The cast of Brooklyn’s Finest was well protected on set, by New York gang members.

The movie, which follows three New York cops through one chaotic week, is shot on location in the rough area of Brownsville, New York, which has long been plagued with poverty and crime problems. Starpulse says director Antoine Fuqua (who also helmed Training Day) feared for the safety of his cast and crew, so he recruited the gangsters to protect stars Richard Gere, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke.

Fuqua told the World Entertainment News Network, “We would be filming and then you’d hear gunfire and people running up the street. It was very real to be around a lot of that stuff. We were protected by some gang members that we had relationships with that I talked to. I’d go in and meet with drug dealers, gang members, Neighbourhood Watch people, community centers.”

And though the going was treacherous, Fuqua said many Brownsville residents were very accommodating and saw the filming as beneficial to their community.

He added, “The older people, including gang members and drug dealers who have children now, understand the importance of not letting anything happen in this neighborhood because their kids get to see something positive. They get to see people showing a work ethic by working on the movie and that you don’t have to be the movie star or the director; you can be craft service. So we got a lot of respect.”

Brooklyn’s Finest also shot on locations in Queens and Manhattan.

It is scheduled for release on March 5.

Kevin Smith’s Cop Out has taken a critical beating. The film, which stars Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis as police officers on the hunt for a stolen vintage baseball card, has really not impressed reviewers.

The New York Times called it “a phoned-in, gutless piece of hack work that reminds you of other, better films in the same vein.” And the Globe and Mail said it is “neither funny nor involving” and that “Willis and Morgan make for a dull couple.” Ouch.

What’s a filmmaker to do? Hit back with tweets, of course.

Smith took to his Twitter account to defend his movie and berate critics. Contact Music pointed toward the posts from February 25, which read, “Here’s the thing… *inhales* I’ve made movies that have been panned before, by critics who are still working, and some who I’ve outlasted.

“I came from a world where critics could make or break you (Janet Maslin’s CLERKS review in the NY Times made me). That world’s long dead.

“A movie like COP OUT, while an easy target for critics, is clearly not intended to impress those prone to show off their cinema erudition.

“Critics can stab at COP OUT with their poison pens all they want, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s a funny flick.”

It remains to be seen whether the reviews will affect the box office. Cop Out opens this weekend (Friday, February 26).

The Hurt Locker producer Nicolas Chartier has apologized for an “extremely inappropriate” email he sent to academy members urging them to campaign for his film. Now it remains to be seen if there will be any punishment for the violation of rules.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Chartier had sent out an email asking voters to back The Hurt Locker — which is nominated for nine awards, including Best Picture – and to urge friends to do so as well.  Chartier used the movie’s underdog status as a push point. The email, as posted by the Times, read:

“I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Hurt Locker and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!

“I’m sure you know plenty of people you’ve worked with who are academy members whether a publicist, a writer, a sound engineer, please take 5 minutes and contact them. Please call one or two persons, everything will help!”

The email violated the Academy’s campaign rules, which state, among other things, that an email “may not extol the merits of a film, an achievement or an individual.” In the ensuing backlash, Chartier issued his apology, also posted by the Times, which read:

“My email to you was out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of cinema that this acknowledgement is. I was even more wrong, both personally and professionally, to ask for your help in encouraging others to vote for
the film and to comment on another movie. As passionate as I am about the film we made, this was an extremely inappropriate email to send, and something that the Academy strongly disapproves of in the rules.

“My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it. Being nominated for an Academy Award is the ultimate honor and I should have taken
the time to read the rules.

I am emailing  each person this very same statement asking  to retract my previous email and requesting that you please disregard it.”

This is likely all that Chartier can do in his own defence. The Times says the Academy will not comment on the issue before next week, if there is any comment. Academy PR chief Leslie Unger reportedly said, “There will be no comment about action regarding the campaign violation until after the ballot due date (5 p.m. on Tuesday).  At that time, we may or may not have a comment.”

If there is some form of sanction, it may take one of several forms, including the issue of a formal censure, a cut back on tickets to the Oscar ceremony and/or Governors’ Ball, or a ban on Chartier ever becoming a member of the Academy himself.

(Image: Summit Entertainment)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation

If, whenever you watch the American version of The Office, you think, “That Jim Halpert guy should be Captain America!” you may be in luck.

According to both Deadline Hollywood and The Hollywood Reporter, John Krasinski is among the contenders to play the Captain and his alter ego, Steve Rogers.

