After tons of speculation and millions of votes counted, the results are in -- Richard Gere is still The Man. Seriously, how many people do you know who look 33 when they're actually 106? None. Gere. That's it. And Variety tells us he's signed on for not one, but two more films. The Pope turned 81and he's riding around in a little bulletproof car. Gere is 106 and he's doing two movies! Who do you think is more awesome? Hint: His name rhymes with Fear??

First up, he'll star opposite Hilary Swank in Amelia -- a biopic on the famed aviatrix, Amelia Earhart, which will be directed by Mira Nair off a screenplay by Ron Bass. Gere will play Earhart's husband, publisher George Putnam, and the film will document their rocky relationship. Additionally (and this is something we already reported), Gere will co-star in the cop flick Brooklyn's Finest, alongside folks like Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke. Antoine Fuqua will direct. (Currently, there's no word on which young actress Gere will be shaggin' in that film, but we'll let you know when more info is released ...)

Amelia Earhart -- we hardly knew ya. But we're about to know the gal a whole lot more as it appears that planned biopic starring Hilary Swank (as Earhart) has brought on a new director to replace Phillip Noyce (who recently left the project). Yup, Moviehole (who've been all over this film) reports that Mira Nair has signed on to helm the flick, which will most likely begin shooting soon. Nair is a solid director; she's the woman behind The Namesake (which I liked very much), and definitely knows how to work with period films (see: Vanity Fair).

The film, currently titled (I believe) The Story of Amelia Earhart, is due out in 2009 and will star Swank as the American aviation pioneer. Earhart is probably most known for disappearing over the Pacific Ocean while attempting a circumnavigational flight across the globe in 1937, but she was also the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, which she was awarded as the first woman "aviatrix" to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, so says Wikipedia. She also wrote best-selling books and helped launch The Ninety-Nines, which is an organization for women pilots. Needless to say, it's about time Earhart got the glossy, big-screen Hollywood treatment -- and with Swank and Nair involved, I'm sure this will be a film we hear a lot more of come Oscar time.

Dysfunctional families and indie films go together like peanut butter and chocolate, and Birds of America, directed by playwright Craig Lucas, has dysfunction in abundance. Morrie (Matthew Perry), who raised his younger siblings Jay (Ben Foster) and Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin) after their father's death, now lives in the family home with his wife, Betty (Lauren Graham). Morrie is a college prof desperately seeking tenure, and the person who is most in a position to make that happen for Morrie is his friend Paul (Gary Wilmes), who lives right next door with his wife, Laura (Hilary Swank), in their perfect house, with their perfectly maintained flower bed, with their perfectly adorable infant.

Morrie is one of those guys who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he represses his emotions so tightly that the stress of it all has manifested itself in a case of constipation so extreme he has a home office set-up in his bathroom so he can work while trying to ... work all that out. Betty, meanwhile, wants desperately to have a perfect life and a child like Laura, but Morrie won't consider parenthood until he makes tenure. Since their whole future happiness is dependent upon whether Paul recommends Morrie for tenure, both Morrie and Betty go overboard in trying not to offend Paul and Laura -- even to the extent of not complaining that Laura's dog does his business in Morrie and Betty's yard. Unlike Morrie, the dog does not have a constipation issue, so they are constantly cleaning up after it.

The Sundance Flu, The Sundance Cold, The Sundance Fever ... how about The Sundance I Feel Like Complete Sh*t ...

Looks like J.J. Abrams does plan to go all Wonder Years for his Star Trek flick! Coming Soon reports that 11-year-old (about to be 12) Jimmy Bennett has landed a role as Young Kirk in Abrams' upcoming Star Trek film, due out at Christmas. Bennett has played a little kid in films like Hostage, Firewall, Poseidon and Evan Almighty. A young Spock will also be featured, leading this writer to believe both characters will appear in the film and talk about how much they "like, like" Winnie Cooper. Fingers crossed.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed (what was already previously reported) that New Line is in talks with Platinum Dunes to re-launch the franchise that helped secure their name as one of the big players in town, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form will produce, and a writer will be hired once the strike comes to an end. Since it's a full-out re-do, expect Robert Englund to not play Freddy Krueger, though we imagine he'll still have a role in the film (perhaps as part of Freddy's family). God bless the guy they get to fill his shoes; he'll have to convince tons of hardcore fans that he's the real deal. Dunes and New Line are also prepping a re-launch of the Friday the 13th franchise, with Marcus Nispel directing.

