Beards! They're all the rage these days! Conan and Letterman grew facial hair during the writers strike, Ryan Reynolds has been sporting some, Jonah Hill has that scruffy thing going, Jake Gyllenhaal has a beard (and I don't mean Reese Witherspoon) -- and now the trend has even spread to the womenfolk.

Get a load of Salma Hayek, the dazzlingly incomprehensible Mexican beauty who's now shooting a film called Cirque du Freak, in which she plays a sideshow's bearded lady. The film, based on a series of novels, also stars John C. Reilly as a vampire. (I'm sold!) It's set to open in February 2009, two months after that other vampire movie, Twilight.

Hayek is no stranger to unflattering facial hair, of course. She uglied up her eyebrows to play the title role in Frida back in 2002, and that extra bit of hair was just enough to put her over the top for an Oscar nomination. Eyebrows, now a beard -- what next? The lead in the Magnum P.I. movie? Just a thought.

[Via JustJared, which has a few more bearded-Hayek pics, too.]

John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek starring in a Paul Weitz semi-horror flick / adaptation of a best-selling kids book? Sounds interesting enough to me. It'll be the first movie for Ms. Hayek since she took some time off to have a baby, and she'll be co-starring opposite the Dewey Cox star in Universal's Cirque du Freak. (Check out Monika's previous report right here.)

The film, which is based on a popular 12-book series by Darren Shan, begins production this month. Variety offers us non-readers a handy little synopsis: "Reilly will play a vampire who drafts a 14-year-old to serve as his assistant. The youth is turned into a half-vampire and becomes the catalyst in a battle between vampires and the rival Vampanese. Hayek will play Madame Truska, the bearded lady." According to the IMDB, the adaptation was written by screenwriter Brian Helgeland, whom you'll no doubt remember from L.A. Confidential, Mystic River and (of course) 976-EVIL.

Mr. Weitz's most recent film was American Dreamz, but I choose to focus more on his good movies. Like the first American Pie, the fantastic About a Boy, and the seriously underrated In Good Company.

Do you know who that is playing Yoda up top?

Okay, this is pretty hysterical. A website called Worth1000 is currently hosting a contest in which they ask you to re-imagine a Star Wars character -- any character -- using a celebrity. Of course, a ton of folks have entered photo-shopped images (that are very well done, if you ask me) of Star Wars characters ranging from Shrek as Darth Maul to Anthony Hopkins as Yoda (pictured above). There's even a freaky pic of Marilyn Manson as Padme. The international folks representing Mexico doctored up a photo to show what it would look like if Gael Garcia Bernal and Salma Hayek played Luke and Leia, and even George Lucas himself shows up as Darth Maul.

The celebs who pop up the most include Dick Cheney (as a number of slimy Star Wars creatures) and, believe it or not, the Pope. Yoda and Darth Maul seem to be the most popular re-invented characters. There's a bunch of contest rules to read through, and I'm not sure if you win anything for the best picture ($1000 maybe, since the site is called Worth1000?), but it sure is fun to surf through them all. Head on over to Worth1000 to check out all the images, and I've included my favorite up top (though the Bernal/Hayek pic is pretty damn awesome as well). Oh, and if you enter, definitely let us know so we can run over there to check out your creation. (Note: President Bush is nowhere to be found, though I believe he's one of their "cliches" -- meaning he's a personality that's too easy to rip on, and therefore isn't allowed.)

[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Just when you think you've seen it all -- and just when you were sick of all these damn lists -- comes Film Threat's four-parter on the fifty best breasts (aka boobs, aka ta-tas) in movie history. Now they don't seem to target specific films and characters within those films; this is more of a fifty best breasts in Hollywood history, as the list centers more on the actresses -- the women -- than the roles they've taken on. My favorite part of this list has to do with the fact that they included YouTube clips featuring all of the actresses in their best, well, attire (my personal favorite has to be the clip for Chesty Morgan). Some of the clips are from films, others are these weird stalker-ish montages -- nevertheless, it's all worth a look.

