The popular British actor Rupert Friend has been announced to join Emily Blunt in the historical drama movie, “The Young Victoria”. Rupert Friend will take the role of Prince Albert.
Jean-Marc Vallee’s historical drama follows the romance and marriage of Queen Victoria to her first cousin Albert during her famous tumultuous 19th-century reign. The film will start shooting next month in the United Kingdom.
Rupert Friend has co-starred alongside Keira Knightley in the same-British-spirit movie “Pride & Prejudice”. He has starred also alongside Johnny Depp in “The Libertine”, which brought Rupert Friend also the 2005 British Independent Film Awards honor fo most promising newcomer.
“The Young Victoria” will be only one of the more than half-dozen movies that Rupert Friend will be starring in or filming this year; many of them are also historical dramas. The actor’s most recent appearances include “The Moon and the Stars,” “Outlaw,” “The Last Legion” and “Virgin Territory”.
He is to star also in the following movies: “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “Jolene” and “The Other Side”.

Angela Bassett and Noah Wyle have been announced to co-star in Rod Lurie’s legal thriller “Nothing but the Truth”. They will star opposite actors Kate Beckinsale and Matt Dillon.
For this movie Kate Beckinsale will take the role of a reporter that will reveal the identity of a CIA agent, but she will as well be sent to jail because of her refusing to reveal her source. Angela Bassett will play the reporter’s Washington paper’s supportive editor in chief, while Noah Wyle will play the lawyer that will be placed in charge of defending the reporter.
Other actors that will be involved in this Yari Film Group project will be Alan Alda, David Schwimmer, Harry Lennix and Vera Farmiga. The filming will begin in Memphis this month.
Angela Bassett has recently starred in the movie “Akeelah and the Bee”, while Noah Wyle has appeared in “Boy of Pigs”.

When it happened for you to become a star, you are not allowed anymore to make mistakes, although it is in man’s nature to make mistakes. However, when you reach that faze and you are called a very important person or a movie or music (or whatever) star, you become also very responsible. It is not only your personal life that becomes part of everybody’s daily business, but it is especially your public life that starts to be so important. And obvious what you do in your field (theater, cinema or music) is the subject of everybody’s top expectations.
Unfortunately, to make mistakes is something common for everybody. Although some of us live by having high hopes and desires for reaching perfection through every move, the other really need only good results in their career. However, unfortunately and once again unfortunately, mistakes happen. The media goes crazy and you get really ashamed of yourself when have disappointed so many people, but making mistakes is part of your life, so be brave!
So, be brave, you too, Mr. Francis Ford Coppola, although your latest movie “Youth without Youth” has proved to be a big mistake! Be brave and walk like a man; no one will over contest your previous works and your talent! You’re an Oscar winning director and that’s what counts for us.
Still, it seems that in Francis Ford Coppola’s case waiting too much has proved to do rather wrong to his directing talent. It has been no less than about 10 years since the Oscar-winning director has last worked behind the camera. His known talent, however, has made everybody have high expectation for his new movie charmingly titled “Youth without Youth” that has been just screened on Sunday at the RomaCinemaFest. Although the movie’s title could have been hiding a wide range of movie styles, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Youth without Youth” has proved to be muddled fantasy about the souls’ transmigration.
Still, the movie has also its qualities: firstly, it has been made on a low budget; secondly, there is something within it that shows that it is really a Francis Coppola movie after all. But, the bad parts of the work are there and they are also important: first of all the movie’s story is full of arcane references that most of us will find rather nonsensical; then the actors’ performances are a letdown. And last but not least the movie lacks suspense and coherence, while the movie becomes probably more attractive for some strange cult, than for Francis Ford Coppola’s fans.
When Tim Roth’s character gets struck by the lighting, he starts not only to grow younger and younger, but he starts also to master languages he has never known. So maybe the religious cult that will be mostly attracted by Coppola’s movie will be the Pentecostals, after all.
The action of “Youth without Youth” will begin in 1938, in Bucharest, Romania, and it will also feature Nazi spies, fascists, but also a beautiful young woman, who will also get struck by the lightning. However, the woman will get the reverted process of the lighting strike, as she will start aging with the speed of light. She will as well be turned into a seventh century disciple of Chandrakirti and she will also be able to speak ancient languages and so on.
The movie’s action gets even more complicated that this, but it will never get to a meaningful end. The action seems not only nonsensical, but it is neither coherent. Although the movie was based on the very important fantastic (and no only) novelist Mircea Eliade and although Francis Ford Coppola appears to be clearly captivated by the Romanian author’s mystical contemplations, unfortunately the director’s fascination hasn’t been translated into a fascinating movie after all.
The movie features mostly Romanian actors and cinematographers such as actresses Alexandra Maria Clara, Alexandra Pirici, actors Marcel Inures, Florin Piersic Jr. and late Adrian Pintea, as well as cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. and the production designer Calin Papura and others.
But, unfortunately, everybody’s efforts have been translated in nothing else but a big disappointment. This sometimes has to happen too, isn’t it, no mater that you’re Francis Ford Coppola or another big name…

