Ed Norton considered getting stoned for his role in ‘Leaves of Grass’ but decided against it because “you’ve got to be able to focus.”

The actor plays twin bothers — Bill, an Ivy League professor, and Brady, a hydroponic marijuana grower — in the film, which screened at TIFF. And MTV reports that Norton wondered at one point if method acting was the way to best play moments when a character is under the influence.

“I wondered, ‘Would being stoned look way better on the film than acting stoned?’” Norton reportedly said. He opted, however, to forgo the high in favour of clarity. “The truth of the matter is, making movies is so … especially doing something like twins … you’ve got to be able to focus. I don’t think I could function the way I need to function.”

MTV says Norton is a big proponent of marijuana legalization, which he called, “just rational.”

“Our culture exists with these ridiculous hypocrisies of legalizing one form of controlled substance versus another,” he explained. “The economic arguments, the arguments in terms of both enforcement and safety [and] rehabilitation, it’s something we’ve got to get around to a more rational place on.”

‘Leaves of Grass,’ a comedy thriller, also stars Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon. It opens in theatres December 25.

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The ‘Twilight’ series might have been minus one heartthrob if Taylor Lautner had landed a role in the ‘Fame’ remake instead.

The actor, who plays werewolf Jacob Black in the vampire franchise, was auditioning for the two films at the same time. He tried out for a lead in ‘Fame’ alongside actress Keke palmer. 

Palmer told the website Mmm.com, “We were both up for roles in the movie, and we both didn’t get parts. He wouldn’t have been able to do ‘Twilight’ if he did ‘Fame,’ so I’m happy he lost out.”

‘Fame’ opened in third place this weekend, taking in $10 million, behind ‘Surrogates,’ which earned $15 million, and ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,’ which refused to relinquish the top spot from last week and grossed $24.6 million.

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Moviemaker Brett Ratner appears to be making a weird joke with a scene in the film ‘New York I Love You.’

Ratner reportedly told the UK Daily Express that he lost his virginity to a paraplegic dangling from a tree and that now he has turned the sexual encounter into a scene in the collaborative work of short films by various directors. The alleged deflowering took place in Miami, Florida while the film’s scene is set in Central Park.

The ‘Rush Hour’ director also apparently told the paper he had to tone it down because producers couldn’t stomach the idea of his lead actor, Anton Yelchin, making love to a tied-up paraplegic woman.

“It’s probably my most personal film,” Ratner reportedly said. “When I sent the original script, which is autobiographical, the producers would not let me film it because, in the original ending, she (the girl) is a cripple, and they have sex as she’s hanging from a tree in Central Park.

“Everyone was freaking out over my short, so I changed it to where she wasn’t a cripple, but an actress pretending to be a cripple.”

In the scene, the girl, played by Olivia Thirlby, insists Ratner’s character (Yelchin) make love to her, while she is suspended from a tree.

If, however, something strikes you as faintly suspect about Ratner’s claims, you might be right. TheImproper.com points out that the story appears to be directly purloined from an old joke that involves a paraplegic woman having sex while dangling from a tree.

The Improper says, “It’s a sick joke, but it’s even sicker, almost unbelievable, that Ratner has incorporated the alleged sexual encounter into a scene in his latest film, ‘New York I love You.’ And has the audacity to claim it’s true.”

Ratner also claimed to have had problems shooting in Central Park due to tree related regulations. “I had just two days to shoot the scene. I thought it would be easy because it was Central Park,” he said. “I go into the park and I take the girl, and she weighs, like, 75 pounds and I hang her off the tree. The problem was that the law in Central Park states that you’re not allowed to touch a tree if you’re a film crew; you can’t go near a tree.

“So they said, ‘You can’t do this, can you make it a pole?’ I said, ‘I can’t, it has to be a tree.’ They wouldn’t even allow us to go on the grass. So, in the gravel part of the park, I put all this fake grass down and we had to bring in, believe it or not, our own tree that we flew in from upstate New York! We put that tree up and it was a nightmare because there were park rangers watching us making sure we weren’t breaking the law. It was crazy.”

Why he might have lied about the encounter is unclear.

Ratner has recently signed on to direct ‘Rush Hour 3.’ No word on whether it will involve a priest and a rabbi waking into a bar, a chicken crossing a road or a family act called ‘The Aristocrats.’

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The cast of the hit sitcom ‘Friends’ will reunite for a feature film.

