The Rock Could Conquer 'The Kingdom,' In Projection Booth

They say the best things in life are free, but don't tell that to several sentimental flicks opening this weekend, all of which will be clamoring for your hard-earned dollar at the multiplex. Love is all you need? Please. You're gonna need a lot more than that if you expect your film to come out at #1.How about the Rock? There's no denying that the artist currently known as Dwayne Johnson has the presence, but does he have the drawing power? "The Game Plan," which stars the Rock as a football player who suddenly learns he has a daughter, is the actor's sixth project as a leading man (see "The Rock Is On A Roll With 9-Year-Old 'Game Plan' Co-Star; 'Don't Knock' Leotards, He Warns"). Only "The Scorpion King," the prequel to the blockbuster "Mummy" franchise, opened north of $20 million. "Doom," "Walking Tall" and "Gridiron Gang," meanwhile, all opened at $15 million and below.

"The Game Plan," though, has something all those other films lacked: a little girl from the Disney Channel (Madison Pettis), which will make it the highest-profile family film currently in wide release (it's opening in 2,800 theaters). Beat that, Morgan Freeman.

His "Feast of Love," an adult meditation on love in all its funny, silly, tragic forms, opens this weekend in 1,200 theaters. Problem is, it's an adult meditation on love in all its funny, silly, tragic forms. The great Robert Benton ("Kramer vs. Kramer") directs a cast that also includes Greg Kinnear and Radha Mitchell. Also this: It has gratuitous nudity.

Odds are you're stuck between the Rock and a hard place, and they don't come harder these days than the Middle East. Opening in 2,700 theaters, "The Kingdom" stars Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper (and wife-of-an-Oscar-winner Jennifer Garner) as a team of agents sent to investigate the bombing of an American embassy. In a way, this film shows a lot of love too: the type of love you can have for your country, even when you don't approve of its policies — love strong enough to make you speak up when you think it's doing wrong. The type of love we used to call "tough."

Also opening in extremely limited release is Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited."

The Predictions: We have nothing but love for our prognosticators, but what films this weekend will they show love for? Find out below.

What's the #1 flick? How much will it rake in?

Josh Horowitz, MTV Movies editor: "The Game Plan" ($22 million)
"Who doesn't love a flick pairing a ginormous action hero with a sassy, pint-size tyke? I'm guessing that's a nearly direct quote from a Disney boardroom right before they green-lit a movie starring the Rock and some girl who is not a Fanning (that's how I separate child actresses now: Fannings and not Fannings). I'm going with this family-friendly flick a smidgen over 'The Kingdom.' "

Larry Carroll, MTV News writer: "The Game Plan" ($25 million)
"Please remember: Just because I'm predicting it doesn't mean that I want it to happen. Two years ago, 'The Pacifier' was one of the most God-awful films I had ever sat through, and it opened to a stunning $30 million weekend. 'The Game Plan' is trying its best to be the exact same movie, will certainly appeal to the same crowd and couldn't possibly be any worse. So I'm predicting a $25 million opening for the Rock — and talk of a sequel by Monday morning."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Malin Akerman Talks Watchmen

Malin Akerman, star of Paramount Pictures' remake of The Heartbreak Kid as the lunatic wife of Ben Stiller, excitedly told ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype at the press day that although she loves her comic role and working with the Farrelly brothers, she's looking forward to shooting Zack Snyder's Watchmen, because it's such a change from her current project.

Malin Akerman: This is a really cool role. She's sort of the psychology of the film because she's the only woman in the "Watchmen" aside from the previous "Watchmen." She is a femme fatale, she is a kick ass fighter, and I think she sort of carries the emotion of the film because she is the only woman amongst all of these men. They're going through sort of not being the Watchmen anymore and dealing with that as well as trying to figure out who is trying to kill them off. It's a really, really, really well written script. [It's a ]Really great role that I'm so excited to do because it's so opposite from what I just did. It's a wonderful novel and very true to the novel. If you're familiar with the novel that's it.

SHH: When do you start filming?
Akerman:They've already started this week actually. I start October 15th.

