TRON Legacy - Derezzed Video (Feat. Daft Punk)

Daft Punk has a cameo in Tron!

And we get to see Michael Sheen in character asking them to play something to “electrify the boys and girls, if you’d be so kind.”

I am going to LOVE this soundtrack!!

The Open Doors

A nice spookly little short film from 2005 for October.

This has Michael Sheen as the nervous young gentleman from London named Framton Nuttel who goes to the countryside for a rest cure, and where he arrives at a country house clutching a letter of introduction...

The Special Relationship!

Michael Sheen had twittered that he was playing Tony Blair again, and it's finally almost here! The Special Relationship, which is a BBC/HBO movie about Blair and Clinton airs first in Britain on May 7th.  We get it on HBO May 29th, coincidentally the day before the Emmy deadline.

I think this is the third time screenwriter Peter Morgan has written Michael Sheen a Tony Blair part. Dennis Quaid plays Clinton, and Hope Davis Hilary. I am thrilled that Helen McRory reprises her great Cherie Blair.  More pics here.

To say that I'm looking forward to seeing Sheen in this would be the understatement of the year.  Love him in anything, but especially as Blair!

Empire Magazine Celebrates 20th

Empire magazine is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special issue guest edited by Steven Spielberg. Included in the issue are actors in photos recreating iconic moments in film, including Atonement, above. Here are a few more of my favorites:

Michael Sheen from The Queen

Mel Gibson from Braveheart

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead!

Michael Sheen on Craig Ferguson for New Moon

Sweet surprise! I didn't know he was doing any New Moon press.

New Moon - Volturi Fight Clip

Mine is probably not the typical reaction, but my favorite part of seeing this sneak peak clip is finally hearing Michael Sheen's take on Aro. Awesome!

New Moon Posters!

I think this looks like a romance novel clutch, don't you? I kind of prefer the ones with Taylor, Edward and Bella.



Very cool of the Voluturi!

The Volturi have arrived!

Michael Sheen as Aro


Christopher Heyerdahl as Marcus


Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius (remember him as the young hero in Sweeney Todd?!)


Dakota Fanning as Jane


Cameron Bright as Alec

Click on the pictures to see them full size. I think they look amazing. Amazing and suitably creepy!

The Damned United has a US Release date!

The Damned United, starring Michael Sheen as Brian Clough, is about Clough's 44-day reign as the coach of Leeds United football team. It's out in the US September 25 in limited release.

Michael Sheen will be the villain in Tron Legacy!!

Michael Sheen was being quite cheeky with us on Twitter a few months ago, when he talked about being signed for a new role in a "mystery film" in which he would not be playing "a real person" and "in fact not a person at all." He also asked his Twitter followers for their favorite Jeff Bridges movie.

Disney has revealed today, that the role is the villain in the upcoming Tron sequel!

There are no specific details on the villain in Tron Legacy outside of knowing Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), is looking into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. The film is expected to hit theaters in 2010.

The Volturi - First Look!

Finally, we get our first glimpse of the Volturi vampires in New Moon. Love Michael Sheen's look as Aro, but can you even recognize Dakota Fanning as Jane??

Michael Sheen cast in new comedy - Submarine

Variety reports

Michael Sheen and Paddy Considine have boarded Richard Ayoade's coming-of-age laffer "Submarine."

Project is being developed by Ben Stiller's Red Hour Films and U.K. shingle Warp Films. Film4 is co-financing the pic, which is set to start shooting in August.

Story follows a 15-year-old boy who aspires to lose his virginity before his next birthday, while trying to prevent his mother from leaving his father for her dance teacher.

Paddy Considine was in Bourne Ultimatum.

Hmmmm. Michael Sheen in a comedy? I'll bite. Wonder if he's the father or the dance teacher!

Michael Sheen Tweets from set of New Moon

Michael Sheen has posted on Twitter from the Vancouver set of New Moon. He's playing Aro, one of the Volturi.

just got to set with much needed coffee in hand. all goes well in Volturian Vancouver. doing big scene at the moment with Edward and Bella

Met Stephenie yesterday on the set. She was charming and enthusiastic and very positive. Keep forgetting how freaky i look with my red eyes

i think Dakota may look the most unsettling though. So angelic yet so weird. As Jane that is of course. like an evil red riding hood.

just did a big photoshoot for publicity stills- all the Volturi. We are one freaky looking bunch.

