ving rhames Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Some science fiction films take us to different worlds or alternate realities, or offer visions of the future. In each of these new worlds, certain new rules apply. Sometimes the rules are pretty simple and can be easily and clearly established, as in Star Trek or District 9. Other times the rules are exceedingly complex and raise a million questions, as in the new Surrogates, which is based on a comic book by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. In this future world, humans can strap themselves into a chair, plug themselves into a bunch of sensors and have complete control of an artificial being, including movement, speech and senses. This artificial being can then go out into the world to perform daily tasks, while the real person is safe at home, never risking getting hit by a car or falling down a manhole.

From there, things get sticky. A narrator explains to us that 98% of the population uses the surrogates, and later a character says something about a "billion" users. Last time I checked, a billion was only about 20% (or less) of the population. Plus, how much do these surrogates cost? Can all the poor people of the world afford them? We do get to see a few things like a surrogate bringing home food for its owner to eat, and other points in which surrogates freeze up while their owners use the bathroom, but just how do people go about their daily lives? Some of the users look like they're in pretty bad shape, sitting in their chairs. Is using a surrogate physically or emotionally addicting? Do their muscles atrophy? Do they take showers? Do they ever get together to have sex? Has the population gone down because of too much surrogate sex and not enough human sex?

How strange it is to think that a comedy isn't brash enough or absurd enough or funny enough (okay, that one's not so strange), but the truth about The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is that, while it is brash and absurd and funny in fits and starts, it also seems to lose its nerve as it goes on, running low on laughing gas and coasting to a stop or whatever it is that auto-minded metaphors for auto-minded comedies do.

A wheeler and dealer even in grade school, the now-grown Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) sells cars like nobody's business when somebody's business is in trouble, and that's just the predicament that Ben Selleck (James Brolin) finds himself in. Ready's entourage includes the likes of Ving Rhames, Kathryn Hahn and David Koechner; I'll leave you to guess which of the three is the willful slut. Selleck's staff includes Ken Jeong, Tony Hale and Charles Napier; I'll leave you to determine which of those three suffers most at the racist outbursts of another (hint: not Hale).

If you were going to create a gallery of rogues, what actors and actresses would you include?

Personally, I'd throw some Christopher Walken in with some Lena Olin, Henry Rollins, Gary Oldman, perhaps some Lena Headey and Jackie Earle Haley ... just to name a few. But maybe I'm completely off because this is a different type of rogue. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Ving Rhames *, Ellen Barkin, Rob Corddry, Bob Odenkirk, Jeffrey Tambor, and Maggie Q have signed on for a new action comedy called Rogue's Gallery -- which already stars Joe Anderson, Odette Yustman, Adam Scott, and Emilie de Ravin.

Written by Brian Watanabe and Abe Levy, and directed by Fouad Mikati, the film focuses on "the battle that ensues among groups of government spy teams in an underground facility after their boss is assassinated." Are there that many spy teams? Do they then use their super spy skills to try and take the others down? The premise sounds like it could have promise.

The film is currently shooting in LA, but we can still dream of our own group of rogues. Who would make your list?

*Okay, he'd definitely make my rogue cut.

Earlier this week, there was buzz that Radha Mitchell was joining the science fiction thriller, The Surrogates. Now The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed it, and reports two other actors added to the mix -- Ving Rhames and Rosamund Pike.

Based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti, the film will focus on a cop (Bruce Willis) who lives in a future world. However, instead of getting a naked Milla and trying to save the world from one uglified Gary Oldman, he's in a world where people live out their lives through "perfect-looking" robotic versions of themselves. But then these robots or "surrogates" start getting axed, and the cop has to venture into the world, as himself, to find the killer. Mitchell is playing his cop partner, Rhames is playing "a charismatic cult figure who disdains the use of surrogates and tries to lead an uprising against the 'new world order,'" and Pike is playing Willis' wife.

