Cinematical

Seems like a small war is starting to brew between Michael Bay and Megan Fox, after the latter said some unflattering things about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, telling the Early Show recently that she still doesn't understand the movie and that it's apparently made for geniuses. Bay, of course, is not one to take criticism lightly -- especially from some girl who was nobody until he dropped her into the first Transformers movie.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal about the situation with Fox, he says, "Well, that's Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she's 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do. You roll your eyes when you see statements like that and think, "Okay Megan, you can do whatever you want. I got it." But I 100% disagree with her. Nick Cage wasn't a big actor when I cast him, nor was Ben Affleck before I put him in "Armageddon." Shia LaBeouf wasn't a big movie star before he did "Transformers"-and then he exploded. Not to mention Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, from "Bad Boys." Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in "Transformers." I like to think that I've had some luck in building actors' careers with my films."

We shouldn't worry whether this war of words will hurt either person's involvement in a third Transformers movie because according to Bay that's not happening anytime soon. On a third Transformers film, he says, "I just want to take some time off. It's been almost three years that I've devoted myself entirely to this world of robots. At some point, enough is enough-and I literally carried this movie on my back. ... I don't know who [would] want to take on my shoes with this franchise. We might just take a year down."

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that moves itself to Thursday when the next day happens to be a holiday! Last week we finished our back-to-back Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen caption contests asking you to give us your best piece of funny for a photo of Megan Fox from the box office blockbuster. Our three winners all took home a copy of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen video game, with each winner representing a different gaming system. Congrats to you all!

1. "I think you're overreacting Megan, second place on Maxim's Hot 100 really isn't THAT bad." -- Michael S. (PS3)

2. "The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Distraction..." -- Jeremy E. (Wii)

3. "Oh, there's Bin Laden." -- Tommy L. (XBox360)

See full image and all captions

This week we're finally exiting the world of giant robots and taking a closer look at a film that's so buzzed-about it might just enter the Oscar equation as a wild card real soon. I'm talking about Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, which some are calling one of the best films of the year and the decade (I'm serious -- folks are loving this flick!). And we have something real cool for you Bigelow fans this week; one grand prize winner will take home one Kathryn Bigelow DVD prize pack containing one Point Break DVD, one Near Dark DVD, one Strange Days DVD and one K-19 DVD. Um, sweet! You know what to do next ....

Read the official rules for this contest

Above: Is this our first good look at The Runaways?

Though neither girl was alive during the 1970s or 1980s (both were born in the '90s), that's not stopping Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning from losing themselves in the time period and doing some serious rocking out for their upcoming flick The Runaways, which is a biopic about the women who breezed in and out of the famous band -- including Joan Jett (Stewart), Cherie Currie (Fanning), Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Sandy West (Stella Maeve), among others.

Just Jared nabbed a few photos from the set that show both Stewart and Fanning clowning around all retro'd out, sporting some pretty spectacular gear. It must've been fun to be in charge of wardrobe for this film because these ladies totally lit it up with style. I'm not entirely sure which girls are featured in the image above; I know Stewart and Fanning are in the back, and I think that's Scout Taylor-Compton in the blue and Stella Maeve up front, though I'm not positive so feel free to correct me. Check out a larger version of the image above down below along with a couple others, and more over at Just Jared.



The Runaways is due in theaters next year.

Oh, the horrible human beings people become while trying to cut deals on Craigslist. With the holiday weekend approaching, and with news pretty slow, here's a story that certainly won't cheer you up. Apparently back in April, a single father put out an ad on Craigslist for an actor to come and literally steal his dog because it was becoming too overwhelming of a responsibility for him. Me describing it doesn't do the ad justice, so, here, read it yourself:

"My deceased aunt gave my two kids a Cocker Spaniel a few months back. The dog has been a terror and become overwhelming for me. I am a single father raising two young children. I cannot face telling the kids that the dog must go. I have found a good home for the dog, and just need someone to transport the dog, and play the villain.

Premise: You will be the dog walker hired by daddy (me) to walk Skittles. I will introduce you to the kids, and you will tell them you are going to help Skittles get her exercise when Daddy is too busy to walk her. At that point you will walk Skittles to your car and take her to her new family 20 minutes from my place. Then return holding just a leash. The story will be that Skittles broke free of the leash and took off. At this point prepare for crying, things being thrown at you, and possibly cursing. My kids are young and dramatic, their girls.

Pay will be $500. The job will take roughly 2 hours at best.

This job is ideal for an actor looking to diversify their role base, or someone who genuinely likes to make children cry. Acting experience is a plus, but not necessary. Please inform me of any prior experience in this kind of situation."

It's not really a spoiler to say that in the upcoming cute and quirky 500 Days of Summer, the film begins with the following disclaimer: " Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely accidental ... Especially Jenny Beckman ... Bitch." Having seen this film play at festivals with Q&As afterward, the first or second question asked is always about whether or not Jenny Beckman is a real girl and perhaps the inspiration for the character Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel). The filmmakers have said that she is real, and at a recent screening of the film in Chicago, director Marc Webb added this to the end of his answer: "... yeah, she's real, look her up on Facebook."

So we looked her up on Facebook, and, yup, there's the Facebook page for a girl named Jenny Beckman who kinda sorta resembles Zooey Deschanel. She's a fan of 500 Days of Summer, her favorite music lists bands on the film's soundtrack (The Smiths are listed first) and she's friends with director Webb, as well as the writers of the movie. All that being said, I've walked away with a few questions:

1. Is this really the Facebook page for a girl named Jenny Beckman, and is this same Jenny Beckman the inspiration for Zooey Deschanel's character in 500 Days of Summer?
2. Is this just a piece of viral marketing on behalf of Fox Searchlight and/or the filmmakers to get people interested and keep them interested in the film?
3. If this is a hoax, then who is that girl in the picture? Is that really a girl named Jenny Beckman? Is the name Jenny Beckman fictitious, but is that still a picture of the girl who inspired the character?