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has reached international stardom when his second film, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, has won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year. But the Romanian director has said that reaching a wider audience is more important to him than the glory of awards. However, the Palme d’Or Award is really something, after all!
Cristian Mungiu’s “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, which is currently showing at the New York Film Festival, is based on the true story of two students from the communist Romania who are trying to arrange an abortion.
But the 39-year-old Romanian director currently hopes to translate his Palme d’Or award from the Cannes Film Festival into a mainstream success in the United States of America too.
“I don’t see myself as an arthouse filmmaker, making films for small theaters and few people.” – Cristian Mungiu has told Reuters in an interview.
While he was pleased to be the first Romanian to win the top award at Cannes, he said, “it is not like I am jumping for joy every day, it doesn’t work like this. I care about awards … but I just want to reach more people who would get something from the story.” Still, the award from Cannes really represents the sharpest way of reaching more and more audiences, isn’t it?
However, the director has welcomed early positive reactions from the U.S. audiences, but on the other hand he does not expect his European success will translate to film awards on this side of the Atlantic.
“It would be a huge bonus for us to be nominated for the Oscars, but it is not necessarily … the kind of cinema that would normally be awarded here.” – has said director Cristian Mungiu.
“4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” is a movie that takes a bleak look at two girls that will be negotiating an abortion during the regime of leader Nicolae Ceausescu, when abortion is illegal.
But Mungiu, who directed and wrote the screenplay, has said that this movies hasn’t been munch about abortion, than about a personal story reflecting the hardships of every day life at the time.
Nicolae Ceausescu was deposed and shot by a firing squad in 1989 after a secret military tribunal found him and his wife guilty of crimes against the state.
“If you have this ability to find a relevant story that is close to you, it is going to be much more complex than if you start writing a piece about communism or abortion or whatever.” – Cristian Mungiu has said..
Other Romanians, including directors Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristi Puiu have had success in recent years, but Mungiu’s win set off the biggest celebration yet among Romanians.
“They felt the joy as if we won something in football, in sport,” he said. “It showed how much this (film) did for the image of the country in a way.”
He hopes a series of films he is producing from the same communist era would be seen by just as many people worldwide.
“I can’t compete with Spiderman 3 and it is OK they will go and see that film, but there are people who want to see a film like mine too.”

The actress Dominique Swain has been recently announced to star in a horror movie, titled “Slaughter”. The horror movie has been said of beginning shooting this month in Los Angeles.
Dominique Swain will have the role of a young actress who will travel to a remote desert location for shooting a movie that is called “Slaughter”. She will however discover that she and her co-stars have been cast in fact in a snuff movie and that they must fight to survive.
Victor Garcia (”Return to House on Haunted Hill”) will be directing this movie from a script written by Bobby Lee Darby, the winner of the Slamdance Film Festival’s horror screenplay competition.
Dominique Swain’s credits include “Alpha Dog,” “Stiletto” and “Lolita.”

The Tony-winning actor George Grizzard, who was a star actor in the original 1962 Broadway production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, died on the 2nd of October 2007.
The actor was 79 years old and, as his agent Clifford Stevens has said, his death was caused by lung cancer. Grizzard passed away at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weil Cornell Medical Center and he has been survived by his partner William Tynan.
The actor had debuted on Broadway in 1955, in “The Desperate Hours”, where he had played the character of the famous actor Paul Newman’s younger brother. He won the Tony award at the best actor category in 1996 for his role in a revival of “A Delicate Balance”, another Albee’s movie.
Paul Newman praised George Grizzard by saying that “When we were on the stage together, he was the best thing around.”
George Grizzard appeared in many movies, including also Woody Allen’s “Small Time Crooks”, and he was a regularly on television, including the series “Law & Order”, where he appeared as the defense lawyer Arthur Gold.
In 1980, George Grizzard also won an Emmy award at the best supporting actor in a limited series or special category for his role alongside Henry Fonda in “The Oldest Living Graduate.”
In the original production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, George Grizzard played the husband in the younger couple who come to dinner at George and Martha’s house and becomes the butt of their jokes.
Years later, he said it was a difficult role because the audience delighted in watching him suffer.
Martha and George were played by Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill and the role of Grizzard’s wife was played by Melinda Dillon.