Actor James Michael Tyler, who played coffee shop manager/Rachel admirer Gunther on the show told the News of the World “Friends: The Movie is definitely on. I still keep in touch with a lot of the cast and they say that they are really keen.”

It is largely assumed that Warner Brothers will shell out big bucks for the stars’ salaries. During the tenth and final season in 2004, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer, now all in their forties, were earning six figures an episode.

Since then, however, most of their careers have not been quite as successful.

A source said, “The cast haven’t set the world alight since the show finished.

“But this film could relight some of their flagging careers in a big way.”

‘Friends’ creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman are on board to write and produce the film, due for release 2011.

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Roman Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland didn’t stop Zurich Film Festival organizers from honouring the director with a lifetime achievement ceremony Sunday night.  

The ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘Chinatown’ director was scheduled to receive the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye award for lifetime achievement and to take part in a masterclass with young filmmakers when he was taken into custody at Zurich Airport on Saturday. He is now awaiting potential extradition to the U.S. on a 1977 charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The arrest came as a surprise because Polanski has travelled in Switzerland many times over the last three decades and even has a house in the country. CTV news says the Swiss Justice Ministry released a statement Sunday, saying the U.S. had been seeking Polanski’s arrest in various countries since 2005 but it is still unclear why the arrest is taking place now. Polanski has lived in Paris and avoided countries with US extradition since he was charged in 1977.
 
According to Variety, Zurich Film Festival organizers said in a statement that they were “shocked and dismayed” by the arrest. They decided to go ahead with the award ceremony, “A Tribute to Roman Polanski,” and the retrospective of his work on Sunday.

“Obviously we had no knowledge whatsoever of the plans to arrest Roman Polanski,” festival director Karl Spoerri told the 650 people who came to see the tribute. “The jury decided months ago to honor Roman Polanski. There was never any suggestion at any time from Polanski’s management or from Swiss authorities that Polanski would be detained.”

Outside the theatre, protesters reportedly held signs reading “Free Polanski” and “Polanski’s arrest is a disgrace for culture in Switzerland.”

And Screen Daily reports that, in place of the masterclass, the festival screened a copy of the documentary ‘Roman Polanski – Wanted and Desired’, which deals in detail with the events surrounding the sex crime allegations and suggests there was misconduct during the trial on the part of  Santa Monica Judge Laurence A. Rittenband, who has since died.

In another show of support, producer Henning Molfenter, who was scheduled to attend the Festival as a jury member, is boycotting the festival to protest Polanski’s arrest. This is according to The Hollywood Reporter. Actor Til Schweiger and composer Niki Reiser are expected to follow suit.

“There is no way I’d go to Switzerland now – you can’t watch films knowing Roman Polanski is sitting in a cell 5 km away,” Molfenter told The Hollywood Reporter.

Molfenter is a producer with Studio Babelsberg, a co-producer on Polanski’s latest project, ‘The Ghost,’ currently in post production. It is based on the bestselling novel by Robert Harris bestseller and stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Kim Cattrall.

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The ‘Eclipse’ set is a dangerous place to be.

What exactly happened is not clear but MTV says Jackson Rathbone was injured earlier this week on the set of the David Slade-directed pic. The actor, who plays Jasper Hale, was taken to hospital but able to return to work shortly afterwards and is doing fine.

A rep for the film told Access Hollywood, “Actor Jackson Rathbone of ‘The Twilight Saga’ movies was slightly injured yesterday [September 22] during a fight scene rehearsal. As a precaution, he was driven to the hospital and checked out by a doctor. He’s fine and is back at work on the set of ‘Eclipse’ today.”

Ashley Greene, who plays Alice, Jasper’s love interest and the sister of romantic lead vampire Edward Cullen, recently told MTV News that training for the film was grueling, saying “We’re getting battered and bruised, but it’s good, though. We’re kind of just getting into it. All the battle and fight stuff is going to happen next month.”

Photos of the actress appeared online showing her with black-and-blue marks on her body but she assured fans it’s all part of the job and things were going great.

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‘The Avengers’ won’t be coming to the big screen until 2012 but Ed Norton has said that, when it does, he would like to be up there as The Hulk.

Marvel Comics’ team of superheroes – not to be confused with the 1960s British television series of the same name – was introduced in 1963 and originally consisted of Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk. Many others were introduced later, including Captain America, who will be part of the production, according to MTV.

