The ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, isn’t even due for release until December but Warners is already developing a sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Riskybiz blog.

Brad Pitt has reportedly been in discussions with producers to star as Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty, though nothing is said to be signed. Rumours of Pitt’s involvement, as Moriarty, in the first ‘Holmes’ movie have been circulating the Internet but those in the know say the character is in shadow and cannot be recognized.

Guy Ritchie directed the supposedly action packed first ‘Holmes’ movie which sees Downey Jr. playing the title character with a little Kung Fu expertise under his cape. There is also a rumoured homoerotic subtext between the two characters of Holmes and Watson, played by Law.

It’s increasingly common for a studio to begin developing a sequel even ahead of a movie’s release, says THR, enabling a second film to get into production faster and at a comparatively low cost.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Variety says Sony has scheduled advance screenings of Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ documentary for Oct. 27, the day before the original release date. There will be 15 simultaneous premiere events.

“Michael Jackson has an army of fans everywhere around the world,” said Sony’s Jeff Blake. He called the plan a chance for audiences worldwide “to join together in celebration of Michael Jackson’s incredible career.”

‘This Is It’ shows footage of rehearsals for what was to be a series 50 comeback shows at London’s O2 Arena.

The screenings will reportedly begin three hours after the Los Angeles premiere at the Nokia Theater, which will kick off premieres in New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, Berlin, Johannesburg and Seoul with red carpet arrivals and activities from the L.A. event broadcast by satellite. Other cities, including Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney and Paris, will host premiere events at a later date.

The first L.A. audience will see the film at 9 p.m. local time. Start time will be midnight in New York and 4 a.m. in London.

‘This Is It’ will run for two weeks and tickets for shows, including advance screenings, go on sale Sunday.

Megan Fox may sell magazines but she doesn’t sell movie tickets.

‘Jennifer’s Body’ bombed hard at the box office this past weekend, finishing in fifth place and taking in a mere $6.8 million.

The dismal showing is mildly surprising, not only because Fox is the sexpot celeb of the summer but also because ‘Jennifer’s Body’ was penned by darling-du-jour Diablo Cody, famous as much — if not more — for her past as an exotic dancer as for her too-clever-by-half scriptwriting. Cody won an academy award last year for ‘Juno.’

Even a much ballyhooed (2 second) kiss between Fox and costar Amanda Seyfried couldn’t entice moviegoers.

Of course, perhaps audiences had had their fill of Fox by the time the film hit theatres. Over the past few months, she has appeared on the cover of countless magazines and her every move has been recounted in the press on a daily basis.

Reviews of ‘Jennifer’s Body’ have been mostly lukewarm at best, dismissive at worst. The film was called ‘lacklustre’ by the Los Angeles Times and ‘forced’ by USA Today. And The New York Daily News said, “As screenwriter Diablo Cody might say in her irritatingly pop-cult way, this zombie-chick horror-satire is more dead-eyed than Blake Lively.”

Other outlets have speculated about the possible reasons behind the ‘Body’ bomb.

Box-office analyst Jeff Bock told E! Online that the genre was problematic, saying, “The horror-comedy genre is the toughest sell in Hollywood” and simply does not do as well as straight-ahead horror or comedy.

Bock said another problem was the R rating (though 14A in Canada) as the movie is set in a high school but most teens can’t see it.

Still, there’s always DVD and Blue Ray. 

Sony’s ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ took the top spot over the weekend with $30.1 million; ‘The Informant!’ was second with $10.5 million; ‘Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself’ – now in its second week – took third place with $10.1 million; the Jennifer Aniston/Aaron Eckhart romantic comedy ‘Love Happens’ was fourth with $8.5 million.
 

(Photo by PR Photos)

Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker’s feuding is reportedly making life miserable for the other cast and crew of the second ‘Sex and the City’ movie.

Sarah and Kim, who play Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones respectively, allegedly didn’t get along when working on the series or when filming the first movie in 2008, and are said to be feuding on the current set and creating tension for everyone.

