jamie lee curtis Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Remember Patrick Duffy? He spent 13 years as Bobby Ewing on Dallas (plus a few extra stints through the years). Then there was Step by Step, the goofy Suzanne Somers sitcom. After that, you wouldn't have seen much of him unless you're a Bold and the Beautiful fan. But now he's hitting the big screen. For the first time. At the age of 60.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's grabbed a part in You Again, the Disney comedy I mentioned back in April. Kristen Bell stars as a woman who finds out that her brother (Jimmy Wolk) is about to marry the girl (Odette Yustman) who made her time in high school a living hell. So she tries to convince her beloved brother that his fiancee isn't the nice girl he thinks she is. Duffy will play the former high school crush of the woman's rich Aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver) and her mom (Jamie Lee Curtis). How's that for a trio of '80s names?

I'm not sure how this whole triangle is going to come together in the film about someone else entirely, but I think it's just really great to see Duffy getting some big-screen work after all these years. If he starts a new trend for ol' television stars, who do you want to see next?

And, as an extra bonus, hit the jump to see "Patrick Duffy & The Crab: The Crab Dares Patrick To Eat a Dime."

One hundred and forty nine years ago today, Little Sure Shot Annie Oakley was born -- American sharpshooter and female superstar. The idea of her was always irresistible to me. She was a real woman who became something of a superwoman with a gun at a very young age -- a self-taught shooter before the age of 10. Paying off the family farm by 15. She wasn't a carefully crafted cinematic hero, but someone real. True.

I became obsessed with her at a young age, when Tall Tales and Legends* nabbed Jamie Lee Curtis to play Oakley in one episode in 1985. Some may have been introduced to the young Curtis in Operation Petticoat, or the classic Halloween, but to me, Jamie Lee was always the smirking gun-toter first, and I loved her. I must have oozed love because shortly after seeing that episode, I was walking the streets of New York City with my parents when a homeless man began to exclaim: "It's Annie Oakley! She's alive!" and chased me down the street. It didn't seem to matter that I hadn't even hit the double-digits yet.

We asked, and you delivered. After counting more than 100,000 votes, we can reveal the winners of our super-duper, stunningly creative Ultimate Fan Polls! (Cue drum roll.) May I have the envelopes, please?

Winners of The Ultimate Horror Movie Fan Poll:

1. What is the best horror movie franchise of all time? Nightmare on Elm Street.
2. Which horror movie classic deserves a reboot? Poltergeist (narrowly edging The Shining).
3. Who is the best all-time scream queen? Jamie Lee Curtis (with a decisive 51% of the vote).
4. Who is your favorite slasher of all time? Freddy Krueger.
5. Who would you like to see take a turn as a scream queen? Megan Fox (ahem).

Winners of The Ultimate Sci-Fi Fan Poll:

1. What is the best sci-fi movie franchise of all time? Star Wars (decisively).
2. What is the best sci-fi film of 2009 so far? Star Trek (with 69% of the vote; no robots for you).
3. What is your most anticipated upcoming sci-fi film? District 9 (beating out Avatar).
4. Who is the all-time best sci-fi action heroine? Ripley (Alien).
5. What is the greatest all-time sci-fi creature/alien? Alien (Alien). (Sorry, Chewbacca.)

Big thanks to everybody who voted. You can view all the nominees and the breakdown of votes at Horror Squad and Sci-Fi Squad. In addition, Reuters has a nice story on the poll results. I'm glad to see Jamie Lee Curtis recognized for her multiple roles, but a bit startled that the Star Wars franchise still holds sway. Any big surprises for you? Outrage? Joy?

Oh, what might have been! Alison Lohman gives a terrific performance as the cursed loan officer Christine Brown in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which opens tomorrow. If not for the vagaries of scheduling, though, Ellen Page would have played the lead role. Would Page have been any better? We'll never know, but she joins a long list that inspires thoughts of 'What if ...?'

