April 10, 2007

What a quick move Lionsgate Films and the Firm have made on "The Christmas Cottage." Just a day after signing Jared Padalecki in, both companies now are adding Marcia Gay Harden into the cast to play the mother of Padalecki's character.

A look at the inspiration behind Thomas Kinkade's painting of the same name, the picture reportedly will be based on the events that led Kinkade to become a renowned painter. Filming is slated to begin this month with Michael Campus at helm and Kinkade producing alongside his wife Nanette Kinkade, Julie Yorn, also Campus.

Not showing any signs to slow down in running her acting career, Amy Adams has landed a starring slot in "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day", which Keylight Entertainment Group and Kudos Productions Ltd are developing for Focus Features to distribute.

Based on Winifred Watson's novel of the same name, the period tale revolves around a dowdy governess who gets a taste of glamour when she goes to work in the home of a nightclub songbird. Adams will play the singer while the title character will be portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand.

In the event that introduces new music, rising bands Bloc Party, Of Montreal and !!! are the lots that will slam Iceland Airwaves Festival's stage. The ninth year will take place in October as usual.

The event is held over 5 days course and will visit several venues throughout the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik. The three acts above are only a few among the 170 others who are planned to perform. 35 of the total have been announced and mostly are Icelandic musicians. Specific dates are yet to be announced.

Already assigned to both write and direct "Old School Dos", Todd Phillips appears to still have his way wandering for another big screen project as the man is set to produce a comedy flick titled "The Chadster" with an eye to also direct.

A joint production of Warner Bros. Pictures and Alcon Entertainment, the project concerns a best man who finds his position threatened when an eccentric, long-lost childhood friend shows up at the wedding and causes all sorts of trouble. Working on the script is Michael Samonek, who will pen it based on his original pitch.

Seemingly addicted to write again, rock band Kings of Leon is accumulating materials for fourth album. They had just released third album "Because of the Times" on April 3, 2007.

Vocalist Caleb Followill said that tunes are already available but lyrics are not there yet. "I'm writing stuff right now, but I'm trying not to write the lyrics because as soon as they' lyrics are written we're going to want to play it. Our record's (Because Of The Times) been finished for about a year and we've been sitting her twiddling our thumbs waiting for the label to put it out, so we're ready to continue on writing songs."

Taking high speed in lining up new big screen projects at its pit, Universal Pictures has purchased a comedy pitch by Ed Helms, Jake Fleisher, and Ian Berger entitled A Whole New Hugh to develop it with Helms co-writing and toplining.

Presenting a story about three guys who try to boost their friend's confidence by making him appear to be successful, the picture is said to follow Helms' cameo in "Walk Hard", a musical biopic parody that Jake Kasdan directs for Columbia Pictures. No word yet on the helmer and production schedule, but it is confirmed that Judd Apatow will seat as the producer.

British act Kaiser Chiefs is currently in favor of performing in US rather than UK. They appreciate people coming to their shows out of curiousness and to see why the band is such a hit in UK. This, at the same time, means they intend to get US audience familiar with their music.

Vocalist Ricky Wilson explains the challenge of playing in US. "I'm excited because we're used to putting tickets on sale in the UK and Europe and loads of people buy them who like the Kaiser Chiefs and bought the album. In America, we put tickets on sale, people buy them to come and see if we're any good or not, and we've got to deliver. It's a different kind of exciting because we've got a different job to do to win them over, rather than just kind of like 'We've arrived'".

Dissatisfied with the result of "Grindhouse" of only grossing $11.5 million in its opening week in the States, The Weinstein Co.'s exec Harvey Weinstein is now considering to give the same treatment the company intends to do for non-speaking English markets: splitting the flick in two.

Confessing that he is "incredibly disappointed" with the numbers, the man revealed the plan to Deadline Hollywood, unveiling his intention to re-release the film's two segments Quentin Tarantino 's "Death Proof" and Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" as separate movies later this summer.

Fall Out Boy reveals the new dates of their postponed Honda Civic Tour. As previously reported, the band will keep the dates starting from May 11 onwards.

Written on the web journal, Pete Wentz said "Everyone knows (our) tour has been pushed back- no I am not dead (unless this is the replaced robot me writing this), no no one is in rehab." He then continued, "Hopefully you know how much we love to tour and want to keep going. After some things coming up it is in the best interest of the health of the band and its members to take just a couple weeks to catch up."

