Justin Long ‘Accepted’ for comedy

Justin Long who appears in “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” is starring in “Accepted,” a comedy Steve Pink is directing for Universal Pictures.

The story centers on a high school senior who finds a unique way to avoid the pressure to attend college and outsmart his parents.Universal bought the spec by Mark Perez in a high-priced bidding war. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage have done a rewrite.

Steve Pink, a longtime collaborator with John Cusack, will make his feature directing debut on the Universal project. The movie is set for release next April. Tom Shadyac and Michael Bostick are producing via their Universal-based Shady Acres Entertainment banner.

Long’s credits also include “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” “Happy Campers” and the “Jeepers Creepers” movies.

Alex Pettyfer, a reluctant teenage spy in Stormbreaker

Alex Pettyfer will play Alex Rider, the 14-year-old hero of British author Horowitz’s spy thriller Stormbreaker.

Geoffrey Sax (”White Noise”) is directing the $43 million-budgeted film. Filming starts July 4 at Pinewood Studios and on the Isle of Man.

He will be surrounded by a transatlantic ensemble cast including Mickey Rourke, Sophie Okonedo, Bill Nighy, Alicia Silverstone, Missi Pyle, Ashley Walters, Damian Lewis and Sarah Bolger, plus a cameo by Ewan McGregor.
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The 50 First Dates duo reunite

Adam Sandler has asked Sean Astin (”The Lord of the Rings” trilogy), who co-starred with the Sandman in last year’s “50 First Dates”, to join him again on his next project, Columbia Pictures’ “Click”.

The film, co-starring Christopher Walken and Kate Beckinsale, centres on a workaholic architect who finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices.

Frank Coraci is directing the comedy-drama. No word on who Astin is playing in this one. He can currently be seen in TNT’s Steven Spielberg-produced mini-series Into the West.

Supermodel-turned-bounty hunter, Domino Harvey found dead

Film Release On Track Despite Stars Death

Domino Harvey, a 35-year-old supermodel-turned-bounty hunter who’s being played by Keira Knightley in the upcoming action movie “Domino,” was found dead in a bathtub in her West Hollywood home on Monday night (27JUN05) but the film will return to its original August release date.

She was taken to Cedars-Sinai hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy is scheduled, said Brenda Shafer, a coroner’s office spokeswoman. Cause of death isn’t expected to be released until blood tests were returned.

According to the synopsis for the film, Harvey is the daughter of legendary actor Laurence Harvey and a former model who rejected her privileged Beverly Hills life to become a bounty hunter.
Domino quit modelling 12 years ago (93) to capture fugitives and criminals who had jumped bail.
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Cruise has begged the Aussie actress to come to the event

Tom Cruise is desperate to have his ex-wife and Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman attend his wedding with Batman Begins actress Katie Holmes.

Annanova quotes the Sun daily as saying that the star has begged the Aussie actress to come to the event. But Kidman has not given her blessings for the marriage.

Cruise apparently wants Kidman to be present for the sake of their two adopted children and show then that they are still friends.

Cruise and Kidman, who have two adopted kids, divorced in 2001..

The 42-year-old star proposed to 26-year-old Holmes earlier this month, seven weeks after they met, and is keen for his bride-to-be and his ex-wife to get along.

Cruise and Holmes got engaged after spending just seven weeks together amid swirling accusations that the relationship was an elaborate publicity stunt for both the actors’ upcoming movies.

Confused Kidman !

DiCaprio goes for Diamonds

Leonardo DiCaprio may just be a Diamond in the rough. The Oscar-nominated actor, last seen as Howard Hughes in the biopic The Aviator, has started negotiations with Warner Bros. Pictures to star in the dramatic thriller The Blood Diamond, to be directed by Ed Zwick.

Leonardo DiCaprio is lining up his next project, a dramatic thriller called The Blood Diamond, according to Variety. The project, formerly titled Diamond will be helmed by Last Samurai helmer Ed Zwick. He rewrote the latest draft with Marshall Herskovitz. (more…)

Every generation has its fears, and director Steven Spielberg does not shy away from the source of anxiety that his new science fiction epic, ‘’War of the Worlds'’, plays on — the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Every generation has its fears, and director Steven Spielberg does not shy away from the source of anxiety that his new science fiction epic, “War of the Worlds,” plays on — the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

“It’s certainly about Americans fleeing for their lives, being attacked for no reason, having no idea why they are being attacked and who is attacking them,” says Spielberg.

Spielberg’s version of the H.G. Wells classic 1898 novel about an alien invasion from Mars, which has inspired other famed treatments over the years, stars Tom Cruise and opens in U.S. theaters on Wednesday. (more…)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: David Koepp
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson
Actors:
Tom Cruise …. Ray Ferrier
Justin Chatwin …. Robbie Ferrier
Dakota Fanning …. Rachel Ferrier
Tim Robbins …. Ogilvy
Miranda Otto …. Mary Ann Ferrier
David Alan Basche …. Tim
James DuMont
Yul Vazquez …. Julio
Genre: Science-Fiction

Rating : 4/5

All you can really say about War of the Worlds is: a) thank goodness Steven Spielberg has had a lifelong obsession for aliens great and small and b) he has the fortitude and talent to make an invasion by them scary, intense, and so damn real.

Plot Summary

On June 29th, 2005, Earth goes to war. From Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures comes “War of the Worlds,” directed by Steven Spielberg and starring international superstar Tom Cruise. A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it. The film also stars Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, and Tim Robbins.

Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) and her new husband drop off his teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and young daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.

Moments later, at an intersection near his house, Ray witnesses an extraordinary event that will change all their lives forever. A towering three-legged war machine emerges from deep beneath the earth and, before anyone can react, incinerates everything in sight. An ordinary day has suddenly become the most extraordinary event of their lifetimes - the first strike in a catastrophic alien attack on Earth.

Ray scrambles to get his children away from this merciless new enemy, embarking on a journey that will take them across the ravaged countryside, where they become caught in the desperate tide of refugees fleeing from an extraterrestrial army of Tripods. (more…)