jenna dewan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's so creepy when something you just found yourself chatting about with a fellow geek pops up in your newsfeed -- proof that Magdalena does answer to a higher power! If you were praying for an update, MTV has not one, but an entire week they're devoting to the spear-wielding superheroine.

MTV has a video interview up with the lovely Jenna Dewan, who's playing Patience, the most recent inheritor of the Magdalena powers. According to her, they're following the comic book pretty closely except for one touchy area -- while honoring Magdalena's heritage and bloodline, they're sidestepping the religious element of the book. "When I started this I said I didn't want it to be a religious movie - the Catholic Church versus everyone else. I wanted it to be somebody who knows she has something inside bigger [than herself], this spiritual want to help people," Dewan said. "That's really what we're focusing on - fighting the darkness for the light, rather than the Catholic Church and religion. There is that element of it but it's more about fighting people who are evil in this world."

Now, I always thought of the Magdalena as the girl version of Stephen Sommers' Gabriel Van Helsing and not particularly controversial, but we do live in touchier, Golden Compass censoring times. As Dewan points out, Patience is one of the only Magdalenas who questions the authority of the Church and decided she would work independent of its control. Wouldn't it have been cool to see that religious conflict onscreen? Ah well. My previous jokes about chastity and skimpy costumes aside, I'm happy to see Gale Anne Hurd bringing another tough chick (and one from the comics, no less) to the screen -- with or without the sacrilege.

Top Cow is on a roll! I never actually thought a week would come in which I would have two stories about that publishing company -- but here it is. Who thought sexy, weapon wielding chicks were such a draw for the movie business? Not I! (Yes, that's sarcasm.)

The latest book to be optioned is Magdalena. It's rather similar to Witchblade except with a much more distinguished lineage. The Magdalena is descended from Sarah, the daughter of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. She's the supernatural defender of the Catholic Church, and can look into the human heart to show people the error of their ways. And because no heroine is complete without a weapon, she wields the Spear of Destiny (the spear which pierced the side of Jesus at the Crucifixion) against the forces of evil. Luckily, nothing in the Magdalena's Catholic contract stipulates that she dress conservatively, so she's allowed to wear the crop tops of a Top Cow heroine.

And according to The Hollywood Reporter, it's already further along in production than Witchblade. No director has been set, but the leads have been cast. Jenna Dewan is currently in talks to play Patience, the spear-wielding holy heroine. (There's been a few, it looks like they're going with the most recent incarnation.) Luke Goss is set to play Kristof, an agent sent by the secret organization that protects the lineage. In the comic, these are cardinals, but somehow I bet Kristof won't be one because that would require way too much chastity -- and the stars are way too hot. Both actors are going to be at Top Cow's panel at ComicCon this weekend. If you're going, you can ask them all sorts of pressing Magdalena movie questions.

Odds and ends from Friday and the weekend:

• If he's going to seek revenge upon the gang that attacked his family, Kevin Bacon will have to go through John Goodman, as the big guy has just signed on to play the boss of a drug ring in Death Sentence. As previously reported, joining Goodman and Bacon will be Kelly Preston and Stuart Lafferty who will be playing Bacon's wife and son.
• Kyle Newman's Revenge of the Nerds remake has been hard at work adding geeks and sorority girls to its ever-expanding cast. Jenna Dewan (Take the Lead), Ryan Pinkston and Nick Zano have become the latest dorks to join the pack. Dewan will play love interest to Max (Christopher Marquette), one of the film's main nerds, while Pinkston will settle into the role of Felch, a 15-year-old college freshman and the pic's token whiz kid. Zano will play lead jock and (we're assuming) the nerds' biggest nemesis.
• New Line has been busy chasing a Snitch ... the screenplay that is. Studio has just picked up Justin Haythe's script, which was inspired by a PBS Frontline documentary. Story revolves around a devoted dad who goes undercover in the drug world to try to find a way to free his son from prison after the boy was sent away on drug charges.

   • Big Momma's House 2 - In Martin Lawrence's desperate minstrel show, the comedian reprises his role as undercover FBI agent Malcolm Turner, again donning a fat suit to become the sassy, black Southern matron Big Momma. He has to stop a potentially destructive computer hacker, and the movie is broad, shameless and pandering in most every respect. Lawrence appears to assume that we automatically like him and Big Momma, and does little to endear them to us any further. Incessant mugging, weak slapstick and Teflon catchphrases fill in the many cracks of its already shaky foundation, leaving a hammy house of horrors that should have been condemned when it was still a half-baked pitch.
    • Grandma's Boy - Adam Sandler's longtime second-banana, Allen Covert, gets his shot at a lead in this stoner comedy, but despite his appealing, aw-shucks demeanor, the movie, about a 36-year-old video game tester who moves in with his grandmother and her two roommates, is just irredeemably stupid. It is sad to see three lovely ladies like Doris Roberts, Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight stooping for laughs like this, though based on the fact that practically no one saw it in theaters (or will go out of their way to rent the DVD), it is a very minor tragedy.