News Bites and Other Thingies

I haven't been posting much, but over the next week I'll be doing full Oscar coverage. So, here's what I've been meaning to put up for a while:

+Star Wars: Episode 3 will be the opening night film at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Two other additions to the festival will be Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain and Ron Howard's Cinderella Man.

+Curtis Hanson's In Her Shoes, starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, has been bumped from its April 8 release date to October 7. The reason given was excellent test screenings and for Fox to give the film and Diaz a big Oscar push. (Sidenote: YES! said in ecstatic girlish glee!) Gore Verbinski's The Weather Man has also been bumped from April to TBA 2005 for similar reasons. If you haven't yet seen the trailer for this film, do so. It is one of the best trailers in theatres and certainly makes the film look quite good. I'm getting a Wonder Boys vibe from it. Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine and Hope Davis star in the dramedy. Other new release dates: Shopgirl - Oct. 21; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Apr. 29; The Brothers Grimm - Jul. 29; Memoirs of a Geisha - Dec. 9.

+The Untitled Niki Caro Project (formerly titled Class Action) has finally received some male blood in the form of Sean Bean and Woody Harrelson. The drama, a fictionalized account of the first sexual harassment lawsuit, stars Oscar-winners Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand and Sissy Spacek. The release date has been locked in as October 7. Is everything opening in October this year? Geesh! (Man, I have to see Brokeback Mountain, In Her Shoes, the Niki Caro movie, Land of the Dead, Shopgirl and probably about five other movies moved to this month in a matter of two weeks. Such work!)

+Cursed will be released on February 25. All planned screenings for the critics and press have been cancelled. Wonder why....

+Lions Gate will release the film High Tension with an R-rating and English dubbing. Sad news! The foreign indie was originally rated NC-17. I was looking forward to this one. The rating doesn't really piss me off but the dubbing does. Check out the film's website here.

+James Purefoy (Vanity Fair) has been cast opposite Natalie Portman in V For Vendetta. The film, from the producers of The Matrix trilogy, will be in theatres on Nov. 4. Production begins next month.

+Check out the awesome one sheet and trailer for Dark Castle's upcoming House of Wax. Yes, it stars Paris Hilton, but that poster more than makes up for it. Prey. Slay. Display.

+I love international posters. They are always better. Case in point: The Interpreter's domestic poster. The Interpreter's international poster.

+The Fantastic Four teaser trailer has been out for over a month but I just caught it for the first time about a week ago. It looks better than many made it out to be, but at the same time looks a bit derivative of the first X-Men. Oh, and two words: Chris Evans. Yum.

+Oscar-nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno has nabbed her second role. The actress will costar with Jennifer Lopez in the thriller Bordertown. The film focuses on a reporter who heads to a Mexican bordertown in order to investigate slayings of young factory women. Production begins March 7 in Mexico.

+Oscar-winner Halle Berry will reteam with her Monster's Ball director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) for the story of Egyptian queen Nefertiti. Shooting on the currently untitled project is expected to begin early 2006.