Blackfilm currently has our first look at the new film Phantom Punch, starring Ving Rhames as the legendary Sonny Liston. The film will chronicle the boxer's entire career, included that famous "phantom punch" he took from Muhammad Ali two minutes into a championship match between the two. Liston, who had ties to the mob and many run ins with the law, later died under very mysterious circumstances -- those of which are debated about to this day.

Blackfilm also adds the following: "Liston was the 24th of 25 children born to an Arkansas sharecropper. Prone to violence, he at one point served prison time for robbing a gas station and another for beating up a police officer. He turned to fighting as a way to gain respect and became world heavyweight champion in 1962." Directed by Robert Townsend, Rhames stars alongside Stacey Dash, Nicholas Turturro and Bridgette Wilson. Currently, there's no word on when Phantom Punch will arrive in theaters. Head on over to Blackfilm to check out the rest of the photos.

Though it still hasn't hit the trades (I imagine an official announcement will come tomorrow), BlackVoices has spoken with director John Singleton, and he has confirmed to them that he will indeed direct a big-screen version of The A-Team, based on the popular '80s television series (Latino Review first posted the A-Team rumor earlier this week). IESB also confirmed the news through their sources at Fox. Additionally, Singleton said he will not be directing Executive Order: Six, as previously announced through the trades, and we imagine he'll instead concentrate solely on bringing The A-Team to the big screen ... and not completely pissing off all its fans in the process.

This feature film version has been in development for a long time, and for awhile we never thought it would happen. I mean, how can you re-cast someone like Mr. T? And if you do re-cast Mr. T, then wouldn't it be weird to see someone else acting like Mr. T? I love Ving Rhames too ... but c'mon! According to Latino Review's original post, "Stephen J. Cannell, who created the show, will produce the movie with Spike Seldin. Mark Silvestri will exec produce. Alex Young will oversee the pic at Fox. The new "A-Team" will be updated from the Vietnam era and reflect contemporary issues and politics. Tone of the film will be less cartoony and more serious, in the vein of "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon." But the van stays, right? The black van with the red stripe has to stay? And who do you get to play The A-Team? Do they go older (Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames) or younger (Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson) ... or younger and older (Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Mark Wahlberg and Ving Rhames)? In your opinion, what needs to happen in order for this film to succeed?

Oh, and before you start wondering about casting -- Singleton's last film, Four Brothers, starred both Wahlberg and Gibson. So I'd like to think they'd be his first choices ...

[via Coming Soon]

First came Jeremy Piven, who signed onto Chappelle's Show writer Neal Brennan's The Goods: The Don Ready Story back in August. While it sounds like something Will Ferrell would head, he's just producing the film, which has Piven playing "a used-car liquidator hired to save a struggling dealership during a Fourth of July weekend sale." The pot was sweetened last month when Ving Rhames also signed on, as well as Anchorman co-star David Koechner. But what used car scenario is complete without the female guns?

The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Kathryn Hahn has been tapped to play the lone woman in Don Ready's (Piven) team of used-car liquidators. In fact, THR describes them as "mercenary car salesman," which should be interesting for the comedy, unless the use of "mercenary" was just an outbreak of writer flair. Aside from playing Lily Lebowski on Crossing Jordan for the past six years, Hahn has appeared in her share of cinematic comedy, which includes, not surprisingly, a role in Anchorman. With Ferrell producing, and Koechner and Hahn signed on, which Anchorman member will be next? There's a heck of a lot of great names to choose from -- Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Fred Willard, Chris Parnell, Fred Armisen, Seth Rogen, Danny Trejo...

The man who made one lone bandaid look like the most badass thing around is going to take on an infamous heavyweight role. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Ving Rhames is going to star as boxer Sonny Liston in the upcoming biopic Phantom Punch. Writer/actor/director Ryan Combs wrote the screenplay, and the film is being directed by Robert Townsend (writer, director, and star of The Meteor Man). The film will cover Liston's success as a boxer, and include that "phantom punch" that brought him down.