Have decided my Aro is a cross between the Blue Meanie, the Childcatcher and Nick Cave. But with red eyes.

Can't wait to see him in costume!

Michael Sheen Tweets!

I was pointed to Michael Sheen's new Twitter account by Neil Gaiman.

reluctantly getting a twitter profile as someone is pretending to be me. the f***er will rue the day...

@malisarugbygod never been a vampire before so will let you know. Always found most people a mixture of hero and villain.

by the way, met the real Blair for first time last Sunday!! very peculiar

Going for the Field of Dreams tactic on the followers. Actually, now slightly missing the air of mystery i had.

@charley_d perhaps Aro wishes he was a school janitor.

just had hair and make-up meeting for mystery film i cant talk about yet. i am going to look FREAKY!

One reason I'm excited Michael Sheen will be Aro

Because he brings the same enthusiasm to whatever project he's doing, and he respects fantasy genre films. Harry Knowles twittered the link to this December interview with Michael from Ain't It Cool News, and only Michael could in one breath link Arthur Miller's Crucible with Underworld 3:

Beaks: Shifting gears dramatically, when you do something like UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS, and you've got to do these huge dramatic speeches... I don't want to say that it's silly, but it does have to unabashedly be what it is. It's grander and more steeped in genre conventions.
Sheen: There is absolutely no difference for me.
Beaks: None?
Sheen: None. There's absolutely no difference between FROST/NIXON, THE QUEEN and UNDERWORLD 3. It's a story. I put as much work into both. I try to be as truthful and believable, as complex and as rich in both. There's nothing intrinsically more real about the character of David Frost or the character of Lucian: they're both just characters in a story. It requires absolutely no different process for me. I think what it does is reveal people's attitudes toward genre films; I think it reveals a snobbishness of culture. I mean, some of the best writing of the last century has happened in science fiction. One of my favorite writers is Philip K. Dick. One of my other favorite writers is Neil Gaiman. And Stephen King. These are people who, to a certain extent, don't get the literary kudos they deserve - and they're dealing with some of the biggest themes and subjects of what it's like to be a human being in the twentieth and twenty-first century.

Maybe they're made more palatable for people. There are things in THE DARK KNIGHT that are profound truths about our society. And that fact that it was a huge blockbuster - that kids went back again and again - is good! So just because something is on a more fantastic plateau doesn't make it any less valuable. Some of the most moving experiences I've ever had is watching things like LORD OF THE RINGS or THE MATRIX movies. It's not the genre. It's how well it's handled. And while I haven't seen UNDERWORLD 3 yet, the process was incredibly challenging and exciting for all kinds of reasons. I was excited by it because it was about something that I connected with about the human experience. I think people would be foolish to dismiss fairy tales or myths because they're not directed by Sidney Lumet or something.

Beaks: Like you said, it's how the genre is handled. Some of our greatest living actors were in LORD OF THE RINGS. And Olivier was in CLASH OF THE TITANS, so...
Sheen: You know, I loved the character of Lucian in the first [UNDERWORLD]. I think there's something complex going on inside of him. I love the idea that he's set up as the bad guy and then by the end you're like, "Oh, he's not the bad guy." Again, like I said about Arthur Miller, I'm drawn to those things: the ambiguity of right and wrong, good and evil. In this third film, because it's about [Lucian] and how he came to be the character that he is, that's what I was fascinated about; he's this man who's in denial in something about himself, who's fighting against something he's scared of within himself. And unless he makes peace with this, it will destroy him. And how he turns into a leader of men... I don't know, I just like that. (Laughs) I connected with it, and thought it gave space for a really interesting journey. I find that my imagination is fired by things when they go outside the norm. That's why I love science-fiction: not because it's an escape; it's a different way of engaging with my experiences in life.

I also didn't know that Michael was in Alice In Wonderland -- but not as the Cheshire Cat (which would have been perfect). Read the rest of the interview here!

