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Christopher Nolan's Inception has started filming

NolanFans.com found the above picture of Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Nolan and Ken Watanabe in a Japanese magazine. I'm not sure if Leonardo and Ken are in costume or if it is just for the photo.

The photo containing the Inception director, and two of its stars, was taken on June 15th in Tokyo, Japan (one of the reported filming locations of Inception). According to reports, filming is already underway in that country, which is only one of six reported countries the film is scheduled to shoot in.

As well as Japan Inception will also film in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Morocco, Tangiers and Canada (as mentioned here). It has been described as “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind” and as as well as Leo and Watanabe the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy.

Source: Filmonic

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The Random - Primeval, Aronofsky/Portman, The Karate Kid, DiCaprio's Online Poker film, Honey Pot, Friday 13th, The Birds, Akira,

- British dinosaur-themed sci-fi series Primeval will not be returning for a fourth season reports Total Sci-Fi Online. The still popular show has fallen victim to substantial budget cuts at the fledgling ITV network in the UK which has seen other popular shows like crime procedural "Wire in the Blood" similarly get the axe before their time.

- Natalie Portman is attached to play the lead in Darren Aronofsky's supernatural thriller Black Swan says The Hollywood Reporter. Black Swan centers on a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. But it's unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is simply having delusions. Mark Heyman has done a rewrite of John McLaughlin's original script for the film.

- Paramount Pictures has picked up an untitled film pitch about the world of Costa Rica-based online casinos for Leonardo DiCaprio to star in says the trades. Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen) came up with the idea which DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran will produce for his Appian Way production company.

- Paramount Pictures and Montecito Co. have picked up Liz Meriwether's action-comedy script Honey Pot says Variety. While the storyline is being kept top secret, the film will feature two female leads and be set in the world of international espionage.

- Steven Conrad ("The Pursuit of Happyness") has been hired to rewrite the remake of The Karate Kid for Sony Pictures says Risky Biz Blog. Conrad takes over for Chris Murphy who was originally hired to write the script of the reboot starring Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith and Taraji P. Henson.

- Talking with Movieweb producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form spilled on the progress of various Platinum Dunes projects.
First up, the sequel to this year's hit Friday the 13th remake. "We want to have fun. We want to present something that audiences haven't seen before. One of the things they haven't seen before is Jason in the snow" said Fuller.
The pair also admits that their planned remake of The Birds is still very much stuck in development - "We keep trying. I don't know. That is so hard to get the script right. We struggle with it. I won't have anything to say until the script is finished. We lay ourselves out there and get annihilated out there online all day long,and [The Birds] just opens us up to a whole different level of annihilation…it doesn’t feel like that’s up next for us.”

- The Leonardo DiCaprio-produced live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's classic 1988 anime feature Akira has been ditched according to Bloody Disgusting. The project was a two-part film that Warners and DiCaprio's Appian Way had been developing with Gary Whitta ("The Book of Eli") scripting and Ruairi Robinson directing. Now according to BD, who first broke the news of the project 18 months ago, not only has Robinson left the project but the overall project is "dead as a doornail" according to two sources.

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Inception - Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film has a $200 million budget

A Sun source confirmed that Leonardo DiCaprio will be heading to Alberta, Canada this November to shoot scenes for the new Christopher Nolan film, Inception.

While the psychological sci-fi thriller is filming in five different countries, a significant portion of the $200-million movie will be shot in Kananaskis.

"It's not going to be just a two-day shoot," said the source.

"It's not just some CBC mini-series. It's pretty substantial.

"These guys are going to spend more money before lunchtime than most (networks) will spend on a series. It's as big a movie as has ever been shot here."

DiCaprio headlines the film's star-studded cast as a CEO. It also stars Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard, Canadian actress Ellen Page, Tom Hardy (Bronson), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine. Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, The Dark Knight) will play the film's villain, a man who is blackmailing DiCaprio.

Director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento) has already been to Calgary twice to look at possible locations.

Nolan scouted nearby foothills and mountainous areas by helicopter and is said to have chosen Fortress Mountain (that's the one in the photo above) as the main Alberta location.

The Inception script, also written by Nolan, has been kept under tight wraps although it has been described by Warner Bros. studio as "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind."

I do love the fact hardly anything is know about the actual plot of the film. From what little I do know it seems to be giving off a Philip K. Dick kind of vibe - businessmen from rival companies, set within the architecture of the mind.