SHH: How long are you shooting for?
Akerman: Until February. It's a long shoot.

SHH: Are you ready for that process with the green screen and all?
Akerman:There's not that much green screen because it's very real. We're not superheroes or anything like that. We just fight. We fight crime. There's only one scene on Mars that I think will be a green screen. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to trying new things.

SHH: What's your rehearsal process been like for this?
Akerman: It is not fun. I've been training for a month and a half and I still don't see the results. I have no muscles. I'm starting to get aggravated. It's actually been a lot of fun because we've been doing a lot of fight training. You go in and you have these amazing fighters that are doing this and they show you what to do. You try to do it and you look like a ballerina trying to do karate and it's so hard. It looks a lot easier than it is. Trust me. I've got a few more months of training I think.

SHH: Are you prepared for the fans to go crazy over this film and your character?
Akerman: It's exciting. I don't ever feel like you're really ready for it. I just hope we do it justice.

SHH: Are fans starting to approach you about the film?
Akerman: Not yet. I haven't been out.

Before then, you can see Akerman being very funny in the Farrelly Brothers' The Heartbreak Kid, out on October 5, and Watchmen is scheduled for March 6, 2009.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Rodriguez Accused of Violating Probation

Actress Michelle Rodriguez violated probation again in a drunken driving case by failing to complete her community service and not following an alcohol education program, prosecutors said. Rodriguez went to court Friday to answer to the latest claims by the city attorney's office, which said the former "Lost" actress submitted a document stating she performed community service on Sept. 25, 2006, but later admitted she was actually in New York City that day.

The document was required as part of the 30 days of community service Rodriguez was ordered to serve for violating probation in a 2003 drunken driving case, according to court papers filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. If she is found to have violated terms of her probation, Rodriguez could face between 477 to 537 days in county jail and a $2,000 fine.

Rodriguez, 29, kept quiet in court as her attorney, Richard Beale, argued that she performed 30 days of community service and said "a clerical error" caused the discrepancy in the paperwork.

Superior Court Judge Daviann L. Mitchell granted Beale's request to call two county sheriff's supervisors who signed off on her community service forms to testify. The judge set a hearing for Oct. 12 and ordered Rodriguez to spend 30 days doing road maintenance work after finding that she did not complete an alcohol education program.

He also admonished Rodriguez to take her probation more seriously.

"I'm not impressed with your completion schedule," Mitchell said. "There were 55 people here in court today and all but very few have completed their responsibilities. They work on much less flexible schedules than you do."

Rodriguez was placed on three years' probation after she pleaded no contest to hit-and-run, driving on a suspended license and drunken driving in connection with two incidents that occurred in Hollywood in 2003.

She was found to have violated terms of her probation after she was arrested in Hawaii on a drunken driving charge.

When she returned to Los Angeles, Rodriguez was ordered to spend 60 days in jail, but she served less than a day because of jail overcrowding. She was then ordered to perform community service and remain on probation until June 2009.

Rodriguez appeared in one season of ABC's "Lost." Her film credits include "The Fast and The Furious," "Blue Crush" and "Girlfight."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Alan Ladd Jr. Gets Walk of Fame Star

Alan Ladd Jr., the Academy Award-winning producer and former 20th Century Fox head who green-lighted "Star Wars," was honored Friday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"It's lovely to be here among my friends and family," Ladd said at the ceremony for the 2,348th star.

Ladd's father, the late actor Alan Ladd, also has a Walk of Fame star. Mel Brooks praised the man known to many as "Laddie.

"He is one of the sweetest and nicest guys and he has saved my life many times. If anybody deserves a star, it's this legendary, incredible, iconic filmmaker," Brooks said.

Born in Los Angeles, Ladd, 69, became an agent in the '60s to clients including Judy Garland and Warren Beatty before going into producing.

After heading up creative affairs for 20th Century Fox, he became the studio's president.

It was his decision to back George Lucas' "Star Wars."

Ladd went on to found his own company, which released "The Right Stuff" "Chariots of Fire" and "Blade Runner," among others. He also headed up MGM in the early 1990s.

