According to Coming Soon, Radha Mitchell has joined the cast of Jonathan Mostow's sci-fi thriller, The Surrogates. The movie is based on the graphic novel from Robert Venditti and was adapted by the screenwriting duo of Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato. The bad news is that these guys have written some pretty crappy movies in the past. Hopefully, these two are better at adaptations than they are at original ideas.

In The Surrogates, Bruce Willis stars as a cop in a futuristic world where all human interaction is performed by look-alike robots called Surrogates. Not only do the robots do all the talking for us, but they're even better looking too (when it comes to Mitchell, though, the original is none too shabby ... so I can't imagine what they would do to make her even better looking). When someone begins murdering 'surrogates' right and left, Willis is forced to venture into the outside world for the first time to track down the killer.

If you're a ravenous movie nerd like me, than there's very little in Barry Levinson's "inside baseball" Hollywood movie What Just Happened? If, on the other hand, you don't know a whole lot about studio politics, the angst of test-market screenings, and the tricks that movie-makers (or, more specifically, movie-sellers) will pull just to get a festival screening and a huge opening weekend, then you'll most likely get a whole bunch of chuckles out of the flick. To those who know about this stuff all too well, the comedy should still make for an interesting enough diversion -- thanks mainly to a massive, colorful cast and a few solid jabs that hit Hollywood right in the kisser.

Based on producer Art Linson's book What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, the film version tells the story of one very successful Hollywood producer, and the ways in which he juggles multiple professional crises, as well as some prickly domestic issues at the same time. Robert De Niro is our movie producer, doing his best "sly" comedic work since (probably) Wag the Dog. John Turturro is the archetypal agent: skittish, shifty, and packing a nasty ulcer. Stanley Tucci is the writer who needs our protagonist for professional reasons, but pursues his ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) for other activities. Michael Wincott is the drug-infested director whose ultra-edgy film is being mangled by horrifying studio boss Catherine Keener.

Toss in some supremely amusing "self-mocking" performances from movie stars Bruce Willis and Sean Penn, and you've got the makings of a flick best described as "movie geek heaven." And while What Just Happened? is by all means a colorful and generally pretty funny expose of modern-day Hollywood, it often feels like Levinson and Linson (he also penned the screenplay adaptation) are content to preach to the choir. It's meant to be outrageous and unbelievable how art turns into pure commerce, but there have been plenty of Hollywood satires that demolish the "test screening" mentality, the "beleaguered producer" conceit, and the oh-so-cynical insinuation that Hollywood has no integrity whatsoever. So while much of the material in What Just Happened? is insightful and accurate ... it's just not all that new or shocking anymore.

I just love those lists that are supposed to represent the fandom of the general public. This is probably because my preferences rarely converge with them. Sure, some of my tastes are a little off the beaten path -- I'd pick Danny Huston over Brad Pitt, or Julie Delpy over Julia Roberts. That being said, I still love me some good mainstream. Yet I still find myself raising my brows when I read these lists, just as I did today when I saw the annual Harris Poll for America's favorite movie stars, which Hollywood.com put up today. The order is surprising, as is the one lone oldie to the group.

Their results, counting down from 10 to 1:

10. Bruce Willis
9. Sandra Bullock
7. (tie) Matt Damon & Sean Connery
6. John Wayne
5. Will Smith
4. Julia Roberts
3. Johnny Depp
2. Tom Hanks
1. Denzel Washington

Yes, that's John Wayne there at number 6. Apparently he is the only actor to nab a spot on the poll every year since its inception in '94. Also, Depp is quickly working his way up the ranks, having moved up four positions from last year. Personally, I find the list surprising, and a bit sad in the realm of women in cinema. What say you?

What's the definition of a "Christmas movie?" Is it a simple matter of setting in time, a more complex question of tone, an ineffable connection to the Christmas spirit? I can't answer that, but I can tell you one thing.

Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

It's bloody, brutal and base; it's punchy, puckish and profane ... and it's unequivocally a Christmas movie, or it wouldn't be in the rotation at my house -- and, I suspect, some of yours -- every December as reliably as it is, nor would that annual process of returning to my mind seem as welcome as it is. Normally, in a piece about a film, here's where I'd recap the plot, but seriously, do you need one here? Have you been in cryogenic suspension? Are you leaving the Amish faith after 20 years and figured you'd turn to the internets to catch up? It's Die Hard. You know the plot. And if you need a refresher, go watch it. Right now. We'll be here when you get back.

Moonlighting had all sorts of Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis goodness, with a sweet side Agnes DiPesto and a certain Boogery Curtis Armstrong. In 1986, it got even better when they went Shakespearian in the episode Atomic Shakespeare -- one of my favorite media moments of the '80s. Some unknown student wanted to watch Moonlighting, but his mom told him he had to read Taming of the Shrew for school. As he reads the play, the characters from the hit show slip into all of the bard's famous characters.

Bruce Willis is Petruchio, a man looking to gain a wife with lots of cash, and the shrew, otherwise known as Katherine (Shepherd), becomes the object of his monetary affection. In this scene, he meets Kate for the first time, and battles with her to try and win her hand in marriage. He crashes into the room a la The Shining (Here's Petruchio!) and the two banter in all sorts of sexy punningness ("pianist envy").

Poll Answer from last time: Nicole Kidman was the actress who bet George Clooney.

New poll:

Though it still hasn't hit the trades (I imagine an official announcement will come tomorrow), BlackVoices has spoken with director John Singleton, and he has confirmed to them that he will indeed direct a big-screen version of The A-Team, based on the popular '80s television series (Latino Review first posted the A-Team rumor earlier this week). IESB also confirmed the news through their sources at Fox. Additionally, Singleton said he will not be directing Executive Order: Six, as previously announced through the trades, and we imagine he'll instead concentrate solely on bringing The A-Team to the big screen ... and not completely pissing off all its fans in the process.

This feature film version has been in development for a long time, and for awhile we never thought it would happen. I mean, how can you re-cast someone like Mr. T? And if you do re-cast Mr. T, then wouldn't it be weird to see someone else acting like Mr. T? I love Ving Rhames too ... but c'mon! According to Latino Review's original post, "Stephen J. Cannell, who created the show, will produce the movie with Spike Seldin. Mark Silvestri will exec produce. Alex Young will oversee the pic at Fox. The new "A-Team" will be updated from the Vietnam era and reflect contemporary issues and politics. Tone of the film will be less cartoony and more serious, in the vein of "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon." But the van stays, right? The black van with the red stripe has to stay? And who do you get to play The A-Team? Do they go older (Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames) or younger (Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson) ... or younger and older (Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Mark Wahlberg and Ving Rhames)? In your opinion, what needs to happen in order for this film to succeed?

Oh, and before you start wondering about casting -- Singleton's last film, Four Brothers, starred both Wahlberg and Gibson. So I'd like to think they'd be his first choices ...

[via Coming Soon]

He was supposed to head up Oliver Stone's latest Vietnam drama, Pinkville -- but that is on indefinite hold due to the strike. So, instead of some really depressing accounts of war, Bruce Willis is going sci-fi. Variety reports that the actor has signed on to star in The Surrogates -- Jonathan Mostow's robot production that Erik Davis blogged about back in March. The team that collaborated with the director on T3, Michael Ferris and John Brancato, wrote the script, which is based on a graphic novel from Robert Venditti.

Similar to the game Second Life, Surrogates is set in the near future, where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots who are "better-looking versions" of themselves, rather than making the effort to step out of doors themselves. (A comment on the electronic age? Undoubtedly.) Bruce will play a cop, big surprise, who uses his surrogate to investigate the murders of other surrogates. (Wouldn't that be robotocide?) As the mystery unfolds, he has to do the unthinkable -- leave his house for the first time in years to solve the crime. While I don't go gaga for Willis, he's an attractive man, so I can't wait to see these "better-looking" robotic versions. Will good-looking celebs play sequestered humans who then play with even better-looking robots? This could get tricky really fast. The film will get released through Touchstone, and will gear up to shoot in early 2008.