Marvel is conducting screen tests for The First Avenger: Captain America, to be directed by Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, October Sky). Steve Rogers is a young man rejected from military service during World War II. He instead volunteers for a top secret research project, is turned into a superhero, and becomes America’s symbol of liberty — and eventually a member of the Avengers team.

THR and Deadline seem to agree that about seven actors are in the running. Those listed on Deadline are, along with Krasinski, Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Michael Cassidy (Privileged), Patrick Flueger (Brothers). The Hollywood Reporter includes Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill) on its list.

Interestingly, Deadline says Marvel is known for driving hard bargains and that, if an actor is not a “known quantity,” the offer is around $300,000 for the first film. The person who lands the part will also have to sign for another nine options for future films. These include sequels, Avengers movies, or whatever else Marvel might want. That’s ten films in total.

THR says that the studio is currently only looking at American actors. No British or Australian’s are currently in the running, though the search could widen if Captain America is not found in America.

Reese Witherspoon and Bradley Cooper are not going to war. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Cooper has dropped out of the spy comedy, This Means War. He was set to star opposite the Walk the Line star, but now she’s looking for a new leading man.

EW says the actor has exited the long-gestating project, ostensibly due to scheduling conflicts with The Hangover 2. The magazine, however, points out that This Means War — which Terminator Salvation director McG is in negotiations to helm — is set to begin filming in July, while Hangover director Todd Philips isn’t planning on shooting his sequel until fall. Theoretically, this would give Cooper time to do both roles if he so chose. But EW says a source close to Cooper has told them the actor actually had creative concerns regarding the project, which centers on best friends whose relationship falls apart when they both fall for the same woman (Witherspoon). The source says Cooper had some issues with the script, which has been rewritten several times since it was first purchased – 12 years ago.

No word on what the plan is for the project from here.

The Hangover was the sleeper hit summer, 2010, grossing $227 million. Meanwhile, Cooper is currently working on the A-Team movie, in which he plays Templeton “Faceman” Peck. He also stars opposite Renee Zellweger in the horror flick Case 39, the release date of which keeps getting pushed back and is, as of now, undetermined.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that a sequel to the 2001 cult classic, Zoolander, is in the works.

Paramount and Ben Stiller are working with Tropic Thunder and Iron Man 2 writer, Justin Theroux, to bring the really, really, ridiculously goodlooking male model back to screen. Deadline says Stiller and Theroux are working on the script together and that Theroux will direct. He is also heading to Fashion Week in Paris to “immerse himself on what is current in fashion”  (to see what’s so hot right now).

Everyone is reportedly hoping Owen Wilson will reprise his role as Hansel, but no deal is set. Jonah Hill is in negotiations to play the villain.

Ben Stiller starred in, directed, co-wrote and co-produced the original Zoolander, about a dimwitted male model who winds up on a covert operation (with fellow model Hansel) to stop himself from killing the president of Malaysia, whom he has been programmed to assassinate by the evil high fashion designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell).

It was a box office flop, a fact that many attribute to its release on September 28, 2001, directly after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center — when nobody was in the mood for comedy. It went on to become a hot DVD and is still a bestseller on iTunes.

Zoolander garnered a huge cult fanbase, was packed with memorable quotes and generated the catchphrases “Am I on crazy pills?” and “He/she/it’s so hot right now.”

All the same, Deadline says the studio is wary of another flop so the budget for the sequel is to be kept low. But those involved are apparently incredibly enthusiastic about the project.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation

Johnny Depp and his longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis will star in a movie, according to Contact Music.

My American Lover will feature the real-life couple as writers Nelson Algren and Simone de Beauvoir. This will be the first time they have worked together.

Contact Music quotes Depp as saying, “It’s in preparation. It’s called My American Lover. Vanessa plays the French feminist Simone de Beauvoir and I play her lover Nelson Algren who is real macho.”

Simone de Beauvoir was a 20th century French writer and philosopher. She is famous for the novels She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex — as well as for her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. She had an affair with Algren and they traveled to Latin America together in 1949.

Depp and Paradis, a French singer and actress, have been together since 1998 and have two children, Lily Rose, ten, and Jack, seven.

Depp is currently shooting The Tourist with Angelina Jolie. “She’s a nice woman,” he reportedly said of the actress. “What she does she takes very seriously. I was really impressed by her and I’m thrilled to be working with her.”