Once upon a time, we might have seen Leslie Howard as the titular Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as The Monster. Instead, Colin Clive played the good doctor, Boris Karloff got a jump-start on life, and the rest is horror history. Here are seven more recent examples of actors and actresses who were considered for key roles in great horror films ... and the ones who replaced them, listed in chronological order. [Disclaimer: Based on information provided on IMDb's "trivia" pages, so no guarantees on accuracy.] Better? Worse? You decide.

1. Melanie Griffith / Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

Even though she was in her mid-20s, Spacek looks so young and fragile as Carrie that it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. Griffith was 18 or 19 and already had made an impression in Night Moves, The Drowning Pool, and Smile when she auditioned to play the telekinetic high schooler. Conveying Carrie's complexities might have been beyond her still-developing skills at that point. The pic above, left, is from Joyride, released the following year.

I've been itching for a new Jamie Lee Curtis movie for a while now. When I saw her at hubby Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration premiere, I wondered when on earth we'd get more Curtis. Now the desire is being fulfilled, but not really in the way I was hoping. I was thinking maybe a good action movie, or perhaps a drama or even a thriller. Instead, she has signed on for yet another family film, following in the footsteps of Freaky Friday, Christmas with the Kranks and The Kid & I -- Disney's South of the Border.

Back in May, Patrick Walsh gave word that Piper Perabo would be the the human amidst dogs in the Southy feature. The plot: a pampered Chihuahua from Beverly Hills gets lost in Mexico and makes friends to help her get back to her home. In June, Christopher Campbell posted that Drew Barrymore would voice the pampered pooch -- with a posse that includes Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Paul Rodriguez, Plácido Domingo and Edward James Olmos. Now we've got good ol' Jamie Lee as the only other live-action character -- Aunt Viv, the owner of the Chihuahua. Since Perabo isn't the doggie owner, I assume she plays Curtis' niece, otherwise, "Aunt" Viv is rather pointless. Director Raja Gosnell doesn't have the best track record for loved films, but he did find a decent amount of success with his last Barrymore pic, Never Been Kissed, so maybe this will be his second gem. Either way, I just want the lovely Jamie Lee to do something better. I can't be the only one itching for her to do some quality work, can I?

Man, the remake-makers are really digging through the bottom-shelf horror titles these days, aren't they? (When's the Hell Night remake coming out already?) And what's up with the current rash of Jamie Lee Curtis remakes anyway? Between Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and the just-announced remake of Terror Train, the gal's entire back catalog is about to get a new coat of paint. (Someone tell Richard Franklin to keep his phone handy; his Road Games is absolutely guaranteed to be remade soon.) Yes, aged horror fans, you read that right: Someone, namely Nu Image Films, is about to remake the 1980 slasher flick Terror Train. Yep, the one with David Copperfield in it.

Assigned to the adaptation/directorial duties is Gideon Raff, while the whole Nu Image squad will be on board as producers. Production will begin later this year in Bulgaria, which is the sort of country Nu Image loves to shoot in. The studio's premiere titles include Mansquito, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, Octopus 2: River of Fear and Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep. For those who don't watch early-'80s horror flicks three times a week, I'm happy to remind you that Terror Train is about a bunch of college students who throw a New Year's Eve costume party on board a moving train ... only there's a raving psycho on the loose who aims to kill everyone. I'm sure the Nu Image guys won't have any trouble adhering to such a complicated plot structure. (For a full and hilarious list of the Nu Image titles, please click right here.)

Interesting trivia regarding the original Terror Train: It was the first feature from Canadian filmmaker Roger Spottiswoode, a man who would go on to direct films both very entertaining (Under Fire, The Best of Times, Shoot to Kill) and very painful (Turner & Hooch, Air America, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot). He also got to direct one of the James Bond movies, only it was Tomorrow Never Dies, which makes the credit a lot less impressive. Also, Terror Train does indeed feature a very bizarre acting performance from master illusionist (and weirdo) David Copperfield. You'll just have to rent the movie to appreciate it.

