sean combs Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Would there be anything more embarrassing than getting yer tuckus handed to you on a plate by Sean "P Diddy" Combs?

Okay yes, there would be, but one would still think that Colm Meaney could hold his own. The dude has traveled extensively through space and even faced Con Air! But with the magic of movies, Diddy gets to beat on Meany for the upcoming comedy Get Him to the Greek, and Just Jared has a slew of images outlining the action, including the one to the right. In the scene, Diddy drags Meany away, beats on him, and then races after stars Russell Brand and Jonah Hill -- who are trying to get to a show at the Greek.

Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone gets another chance to grimace in a scene from The Expendables. In this new picture, up at AICN, Sly is hanging off of a seaplane, trying to pull himself inside as it takes off and pull off the most impressive pull-up in history. That man has a face for things like this; that snarl was just made for feats of heroism too impressive to be real. It also makes me wonder how Sly would hold up if he faced off against our beloved superheroes. Methinks he could do some real damage on Batman, at the very least.



Between this image and the shot of Eric Roberts getting his taste of Expendables action, I'm actually dying to see this. It's tapping into my goofy action love in much the same way that the GI Joe trailer made me think: Must. See. This. How about you?

Three casting bites, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:

She may have wowed us all with her kickass teen detective on Veronica Mars, but her big-screen work continues to lack the same verve. On the heels of When in Rome and Couples Retreat, Kristen Bell has signed on to Andy Fickman's You Again. She'll play a woman who finds out that her brother is gearing up to marry the evil girl who made her years in high school a living hell. Not happy with the idea, she tries to find a way to reveal the girl's true evilness to her brother. Aren't there any mysteries to solve? Joel Silver, let Rob Thomas make the film. Bell needs better!

Meanwhile, the wonderful Sally Hawkins, the woman behind Happy-Go-Lucky, has grabbed herself a sci-fi gig. Hawkins, along with Charlotte Rampling, Nathalie Richard, and Andrea Riseborough, have signed onto Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go. This is that sci-fi drama that Keira Knightley signed onto last month, which focuses on three boarding school friends who get a rather shocking surprise as young adults. Unfortunately, there's no word on who these newest cast members will play. Boarding school teachers? The people behind the sci-fi twist?

Lastly, Emily Blunt might not be signing on for a little Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, but Elisabeth Moss, Sean P Diddy Combs, and Rose Byrne sure are. They're the new castmembers added to Get Him to the Greek -- the flick where Hill has to get the wild rocker Brand from London to LA, "becoming introduced to an out-of-control life of hookers and blow along the way." Yay. More hookers. Hollywood definitely doesn't have enough of them. Moss will play Hill's repressed doctor girlfriend (not the kind with Calamitous Intent), Combs will be Hill's record company boss, and Byrne will be Brand's ex, "a Courtney Love-type rocker." Loved Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but this pic has yet to wow me.

I'm all for people looking to expand their creative horizons, but I know -- like most of you -- that when news first hit that Joaquin Phoenix was retiring from acting to focus on a hip-hop career, my first reaction was: Are you kidding me? Well, it looks like there's a very good possibility that's exactly what the celebrated actor is trying to do. Over at EW, a source is reporting that Casey Affleck and Phoenix are the orchestrators of a massive hoax. According to EW, Phoenix told the unnamed source, "It's a put-on. I'm going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it."

EW wasn't the first to cry 'bull' at Phoenix's antics; Defamer had gotten in early on the act, and when video footage surfaced of Phoenix falling off stage and slurring his way through a rap tune in Vegas, it convinced a lot of people that his new "career change" was nothing but a big joke or gimmick ... or next year's most talked-about secret Sundance film. To be fair, it's not like this was the first time Phoenix had behaved a little strangely, so once The Hollywood Reporter announced that Affleck would be making a documentary chronicling his brother in law's music career, it gave the news a bit more weight. Meanwhile, reps for both Phoenix and Sean 'Diddy' Combs (who was apparently going to produce Phoenix's album) have declined to comment on EW's story.

I think most of us were a little shocked when Joaquin Phoenix made the announcement that he was going to quit acting and focus on his music career -- and luckily for us, now we're going to get to follow the long strange journey of Phoenix's crack at the Billboard 100. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Casey Affleck will be directing a documentary about the former actor's stab at a music career. Affleck is married to Joaquin's sister Summer, so it makes sense that if Phoenix was going to agree to a documentary, it would be with someone close to him behind the camera.

