The Return of Francis Ford Coppola!

It’s been ten years since legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola graced the silver screen after helming some true film classics like “The Godfather” trilogy and Apocalypse Now, but his new film Youth Without Youth might seem like a daring move and possibly the least commercial film of Coppola’s long career. Based on the metaphysical writings of Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade, the film follows Tim Roth as 70-year-old linguistics professor Dominic Matei, a man haunted by his lost love Lara while languishing in Bucharest, and after being struck by lightning, he goes through a process of rejuvenation that reverts his body back to that of a 40-year-old. Things get even more interesting when he meets the beautiful Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara from Downfall) who is the spitting image of his ex and channels an ancient spirit named “Rupini” while speaking in ancient tongues. (It’s probably mind-blowing stuff for those who are able to get it.)

ile Coppola’s production on the film traversed the globe from Romania to Geneva to Malta and India, ComingSoon.net had a chance to grab some time with Mr. Coppola during a stop in New York, before he returned to South America to continue filming his next movie Tetro.

Full story: Comingsoon.net

James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Pushed Back

Fans may need to wait another seven months for James Cameron’s latest film, but a sequel to the blockbuster “Night at the Museum” could be close-ish at hand.
According to Variety, 20th Century Fox has decided to shake up is 2009 release schedule, pushing “Avatar,” Cameron’s long-anticipated 3-D sequel to “Titanic” to Dec. 18.
That delay, due to necessary post-production on the effects-heavy sci-fi epic, would have left 20th Century Fox down a 2009 summer tentpole except for something called “Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian,” now set for a May 22, 2009 release.
This was the first official mention of a sequel to last winter’s Shawn Levy-directed smash, though the $570-plus million worldwide gross for the original made a follow-up a foregone conclusion. The trade paper says that the sequel script by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon has already received a polish from Scott Frank.
Among the rumored new characters entering the “Museum” universe are aviator Amelia Earnhart.
It wasn’t like Fox’s 2009 summer was going to be barren. The studio had already set the Gavin Hood-directed “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” starring Hugh Jackman, for May 1, while “Ice Age 3″ has staked out a July 1 premiere. The trade paper says that the “Ice Age” sequel will be presented in digital 3-D.
The new release date for Cameron’s “Avatar” will now be released on the same weekend, 12 years later, as the director’s Oscar-winning “Titanic,” a film whose $1.8 billion worldwide gross remains a record by a wide margin.
Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital is handling the effects on “Avatar,” which features a human cast led by Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver.

L.A. Premiere of ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’

Julia Roberts is on the list of top earning women in Hollywood, and she keeps getting better as her career progresses. She showed up to the premiere of hernew film “Charlie Wilson’s War”. Tom Hanks arrived with his wife Rita If his career thus far is any indication, “Charlie Wilson’s War” is a sure fire hit.

The drama centers on a rogue Texas congressman (Hanks) whose penchant for booze and women earned him the nickname Good Time Charlie. He watched his political career almost go down the drain in the early 1980s when he was caught in a hot tub tryst with two cocaine-sniffing showgirls in Las Vegas.

He survived the scandal and ended up overseeing the largest and most successful covert CIA operation in history; his efforts to fund resistance fighters in Afghanistan hastened the fall of the Iron Curtain.

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‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ trailer

Charlie Wilson’s War is the true story of how a playboy congrassman, a renegade CIA agent and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operattion in history. Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today. Oscar winners Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman team with Academy Award-winning director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to bring George Crile’s best-selling book to the screen.

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The Perfect Holiday - Exclusive Clip

We’ve got an exclusive new clip from Yari Film Group’s new romantic comedy The Perfect Holiday featuring Morris Chestnut and Faizon Love. Opening in theaters on Wednesday, December 12, the film also stars Gabrielle Union, Queen Latifah, Terrence Howard, Malik Hammond, Charlie Murphy, Jeremy Gumbs, Jill Marie Jones, and Rachel True.

The Perfect Holiday

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‘Into the Wild’ leads Critics’ Choice nominations

Sean Penn’s adventure tale “Into the Wild” garnered the most Critics’ Choice award nominations on Tuesday, including best picture, best actor for Emile Hirsch and best director for Penn.

With seven nominations, “Into the Wild,” directed by Penn, edged out “Juno,” the offbeat comedy about a pregnant teenager played by Ellen Page that received six nods, including best picture and best actress for Page.

Five films snagged five nominations apiece: “Atonement,” “Michael Clayton,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Hairspray.”

Joining “Into the Wild” and “Juno” with best picture nods were: “American Gangster,” “Atonement,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “The Kite Runner,” “Michael Clayton,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “There Will Be Blood.”

Besides Hirsch, best actor nominations went to George Clooney for “Michael Clayton,” Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood,” Johnny Depp for “Sweeney Todd,” Ryan Gosling for “Lars and the Real Girl,” and Viggo Mortensen for “Eastern Promises.”

Along with Page, others getting best actress nods were Amy Adams for “Enchanted,” Cate Blanchett for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” Julie Christie for “Away From Her,” Marion Cotillard for “La Vie en Rose,” and Angelina Jolie for “A Mighty Heart.”

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Nicolas Cage in ‘Knowing’

Alex Proyas hasn’t done a film since 2004’s ‘I, Robot’. He will begin filming ‘Knowing’ in March in Melbourne, Australia. He has just signed Nicolas Cage to star in the feature, so that puts a damper on things.

In the film Cage plays a teacher who examines the contents of a time capsule unearthed at his son’s elementary school. Startling predictions in the time capsule that have already come true lead him to believe the world is going to end at the close of the week and that he and his son are somehow involved in the destruction.

Novelist Ryne Pearson pitched the film and penned the first draft before it was rewritten by Stiles White and Juliet Snowden with Proyas and Stuart Hazeldine completing the most recent draft.

Robert de Niro and Al Pacino in ‘Righteous Kill’

Academy Award winners Robert De Niro and Al Pacino star as a pair of veteran New York City police detectives on the trail of a vigilante serial killer in the adrenaline fueled psychological thriller ‘Righteous Kill’, directed by Jon Avnet and written by Russell Gewirtz.

After 30 years as partners in the pressure cooker environment of the NYPD, highly decorated Detectives David Fisk and Thomas Cowan should be ready for retirement, but aren’t. Before they can hang up their badges, they are called in to investigate the murder of a notorious pimp, which appears to have ties to a case they solved years before.

Like the original murder, the victim is a suspected criminal whose body is found accompanied by a four line poem justifying the killing. When additional crimes take place, it becomes clear the detectives are looking for a serial killer, one who targets criminals that have fallen through the cracks of the judicial system. His mission is to do what the cops can’t do on their own-take the culprits off the streets for good. The similarities between the recent killings and their earlier case raise a nagging question: Did they put the wrong man behind bars?