So much for all those casting updates for (and comments asking about how to get cast in) Pinkville, Oliver Stone's latest Vietnam war movie. Thanks to the writer's strike, the movie is now delayed indefinitely, according to Variety. United Artists put the stop on the production because both Stone and Pinkville screenwriter Mikko Alanne are members of the WGA, and more script-tuning is needed. Apparently the film is fully written, but there were expectations that things would be changed while filming is taking place -- something Stone is known for -- and that's not allowed to happen during the strike. The movie now joins Angels & Demons (aka The Da Vinci Code 2), which was the first major feature to be delayed because of the strike. Yet unlike that higher-profile film, Pinkville may not be easily started when the strike is over. There are now possibilities the cast will change or that United Artists will be less interested in doing such a serious picture right off the disappointment of Lions for Lambs.

It will be a shame if Pinkville is on hold for too long. And it will be too bad if the ensemble cast is broken up. Just last week I was getting all excited for Michael Pitt. Before that, I was already into the group of actors brought together: Bruce Willis, Woody Harrelson, Channing Tatum, Michael Peña and Xzibit (plus Toby Jones, who was announced with Pitt). However, with rescheduling now there may be a chance that Sean Penn could come back to the film, as he was originally reported to be attached.

The cast and crew was set to begin shooting in a few weeks in Thailand, so now obviously there are a lot of people out of work who are likely praying for the strike to end asap. Once given a new greenlight, Pinkville will be Stone's fourth feature film to deal directly with the Vietnam war, following Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven and Earth (unless he somehow squeezes another in before this one -- who knows how long UA will keep this on hiatus?). This time Stone is focusing on the terrible My Lai Massacre and the trial of the U.S. soldiers involved.

Oddly enough, The Hollywood Reporter has two new casting announcements today, despite Friday's announcement from UA. Jason Behr (The Grudge) is set to play Lt. Stephen Brooks, commanding officer at My Lai, and Cam Gigandet (Who's Your Caddy?) is cast as guilt-ridden soldier Fred Widmar.

I've been waiting for Michael Pitt to break out big for years now -- ever since Murder By Numbers, I think (he was noteworthy a year earlier in both Bully and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but not quite as promising). He still has a chance, especially if he takes the part of Lt. William Calley in Oliver Stone's Pinkville. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he's currently in talks for the role, and if he's smart he'll just go ahead and grab it. Calley is the central figure in the Vietnam war film, which deals with the investigation into the 1968 Mai Lai Massacre; the Army officer was the one found guilty of giving the orders that sparked the incident. Pitt would join an ensemble cast that already includes Bruce Willis (or as I like to call him, Bruce Billis), Channing Tatum (another young actor continually teetering on the verge of stardom), Michael Peña (previously seen in Stone's World Trade Center), Woody Harrelson and Xzibit, who just joined on this week. Also joining the film is Toby Jones (Infamous), who will portray Lt. Andre Feher, the chief warrant officer who tries to convince Willis' character, Gen. William Peers, that the U.S. Army is responsible for the massacre.

With Pinkville, Pitt would be sure to make up for the mediocre year he's had. Between starring in Tom DiCillo's embarrassingly awful Delirious and the apparently abysmal Silk (it has an astonishingly sad 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), the actor has been really struggling to get his due notice. He does have other intriguing projects in the pipeline, however; next year he can be seen co-starring in Michael Haneke's Funny Games U.S., a remake of the filmmaker's own earlier work, and he's set to star as a young Christopher Walken (sorta) in Abel Ferrara's King of New York prequel, Pericle il Nero. It seems that Pitt might prefer working outside of Hollywood, but the guy should at least do a good ensemble piece every now and then, and there's not many better Hollywood directors he could work with than Stone.