The movie is slated for a July 2010 release.

Source: Calgary Sun

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Billy is Surviving Evil - He's a cool dude

Terence Daw's Surviving Evil stars Billy Zane and The Descent's Natalie Mendoza fighting some nasty creatures.. The film premieres in South Africa this July with a followed by a UK release in September. No word yet on a U.S. release.

Billy Zane, one of the coolest actors out there who has never achieved the greatness he should have had. Mind you he has been in some really dire films. As Chisholm always said, he would have made a great Bruce Wayne / Batman back in the day. Plus my Wife can never understand why Kate Winslet would want to go with DiCaprio when she had the Zanester there all studly in his dinner jacket.

In this new film Zane is a TV survival host whose show taping on a remote Philipine island becomes that much more dangerous when they disturb the domain of an Aswang, a hideous ghoul of Filipino lore.

A TV documentary crew arrive on a remote island in the Philippines to film a survival special. Their back-to-the-wild adventure proves to be more terrifying than they ever could have imagined.

Source: STYD

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Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island - Trailer

The story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the cost of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe’s radical approach to psychiatry? The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive them insane. . .

Directed by Scorsese this is looking very good and a bit Hitchcockian methinks.

As well as the two main leads it also stars Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, and Jackie Earle Haley. Let me know what you think of the trailer.

Could this be in the running for an Oscar?

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Ken Watanabe to be the big bad in Christopher Nolan's Inception

Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Batman Begins) and Tom Hardy (Bronson, Star Trek: Nemesis) have signed on for Christopher Nolan's Inception for Warner Bros., starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story was written by Nolan and is a contemporary sci-fi action film set within the architecture of the mind, with DiCaprio as a CEO type. Watanabe will play the film's villain, a man who is blackmailing DiCaprio. Hardy is a member of DiCaprio's team.

The duo join a cast that includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard.

Nolan and the studio are aiming for a summer shoot ahead of a 2010 release.
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Ninja Scroll - DiCaprio wants SMAP

Leonardo DiCaprio is considering casting Japan's SMAP pop group as the main leads in Warner Brothers and Appian Way's proposed live-action adaptation of the 1993 anime feature "Ninja Scroll" reports The Anime News Network.

According to the Nikkan Sports newspaper, casting is in progress with DiCaprio's expressing intention to "cast with Japanese people."

The five members of SMAP — Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Goro Inagaki and Shingo Katori — have acted in several films based on manga and anime since the band's formation in 1988, but have not acted together in the same film since 1994's "Shoot".

Yoshiaki Kawajiri wrote and directed the original 1993 anime about a wandering ninja fighting a conspiracy of demons.

Source: Dark Horizons

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Christopher Nolan's sci-fi Inception gets Page, Cotillard and Murphy

Warner Bros. is in talks with Ellen Page (Juno), Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies) and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, 28 Days Later) to join the cast of "Inception," Christopher Nolan's latest project which stars Leonardo DiCaprio.

In keeping with most things associated with Nolan's project, a veil of secrecy exists over loglines, although it is described as a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within "the architecture of the mind."

However, as the casting process progresses, details are beginning to leak out. DiCaprio's character is mentioned as a CEO-type, while Cotillard would play his wife. Page is a young college grad student and DiCaprio's sidekick.

James Franco was in talks to join the project but had to bow out due to a scheduling conflict with Universal's comedy "Your Highness." Nolan and the studio are aiming for a summer shoot ahead of a 2010 release.

Source: THR

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UPDATED: Leonardo DiCaprio NOT to be a Button Man

UPDATE: Doh! Looks like I fell victim to an unsubstantiated rumour regarding this. MTV have this to say about it:

The upcoming film “Button Man” is not related in any way to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” — and, contrary to earlier reports, it’s not related to Leonardo DiCaprio, either.

Entertainment Weekly is crying foul on Internet rumors that the “Body of Lies” actor would star in the “2000 A.D.” comic property. The news site is reporting that Leo is not attached to “Button Man” according to studio representatives. The rumor originated from a listing in Production Weekly, a print magazine that provides information on Hollywood projects.

While DiCaprio’s involvement is now officially scrapped, there is movement on “Button Man.” A DreamWorks representative tells Entertainment Weekly that “Eagle Eye” screenwriter Hillary Seitz will pen the screenplay for the comic book adaptation.