Ladd snagged a best-picture Oscar for producing Mel Gibson's "Braveheart."

His latest film, the Ben Affleck-directed "Gone Baby Gone," is slated for release next month.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Inside the 'High School Musical' Craze

Jessica Benjamin is a bit bashful about admitting this. But sometimes, driving by herself, this mother of four in suburban New York has been known to slip the "High School Musical" soundtrack into the CD player.

And Terri Welch, a mother in Houston, often catches herself alone singing "What Time Is It?" from "High School Musical 2," the second installment of the Disney Channel megahit.

Thus these two women slip into a parallel dimension, one inhabited largely by tween-aged girls (roughly 6 to 13) and the people who live with them. This universe spans the globe, and its deities are Zac and Vanessa (or sometimes "Zanessa") two smiling teens as familiar and adored by inhabitants of this universe as they are unknown and irrelevant to those who don't live there. So foreign is the "High School Musical" franchise to those with no connection to the tween world that Kenneth Feld, co-producer of the new ice tour that kicks off this weekend, calls it "almost underground." Tongue in cheek, of course. How many underground movements can claim the top-selling CD of 2006 and a global viewership of over 250 million? Or become the source of hundreds of amateur productions across the nation, not to mention untold numbers of preschool birthday parties?

Less than six weeks after the premiere of "High School Musical 2," it appears the tween world is still passionate about Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan and the rest of their pastel-colored fantasy world of secondary education. More than 17 million watched the first U.S. telecast. Since then it has reached nearly 49.8 million people across 12 countries, The Walt Disney Co. says.

Meanwhile, the sequel's CD has sold 1.6 million copies in the United States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The DVD isn't out yet, but the first movie sold more than 8 million discs globally.

So it's as good a time as any to ask: What makes this scrubbed-up, 21st-century "Grease" the continued cultural phenomenon it is? For one thing, parents say, it's something the whole family can watch together that entertains kids without either embarrassing their parents or making them want to jump off a bridge. (One word: Barney.)

But getting even more philosophical, it shows that maybe young people and their families want a little more fantasy and a little less reality.

"It's something a lot of producers have missed," says television historian Tim Brooks. Many of them "think it's still the '60s. They think that because adults want to see sex, kids do, too. But a lot of kids don't, especially girls. Most sitcoms on TV are really meant for adults."

"This is a reminder that as American TV hurtles toward ever more explicitness, there is a market of people who don't want any of that," says Brooks, also an executive at Lifetime.

Before going further, a little HSM primer may be in order. The fictional East High is set in Albuquerque, but could be any American high school. There's a pretty girl (Gabriella, math geek) and a dreamy guy (Troy, basketball star), but unlike "Grease," there's no spandex, no cigarettes, no drag racing and most of all, not a hint of sex. (There IS finally a kiss in the sequel.)

In this world with no rough edges, the geek gets the jock, the cliques melt like butter, and despite a few bumps, everyone gets along. Sound like any high school YOU went to? But never mind.

"I like the message of inclusion and diversity," says Diane Kendall, a mother in Weston, Conn. "I like that at least a couple of the problems they face are real. And I like that they're not all too beautiful."

That remark definitely does not apply to Zac Efron, who plays Troy. Kendall's daughter, 13-year-old Allie, says some might call Efron feminine-looking, "but he's gorgeous, if you ask me." Her door is plastered with a poster of the actor.

In Jessica Benjamin's home in Bronxville, N.Y., the two resident boys may be slightly less interested or that's what they say but Grace, 13, and Faye, 4, both are certified "HSM" nuts.

"Maybe it's just that it's good clean fun," says Benjamin. "And the singing and dancing it's a little bit of the 'American Idol' phenomenon. We make a bowl of popcorn, and we watch. It kind of harkens back to the Sunday night movie that everyone watched together."

Of course, shrewd marketing by the Disney machine has played a huge role. "My cynical side says my daughters like it because of ceaseless promotion on the Disney Channel and Radio Disney," says Welch, the Houston mother, whose girls are 6 and 7. But she likes it herself "because there's no sex, no inappropriate behavior and no bad words."