Townsend says: "The thing is that certain people are born to play certain roles and Ving has always gravitated toward Sonny Liston's story. This is his baby, and he's giving birth to it. He's already playing the character at so many levels." Liston's the guy who went up against Cassius Clay/Mohammed Ali and was brought down by the infamous "phantom punch," which was then immortalized on a Sports Illustrated cover. That's really got to suck for a man who won by knock out 39 of his 54 fights, and only lost 4. Instead of being most remembered for that, he's the guy who snoozed in the ring. But boxing isn't all that Rhames will have to take on. Before getting in the ring, Liston's predilection towards fighting got him sent to prison twice, and there's also ties to the mob to deal with. Production began this week in Toronto, and is scheduled to wrap in the beginning of December.

I don't know why I think of Ving Rhames as a tough guy dramatic actor first and a comedic actor second. Even his most iconic role, as Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction, was simply a straight-played comic part. Throughout his career he's been in a lot of comedies, from the truly awful (Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot) to the near-perfect (Out of Sight). But I guess lately, aside from the recent I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, he's been pigeon-holed as best-suited for crime thrillers, prison dramas and well-produced horror films, with an occasional fun action pic like the Mission:Impossible movies. Personally, I'd love him to do another movie that mixes all those genres with a touch of comedy, a la the guilty pleasure Con-Air, but I'll settle for just a comedy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rhames has signed on to Paramount Vantage's The Goods: The Don Ready Story, which Monika told us recently will star Jeremy Piven as a used car salesman. Also joining the cast is Anchorman's David Koechner.

It wasn't mentioned what kind of characters Rhames and Koechner will be playing, but hopefully they're fellow used car salesmen working alongside Piven, who, more specifically, is a guy who must save the struggling dealership over a Fourth of July weekend. The most logical idea, though, is that whatever Rhames' role, he will be some combination of humor and muscle; the combination is one of the reasons that Rhames can do comedy and still retain his reputation as a bad ass, unlike some other people (please don't ever put Rhames in a babysitting comedy!). The comedy will be produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay via their new company Gary Sanchez Productions, along with Chris Henchy (Entourage) and Kevin Messick (A Lot Like Love). The script was written by Rick Stempson and Andy Stock, who also wrote the upcoming Seann William Scott movie Gary the Tennis Coach. It will be directed by Chappelle's Show actor/writer/director Neal Brennan.

An employee of Ving Rhames' was allegedly mauled to death Friday by the actor's pet dogs. The victim's name has not been released, but he was in fact the caretaker for the dogs -- reportedly four of them, "the size of lions" -- for the past two years. Described only as a 40-year-old African American, he was spotted on the front lawn on the property adjacent to Rhames' early in the morning, at which point the LAPD was called. The four dogs, three bull mastiffs and one English bulldog, suspected to have been involved in the incident have been seized. Rhames was not at home and has so far not given a statement. Considering he's attached to star in a number of films in the next year, I'm guessing that he was on location somewhere.

This is the sort of tragedy I would expect to befall an employee of Marcellus Wallace, but not the actor who played him. The real Ving Rhames seems like too nice a guy to have this happen on or near his property. Of course, he didn't actually have anything to do with the incident, but obviously he has some mean-ass dogs. Hopefully he won't have to endure any wrongful death suits as a result of his decision to own such violent animals; certainly the unnamed man was a canine expert and had to have been responsible enough -- not to say he was at fault for his own death, but he knew the risk and the care required and unfortunately had a fatal accident despite that knowledge. From what the police have been able to determine, the caretaker died after jumping Rhames' fence onto the lawn next door. It has not been officially confirmed that the dogs were the cause of death; they are currently at a shelter being tested for traces of the man's blood. Although he had bites all over his body, it is possible the man suffered a heart attack or some other ailment. Photos of the dogs can be seen here and here.