Although Benicio Del Toro was thrilled to land the lead in the remake of the 1941 horror classic, ‘The Wolfman,’ the job wasn’t always a walk in the park. According to Contact Music, the Puerto Rican actor – who came to popular attention as Fred Fenster in ‘The Usual Suspects’ – suffered for his art while on the ‘Wolfman’ set.

“I needed a team to help me if I wanted to say something because I had to take off my teeth. They would take off my hands so I could scratch myself or eat,” Del Toro said. The make-up took three hours to apply and could take just as long to remove. Sometimes after a long day of filming, the actor admitted he would sleep with his mask on.

Del Toro said, “I’d be like, ‘OK, I’ll clean this off tomorrow – I’m exhausted.’”

An entire team of assistants was required to help Del Toro speak aloud because his basic motor skills were limited by the heavy prosthetics on his face and body.

Director Joe Johnson’s version of ‘The Wolfman’ stays true to the original plot line. Lawrence Talbot, played by Del Toro, reunites with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) after the disappearance of his brother. Emily Blunt also stars as Gwen Conliffe, who tracks Lawrence down to help her find her missing lover.

The film was initially expected to release on November 9 of this year, but it has been pushed back several times, and now is scheduled for February 12 of 2010.

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Rights to the sci-fi horror comic book ‘Night and Fog’ have been acquired by producers Gil Adler (‘Constantine,’ and ‘Superman Returns’) and Shane McCarthy. According to Variety, Adler and McCarthy will co-produce alongside one of the series’ writers, Alex Leung, who is also captain of Studio 407, the comic book’s publication company.

Studio 407 published the six-part miniseries ‘Night and Fog’ in single-issue format in 2008. It is due to hit stores in trade format by spring 2010. There is no word yet on when the film adaptation is expected to begin.

The story takes place on an island off the coast of Canada where a military science experiment infects a nearby village. As a result, the villagers go berserk, turning into bloodthirsty creatures. Military personnel on the island cannot defend themselves against the mutant creatures, even though they are equipped with top notch weaponry, because the mutants can adapt under almost any attack.

Speaking to MTV, Adler said, “When I read this I knew I had to take it off the market. It’s a great high-concept that blends the gothic horror of the Hammer films with the sci-fi horror of Aliens and The Thing.”

Alder is experienced with graphic novel-based film adaptations as well as with the horror genre. “This material is definitely in my strike zone in more ways than one,” Adler said, mentioning his role as producer of the ‘Tales From the Crypt’ series. “But what really appealed to me wasn’t so much the genre trappings but rather the characters that really drive this story.”

Leung, who co-wrote the story with fellow chief of Studio 407, Matthew Bradford, said his creative inspiration came primarily from James Cameron’s ‘Alien’ series. “I’ve always loved the idea of creatures so potent they render even the most cutting-edge military technology utterly useless. I like putting the most highly-trained, elite commandos in situations even they cannot comprehend,” Leung said.

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In 2009 you might think that Hollywood editors would have the technological skills to avoid releasing major motion pictures full of mistakes. But you would be wrong. In the age of CGI and 3 dimensional effects, films still hit the big screen riddled with editing errors.

In a poll rating the most gaffe-prone finished film products of 2009, a website for the savvy viewer, Moviemistakes.com has ranked Zac Efron’s ‘17 Again’ number one on their blunder list. ‘17 Again’ is one of those do-over comedies, which also stars Matthew Perry as a man who gets sent back to his youth. It contains 94 continuity errors and other minor muck-ups.

Editor of moviemistakes.com, Jon Sandys says, “This isn’t meant to be assigning blame — generally these are noticed by the biggest movie fans, even in films they loved. That said, you wonder how some of these blunders get past the editing room.”

Tied for second in this year’s poll are ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ and ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,’ with a whopping 71 oversights each.

Over 900 errors were spotted and reported to moviemistakes.com this year by film lovers with keen eyes for detail.

Ringing up 29 goofs each and tying for third place were big name blockbusters, ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ and ‘Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.’ 

‘Apocalypse Now’ remains reigning champion of the most mistakes of all time with 390 blunders, but holding the second and third place positions are two ‘Harry Potter’ films. ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ gets the silver with 296 blunders, while ‘the Chamber of Secrets’ was a close third, tallying up 289.

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Kevin Smith’s upcoming buddy-cop comedy has been in the news lately due to an enforced name change. What was to be ‘A Couple of D*cks’ is now ‘Cop Out.’ And as the trailer hits the Internet, the director of ‘Clerks,’ ‘Chasing Amy’ ‘Dogma’ and ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ talked to EW about his struggle with the name change and how attached he was to the original title. He was really attached.