The beautiful Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, who is one of Asia’a biggest movie stars, has recently received France’s highest civilian honor at a glittering function from the Malaysian capital.
Michelle Yeoh, who is best known for the Western audiences for her roles from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Tomorrow Never Dies”, where she was the Bond girl, has received the medal of a Knight of the Legion of honor form the Ambassador Alain du Boispean.
Before pinning the important medal of the beautiful actress, the Ambassador has said that through her many stays and connections to France, Michelle Yeoh has contributed to the strengthening of the ties and mutual friendship between the two countries, France and Malaysia.
“I guess that deep down, I am a small-town girl from Ipoh who has been living a magical dream.” - Michelle Yeoh has said, although he has been dressed in an ivory Cavalli gown encrusted with crystals.
The famous Asian actress was born into an ethnic Chinese lawyer’s family from the northern Malaysian town of Ipoh in 1962. She studied dance and martial arts before winning a beauty pageant in 1983 hat led to a commercial alongside the action star Jackie Chan and further to a film career.
France’s Legion of honor, which was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, has five distinct ranks and it is conferred for outstanding achievements in either the civil or military life.

The popular actors Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have been said to already be in negotiations for reuniting for a fourth installment of the “Fast and the Furious” famous action franchise.
The brand new installment’s titled hasn’t been set yet and the story within is being kept under wraps too. But fast cars will be involved, as usual. The start of the shooting is anticipated for spring and Los Angeles, Mexico and the Dominican Republic are on the list.
The first installment of the “Fast and the Furious” action franchise has been released about six years ago, in 2001, and was a surprise hit, as it grossed more than $144 million. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have become instant stars.
In 2003, however, only Paul Walker has returned for the sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious” and the he has sat out the third installment, 2005’s “Tokyo Drift”.
That movie has had the relative newcomer Lucas Black in the driver seat but it did feature Vin Diesel in a cameo at the end of the movie. His appearance has been so well received that it has been even mentioned in ads.
Justin Lin and Chris Morgan, who have been behind “Tokyo Drift”, will return to direct and write the script, respectively for the fourth installment too.
Vin Diesel’s most recent credits include Sidney Lumet’s “Find Me Guilty” and he will hest star in Fox’s “Babylon A.D.”.
Paul Walker has recently wrapped production on the drama “The Heaven Project”.

Jennifer Aniston is nice. And funny. And she has already forgotten that Brad Pitt that spends his days near Angelina Jolie and all those children.
And it seems that Jennifer Aniston is even more than that, as the Forbes.com web site has reported that the “Friends” actress is the No. 1 covergirl when it comes to celebrity magazines. This is not a surprise, as Jennifer Aniston is quite very nice and pretty. The ranking that Forbes.com has made of the top-selling faces, on the other hand, shows only the reality: the fact that Jennifer Aniston is quite a leading top-selling face, and obviously the best-selling one among the “Friends” actors.
Ironically, or maybe not, Jennifer Aniston has been followed in Forbes.com’s chart by her former husband, Brad Pitt, who is however the only man that appears in the top 10. Next is actress Scarlett Johansson, then Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon and Katie Holmes. So it seems that Angelina Jolie will always be closed to Jennifer Aniston, although it has been Aniston this time that has remained with the top prize.
For realizing this top, the popular web site has analyzed the sales of six weekly magazines: “People”, “Us Weekly”, “Star”, “In Touch”, “Life & Style” and “OK!”, over a six-month period ending the 30th of June 2007.
“We eliminated all non-celebrity and collage covers as well as special issues with exceptionally large rate bases.” – the people from Forbes.com have said, adding that “Then we counted how many more-or-less issues the celebrity’s cover sold, as compared with the magazine’s average newsstand sales.”
The number of covers graced by a celebrity and their consumer appeal, which has been rated by E-Poll Market Research, have been also factored by Forbes.com.
On the last spots of the top one could find the singers and “American Idol” contestants Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson, tied for the seventh place, and then Valerie Bertinelli and Kelly Ripa.
On the last spot, one could find the naughtiest girl of the recent period, the former pop princess of all pop princesses, Britney Spears. Although she has appeared on 18 covers during these six months, the collective sales were some 600,000 below average, which combined with her low appeal score of 3, placed her last among the top 10 cover subject of the chart.
The only celebrity that has had a lower appeal rating that Britney Spears has been another naughty girl, Paris Hilton.

The actress Sarah Polley and the actor Adrien Brody have been announced of having accepted the invitation of joining the cast for a new science fiction thriller titled “Splice”. The movie is to being shooting in November in Toronto.
The story within the science fiction movie in which the two young actors will star is exploring a dark vision of the world of the genetic engineering in which two young scientists, played obviously by Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, will become superstars because of their splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. Eventually, they will also ignore the both legal and ethical boundaries and will introduce also human DNA into their experiment.
The director of “Splice” will be Vincenzo Natali.
Sarah Polley’s recent credits include her apparitions in HBO’s “John Adams’” miniseries, “Dawn of the Dead”, “The Secret Life of Words” and others. She has been also making waves as a director with her drama “Away from Her”, which has recently brought her a Directors Guild of Canada Award.
Adrien Brody’s most recent role is that from “The Darjeeling Limited”, where he stars alongside Owen Wilson and others.