Rapper Common has set a release date for new album "Finding Forever". The album will be released July 10 via Geffen Records. He has tapped several noted artists to contribute both in front and behind this piece.

People in the back stage of this seventh album include Kanye West, will.i.am, the late hip hop producer J Dilla and Grammy award winning producer Devo Springsteen. West produced the first single "The People" that features singer Dwele and other 7 tracks.

Still looking for appropriate actress to play the lead female in his project of "White Jazz", director Joe Carnahan has revealed in an interview held by Cinematical that he would like to see Charlize Theron take the role of Glenda Bledsoe in the movie.

"I'm a huge Charlize fan," he told the site. "I would love her for that. I was taunting her at an Oscar party that I was gonna come chasin' her, so I really like Charlize. But there are so many wonderful, amazing actresses that could blow that thing out of the water, that you never want to limit yourself ... but she would be, like, an early favorite."

Tired of the piracy acted upon their latest album "Year Zero", Nine Inch Nails made the tracks available in the band's website. This act is triggered by the two recent leaks of the album within a week.

On April 1, a low quality recording of the album went out on a number of peer-to-peer networks. Three days later, a better quality, presumably the promotional disc surfaced in other sites. Trent Reznor finally took action by commissioning Chicago's Q101 to circulate the entire tracks on the radio station.

Tony Hadley has added the odds to the probability of Spandau Ballet's comeback. He has unveiled his interest to get all the members back together for a reunion. "The next window of opportunity that I see would be our 30th anniversary, in about four years' time," he said.

Before coming to the revival, Hadley has some things to be settled first, especially the unpleasant departure of the band. "There'll have to be an awful lot of things remedied because things did get personal and it went a bit too far," he explained. The band dissolved under a bitter rivalry between 2 sides in late 1980s. Hadley, Steve Norman and John Keeble brought Gary Kemp to High Court in subject of songwriting royalties.

Singing is what she's been doing so far, and now Avril Lavigne is jumping on the comic book bandwagon. The Canadian pop singer will have her figure recreated as an animated heroine in Del Rey Manga's new comic book titled "Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes."

Avril's animated character in the two-book series is a teen called Hana, who is struggling to come to terms with her troubled life and avoid the temptations of a demon she met on the Internet.

No doubt will provide great support in the development of Latin American cinema, Salma Hayek and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. have announced on Monday, April 8, 2007 that they have reached deals to establish a film company specializing in Latino pictures appealing to wider and mainstream audiences.

Called Ventanazul, the company will take its base at MGM and be a partnership between the studio and Hayek, who landed an Oscar nomination 2003 for best actress category through "Frida." It is dedicated to make or pick up independent Latin-themed movies to distribute two up to four of them a year for broad, box office appeal.

Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano is in preparation for another solo album titled "Scarred". The album will be released May 29 through Hybrid Records.

In her fourth solo project, Johnette works with Nine Inch Nails' contributor Danny Lohner and Rachel Stamp's producer Will Crewdson. In the album, she will cover Coldplay's "The Scientist" and Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties".

Jazz band Soulive is switching label again. This time, they are signed to Stax Records that will release the group's ninth album "No Place Like Soul" on July 31.

Known for a constant change of label the band will probably seek a new direction like it did under Concord Records in 2005. The probability is higher with the addition of new vocalist Toussaint.

Rocker Jon Bon Jovi and fellow bandmate Richie Sambora going plastic.

The two recording artists are the latest musicians to join McFarlane Toys' line of action figures, which will hit US stores in August and sold for $US10 to $12.

Slated to be one of the busiest actors in the game judging from the upcoming acting stints he has to carry out, Leonardo DiCaprio turns out to still eager to add one more work into the list.

Variety reports that the striking actor is currently engaged in early talks to topline "Body of Lies", a Warner Bros. Pictures' big screen adaptation of David Ignatius' new novel of the same name. Previously titled "Penetration", the project has already had Donald De Line produced via De Line Pictures with Michael Costigan executive producing.

Hot off his stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," Mario Lopez has been tapped for a new project, co-starring R&B singer Christina Milian for the CW comedy pilot "Eight Days a Week."