And finally, though it's not really a fanboy film (but I needed one more thing to throw in here, so cut me some slack), Moviehole reports that director Phillip Noyce has officially dropped out of that planned Amelia Earhart biopic starring Hilary Swank. MH spoke with Noyce, who gave the following reason for his departure: "I had worked on Amelia for 5 months from July to end of December 2007, finding all the locations and extensively storyboarding the flying sequences - When it didn't appear that the film was going ahead, I had to make a painful decision to move on and returned to a project that had long fascinated me... Mary Queen of Scots. Scarlett Johansson will play Mary in a film to be shot on location in Scotland, England and Ireland during 2008." Apparently Swank is still attached to the film, which we all thought was moving ahead as planned (script issues, maybe), so we'll keep you updated and let you know what happens.

Variety is reporting that Phillip Noyce has signed on to direct Scarlett Johansson in Mary, Queen of Scots, a long talked-about project that will focus on the Roman Catholic Scottish queen who conspired in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I, and was eventually beheaded as a traitor in 1587. It's hard to understand what the excitement could be in telling this tale again -- we've seen it innumerable times in the past few years, right up to last year's bloated disaster Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in which the character was played by the hugely talented Samantha Morton. I also can't be the only one who thinks the casting here is bizarre in the extreme. Johansson is not a bad actress, but can she really play a French-accented monarch from the Elizabethan age? Isn't that something of a stretch? I guess we'll find out. The Variety story also says nothing about how this impacts Noyce's involvement in the Amelia Earhart biopic he's supposed to be helming.

The word from Hilary Swank's own mouth last month was that her Oscar-bait biopic of the doomed flying ace was set to begin filming in February -- so how is Noyce going to start helming Mary, Queen of Scots in April? Obviously something is screwy here. Numerous outlets have been reporting Noyce's commitment to the Earhart biopic over the last couple of months, but details about the project -- including official confirmation about basic cast and crew details -- have not been forthcoming. It certainly can't be true that Noyce is filming a major show like an Amelia Earhart biopic in the same season as Mary, so maybe his involvement was never so firm in the first place or he just dropped out of one and moved to the other. Such has been known to occur.

Once upon a time, back when I started out this line of work, it was my aim to see every movie ever made. Then came the VHS player. Once the direct-to-video market began, numerous filmmakers stopped thinking of the pleasures and rigors of making films for the big screen. Instead, they started thinking of a quick payoff. VHS financed the rise of the indie movie for good (or often, ill). It all added up to a huge increase in the number of films released. Eventually, I realized if I wanted to do some ordinary things--hoisting an ale, listening to music, reading a book--I was going to have to let a few films slide. Coming attractions have been a huge help in picking which ones to avoid, particularly the ones that reveal every single plot point and the most likely resolution of the problem. So how can I really do a worst of 2007 list? I ducked a lot of contenders. Underdog, for instance.

I missed P.U., I Hate You, as those slashing wits at Cracked magazine will be calling it, but I really felt James Rocchi's personal agony at witnessing the last of Hilary Swank's trio of evil movies this year. Though some would call it a duo; some people fell for Freedom Writers. Maybe this kind of story can be told without Room 222-levels of obviousness and manipulation...perhaps from the POV of one of the students, instead of the earnest white teacher? I'm not going to get any prizes for prescience by saying Swank's agent needs to be renditioned to some country with deep dark dungeons. Swank's Lost Year has already been celebrated elsewhere.

But The Reaping (#1) was the worst of the three; no one wants to see this actress's career reaped anymore. The low-water mark of this swamps-of-blood Christian thriller was the scene where Swank is told by a yokel, "Some people just don't want to go to heaven." Meaning her, and the atheists, agnostics, and Odin-worshippers in the audience.

It's a fact of modern movie watching: as bland storytelling becomes more and more ascendant, you have to be on the lookout for clichés. And most of the time, we remember that -- and occasionally lose sight of the fact that there really are no cliché plots, just cliché execution of the moments within those plots. I can't think of a better example of that fact than the new big-budget tear-jerker P.S. I Love You, starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler as a young couple torn apart by untimely death. As P.S. I Love You opens, we witness young married couple Holly (Swank) and Gerry (Butler) fussing, feuding and fighting before they kiss and make up; then, after the credits, we jump ahead to ... Butler's wake. And while that leap is a little brusque, the real indicator of the movie we're in for comes soon after. A priest introduces the playing of Gerry's favorite song, and the opening chords of the Pogues's "Fairytale of New York" fill the air ... and then the song jumps ahead several bars, skips selectively through the verses, and then leaps to the chorus. Really? The music Jerry wanted played at his wake was a clumsily-edited version of a song, cut for no other reason than to move the movie forward faster? This is not playing a character's favorite song; this is cheap manipulation, designed to engage your feelings as swiftly and cheaply as the filmmakers can. And so goes the movie.

