***NSFW WARNING: The F-bomb gets thrown around a bunch in this clip of "The End."***

There's an interesting rumor going around that Val Kilmer is teaming up with 50 Cent for a little music. According to Ace Showbiz, the actor stated in a recent interview that 50 Cent liked one of the songs he had written and said "I want to help." How much the pair (who recently worked on Microwave Park together) will collaborate on the tune remains to be seen, but it did get me thinking of old-school Kilmer.

Seventeen years ago, he pretty much morphed into Jim Morrison for Oliver Stone's take on The Doors. Above is a clip of Jim-Val singing "The End" and shocking everyone with his unabashed language. Aside from it being a great song, it's a good example of just how spot-on Kilmer was.

Last Rewind Answer: This time around, the majority got it right -- Jason Segel was the guy.

... and they say to the bartender, "Bet you never expected the three of us would team up on a film?" The bartender takes a good look at the three, goes back to cleaning a glass and replies, "Nah, I kinda expected it." Then Dylan McDermott, Brian Presley and Charles Winkler (son of Irwin Winkler) walk into the bar, and go, "Now what if we told you the three of us were involved too -- with Charles directing! And it's called Streets of Blood!" The bartender, tending to his glass, simply replies, "Nah, expected it." Fed up, Charles Winkler throws down his fist and shouts, "And it's gonna be a damn good film too!" Bartender drops his glass in a fit of laughter, looks up and cries, "Now THAT'S something I did not expect!" Everyone laughs and Erik will never become a comedian. The end.

Variety tells us the film centers on two cops dealing with "the lawlessness of New Orleans in the post-Katrina environment." Production begins next month. Another post-Katrina story, huh? Is it just me or is Hollywood really milking Hurricane Katrina? Perhaps I see more of it because I attend a lot of film festivals, and currently there are tons of Katrina docs and narratives on the fest circuit. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, it just seems like a lot and we're getting close to overkill. This one, however, does sound like it has promise. Plus I've always wanted to see Kilmer, 50 Cent and Stone together in one film. Why not, right?

There you have it. Not only is Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino back together, making cinematic history but rapper 50 Cent might be wedged between them. The impending production of Righteous Kill has people more excited than Paris Hilton's release, but we'll have a long time to wait, since the script is sitll being dreamed up by Russel Gewirtz, who wrote Inside Man with the smokin' hot Denzel Washington and Clive Owen.

50 Cent's participation in the film is not yet finalized. According to Hollywood Reporter he is in "final negotiations" to co-star. If all contractual agreements run smoothly, 50 will portray a drug dealer who aids DeNiro and Pacino -- detectives who are working to track down a serial killer -- in finding their wanted person. I can't yet comment on 50 Cent as a casting choice since his only prior acting role was as a close-to-life character in Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2005. Still, he has announced (not including Righteous Kill) three projects to be filmed in the coming months.

Gewirtz is known to be writing the script in such a way as to give Pacino and DeNiro as much on screen time together as possible. The two, in their prime, starred in The Godfather II and then in Heat in 1995. The latter was the only flim they've ever actually shared screen-time in, however. It's almost a joke that two of the greatest actors of our time have never shared more than a single scene on the big screen. Righteous Kill is expected to reach theatres in 2008.

Fresh off his stint on the venerable soap General Hospital, and appearances in films such as End Game with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Home of the Brave opposite super-hot Jessica Biel and my man Samuel L. Jackson, young up-and-comer Brian Presley is poised to land a new role -- starring with Robert De Niro and rapper 50 Cent in the thriller Microwave Park (which our own Erik wrote about before) -- at least according to a recent Production Weekly article.

The film, directed by Tim Hunter and scripted by Eugine Hess, centers on a cop (played by De Niro) who thinks his partner died during Hurricane Katrina. Later, he discovers this is false information and that his partner, a cop accused of corruption, was actually murdered. After he finds this out, De Niro's character decides to investigate the case even though his bosses are not very happy about it. To further complicate things, he's assigned a new partner (played by 50 Cent) and as the two begin to investigate, and decide if they can really trust each other, they soon find themselves neck-deep in a conspiracy that involves police corruption and even more murders.

As much as this sounds like a pretty interesting story, I just have to wonder about 50 Cent's acting ability. Sure, there are rappers who've successfully made the transition -- Will Smith, Ice Cube, Mos Def and Ludacris being prime examples -- but that doesn't mean every rapper needs to start an acting career. Unfortunately, after seeing 50 Cent's work in Get Rich or Die Tryin' I have to say that I don't hold out much hope -- after all, in that film, he had trouble playing himself. But hey, maybe he'll surprise us all. It could happen. Besides, whatever happens with 50 Cent, I'm sure it won't take away from the stellar work Brian Presley will do in the film -- and that De Niro isn't so bad either. Production on Microwave Park (or whatever it ends up being called) is set to begin on January 15th in New Orleans and Shreveport, LA.

As New York frantically prepares for the arrival of Tom Cruise (by speedboat, no less!), McDonald's has bigger (Filet O') fish to fry. Also: felons are getting their Fiddy, and Fred Durst is totally getting his directorial debut on, beeyotch.

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Hosts
Karina Longworth

Editor
Randall Bennett

Music
Love as Laughter - I'm a bee

Format
5:30, 32 MB, MPEG4 (iPod / PSP compatible)

Program
00:00 - Cruise is coming to town!
02:04 - Bizkit's Durst sez' he's the next Scorsese
02:49 - McDonalds preparing Fast Food Nation counterattack
03:52 - While Brokeback ain't fit for prisons, 50 Cent's masterpiece apparently is

Variety reports this morning that Universal is making a feature based on The Dance, a documentary by John Darling Haynes. Haynes' film, which doesn't seem to have ever been screened outside of a few festivals, tells the story of prizefighter/volunteer prison boxing coach Billy "The Kid" Roth. Nicolas Cage, who will star as Roth, actually began planning the movie three years ago for his Saturn Films production company; the project seems to have just found a home at Universal, which managed to acquire the rights to the story.

The feature -- also titled The Dance -- will be built around Roth's coaching experiences in Louisiana prisons, and will focus specifically on his relationship with one inmate, to be played by 50 (Make sure you say "fitty" in you head when you read that. If you don't, he'll find out and come kick your ass.) Cent. As you might imagine, Roth believes the inmate has "the talent to be a contender" but, wouldn't you know it, the lad is serving a life sentence. Stupid freaking court system.

No word yet on a director, or when production will begin.

As Hollywood gradually becomes willing to take a serious look at the war in Iraq, one of the first films to come off the assembly line will be producer-director Irwin Winkler's Home of the Brave. (Though I would swear I've written about this movie before, I can't find any sign of it in searches. Maybe I'm now dreaming about Cinematical posts.) The film, from a screenplay by Mark Friedman, stars Samuel L. Jackson as one of three soldiers who struggle with the adjustment to life back in the States after his return from the Middle East. Also in the cast are Jessica Biel, Christina Ricci, and Brian Presley, while 50 Cent is also in negotiations to join up.

Because the film's subject is seen as controversial, it took Winkler two years to line up financing for Brave, which will be made on a slim $12 million budget. The movie starts shooting in March in Morocco and Washington state.