plus 4, Stephenie Meyer dismisses reports of 'drama' with movie studio - Seattle Post Intelligencer

Stephenie Meyer dismisses reports of 'drama' with movie studio - Seattle Post Intelligencer
Movie review: ‘The Book of Eli' character carries Bible to save ... - News-Sentinel
Blake Lively says sex scene in her new movie 'made her cry' - Newstrack India
'Beatles' assemble for movie - Batavia Sun
'Slumdog' child star Rubina Ali to get $145,000 for book and new movie ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Stephenie Meyer dismisses reports of 'drama' with movie studio - Seattle Post Intelligencer

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 03:13 PM PST

"Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer has assured fans she isn't fighting with movie bosses over the final vampire movie "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn," insisting reports were fabricated to "stir things up."

Production was said to have stalled on the big-screen adaptation of Meyer's fourth and final "Twilight" book, "Breaking Dawn," which Summit Entertainment executives reportedly wanted to split into two films.

But Meyer denies she has been trying to coerce the filmmakers into making just one film out of her 754-page novel - because she supports whatever creative decision they make.

In a post on her official blog, Meyer writes, "Just a quick note on the subject of the Breaking Dawn film: there is no drama over whether the book should be one movie or two. My personal feeling is that it would be very difficult to cram the whole story into one movie (as I've said in many interviews previous to this), but if a great way of doing that surfaces, I'm all for it. Two or one, whichever way fits the story best is fine by me, and everyone I've spoken with at Summit seems to feel the same way.

"We're all excited to move forward on this, and we are slowly and surely getting there. I know people are anxious for news, and so sometimes gossip gets fabricated to stir things up, but there's no basis to this particular story."

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Movie review: ‘The Book of Eli' character carries Bible to save ... - News-Sentinel

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 07:59 PM PST

Most everyone wears goggles and leather in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of "The Book of Eli." A meteorite and a war 30 years earlier have scorched the Earth and the population.

The landscape (shot in New Mexico) is much like an old Western: Bandits (albeit cannibalizing bandits) lurk the desert roads, while rough crowds take refuge in hardscrabble towns. At the downtown saloon, water, not whiskey, is "the good stuff."

Across this charred land strides our Christian cowboy, Eli (Denzel Washington), a mysterious, solitary man who carries the last remaining Bible in his backpack. He also carries a silver knife and a shotgun, and he's an expert with both.

He has heard God's voice in his head, and he walks west with divine determination. He says to himself, "Stay on the path."

After the cataclysm that rocked the Earth, many blamed the troubles on religion. All the books were burned, making the few that remain precious.

Those born after this event have no knowledge of books. The elders are the exception, those who lived "before." Among them is Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a villainous man who presides over the town Eli wanders into.

He sends his minions out in search of a Bible, though all they can do is return with "The Da Vinci Code." An intellectual (we meet him reading a biography of Mussolini), Carnegie believes the Bible's power will make him a great leader: "It's a weapon," he says.

When Eli and Carnegie meet, fighting ensues. A young woman, Solara (Mila Kunis, gets roped into the fracas. Tom Waits makes a good cameo as a simple, quirky shopkeeper.

"The Book of Eli" is the first movie in nine years from Albert and Allen Hughes – the filmmaking brothers of "From Hell" and "Menace II Society."

Post-apocalyptic tales are all the rage these days, and it's easy to see the imprint of Cormac McCarthy's far more deeply felt "The Road" – recently adapted with disappointing results – on "The Book of Eli." Like McCarthy's great novel, "The Book of Eli" follows a wandering man on a lawless road while carrying his charge.

But "The Book of Eli" doesn't get too biblical, and mostly is content to spout a few verses before a battle.

The Hughes brothers don't let a bullet or arrow fly without sending their cameras behind to track it in slow-motion. That such a Christian-themed film relishes violence so much is obviously contradictory to its message.

Blink and you'll miss the only allusion to other religious tomes – a cheap, belated try at tolerance. One senses the Bible was chosen for "The Book of Eli" earnestly, but perhaps also for its cultural weight.