I have no objection to a film trying to warm my heart; what I object to is a film trying to microwave it. P.S. I Love You barrages us with high-frequency waves of cheap sentiment, lazy writing, absolute fabrication and only-in-the-movies nonsense, a purely mechanical process designed to make us feel sadness as swiftly as possible, imbuing the sort of emotional heat that, like the hot patches in a microwaved burrito, doesn't really spread through the entire film or endure beyond a few seconds. And I know it's unfair to compare one film to another, but P.S. I Love You is so clumsy that I found myself thinking of far better films about terminal illness (My Life Without Me) or the unexpected loss of a loved one (Truly, Madly, Deeply) not immediately after but, in fact, during the film's agonizingly long dead spots and bland, off-the-rack montages.

The moment has finally come. P.S. I Love You opens this week -- the sad and funny romcom that stars Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. You might remember my previous posts on the film. I've been following it ever since the production gave me my favorite example of spastic injuries back in November of last year, when Swank got hurt. Why? During one scene, Butler does a striptease, and a flying suspender beaned her on the head and required stitches. Since then, there's been a slew of images, and a trailer to check out. There was also the chance, earlier this month, to submit questions for Moviefone's Unscripted series. The questions were picked, Butler and Swank chatted away, and the new clip is now up over at Moviefone.

You'll get the chance to see Swank laugh a lot and give affection to Butler's new shoe, lots of talk of letter writing, and all that love-related sort of stuff. They even mention the accident, but only in passing, unfortunately. Most of the time, it's just the two joking around. Hearing how Butler talks about a scene that includes a powerful embrace surrounded by cheering music fans, it's no wonder that he's looking to stop the whole historical action drama theme. Gerry's got a big ole soft spot.

P.S. I Love You is the tale of a woman (Swank), who falls for the perfect Irish man (Butler), only to lose him to an illness. But he's not completely gone. To help his love get over the shock of his death, he's created a number of letters that get sent to her, guiding her to take chances and move on to her next love. Could it be Harry Connick, Jr.? Jeffrey Dean Morgan? James Marsters? Not bad choices at all. If only every girl could have those men to choose from.

Hilary Swank has confirmed what was reported a while back -- her next project is a big biopic of flying ace Amelia Earhart. Collider reports that Swank gave some details at the recent junket for my-husband-just-died romcom weepie P.S., I Love You. "It's happening," Swank says of the Earhart film. "I start doing my research in January. It's my next project." She goes on to note that the strike may put a crimp in the plans, as the script is not quite finished. "The film's almost done, but with the hopes that ... we're not filming that till late February, so while I'm doing my preparation and breaking down the script -- sorry, not breaking down the script -- when I'm doing my preparations in breaking down Amelia, who she was and doing all that research, hopefully the writers get what they need and we can start working on that. It's very minor, minor work that needs to be done on the script." Swank also said the film does not attempt to offer a solution to the mystery of Earhart's disappearance.

Want to hear more? As is often the case, the Australian press is out in front on this. A couple weeks ago, The Australian broke the story that Philip Noyce is attached to direct this film, and it already has a title -- The Story of Amelia Earhart. Catchy. The paper also revealed that Noyce will shoot the film in Hawaii and Nova Scotia. That's it for details thus far, but expect more casting news and the like in the next month, assuming this picture doesn't become the latest in an increasingly long line of strike casualties.

Her last horror outing, of 10 biblical plagues and The Reaping, wasn't the most loved piece of scary cinema to hit the screens, but the 2-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is trying again. I'm not sure what has brought about her recent attraction to fantastical horror, but Variety reports that Swank will star in an upcoming adaptation of John Marks' recent novel, Fangland -- a project that she will produce with Das Films and Blumhouse Productions. Mark Wheaton, scribe of The Messengers, handed in the project's first draft just before the strike -- and he's the same guy whose Unfinished Country script just got Samuel L. Jackson to take the lead.