Not that a dose of harsh reality can't rush in from time to time. Earlier this month, Vanessa Hudgens, who plays Gabriella, apologized for nude photos that surfaced on the Internet. Disney said quickly that it was sticking with the 18-year-old star despite her "lapse in judgment." Hudgens and Efron, said to be dating in real life (hence the name "Zanessa"), are still negotiating to appear in the "High School Musical 3" feature film.

One prominent pop culture analyst takes the somewhat radical view that HSM is a prism through which we can examine the 21st century. "Shake that thing up hard enough, and the secrets of our nation come pouring out," says Robert Thompson of Syracuse University.

Sure, HSM is fairly well made and expertly marketed. But what really interests Thompson is its total lack of irony, of hipness, of the "wiseguy" humor so prevalent today. "We are so deep into the age of irony," Thompson says, "that when you encounter something as naive as 'High School Musical,' it's almost avant-garde. It's cutting edge!

Jessica Benjamin is a bit bashful about admitting this. But sometimes, driving by herself, this mother of four in suburban New York has been known to slip the "High School Musical" soundtrack into the CD player.

And Terri Welch, a mother in Houston, often catches herself alone singing "What Time Is It?" from "High School Musical 2," the second installment of the Disney Channel megahit.

Thus these two women slip into a parallel dimension, one inhabited largely by tween-aged girls (roughly 6 to 13) and the people who live with them. This universe spans the globe, and its deities are Zac and Vanessa (or sometimes "Zanessa") two smiling teens as familiar and adored by inhabitants of this universe as they are unknown and irrelevant to those who don't live there. "I would even go so far," says Thompson, "as to call HSM subversive. The fact that they pulled this off in 2007 is amazing."

For Gary Marsh, entertainment president of the Disney Channel, what's amazing is the international response to HSM. "The passion is global," Marsh says. "The concert tour played to huge soccer stadiums in Latin America. The first movie attracted 50 million viewers in China."

"We couldn't have imagined that it would have caused this kind of phenomenon," he says. "But that's the alchemy of entertainment. You can't set out to make a phenomenon."

Meanwhile, a national touring stage version opened in Detroit in June. Disney expects as many as 2,000 schools to produce licensed amateur stage productions by the end of this year. And the ice tour will consist of three companies, one of them international.

"This is the largest investment that my company has ever undertaken," says Feld, co-producer of the ice tour. His Feld Entertainment, Inc. has produced Disney ice shows for 28 years.

Grace, the 13-year-old from New York, has seen the first film about 25 times. She echoes her mother's view that "good clean fun" has its value. "I like the Lindsay Lohan drama as much as the next teenager," she says. "But this is a breath of fresh air. There are times I think 'Oh God, this is so stupid.' But then I just keep watching it."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Taylor Sparkles at AIDS Fundraiser

Elizabeth Taylor, wearing a coffee-colored, gold-sequined Naeem Khan gown accented with diamond jewelry, put some superstar sparkle into an HIV/AIDS fundraiser. Taylor, 75 and in a wheelchair, is a founding chairwoman of the annual Macy's Passport event, a charity auction and showcase for food and fashion.

Since 1988, Passport has raised $25 million for HIV/AIDS services, prevention and research. The actress was honored Thursday night with its first Humanitarian Award for AIDS Activism. "I have done this every year for years," Taylor told The Associated Press in an interview. "It's tradition and it's part of my existence."

As her longtime friend Rock Hudson battled AIDS, which killed him in 1985, Taylor began work to raise funds and increase awareness of the disease.

"I used to have doors slammed in my face, telephones hung up on me," she said when asked about the differences between her early fundraising efforts and today. "This (is) 100 percent turnaround."

Taylor, who has been married eight times (twice to Richard Burton), appeared amused when asked if she'd ever marry again.

"Noooooooo!" she shouted, and then laughed. "Now I'm gonna howl."

Then she actually howled.

So, how's she doing?

"Physically?" asked Taylor. "I'm going to try and walk on the stage tonight. And say a little prayer for me that I don't fall."