A source told Britain’s Star magazine, “While the cast is all smiles on the outside, the level of dislike is unbelievable. No-one is having a good time on this shoot.”

Both stars are said to be under stress. The source reportedly added, “Kim has been taking every chance to snipe. You could cut the tension with a knife. Their fighting has also made Cynthia and Kristin miserable, too.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

Jude Law is starring as a drag queen in a film to be released directly onto cellphones.

According to writer/director Sally Potter, the experimental movie, titled ‘Rage,’ is “a bitterly funny exposé of the inner lives of individuals working at a New York fashion house – as if shot by a schoolboy on his cellphone camera – over seven days in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation.” The cast also features Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest, John Leguizamo and Steve Buscemi.

The release is to hit phones in London England September 24 with an interactive press conference to be beamed live to 40 screens all over the world so film fans can text in questions, and is the first of its kind. Potter says, “We don’t know how this is going to work, especially since it is the first ever feature on cellphones. We’re making it up as we go along and taking the plunge and the risk.

“There’s so much terror in the film industry at the moment about piracy, people stealing your idea and making money off of it; and the only way I found of dealing with that is to say, ‘Here, have it.’ If you keep looking over your shoulder, you don’t trailblaze.

“It’s not necessarily a great money spinner. At the moment I’m in debt but the great advantage of being in debt means you’ve got nothing to lose.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

In a plan that would require some soap opera style character resurrection, Sean Connery might return to the ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise.

The 79-year-old actor turned down the chance to reprise his role of Professor Henry Jones Sr., Indiana’s father, in 2008’s  ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ because he was enjoying retirement. In the movie it was implied that Jones the elder was dead. Now, however, Contact Music says there is talk of bringing the character back.

A source reportedly said, “Steven Spielberg has been working on a script with George Lucas and there is an element of the story that could see Sean returning. Anything is possible in these movies and if Sean wants to return he will become central to the new story.” 

Last week Harrison Ford said he was ready for Indiana Jones 5 and said plans for the next film were underway.

The series is one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time. The first film was ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ released in 1981. Henry Jones Sr. was introduced in 1989’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’.

After Connery declined to appear in ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,’ George Lucas told TV Guide it had turned out for the better as Connery had only been written into part of the script. And Harrison Ford told EW, “I’m old enough to play my own father.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

Actress Michelle Williams and director Spike Jonze have ended their romance.

The pair began dating in 2008, only months after Williams’ ex-fiance Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose.
 
Williams tells Vogue, however, that they have ended their relationship and that she is still grieving the loss of Ledger, the father of her 3-year-old daughter Matilda Rose. She says, “The timing was impossible. I thought falling in love again was the only thing that was going to save me from the pain. This erroneous idea, it just makes things more complicated.”

The ‘Brokeback Mountain’ star admits she has struggled to keep going and came close to falling apart, saying, “I was holding it together by a string and a paper clip in the fall and winter. I didn’t know if I could keep it all together. You console yourself by saying it’s all a deepening process. But it’s weird. After the first year, the pain is less intense. It’s less immediate.”

Williams appeared in Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut ‘Synedoche New York,’ produced by Jonze and will be seen in the upcoming romance ‘Blue Valentine’ with Ryan Gosling, set for release in 2010.

Jonze’s highly anticipated big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ hits theatres October 16. 

(Photo by PR Photos)

‘World’s Greatest Dad’ star Robin Williams slipped in his real-life fatherly duties when he forgot to warn his daughter about his on-screen nude scene.

Starpulse says Williams’ daughter Zelda was unprepared for seeing her dad in the buff and was left cringing with embarrassment at the recent premiere of the movie.

‘World’s Greatest Dad’ has been called a disturbing film, not because of Williams’ nudity but because of its darkly comic, unsettling subject matter. In it, the comedian plays a teacher and failed writer who is a single father to a deeply troubled teenaged boy.