For those of you looking forward to the remake of Prom Night, we have a bit more information for you. We already reported that the horror pic will star Brittany Snow and Idris Elba, but now we have the rest of the official casting to reveal: Dana Davis, Jessica Stroup, Scott Porter, Collins Penne, and Kelly Blatz likely all play ready-to-carve-up teens and Jonathan Schaech plays a character named 'Richard Fenton.' Additionally Bloody-Disgusting.com has the official synopsis, which appears to be about the same as the original: a killer begins picking off a group of high school students on their prom night. It was written by J.S. Cardone, is being directed by Nelson McCormick and is set to be released February 1, 2008.

Out of all the horror movies being remade these days, Prom Night is one of the few that I actually saw as a kid (never was a big scary movie fan). Still, I barely remember it. From what I can recall, it was your typical slasher film where the bad guy is someone familiar to the victims (a la Halloween, Scream, Scooby-Doo) and also had the familiar theme of a covered up past coming back to haunt (a la Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street). Specifically, though, Prom Night had pretty much the same plot as I Know What You Did Last Summer (not surprising, I Know producer Neil H. Moritz is producing this remake). As little as I care for horror in general, I do like the occasional straight-forward, cliché-ridden slasher movie (save for the too-simple Valentine), so I may be interested in this redo if I can be promised a recreation of the originals' opening, which is all that I really remember of it. Or is showing a little girl falling to her death atop a greenhouse too tame for today's audiences?

On my Prom night, a mixup at the rental shop forced me to wear the tuxedo of a morbidly obese man. I spent the entire evening sweating profusely and praying my pants didn't fall to the ground. That was pretty scary. But I'm sure it has nothing on the upcoming remake of the slasher favorite Prom Night, starring Brittany Snow (John Tucker Must Die) and headed up by TV director Nelson McCormick. We mentioned the remake last month and now someone else has been added to the cast -- British actor Idris Elba. Fans of the mind-blowingly great HBO show The Wire (in a perfect world, this would include everyone), will recognize Elba as the beloved-by-fans Stringer Bell, the man who tried to apply economics classes to the Baltimore drug trade.

Elba's got a lot of projects lined up -- you'll soon be able to see him in the Hilary Swank thriller The Reaping, the horror sequel 28 Weeks Later, and the highly anticipated Denzel Washington/ Russell Crowe flick American Gangster. Elba will play a police detective in Prom Night. The original film was about a group of kids who accidentally kill a child and six years later are stalked by a masked killer at their high school dance. It starred scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and ... Leslie Nielsen! It's easy to forget that Nielsen was once a dramatic actor. In the summer of 1980, Prom Night was released just a few weeks after comedy classic Airplane!, which must have made it difficult for horror fans to take Nielsen seriously in the role. "A hospital? What is it?" "It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now."

I'm continuing to find photos of this year's Academy Award nominees from earlier in their careers. This time it's Eddie Murphy, who's up for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Dreamgirls. My husband and I were in the mood to watch an Eddie Murphy comedy last week, but we didn't think we'd like Norbit. Fortunately, Austin Film Festival was holding a special screening of one of Murphy's first films, Trading Places, the 1983 film in which he co-stars with Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Ackroyd, as shown in the above publicity still. At the time, Murphy had been a hit in 48 Hrs. and was well known for his recurring characters on Saturday Night Live. Trading Places holds up remarkably well, and the audience enjoyed the film a lot. I'm especially fond of Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy as the two millionaires who decide to use Murphy and Ackroyd as human guinea pigs in their experiment testing heredity vs. environment.

I was amused to see Al Franken in an early role as a stoner baggage handler. Frank Oz practically reprises his cameo in The Blues Brothers, which was also directed by John Landis. We rented Coming to America over the weekend to get even more of our Landis/Murphy fix, but the DVD was damaged and stopped playing about halfway through the movie ... before we could see Ameche and Bellamy again. Coming to America (what we saw of it) wasn't nearly as funny as Trading Places. My least favorite part of Trading Places is the costumes-on-a-train sequence, and I realized I prefer watching Murphy when he's not disguised in a fat suit or as an old man or with an accent. That may be why I'm in the camp that thought he was one of the highlights of Dreamgirls, although I'm torn between him and Jackie Earle Haley for the Oscar.