ColumbusShort Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So amidst yesterday's set visit preview and our first little look at Freddy Krueger, it would appear -- according to Fangoria -- that the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street has been pushed back a bit from April 16th to April 30th, 2010, the same weekend that happened to bring in nearly $30 million for Obsessed this year.

And the same Fangoria piece brings up a move for Josh Brolin's scarred gunslinger, Jonah Hex, up from August 6th to June 18th, 2010. It seems like a vote of confidence, either because Megan Fox is such a big box-office draw now or because Will Arnett will be once G-Force drops this Friday.

We've also confirmed that Nimrod Antal's heist thriller Armored has been bumped from this September 4th back to December 4th. The week after Thanksgiving is usually somewhat of a no-man's-land for the holiday flops to fall away and the awards magnets to work their way up and out, but for every Aeon Flux, we get something fun like Punisher: War Zone, and early rumblings on Armored are that we might not have a dud on our hands. Having enjoyed Antal's Kontroll and 98% of Vacancy, and knowing that this flick helped him land the gig directing Predators, here's hoping.

As far as Hollywood's reliably tepid horror output is concerned, Quarantine works as every bit the disposable jolt dispenser it's assembled to be. It's got a nifty enough concept in its favor and a mildly recognizable cast that needs not fear any characterization coming between them and certain death by the time the credits roll, and it's hard to believe that there's not at least one sequence in here that might get even the most cynical horror fan's heart rate to rise a beat or two -- and I say this as a documented fan of the (still superior) source material.

Young news reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are covering a Los Angeles fire station during their nightly routines when the two tag along on an emergency call to an apartment building. Not terribly long after their arrival, all hell breaks loose and the building's occupants -- Angela included -- find themselves contained within against their will and left to fend off a dangerous virus that causes the infected to become a rabid zombie variant, one aggressively determined to spread the love around.

Goodbye, Matt Dillon! Hellloooo Adrien Brody! I don't know what happened since October, when Matt Dillon was in final negotiations to star, but Cadillac Records has found itself a new leading man. Variety reports that The Pianist, Adrien Brody, has signed on to star along with Jeffrey Wright, the insanely wonderful actor from Basquiat, in the upcoming film. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind Matt Dillon, but this project just went from good to great in my books. Brody would've been enough, but with Wright? No one could keep me away.

Adrien has taken on the role of Leonard Chess, and Wright will be Muddy Waters in the feature, which starts filming in March. They will be joined by Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Entourage), Cedric the Entertainer (Code Name: The Cleaner), and Tammy Blanchard (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows). I'm neither here nor there on the supporting cast, but I'm sort of hoping Joe Morton pops up in a role. Should he, I think I will pass out from movie fan heaven. But anyway...

Coming from writer/director Darnell Martin, Cadillac Records dips into the Chicago music scene of the 1950s -- "charting the colorful lives of American musical legends like Waters, Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, and Elvis Presley." There's no word on who will play the rest of the greats yet, but we should find out soon, before production begins in New Jersey and Mississippi this spring.

It's funny how you can get completely used to seeing a name, and then used to its absence, only to have it pop up again, years later, out of nowhere. Skeet Ulrich has been steering clear of the big screen (or the big screen has been steering clear of him) for a while now. The last time he had a movie out, it was the 2001 flick Chilly Dogs. There was also Soul Assassin, Nobody's Baby, and Takedown -- which was a Hackers sequel that somehow flew off the radar even with a jam-packed cast. But now things are changing for the Jericho star. He's got a new movie on the way, and maybe this will be his reintroduction to the wide world of film.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted that he has nabbed a role in the upcoming flick, Armored. This is that Matt Dillon gang of thieves movie that Peter Martin blogged about back in October -- the one that also has Columbus Short attached. Ulrich is taking on the role of Dobbs -- "a scruffy member of an armored truck company who plans to empty a truck of its $10 million." The thieves all somehow got themselves the armored car gig, so there's one HR person somewhere who is really, really crappy at their job . Sweetening the pot, I hope as thieves -- THR says that Laurence Fishburne, Fred Ward, and the best Professional to ever hit the screen, Jean Reno, will co-star.