Smith said, “losing A Couple of D*cks was almost akin to losing my own d*ck. It was a perfect buddy-cop movie comedy title. Everyone knew it. You couldn’t say that title to somebody without a f***ing smile crossing their face. But what I had gone through with Zack and Miri Make a Porno — ‘porno’ had become very problematic, it became tough for us to advertise [the film], blah blah blah. Warner Bros. decided, ‘Hey man, we’ll call the networks and see if we’re going to get any problems [with A Couple of D*cks as a title], months before the movie’s ever going to come out.” The top 3 networks — CBS, ABC, NBC — said we can’t run one of your spots before 9 o’clock.”

Smith said he suggested ‘A Couple of D.I.C.s?’ “Because that’s the proper acronym for detectives, Detective In Charge. And [the networks] kicked that back as well.”

Smith credits Warner Bros. with fighting for his title but in the end, it wasn’t worth the struggle, he says. “If I hadn’t gone through Zack and Miri Make a Porno, I think I would have gotten my old-school f***ing angry indie spirit, if you will: “F*** it, we live or die by A Couple of D*cks, or I take my name off the picture!” But even my mom was like, ‘I might go see Zack and Miri, but I would never go see Zack and Miri Make a Porno.’ I feel like Chief Brody in Jaws 2: I’ve seen the shark up close. I ain’t going through that hell again.”

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Hollywood is often accused of ageism when it comes to actresses. But Sigourney Weaver is one woman who is not crying foul. Weaver is 60 years old and can currently be seen on screen as Dr. Grace Augustine in James Cameron’s 3D box office topper, ‘Avatar.’

The veteran actress says getting older has not had a negative affect on her career. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Contact Music quotes Weaver as saying, “It’s not always right to say there are fewer parts for older women. Really great stories have characters of all ages in them, and there are still some of those in our film industry and in TV.”

Among the more vocal of those crying ageism is Demi Moore, 47, who told the UK Sun in 2007, “There aren’t that many good roles for women over 40. A lot of them don’t have much substance, other than being someone’s mother or wife.”

Faye Dunaway, 68, also weighed in on the topic when she once said, “I am furious that they think I’m too old to play the love interest of guys like Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood. Why should I play sisters and mothers while guys like Jack and Clint (Eastwood), who are older than me, have on-screen lovers half their age?”

But Weaver, who is reportedly shooting a comedy called ‘Cedar Rapids,’ in which she plays an older woman lusting after a man half her age, appears to be pleased with the roles she is getting. She told The UK Daily Mail, “I would like to have more time to smell the flowers, but I have more work than I can handle.

“I’m grateful I’m so busy, though. The parts get better as I get older. I think I’ve been very lucky.”

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Director Terry Gilliam thought Heath Ledger’s death meant the end of ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.’

The actor died suddenly in the middle of shooting the movie, which opens Christmas day. It was, of course, a terrible shock to Gilliam, who told MTV, “we had finished shooting in London on a Saturday night, and that morning Heath goes to New York and I was in Vancouver and then two days later he was dead, which makes no sense. It’s not possible. When you hear that you just don’t know how to deal with it. He was so full of life and vitality and energy, and — it stops. I laid down on the floor for a couple days and didn’t move, and my immediate reaction is, “The film is over.” The middle of the film, the star dies, you don’t finish. I didn’t want to finish.”

But Gilliam’s colleagues wouldn’t allow him to give up. He went on to say, “My daughter was one of the producers and also Nicola (Pecorini, director of photography) and they kept kicking me on the floor until I got up. They said, “You cannot let Heath’s last work disappear. You have to find a solution.”

Ultimately, Gilliam decided to continue shooting and fill Ledger’s role with an ensemble cast of Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp. Even while shooting the scenes with the three other actors, however, the director was convinced it wouldn’t work.

He told MTV, “I thought it was going to be impossible. And we did all the shooting with Johnny and Colin and Jude with no real confidence that this was going to work. It was only when we got back to London and did a rough assembly and showed it to people and they just assumed that it had been written like that — to have four people playing the same character. I mean, it works brilliantly. It’s seamless, everybody says. When I try to think what would it have been like to have Heath playing all the way through, we’ll never know. There are so many possibilities.”

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DVD rental company ‘Redbox’ has reportedly issued an emergency recall of promotional posters for the Brittany Murphy movie ‘Deadline.’ The posters feature the late actress looking gruesomely lifeless in a bathtub.

Redbox reportedly sent out the marketing material prior to Murphy’s death on Sunday but is now working fast to remove the posters, fearing the image is in poor taste. TMZ says the task will take 7 to 10 days to complete.

