A mere week after Sony canned Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball, another big-budget film may have bitten the dust. Fox is putting the breaks on Tony Scott's next project, Unstoppable, over budget concerns, and may can the project altogether.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film was set to begin shooting in fall, and Denzel Washington and Chris Pine were attached to play the leads. But none of the acting deals have been officially closed, and not even Scott is definitively signed to the project. Fox is growing more and more concerned about the cost of production on the thriller, which would be quite high -- after all, it centers around a runaway train loaded with toxic chemicals, and it's being stopped by the $20 million dollar Denzel Washington. While the film isn't in as much production peril as Moneyball, its budget is definitely a roadblock, and fat will have to be trimmed somewhere. Maybe they can make a smaller train, or just have it be an unstoppable semi-truck, or maybe some of the A-Listers can take a pay cut ... something like that.

This summer has seen a lot of big-budget films falter at the box office, so studio hesitations are understandable, and budget trimming has been a long time coming. Though I do love a good action flick, I'm neither here nor there about the plot of Unstoppable, but it would be a shame for Pine to lose his next big role, and kill his Captain Kirk Buzz. So let's hope they figure out how to cut some corners.

With Hollywood's neverending desire to milk every story and success for all its worth, it's easy to assume that no one is impervious from part 2, 3, 4, 10 -- especially A-listers. Part of the reason for their success is starring in successful films, and the better a movie does, the better the chance we'll get at least one sequel. But did you know that some of the biggies have only stuck to numero uno?

Movieline has a great post up about the A-listers who have headed for sequel land, and those that have stayed blissfully away -- and they're not necessarily the actors you'd guess. Some are easy: Brad Pitt and Clooney had those Ocean's films (and does it count that Clooney once got some tomato revenge?). Ben Stiller is all about the sequels. Clint Eastwood got dirty for Harry in 5 films.

But who hasn't return for a part 2? I'll give you one: Denzel Washington. However, the site does point out that the actor is set for an Inside Man follow-up, so his status could change. But can you guess the others? There are 3 actors and 1 actress. Make your guesses below and then head over to Movieline to see if you're right. One of those names will probably be quite a surprise until you think about it. And, is there any sequel-free A-lister they missed?

"How the hell can you run a goddamn railroad without swearing?"
-The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

"I got 99 problems, and a bitch ain't one."
-The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

About as loud as Joseph Sargent's original was lean, Tony Scott's take on The Taking of Pelham 123 is more indebted to his name than its own, all restless shots and relentless cuts, ticking clocks and roving maps, a stream of shouting and shooting and speed-ramping and slow-motion and all that jazz. The conversations are cranked up, and the confrontations are amped up, but to what end? Scott whips out the familiar frame-blurring techniques that have ostensibly served him well in the past, but his flair tends to instead rob a crackerjack crime thriller of an inherent momentum that has served it quite well over the span of almost four decades.

There are those actors who somehow manage to raise the 'quality quotient' of any film that they are in -- and Denzel Washington is one of those actors. Whether he can keep that streak alive when The Taking of Pelham 123 opens on Friday remains to be seen, but today for Scenes We Love, I decided to throw a little love towards Washington for his performance in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day. Now just for starters; I have to say that it's not a great film...corny and satisfying? Yes, but great? Not quite. So how did Washington win an Oscar for his role as the corrupt LAPD officer, Alonzo Harris? Well, I think he earned it by taking a role in a paint-by-numbers cop thriller and turning it into an Oscar-worthy performance.

Everyone loves to see the bad guy get their comeuppance, and that's exactly what the final scenes of Training Day deliver. But in this scene, as Washington's dirty cop watches it all slip away, you can see it register on his face as all that power and respect circles the drain. In the hands of a lesser actor, this scene could have just been a cheap thrill of watching the bad guy get what he deserves, but to Washington's credit, he creates a very real moment where 'The Player' finally realizes he has lost the game.

Video and Training Day Fun Facts after the jump...

For a while it looked like Unstoppable was, indeed, stoppable. Martin Campbell was prepping the project in 2007, and then the project slipped into the void of development hell. But now the train is back on track, Tony Scott is leading the rush, and he's grabbed Denzel Washington and Captain James T. Kirk.

While chatting with Washington, MTV learned about Chris Pine's involvement in the upcoming action film, and just how this feature is going to shape up: "I'm going to shoot a movie in the fall called Unstoppable -- me and Tony Scott -- and Chris Pine's going to do it with us. I hope I'm not speaking out of line. I think they made a deal with him, and I'm supposed to meet him next week."

Scott has described the project as "Speed on steroids," so this should be fun, popcorn action fare. Based on an actual event, the film will focus on an engineer who teams up with a young train conductor (we presume Pine) to stop a runaway train full of toxic chemicals. Since the story has some truth to it, Scott plans to shoot it like a documentary, a la Touching the Void.