Michael Sheen to be Aro in New Moon!!

UPDATE: It's confirmed by Variety! Hurray!!

The Daily Mail is reporting that Michael Sheen has been cast as Aro in New Moon. Being a tabloid paper that has jumped the gun and been wrong before, I'll only fully trust it when we get word from Summit probably tomorrow, but color me THRILLED this Easter morning. The Easter Bunny has been very kind to me with this present today!!

Supposedly Chris Weitz, director of New Moon, really pursued Michael for the part. Reported by The Mail, he's getting 5 million pounds to play Aro. We all know that Michael has lots of experience with vampires, playing Lucian the Lycan in all three Underworld films. He even made love to one in a VERY memorable scene in Underworld 3 (due out on DVD May 12).

“Michael’s role is so important because he’s the head of all vampires,” Weitz told The Mail. “Aro is, on the surface, a very gracious and friendly vampire, but beneath that he is a tremendous threat.”

I'm doing cartwheels right now. Yes, Ben Barnes pursued the role, and would have been great, too, but Michael gives it that gravitas, and he's also sexy as hell.

Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans (and Michael Sheen Shirtless!)

I needed a break last night, so I went to see Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans by myself. My friend Darling Diva's comment about the HOT sex scene had me intrigued, shall we say, to see more than Michael Sheen shirtless. The scene did not disappoint, and I had to search it out on the internet last night after I came home to watch it again, because I my reaction was"did I just SEE that" at the movie theater! Let's just say there are no cliffs in Chicagoland for my hubby and I to reenact it! LOL! I was also amused that the editing of the scene was so derivative of the sex scene in 300 (but the cliff edge is new, I'll grant ya.)

Underworld 3 is a mashup of Romeo and Juliet and Spartacus. It is a prequel to the other two Underworld films, telling the tale of the origins of the war between the vampires and the lycans (werewolves). Lucian, played by Michael Sheen, is almost Bill Nighy's Viktor's favorite pet, and the lycans are slaves to the vampires for most of the film. What Viktor doesn't know is that Lucian has been having a secret love affair with Sonja, his daughter. We'd seen flashbacks of Sonja's death in the first Underworld, so we know where this tragic story is going, but it was a fun ride to get there. Lucian leads a revolt of the lycan slaves against their vampire masters.

Just look at these two pictures of Michael. The left one is from the premiere, and the right is in costume as Lucian.


Michael is a great actor. We know that. He's been in Oscar nominated films, including this year's Frost/Nixon, and it is just wild to see him transform from his curly mop and sh*t eating grin, to bad ass sexy werewolf! I couldn't find a picture of him shirtless from the film, but ladies let me just tell you that he is for most of it. The marketing is all skewed! I found tons of pictures of Sonja, but not so many of Lucian and it's his bloody story for cripes sake. We fangirls do exist, thank you very much.

So the movie is just sheer fun, lots of bloody sword battles and crossbow hits and so on. Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen spend the movie hissing at each other, and Michael's performance is quite impressive and passionate -- on the battlefield, too. You could definitely believe all the werewolves would obey him as their leader. It was much better than the second film, for me, at least. (Michael wasn't really in the second, so that may have something to do with it.) Two and a half to Three stars, and recommended if you love a good vampire/werewolf battle. Worth a rental at least. Read about my first encounter with Michael as Lucian here.

Watch the trailer below to see Michael shirtless since I couldn't find a pic for you:

Michael Sheen's next movie

Well, Michael Sheen doesn't seem to be shirtless, but he does look quite fit. ;)

The Damned United is evidently about Brian Clough, a famous football manager in the UK. Too inside "baseball" outside the UK? Gotta love his sh*t eating grin, though, and the film has some great co-stars.

I watched Underword Evolution this week, and besides a brief flashback, Michael only appeared dead on a slab in that film. Big disappointment. According to my friend Darling Diva, Michael has a hot scene in Underworld 3 that's not to be missed, though!

Who is this Lucian the Lycan?

