forest whitaker

Wherein We Muster Cautious Optimism For Sylvester Stallone’s Next Film

2:49AM STV | Mickey Rourke has signed on for Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, joining Jason Statham, Jet Li, Forest Whitaker and (ahem) Dolph Lundgren in a testosterrific tough-guy ensemble. Which leads us to ask: Can this possibly suck? More »

Baftas Crazy In Love With ‘Atonement’

6:24AM Mark | · Like Mr. Tumnus having his way with Keira Knightly in a darkened family library, the BAFTAs make sweet, desperate love to Atonement, lavishing 14 nominations on the film; runners-up No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood (nine nods each), like adolescents wandering in on the lovers in mid-thrust, stare with a mix of jealousy and immature incomprehension at the act of carnality unfolding in front of them. (We now end this incredibly labored run of Atonement analogies.) [Variety] Breakout Juno star Ellen Page entrusts her red-hot career to first-time director Drew Barrymore, with Page taking a role as a roller-derby-playing “alterna-teen” (no need to stretch too far coming off a hit) in Whip It! [Variety] More »

Trade Roundup: Forest Whitaker Sells Out To Mountain Dew To Prove Someone Is Willing To Pay For Online Content

7:15AM Defamer Hollywood | ·The future of online entertainment is now, and Forest Whitaker is stepping boldly into the brave, new world of selling out interactively: the Oscar winner is teaming with Pepsi for a web-based fantasy game called Dewmocracy, in which players will ultimately help create a new, totally extreme flavour of The Dew . [Variety] · New Line hopes – perhaps insanely! – that The Golden Compass will bring them Lord of the Rings-like success; however, the studio is hedging its bets somewhat by whoring out the movie to any brand partner who’ll help them raise awareness of the armour-clad polar bears they’re praying audiences will find every bit as cuddly as furry-footed Hobbits. [Variety] More »

Trade Roundup: Owen Wilson To Meet His Ghost Of Hollywood Future

8:45AM Defamer Hollywood | · Watch out, Hollywood, because here comes Mitch Albom: Adam Sandler has acquired the rights to feature-writing debut (an untitled baseball comedy, if you must know) of the Five People You Meet On One More Tuesday With Morrie author, whose treacly bestsellers have been previously adapted into housewife-narcotizing TV movies. [Variety] · In today’s strangest casting pairing, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker will star in Universal’s “futuristic adventure thriller” Repossession Mambo. [Variety] · In other buddy-casting news, Owen “The Butterscotch Stallion” Wilson and Nick “The Unkillable Aging Thoroughbred” Nolte have signed on to star in the Ben Stiller-directed comedy Tropic Thunder, which should create an amusing “before and after” Hollywood tableau the first time the actors share a two-shot. [Variety] · Pirated copies of Michael Moore’s Sicko proliferated on the YouTubes over the weekend, two weeks before the docimentary’s opening. [THR] · Today in writers’ strike saber-rattling: The WGA West has warned its members to ignore the same old bullshit that studios are likely to spew as negotiations for a new labor agreement begin next month, such as claims that they are losing money in this terribly unprofitable entertainment business”. Charges of counterbullshit by the studios include the accusation that the union is “out of touch with fast-changing showbiz realities.” [Variety] More »