Steven Spielberg @ MindSay 
Zhang, whose films include "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers," was named Sunday to lead a team that includes Spielberg.
"I've promised not to direct any films in the next two years so as to make full preparations for the Olympics," Zhang was quoted as saying in the official Xinhua News Agency.
Zhang said his hiatus will start after he finishes his latest project, "The City of Golden Armor," starring Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li.
He is to stage the world premiere of countryman Tan Dun's opera "The First Emperor" for New York's Metropolitan Opera later this year. It wasn't clear how that commitment would be affected by his new Olympics role.
Spielberg's films include "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" and "Munich."
Francis Ford Coppola will direct and wrote the screenplay for his company American Zoetrope's adaptation of Mircea Eliade's novella Youth Without Youth. Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara and Marcel Iures will star in Youth, which centers on a professor whose life changes as he becomes a fugitive, chased through Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India. This is Coppola's first directing job in eight years.
Jim Carrey is in talks to star in director Joel Schumacher's The Number 23 as a man who obsesses over a book featuring the number 23 that he believes is based on his life and ends in murder. Carrey previously worked with Schumacher on 1995's Batman Forever.
Harrison Ford will star in the Civil War film Manhunt as war hero Colonel Everton Conger, leader of the search for Abraham Lincoln's assassin. What about Indy 4?!
Catherine Zeta-Jones has signed on for Castle Rock's romantic dramedy Mostly Martha. Zeta-Jones plays a high-powered chef whose life changes when she becomes the guardian of her young niece. The film is an adaptation of the 2001 German film Bella Martha.
Radha Mitchell (Finding Neverland) is joining Richard Gere and Claire Danes for director Andrew Lau's thriller The Flock. The film follows a federal agent (Gere) who is tracking down a missing girl while training his replacement (Danes).
Rosario Dawson (Sin City, 25th Hour) has signed on for the Weinstein Co.'s Killshot and Passion of the Clerks. Dawson joins Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Thomas Jane, Johnny Knoxville and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Shakespeare in Love director John Madden's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's bestselling novel Killshot. Passion is filmmaker Kevin Smith's highly-anticipated sequel to the 1994 cult indie hit Clerks.
Bow Wow (Roll Bounce) and Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) will star in Universal Pictures' Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo. The third installment in this overdone franchise is set in the underground world of Japanese drift racing where high-tech rides are combined with dangerous courses. I am so mad that the concept was even thought of to do this movie, and I'm even more furious that they're actually making it. Argh!
20th Century Fox is planning a remake of 1983's The Star Chamber, which starred Michael Douglas as a judge who joins a secret society of judges looking to seek justice on their own terms.
Serenity filmmaker Joss Whedon will direct and has written the script for Univeral Pictures' fantasy thriller Goner. The film follows a young woman whose life is filled with "horror and some heroics," according to Whedon in an interview with Variety.
France passed over March of the Penguins and selected the unreleased film Joyeux Noel to represent the country at the 2006 Oscars.
Actors Ben Gazzara (Dogville, Husbands) and Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, The Last Temptation of the Christ) each received the Donostia Prize for lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian Film Festival September 22.
Orion Pictures co-founder and producer Mike Medavoy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame September 19.
Actor Alan Rosenberg has been elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, the nation's largest performers union. Rosenberg replaces Melissa Gilbert, who decided not to run for a third term to spend more time with her family.
The cast and filmmakers of Roll Bounce announced September 20 that 10 percent of Fox Searchlight's opening weekend box office proceeds will be donated to Operation USA for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. Roll Bounce hits theaters September 23.
The 2005 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans has been released, with filmmakers George Lucas (61st, $3.5 billion) and Steven Spielberg (83rd, $2.7 billion) making the list.
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, which was released in five venues in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles September 16, made $385,078 in its first three days, making it the year's highest-per-screen average, with $77,016. Bride hits theaters everywhere September 23.
Christian Slater will avoid jail time by taking a plea deal after being charged with grabbing a woman's butt in May. If the actor stays out of trouble for six months, the charges will be dropped.