I have recently installed Sitemeter for this blog, and I can see the search words that bring people to my blog. Because I wrote about the new photos of Robert Downey Jr. Shirtless as Sherlock Holmes, and also because of this Hurray for Chest Hair post, I have had some interesting search combos bring people to my site, including several "Name of actor" shirtless. Recently, it's been "Michael Sheen Shirtless." Having just seen Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon, and loving him in that, and also loving him as Tony Blair in The Queen, I admire the actor, but was puzzled. Yeah, he's kind of handsome, I thought, but what is up with this rash of searches for images of Michael shirtless?

You see, I had never seen Underworld. I looked Michael up on Imdb after I saw Michael in Frost/Nixon because it was bugging me that he had been in another movie in the past, and I couldn't think of it. The movie was Timeline, where he plays the villain. But in those IMDB credits were the three Underworld films. So, out of curiosity, I rented the first Underworld from Netflix. The movie disk was infuriatingly skipping on me, but I was arrested by the first shot of Michael Sheen as the Lycan (werewolf) Lucian. Holy crap. THIS was Michael Sheen who played David Frost?! This bad ass?!

I adore English actors because they will take any work, from Shakespeare to Horror. Bill Nighy plays the king of the vampires, so it's a kick ass movie with great actors who it is just a ball to see chew up the scenery. I loved Underworld. Since the movie was skipping and freezing so badly, I had to abandon the DVD, and some kind soul had posted the whole thing on YouTube. Michael's character Lucian at the beginning is the bad guy, but you find out something about him in the movie, which changes your mind about him. His look is just so arresting with the hair extensions, and the gaping open shirt (he's quite fit, as the Brits would say). Wow. One of his first lines is to one of his werewolf minion, "Must I do everything myself?!" Classic!

I got caught up in Underworld's story of vampires and werewolves. It's an interesting world, and the movie was more entertaining than I expected. A nice break from the heavy Oscar fare. The romance between Kate Beckinsale's character and Scott Speedman's Michael is the main story, but I was loving Michael Sheen as king of the lycans and Bill Nighy as king of the vampires.

I have Underworld Evolution as my next movie to be mailed to me on my queue now, and the third movie, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, is a prequel telling the story of the beginning of the war between Lucian's Lycans and Bill Nighy's vampires and is out in theaters now. Michael's character Lucian in the first was an important supporting one, but interest in his back story obviously grew, since they made the third all about his character. It's probably really bad, but at this point, I don't care. I hear there's a Michael Sheen love scene in it. And he's quite fit, and maybe even shirtless. ;)

Frost/Nixon - Mini-review

'Tis Oscar season, and all the heavy hitters come out in December. The holiday
season for me was a chance to catch up on all the fantastic movies released just in time to beat the Oscar deadline.

Frost/Nixon stars Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, and Michael Sheen as interviewer David Frost. I just love these mano a mano acting films. These two actors also played the same roles in the play in London and on Broadway. Frank Lingella won a Tony for his amazing portrayal as Nixon, and he's likely to get an Oscar nomination as well. Ron Howard made it a condition that both original actors from the play be in the movie. There are some other great actors, too == Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, and Kevin Bacon.

I heard David Frost interviewed on NPR, and he says that the play and the movie exaggerate his underdog status to make for heightened drama. It is true that he had to put his own money on the line to make this interview happen.

Michael Sheen is an accomplished theater actor, but is best known to American audiences for playing Tony Blair in The Queen. I've heard a rumor that he might play Tony Blair again in an upcoming film. I just saw a commercial for the third Underworld film, and had no idea that he's had a major role in that action vampire series since the first one. I'll have to add those to my Netflix queue, especially since Bill Nighy is in them, too. It was bugging me that he had been in something else familiar, and I hit my forehead, D'oh!, when I read on IMDB that he was Lord Oliver, one of the bad guys in Timeline, one of my favorite films.

Frank Langella is a character actor, recently playing Perry White in Superman Returns. It's so great to see him get the chance to play such a big role on film. He's had an accomplished stage career, winning three Tony awards on Broadway.

This is a fantastic movie and it is just so fun to watch these great actors take each other on. Another one for the Best Picture list, and probably another Director Oscar nod for Ron Howard. Four stars, and one of the best films of the year.