Anthony Hopkins stars as an unorthodox mentor to a young, reluctant exorcist in this weekend's new demonic-possession horror film, The Rite. But how did Hopkins go from a British television actor to Oscar-winner to the star of an exorcist movie? You can always trace a direct line through a handful of roles (not necessarily his best roles) to illustrate what led to an actor's current success, and with Hopkins, that line twists through everything from British period pieces to starring opposite Emilio Estevez. Let's look at eight performances -- including one of his earliest -- that chart the evolution of Philip Anthony Hopkins.
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Vampires seem to be a throughline these days in Rachael Leigh Cook's life; the actress co-starred as the obsessive girlfriend of a serial killer in the Sundance entry Vampire the same week real-life husband Daniel Gillies returns as the ambiguous underboss Elijah on the CW's The Vampire Diaries. But lest you VD-heads get taken in by Gillies charms as Movieline has, Cook has a warning she wants to share.
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Also in this Thursday edition of The Broadsheet: An Oscar nominee might climb aboard The Dark Tower... Snow White and The Huntsman circles Snow White, Huntsman... Tiger Mom goes Hollywood... and more ahead.
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Today in science catching up with science-fiction: German researchers have constructed a fully functional terminator hand. As the video demonstrates, this robot hand can emerge from baseball bat assaults totally unscathed, just like real terminators. My question: Why we are seeing more progress in the creation of machines that are supposed to wipe out humans rather than say, curing cancer? Anyway, the video of the creepy, moving robot fingers getting hit by bats is after the jump. How many years until we get the full T-100? Place your bets!
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Very sad news from Japan: It looks as though director Toshiharu Ikeda, who held a place on Movieline's Halloween 25 horror film list for Evil Dead Trap, has been found dead. He is believed to have committed suicide by drowning. Besides a number of exploitation films in the early 80's, including the fourth film in the internationally-infamous Angel Guts series, Ikeda was known in Japan for Mermaid Legend and the 2004 Tokyo International Film Festival selection The Man Behind the Scissors. Rest in peace. [Jasper Sharp]
While the three trailers for the alien invasion flick Battle: Los Angeles have shown maybe 70% of Los Angeles being blown to bits, the aliens have remained more or less obscured. Actually, in the first two, even lead actors Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez were hard to spot. In any case, thanks to Famous Monsters magazine, we now have our first look at what the film's aliens will look like. I'll go ahead and issue a spoiler warning now in case you wanted to play ball with the marketing team and wait until the film opens to see these guys.
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· First things first: I like Ke$ha. I think she's more self-effacing than most pop stars, and I think she makes (and writes!) better hits than most of her contemporaries. I accept her when she adds dryhump flavor to a classic Disney scene, as she does here. It's funny! Vile! Maybe just vile. But I like that, OK? [Funny Or Die]
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We're psyched for Andrew Garfield's gig as the littlest Spider-Man, but we've been worried about the world surrounding the hero. Who's out to get him? What are the stakes? Luckily, the newest candid photos of Spider-Man's shoot give us a glimpse of at least one potential enemy. He's quite dastardly!
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Forget Lizzie Olsen; the breakout star of Sundance 2011 is clearly 67-year-old Rutger Hauer, who's taken Park City by storm with his star turn in Jason Eisener's grindhouse homage Hobo with a Shotgun. To celebrate the gory, tongue-in-cheek vigilante tale about -- yes -- a homeless hero with a shotgun, the Hobo folks hosted a thematically relevant Bloody Mary hour this morning where Hauer walked in wielding his titular firearm and regaled Movieline with six important revelations/life lessons:
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The Late Show with David Letterman is dark this week (as it is more and more wont to be), but it's hard to imagine a world in which Letterman is not a staple of our Late Night lives. Or, even weirder, imagining David Letterman as a sitcom actor. Before Letterman got his first show -- an early morning talk show called The David Letterman Show -- he made his mark, outside of his writing and stand-up, with an occasional foray into the world of prime-time television acting (notably with an alien named Mork). It's truly a brief history, but here's a look at David Letterman's now strange flirtation with acting.
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· Did you ever think Ron Weasley would become a Death Eater? Me too! Especially when his teen-angst-fueled jealousy toward Harry Potter reached overdrive in the later J.K. Rowlings tomes. I bring this up only because in this first still from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, Ron looks suspiciously calm while Harry and Hermione sorta freak out in the face of something evil. Did David Yates drastically change the ending of Deathly Hallows, or is Ron just the coolest mf'er in the room? Click ahead to decide, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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The definition of irony for Wednesday, Jan. 26: The idea of Willow Smith singing "It's a Hard Knock Life" on the big screen. What was rumored last week has now become more official: Jay-Z has teamed with Overbrook Entertainment (read: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith) for a joint venture that will develop television and film properties. First up: An Annie remake at Sony Entertainment with Smith's daughter Willow in the lead role. "The time is right to bring back Annie to the big screen," said Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad in a statement. "Of course, we're true believers in Willow's talent and believe she will be perfect in this role." Maybe, but I imagine it will be hard for her to whip that Annie-approved perm.
How about Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night? Wasn't it -- um, muted? Yeah, it was. Still, that probably had more to do with the state of the country and the recent shootings in Arizona -- plus the awkward bipartisan seating arrangement -- than anything else. As such, let's give it up to Jon Favreau for making chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what! Not that Jon Favreau. "Thanks for all the congratulations," the Cowboys & Aliens director wrote on Twitter. "But I didn't write the State of the Union address." No truth to the rumor that Political Favreau -- the president's speech writer -- walks around the White House talking about how he's BFF with Robert Downey Jr. [@Jon_Favreau]
Yesterday, Movieline compiled all of the reactions from this year's Academy Award nominees, but we failed to include the even better reactions from this year's non-nominees. Like Cher, who vented her disappointment over Burlesque's Best Song snub yesterday on Twitter. "We didn't get a nomination 4 best song " [...] "The Golden Globe 4 BEST SONG & not even get nominated by the OSCARS? Oh well it is..what it is
