MICHAEL BAY LOOKS TO 2012
The man busy creating Bayhem on Transformers is set to produce, and possibly direct, a big screen version of a new, as yet unpublished novel from the pen of Whitley Strieber. It's very much going to be an apocalyptic conspiracy theory story, as this is the year that several folks, including the Mayans and that amazingly ambiguous predictor of loads of stuff that never actually happens, Nostrodamus, say that – and we quote – "much bad shit shall raineth down." Insert your own gag about the London Olympics here. Apparently Roman Catholic Saint Malachy's thrown his two pennyworth in too, saying that the last Pope will arrive in 2012, triggering Judgement Day (bad news Mal – James Cameron got in there more than 20 years early on that one). The film will be produced and possibly written by blockbuster duo Alx Kurtzman and Robert Orci.
BRANDON ROUTH MOVES TO CRACKTOWN
CHUD.com says that Moviehole says that Brandon Routh has finally landed a new role. And good for him. The actor announced on his unofficial site that he's lined up a role in Life Is Hot In Cracktown. No word on whether he's playing a junkie or not, but he does say that it offers the opportunity for him to "play against type". Expect to see a few more roles crop up for Routh now that we know he'll have availability if Bryan Singer is busy on a non-Superman project or two.
CHINA** CUTS RINKO'S SCENES IN BABEL**
The film censors of China have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to extensively trim footage from Rinko Kikuchi's Oscar nominated performance in Babel, deeming them "too sexually explicit." Well, duh – isn't that the point? Even more puzzling is why they then bothered choosing the film in the first place – if only 20 foreign films are allowed to be shown in the country each year, wouldn't you choose one that didn't need the shears?
HOSTEL 2 CLIPS UP
This has been up for a little while now, and we were waiting for it to pop up on an English site, in higher resolution, but to no avail. So if you've not checked it out already, you can see a few brief clips from the second part of Eli Roth's video-nasty-deluxe online at the Italian website (click here). What will you see? Well, the new angle is to show a little bit more from the point of view of those doing the hacking and slashing, as opposed to just those being hacked and slashed at. It's also notable for the introduction of the phrase "Cum coma." Nice one, Eli!