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation

A Bollywood filmmaker has offered $11,000 to anyone who can sit through his latest horror film, Phoonk 2 – alone in a theatre, with eyes open the entire time and while maintaining an even heart rate.

Reuters says Ram Gopal Varma issues the challenge at a Mumbai event to promote the film, which hits Indian theatres April 9.

Phoonk 2, a sequel to the 2008 low-budget hit, Phoonk, is about an evil spirit that traumatizes a family.

Varma said, “Anyone who says the movie cannot scare him is going to be put in a theatre by himself.” The individual, who will be chosen through an online contest, will be hooked up to a heart monitor and a camera will be set up to ensure his (or her, we presume, though Varma seems to assume the winner will be male) eyes remain open.

According to NDTV, a doctor and ambulance will be on stand by.

If successful, the contestant will win 500,000 rupees (approximately $11,000).

Varma is not the first horror director to employ this sort of gimmick. William Castle, famed filmmaker of the 1950s and 60s was well known for his gambits. Among them: a certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd’s of London was given to each moviegoer, in case he/she should die of fright during Macabre (1958). Showings also had fake nurses stationed in the lobbies and hearses parked outside the theatre.

And Homicidal (1961) contained a “Fright break” with a 45 second timer over the film’s climax, while a voiceover advised the audience of the time remaining in which they could leave and receive a full refund if they were too frightened to see the remainder — but you had to go to “coward’s corner” for your money back.

Reuters says Varma issued a similar challenge ahead of the release of the original Phoonk and claimed that the contest winner ran out 30 minutes after the film started. However, newspapers reported that someone Bangalore booked an entire cinema and watched the film alone, to prove the director wrong.

Both Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal turned down the lead role in Avatar, and thank goodness because James Cameron didn’t really want either of them anyway.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the director approached Damon and Gyllenhaal about playing Jake Sully in the 3D sci-fi epic that is now the biggest moneymaker in Hollywood movie history, with $2.5 billion in worldwide box office.

Both stars said thanks but no thanks, which worked out great for both Cameron and Sam Worthington — who says he was living in his car before he got the job (Terminator Salvation must not have paid very well).

“I don’t think they ever had a problem with the CG,” Cameron reportedly said. “Honestly, did I go out and try to woo them? No. I had my heart set on Sam. Maybe they sensed my lack of 100% commitment from me. Maybe it was the subject matter. This was a big ‘Star Wars’-type movie. They’re both serious actors.”

Cameron said he offered the role to the big names to placate Fox studio chiefs, who wanted a bankable star to offset some of the risks of the expensive project. Fox execs didn’t get their wish. But it all seems to have worked out fine.

Worthington next appears in Clash of the Titans, which hits theatres in April. Gyllenhaal stars in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, based on the video game, opening in May. And Damon will be seen in Green Zone in March.

So, we finally know who’s going to play Conan in the remake of the 1982 film that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name. Jason Momoa (and not Kellan Lutz) will take on the role of the slave turned vengeful warrior. Now you must be dying to know who will play his father.

The Hollywood Reporter says Mickey Rourke is in negotiations to play Conan’s dad, Corin. The Latino Review reported back in January that he had been offered the role but that the deal had fallen apart. Now it seems it’s back on.

Rourke, whose career hit a slump in the nineties, has enjoyed a comeback lately, with an Oscar nomination for The Wrestler and a bunch of projects in development, including Passion Play, with Bill Murray and Megan Fox and The Expendables, featuring a collection of  1980s action heroes, including Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone.

Marcus Nispel, who directed remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th, will helm Conan. The story sees the Barbarian embark on a quest to avenge the slaughter of his people including his father.

As for what else to expect, in an interview last summer with ConanMovieBlog.com, Nispel said, “The character of Conan is what most attracted me to this project. He is the last of the reality-based superheroes and the most unapologetic one at that. I find that refreshing in these politically correct times….The original Conan movie was written by two master storytellers, Oliver Stone and John Milius, giving us a tough act to follow! Their movie also features the best beheading ever in a major motion picture. Besides, perhaps Let the Right One In, which is another perfect example of creativity over special effects.

“Like all movies they have to be understood in the context of the time they were produced. Our collective consciousness changes every generation, though and we can’t step into the same river twice. Conan the Barbarian was initially released in the disco era, on the heels of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. The original film must have hit people like a freight train upon its release. Today is a different time entirely. As a society, we are more cynical in times of depression. We have been overfed with high gloss and contrived CG imagery and seek something we can grasp. As our consciousness has shifted, so will the image of Conan.”