Some things never change while others come and go, but no matter what happens, it's a comfort to hear that Skeet can still grab a scruffy role.

Maybe it's because I just sat through the lazy, depressing Fred Claus. Maybe it's because I was expecting Tyler Perry in drag. Maybe it's because my holiday spirit is at an all-time low. Whatever the reason, This Christmas came as a complete surprise. I kinda loved the thing.

Loretta Devine plays Ma Dear, the matriarch of a sprawling Los Angeles-based family with a whole lot of secrets. A whole lot. There's Quentin (Idris Elba, Stringer Bell on The Wire -- the best show on television), a musician who owes big money to some bookies. There's Lisa (Regina King), trapped in an emotionally abusive marriage with the hissable Malcome (Laz Alonso). There's Kelli (Sharon Leal), a sexually frustrated businesswoman. There's Claude (Columbus Short), in love with a woman (Jessica Stroup) he's scared to introduce to his family. Ma Dear has a secret of her own regarding Joe (Delroy Lindo), something of a surrogate father to the Whitfield clan. Oh, and Baby (R&B sensation Chris Brown)? He wants to sing, damn it!

That's a lot of stories to keep afloat, and writer/director Preston A. Whitmore II handles that list and many more mini-dramas with ease. It's quite the balancing act. Whitmore has written and/or directed several smaller projects since 1995's Vietnam drama The Walking Dead, but Christmas will put him on the map in a big way.

When you become an actor and star, there's lots of tricky scenarios to contend with. Beyond all the losses of privacy, you really have to watch what you talk about. There's all sorts of embargoes by the studio to keep actors from spilling secret details; there is the challenge of answering questions and being charming without giving away too much personal information; and finally -- there's the challenge of not saying something that could be taken the wrong way and erupt across the lines of news and blog feeds out there.

Columbus Short, star of Stomp the Yard, was recently asked about the turmoil that is Britney Spears. For those not familiar with the particulars of Ms. Spears' work, Short used to be her tour choreographer, and he whipped up her dance moves for her "In the Zone" tour. So, according to Jam!, he was recently asked about her troubles. His response: I really don't have any thoughts. I think we need to just stop talking about it and then she'll die... (horrified pause). Um, not literally. That's not what I meant. I meant she'll start to heal. Uh, next question?

Whoops! I see how he could confuse dying and healing, can't you? Talk about a big blunder. I have this feeling that he won't be commenting on other people and their issues in the future. Otherwise, he might have to be Quarantined from more than just a building full of rabies. Looking on the bright side, at least it was brunt-of-the-joke Britney. If he had let some important movie news slip, he might be finding himself back on the concert circuit.

You always have to beware of the rabies. It brought down Old Yeller, and it can bring down hot, fresh, Hollywood talent. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Hostel star Jay Hernandez, Dexter's wacky sister Jennifer Carpenter, and Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard), along with Splendor's Johnathon Schaech and Steve Harris (Diary of a Mad Black Woman), will be rabidly Quarantined. The flick is an adaptation of the Spanish horror movie Rec, and the kicker: the flipping original film hasn't even come out yet! That's right -- the English-language version has already been cast and goes into production today, while the original doesn't hit European screens until November 23.

The adaptation was written by director John Erick Dowdle with his brother Drew Dowdle, whose previous collaboration was this year's horror/thriller, The Poughkeepsie Tapes. This version of Quarantined is about an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles "where a deadly strain of rabies breaks out. A reporter and her cameraman are among those trapped inside when the edifice and its residents are quarantined." That's got to suck. However, maybe it's better than being quarantined with some skin-rotting virus or something. At least you have a fighting chance against rabid people. I have a feeling that some of the footage will be from the wobbly, running hand of the cameraman, but we'll have to wait and see, since we can't even watch the original yet.

Is Hollywood speeding up adaptations too much?

