News/Rumors Summary

Very nice Russian poster for Shane Acker's 9 was released into the wild.

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Here is some official concept art for the highly mysterious and kept under the secret Avatar, upcoming film by James Cameron. Since it is his first fiction film in years, the first since Titanic actually, the movie naturally draws lots of attention and interest. Being in production for couple of years now, the movie was shot in some new and groundbreaking 3D technology, invented by Cameron himself. The budget of this epic sci-fi exceeded $200 millions long time ago, Cameron surely took his time to make it. He also promises that the film will blow people's minds and will revolutionize the cinema. Not very modest, but I guess this is what you may expect from a person that shouted "I am the king of the world!" just because he won couple of Oscars and got very rich.
Expectations are very high, numerous fan sites for the movie are created everywhere, people are speculating and discussing about it in forums, and all that without even seeing a single frame from the movie, which expected to be released in December this year.

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The director of Terminator Salvation, McG, gave quite honest interview to the Guardian, talking about very personal issues. Among other things, he talked about famous Christian Bale's meltdown on the set, saying the following:

I don't think there's been a film I've made where there hasn't been some kind of physical fight. I mean, I've been headbutted by an A-list star. Square in the head. An inch later and my nose would have been obliterated. [...] I probably shouldn't (say), but it was Bill Murray. You know, it's a passionate industry.

McG directed Murray in the first Charlie's Angels and didn't invite him later for the sequel. According to the rumors, the reason was a fist fight between the same Murray and Lucy Liu on the set, and her refusal to work with him ever again. Murray was drinking a lot at that time, and according to his ex-wife's divorce papers he beat her up too.
Since then Bill said that the fight with Liu was misunderstanding and he made peace with her later, he also divorced his wife and continues making movies. I think he still drinks though.

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Disney have announced the remake of the cultish children movie from 80's Flight of the Navigator.

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Long before every nerd knew how to spell Joss Whedon's name, his screenplay about a teenage girl fighting vampires was made into a cheesy and silly movie, that despite being decent to watch, was lacking certain depth of the future TV series. Young and sexy Kristy Swanson, as original Buffy, didn't attract many viewers back then, although the movie turned out to be profitable enough, mainly due to its initially low budget. Five years later Whedon got his first chance to write, produce and direct a TV show based on the same idea, and the rest is history.
And when everybody started to forget that such film even existed, the production company of the original suddenly woke up and announced a remake. Since they are still holding the rights for the screenplay, they can do pretty much whatever they want without Whedon's involvement or approval, and this is exactly what they are planning to do. No actors or details so far.

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New photos from the post apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli. See also previously posted behind the scenes footage from the set.

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Much loved Weeds returns with new episodes starting next week, and here is the trailer for the upcoming season.

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Speaking about favorite TV shows, John Lithgow, that always was excellent playing lunatics and creepy psychos, joins next season of Dexter. He will be famous serial killer, admired by Dexter, that arrives to Miami. No dates for the next season right now.

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What is going on with Paul Verhoeven? One of the brightest directors, that ever made movies, suffers recently from string of bad luck. His plans to make a sequel for The Thomas Crown Affair are close to be completely shuttered, as the project got frozen with no development on any side. His other highly anticipated project, an adaptation of the Russian book The Winter Queen, on which he has been working for four years now, will probably continue without him. First it was delayed due to the pregnancy of Milla Jovovich, that should star in the film, and now the rumors circulating here and there are saying that producers decided to break up with him and to hire instead Russian director Fyodor Bondarchuk, which was responsible for the disappointing Inhabited Island. No solid confirmation on that rumor yet, but Verhoeven's name no longer appears as director of that film on production company's website.
But there are also good news, as Verhoeven returns to work for Hollywood studio once again. 20th Century Fox hired him to direct a movie based on the novel called The Surrogate. Written by author Kathryn Mackel, the story is about a desperate childless couple, who finds the perfect surrogate to carry their child to term, only to discover later that she has some dark secrets in her past. Halle Berry really wants to be in it, and she probably will, with release date scheduled sometime in 2010.
Average Hollywood thriller is not what I wanted to see from Verhoeven, but later the theme of pregnancy is going strong in horror films, so maybe he will be able to pull something decent out of it.