John Marks is a former producer of 60 Minutes, and Fangland merges Bram Stoker's legend of Dracula with his experience on the news show. Yes, that means Hilary is heading back to the vamps, but with a little more drama than her role on Buffy. Evangeline Harker (Swank) is a producer for a television news show who takes an assignment to go into Romania and investigate a criminal legend, Ion Torgu, to get him on camera. This will put Swank face to face with more stories about crazy plagues, first, because one can't get enough of terrible disease. Soon, Torgu accosts her, impersonating Dracula. Like Stoker's tale, Harker finds herself held for months, before she pops up in a Transylvanian monastery as this Torgu Dracula gets introduced to New York City. Since only the first draft has been completed, this production will, most likely, be in the works for a while yet. I wonder... will Swank get accosted by the same, lustful vixen vamps? If you've read it, or would just like to comment on Swank taking on Dracula, please chime in!

Way back when speculation was running wild about who should be cast as James Bond in Casino Royale, a friend of mine said to me adamantly, "No question! Gerard Butler, hands down. Dude. Geraaaaard Butler."

Now, this was a good while ago, and I hadn't seen Phantom of the Opera yet, so I didn't know all that much about this "Gerard Butler" person. But before too long I went to an early press event for 300 at which we were treated to a surprise guest: Butler himself, sitting just a few rows from me, fielding questions like it was his favorite thing to do in the world. And not to get all fangirl on you or anything, but ... well, I went a little fangirl. It was the strangest thing. I felt like those teenagers on old Beatles clips. The man is charm and sex personified -- and soon, with the resounding success of 300, the entire rest of the world knew it, too, not just the millions of rabid Gerard Butler fans who, I discovered, can be both impressive and a little terrifying in their loyal devotion to "Gerry."

Well, Gerry's now trading in his loincloth for sensitive-guy clothes in the new romance P.S. I Love You, in which he plays a man who doesn't let a little death stop him from expressing his love for the wife he left behind. That wife? Oh, she's only played by one Hilary Swank, winner of (ho-hum) two Oscars, phenomenal actress and general ass-kicker extraordinaire (see: Million Dollar Baby, The Next Karate Kid). Heck, I'm pretty sure she could've played Bond AND the new Bond girl, if only anyone had thought to ask her.

In just a few days Butler and Swank will be interviewing each other at Moviefone's studios for our Unscripted interview series, and while we'd be perfectly happy to watch these two sit in a room silently -- or maybe duke it out, gladiator-style -- we'd rather have some questions for them to ask each other. So let us have it, impressively terrifying Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank fans. Ask both of these stars whatever you want to know, and check back here the week of December 17 to see if your question made it on the air.

To submit a question, you can leave it here in the comments, or you can text one to AskCelebs@aol.com (brought to you by Verizon Wireless). Please provide your first name and your city and state, and if you're looking for inspiration, then take a look at some of our past Unscripted interviews here. Good luck!

Usually huge masses of pictures come by way of superhero movies. Everyone is dying to see how different characters will be presented, and there's so many particular details to see that even a big pile of pictures won't spoil the final, cinematic outcome. Hell, the set pictures that just went up for Watchmen will only be the tip of the iceberg there -- fans still haven't glimpsed the heroes themselves, Nite Owl's ship, or any of the goodies sure to hit us at some point. But then sometimes, there are just a ton of pictures for a random, part-drama romcom. Rope of Silicon has just added 61 new images to their gallery for P.S. I Love You -- the film about the woman who gets letters from her husband about how to move on after he dies -- the same one where Hilary Swank was injured due to a suspender.

Sixty-one. Logic might make you wonder if they're showing a flip-book of the whole movie, which would be cool, but also pretty pointless and spoileriffic. No, instead these are a mixture of set and promotional pictures. There's Hilary Swank with dead hubbie Gerard Butler, smooches with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who you'll see much more of once pics of his Comedian work in Watchmen hits the web), and lots of slightly-different shots. By that I mean shots they almost work like a flip -- hugging from far away, a close up, a lean-in for a kiss, an almost-kiss, the same pose in a different outfit... you get the idea. At least you can see James Marsters finally -- who looks to be gearing up to perform for Swank. Personally, an outtake with that suspender is all I'd need to see it, but maybe sixty-plus pictures will help convince some other people. The film opens on December 21 -- just in time for Christmas.

