The fortunes of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise have suffered a blow with the news that his next big film has been postponed until 2009.
The release of Valkyrie, which tells the story of the 1944 assassination plot against Hitler, was first postponed from this summer to the autumn and is now not expected to appear until next year.
“We were originally expecting the film to be released in June,” said a senior executive at one of Britain’s leading cinema chains.
“I know there have been all sorts of problems with this production and we will not be screening it at all this year.”
The film is not only a blow to Cruise as an actor but in his more recent incarnation as a movie mogul at United Artists (UA), the studio which made the film.
One critic in Hollywood has declared “Valkyrie is dead”, with another arguing that the film’s problems could also wreck the revival of UA.
Valkyrie has been directed by Bryan Singer, who is best known for The Usual Suspects and X-Men. The new film, which was mostly shot last year at a cost of £45m, has so far left test audiences unimpressed.
The quality of Cruise’s German accent was widely commented on. The film has also had to have reshoots after footage was damaged in labs.
Cruise plays the German officer Claus von Stauffenberg, who led the plot. Other German parts are played by British actors, including Bill Nighy and Kenneth Branagh.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Tom Cruise Film back in the Bunker
Crash & Burn
$20 million was half of the soft estimate that they were hoping for this weekend's box office for Speed Racer. Ouch. There are even reports that this estimate is inflated just to make second place over What Happens in Vegas.
The two people I know who've seen it, both loved Speed Racer. And Roeper and Wilmington raved, too.
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Star Wars: Clone Wars Trailer!
Coolio! An animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie is coming out August 15th. Check out the trailer here!
SNL Message from Hillary Clinton
Well, I guess they've put to bed the claim that they're biased toward Hillary.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Damsel of Distress
Karen Allen Thrilled with "Indiana Jones" return
LOS ANGELES — Nothing ever seems to change in the stormy love-hate relationship between Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood.
The characters created by Harrison Ford and Karen Allen in 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" are back at it with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," due out May 22.
"As the film begins, they haven't seen each other for a long time, and suddenly, they're thrust back together," Allen told The Associated Press this week. "They kind of pick up from where they left off. A few bumpy roads have passed between them since then that they have to work out with each other."
Allen has always been the fan favorite among the women Indy was forever fighting and making up with in the first three films, with viewers long hoping for the two to reunite.
Director Steven Spielberg's future wife, Kate Capshaw, became the archaeologist's love interest in the second movie, 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Allen's Marion could not have appeared in that one, since "Temple of Doom" took place earlier than "Raiders," which marked the first time she had seen Indy in a decade.
The next movie, 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," took place after "Raiders," and Allen joked that "I guess I could have been in that one, but they decided to go with Sean Connery," who played Indy's estranged dad.
...
Though Allen was more interested in stage work and serious films, Marion offered a rare chance to play a strong, full-blooded woman in a big Hollywood action flick.
Marion's first moments on screen said it all as she chugged through a drinking contest and gave Indy a greeting he would not soon forget.
"She was a very wonderfully written character," Allen said. "How can you go wrong when you meet a woman in a bar in Nepal and she's drinking men under the table, yelling at large men in Nepalese and ordering them out of the bar, and when she first sets eyes on Indiana Jones, she socks him in the jaw? It's a great introduction to the character, and it's hard to imagine she's not going to win a lot of fans."
And what about the speculation that Indy's new young sidekick, played by Shia LaBeouf, is the love child of Indy and Marion?
"You'll have to wait and see," Allen said.
Hat tip: Huffington Post
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