We want answers! What do you think?

While G.I. Joe certainly isn't the first movie to use Slurpee straws as a marketing tool, when you take into consideration all the bad buzz that's been following the flick around for the past several months, it's almost as if Paramount handed this joke to us all on a silver platter. Yes, those of you lucky enough to suck down your slurpee through one of these special straws will get the chance to own a limited edition G.I. Joe straw figure, complete with its own easy-to-make-fun-of awkward pose. There's four all together, and fans will get to choose from Snake Eyes, Duke, Storm Shadow and the Baroness. I actually think the Snake Eyes one is pretty cool (though Snake Eyes is always cool), but I honestly have no idea what's going on with the other characters. I mean, Duke looks like he's either praying or attempting to squeeze one out. You tell me ...

One imagines you'll be able to find these straws at your local 7-Eleven once we inch closer to the film's August 7 release date. Check out larger images of all four characters below.



[via Topless Robot]

A new international trailer has hit for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and the consensus from those who managed to catch a screening of the film back at Cannes is that, while the Weinsteins (or whoever cut this) managed to really make the flick look enticing and vintage Tarantino, it's still a complete misrepresentation of the actual film, which some say is quite boring. As Variety noted back in May, "Inglourious Basterds is great fun to watch, but the movie isn't entirely engaging. And it is defiantly an art film, not a calculatedly mainstream entertainment. Tarantino throws you out of the movie with titles, chapter headings, snatches of music. You don't jump into the world of the film in a participatory way; you watch it from a distance, appreciating the references and the masterful mise-en-scene."

Great fun to watch? I'll take it! That's why I go to the movies in the first place -- and that's what I expect from Tarantino as a filmmaker. Watching one of his films is like going to Cold Stone Creamery and getting a pint of ice cream mixed with all kinds of ridiculous toppings; stuff you'd never expect to be on there to begin with. That's Tarantino, that's what I hope to get out of Basterds, and this piece of movie marketing actually has me excited to sit down and watch whatever final cut (be it two-and-a-half-hours or less) Tarantino and The Weinstein Co. manage to shove into theaters this August 21. Period. Exclamation mark. Smiley face.

Watch the trailer after the jump

I don't think I need to tell you how useful and handy a spare 2GB USB Flash Drive can be, especially with our constant need to store photos, music and/or important files so that we can take them with us wherever it is we need to go. Of course, one can opt to purchase a boring, metallic-looking USB drive that certainly gets the job done, but us movie geeks don't roll like that. If there's an opportunity to express our love for all things movie-related, then you bet we're going that route instead.

Which is why we're here to show you these new USB Flash Drives over at Entertainment Earth. Star Wars fans will no doubt get a kick out of the Vader, Yoda, Boba Fett and Storm Trooper USB Drives, while Twilight fans can show their love for that all things Twilight-ish by picking up a USB Drive featuring the Cullen family crest. (Thank god it's not a giant picture of Robert Pattinson's face because that might've freaked me out a little.)

Both sets aren't due till October, though you can pre-order now. Each will run you $24.99. Check out larger images of all the USB Drives below.

Some more concept art from Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland film has arrived online, courtesy of the French website, The Art of Disney. Some of the art you'll remember from the recent USA Today spread, but then there's other stuff -- like Alice's trip through the giant mushroom patch -- that we haven't yet seen. I attempted to translate the French text on the site (if you speak French, feel free to correct me here), and I believe it talks about how this film will be a continuation of the classic novel, with Alice traveling back to Wonderland 10 years after her original trip.

Directed by Tim Burton, and starring folks like Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Matt Lucas, Christopher Lee, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman and newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice, the film will be a mixture of live-action and animation, and will arrive in theaters on March 5, 2010.

We've added a few of the images to our Alice in Wonderland gallery below, and you can scope out the rest over at The Art of Disney.

[via AICN]

While the world mourns the loss of Michael Jackson, Vanity Fair has cooked up a somewhat controversial (and fairly random) look back at Heath Ledger's final days, with quotes from his agent, his vocal coach, director Terry Gilliam and Doctor Parnassus cinematographer Nicola Pecorini. The article, published in part on Vanity Fair's website, is broken into different paragraphs with titles like "How chronic insomnia may have led to his death" and "How his relationship failed." Did the world -- not to mention Ledger's fans, friends and family -- really need all these old wounds dug up and scraped for a little extra attention? Probably not.

Of all the quotes, the most fascinating seem to be the ones which talk about The Dark Knight, and how Ledger's pay-or-play deal allowed him to do whatever he wanted with the role of Joker seeing as he was to still receive a paycheck regardless of whether he remained in the movie. According to Pecorini, Ledger was actually hoping his performance was way too out there and that he'd get fired, allowing him to take a nice, long paid vacation. Ledger's agent, Steven Alexander, sort of backs up the statement with this one about the actor's attitude toward big summer movies, saying he "was always hesitant to be in a summer blockbuster, with the dolls and action figures and everything else that comes with one of those movies. He was afraid it would define him and limit his choices."

The article also delves into Ledger's rampant drug use, eventual sobriety and just how rough his break-up with Michelle Williams was. It also links off to a 2000 photo spread featuring the actor in some, um, interesting poses. Definitely an odd piece, and I'm sure some will be critical of Vanity Fair for running it. Check it out over here and let us know what you think.

[via The Playlist]