Now here's the really weird part: when I heard Phoenix was going to move into the music business, I just assumed that it would be in some kind of rock or country style (I mean, the guy did play Johnny Cash). But, it turns out I couldn't have been more wrong, because according to THR, Phoenix is trying to be a rapper -- and yes, you just read that: Phoenix will be making an album with Sean 'Diddy' Combs (maybe he's bartering acting tips for producing services) and will be making his first public appearance at a Las Vegas club this weekend, which will be the kick-off for Affleck's shoot.

So while there is a big part of me that wants to see Phoenix succeed in his new career, I can't help but wonder if this will be The Return of Bruno all over again, but with a hip-hop beat. I guess if nothing else we are going to get one heck of an interesting documentary out of the deal.

Do you think Phoenix has what it takes to become a successful hip-hop artist? Or, is this a sign that the notoriously eccentric actor has good and truly gone around the bend. Sound off below....

What do you get when renowned portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell decide to collaborate on a film on black culture, inspired by the idea of a coffee table book? You get The Black List (recently bought by HBO Documentaries and retitled The Black List: Volume One), a portrait of black America that is at once intimate and larger than life. Picture a gorgeous coffee table book filled with portraits of famous African-American men and women, brought to life and saying the most erudite and occasionally unexpected things, and you have an inkling of what's been captured in this film.

Born over a lunch date between Greefield-Sanders and Mitchell, The Black List, the title of which is a deliberate play on the negative connotation often given to the word "black," was initially conceived as a book, but Greenfield-Sanders quickly realized that it needed to be a film, done as a series of interviews with prominent African-Americans. Mitchell also has a book in the works that will flesh on the snippets of interviews in the film into longer stories.

I'm really glad the biopic about Biggie Smalls (aka the Notorious B.I.G., aka Christopher Wallace) is moving forward. I've never been very familiar with his music, but I am a fan of Nick Broomfield's documentary Biggie and Tupac, and because of that film I am in love with Biggie's mom, Voletta Wallace. Miss Wallace is producing her son's biopic, which so far is untitled, and hopefully she'll get to play herself, because I can't imagine an actress doing her justice. Another person I think could maybe play himself is Sean "Diddy" Combs, who Variety reports has hopped on as executive producer. I'm really surprised that Diddy wasn't already involved in the project from the beginning -- it's been in development for seven years -- but the fact that he is now overseeing the production is reassuring that it is in good hands. His only real producing experience is with TV projects like the show Making the Band and the upcoming ABC adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, but Combs was with Biggie throughout the rapper's career and he'll certainly be able to provide a lot of input.

In addition to Wallace and Combs, Notorious will be produced by Biggie's managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts and Robert Teitel (Barbershop). Supposedly the project's previous director, Antoine Fuqua, had problems with the film being produced by people more knowledgeable about music than film, but new helmer George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) shouldn't have the same issues. Aside from the fact that Tillman's experienced producing partner (Teitel) is on board, the director hopefully understands the importance and benefit of working with so many people who knew Biggie. The actual script, written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Reggie Bock Bythewood (Get on the Bus), is based on Coker's book Unbelievable: The LIfe, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. And as we learned last week, the part of Biggie will be cast with an unknown. According to the IMDb, other Biggie projects in the works include a made-for-cable movie titled Notorious, about the deaths of Biggie and Tupac, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone (!) and a new documentary titled Notorious B.I.G. Bigger Than Life.

It's that festive holiday time of year, and somehow this makes it difficult for me to focus on the usual types of gossip tidbits as much as I normally might. And you know I am not all that focused to begin with. I stare at a photo of Mel Gibson with food on his shirt, and wonder, "Why should I care about this?" as my mind wanders off to thoughts about whether I need to buy more gift wrap. Besides, I am sometimes a messy eater too, so I can't really pick on Mr. Gibson. And I can't think of anything the least bit cutting to say about director Gus Van Sant being arrested on a DUI charge; I just feel a bit sad. Meanwhile, the gossip world rolls on, at all times of the year, so this week's roundup includes marriage, birth, paternity tests, birthday gifts, and celebrity tattoos.

• It's been a big news week for Britney Spears. Not only did she get a hand tattoo, but was also voted World's Worst Celebrity Dog Owner in an online poll. At least it looks like Santa has brought me my special Christmas present of not ever having to see certain bits of Spears again.
  
• In case you're interested, Defamer provides us with a glimpse of Jake Gyllenhaal's birthday gifts. Or were they gifts for Hanukkah? It's so hard to tell with socks.