The nude scene (for which Williams shaved his famously hirsute body) was the actor’s own idea and not that of writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait. It was not in the original script.

Williams said, “Actually [the idea] was mine. I thought, ‘It’s at the end of the movie, where this guy is having a catharsis…he’s getting rid of everything, why not go [nude]. I dive into a pool and, coming up [to the surface], it’s almost like a rebirth. It’s a strange thing and, in a weird way, it worked.”

But Williams forgot to give his 20-year-old daughter fair warning. He added, “My daughter was at the premiere. She came up and said, ‘Thanks for telling me, dad.’ She’s 20 now and she was like, ‘Thanks for giving me a heads up about the nude scene!’”

Williams said that if the tables were turned and Zelda, an actress, were to disrobe for a movie, he would be equally horrified. “I think I’d be like, ‘Stop! Turn that off!’ That’s when hypocrisy comes up and goes, ‘Payback’s a b**ch!’”

Williams was also seen naked in ‘The Fisher King.’

(Photo by PR Photos)

Michael Jackson’s supposed fourth child may be set to play the “King of Pop” in a biopic.

It has been speculated but not conclusively proven that Omer Bhatti, a 25-year-old Norwegian Michael Jackson impersonator, is Jackson’s lovechild from a one night stand.

The two were good friends during the star’s lifetime and Bhatti has been welcomed into the Jackson family since Michael’s recent death from a drug overdose at age 50. He has apparently been staying at the Jacksons’ California home since June and is believed to be seeking a DNA test to prove Jackson is his father.

Now, according to the UK Sun, there’s talk of casting Bhatti – who bears a striking resemblance to Jackson – in a film charting Jackson’s rise to fame in the 1980s.

 The film will focus on Jackson’s 20s and the successes of ‘Off The Wall,’ ‘Thriller’ and ‘Bad,’ before the 1993 child abuse controversy that irreparably smeared the star’s reputation. A source reportedly told the Sun, “The family feel fans would love to see a dramatic retelling.

“They want to cover his childhood and family life but focus on when his career went into overdrive.”

The source said, “Michael’s story from childhood to the height of success is nothing short of astounding.

“It needs to be told and that’s what his family want.”

The insider added, “The family is close to Omer, as Michael was. He is a fantastic performer and they would like him to play the adult Michael.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

Variety says Dick Cook is stepping down as chairman of Walt Disney Studios, effective immediately.

In a statement released Friday, Cook said, “I have loved every minute of my 38 years that I have worked at Disney from the beginning as a ride operator on Disneyland’s steam train and monorail to my position as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.” Cook joined the company in 1971 and rose up through the ranks to become chairman in 2002.

Variety says recent movies, such as ‘Race to Witch Mountain,’ ‘Bedtime Stories’ and ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ have been disappointments. Pending releases include Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and Robert Zemeckis’ ‘A Christmas Carol.’

A Los Angeles Times story, however, points out that this summer’s romantic comedy ‘The Proposal’ was a surprise hit, bringing in $161 million domestically. And April’s ‘Hannah Montana: the Movie,’ based on the Disney Channel series, grossed a solid $80 million. Pixar’s ‘Up,’ another major surprise, has collected $415 million around the world and is expected to exceed $600 million after finishing its foreign run.

The Times also says that, according to a “person close to Cook,” the movie chief “didn’t see it coming” and was summoned into a meeting and told the studio “wanted to go in a different direction.” A Disney spokesperson, however, denied this.

The Times suggests there was trouble between Cook and CEO Bob Iger, who reportedly thanked Cook for his “tremendous passion for Disney,” and said, “On behalf of everyone at Disney, we wish him the best with all the future has to offer.”

The news has apparently shaken Johnny Depp, who recently stood beside Cook on stage and announced a pending fourth movie in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise. Depp told the L.A. Times that Cook is “the sweetest man on the planet and such a gent” and that after the chairman’s departure, “There’s a fissure, a crack in my enthusiasm,” regarding the project.

(Photo by PR Photos)