So there you have it. If DiCaprio is not to be a Button Man, who could you see in the role?

The original post is below:

According to Production Weekly, Button Man focuses on Harry Exton, an ex-mercenary that participates in a violent underground sport known as “the game.” Exton is one of several killers — appropriately called ‘button men’ — that define victory by slaying their opponent or claiming the first two joints of their victim’s finger. When Harry decides to retire from the sport, he learns the hard way that his own survival is anything but a game.

DiCaprio is expected to star as Exton in the “2000 A.D.” comic book adaptation, from the same publishers of the in-development “Judge Dredd” relaunch. The actor-producer has snatched up the rights to several graphic novel properties as of late, such as the manga franchises “Ninja Scroll” and “Akira” — though he says that he won’t star in either film.

The erstwhile “Titanic” star has also found himself at the center of some higher profile comic book rumors in the last year. Alongside “Inglourious Basterds” actor Brad Pitt, DiCaprio has been mentioned as a contender for Steve Rogers in “The First Avenger: Captain America.”

Other than DiCaprio’s newly announced “Button Man” and his attachment to “The Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film “Inception,” not much is known about the Academy Award nominated actor’s involvement in comic book movie properties.

Source: MTV

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What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Trailer for a classic film

This was on TV last night. Both Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio are brilliant in it.

Thanks to Pam for sending me the link.

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Shutter Island - Teaser poster for Martin Scorsese's next film

RopeofSilicon user “Friends of Eddie” last sent in scans from Cahiers du Cinéma’s January 2009 edition with a diary written by Argentinean filmmaker Celine Murga based on her experiences on the set of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and today he returns with a piece of teaser art from the film scanned out of the Berliner Zeitung newspaper as part of a story about TMG/Concorde, the film’s distributor.

Since it is a scan you can slightly see some of the words bleeding through on the lighter areas but for the most part it is a top quality image, but I can’t help get the feeling it is still an early piece of artwork since the font used to write “Whatever happened to patient 67?” on the wall is just a generic font and isn’t exactly up to final art quality.

Shutter Island is currently due out on October 2 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Jackie Earle Haley. The official site is also live, but merely with placeholder information.

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Gridlinked - Fan made poster

Neal Asher has been commenting on the casting call in the comments under his interview. Clive Owen is his current favourite and I could see that. Neal also emailed me with the link for a fan made poster for his first Ian Cormac book, Gridlinked. It was created by Carlo and it is pretty cool. Similar to the covers of some of the books in the series.

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Body of Lies, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong
Running Time: 128 minutes
Score: 4 / 10

This review by Eric Lavelle of Ion Cinema.

The size of a country’s circle of friends is ultimately decided by, how well one plays with others. With the kind of historical blemishes and failed foreign policy track record that the U.S have, the notion of courtyard bully rings especially true. Ridley Scott proposes that the CIA has multiple agendas on the war on terror when lead by arrogant arm chair decision makers and, the incognito ground troops that are one blunder away from certain death. Stylistically speaking, Body of Lies contains Scott’s trademark visual treatment of geopolitical hotbed zones and advances the double cross, spy game narrative with a pacing that yields satisfactory results, but scribe William Monahan's simplified formula, bad guy and good guy facile arrangement is less striking and impressionable than say, a CIA agent stationed in the Middle East film like Syriana - where the lead character and story arch is much more complex, not so black and white and richer in narrative design.

Scott avoids getting knee deep in political jargon by placing emphasis on the not-so-chummy relationship between well-defined characters toplined by Leonardo DiCaprio and Scott-regular with a couple of belt-sizes more in Russell Crowe. The distinctive differences is that the field worker with idealist motivations places more value on other folks in civilian clothes than perhaps the realists who see human life as simple ponds in a larger chess match. Unfortunately, the tension between these two characters is advertised throughout, the in-house disagreements over strategy are as clumsy as the nonchalant subplot inclusion of romantic proposal between a nurse and DiCaprio’s fluent Arab-speaking American character that has an appreciation for a culture and a people who clearly do not share the same sentiment in return. The reasons why DiCaprio’s Roger Ferris is so bent on doing one good deed after another remains aloof -- and the dreamy certainly adds no value to this plight, however, the main interest lies in the core story element retained from David Ignatius’ novel where mimicking the actions of a terrorist whose expertise lies in bombs and loss of human lives.

