Soderbergh Thinks Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Is Crazy

It was only about a month ago that Ridley Scott publicly stated he was extremely impressed with what James Cameron is doing with his upcoming “revolutionary” CGI-fest known as Avatar. He effectively said he’d be following in his footsteps as far as using the technology with his own upcoming movie Forever War, as well as calling it “phenomenal.” However, it seems that Scott hasn’t been the only director to be wowed by Mr Cameron’s work.

There have been a few directors that have been lured to the set of Avatar ever since it started filming, including the big guys, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson (you may have heard the names…), but also the diverse filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. The Ocean’s and Traffic director let his thoughts be known about it a while ago, but has given some more more recently.

Star Wars Back In Production In Hollywood

There isn’t a new Star Wars movie in production if that’s what you’re thinking. And, the live-action series Lucas is planning is still in the writing and pre-production phase.

What’s really going on then?

A West Hollywood sound stage is full of familiar faces like Ackbar, C3PO and Boba Fett as Lucasfilm produces new material for an updating of Disney’s Star Tours ride. You can always trust Disney and Lucas to keep up with the newest in entertainment tech.

It’s hardly surprising Lucas is sticking to the “classic trilogy” heroes and villains for the updating. I mean, what are the odds that we’ll catch anything resembling a glimpse of Jar Jar Binks anywhere?

Michael Sheen To Be Tron 2 Villain?

Michael Sheen is one of those actors who not only plays the part but becomes the person he is portraying. Much like Daniel Day-Lewis in that sense, Sheen has made a career of playing real-life celebrities. Some examples being Tony Blair in The Queen (as well as in other projects), TV personality and journalist David Frost in Frost/Nixon, and most recently the infamous Leeds United soccer team manager Brian Clough in The Damned United.

However, that’s not all he does - he also goes for the more fantastical roles such as Lucian in the Underworld series and his upcoming role in The Twilight Saga’s New Moon. Now, it looks like he may follow the fantasy route again as rumors and speculation are abound that he will star in the upcoming long-awaited sequel Tron 2.

The speculation all started when Sheen mentioned on Twitter yesterday that he was starring in some sort of mysterious film that he isn’t allowed to talk about yet. The obvious questions came up about projects he’s already announced to be in such as New Moon, Alice in Wonderland or The Special Relationship (playing Tony Blair again), but alas: no dice.

Heath Ledger’s Final Movie Opening In Cannes

Before his tragic and ill-timed passing, Heath Ledger was in the middle of making another film after his inspiring characterization of The Joker in The Dark Knight. This last project that Heath Ledger worked on was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. After Heath’s passing, big name actors Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp stepped in to play the role of Tony that Heath was playing to help finish the film. This Terry Gilliam-directed (Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, Monty Python And The Holy Grail) fantasy film is about an extraordinary traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom.

Additional cast members for the movie include Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits and Verne Troyer. (Well at least Verne isn’t making any more “personal” videos!) For those who don’t know, the Cannes Film Festival began in 1946 and takes place annually at the end of May at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France. The festival is an important venue for European films and a popular venue for film producers to launch their new projects in attempt to sell their works to the many distributors who come from all over the globe to take part in the prestigious event.

Eclipse Director Hates Twilight?

The recently announced director of The Twilight Saga’s Eclipse, David Slade, has had his twitter account completely removed. Why? And what does that have to do with anything?

Well, because one of his tweets from back when Twilight hit theaters last fall made fun of the movie and revealed that Slade wanted to avoid it like the Plague. Uh oh!

The folks over at /Film uncovered this interesting information and have an audio clip up of director David Slade talking on a radio show about what he had said. Just to clarify, he didn’t say he hates the movie, he just joked about how he had no interest in seeing it because he obviously thought it was stupid and he relayed that info to his followers in a poetic and humorous fashion.

G.I. Joe Will Not Be Political

The background of the whole G.I. Joe mythology, which dates back to World War II, plus all of the military activity (outfits and such…) we’ve seen in the footage released so far, suggests some sort of political angle within the movie. Well, according to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, that’s not the case:

“This G.I. Joe has nothing to do with American foreign policy. It’s about a team of skilled operatives fighting an evil organization that’s trying to take over the world. There are no politics in it at all.”

Also, when comparisons were brought up between G.I. Joe and Transformers, Bonaventura weighed in with an objection:

“Actually, we were working on a G.I. Joe movie long before we did Transformers and our Joe isn’t based on the animated series–it’s based on the comic books that came out in 1982 and 1983.”

You wouldn’t expect a G.I. Joe movie that looks as silly as this one does to be chalk full of intelligent commentary on the political world of today. However, it may be expected that politics would play at least some part in it, even if isn’t a major one. It’s kind of encouraging to hear they are going at it as a purely “fun” and action type of movie that you’d want to see - I’m pretty sure the audiences that have been wanting a live-action G.I. Joe for years now aren’t heading to the theater in the hopes for a political lecture.

New Brad Pitt Poster for "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS"

Ain't It Cool News has your first look at a new character poster from Quentin Tarantino's "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS" featuring Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine.

Opening August 21st, the ensemble cast also includes Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall, Omar Doom, Sylvester Groth, Julie Dreyfus, Jacky Ido, August Diehl, Martin Wuttke, Richard Sammel, Christian Berkel, Sonke Mohring, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, Denis Menochet, Cloris Leachman, Maggie Cheung and Samuel L. Jackson.