Greetings, Muggles, from overcast San Diego, for Movieline's Official Coverage of Comic-Con 2009! The trip down from L.A. was pleasantly traffic-free, and we're now quickly approaching Comic-DefCon1, as approximately 175,000 girl-cootie-infested Twilight zealots are piling into the the fortress-like Hall H, where Disney's 3-D presentation of Alice in Wonderland and Tron is followed by Summit's (*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!*) New Moon panel, and then the first North American footage of James Cameron's game-changing Avatar will save us all. Somehow -- don't ask me how or I'll have to kill you -- I've scored a seat in the front of the 6500-seat auditorium. My neighbor is Alison, mother of two (they're here, too), who's been waiting on line since 5 a.m. Wednesday, has a Twilight fansite, and describes herself as a "total freak."
Stay tuned! The fun has just only begun!
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Sienna Miller isn't shying away from touting her profound work in the upcoming G.I. Joe, and her recent appearance on an Australian radio show wasn't supposed to be any different. Alas, she went on the one program where cinema was the last thing on the interviewer's mind, instead deflecting one infuriating reference after another to her married paramour Balthazar Getty. Hear the exchange after the jump.
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The Toronto International Film Festival this morning announced another fistful of selections, including Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime, the provocateur's first film since 2004's Palindromes. Also headed north: An Education, the best film to emerge this year from Sundance (and probably anywhere else for that matter); and Solondz's fellow cinematic bad boys Gasper Noe (Enter the Void) and Lou Ye (Spring Fever). Actress Samantha Morton will also premiere her directorial debut The Unloved. [indieWIRE]
This week has seen its share of macho turf warfare between Seth Rogen and the crew at Entourage, all precipitated by the latter's contention that in real life, a guy like Rogen would never have a shot at his Knocked Up co-star Katherine Heigl. You and I both know by now that Rogen can defend himself, but that didn't stop Judd Apatow from extolling his schlubby muse's virtues Wednesday at New York's sold-out Funny People preview.
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You don't need to win a ticket lottery or camp outside the Staples Center to pay a final tribute to the late, great Walter Cronkite, who will be memorialized today at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan. You just need a browser pointed to CBSNews.com, which will Webcast the proceedings live starting at 11 a.m PDT/2 p.m. EDT. The list of guest speakers is relatively modest (including Andy Rooney and son Chip Cronkite), but I don't expect any Darryl Phinnessee performances, so it kind of evens out in the end. RIP, Mr. Cronkite. [Variety]
· If you're keeping score at home, Denzel Washington appears to have emerged from the salary-diva locker room to resume play on Unstoppable, Fox's beloved but troubled runaway-train thriller. Tony Scott welcomed the star back into the fold on Wednesday, planting him in the dugout next to rookie sensation Chris Pine until the season begins this fall in Pittsburgh. Remember to stretch, Denzel! [Variety]
Len Wiseman withstands a Shrapnel barrage, Tyler Perry adds to his fortune, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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"I hope you have your Red Bull ready," Judd Apatow told his audience last night in New York, where the Museum of the Moving Image hosted one its typically classy filmmaker fetes prior to a preview screening of Funny People. He knew as much as the rest of us it might be a long night, what with the This-is-Your-Life-esque meander through his comedy-obsessed youth, his TV launching pad, and his formidable Hollywood power brokerage of the last decade -- not to mention some of those pesky complaints and accusations that have followed him over the years.
Like sexism, for starters. He even brought it up preemptively! Sort of.
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As Kyle and myself make our last arrangements for our dawn journey San Diegoward for Movieline's no-holds-barred, Avatar to Zombieland (and everything in between) coverage of Comic-Con 2009, I thought I'd amuse your geeky bouches with this all Comic-Con Edition of The Last Word. It's after the jump...
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Like a chastity belt that can only be undone by the hunkiest, sparkliest vampire in all of Forks, the website for The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened up today, revealing all sorts of never-before-seen art, stills, and desktop backgrounds. Our favorite new element?
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Sadly, Guadalupe Zambrano and his Houston-area real-estate-sales endeavors have been forced out of their rightful domain by NBC's legal goons, with http://thejaylenoshow.com/ now the realm of their 10 p.m. disaster in the making hacky-comedy cavalcade, The Jay Leno Show. Which basically means the only hilarious thing you'd have ever found on that website -- ie. a stubborn realtor's refusal to budge in the face of increasingly desperate corporate pressure -- is now history, replaced by content reminiscent of a health insurance website.
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On the day of President Obama's latest prime-time address to the American people, a new TV Guide poll reveals that 62 percent of respondents would rather watch regular Wednesday programming than another speech about national affairs. If he can slyly interweave his health-care message into some sideline reporting for Wipeout, however? Much better. [TV Guide via The Live Feed]
Forget all the Entourage-resuscitated talk of whether Katherine Heigl is too hot for Seth Rogen -- the New York Post's Lou Lumenick would like to turn the topic to whether Seth Rogen is too hot for Cameron Diaz. "How much much of the special effects budget for The Green Hornet," Lumenick wonders, "is going to be spent making the aging bad actress Cameron Diaz a credible love interest for the nine-years-younger Seth Rogen in the title role?" [Vulture]
· USA Today has even more photos from Iron Man 2, including this first look at Gwyneth Paltrow in costume as superheroine "Love Interest."
· Bravo's Millionaire Matchmaker, Patti Sanger, is engaged! What terrible news for everybody.
· Congratulations to Emma Thompson, whose adopted son (a Rwandan child soldier) graduated from college this week.
· How well did Robert Zemeckis reshoot Back to the Future's ending for the opening of its sequel? CollegeHumor investigates.
· "I would have leapt at the chance of sleeping with Michael Jackson when I was 14," said Rupert Everett in an interview. Now he tells him!
The summer movie season can occasionally manage to elevate a special performance in a quieter cinematic effort into the public consciousness, giving ticket-buyers something to get excited about besides giant robots, hormone-addled wizards, or hot-shot starship captains. Whether or not The Ugly Truth delivers big numbers in its debut this weekend, it will invariably launch one of its cast from obscurity into superstardom, in a performance that will be discussed for years: We speak, of course, of the mechanically enhanced underthings that deliver Katherine Heigl -- and with her, millions of delighted moviegoers -- into big-screen ecstasy. (Indeed, virtually everyone already knows the film as "The One With the Vibrating Panties.")
Movieline recently sat down for a heart-to-heart with the summer's most buzzed-about (pun most definitely intended) star. Sorry, Mike Tyson's tiger!
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Via Ain't It Cool News, we have this photo of Jeff Bridges, beaming in his regards to the annual Big Lebowski Fest in Seattle from the set of Tron 2.0, where he's reprising his role as Kevin Flynn, the programmer sucked inside the video game he created in the original Tron. To appease fans of both cult classics, Bridges did the unthinkable, donning both his video grid helmet and The Dude cardigan, thereby fusing both programs into the digital hybrid, The Big TronBowski. The Creator abides, man. [AICN]
