June 30, 2011

Michael Bay says when he first suggested Rosie Huntington-Whiteley audition for a role in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the young starlet thought he was joking.

The T3 director tells Britain’s Evening Standard he was stunned by Huntington-Whiteley when he first saw her on the set of a Victoria’s Secret commercial he was filming.

“Out of 500 women around the world there was something about her,” Bay tells the paper. “I didn’t think I’d ever, ever hire a model and there was just something about her.”

Bay says he was so impressed by the 24-year-old’s beauty he personally pursued her to replace Megan Fox in the franchise.

“When I was talking to her and I said ‘Would you ever want to get into movies’ and she said ‘I’d love to’ so I wrote her an email,” he recalls. “I said this could be a life changing thing, these emails don’t really happen much in life and would you be interested in auditioning for me and she thought I was joking.

“But she did a really good job. She comes off as really sincere. She’s got a lot of natural talent.”

Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened everywhere this week.

(Photo by PR Photos)

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June 30, 2011

We’ve taken four trips with the Pirates of the Caribbean and had a spin around the Haunted Mansion. Now Disney wants audiences to take a ride down the Matterhorn.

A beloved ride also known as the Matterhorn Bobsleds, The Matterhorn has been a part of Disneyland’s Fantasyland since 1959, after Walt Disney himself ordered a toboggan-themed coaster for the park following a trip to Switzerland.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that plans for the movie call for a thriller centering on a team of five young explorers who encounter the gigantic and mysterious supernatural beasts the Yeti on their way back down from the mountain’s peak.

Screenwriter Jason Dean Hall is already at work on the script, which has the working title The Hill.

Disney is still big on the idea of producing more movies based on their theme park rides. Another Haunted Mansion movie is already in the works, produced by fantasy auteur Guillermo del Toro, while David Fincher is set to direct a reboot of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Meanwhile, Iron Man director Jon Favreau and novelist Michael Chabon are already plotting out The Magic Kingdom, an upcoming feature in which the entire theme park comes to life, Night at the Museum style.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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June 30, 2011

Is Madonna hoping for an Oscar?

The pop star’s new movie W.E. has been given a plum release date by distributor The Weinstein Company that suggests the company is optimistic about its award chances.

EW reports the picture will open in New York and Los Angeles on December 9, before rolling out for a wider release in mid-January – a scheduling tactic often taken by pictures angling for attention come Oscar-time.

The Material Girl co-wrote, produced and directed, but doesn’t appear in, the quasi-historical drama which tells the tale of two love stories, one being the infamous romance between Britain’s King Edward VIII and American divorcee Wallis Simpson, with led to Edward’s abdication, the other being a modern romance in New York City.

The picture stars Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, James D’Arcy and Oscar Isaac.

“Madonna beautifully interweaves past and present in W.E. It’s a very smart film, and a stunning feature directorial debut,” says Harvey Weinstein. “I’m incredibly excited about this movie and I wanted to give it a prominent release date.

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June 30, 2011

A popular viral video of a baby panda sneezing is headed to the big screen as the feature comedy The Life and Times of Sneezing Baby Panda.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the picture will be a mockumentary about an Australian zoologist who hopes she can save her financially troubled zoo by finding the adorable – and famous – sneezing baby panda from the clip.

The picture is being produced by Australian documentarians Lesley Hammond and Jenny Walsh, the makers of 10 actual documentaries about pandas. In fact, it was Hammond and Walsh who filmed the video that later became the viral sensation.

“Honestly, we were feeling a bit pissed off but then we realized that we’d accidentally been given a star,” Hammond tells the Reporter. The Sneezing Baby Panda clip has been used on the TV shows South Park and 30 Rock and on the big screen in Drew Barrymore’s Going the Distance and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.

Hammond and Walsh say their big idea is to take the Forrest Gump approach and insert the Sneezing Baby Panda footage into Chinese historical footage.

“One panda’s a terracotta warrior. Another’s on the Long March,” says Hammond.  “You know the famous photo of Nixon sitting with Mao? Using visual effects, we’ll replace the woman interpreter sitting between them with a panda.”

The producers, who are currently casting for the actor to play the documentarian at the centre of the story, say the marketing for the picture should take care of itself.

“After all, it’ll be easy since this is the first feature film to come out of a viral video clip.”

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June 30, 2011

Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that when Tom Cruise needed help to find his inner rocker, he turned to his rock and roll star buddy.

Cruise plays hair-metal rocker Stacee Jaxx in the upcoming big screen adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical Rock of Ages, and when it came time to belt out the Bon Jovi hit Wanted Dead or Alive, he wanted advice from the man himself.

“He and I actually went out and he was very intense about ‘How do you do this?’” Bon Jovi tells Extra.

The veteran rocker says he told the Hollywood star he had nothing to worry about.

“I said, ‘Relax man, you’re Tom Cruise,’” Bon Jovi recalls. “‘You can learn how to sing a song, don’t worry about it.’”

Since their meeting, Bon Jovi admits he hasn’t actually heard Cruise’s final effort – though he’s convinced the actor did a stellar job.

“I’m confident that Tom Cruise singing Wanted Dead or Alive will be in the trailer.”

Rock of Ages, starring Cruise, Julianne Hough, Russell Brand and Diego Boneta rocks theatres everywhere June 1, 2012.

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