Every hardcore war movie these days needs at least one rapper-turned-actor, and The Hollywood Reporter tells us Oliver Stone's Pinkville has chosen to go with Xzibit, who, contrary to what you may or may not think, was actually born with the name Alvin Nathaniel Joiner. Since the name Alvin is most closely associated with a certain signing chipmunk, I don't blame the guy for going with Xzibit. He'll join a cast that already includes Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Michael Pena and Woody Harrelson. Stone, whose last film was World Trade Center, returns to Vietnam for his fourth (and last, we think?) time with Pinkville, which will be based off a script written by Mikko Alanne, and revolve around the very real and tragic Mai Lai Massacre that found several hundred Vietnamese civilians -- mostly women, children and the elderly -- killed by U.S. soldiers.

For those who aren't huge rap fans, you might know Xzibit from his hit MTV show Pimp My Ride, in which he helps transform a teenager's sorry excuse for an automobile into a piece of art that couldn't be left alone on the street for more than three seconds before getting snatched. In addition to that, he's also nabbed roles in Gridiron Gang, Derailed and XXX: State of the Union. He's currently shooting the flick American Inquisition. In Pinkville, he'll play an American solider "who is convinced he carried out his orders in a moral way." Ah, so he'll be playing that guy. Pinkville is in pre-production now and is hoping for a release at some point in 2008.

Director Oliver Stone is lining up one helluva juicy cast for his latest trip back to Vietnam. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Woody Harrelson has become the latest actor to join Pinkville, for United Artists, and this will mark the first time Harrelson has worked with Stone since the very nutty Natural Born Killers. Harrelson will co-star alongside Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Michael Pena in the mystery drama which is "based on the infamous 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which upward of 500 people -- mostly women, children and the elderly -- were killed by U.S. soldiers." Harrelson will take on the role of Col. Henderson, "the conflicted officer in charge of the task force that committed the massacre."

When Cinematical had a chance to visit the set of Fighting recently, we spoke a bit with Channing Tatum about starring in Pinkville. In the flick, he'll be playing a helicopter pilot who helped the villagers and later testified against the soldiers. Tatum, who's about two films away from becoming "the next big thing" (mark my words) had this to say: "I'm going to work with Oliver Stone; he's a veteran, literally, he's a Vietnam vet -- and I'm gonna go do a Vietnam story with him. It's his last sort of revisit to Vietnam -- or so he says -- so we'll see." This will mark Stone's fourth Vietnam-related film, after already giving us Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven and Earth. Will it be his last? Who knows. But when he does head to Vietnam, he comes back with some terrific movies -- chances are, with this cast, the same will happen here.

Another macho man has made the obligatory leap into the kiddie pool. This time it's Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who has gone and starred opposite a child in this weekend's new release The Game Plan. Could it damage his potential for further tough guy roles? Does he care? He's already signed on to another kid friendly part in Witch Mountain, so perhaps he's no longer worried about audiences accepting him as a muscle man with attitude.

The Rock, like Vin Diesel before him, may have jumped the gun on doing a Disney family film before securing an iconic place next to Schwarzenegger, Stallone and other action hero types. His movie may therefore lack that necessary extreme between the character we associate with The Rock and the character he must take on for the movie -- like the type of contrast that made Kindergarten Cop so funny.

But there are worse things he could do. Other action stars and macho actors have made some pretty terrible mistakes that had nothing to do with working with kids, and many of these mistakes were career altering. Let's just hope Dwayne Johnson never has to suffer such ideas as these:


1. Junior (1994, Ivan Reitman)

For a macho guy, finding out you have a kid is domesticating, but finding out you're pregnant is emasculating. Nothing says an action hero has gone soft like giving him a bun in the oven, and it's no wonder that Arnold Schwarzenegger had difficulty maintaining his image in action movies for the next decade -- until Terminator 3. I'm certain that if The Rock tried doing a movie in which he's with child rather than with a child, he'd cause far more problems for his career. At least Schwarzenegger had just a few months earlier released True Lies, and fans likely held onto the hope he would be back on top one day.