She did not. Taylor, with some assistance, walked on the stage to a standing ovation. She made her way to a chair, sat down and accepted her award.

"I was here at the first night, here last year," she said. "I will continue to be here until we defeat the enemy of HIV and AIDS."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Scorsese to Direct George Harrison Film

Martin Scorsese will direct a documentary film on the late Beatles guitarist George Harrison. "Harrison's music and his search for spiritual meaning is a story that still resonates today and I'm looking forward to delving deeper," Scorsese said in an e-mailed press release Thursday.

"It would have given George great joy to know that Martin Scorsese has agreed to tell his story," Harrison's widow, Olivia, said.

Scorsese, who won his first Academy Award this year for directing "The Departed," has made other films focusing on music stars, including the 2005 documentary "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" and 1978's "The Last Waltz"

Harrison, born in Liverpool, England, and the youngest of the Beatles, died at 58 in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, 2001, after battling lung cancer and a brain tumor.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Rob Reiner Endorses Hillary Clinton

Rob Reiner has endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. "Every one of the Democratic candidates is strong, but Hillary is head and shoulders above the rest," the 60-year-old director said Wednesday.

Reiner, whose films include "When Harry Met Sally," "A Few Good Men" and "Stand By Me," also said he would throw a fundraiser party for Clinton's 60th birthday at his Brentwood estate Oct. 21.

Fellow filmmaker Steven Spielberg announced in June that he was backing Clinton.

Spielberg has directed some of Hollywood's most admired films, including "Jaws," "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park," "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Sandler Eyes Work With Gay-Rights Groups

Actor Adam Sandler said Thursday he would like to work alongside gay-rights groups after starring in this year's "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." In Mexico with co-star Kevin James to promote the film's opening in theaters here, Sandler told a news conference: "If I can help anybody in any way, I certainly would."

But the 41-year-old comedian stopped short of calling himself a potential gay icon. "I don't think that's gonna happen, dude, certainly not," Sandler said. "If I was a gay man, I wouldn't want me to represent" the gay community.

"Chuck and Larry," scheduled to be released on DVD in the U.S. in November, tells the story of two straight Brooklyn firefighters who pretend to be gay domestic partners for pension benefits. The movie raked in about $35 million in U.S. box-office sales on its opening weekend despite weak reviews and some complaints of homophobia.

"Of course, we didn't want to offend anybody or hurt anybody," James said at the news conference. "If we can help people too along the way, that would be great."

Sandler described the kiss the two actors shared during filming as "not bad."

"He was clean, and he seemed to brush his teeth and all that," Sandler said.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Screenplay Stolen From Coppola's Office

Armed bandits raided Francis Ford Coppola's Argentine headquarters and stole a computer with the screenplay for the upcoming feature film "Tetro," according to local news media. The director of "The Godfather" apparently was not in Buenos Aires at the time of the robbery Wednesday night. A federal police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name, confirmed that a robbery had occurred and a judge was investigating, but he said he could not give details.

The independent news agency Noticias Argentinas reported at least five people entered the offices of Zoetrope Argentina, tied up employees and took computers, cameras and other valuables.

Noticias Argentinas said one of the stolen computers contained the 68-year-old director's script for "Tetro," a story about Italian immigrant artists set to begin shooting next year and starring Matt Dillon.
Kathleen Talbert, a New York-based representative for Coppola, said in an email to The Associated Press that the filmmaker would issue no statement. Talbert said the script was saved in other places. She declined to comment on the local reports.

Grisel Raynoldi, a 21-year-old university student who lives across the street from Coppola's headquarters, said she heard no unusual noises Wednesday night.

"People get held up in the street a lot at night but normally they (criminals) don't go into the houses. So I was surprised," she said, adding she had seen Coppola on several occasions coming and going from the building in a chauffeured car.

The house is set in the Palermo neighborhood of chic boutiques and trendy restaurants interspersed among homes and abandoned warehouses.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Woody Harrelson Calls for Green Activism

Woody Harrelson called for more anti-oil activism at a media and technology conference Thursday, though he declined to say how far he was willing to go personally as a protester.

