Elijah Wood Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We might not know exactly what Sylvester Stallone is doing next, but we do know he's apparently got a thing for remaking old Charles Bronson films. Not long ago, Stallone expressed interest in remaking Death Wish, and now Dark Horizons tells us the aging action star will star in a remake of the 1972 Bronson flick, The Mechanic (and though they say nothing of the man also directing, other sites are jumping to that conclusion). DH also claims the film's budget clocks in at around $40 million, and that MGM is looking at folks like Ryan Gosling, Ben Foster, Cillian Murphy and Elijah Wood to co-star.

The original film revolved around an aging hitman (played by Bronson, and now Stallone) who befriends a young man that wants to become a professional killer. Over at IMDb, however, they claim the film will be totally re-imagined as a thriller in a post 9/11 world. A few days ago, Stallone struck a deal to star and produce two new action films, though there was no further info on what those two films would be. Perhaps Sly is off the Death Wish train and now setting his sights on The Mechanic? Could one of these (or both) eventually become the film(s) included in that deal? Which would you rather see Sly remake: Death Wish or The Mechanic?

So we know Peter Jackson will indeed be returning to The Lord of the Rings universe as a producer on two more films, one of which is based on The Hobbit. Until now, we all assumed The Hobbit would be broken into two parts over two films and that would be it. But wait! Maybe not. MTV spoke with Frodo himself, Elijah Wood, who shared a few tidbits with regards to what exactly Peter Jackson has planned for this second Hobbit film. He says, "I haven't spoken to him directly about it [but] I've e-mailed him, and as far as I know, the two films that they're doing, one will be 'The Hobbit' and another will take place between the 60 years that happened between 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings.'" No sh*t. Now that's pretty damn cool.

So if that's the case, then there should be plenty of room in that second film for Frodo, Aragorn and others, right? Says Wood, "If I'm asked to go back and revisit that character and it makes sense, I would love to. I would absolutely love to." Personally, I'm not as attached to the source material as others are, and so this bit of news could potentially upset some of the more hardcore LOTR fans out there. Then again, considering Jackson (and whoever directs) would probably turn the first Hobbit film into a three-hour epic, I'm not so sure there's enough worthwhile content in the book to stretch it into two three-hour films. So a bridge film does make sense, from a Hollywood standpoint, but not so much in the eyes of all those loyal readers out there. We'd love to get your opinions on this, so chime in below.

Having just come off the Tribeca film festival, I should be perfectly attuned to an experimental short film anthology like Paris Je T'Aime, (Paris, I Love You) and some segments of it are definitely enjoyable, but the overall hit-miss ratio is too low to ignore. This, despite a juggernaut talent bench that includes the Coen brothers, Wes Craven, Natalie Portman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alfonso Cuaron, Nick Nolte, Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Steve Buscemi, Gus Van Sant and Juliette Binoche. In fact, these are only a few of the notable performers and directors who contribute to the 18 shorts, only a few of which actually intersect with the others. My favorite of the lot is the one that the Times' Stephen Holden declared to be the worst: a snappy little love note to Parisian vampires titled Quartier de la Madeleine. Starring Olga Kurylenko as a classic vampire with opaque, milky eyes who is interrupted in the midst of her work by Elijah Wood, it's a beautifully photographed little love story with lots of blood that seems made of melted pink plastic.

Strangely enough, that's not the short directed by Craven (even though he makes a cameo in it -- how could he not?) Craven's entry is Pere-Lachaise, focusing on a visit to that famous cemetery -- where Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust and Jim Morrison are buried -- by a squabbling couple played by Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer. Just when Sewell's character has run out of things to say, the ghost of Wilde actually shows up to give him some advice. Like many of the films, however, it feels like a 30-minute short that was cut down to about one-third of that time in order to squeeze it into this crowded phone-booth of a feature format. If you don't pay careful attention, you might actually miss Wilde's appearance and wonder what happened to wrap up the segment. Still, the acting drags it over the finish line. The same can be said for Quartier des Enfants Rouges, starring Gyllenhaal as an American actress shooting a costume drama in Paris and possibly falling for her Parisian dope dealer.