I've been thinking about Paul Haggis' new movie In the Valley of Elah (9 screens). It's not a good movie, with its awkward mix of mystery and soapbox and its blatant attempt to snag a few Oscars. Poor Charlize Theron is stuck in the same kind of role that netted her an Oscar (Monster) and another nomination (North Country), wearing boxy clothes and no makeup and working in an all-male workplace, teased by her heartless co-workers. But Tommy Lee Jones' performance struck me as something special. Like Theron, he is also repeating a previous performance. But while Theron's role is all about its external factors, its layers of significance, Jones' performance has sprung organically from his personality.

For The Fugitive (1993), Jones won an Oscar for playing the relentless, meticulous pursuer, chasing Harrison Ford throughout the picture, and -- by some accounts -- stealing the film from its star. Jones made the role unique by dropping the typical "obsession," a word that is overused in Hollywood today, and concentrating on emotionless process and routine. It's a stripped-down performance; he saves his energy for his clipped, barked line deliveries. But at the same time, Jones' sad, droopy eyes revealed just a hint of his character's origins. He repeated the role, literally, in U.S. Marshals (1998), and again, figuratively, in Double Jeopardy (1999) and The Hunted (2003), as well as a comic version in Men in Black (1997).

When Mischa Barton was unceremoniously killed off the teen soap, The OC; I think most of us thought this was her chance to transform her teen stardom into a successful movie career. So far that hasn't happened, and I personally doubt her latest role is going to do anything to change that. Variety reports Barton has signed to star in the psychological thriller Walled In. The story centers on "a demolition company rep who supervises the razing of a mysterious building and discovers horrifying secrets and past inhabitants entombed within its walls by a vicious murderer". Based on the French novel Les Emmeures by Serge Broselot, Barton will play the demolition company rep -- and is it just me, but when you think commercial demolition and construction, someone who looks like Barton doesn't exactly come to mind?

Joining Barton are Deborah Kara Unger (Silent Hill) and Cameron Bright (Juno -- you can catch Scott's TIFF review of that film here) and set to direct is French helmer Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Gomez and Tavare). This will be the first English-language feature for Brenner, who also helped adapt the novel for the screen. Barton has been piling on the projects lately, having signed for the caper film St. Trinian's back in May and she also just finished the drama Finding t.A.T.u. Barton is still hard at work on the high school comedy Assassination of a High School President with Bruce Willis. Walled In is a French-Canadian co-production and is scheduled to start shooting on October 22nd, in the most glamorous of all Canadian locations: Saskatchewan (believe me, it's funnier if you are a Canadian).

First, there was Platoon, the 4-Oscar winner classic about the horrors of war. Then there was Born on the Fourth of July -- a double Oscar winner about the life of paralyzed Vietnam vet Ron Kovic. Finally, there was Heaven & Earth, a Golden Globe winner about the true story of a Vietnamese girl struggling during and after the war. Now Variety is reporting that after almost fifteen years, Oliver Stone is heading back to Vietnam -- and he's taking the Live Free or Die Hard Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum (who just completed an Iraq film called Stop Loss) with him.

This time around, the flick is called Pinkville, and it's an upper of a drama about the investigation of the 1968 My Lai massacre -- the mass murder of hundreds of defenseless Vietnamese people -- mostly women and children. (Some of whom were also tortured and mutilated.) Willis will calm his adventurous ways down a bit and play Army General William R. Peers, who supervised the investigation into the massacre, and Tatum will play defiant hero Hugh Thompson. Thompson was a helicopter pilot who spotted what was happening and landed his copter between the soldiers and remaining villagers before airlifting the remaining people to safety and reporting the atrocity. (Which, of course, didn't make him too popular amongst his fellow US forces.) We might also see a young Colin Powell, who was involved in the investigation of a letter from another soldier.

The script was written by Mikko Alanne, and will be his first feature film -- he previously penned a number of short films and most recently wrote Notorious, about the murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls. The feature will go into production next year, and I'm sure that it is going to rile up a bunch of people. While it's a true story, there will be those war tensions to deal with, but it's not like that would deter Stone.