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Can't say much for the poster
This years Oscar contenders seem to be made up of three major categories: costume dramas, crime dramas and war protests. With a dirth of such pictures already firmly in the running for the grand Hollywood prize (and several fortunes being wagered on it all the while) another must join their ranks.
The poster may not be much but fortunately the trailer speaks volume. In the Valley of Elah is the contraversial story of a family whose son dies in suspicious circumstances having just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. Not to be silenced in the face of obvious incompetence, the boy's father (Tommy Lee Jones) begins his own investigations aided all the while by police detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron).
Co-starring Susan Sarandon and James Franco and directed by Paul Haggis, In the Valley of Elah has all the appearances of a well-constructed, well-played thriller, with enough references to present political events to give it a contraversial sting in its tail.
Though it faces stiff competition from such heavyweight new war-pictures as Lions for Lambs, Charlie Wilson's War and The Kite Runner, it still has potential.
In the Valley of Elah will be released in the US later in September. It's Australian release date has not yet been announced. Chances are it will be out sometime early next year.
Johnny Depp in the TV-series 21 Jump Street
It's really quite astounding to examine the careers of Johnny Depp and Will Smith side by side. The similarities between the careers of these two seemingly polar opposites is really quite uncanny, and the results have been the same for both. 44 (Depp) and 39 (Smith) respectively, these two artists are at the top of their game.
They can both single handedly command hundred million dollar box-offices in virtually any genre. They can have any role they want. Their multi-million dollar salaries allow them to be producers in the event that they find a labour of love. They have both been nominted for Oscars as Actors in a Leading Role twice, and, frankly, who is more favoured to win an Oscar than these two?
Depp and Smith are two of the most respected names in Hollywood right now, the Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart of the 21st. However, past comparisons aside, it is doubtful whether any actors have managed their careers so intelligently or so successful as these two in Hollywood history.
Though every major actor and actress in Hollywood usually find themselves making a series of comebacks (with varying degrees of success) throughout their film careers, Depp and Smith have both remained in peak form critically and commercially now for going on two decades and are in no danger of slowing down.
Will Smith as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
This is nothing short of miraculous in a viper pit such as Hollywood where a younger, hotter model is lurking around every corner. Will Smith and Johnny Depp have both succeeded in doing something most actors either can't or don't do: reading the whims of the audiences and reacting accordingly.
The difference lies in the manner in which they have done so - and it's plainly visible. While Will Smith has retained a clean cut all-American image his entire career, Depp has forever been the bad boy, a rebel without a cause James Dean would have envied. The fact is that they couldn't have chosen more wisely and their careers have prospered as a result.
Both actors began their careers in late 80's TV-series that were highly symbolic of where their careers were headed.
A 24 year-old Depp hit the small screen in the teen-crime-drama 21 Jump Street in 1987 while a 22 year-old Smith grabbed his first lead in the series Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1990. They both went on to grab iconic leading roles in somewhat risky film projects. For Smith this was Bad Boys. For Depp it was Edward Scissorhands. Both projects resulted in fruitful commerical and creative partnerships for the young actors.
Depp in the role that made him a star - Edward Scissorhands
For Depp, Edward Scissorhands united him with emergent artistic director Tim Burton. The result has been one of the most successful creative and commercial pairings in recent Hollywood history. For Smith, there was a sequel, but more importantly his obvious talent for playing unorthodox crime fighters was revealed to magnificent effect.
Post Edward Scissorhands, Depp realised he had come to be perceived as a dreamy, unconventional leading man. He acted accordingly with a string of succesful pictures including Arizona Dream, Benny & Joon, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood and Don Juan DeMarco, unusual stories all to which Depp's style of performance brought a touching humanity.
Smith followed Bad Boys with a string of quirky action movies, allowing him to play various dedicated and yet comedic heroic parts in movies such as Independence Day, Men in Black, Enemy of the State and Wild Wild West.
For both actors it was a period of about three years each in which they were somewhat typecast, and their box-offices were beginning to suffer as a result.
Will Smith received his first Oscar nomination in this Mohammad Ali biopic
Depp executed a stunning turn around to play a string of R-rated movies in which he was usually the antagonist or anti-hero. The result was a string of brilliantly iconic movies including Dead Man, Donnie Brasco and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which won him a great deal of positive Oscar buzz. Unfortunately no nomination was forthcoming.
Smith took a racial direction, making the poignant movie The Legend of Bagger Vance. He then perceived that biopics were the latest craze in Hollywood and starred in a Mohammad Ali biopic Ali in 2001, winning his first Oscar nomination.