“Yeah, oh yeah,” Norton enthused to MTV. “The thing about [Marvel's] universe that’s fun is that it all cross-pollinates. Even when I was working on the script [for 'The Incredible Hulk'], I tried to plug in the whole Super-Soldier Serum from Captain America.”

Norton is even envisioning The Hulk as the film’s villain. “He kind of was, not in the books, but in the comics there was always a tension between the rest of the superhero community and he was always this problem,” Norton explained. “They treat him as this problem. I don’t know, I think that’s a fun way to go with it.”

Robert Downey Jr. is said to be taking his role of Iron Man to the project and Scarlett Johansson has expressed an interest in bringing the Black Widow on board.

Johansson will play the Black Widow in the coming ‘Iron Man 2.’ Fans have expressed skepticism about her ability to take on the role but Johansson is hoping they will embrace her portrayal of the Russian Spy. She recently told Ireland Online, “I’m hoping that if the fans like the character and support the character, we’ll see her again. I hope I get to come back and do it again. The character certainly comes back. We see that she does in the comics and certainly she is a big part of The Avengers. I don’t know if that is where it’s going to go but she is definitely a big part of The Avengers.”

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A fourth version of ‘A Star is Born’ may be underway. Finally.

Warner Bros. has hired up-and-coming writer Will Fetters to do a draft of the script with the aim of moving the project forward, says the Hollywood Reporter. It has been in the works for a while and a number of writers have already written drafts, including ‘Ali’ writers Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson and Reggie Rock Bythewood, who penned the Biggie Smalls biopic, ‘Notorious.’

Beyonce’s name has been mentioned in connection with the lead role but not in any official capacity.

‘Star’ is about the romance between a showbiz ingenue and an established male star as one’s career ascends and the other’s declines. Three previous versions have been made. The first was in 1937 and starred Janet Gaynor and Norman Maine. The second, in 1954, featured Judy Garland and James Mason. And the third was in 1976 and featured Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

The 1957 version ranked #7 on the American Film Institute’s list of best musicals.

The first two centered on the film business while the third was set in the music industry. THR says the coming version will also be about the music biz.

Studio observers have reportedly said that the modern era of celebrity, with its 24-hour media coverage and scrutiny, makes the time ripe for a new ‘Star Is Born.’

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Charlize Theron is sharpening her claws in the hopes of sinking them into the role of Catwoman.

The South African actress, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the 2003 drama ‘Monster,’ would be thrilled to don the PVC catsuit of the Batman antiheroine.

“That’s kick-a** news,” Charlize, 34, told the UK’s Daily Express when informed she was up for the role. “I think what has happened to that franchise is amazing. Chris Nolan is a genius. I would be an idiot to not consider that part.”

Other actresses whose names have been tossed around in connection with the part are Megan Fox, Rachel Weisz and Angelina Jolie, though in response to reports about Fox in the last week of August, a studio rep said, “It’s rumour. It’s not true. There is no script. There is no project to be cast in.”
 
Catwoman, the alter ego of Selina Kyle, has been portrayed by Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Lee Meriwether, Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry,who won a Worst Actress Razzie for her turn as the character in the 2004 box office flop, ‘Catwoman.’

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Despite a recently announced spate of lay-offs, The Weinstein Co. has big plans for the near future, which includes several sequels, some to be released in 3D.

Among the sequels is ‘Scream 4′ which will begin production in April or May of next year and will include Canadian actress Neve Campbell. This is a surprise as Campbell had previously stated she would not be returning to reprise her role of Sidney Prescott. The recent revelation had left creator Kevin Williamson struggling to write a script without her and perhaps planning to kill her off, according to MTV.

But now Variety says Campbell has had a change of heart and will be back to take part in what will be the beginning of a new trilogy. Courteney Cox and David Arquette will also reportedly be returning. Wes Craven is in talks to direct.

The first three ‘Scream’ pictures grossed approximately $100 million each in the U.S.

In other Weinstein films, Robert Rodriguez is writing ‘Spy Kids IV,’ and will direct it in 3D. The company also wants to shoot ‘Halloween III’ in 3-D and Dimension, it was recently reported, is remaking the cult classic, ‘Children of the Corn.’

Variety says Bob Weinstein also has plans for 3D sequels to ‘Hellraiser’ and ‘Scanners.’ Also mentioned was ‘An American Werewolf in London.’

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