The image is particularly eerie as Murphy was found unconscious in the shower after suffering cardiac arrest. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at Cedars Sinai hospital.

The company said in a statement, “Redbox feels removing the ‘Deadline’ box art is the appropriate course of action following the star’s recent death. We will continue to carry her film, but will remove the film’s box art from our displays.”

According to imdb, in the movie, Murphy plays a writer recovering from a psychological breakdown who retreats to a remote Victorian house to finish a screenplay in time for a fast approaching deadline. In the house, strange happenings lead to the discovery of a terrifying secret.

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The feature length adaptation of the Robert Rodriguez directed ‘Machete’ opens in April.

Folks have been anticipating the flick, which stars Danny Trejo, since the trailer first featured at the opening of 2007’s ‘Grindhouse.’ Immediately, talk of the full movie version started circulating. But ‘Machete’ has actually been in the works since the 1990s, according to Trejo.

In it, Trejo plays a Mexican Federale who is hired to assassinate a senator but later realizes he has been set up and, after barely surviving a sniper’s bullet, sets out for revenge.

Trejo told IGN, “Robert had been training me for Machete since we did Desperado.

“Everybody thinks that Machete came out of a trailer, but it didn’t…It is a culmination of Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico…There’s even a little bit of From Dusk Till Dawn in there. I think it’s gonna be one of his best. And I’m not just saying that ’cause I’m the lead; it’s just a great movie. I think everybody’s gonna walk away from that movie with some opinion. It’s a battle for our border, you know? People are really serious about what’s going on with the border, and it shows the negative side of both sides. Not just, you know, we want everybody to cross, or we don’t want anybody to cross. It shows the negative side of both sides. Everybody’s gonna be p*ssed off!”

‘Machete’ also features performances by Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Cheech Marin, Lindsay Lohan and Michelle Rodriguez.

And the first ‘Machete’ will not be the last, if all goes well. Trejo told IGN, “We want Machete, Machete Kills, and Machete Kills Again. That’s mine and Robert’s standards, you know? Every time I text him, he’ll text me back, ‘Machete 2, coming up!’”

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Hollyscoop is reporting on an upcoming ‘Flash Gordon’ remake and word is that ‘Avatar’ star, Sam Worthington, is being considered for the starring role. Sources say that, at the moment, he’s head to head with Ryan Reynolds.

“If he gets the role it would be quite a big deal as Flash is an all-American hero,” a Hollywood insider reportedly said. “Right now it’s between Sam, Ryan Reynolds and one or two others for the lead role should the project actually get off the ground.”

Worthington is, of course, not American but Australian, while Reynolds is Canadian.

Hollyscoop says, in the role, Flash is a handsome Yale graduate and polo player, who travels to the planet Mongo, where it is discovered that meteors are weapons devised by the planet’s evil ruler, Ming the Merciless. Though, in other reports, Flash is a football player.

According to imdb Breck Eisner will helm. Eisner is the director of 2005’s ‘Sahara,’ as well as the upcoming remake of ‘The Crazies,’ a 1973 George Romero action/drama about the effects of the accidental release of a military biological weapon upon a small American town. It was also recently reported that he is planning to remake David Cronenberg’s 1979 horror flick, ‘The Brood.’

Worthington will next be seen on screen as Perseus in the ‘Clash of the Titans’ remake.

The first ‘Flash Gordon’ movie was released in 1980 and was notable for its soundtrack by Queen. 

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Director Steven Spielberg is going to make a film adaptation of the 1982 fictional children’s novel, ‘War Horse,’ written by Michael Morpurgo.

The novel is set in and around the time of the First World War and told through the eyes of a young red-bay horse. The story tracks the trials and tribulations of the horse, who is sold, and sold again, before being sent off to the Western Front in 1914.

“From the moment I read it, I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make,” Spielberg, one of the founders of DreamWorks said. “Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country.”

DreamWorks announced in December of 2009 that it had acquired the rights to the book, but plans for a film adaptation only recently solidified with Spielberg himself stationed at the helm.

The Academy Award winning director recently abandoned plans to remake the classic 1950 film ‘Harvey.’ According to Variety, long time Spielberg collaborator, Tom Hanks, was the catalyst behind the death of the remake. Hanks refused to have any part in the ‘Harvey’ film. Spielberg reportedly tried to cast Robert Downey Jr. instead, but after the actor and filmmaker could not see eye to eye on details of script rewrites, the director gave up on the project.

Spielberg  has commissioned screenwriter Lee Hall (of ‘Billy Elliot’) to write the ‘War Horse’ script.

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