Bruce Lee Biopic Trilogy planned

In a story from Variety it appears that a three-part biopic about martial arts legend Bruce Lee is going to be made. The family of Lee is putting their full support behind the project.

Lee died 36 years ago this week.

Currently, Lee's family is working with China's J.A. Media on a film titled Bruce Lee. The film will go into production this October. Tony Leung Ka-fai will be playing Lee's father. Other cast members are currently up in the air.

Directing this three part epic will be Zhang Yimou.

The first film is slated to be released on November 27, 2010 which is the 70th anniversary of Lee's birth.

"We've read many books and seen many movies about Bruce Lee, but there are many inaccuracies in them," stated Bruce Lee's brother Robert.

The last Bruce Lee biopic was Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story starring Jason Scott Lee. This trilogy sounds like it may be quite a bit better.

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Public Enemies - Cool Johnny Depp poster

Check out my review plus my time at the Public Enemies press conference with Marion Cotillard, Michael Mann and Johnny Depp.

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Coco Before Chanel (Coco avant Chanel) - Trailer

A little girl who is sent with her sister to an orphanage in the heart of France, who waits in vain every Sunday for her father to come for her. A cabaret performer with a weak voice who sings to an audience of drunken soldiers. A humble seamstress, who stitches hems at the back of a provincial tailor's shop. A young, skinny courtesan, to whom protector Etienne Balsan offers a safe haven, amongst the idle and decadent. A woman in love who knows she will never be anyone's wife, refusing marriage even to Boy Capel, the man who returned her love. A rebel who finds the conventions of her time oppressive, and instead dresses in her lovers' clothes.

This is the story of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.

Due out on the 31st July.

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Amelia - Trailer for biopic starring Hilary Swank

Here is the trailer for Mira Nair's Amelia. Hilary Swank stars as Amelia Earhart along side Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere, Virginia Madsen, Joe Anderson, Christopher Eccleston, and Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland).

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White Lightnin' - Trailer for the Dancing Outlaw

Deep in the heart of the appalachian mountains in west virginia, where every man owns a gun and a moonshine still, in a battered trailer, abides living legend Jesco White (Edward Hogg), "the dancing outlaw".

As a boy Jesco was in and out of reform school and the insane asylum for taking drugs, stealing lighter fluid and for his wild behavior. Yo keep him out of trouble, his daddy d-ray taught him the art of mountain dancing - a frenzied version of tap dancing to wild country banjo music. after his daddy's murder at the hands of a pair of drunken rednecks, the crazy but charismatic jesco put on his daddy's shoes and danced his way round the bars of the county where he met the love of his life, cilla, who happened to be twice his age and half his height. The odd couple tried to settle down but tortured by the thought of his daddy's killers still at large, jesco's demons resurfaced. this is his story.

White Lightnin' trailer
by blankytwo

Yes that is Carrie Fisher.

Source: Quiet Earth

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Telstar - The life and times of Joe Meek

Telstar is the stranger-than-fiction true story of legendary independent record producer Joe Meek. A maverick musical genius who wrote and recorded a string of number one hits in the early 60s, Meek famously enjoyed phenomenal early success with Telstar – the biggest selling record of its time and the first Brit band single to top the US charts. Named after the first communications satellite, which launched in 1962, the unique instrumental single was released later that same year, becoming a number one hit on both sides of the Atlantic for Meek’s band The Tornados, all from a flat on the Holloway Road. Meek went on to create the strange and wonderful recordings that have made him an iconic figure in the world of British pop, until depression, heartbreak and paranoia ultimately led to his dramatic downfall.

Telstar is directed by Nick Moran (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and stars Con O’Neill, Nick Moran, Kevin Spacey, James Cordon, Ralph Little, JJ Feild and Pam Ferris.

It is out in UK cinemas today.

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Creation - Trailer for Charles Darwin biopic

Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching love story, Creation is the story of Charles Darwin and the single most explosive idea in history.

Paul Bettany stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife Emma Darwin along with Toby Jones.

Creation is directed by British filmmaker Jon Amiel (Queen of Hearts, Sommersby, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Entrapment, and The Core).

Source: First Showing

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Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett

Kristen Stewart is finishing filming New Moon and is starting on The Runaways. The photo above shows her as Joan Jett. The biopic is being written and directed by Italian music video director Floria Sigismondi.