Actor Mark Strong, a spitting image of Andy Garcia, is perhaps the only character that delivers the goods. A high-ranking Jordanian intelligence player who seems to understand the bigger picture for his nation’s politics sets up a personal agenda in accordance to a strong set of principles, unfortunately, Body of Lies never cares to establish why the film’s protagonist belongs in a headspace where he feels he owes his life to people and a culture clearly detached from his own. Fans of the action sequences and technical work found in Scott’s Black Hawk Down will find more of the same high octane, but in smaller doses and will appreciate moments where bone cartilage acts as shrapnel, but will find minor issues of the heart and accompanying tetanus shots less appealing in the geopolitical scheme of things. Clearly, this is far from being the weakest of the recent wave of spy games where Americans overstep their limits in the Middle East.
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Revolutionary Road - New trailer for Sam Mendes latest

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5 More Friends - A whole lot of movie stars talking about voting

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, along with Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal, are featured in a second of a series of public service announcements to encourage American youth to vote in partnership with Google, YouTube, Declare Yourself, and MySpace. The non-partisan PSAs, produced by DiCaprios Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to vote and participate in the upcoming election.

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Ninja Scrolls to go Live Action

This from First Showing.

First it was Akira, now it's Ninja Scroll, too. Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way will be producing a live-action adaptation of the classic anime movie for Warner Brothers. Screenwriter Alex Tse, who wrote Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchmen as well as Michael Mann's upcoming Frankie Machine, will be writing the script. No director has been announced yet, but considering Akira picked up a no-name director, I expect Ninja Scroll to probably do the same. At one point, it was rumored that James McTeigue's Ninja Assassin was a Ninja Scroll remake, but that was quickly debunked. Now it's actually happening.

Ninja Scroll is a Japanese action thriller anime written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Yoshiaki Kawajiri. The film was first released in Japan in 1993 and made its way to the US in 1996, where it quickly became one of the most popular anime movies in US history. The anime is set feudal Japan and tells the story of a ninja-for-hire who is forced into fighting an old nemesis who is bent on overthrowing the Japanese government. His nemesis is also the leader of a group of demons each with superhuman powers. In addition to Akira, it's regarded as one of the best anime movies ever made and is just as popular.

One of the biggest questions surrounding this is whether or not all of the violence, gore, sex, and nudity will remain intact in this translation. I'm expecting that Warner Brothers will try to make this PG-13, but then again, it could very well be R. I'm thinking they're waiting to see how Ninja Assassin does in theaters, since that is a very hard R ninja movie. Either way, this is quite an exciting future for anime fans, with Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, and now Ninja Scroll all being converted into live-action Hollywood adaptations.

What do you think of that news?

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Revolutionary Road - Will the Titanic double act strike gold again? Billy Zane's not in it

Directed by Mr Kate Winslet, Sam Mendes, this is getting early Oscar buzz around the Web.

April (Kate Winslet) and Frank Wheeler (Leonardo Dicaprio) are a young, thriving couple living with their two children in a Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. Their self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job, and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy.

What do you think of it? Could it be an Oscar winner?

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Akira - Live action news from the Big Giant Head!

The news on the live action version of Katsuhiro Ôtomo's 1988 masterpiece Akira,was that Warner Bros. had snapped up the movie rights for Leonardo DiCaprio’s company to produce (and for him to possibly star). Then it was mentioned that Joseph Gordon Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, Brick, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra) had nabbed the co-starring role of Tetsuo in the live-action version of the anime. Since then it has all gone quiet, until this snippet of news surfaced:
MTV asked Joseph Gordon Levitt, about Akira the movie:
“That just goes to show what you can believe about what people write about movies. I love the movie ‘Akira.’ I still have yet to read the manga, but that’s really just a rumor. They don’t have a script or anything.”

Akira is a great animated movie and for me and many others it was the gateway into the weird and wonderful world of anime. The manga is well worth picking up and is much bigger and deeper than the movie. Not sure if it needs to be made as a live action movie (Kanye West had a go at it in that Stronger video of his). However, it would be cool to see Kaneda's bike on the big screen. I think Levitt certainly fits the look of Tetsuo but they would need to chuck a load of money at the project to make sure they get the Blade Runner-esque look of it right.

What do you think of the news? Still early days as no script for it yet but do you think it needs to be remade as a live action movie? What did you think of the original anime? What other anime movies out there would suit going the live action route?

Body of Lies - New Trailer

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