If your three passions in life are Star Wars, coin collecting and obscure South Pacific islands, some great news! The New Zealand Mint has unveiled a coin collection featuring characters from the George Lucas franchise that -- get this -- will actually be considered legal tender on the South Pacific island of Niue. Details ahead.
Also in this Friday edition of The Broadsheet: Brian De Palma is back... Morgan Spurlock may have found a feature film he wants to do... don't expect another Blade Runner anytime soon... and more ahead.
Fans of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, steel yourself: The guy who last put Denzel Washington on top of a runaway train (and made bank at the box office doing so) wants to remake the groundbreaking 1969 Western. Deadline reports that director Tony Scott -- whose most recent film was last year's Unstoppable -- is negotiating to reboot the classic Peckinpah film. He also wants to remake his own Top Gun, so clearly nothing is sacred. Read the news after the jump and weep into your cowboy boots.
Another August weekend, another genre explosion. As summer slowly ends with a whimper, four new releases are set to crowd multiplexes -- three of which will screen in 3-D (with one of those even in 4-D. (Aromascope, FTW!) Will Conan the Barbarian slay Spy Kids and One Day co-stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess with a broadsword slice, or will Colin Farrell and Fright Night jam a stake through the hearts of moviegoers nationwide? Or maybe The Help will clean up all four of them? Wordplay! Click through for the Weekend Forecast.
Robert Downey Jr. is not just a laudable actor who earned the coolest Oscar nomination of the past decade for his performance in Tropic Thunder; he's also a damn quotable person. But what happens when he's asked to speak about Iron Man 3, a film that Lethal Weapon writer/Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black hasn't finished writing yet and comes out in May 2013? He's not as revealing or candid (since, uh, there's nothing to reveal). Instead, he says things like this.
You raised him up -- to the heights of a movie star, I mean! Josh Groban, the affable Oprah favorite with the groin-jitteringly rich voice, was a major perk of Crazy, Stupid, Love as Emma Stone's all-wrong boyfriend Richard. Now he's set to star on something called "television" as Ed Helms' onscreen brother on The Office. Are we at the dawn of Josh Groban's big-time jump to screen stardom?
Since Hugh ain't got no car, it appears director Shawn Levy has the next best actor in mind to lead his remake of the silly 1966 sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage: Will Smith. THR reports that Levy will only make the film if an A-list talent is attached, and he's set up a meeting with Smith to gauge interest. If Smith isn't a fit, Levy will possibly bail on Voyage altogether. Fingers crossed this happens, if only for the inevitable Smith remake of Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage" for the soundtrack. If you can't take the heat, get yo' ass out the kitchen. [THR]
Poor Gérard Depardieu... you have one tiny peeing-on-a-plane incident and the whole world chalks it up to your inherent craziness when the real culprit may not have been bad behavior or drunkenness, but prostate issues. We've all been there before, stuck on an aircraft with the seat belt light on and a full bladder; can we cut the French acting legend a break and move past what French media have apparently termed "pipigate?"
We've already discussed how Taylor Lautner might not be a believable protagonist in an action film, especially one where Sigourney-effing-Weaver is relegated to a supporting role. Now we have to wonder if Abduction is believable as a film at all, since its new poster takes a page out of a very-effing-popular movie franchise from the past decade. Run like Tay-tay, and click through for comparison.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's mysterious Breaking Dawn cast poster (as we reported, it's not the official movie poster but licensee key art from NECA, so rest easy) comes a brand spanking new synopsis and set of nine hi-res images from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1, which will set Twi-hard hearts aflutter with its focus on romance, passion, and babymaking. Dive in!
If Steven Soderbergh is attempting to make his male stripper movie Magic Mike into the dude version of Sucker Punch, mission accomplished! EW reports that comically handsome True Blood star (and once-possible Superman) Joe Manganiello is final talks to play "Big Dick Richie" in the film, opposite comically handsome stars Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey and Matt Bomer. Who's next? Jon Hamm? Ryan Gosling? [EW]
You know the full cast list, you got your first look at Henry Cavill in the suit, but you still hunger for more details from Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, eh? Well, for the Superman fans out there who just have to know, a synopsis purporting to reveal the official plot for WB's upcoming superhero reboot has surfaced online. But is it the real deal? (Click ahead only if you really, absolutely have to know...)
· The U.S. poster for Melancholia has arrived, and it looks very familiar: the image of star Kirsten Dunst is the same one used in promotional art for the film earlier this year. Still, cool poster! The Lars Von Trier-directed mood piece arrives in theaters on Nov. 11, but you can catch Melancholia on demand starting on Oct. 7. Watch the end of the world from your own couch! Click through for a look, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
The last time Paramount released a still photo from Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, it was that Eminem-y shot of Emo Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) wearing a hoodie. Fashion faux pas, Mr. Hunt! Thankfully, this new still -- which features Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and Simon Pegg -- is a bit better. Seems like the IMF team stopped shopping at Hot Topic and found Banana Republic at the other end of the mall. Click through for a look.
It has been a big week for Oscar-winner birthdays. First Robert De Niro and Sean Penn celebrated their own milestones and now Robert Redford, the Santa Monica-born actor, director and founder of the Sundance Film Festival rings in his 75th year today. Click through to blow out the candles for the Oscar winner and determine which of his many brilliant onscreen roles deserves to be called his best.
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