By Jason Apuzzo. • Steven Spielberg’s War Horse now has its star: Jeremy Irvine. This film is looking like Empire of the Sun redux for Spielberg, and will probably a major tear-jerker. Bread-and-butter material for him, although World War I traditionally a tough sell at the box office. My personal World War I favorite? Easily The Blue Max with George Peppard, James Mason and the luscious Ursula Andress.
• In other horse news, the Saudis have banned a documentary on Arabian horses, because the film features female horse riders. We should airdrop 2,000 DVDs of Raquel Welch’s Bandolero! on them.
• Miley Cyrus is turning 18 … and immediately going ‘dark’ for her next film, Paramount’s adaption of the teen novel/paranormal thriller Wake. Miley’s about three years from becoming Lindsay Lohan, although probably still a good five years from going the full Britney. On a related note, can we all agree now that Perez Hilton’s career is over?
• George Lucas will be doing an hour long interview with Jon Stewart in Orlando in August at Star Wars Celebration V. The last interview these guys did together was fun. It was also, weirdly, the only interview I noticed George do for his new book, Blockbusting, which looks like an interesting read. Hoping we hear more in this interview about the retrofitting of the Star Wars films into 3D …
• … and speaking of 3D, there’s an interesting interview today with Ridley Scott about his use of 3D in the forthcoming Alien prequel(s). There’s also some interesting speculation in the UK’s Guardian about what the storyline for the first prequel might be. People shouldn’t forget casting here, as well. The original Alien films benefitted greatly from the tremendous casts gathered by Scott and also James Cameron. My personal hope is that Scott casts Brits or Aussies. [Paul Bettany?] Then I’ll believe this might work.
• In other news, Michael Winterbottom is taking heat for his misogynistic thriller, The Killer Inside Me. This guy is such a train wreck. As penance, he should be forced to direct prequels to every film Madonna’s ever made.
• The Logan’s Run screenplay is apparently being written by 28 Days Later’s Alex Garland, who took pot shots at the British military in Danny Boyle’s zombie pic. Will BP be the villain in this remake?
• Angelina Jolie has recorded this video on behalf of World Refugee Day, which is appropriate given that she’s already adopted 27% of the world’s refugees.
• 30 years after its release, the Vatican has endorsed The Blues Brothers, calling the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd film a “Catholic classic.” That’s fine, but I think the Vatican should really break its decades-long silence on Trading Places.
• Sir Elton John is explaining why he agreed to play at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding. It’s not hard to explain! For their age range, those guys have the two best voices on radio. In other wedding news: Harrison Ford and Callista Flockhart finally got married, and Megan Fox got engaged … then promptly lost her ring.
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Diane Kruger (Inglorious Bastards) reveals today that she almost suffocated wearing this Karl Lagerfeld dress at a recent Venice Film Festival. Fashion hurts.
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …
Posted on June 17th, 2010 at 6:56pm.
I don’t really like what Spielberg’s been doing with his career. Maybe now he’s returning to family-friendly entertainment.
Spielberg’s work is so much more interesting when he’s writing the screenplay, and generating the project himself. So many of his projects just seem to be busywork projects, based on other people’s properties. This one may fall into that category. We’ll see.
I loveee Diane Kruger’s Karl Lagerfeld dress! Why would that be uncomfortable? Tight corset? Anyway, he’s a genius designer. All his clothing is very intellectual and classic, and actually suits Kruger well. Must be their common German background.
I just commented about all the ’80s remakes, and now we’re getting more 70s remakes? Logan’s Run? Why? I’m only somewhat more interested in the Alien prequels. 3D would be a cool addition, but only if they find a new angle on the story that we haven’t all seen a thousand times before.
And if Ridley Scott works in yet another anti-Iraq war commentary or some sort of enviro message or some message that terrorists are really freedom fighters or some other liberal crap into the storyline I’m going to take a fifty pound bag of rotten tomatoes and express courier them to Sir Ridley’s office – where ever it is, at whatever expense. At least he’ll know then we’re not all a bunch of dupes.
Delightful news that Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart have married. Interesting combination, Han Solo and Ally McBeal. Realize they have been together for many years and happy to hear that they have finally decided to make it permanent. Wish them great happiness.