Dakota Fanning will play Cherie Currie, Stella Maeve will play Sandy West, and Alessandra Torresani will play Lita Ford. The Runaways were a rock band from the 70's best known for songs like "Cherry Bomb," "Queens of Noise," "Neon Angels," and "Born to Be Bad." The group was active for roughly four years and disbanded amidst money and management disagreements in 1979. The story in the movie will center on Jett and Curie specifically and detail the rise and fall of the group.

Do you think Stewart manages to look like Joan Jett?

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Jaime King to play Brigitte Bardot

Cinema Blend have come across an interview in the Australian magazine InPress with Fanboys director Kyle Newman. In it he reveals that he’s working on a Brigitte Bardot biopic.

Newman says that though the project is currently in development, he’s already found his star: his wife Jaime King, who met Newman on Fanboys and married him soon after.

King was last seen in My Bloody Valentine and The Spirit.

I'm not sure whether it will be dealing with just Bardot's early life or whether it will include the later years when she became a recluse fighting for animal rights.

Still early days on this one but how do you feel about Jaime King playing Bardot? Does she have the acting chops for it?

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Howl - Another look at James Franco as Ginsberg

Entertainment Weekly are saying this is our first look at Franco in the role. However, there was a photo of him back in March which is actually the first look.

In Howl, the big-screen drama about poet Allen Ginsberg due out next year, James Franco (right, with costar Aaron Tveit) plays Ginsberg as ''an unsure young man who's trying to find his way,'' says the actor. Produced by Gus Van Sant, the movie revolves around the titular Ginsberg work from 1956 that turned him into a literary superstar. ''All his uncertainty culminates in the poem 'Howl' and gives birth to the Ginsberg we know,'' says Franco. ''The Beats were very important to me when I started reading literature more seriously in high school. They were some of the first writers that I read and fell in love with.''
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Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Andy Serkis' Ian Dury gets his Blockheads

Back in January I posted part of an interview with Andy Serkis where he mentioned he would be playing punk legend Ian Dury in a biopic due to start filming this month.

Now the film has a title, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, and will be directed by Mat Whitecross reports Variety.

It has also gained an excellent cast. Naomi Harris ("Pirates of the Caribbean"), Ray Winstone ("The Departed"), Olivia Williams ("The Sixth Sense"), Noel Clarke (TV's "Doctor Who"), Toby Jones ("Infamous"), MacKenzie Crook ("Pirates of the Caribbean") and Bill Milner ("Son of Rambow") .

Arthur Darvill, James Jagger, Tom Hughes, Shakraj Soornack, Clifford Samuel and Joe Kennedy are also set to play Dury's band members the Blockheads.

Paul Viragh penned the script, Damian Jones is producing and shooting kicks off May 3rd in London.

No word yet on whether Andy Serkis will be portraying Ian Dury through the wonders of motion capture :)

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Howl - First look at James Franco as Allen Ginsberg

Hollywood Elsewhere got hold of the photos below of James Franco on the set of the currently-shooting Allen Ginsberg biopic (Ginsberg is in the above photo). Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman are co-directing and co-writing the drama, which is mainly be about the obscenity trial that followed the 1957 publication of Ginsberg's Howl.
When I first heard about this I didn't think Franco had the right look to play Ginsberg, but looks like I was wrong. Should be a very interesting film.
The film also stars David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd.

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Tyson - You will believe an ex-boxer has got a great big tattoo over his face

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Eddie Murphy to play Richard Pryor. Who'll play Gene Wilder?

Some news from Entertainment Weekly.

Writer/director Bill Condon, who just completed his debut run as producer of the 2009 Academy Awards, is shopping his script Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? to the studio subsidiaries and independent distributors around town. Eddie Murphy is attached to star. Sources tell EW.com that Fox Searchlight, the studio behind this year's big Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, is interested in the film. The studio, which declined comment, has a relationship with Condon, having partnered with the director on his 2004 feature Kinsey. Condon, who most recently wrote and directed Dreamgirls, had the Pryor biopic set up at The Weinstein Company but was able to pull it out when the indie outfit put it into turnaround. He initially was hoping to secure $30 million to produce the film, but that number, sources say, has dropped down to $25 million. Murphy, who has featured Pryor impersonations in his act as far back as the 1987 concert movie Raw, seems a likely choice for this role.

Is Eddie Murphy the right choice to play Pryor? Murphy was great in Dreamgirls, but his track record recently hasn't been so good.