By this point both actors had been on screen for about a decade each and technically their careers should have begun to wind down. Yet there was no sign of it. Depp re-teamed with Burton for the brilliant collaboration Sleepy Hollow, while Smith made two highly successful sequels to Bad Boys and Men in Black.
The iconic Captain Jack Sparrow
Depp then won himself what would prove to be one of the greatest roles of his career so far, and simultaneously grabbing his first Oscar nomination for Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Smith grabbed headlines in I, Robot.
Both actors, reacting no doubt to demographic read-outs displaying their popularity with women aged 14 to 50, made two brilliantly successful romantic comedies. Hitch for Smith and Finding Neverland for Depp. Smith then went on to win a second Oscar nomination in the critically acclaimed and commercially succesful movie The Pursuit of Happiness, while Depp went on to collaborate with Tim Burton in the popular movies Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was also alive and well on the side.
That brings us to the present and just exactly where these two astonishing artists careers are headed. The short answer is up. Will Smith's next action epic was brilliantly chosen. I Am Legend is a cult novel that has already proven itself highly successful on the screen in the past. The latest adaptation looks to leave its predecessors in the dust and make Smith another small fortune.
Will Smith cemented his name as an actors actor in this well received hit
Johnny Depp is signed up for the upcoming sequels to the succesful noir-thriller Sin City. He also has two movies of his own production preparing to start filming. Most importantly of all he is collaborating once again with Tim Burton on the screen version of the iconic musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (remember?), which is already the most anticipated early release of 2008.
Either way, these two performers have spent their careers lighting up the screen with performances that go beyond the mere commercial and audiences have responded. While this continues to be the case they will continue to do so. The result is that Johnny Depp and Will Smith remain two of the most successful leading men in Hollywood history. Carefully crafted careers based on bold creative decisions have resulted in cinematic brilliance for both of them. Chances are they are going to be around for a long time to come and frankly who is going to complain?
Naomi Watts most promising vehicle so far
Australian chanteuse Naomi Watts has certainly carved out a solid niche for herself in Hollywood, but she has never exactly seemed to grab for herself the attention that is owing an actress of her calibre. She has never managed to win the sort of roles that has managed to firmly place both Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman on the map as Hollywood royalty, box-office gold and prolific Oscar favourites.
Admitedly she has never been one for conventional movies. She was first noticed in the internationally acclaimed but interminably weird Mullholland Drive. Since then she has played The Ring, Plots With a View, Le Divorce, 21 Grams, I Heart Huckabees, Stay, King Kong and The Painted Veil and has failed to win herself an audience with any of them.
Perhaps this will change with her next major movie. Due for a limited October 25 release Down Under, Eastern Promises is the story of a Russian mafia family in London who are threatened when a young midwife, Anna Khitrova (Watts), begins to delve into the background of a fourteen year-old girl who died in child birth.
Watts co-stars with the chrismatic Viggo Mortensen and brilliant German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl
Led by Semyon (Academy award nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl, who Australian audiences will best remember as Peter, diabolical father of David Helfgott in the movie Shine), the family slowly flexes its muscles in the form of enforcers Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) and Kirril (Vincent Cassell), who go after Khitrova in an attempt to silence her enquiries and effect a string of murders and deceptions accross London.
The movie is, on paper, a potential Oscar winner, and is fast gaining Oscar buzz as its advertising campaigns heat up prior to its US release. However, it comes with a couple of drawbacks. First: Viggo Mortensen. The Lord of the Rings star has yet to prove himself a hit as anything other than a king of Gondor. Second: director David Cronenberg is popular in arthouse circles and overseas, but he's never hit it big in Hollywood. Furthermore his last crime-drama A History of Violence was, to say the least, underwhelming.
The presence of Armin Mueller-Stahl and Miss Watts, however, says a great deal for this picture. More importantly it has to its advantage a killer trailer and what looks like a series of brilliant performances by a well chosen ensemble cast. With a release on the horizon and an up and coming Australian actress in what could be the role of her career so far, Eastern Promises is worth a look.
Nick Hogan is the one on the right
It's been a bit of disaster movie in Hollywood of late.
Within a few days of each other, Nick Hogan (spawn of WWE - or is it F? - showpony Hulk Hogan) was involved in a drag racing incident that led to the destruction of his car and the hospitalisation of close friend John Graziano, 2 Fast and 2 Furious director John Singleton was in volved with a fatal car accident (a lady stepped out in front of him) and Owen Wilson attempted suicide!