Personally, I kinda wish it was Silver Steak on steroids, but Chris Pine is no Gene Wilder, and Denzel Washington is no Richard Pryor.

With all the presenters' banter heavily scripted and a lot of the winners easy to guess beforehand, the only truly unpredictable part of the Academy Awards is the acceptance speeches. Those Hollywood types -- especially actors, who love being the center of attention and looove the sound of their own voices -- might say anything in a rush of excitement and emotion.

Over at Esquire, they've compiled an amusing list of the various types of Oscar speeches: the Crusading Blowhard, the Weepy Babbler, the Short-and-Sweet, and so forth. Then, for added fun, they've dug up historical precedents for each of them. For example, Rita Moreno was the "Adorably" Bombastic Foreigner, cha-chaing up to the podium and shrieking into the microphone, long before Roberto Benigni embarrassed everyone with his antics. And while Juila Roberts was definitely a Meddling Presenter when she gave Denzel Washington his trophy, she was nothing compared to the way Frank Sinatra hogged Cary Grant's spotlight when he gave him his lifetime achievement award.

It's a fun list, presented in the ever-popular slide-show-with-occasional-ad-interruptions format. As a bonus, consider that each of the labels they've come up with for the types of speeches could also serve as the name of an obscure sexual maneuver. The Meddling Presenter indeed!

It's not far to assume that all remakes will disappoint by default. I've come to learn that we get one Dawn of the Dead '04 for every ten of Prom Night '08, but more importantly, I've learned to be a bit more grateful for those that do work, because they are no less ours to enjoy. However, judging by the new trailer over at Yahoo! Movies for Tony Scott's take on The Taking of Pelham 123, that approach cannot eliminate skepticism entirely, which is what this trailer filled me with, entirely.

Hiring the more spastic Scott sibling to helm a movie that mostly takes place on a subway car held hostage doesn't seem right, which is why this piece is filled with roaming cameras as a truck crashes into a car, Denzel Washington clashes with John Travolta, a motorcycle crashes into a car, Denzel's facial hair clashes with Travolta's facial hair, so on, so forth...

And the original (Walter Matthau vs. Robert Shaw! And that theme!) and its dry wit appear to have instead been reduced to that one line about milk and a climax likely more comparable to Speed than Pelham '74. But hey, I can't say for sure until I actually see more than two minutes of the thing, and having been surprised by how much I enjoyed Scott and Washington's Deja Vu after sitting through its trailers, I'll try and bite my tongue until June 12th.

(On the flip side: if you have 105 minutes to spare, I may be able to help you see things my way...)

So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!

Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.

Gallery: Watchmen

The Book of Eli had me halfway when they cast Gary Oldman -- but they got a guaranteed ticket sale from me when they cast Ray Stevenson. I'm disappointed that he's playing another badass assassin type, but hey, at least I'll believe he could kick Denzel Washington's ass.

The plot description has been incredibly dry thus far -- a man named Eli protects a book that may be humanity's salvation, Oldman is the despotic mayor of a struggling town, Mila Kunis is an assassin sent to kill Eli, but who ends up joining him. But we have a little more, courtesy of its newest cast member. Stevenson sat down with Reelz Channel, and shed a little more light on the bleak future this film will inhabit. "The world in which it is set is completely uncompromising. The most precious commodity is actually water, because virtually all of the water is poison, toxic -- whether it's due to eruptions from the earth or the poisons in the sky. These very basic things are what drives human nature down to almost animalistic qualities. But what still separates us from the animals?"

Hmmm. Shades of Waterworld, a threat that looms over every post-apocalyptic film not titled The Road. There's never an in between when it comes to this genre ... you either end up with something cool and Max Maxish, or you end up with The Postman. Let's keep hoping for the best, though. The film begins shooting in February, and has a release date of January 15, 2010.

After blowing up baddies in this week's surprisingly entertaining Punisher: War Zone, it looks like Ray Stevenson is now taking aim at Denzel Washington's protagonist in The Book of Eli. In the near future, Washington's on a mission to deliver a book that may hold the key to nothing less than Our Salvation (not to mention so very many late fees), with Mila Kunis at his side and Gary Oldman on his tail, and now -- according to Variety -- Stevenson (HBO's "Rome") has this makeshift messiah in his sights.

The post-apocalyptic thriller marks the return of the Hughes Brothers behind the camera for the first time since 2001's From Hell, and between them and a cast of this talent (yes, that includes Kunis, stop snickering), they might manage to make this somewhat less derivative than it already sounds, to echo Monika's sentiments.

Production starts in early 2009 for a release date in early 2010.