Cinematographer Don Burgess has drained the film to a sepia. What breathes life into "The Book of Eli" is the performances, most notably by Washington and Oldman.

It's fun to see Oldman, relatively boring in the Batman films, return to full villain mode. He's not over-the-top, as he was in "The Professional," but a rational, intelligent survivor – a frustrated dictator. He wants order, but wants to control it.

Washington, too, is in his wheelhouse. Ever able to play a man with purpose, he propels the film on a straightforward, linear path: a charismatic man of few words, with a whole lot of them in his sack.

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Blake Lively says sex scene in her new movie 'made her cry' - Newstrack India

Posted: 12 Jan 2010 11:42 PM PST

Melbourne, Jan 13 (ANI): American actress Blake Lively has revealed that doing a sex scene in her upcoming movie was anything but steamy, and it left her pretty much crying.

Lively, 22, also said that the sex scene in the Ben Affleck-directed movie 'The Town' was not supposed to be steamy but rather tragic.

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"I have a sex scene in this film and that's never comfortable," News.com.au quoted her as telling Esquire magazine.

"You think, 'Oh, that's going to be so awkward'. But this scene isn't supposed to be a steamy one - it's sort of tragic... I'm pretty much crying in it," she added. (ANI)

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'Beatles' assemble for movie - Batavia Sun

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 01:58 AM PST

ANOTHER CLUE FOR YOU ALL | Disney plans 'Submarine'

It's "all together now" for the cast of director Robert Zemeckis' upcoming Beatles feature.

Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell are in negotiations to portray the members of the band in "Yellow Submarine," which the director is remaking for Disney.

The original 1968 animated movie was based on music by the Beatles.

As with his recently released "A Christmas Carol," Zemeckis is making the movie using 3D performance-capture technology.

A Beatles tribute band will be motion-captured for the performance sequences, but won't play, since actual Beatles music will be utilized.

Kelly, a British actor on the BBC's "Robin Hood" series, is portraying John Lennon. Serafinowicz, cast as Paul McCartney, appeared in "Shaun of the Dead" and in "Couples Retreat."

Elwes, who worked with Zemeckis on "A Christmas Carol," will play George Harrison. Campbell ("Epic Movie," "Date Movie") will be Ringo Starr.

Hollywood Reporter

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'Slumdog' child star Rubina Ali to get $145,000 for book and new movie ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 13 Jan 2010 02:23 PM PST

MUMBAI, India - "Slumdog Millionaire" child star Rubina Ali played a poverty-stricken child in the Oscar-winning film, but the real-life daughter of India's shantytowns now has a small fortune in book and movie deals.

The 10-year-old's publisher and a producer say she is already committed to projects worth more than $145,000, and her family will could soon move out of the slums and into a new apartment paid for by a trust set up by the film's director, Danny Boyle.

Rubina and her "Slumdog" co-star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 11, have both landed roles in the independent film "Lord Owen's Lady," a romantic comedy by Dragons Productions (Wales) Ltd., chairman Martin Pennell said.

Pennell said the children will each be paid 1,000 pounds ($1,626) per day, for about 20 days of shooting on location in Dubai and Wales.

He said talks are ongoing with actor Anthony Hopkins to play the father of Lord Owen, a reckless heir who falls in love with a beautiful Indian woman.

The children shot to fame after starring in "Slumdog," the rags-to-riches blockbuster that won eight Oscars. Rubina played the young Latika, who grows up to become the hero's love interest, and Azhar plays his brother, Salim.

Rubina has also received 20,000 pounds ($32,515) as an advance for her autobiography, published in June, and stands to get at least 50,000 pounds ($81,287) more in royalties by April, said Philippe Robinet, publisher at France's Oh! Editions, which first released the book.

Random House released an English version of the 198-page book, which is being translated into 14 languages, as "Slumgirl Dreaming."

Robinet said at least 100,000 copies of the book have been sold worldwide so far. Rubina's royalties will be administered by A.F.E.A., L'Association Francaise pour L'Enfance Abandonnee, a French charity that works with homeless children.

"I strongly hope Rubina could have a better life from this book," Robinet said by phone from Paris. "It's not so easy to do. I'm not sure we'll succeed."

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