Hogan was drag racing and has a history of smashing up cars, speeding and reckless behaviour behind the wheel. He's already due in court for a prior offence and will no doubt face charges for this incident. If Graziano survives, a lawsuit will most likely stem from that direction also
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I recently posted a cover shoot of Gwyneth Paltrow in W! Magazine looking airbrushed out of existence. Well the entire inside shoot is now online and one has to wonder just what exactly the blonde bombshell was thinking when she allowed them to go to print.
Though gently smoothed over celebrity features on magazine covers are a common feature of the fashion and film worlds today, what Ms Paltrow has sought to do with this her latest photo shoot is beyond ridiculous.
The brief, accompanying article proudly cries that the mother of two was returning from "hiatus" to the silver screen. One could almost hear the horns of triumph sound as Gwyneth is pictured ascending Olympus to reclaim (to much applause) her superstardom - left volunatrily because other more important things come first - natutally
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Liev and Naomi take new baby Alexander Peter out on the town
Naomi Watts and almost-hubby Liev Schrieber made headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. The poor couple, recently delivered of a son (Alexander Peter), were shopping together in L.A. when they were mobbed by papparazzi hoping to catch a shot of the little fella out with Mom and Daddy.
Unfortunately - and this will shock no one! - they went too far and the police had to be called to protect the trio from harm. Worse still the event was repeated and the couple were pinned down for going on an hour outside an L.A. eatery while the press just crushed in on them and took pictures.
Liev, every bit the protective hubby - well almost-hubby - did his nut and told the press where they could stick it! Good on him!!! The swing for the papparazzi was that none of the high-paying periodicals would use any of the pictures of little Alex Watts-Schreiber (Naomi gets top billing damnit!) and every accompanying article included a disgusted "tutt-tutt" at the heavy tactics of the "papparazzo" these days
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Anne Hathaway of Becoming Jane and The Devil Wears Prada
Britney Spears, Keira Knightley, Lindsay Lohan, Anne Hathaway, Paris Hilton and Scarlett Johansson...
Between them these six girls have captured the eyes of the world more than any celebrities their age. Even so, you would almost never find them mentioned in the same breath, unless a sharp contrast is being made. Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan, for example, are both internationally recognised actresses - just for vastly different reasons!
Everyone has an opinion about these girls. People love them, or, love to hate them. Their profiles plaster the covers of the tabloids, fashion mags and in the event of a major media coup de gras even the newspapers will splash them accross the cover
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Well it seems Lindsay Lohan pleaded guilty to drunk driving. Think back a month or so and you'll remember she got drunk/high and chased her (ex?) personal assistant and then her mother in a car all the way from Malibu to Hollywood.
Well she's being sent to jail for one day and to rehab after that to cure a drug and alcohol addiction problem. The following series of statements were released by Lindsay, then her father Michael and THEN her mother Dina.
In other words the daughter spoke, then her neglectful parents. Lindsay may be "of age" but no one will ever convince us that partying and getting drunkies with Mommie in nightclubs at age 17 is not going to push you in the wrong direction
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The war of the high-digital-definition discs
Just recently there was an explosive incident in Hollywood when Paramount movie studio's decided that the upcoming release of action movie Transformers would only be released on High-Definition DVD and not on competing Blu-Ray format .
I know what you're thinking. WHAT are they and why should I care?
Well, it would seem they are what will eventually replace DVD's. That's right. The reign of the DVD is already coming to a close after barely a decade of prominence. Now is the time for those of us who have gone out and spent a small fortune on acquiring our favourite movies (while building up a vast DVD library in the process!) to all feel stupid and robbed, while major movie studio's rub their hands together and get ready to cash in - AGAIN
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Keira Knightley's next major movie
Everyone knew that Keira Knightley could do sexy. Those who didn't get it in her first two noticeable roles (Bend it Like Beckham and Doctor Zhivago) certainly found out in a big way in Pirates of the Caribbean. That girl not only had it but dayum she knew how to work it too.
Since that fateful blockbuster (unlike some ex-Lord of the Ring's starring playboys we could mention!) Keira career has gone from strength to strength.
An Oscar nomination (Pride & Prejudice), contraversy (Domino), failed action movies (King Arthur) and co-starring with the likes of Judi Dench, Brenda Blethyn and Vanessa Redgrave while the Oscar buzz roles right on in! She's the way Scarlett Johansson would have been had she accepted the best of her scripts instead of simply doing all of them
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