I'm not sure how many actors need to turn down roles in the upcoming Justice League of America movie before they just to tuck their movie production tail between their legs and run away. Man, they've got to be close. Jessica Biel's turned down Wonder Woman, and they're really having a heck of a time finding interested actors. MTV now reports that Stomp the Yard's Columbus Short, who has got This Christmas and Whiteout on the way, is among those who have turned down the chance.

The actor told the site he was up for the movie, having been approached to take on John Stewart/The Green Lantern. But he didn't refuse out of comic disgust. Short says: "Justice League is going to be dope; it's going to be huge. But it's not the movie for me." While he used to be set on becoming the first really big African-American feature film superhero, now he says: "I think there comes a point in an actor's career when he decides what type of actor you want to be. [Each actor] decides: I want to do commercial movies, but do I want to go this way? Or do I want to go that way?" Apparently, he didn't want to don tights and take that route.

The cynic in me wonders if he's just being nice, and would be interested in the role, or a similar superhero role, if it wasn't such a rush-job movie. Whatever the case, he's out, and JLA is back to square one. Will anyone want to be in this thing? Is this a lost cause?

Here is your next interracial action buddy duo: Channing Tatum and Columbus Short. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the two young actors have been cast in an untitled movie for Columbia Pictures, and as usual the plot is being kept a secret. However, I'm sure you can guess the basic premise -- white guy and black guy are partnered against their will in order to thwart some type of crime, perhaps? They could be cops, they could be cons, they could be anything as long as they hate each other at first and then learn to work well together by film's end. Hopefully they aren't an ice cream man and a convenience store clerk, though, because we all know how the careers of Skeet Ulrich and Cuba Gooding Jr. went following the release of Chill Factor. The script for Tatum and Short's film was written by David Elliot and Paul Lovett, who worked together on Four Brothers. Neal Moritz, who gave us the buddy action pic Blue Streak, as well as the Fast and the Furious trilogy, is producing.

I'm excited about the possibility of this movie furthering Tatum's rise as a star. The first thing I saw him in was actuallly She's the Man, and I immediately recognized a talent not usually present in the guys cast as the love interest for that kind of movie -- pretty boys like Oliver James (What a Girl Wants; Raise Your Voice), Chad Michael Murray (Freaky Friday; A Cinderella Story), Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls) and Matt Long (Sydney White) are a dime a dozen, and acting range isn't a job requirement. Next I saw Tatum in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, and I was completely sold on his possible future in Hollywood. For much of America, though, it was Step Up, which I haven't seen, that made him a familiar face. Coming up, the guy has at least two high profile movies set for release by early 2008 and he's got 4 projects in development, including a Step Up sequel.

As for Short, well, I must admit I haven't really seen him in anything. He and Tatum both appeared in War of the Worlds, but each was in a bit part and I certainly don't recognize him from that. Films he's starred in that you might have seen include Accepted, Stomp the Yard and Save the Last Dance 2. This fall he appears in This Christmas and next year he'll be seen opposite Kate Beckinsdale in Whiteout.

I must say, I hate when you get a cast list of newly-signed actors, and only some of the roles are described. That being said, I'm going to take assumption and run with it. In February, I confirmed Ryan's post that Kate Beckinsale was gearing up for Dominic Sena's upcoming, and quite literally chilling thriller, Whiteout. With Beckinsale signed on to play Carrie Stetko, the woman rushing to find a killer before winter strikes Antarctica, Variety reports that the other cast is slowly falling into place.

First, we've got Columbus Short. Star of Stomp the Yard and the upcoming The Great Debaters, Short will play Lt. Delfy, according to IMDb. Then there is modelizer-turned-Because I Said So love interest, Gabriel Macht. He's playing a U.N. operative who is investigating the murder with Beckinsale. And then... Then, there is Tom Skerritt. There is no word on who he's playing, so my over-active and hopeful imagination is crossing its metaphorical fingers that Skerritt will play the deranged killer, although I fear that he'll be playing some stodgy man in charge. Please, powers-that-be. The man from Ice Castles, The Dead Zone and Poison Ivy deserves a great part!