"In spite of the fact that there's an increase in awareness of what's going on in terms of polar ice caps melting and just global warming generally ... oil companies don't seem to be making much of a change," the 46-year-old actor said.

Harrelson was at the "Picnic" conference, which has a green theme and features a contest in which British billionaire Richard Branson will award $700,000 to the winning idea for an environmental project. "Certainly (oil companies) just want to get as much out of the ground and make as much money as possible before they transition into anything else," Harrelson said. "So I still think it's time for some strong activism, especially as it relates to our dependency on oil."

Harrelson was nominated for a best actor Oscar for his role in the 1996 film "The People vs. Larry Flynt." His screen credits also include "Natural Born Killers," "White Men Can't Jump" and "A Prairie Home Companion."
As an activist, he has advocated legalizing hemp and was arrested in 1996 after scaling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as a protest to save redwood trees in Northern California. Protesters there were accused of tying up traffic for hours.
Harrelson, a vegetarian, helped lead several dozen conference attendees in a yoga session Thursday.
He shrugged off criticism that he should stick to acting.

"To me, an artist has almost kind of a better vantage point, certainly (compared with) politicians, who have their corporate people that they're connected to, or to industry, who obviously have their reasons for feeling the way they feel," he said.

"An artist that doesn't have any entanglements, or people helping him decide which way to think, has a pretty clear perspective," Harrelson said.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Coppola's New Movie to Premiere in Rome

Francis Ford Coppola's first movie in a decade, "Youth Without Youth," will have its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival next month, organizers said Thursday. The five-time Academy Award winner's first movie since 1997's "The Rainmaker" stars Tim Roth as a professor-turned-fugitive as World War II approaches. Filmed in Romania, the movie is adapted from a novella by Romanian philosopher-author Mircea Eliade and will be screened out of competition.
"It is a film that we strongly wanted. ... Coppola, who is back with a philosophical noir, will be here. It's a film that will leave a sign and will make people talk," said Piera Detassis, one of the festival's directors. Also being presented out of competition will be "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," starring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett in the role of Queen Elizabeth I. This follow-up to 1998's "Elizabeth," which earned Blanchett her first nomination, tells the life of the 16th-century English monarch as she juggles romantic temptation, political opposition and the threat of conquest by Spain.

Besides Blanchett, other stars who are expected include Clive Owen, Reese Witherspoon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Halle Berry, Robert Redford, Gerard Depardieu, as well as Coppola's daughter, fellow director Sofia Coppola.

The second annual festival, running Oct. 18-27, features 14 movies in competition, including "La Deuxieme Souffle" ("Second Wind"), starring Daniel Auteuil and Monica Bellucci, and "El Pasado" ("The Past"), with Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.

Other festival events include public meetings and conferences with Jane Fonda, Terrence Malick and Sophia Loren.

The competition's 50-member public jury is made up of selected moviegoers from Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, who won the best foreign film Oscar with 2001's "No Man's Land," will preside over the jury.
Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Douglas Digs for Comic Gold in `King’

Michael Douglas won an Academy Award as a ruthless man with a nose for stock-market gold in "Wall Street." Now he's a lovable kook sniffing after mythical Spanish treasure in "King of California," a shaggy-dog tale that marks a return to independent filmmaking for the star of such studio hits as "Fatal Attraction" and "Basic Instinct."

Also a best-picture Oscar winner for producing 1975's indie sensation "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Douglas still jumps into roles that really grab him but finds the urge to work constantly has diminished since his 2000 marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones, with whom he has a young son and daughter.

"It's funny how your priorities change, and mine definitely have since getting married and starting the family," Douglas, 63, said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "King of California" played before its theatrical debut. Now playing in limited release, the film is gradually rolling out nationwide.

"Basically, for the last eight years, I haven't done a lot," Douglas said. "It takes a lot to drag me out of the house."

Though a steady hitmaker in the 1980s and '90s, Douglas has delivered box-office duds lately, among them the Secret Service thriller "The Sentinel" the action comedy "The In-Laws" and the domestic drama "It Runs in the Family," which co-starred his parents, Kirk and Diana Douglas, and his grown son, Cameron.