Actors Jerry O'Connell (Jerry Maguire, Scream 2) and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men) are engaged.
Oscar-winning songwriter Joel Hirschhorn, who helped write the theme songs for The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, died September 18 of a heart attack. He was 67.
I really have forgotten what a great movie that is.
And what's so wonderful about watching a great movie like E.T. after so many years, is that now that I'm older, I can pick up on different themes and such going on throughout the movie, instead of watching it at 8 and getting creeped out by E.T.'s scream (like I used to). But not only is it cool picking up on those themes that I had never noticed before...but I still get creeped out during that cornfield scene and during the closet scene. And it makes me feel like a kid.
That's why I'm gonna make an attempt to buy all of the old classic movies that I love over the next few years...so I can watch them for the first time...or "relive" watching them for the first time.
I can remember watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit back when I was about 7 and then I watched it when I was about 14 or so, and it was just completely outrageous how much I loved watching it again. I could remember old feelings that I had while watching it at a younger age, and it was just a wonderful experience. Like during the last scene. I remember being scared of that scene because of all of the acid, and when I watched it again, it was just like I was 7 again.
This is why I just cannot wait till 20 years from now. I can sit down with (hopefully) my kids and watch Lord Of The Rings, and relive my 15th, 16th, and 17th years.
And what's so great is that it's not so much with good movies as it is with those stupid movies as well. I absolutely love Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Granted, it might not be known as being a truly spectacular movie, but I can watch it and feel like I'm 8 or 9 years younger.
I love that
And I think that's proof that movies can make you feel like a kid again.
Out of a possible ten, this movie gets an "impossible" 50.
I cannot think of where to begin
The acting...the camera shots...the mayhem...visual effects...it's all there...it's all outstanding.
Acting - 9.9/10 (only reason it doesn't get a 10 is because perfect acting isn't possible in my opinion. Perfect "acting" would be filming someone without them knowing you were filming them.)
Story - 10/10 - Enough said. The original radio broadcast caused a widespread panic. Imagine what the story is like explained through visuals. It enhances it as close to your imagination as possible.
Visuals - 30/10 - It freaked me out. It really did.
Overall - 10/10 - Just go see the dang movie. I just cannot explain how good this movie really is without you seeing it first. This is Spielberg at his Sci-Fi-best.
*EDIT* - Ya know, Roger Ebert has his days, where he gets everything right about a movie...and then he has these ultra-cynical, bitchy days where he just can't seem to grasp that a movie this good, really is this good. Yea, he was having one of those days today. Guys, don't read his review. He gave it a C. His reason? Haha, his reason you ask? And I quote: "All of this is just a way of leading up to the gut reaction I had all through the film: I do not like the tripods. I do not like the way they look, the way they are employed, the way they attack, the way they are vulnerable or the reasons they are here. A planet that harbors intelligent and subtle ideas for science fiction movies is invaded in this film by an ungainly Erector set."
Dumba**.
Much love and God bless,
-Alex
Film critic Roger Ebert received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame June 23. Congrats and yay! Someone truly more deserving than Seacrest. Annette Bening, Steve Martin, Ray Romano and Charlize Theron are among the stars who will receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006.
German film critics are protesting Paramount for implementing a worldwide embargo preventing reviewers from publishing their critiques of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds until the film's global release date June 29. The critics called the embargo a "violation of basic constitutional rights." Is the movie that bad?! Tom Cruise hosted a special screening of the War of the Worlds for hundreds of fans in Los Angeles June 20. Laurence Fishburne and Philip Seymour Hoffman are joining Cruise and Keri Russell for writer-director J.J. Abrams' upcoming Mission: Impossible 3. Two good additions.
Frankly, my dear, I do give a damn: The line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone With the Wind was named the American Film Institute's (AFI) number one quote on its "100 Years... 100 Quotes" list and special, which aired June 21 on CBS. Casablanca had the most entries at six, with "Here's looking at you, kid" at number five, the highest-ranked one from that particular movie.
Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's Plan B production company have entered a first-look agreement that gives Paramount an exclusive first bid at producing projects developed by Plan B over the next three years. Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Brad Grey is the third founding member of Plan B. Warner Bros' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Plan B's first endeavor, hits theaters July 15.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invited 112 members of the film industry to become members. Members of AMPAS vote on who should be nominated for and win Oscars. Gael Garcia Bernal, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sophie Okonedo, Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Imelda Staunton and Ziyi Zhang are the foreign actors that got in. American actors Thomas Haden Church, Jennifer Coolidge, Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti and Mykelti Williamson were extended invitations as well. Five directors got in: Alejandro Amenabar, Marc Forster, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Andy Tennant and Joel Zwick. Paramount CEO Brad Grey, Spider-Man producer Avi Arad, Robert Rodriguez's producer-wife Elizabeth Avellan, Crash creator Paul Haggis, The Motorcycle Diaries writer Jose Rivera and School of Rock writer and co-star Mike White were also invited to join AMPAS. On June 22, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted against granting a consortium of stunt performers their request for an Oscar in their field. Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar received a Bunuel's Razor Award for the Best Spanish Film of 2004 for his latest hit, Bad Education. Again, congrats and yay!
The Los Angeles trial for the case of a photographer accused of trying to extort money from Cameron Diaz via racy photos of her taken before she was famous started June 23. Diaz's Charlie's Angels co-star Lucy Liu will star opposite Cedric the Entertainer in Les Mayfield's action comedy The Cleaner. Liu plays an FBI agent posing as a waitress to Cedric's amnesiac janitor who thinks he's an undercover agent. Liu will also executive produce and star in the independent thriller Devil to Pay. Diaz's pop star boyfriend Justin Timberlake is in talks to join Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson in the film Black Snake Moan. Ricci and Jackson are good, but I don't know about Timberlake - or the title for that matter.
Fox and Marvel Enterprises are suing Sony and Revolution Studios over Sony's new comic book satire Zoom, starring Tim Allen, which will hit theaters around the same time as Fox's X3. Fox and Marvel claim that Zoom rips off elements of the X-Men.
An offer not to be refused: Marlon Brando's personal effects, including his driver's licenses and a notated script for The Godfather, are going up for auction at Christie's June 30 in a sale expected to fetch more than $1 million.
O star Mekhi Phifer will star in and make his directorial debut on Sony's indie comedy Easier, Softer Way, which also stars Maura Tierney, Scott Grimes, John C. McGinley, Ronnie Warner, Terry Crews and Mo Collins. Easier follows two hapless pot heads involved in a scheme to rip off a mysterious character called Mr. Big after the duo sours on rehab. Something tells me this has nothing to do with Sex and the City's Chris Noth.
AMC Theaters and Loews Cineplex Entertainment announced June 21 that they will merge. I only have one question: Loews does the Ultimate Film Fanatic competition, so does that mean that the AMC theaters, which we have in St. Louis, will have the competition too?!
The producers of Ray are developing a biopic on legendary comic Rodney Dangerfield, who passed away last year, based in part on his memoir It's Not Easy Being Me.
James Earl Jones, who is best known for voicing the menacing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies is suffering from pneumonia. May the force be with him.
Sarah Michelle Gellar will star in the film adaptation of the Electronic Arts videogame American McGee's Alice, a twisted take on Alice in Wonderland in which Alice has grown up to become a disturbed young woman. I would be too after all that sh*t.
A Los Angeles prosecutor told a judge June 22 that actor Tom Sizemore violated his probation by trying to fake a drug test, not reporting to his probation officer, missing counseling sessions and not advising authorities of his new address. The judge may send Sizemore back to jail when the hearing resumes. Dude, you're screwed.
Zack Sinclair, the man convicted of stalking Mel Gibson, was sentenced to three years in state prison June 22. Lucyna Turyk-Wawrynowicz, a housekeeper who worked for Manhattan's rich and famous, has been charged with stealing from clients including Candice Bergen and Robert DeNiro's wife.
-Catherine Krummey, MovieCat Cinema