By now you're probably wondering who made their list. Well, noticeably absent is Angelina Jolie (who I would've thrown on there, if only for that ultra-sexy Tomb Raider outfit). Earlier ladies include Mae West, Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Dandridge, Elizabeth Taylor, Jayne Mansfield and the lovely Sophia Loren. We also have a little of Raquel Welch, Tura Santana and Pam Grier. Some more recent ladies include Jennifer Connelly (and yes, they include video of the scene with her riding the horse in Career Opportunities), Monica Bellucci, Jennifer Tilly, Scarlett Johansson and Rosario Dawson (video from her Clerks II dance -- gotta love it!). And of course, how could they leave off those busty animated characters; Jessica Rabbit rounds out the list of fifty.

I should also note that this list was created to help raise awareness for the American Cancer Society, considering it's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So it's all for fun and a good cause; hopefully no one will be offended. That said, I've included the Chesty Morgan video after the jump because, quite frankly, it's all kinds of awesome. Do you agree with their list, or are there breasts women they left out? (Um, I'd like to be first in asking where Salma Hayek, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Carla Gugino, Eva Mendes and -- heck -- Lindsay Lohan are, just to name a few ...)

[via Hollywood Elsewhere]

"I'm tired of seeing movies where we are all poor and barefoot and we don't know what Wi-Fi is," says Nicolás Lopez, director of the upcoming superhero romantic comedy Santos (pictured at right; see his blog for the proper context of the photo). In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lopez talked about the challenges of making a movie in his native Chile: "When your country is located in the ass of the world and it's named like a condiment, it's hard to get people to take you seriously." Yet there are also advantages: "Chile is ideal. You can make things for a price, and there is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement down there." I wrote about Lopez last month and wondered if he could pull off the delicate balance between comedy, romance and comic book fantasies. As the interview explains, Lopez has already developed two strong alliances.

The first is with producer Elizabeth Avellan. She met Lopez when his previous film played at South by Southwest and has served as a mentor. In a recent e-mail to Cinematical, Lopez said Avellan has come on board as a producer of Santos and mentioned that he is currently working at Troublemaker Studios in Austin to finish the visual effects for the film; efforts are also being made to secure American theatrical distribution. Santos will open in Chile and Spain on November 1. The second alliance is with Salma Hayek's production company Ventanazul, which intends to make Lopez' next film as part of their joint venture with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. The plan is to start filming on that English-language project -- described as "a John Ford western, Terminator, and Back to the Future rolled into one" -- next spring. Notably, Lopez insisted on filming in Chile and has visions of building a state-of-art studio there so as to help create an infrastructure for the local film industry. Can't wait to see what he dreams up next.

[Via GreenCine Daily]

Hollywood loves talking dogs. And I guess a lot of moviegoers love them too, because otherwise Hollywood wouldn't keep making them. Later this summer, we have a super-powered talking dog in Underdog and in two years, we'll be getting a super-sized talking dog movie called South of the Border. I say super-sized because the live-action Disney movie is going to have a lot of talking dogs in it. Drew Barrymore will be voicing the lead dog, a pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua named Chloe, who ends up lost in Mexico while on vacation with her owner (Piper Perabo). As you'd expect, the little dog meets a bunch of new friends to help her find her way.

Most of the other dogs will be voiced by Latino actors, including Salma Hayek, who plays a spirit guide who helps Chloe learn her Hispanic roots, and George Lopez, who plays another Chihuahua who attempts to woo Chloe. Other unspecified roles have been cast with Cheech Marin (who voiced the cartoon Chihuahua character in Disney's Oliver & Company), Paul Rodriguez, Plácido Domingo, Edward James Olmos and Eddie 'Piolin' Sotelo. Andy Garcia will also be voicing a dog, one which doesn't seem to be of the Latino variety. The Cuban actor is voicing an ex-K-9 German Shepherd. I assume that the character will have a German accent (as long as they're going so racial) and that he will end up the true love interest for Chloe -- though I don't think this is physically appropriate.

There are about 43 million Hispanics in the United States, and more than half of them speak Spanish frequently. Of course, there are nearly 300 million people total in the country, so for Hollywood, there may not be enough of an audience for movies centered on Hispanic characters, especially if the predominant language of those movies is Spanish. But thanks to the hype surrounding the Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and the prideful excitement of actress Salma Hayek, Latin American cinema is superficially hot right now. Never mind that Spanish-language imports and homegrown indies marketed toward Latinos are not particularly big money-makers, the studios are presently interested in focusing on the "untapped" Latin market.