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The Damned United - Brian Clough biopic starring Michael Sheen

From the best-selling and critically acclaimed novel by David Peace, The Damned United is directed by Tom Hooper and stars Michael Sheen as the legendary, opinionated football manager Brian Clough, with Timothy Spall as his right hand man, only friend, and crutch Peter Taylor.

Set in 1960s and 1970s England, The Damned United tells the confrontational and darkly humorous story of Brian Cloughs doomed 44 day tenure as manager of the reigning champions of English football Leeds United. Previously managed by his bitter rival Don Revie (Colm Meaney), and on the back of their most successful period ever as a football club, Leeds had an aggressive and cynical style of football - an anathema to the principled yet flamboyant Brian Clough, who had achieved astonishing success as manager of Hartlepool and Derby County building teams in his own vision with trusty lieutenant Peter Taylor. Taking the Leeds job without Taylor by his side, with a changing room full of Dons boys, would lead to an unheralded examination of Cloughs belligerence and brilliance over 44 days. This is that story. The story of The Damned United. Jim Broadbent plays Sam Longson, Derby Chairman. The Damned United was filmed in locations throughout Yorkshire, Leeds, Derbyshire and Spain.

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Gollum is a Blockhead?

Cinemablend have a great interview with Andy Serkis (LOTR, King Kong, The Cottage). He chats about his work on The Hobbit and Tintin. However, he then mentions a little bit about what he will be doing next.

“I'm actually doing a film in April about the life of Ian Dury, who's a proto-punk rocker in the 1970s. He's an amazing character, a real poet. He sort of came up out of the British pub rock scene. He sort of pre-empted the Sex Pistols and the whole punk movement. And he was a polio sufferer, so he basically didn't have much use of his left leg or his left arm. The chance of being any kind of rock star is like zero [back then]. He was one of the first disabled punk rockers ever. I'm really looking forward to that."

Interesting stuff and as you can see from the photos (the one of Dury is from Tom Sheehan's gallery) the physical similarity is there.

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Steve McQueen Biopic on the way - Who could play McQueen?

Variety have the news that producers Michael Cerenzie (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) and Christine Peters are bringing a Steve McQueen biopic to the bigscreen. They picked up the rights to Marshall Terrill's biography "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel."

Word is that the film will cover McQueen's Hollywood career, which began in 1956 with the film "Somebody Up There Likes Me." It will also delve into McQueen's offscreen love for motorcycles, fast cars and drugs. Then of course there are his three marriages, including his stormy relationship with Ali McGraw, as well as his battle against lung cancer.

All in all McQueens amazing life should make for a great film.

There is no director attached but Cerenzie has secured the cooperation of McQueen's widow, Barbara Minty.

The big question is, of course, who could play Steve McQueen? Who has the acting chops to be the Cooler King? Over to you guys.

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Bronson - Trailer

The notorious life of the UK's "most violent prisoner" serves as the subject of Pusher Trilogy director Nicolas Winding Refn's brutal biopic. Born Michael Peterson but later renamed by his fight promoter, Charles Bronson's sole ambition in life was to become famous. Surmising that the fastest means of accomplishing his goal with such limited opportunities was to cultivate a stylized persona as a hardened criminal, the ambitious do-badder embraced a desperate existence of extreme savagery. But who is the real man behind the warped persona? Seeing as how twenty-eight of Bronson's thirty-four years behind bars were spent in solitary confinement, that's a difficult question to answer. The terror of the legend comes to vivid life, however, as director Refn explores the twisted alternate reality created by Bronson, and highlights precisely how the controversial criminal staged himself within that anarchistic world.

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Will Smith to play Barack Obama

Movieweb spoke to Will Smith and Rosario Dawson about their work on Seven Pounds. However, during the conversation Dawson let slip that Smith may be playing Obama at some point.

Smith said that he was definitely considering playing the president elect sometime in the future, and then remarked that his ears made him a lock for the role. It's a joke he has shared many times. He explained that a Barack Obama biopic excited him because the film, "Already has one heck of an ending!" For anyone that is expecting to see this within the next couple of years might have to hold their breath, though. If Mr. Smith has it his way, he'd want to wait eight years before producing and starring in a film about America's first black president. He also commented that he'd want to wait until at least six months after Obama was out of office before releasing it, which he felt should have been done with Oliver Stone's W.

Will Smith as Obama? Good thing or bad thing?

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Che - New Poster - I like the tag line on this one

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