Douglas said he generally has outgrown the pressure to keep producing hits, saying the lower-budgeted indie world is a better option for interesting roles than gigantic studio productions that live or die by their opening weekends.

"It is if you've been lucky enough to have the career I've had and have invested wisely," Douglas said. "But I don't feel so good for a lot of people who just are starting out now and what they face. The alternatives aren't good."

In "King of California," Douglas got a chance to do something he's rarely done on screen: Act like a kook. With a bushy beard and a wildly infectious glint in his eye, Douglas plays jazz bass player Charlie, a man with a history of mental problems who has just gotten out of a psychiatric hospital.

He returns to the family homestead, where his wise-beyond-her-years teenage daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) has been paying the bills with her fast-food job. Rather than stepping up to become a responsible dad, Charlie takes his daughter along on a delirious quest to find long-lost loot he's convinced is buried somewhere under the suburban sprawl of California.

Douglas is used to playing earnest characters, but they're generally sober sorts, the kind with a quiet, even menacing edge. Having shown subdued comic flair in "Wonder Boys," "Romancing the Stone," "The Jewel of the Nile" and "War of the Roses," Douglas felt confident taking on the anarchy of Charlie's life.

"I saw the crazies from day one and I was not worried about that, certainly was not worried about playing the mania, based on my history of intensity and all of that," Douglas said. "But I was curious and challenged by where the humor and comedy were going to come from. For someone who's not inherently known as a comedic actor, I love to get a laugh. I'll do just about anything to get a laugh."

Douglas' antics were so successful, he had the cast and crew doubling over in laughter, co-star Wood said.

"The best actors, I just love watching them switch on and off," Wood said. "Michael's kind of quiet, and they would yell `Action!' And all of a sudden, he would just be this crazy, kooky, funny character.

"There's certain scenes, there was a hand-held camera, and the cameraman would be trying not to laugh so hard that the camera would be shaking and we would have to reshoot everything, because he was just so wild-eyed and with the beard, it was too much for us."

"King of California" writer-director Mike Cahill said watching a Douglas double feature "Wonder Boys" and "Falling Down" convinced him that the actor was right for the role.

In "Wonder Boys," Douglas plays a writer whose novel manuscript and personal life both spin out of control. In "Falling Down," he's a worker bee pushed too far, who snaps and embarks on a personal mission to get payback.

"I went, `OK, that'll work,'" Cahill said. "On the one hand, he showed the sort of madness, and on the other, he really portrayed disenfranchisement well, someone on the fringes and really not fitting in."

Quietly thoughtful and measured in interviews, Douglas said he falls somewhere between the grave restraint of his earlier hits and the exuberance of "King of California."

"I'd say I'm a pretty good reflection of the two. I'm out of the '60s, so there's a certain stoner mentality and joy and humor that I have from that period," Douglas said. "I'm also a current-events freak, so I guess you're sobered up by what's going on in the world today.

"I like to think I'm unpredictable. I think that's what life's about. You don't know what's going to come at you next. I think comedy is much more difficult to do. I've never understood why it's not respected as much, at least in the States, as it is in a country like France. We all know how we cherish our funny friends. We don't have that many, so they're like a valued, endangered species."

Douglas continues to develop scripts one about art forgery, one about a basketball coach, another about an attorney handling lawsuits pegged to SUV rollovers but he has nothing definite up next.

With Zeta-Jones in her prime, Douglas said she gets to choose roles first then he fits in his own around her schedule.

He and Zeta-Jones co-starred in the ensemble drama "Traffic," though they did not have any scenes together. Douglas said they might work on another film together, but he's wary of the pitfalls of real-life lovers sharing screen time.

"There seems to be a fear about married couples playing romantic leads together, so we'll maybe come up with something, give her a young, studly leading man and have them fall in love," Douglas said. "And I'll be the villain trying to kill them, maybe."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

The beginning

Hello world! My name is Andrew and I’m the webmaster of this blog. Here you will find all kinds of news regarding movies industry. I can only hope that you will enjoy my blog.