We've already witnessed partnerships between Lionsgate and Panamax, and between Warner Bros. and Cuaron's Esperanto Filmoj. Now Hayek is setting up another Latino division called Ventanazul; this one will be at MGM. The difference seems to be that neither Hayek or MGM is specifically interested in targeting Hispanic Americans. Instead, they plan to produce and distribute between two and four films with a Latino focus that are geared toward a wide, mainstream audience. I'm not sure how big they hope to be, but they'll have to do better than last year's Quinceañera, which had a lot of mainstream appeal and which was relatively successful considering its budget, but which still only made a couple million dollars. Hayek's last film hit, Frida, did much better, and her television success with Ugly Betty is huge, but neither one is specifically Latin-themed. So we'll have to see if a wide audience is accepting enough of Hispanic-centric movies to make the division work. It is especially interesting that MGM made this deal while Hayek is currently working on a Spanish-language project for Warner Bros.

Leave it to Hollywood to change the basis of a storyline to glam things up a bit. Last year, Martha Fischer reviewed Lonely Hearts for the Tribeca Film Festival. The story is based on the Lonely Hearts Killers -- a murderous and far-from-glamorous duo/couple from the late 1940's. He was a balding, toupee-wearing man with a large scar on the top of his head, she was a 200+ pound woman who had spent her life lonely and ridiculed. That obviously doesn't make for sexy cinema, so the leads were cast with Jared Leto as Raymond Fernandez and Salma Hayek as Martha Beck.

It's actually interesting that the story was so sauced up, since the screenwriter and director is Todd Robinson -- the grandson of Detective Elmer C. Robinson, who was one of the detectives in the case. I guess familial ties can't also ensure accuracy. Now the film, which follows predecessors like The Honeymoon Killers and Deep Crimson, has found itself a U.S. distributor in Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn films. Beyond Leto and Hayek, there's John Travolta without the Hogs as Detective Robinson, James Gandolfini as his partner, Charles Hildebrandt, Scott Caan as another detective and Laura Dern as a co-worker who is having an affair with Robinson. As Martha described in her review, the story focuses on both sides of the story -- the couple who kill and the police duo who hunt them down. You won't have to wait too long to see the film for yourself, as the plan is to release it next month, on April 13.

I admit I follow the news about actor William H. Macy a lot more closely than, say, Justin Timberlake. I'm very fond of many of Macy's films (The Cooler is fabulous), although I won't go so far as to watch certain movies just because he's in them (I'm probably going to skip Wild Hogs). So I was pleased to learn from Variety that Macy is planning his feature-film directorial debut this year. The actor will work behind the camera on the film Keep Coming Back, which will start shooting in July. Macy previously directed a made-for-HBO movie in 1988, Lip Service, and was an executive producer for Transamerica, which starred his wife, Felicity Huffman.

Keep Coming Back has a cast of familiar faces -- besides Macy, the current lineup includes Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi and Mos Def. The film is about an inexperienced teen boy who crushes hard on an ex-stripper. It's a coming-of-age film and sounds pretty standard from the description, but perhaps it'll include some intriguing characters and plot twists. It's an indie film, in case you didn't guess from the cast, and ContentFilm (Thank You for Smoking, Party Monster) has agreed to handle international sales. I expect we'll see Keep Coming Back on the festival circuit sometime next year.

Salma Hayek has announced her next project, producing and starring in an independently financed Spanish-language romcom called "La Banda." The film is centered around a type of music known as 'Grupero' music, and will begin shooting in Mexico this summer. The producing team includes Rick Schwartz, a producer on The Departed, and Pepe Tamez. The film is being written and directed by Issa Lopez and Warner Bros. will distribute. The plot: Hayek is a wealthy housewife who gets dumped by her husband and has to take a job as a wedding singer -- hmmm...maybe there's a part for Adam Sandler?

The comedy apparently comes from the fact that Hayek's character tries to hide her new occupation from her high-society friends and family, but it gets harder as her act starts to actually gain in popularity. The story in Variety also notes that the project has been greenlighted in the wake of the success of Hayek's other recent producing project, the television series "Ugly Betty." The show won two Golden Globe awards last week, and much of its success has been laid at Hayek's doorstep.