. Coulter in “The Golden Compass” which will directed by Chris Weitz.
“The Golden Compass” (originally titled “The Northern Lights“) is the first of three books in Pullman’s series, along with “The Subtle Knife” and “The Amber Spyglass“.
“The Golden Compass” revolves around a young girl who travels to the far north to save her best friend. Along the way she encounters shape-shifting creatures, witches, and a variety of otherworldly characters in parallel universes.
Jim does not like to ‘Carrey’ on
If you are a Jim Carrey fan and if you have been keeping a tab on all the movies he has made in the past, you will notice that all the sequels he refuses to act in, Bomb.
For Example,
Dumb and Dumber - $246,200,000 (Worldwide)
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd - $39m (worldwide)
The Mask - $320,900,000 (Worldwide)
The son of the mask - ($57m worldwide)
If you were a betting person, you could bet that Ace Ventura 3 will have the same fate. We also have Evan Almighty coming up but Steve Carell might be able to pull that off and break the Curse of Jim.
Vin in Babylon A.D
Vin Diesel plays a Veteran-turned-mercenary, Thoorop, who takes a high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to China. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.
The movie will be directed by Mathieu Kassovitz who also developed the screenplay himself from the futuristic French novel “Babylon Babies,” by Maurice Dantec.
The movie is slated for release in 2007. I have been waiting for an action packed movie from Vin since Chronicles of Riddick (2004) but I am glad he is choosing his roles carefully.
Rocky can’t find a home in Philadelphia
A bronze Rocky statue, which was dedicated to the city by Sylvester Stallone in 1982, is having touble finding a permanent home in Philadelphia. Dignitaries from Philadelphia still can’t decide where the statue’s permanent home should be and a campaign to erect the larger-than-life statue at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps has fallen flat because snobby museum bosses insist the piece isn’t artistic enough.
Sly himself has been fighting to find the statue a suitable home after learning it had been placed in storage.
Maybe they will change their minds if Rocky 6 does well.
Return of The Dark Knight
It’s official now, the sequel to ‘Batman Begins‘ will be directed by Christopher Nolan (again) and it will be called The Dark Knight.
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman return as well and to most people’s surprise, Heath Ledger has been cast as The Joker. I really do not know how he is going to fare in this role but Christopher Nolan has been known to bring out the best in actors.
They are looking at an early 2007 start date but before that, watch out for Bale and Nolan’s next movie, The Prestige.
(But Heath Ledger???…really????)
The Grindhouse rolls on
Quentin Tarantino has signed Kurt Russell to star as Stunt Man Mike in Tarantino’s Half of ‘Grindhouse’ called ‘Death Proof‘.
Mickey Rourke was originally envisaged for the role but for reasons unknown (atleast to me) he did not show up for production. In addition to Russell and Rose McGowan, Tarantino’s half of “Grindhouse” also will star Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Marley Shelton, Tracie Thoms and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Robert Rodriguez’s half of the double-featured film, called ‘Planet Terror‘, will include Freddy Rodriguez, McGowan, Josh Brolin, Naveen Andrews, Shelton, Michael Biehn, Stacy Ferguson, Jeff Fahey and Michael Parks.
Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman will fight for The Prestige
Based on Christopher Priest’s 1996 novel, Bale and Jackman play rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London who battle each other for trade secrets. Christopher Nolan (of Batman Begins and Memento fame) directs this movie and the star cast includes Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie and Michael Caine.
Check out the trailer for this brilliant move here.
Trivia about Christopher Nolan
- Gained major funding during the 1999 Hong Kong Film Festival by showing his film Following (1998) and then asking the audience to donate money to his next film Memento (2000).
- Is red and green colorblind.
- Doesn’t like CGI in movies and purposely avoided it when he made “Batman Begins“
- Following Insomnia, his next project was going to be a Howard Hughes biopic starring Jim Carrey. Nolan had the screenplay written (calling it “one of the best things I’ve ever written”), but once it became apparent Martin Scorsese was making his own Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004), Nolan reluctantly tabled his script and took up directing Batman Begins (2005).