The project, revolves around four twentysomethings who work under the top movers and shakers in New York, will see Lopez plays one of the bosses, an impeccably dressed wunderkind with a cell phone attached to his ear. Milian, meanwhile, will play one of the assistants, a beautiful, young woman who left behind a law career to start over as a receptionist/gofer at an art gallery.

After making a blast in 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, Finland's rock band Lordi will bring the same success to North America and Asia. In support of full-length version of 2006's "The Arockalypse", the band will tour in Japan for 4 dates and in East Rutherford, US for 2 dates.

Japan's leg begins April 9 in Tokyo and ends April 13 in Nagoya. The band will then fly to New Jersey for The Bamboozle Fest on May 5-6. My Chemical Romance will join them in the May 5th show while Linkin Park joins in the next. After that, Lordi will headline 2007 Ozzfest that starts July 12 in Seattle, WA and wraps up on August 30 in West Palm Beach, FL.

Looks like good relationship still lies between David Goyer and Warner Bros. Pictures regardless of the former's shocking decision to take departure from the company's superhero project "The Flash."

According to WizardUniverse.com, the Michigan-born filmmaker has successfully sold an idea focusing on the more villainous side of the DC universe with story being built around DC Comics' superhero the Green Arrow.

Famous and owns lots of money, Avril Lavigne does know how to spend her wealth wisely. The Canadian famous pop singer and husband Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 have purchased a US$9.5-million mansion in L.A, it has been reported.

The husband-and-wife of nine months have bought a Tuscan-style home in Bel-Air with three story, eight bedrooms, and 10-1/2 bathrooms. The new mansion, moreover, also has an elevator, sauna and garage space for 10 cars.

Tony Bennett is back in business after his recovery from flu. He will be fit enough to appear in a number of shows scheduled for him this week.

His publicist said he is regaining his health and will be back performing this Thursday in Tucson, Arizona and two Las Vegas nights. "His doctor did feel he should rest for three or four days, so we took that advice, and he's done so, and he'll be back on his regular schedule," a spokeswoman told Reuters. "It was just a bit of the flu, like we all get. A couple of days rest, and he's fine and raring to go."

It looks like the reunion of The Smashing Pumpkins will not come full circle. Former member James Iha has confirmed his absence from the reunion.

Revealing that he has no interest in re-tying the knot with the newly reunited band, Iha said that he is too busy with his own schedule. "I'm writing for a solo record, which I'm going to record this year, and working on my indie label Scratchie Records," he said.

Making a follow-up to the inclusion of Famke Janssen and Michael Pare in the cast list, filmmakers of "100 Feet" have successfully added two more talents namely Ed Westwick and Bobby Cannavale into the list, Arrow in the Head has revealed.

The first feature from writer/director Eric Red since his 1996 werewolf flick Bad Moon, the supernatural thriller centers on Janssen's character, Marnie Watson, who is under house arrest after being granted early release from her prison sentence for killing her own husband in self-defense. Bound to a 100-foot radius ankle bracelet, she unexpectedly has to face the ghost of her dead husband who lurks in the house and is intent on savage revenge.

The judges lineup for TV show "America's Got Talent" has been changed. In its second cycle, the show will not see singer Brandy on the panel anymore. Instead, Sharon Osbourne steps up to take her seat behind the judging table.

According to TMZ.com Sharon was already in talks with NBC, making Brandy officially out of the show. Brandy's replacement was rumored to be the ongoing consequence of her car accident legal woes that haven't been settled.

Scarlett Johansson, who recently told Seventeen magazine she's single and not looking for love, apparently quickly found the love of her life. The sexy actress has been spotted all over Manhattan with fellow actor Ryan Reynolds this past weekend, prompted rumors they are dating.

Johansson and Reynolds were apparently spotted holding hands and kissing while out for dinner and clubbing in New York on three consecutive evenings. They had a romantic dinner at Rao's on Friday night, then made their way to new club Azza, and on Saturday evening the pair spent a second consecutive night together at Tribeca restaurant Odeon.

Feel the need to find his movie successor, Jackie Chan has on Saturday April 7th launched a new Chinese TV show project, aimed at scouting out new action movie talent.

"A lot of actors are good at fighting but (their style) is not beautiful," the action actor told an audience that included a selected 20 of the show's contestants and some Chinese celebrities. "If you can incorporate dance with an ability to perform kung fu, that would be better."