I know I make it look easy, but it's tough to be this prescient. A few days ago, we got word of an unspecified Amelia Earhart project being ramped up for a pre-strike shoot, and at the time I pointed out that the whole idea of doing this story as an indie film -- as the mystery project was then described -- is absurd. There's hardly ever been better fodder for a big-budget piece of Oscar bait than the story of Earhart, the legendary flying ace and early feminist hero who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, never to be seen again. Hollywood apparently agrees -- the New York Post is reporting that two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank has just put pen to paper to star as Earhart in a biopic. According to the paper, Swank's agents had to ditch a party the other night to take "urgent calls about the deal," and the next day she signed on to the project. This all sounds so on-the-money that I'm already onto wondering who is going to direct this thing. In my earlier post, I mentioned Scorsese, but since he's already put his stamp on Howard Hughes, you can rule him out. How about Anthony Minghella? Joe Wright? The project needs a majestic scope.

As of right now, there's no further information available on the film or Swank's deal, but let's keep the speculation train going: Who should play Fred Noonan, the co-pilot who went down with Earhart? How about Luke Wilson, in a grown-up role for a change? Who should play the wealthy feminist who bankrolled her flights? I said Susan Sarandon last time.and I'll stick with that. Stay tuned as more information on the project comes into focus -- I'm sure the moneymen will be watching to see how well P.S., I Love You does this Christmas.

One movie I have been dying to see is Hilary Swank's P.S. I Love You, but not because of the subject matter. One of the first posts I wrote for this site was about the film, when the actress suffered injuries during a scene where co-star Gerard Butler does a strip-tease. A suspender flew through the air, smacked her in the forehead, and gave her stitches. That's comedy gold that just can't be re-created. Excuse me, ma'am -- how did you get your scar? A suspender...

Finally, almost a year later, we've got a trailer to check out. To recap -- the film is about a woman who is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband. Instead of exiting her life in a sudden clap, he has left her a series of messages to help her move on with her life. From the look of the trailer, the messages come in all shapes and sizes, and give her a list of tasks to complete, sort of like a treasure hunt out of mourning. Between the music and the tear-jerking aspects, I'm sure this will be a big romantic hit and rampant date movie -- one just in time for the holiday season, since it comes out right before Christmas.

Beyond Swank and Butler, there's a pretty solid cast to back the duo up -- Prey for Rock 'n' Roll's Gina Gershon, Buffy's second tortured soul James Marsters, Friendly Lisa Kudrow, Grey's Anatomy's doomed Denny, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Bug's Harry Connick Jr. and the wonderful Kathy Bates. Sadly though, Marsters didn't even get a mention in the trailer, although he's one of the top billed. Hopefully this will give the actor some cinematic cred. Anyhow, there's only a few months left to wait, and try not to get blind-sided by some flying suspenders in the meantime.

Not long ago, writer-director Jon Favreau dropped a little clue on his Myspace page by capitalizing the word 'Swank' while speaking about accommodations in Las Vegas; the final filming location for Iron Man. At a later date, while discussing Iron Man's ComicCon plans, Favreau told fans (regarding rumors that Hilary Swank, Samuel L. Jackson and Favreau himself had cameos), that none of it was true ... except for one. Well, we now know that more than one of those cameos is true, as producer Avi Arad told MTV that Hilary Swank does indeed make a cameo in the flick. Although he refused to say who she'd be playing, rumors suggest she'll most likely play a fellow SHIELD agent; a role that could possibly be setting up something larger -- like a separate film, or an appearance as this character in the much talked-about Avengers movie.

While most of the talk as of late has surrounded a Justice League flick, Marvel seems to be the ones taking the first steps toward setting up a film that would feature an array of superhero characters -- from Iron Man to Captain America. When asked about the Sam Jackson cameo (he's said to be playing fellow Marvel character Nick Fury), Arad seemed to have been caught off guard. His reply: "The Sam thing was supposed to be the biggest secret of them all. It's amazing how it got out." Hmm, I'm actually shocked that word hadn't reached Arad yet -- after all, the Sam news is fairly old by now. Arad was equally shocked when MTV threw Swank's name at him. He asks: "How did you know [about that]?" Then, after a few seconds of silence ... "It's a cameo." So there you have it folks -- official word from the top. Since we pretty much know who Jackson is playing, now it's your turn to take a stab at Swank's role. Who is she? Or, more importantly, who do you want her to be? Iron Man is set to arrive in theaters on May 9, 2008.